Page 14 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

“And beer,” she added when he didn’t say anything.

Finally he nodded.“Good.That’s good.You seem like the beer and back roads kind of girl.”

She really was.But how did he know that?She looked down at her outfit.A summer dress and sandals.She could be from anywhere in these clothes.“Yeah?”she asked.

“It’s in your eyes.”

Those eyes went round.

He shrugged as if he didn’t get it either.

“Well, you’re right,” she told him.

He looked pleased about that.“So go on, get out of here.Go back to your Yankee stars.And don’t trust anyone with a Louisiana drawl or a plastic souvenir cup of any kind.”

She laughed.“What about a bayou drawl?”She could definitely hear the difference.

“Yeah,definitelydon’t trust any of those.They’ll get you hooked on sweet tea and crawfish pie and you won’t even remember how to spell Iowa.”

Yeah, that’s not what she would be hooked on.Because she felt a little hooked already and there wasn’t a crawfish in sight.

“Thanks for…whatever this is,” she finally said.

He laughed.“You bet.And trust me, I don’t know what the hell it is either.”

That was maybe the best thing he could have said.He was letting her go and he didn’t know why, but it was clearlynotbecause he wanted to.

This was so interesting.

Tori finally turned and managed to get to the end of the block without him stopping her.She paused at the corner and looked back.He was still watching her.

Her heart thumped.But she turned and kept walking.All the way back to her hotel.

And the next night when she walked into Bourbon O again and Josh looked up, his gaze locking on hers in spite of the madness of the crowd that wasn’t much thinner now than it was Ash Wednesday—supposedly a holy day— and his face broke into the biggest, most sincere grin she’d ever seen, she knew she’d made the right choice coming back.

Now…

Tori took another deep breath.

This was it.

She was going inside.She reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear and her fingers brushed over the mask she wore.

The mask she wore.

She was anonymous in this mask.Josh wouldn’t even know it was her.Until she decided to tell him.She could go in there and see if he was working, even watch him for a little bit andconfirmthat she wanted to see him again.If so, she could take the mask off.If not, she could still hang out with Andrew and forget about her stupid fantasy about the guy falling in love with her after just a kiss.Okay, two kisses.Still…that was crazy.

She stepped through the doorway and into a crowd of people.Wow, there were just peopleeverywhere.She’d stupidly been hoping that the classier bar and restaurant would have a smaller crowd.But she didn’t know why’d she thought that.Last year had been the same.

Someone bumped into her from behind, then someone else crashed into her left side.A splash of the girl’s drink hit the toe of her boot.Tori glared at the drunk redhead, but the girl didn’t even realize she’d spilled.She was too busy making out with the guy who had swung her around, causing her to hit Tori.

Tori sighed.She couldn’t blame the girl.Sometimes you just had to go with it.And when “it” was a hot Southern boy, youreallyhad to.

She didn’t know that this guy was from here, but in her head, every guy sweeping a girl off her feet was a bayou boy.She was clearly not herejustfor Andrew.

Fingering her mask again, reassuring herself that Josh would only know she’d shown up if she let him see her, Tori started for the bar.

Oh God, what was she going to do if he didn’t remember her?

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