“Are you asleep?” I whispered, my words hardly a breath.
The sheets rustled, and suddenly, his arm was around me, pressing against my lower back and tugging me into him.
He lifted his head from the pillow and buried it in my neck, squeezing me tight. “Thank you, Nattie.”
Automatically, my arms went around him, and I forced myself to pay attention to his words and not the way the length of his body fit against mine. How the tips of my breasts brushed against his chest through only the thin cotton of my tank top. How I suddenly, though I’d never been one to shy away from showing my body and had frequently walked around in nothing more than panties and bra, somehow felt that the boy shorts and cami I wore weren’t nearly enough. I might as well have been naked for the way my body responded.
“You don’t need to thank me,” I said, running my hand down the bare expanse of his back, ignoring the tiny zings of electricity at our skin-to-skin contact. “This is all part of the best friend gig, right?”
“It’s not, and you know it. I just…I don’t know what I’d do without you. I don’t know what I’d do withoutthem, and you’re makin’ sure I don’t have to.”
I wasn’t sure how long we lay like that, both of us sharing my pillow. His breaths swept across my breasts, peaking my nipples even more than they had been before.
But this was fine. No big deal. I’d felt attraction to men before and hadn’t acted on it. True, those men weren’t my best friend who I was around all the time. They also weren’t my current bed partner, so it had been a little bit easier to avoid the temptation. But all those things combined didn’t even hold a quarter of the weight of what was about to be true tomorrow.
Because, come four o’clock, I was about to be Mrs. McCoy. And this man I was suddenly attracted to—an attraction I couldn’t act on—was about to be my husband.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ASHER
Prior to last week,marriage hadn’t entered my mind even once. It wasn’t that I was against it per se. My parents had had a perfect marriage. Or so it’d seemed to my eyes anyhow. Of course, I was sure they’d had their ups and downs like any married couple would have, but nothing dramatic. Nothing that would scare me off the institution.
But I was only twenty-seven, and I didn’t even feel like I’d really started my life. True, I’d probably experienced more life in my short stint on this earth than many people three times my age had, but that didn’t mean I was done living the single life. Not to mention the fact that it wasn’t exactly easy to find a partner understanding enough to put up with my life on the Nashville music scene. Now, when I wasn’t yet big enough to be a household name, it meant late hours and not a lot of time off. And weekends? What were those?
Not to mention being okay with me being extremely close to my very female, very beautiful best friend.
I figured I’d have plenty of time to figure that out. Get married, have a couple kids. Maybe…someday. Ten-plus years down the line.
But now here I was on the morning of my wedding, about to marry the last girl in the world I’d have thought. And yet, somehow, the first one I’d ever wanted.
The morning light tiptoed into the room, casting a soft glow over Nat as she slept soundly next to me, her hand tucked under her cheek. She was still in the position she’d been in last night when I’d hugged her and fallen asleep to the lullaby of her heartbeat. It wasn’t the first time we’d woken up next to each other. Prior to this new reality, we’d done it hundreds of times before.
Of all the crazy, ill-conceived, spontaneous decisions I’d made in my life, Nat had been present for at least ninety percent of them. This wasn’t new for us. And yet, the whisper of nerves over what this day meant still sat low in my gut. I didn’t understand why, though. It was just Nat. And, truthfully, there wasn’t anyone in the world I’d rather do this with than her.
To be fair, though, perhaps part of my nerves came from the fact that we were about to be on center stage, thrust into a relationship that, prior to a week ago, hadn’t even existed. And now, suddenly, we were supposed to be madly in love enough to pledge our lives to each other.
All that, and we hadn’t even kissed.
“You always stare at me while I’m sleepin’?” Nat asked, her voice raspy with sleep. “Who are you, Edward Cullen?”
“I know you wish you were marryin’ your favorite sparkly vampire today, but sadly, it’s just me.”
“Yeah, not gonna lie, that’s a real disappointment,” she said, completely straight-faced as she fluttered her eyes closed again and tucked her toes between my calves. Jesus, no matter the outside temp, this girl’s toes were constantly icicles. “Seriously, though, on a scale of one to Edward, how much of a creep are you usually when I’m sleepin’?”
I laughed. “Usually maybe, like, a two? Today, I’m inchin’ toward a nine.” In more ways than one, but, as I’d done diligently each morning we’d woken up close together, I’d made a concerted effort to keep that bit of information as far from her as I could.
“Well, at least you’re honest. What pushed you over into full-on creep territory this mornin’?”
“Well, I was thinkin’…”
“We can’t do anything illegal today,” Nat said. “We’re supposed to get married, remember?”
I cracked a grin. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinkin’ about as I was creepin’ on you.”
“Tryin’ to figure out how to get out of the old ball and chain?”
I breathed out a laugh and shook my head. “Thinkin’ about how our first kiss shouldn’t be in front of a crowd, actually.”
