Page 81 of Faking It with the Firefighter

“I’ll follow you up.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” I asked as he got out of his cruiser. “More teenage girls to chase and threaten?”

Bryce’s eyes narrowed. “Heard you and Abigail Stone were sneaking around. She’s a bad influence, you know. Nearly burned down the wedding yesterday; who knows what she’ll do today?”

Was that allanyonesaw in Abigail? How about the kickass sales agent? The woman who could put out fires as well as I could?

“I need to go find my brother. I don’t have time for this.”

Bryce jangled his handcuffs at me again, and I snorted. “Fine. Follow me.”

We entered the chaos of the reception hall, where Abigail was standing under an arch of flowers, looking equal parts bored and exasperated. Her brother was behind the bar on the far side of the room, wiping glasses down with a clean white rag.

When I crossed in front of Abigail, she arched a brow at me, and then at Bryce.

Bryce’s boots, which had been clomping behind me, paused. I turned to see him looking at Abigail and resisted the urge to get in his face.

“You need somethin’?” she asked him sweetly.

“Just wanted you to know that if you do anything even slightly out of line, I’ll be right here waiting.” He jiggled the cuffs in his hands again. What kind of power trip was he on?

“Bryce, this is a wedding. What do you expect me to do?” she asked.

“I’m not a troublemaker like you, so I have no idea what you’re up to. All I know is I’m here to protect the bride.”

Abigail smiled, and it looked a little evil and a lot sexy. “Why Bryce Lawson. Are you a Blair Bear Cub? One of her rabid two point four million fans?”

Bryce spluttered and went red. “No. I just—I’m doing my job.”

“Sure you are. So you don’t also wait up all night to see a new post from her every day?”

He lifted a finger and growled. “Shut up, Stone.” I balled a fist, ready to put Officer Dickhead in his place, but before I could, Gabe barreled in.

“Hey!” Gabe shouted. “What’s going on over here? Abigail, what did you do?”

Abigail reared back.

I stepped in front of her and glared at Gabe. “She didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gabe said, rolling his eyes. “You don’t have to pretend to be her boyfriend right now, Rex. We all know what Abigail is capable of.”

Bryce’s eyebrows went up. “Pretend?”

Behind me, Abigail shifted. I felt her gaze on the side of my face, but I couldn’t look at her. I was sweaty and stressed, and there was too much going on. Donny was going to blow up his life, and I had to be there to help him deal with the fallout. Panic tightened my throat, my mind spinning out. I needed togo.

“Rex?” Abigail said softly.

Finally meeting her gaze, I saw the question in her eyes—and the disappointment when she read the answer in mine. Ireally,reallydidn’t have time to sort this out now. And it was just Bryce Lawson, for crying out loud. Who cared what he thought?

Bryce looked between the three of us. “What do you mean, pretend?”

Gabe waved a hand, eyes shifting. “Uh. Nothing. It’s just… They’re going through a tough time.” He straightened, his smile unconvincing. “Yeah. They’re only pretending to get along right now. Don’t worry about it.”

Bryce scoffed. “No surprises there.” He grinned, and with his white-blond, nearly invisible brows, the red splotches on his cheeks, and the beady little eyes that stared at Abigail, he looked like he was enjoying himself immensely. “Can’t manage to hang onto a man to save your life, hey?”

Abigail flinched. I couldn’t listen to this anymore. My heart raced and my palms twitched. Time was ticking. My brother had been caught on camera saying he wanted to call off the wedding. If Blair found out, she’d be apoplectic. Donny would get the brunt of it. He was a sensitive guy, and I’d seen the distress and panic in his eyes before he ran off. I had to go to him—had to help him get out of this.

Or worse—what if he decided to go through with it? I’d seen what that kind of resentment could do to a man. To a family. I had to stop him, talk some sense into him. That had been my job for a long time—since Dad died. And yeah, he needed to grow up. But not right now. Not in the middle of a crisis.

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