Page 92 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

Tori laughed.“Oh, wow.I’ve never been to one.”

“It is thebesttime.”

“Hey, weren’t you banned from the Crimson Stiletto?”Josh asked as he joined them.

Finally.

Tori felt her heart give a little extrahi Joshbeat.He gave her a grin as if maybe he felt it too.

“Oh, we hashed all of that out,” Ellie said, waving his question away.

“You sure?I don’t really want to haul you out of there cussing and swinging.Again,” Josh said.

Ellie didn’t deny that had happened.She laughed.“Nope, not this time.”She looked at Tori and Andrew.“My boyfriend’s ex works there and we got into it last time I was in there.But once I got him to pay her the five hundred dollars she thought he owed her—which he didn’t, but he’s a big fancy lawyer so he can spare it—she decided I was a good egg and we get along fine now.”

Andrew’s mouth opened as if to reply, but then he shook his head and shut it.Tori hid her grin.She thought that maybe a lot of people had that reaction to Ellie a lot of the time.He did look at Josh, though.“You had to carry her out of there?”he seemingly couldn’t help but ask.

“Yep, she was halfway across the table with her claws out when I grabbed her.”He put his arm around Ellie.“Good thing she’s little.”

His grandma elbowed him in his side but grinned up at him.“Hey, a girl doesn’t get by with calling Trevor an asshole douchebag with me.”

“I’ve heardyoucall him worse.To his face,” Josh teased.

“Yeah, but he’smine.I can do that.”

And, though it was stupid, because they were just goofing around, Tori realized she wanted to say “he’s mine” about someone.

No, not just someone.

Josh.

She wanted Josh to be hers.

She looked at Andrew, who was watching the Landrys with a bit of disbelief mixed with amusement.Andrew thought she was being crazy and overreacting.Andrew, who had known her most of her life and had seen her overreact.He was kind of a specialist in this area.

Dammit.

“Okay, okay,” Josh said to Ellie.Then he looked up at Tori.“So what do you say?Crimson Stiletto?”

She started to reply but Andrew broke in.“We need to get back to the plantation.But if you want to go with your family, that’s no problem.Tori is fine with us.”

Josh let go of Ellie and moved in closer to Tori’s stool.“Oh, I’m not going anywhere without Tori.And yeah,youdo probably need to get back.But she can come out with us.”

Andrew took the last swallow of his drink and set his glass down.“Tori is a part of the wedding party.She needs to come back to Buckworth.”

“Why?”Josh challenged.

“Paisley wants everyone there tonight,” Andrew said with a lift of his shoulder.

“I will have Tori back in time for the wedding,” Josh said.

“Not good enough,” Andrew returned.

“How about we let Tori decide?”

Josh turned to her as her stomach dropped.Crap.She didn’t want to have to choose between them.

“What do you say?We’ll have fun and I promise I’ll get you back and in bed with plenty of time to spare.”He said it with a look in his eyes that told her clearly where he was spending tonight and that she wouldn’t be going tosleepearly.“Owen can take everyone back to Buckworth and Kennedy will drop us off later.”

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