Page 15 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

She swallowed hard and focused on the people behind the bar.Thankfully they weren’t wearing masks.

The first person she saw was a guy about Josh’s age, but it wasn’t him.Neither was the next guy.There were also two girls.But no Josh.

She glanced around but only saw waitresses.Not that she could see every person in the bar, but she remembered Josh saying he was really good at his job, and his boss put up with him because of his talents as a bartender.Surely he’d be manning the bar on a night like this.If he was here.

If he wasn’t here, working, then…would he be here to meet her?Would he show up just for her?Would he even remember asking her to come back?

Finally, unable to stand the way she was worrying, she pushed her way between two people at the bar and leaned in to get the bartender’s attention.

“Hey, what can I get ya?”he half-yelled over the noise.

“Is Josh Landry working tonight?”she asked.Might as well just meet this head-on.

“Sorry.Don’t know a Josh.”

“He doesn’t work here anymore?”she asked, surprised.That hadn’t occurred to her as an option.Stupidly.

The guy looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Kara!”

Kara.Tori remembered the woman’s name from last year.Not that there couldn’t be multiple Karas in New Orleans…

“Yeah?”

“You know a Josh Landers?”

“Landry,” Tori corrected.

“Landry!”the bartended yelled.

“Yeah, what about him?”Kara was pouring two beers at once and looked harried.

Tori felt a little bad.But this was about finding Josh.

“He used to work here?”the guy asked her.

“Yeah.Quit a while back though.”

“You know where he works now?”the bartender asked.

“Autre!”Kara called back.

The bartender looked back at Tori.“Autre.”’

“Is that a bar here on Bourbon?”Tori asked.Damn, she’d have to brave the crowd on the street again.But she was willing.All the love songs talked about people being willing to walk five hundred miles and endure other hardships to get to the one they loved.Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras was absolutely a hardship.But Josh Landry just might be worth it.

“Autre’s a town,” the guy said.“Down by the bayou.”

Ah, right.Of course.The bayou.As in not here.In New Orleans.Where she was right now.

Dammit.

“Okay, thanks,” she told him.

“You wanna drink?”

“Um…a Ramos Gin Fizz,” she said.She was suddenly feeling nostalgic about that night last year.

“You got it.”

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