Page 88 of Best Man
Piper clicked her tongue and fired a finger-gun. “Exactly.”
“I’msoexcited.”
“Awesome! We’re so excited for you to move in, too. You’re gonna love Dallas, Paulie. There’s so much to do out here and it’s always beautiful.”
“I know. I can’t wait.” Paulina’s beaming smile slowly faded into a stern and serious expression. “Sooo, Pip, I kinda have to tell you something before I move all the way out there.”
“What’s that?” she asked without a hint of worry.
“So, um, remember how you thought Sasha and I were hooking up at the wedding?”
“Of course. What about it?”
“We~ll.” Paulina gulped. Why was this so hard? Itshouldn’tbe hard, according to what Sasha said, but still she struggled to find the words. “The thing is, um, you were right.”
“Duh.” Piper rolled her eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Okay—what the hell,” Paulina stammered. “Sasha just told Jax, and he reacted the same way, too. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that I’mpersonallyoffended if you think I, Piper Cameron,creatorof Soulmate”—right as Piper said this, she happened to position herself in front of the dating app’s logo stenciled on the office wall—“didn’t see this coming.”
Paulina’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about a perfect storm. I’m talking about you, reeling after the revelation that your so-called ‘boyfriend,’ Scott, was actually a married man with children—”
“Not sure I’d say I wasreeling,” Paulina interjected, “I’d say I was handling it pretty fine, all things considered.”
“Regardless, you were disappointed by yet another dating disaster, and looking for a meaningless ‘rebound.’ Which, inmyexperience, is what happens to a girlrightbefore she lets her guard down, allowing the man of her dreams to walk right in.”
“Uh-huh,” Paulina said with a healthy dose of skepticism.
“Enter Niko, misunderstood hockey phenom with a heart of gold. He was a serial dater with a string of bad luck when it comes to women because, being blinded by the trappings of fame and materialism, he kept looking for love in all the wrong places. But what would happen when he met my cute and totally irresistible sister? Would the flashy hockey phenom see the light and realize a hardworking, down-to-Earth farm girl is exactly what he needed to keep him grounded? Could the best man and maid of honor find everlasting love?”
This was all sounding atinybit too convenient for Paulina. “Wait, are you claiming you arranged this or something? Do youreallyexpect me to believe that you predicted how all this would go, weeks in advance?”
“I’m good—but notthatgood,” Piper said with a laugh. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. Remember, I thought Niko was still dating Belen right up until he showed up at the farm without her. It didn’t occur to me until the day of the rehearsal. That’s when it hit me—when I saw you and Niko staring at each other—that you two would be all over each other.”
Paulina suppressed a giggle. “And how were we staring at each other, exactly?”
“Like you couldn’t waitto sneak off together, tear each other’s clothes off, have some raunchy, dirty sex.”
“Huh! I can’t say you’re wrong.”
“So tell me, how’d it all go down? And I want every last detail, by the way.”
Paulina told Piper the story of how she’d tried to have an innocent weekend fling with Sasha—but how that fling quickly turned into something more. She’d tried to lie to herself about the depth of her quickly growing feelings, but before they said goodbye, he managed to talk her into giving love a chance.
“Oh my God, that’s friggin’ adorable,” Piper gushed. “You guys are going to besocute together. I can’t wait to see it in person.”
“Man. This is so weird.” Paulina scratched her head. “I was convinced you’d be mad at me when I told you.”
“Mad? No way.Everyonewants a couple to meet and fall in love at their wedding! It’s a total blessing for the marriage!”
That made sense—but wait—
“Then why were you so concerned about us hooking up?”
“Because at the end of the day, Niko’s still a pro athlete. Remember that, because of Jax, I’ve been around these guys for years now, so I know what their default state is when it comes to women. They’ve got plenty of other fish in the sea, you know? Fish that aresoeager to get caught by these boys, they will literally throw themselves out of the water and into their boats.”
