Page 3 of Crash with Me
There’s something about this man. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. It has me hooked—captivated—as if I’m under a spell. It’s something that has every cell in my body tingling.
Whatever it is, I have the distinct impression I would go along with anything he has to say. Even if he hadn’t asked me to do precisely that.
“Dad,” Mr. Rugged says in a terse tone as the groom and bride approach the bar. His eyes narrow a fraction. “Kelly.”
Dad?I shake my head, partially coming out of my lusty haze. If the groom is his father, that would make him Stacey’s brother.
“Seth,” the groom—I think his name is Walter—says. “Didn’t think we’d see you here.”
“Did you think I’d miss one of your weddings?”
Annoyance flickers in Walter’s eyes. “I thought you might prefer to skip.”
“We didn’t want you to be… uncomfortable,” Kelly, the bride, says.
“Is that why my invitation went missing in the mail?”
“We would have invited you. And you’re totally welcome. It’s just… we just thought you might feel… lonely,” she says. Her full bottom lip sticks out, giving her a little pout. “You know, since you aren’t seeing someone. We didn’t want you to have to spend the weekend alone.”
“As it happens, I didn’t come alone.”
Walter frowns. “You didn’t?”
Seth raises his chin. “I have a date.”
“You do?” Now it’s Kelly’s turn to frown. “Who?”
Seth slides his hand across the bar. “I’d like you both to meet my date—and girlfriend.”
TWO
SETH
My heart is pounding in my ears as I take the bartender’s hand in mine. I hope my palms aren’t sweaty. I feel like they must be sweaty right now.
I meet the bartender’s gaping, green-eyed gaze.Please, I think as hard as I can. As if fixating on that word as I stare into her eyes will somehow make her hear it.Please just go along with this.
If you do... Well, I don’t know what I’ll do.
But she’ll have my never-ending appreciation for helping me get through this nightmare of a weekend with my dignity intact.
Kelly sucks in a breath. “Your girlfriend. Since when have you had a girlfriend?”
“Three months,” the bartender blurts out, her voice slightly husky and music to my ears.
Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve heard her speak. She didn’t utter a single word in the thirty or so seconds we had together before the happy couple descended upon us.
“Three months?” Kelly’s eyes narrow. “You’ve been dating for three months, and we haven’t heard about it?”
“Oh, you know how it is.” The bartender steps around the bar reaching my side, gazing up at me adoringly with the most beautiful pair of sage green eyes I’ve ever seen. “We’ve been in that blissful new relationship bubble. So caught up in each other, so happy, you don’t have time to even talk about it.”
My dad, who has been silent since I dropped the bomb, watches us with his hawk-like stare. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
“Of course.” I blink, panic slicing through me.
Fuck. In the rush of asking for her help and in the shock of having her agree to it without having to drop to my knees and beg, I didn’t get a chance to ask her anything else. Like, ‘By the way, I’m Seth, your new fake boyfriend. What’s your name?’
Before I can panic, the bartender once again comes to my rescue. “My name is Heidi. We met earlier.”
