Page 5 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

Until he’d met Paisley.

She’d swept him off his feet.A political science major, Andrew knew all about Paisley’s father, and the promise of a dinner with the famous, mostly-beloved Louisiana politician who they’d been courting to run for President—yes, of the United States—had been more than enough to get Andrew wrapped around Paisley’s dainty, perfectly manicured finger.

He hadn’t come back from that first dinner as the Andrew Tori knew.

“Oh myGod, Paisley!”Jenna, one of Paisley’s bridesmaids, exclaimed as she finished her drink.“This is the most funever!”

Tori felt her eye twitching.

The girls were loving this because of the attention they were getting.

Tori guessed that bachelorette parties always got a lot of attention from the men on Bourbon.Where else could you find entire herds of young, beautiful, tipsy women who were out for nothing but a good time?

Oh yeah, pretty much anywhere else in New Orleans on any other day of any other week.

Tori almost took another sip of her drink, but then remembered that she hated everything about the slushy pink mix of…whatever.She lowered it and sighed as she watched Paisley look at her phone, grin widely, and then show it to her friends.

Andrew had just texted her a photo of him making a kissy face.

What the hell had happened to Tori’s best friend?

Paisley was exactly the opposite of everything Tori would have expected Andrew to fall for.She spent more time on her hair than Tori spent going from waking up to walking out the door.Paisley had studied early childhood development in college but had no intention of teaching.Or working with kids at all.She was clearly trained and intent on being a politician’s wife.And, maybe worst of all—no,definitelyworst of all—Paisley didn’t like animals.Shesaidshe was allergic to both dogs and cats, but Tori thought it was really more that she was a terrible person.

Tori again lifted her glass, thought for a second about just chugging it so she’d at least have some liquor in her system, opened her mouth, and then thought better of it.She lowered the glass again.Dammit, she wanted a beer.

She never thought people wereterrible.She didn’t like every person she’d ever met, of course, but mostly she gave people the benefit of the doubt and…avoided them as much as possible.

Animals really were superior to people, in almost every sense, and spending her days taking care of everything from cats to cows, and even one alpaca, made Tori exceedingly happy.

She watched Paisley’s friends gather around her for a selfie.They didn’t ask her to join in and she had no desire to.She knew that Paisley was putting up with her because of Andrew.

No, scratch that.She knew that Paisley absolutely didnotwant her here.

Why Andrew had told Tori that, she had no idea.Why he thought that she and Paisley should hang out tonight, she had no idea.Didn’t Andrew know Tori better than this?

The two women had absolutely nothing—other than Andrew, she supposed—in common.That had been painfully clear when Tori had come to visit Andrew for Mardi Gras last year.Things had been tense and cool between the women, and Tori had ended up spending a lot of time alone while Paisley monopolized Andrew as if they didn’t see each other every single day.

Of course, that had led Tori to Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday last March, which had led her to Bourbon O, the bar five blocks from where she was right now, which had led her to Josh Landry.

So she should probably begratefulto Paisley.

Tori sighed again, but happily—maybe wistfully—this time.

Tonight was Mardi Gras.Thenight.The only night she really cared about being in New Orleans.The night she was supposed to meet Josh Landry back at Bourbon O.If she wanted to.If he wanted to.If they were still thinking of each other.

And dammit, she wanted to.

She was definitely still thinking of him, and when Andrew had announced that he and Paisley were getting married the weekend after Mardi Gras and asked her to come, Tori had immediately decided to come for the festival and stay for the week-long extravaganza that was going to be Paisley Darbonne’s wedding.Not Andrew and Paisley’s wedding.This thing was all about the bride.

Most women had one day.Maybea weekend.Not Princess Paisley.The week before the wedding was filled with activities and meals and tours all designed to make the wedding in her hometown into something of a destination wedding for all of the Iowa guests.

Tori hadn’t gotten to New Orleans until today, but she would have waited and shown up on Friday if it wasn’t for Josh Landry.

And now she was five blocks away from the place they’d agreed to meet up.

Just the fact that Josh had suggested this had been making her heart pound for nearly a year.Whenever she thought of it, anyway.It wasn’t like she thought about him constantly.Just once or twice.Every day.

But this kind of stuff didn’t happen in her life.Her life was very…normal.Other than the occasional set of bovine twins or an injured mare, there were very few dramatic flares in Tori’s life.

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