To his credit, Nathan didn’t even crack a smile. He was the picture of innocence, to the point where all he was missing was a halo over his head. “Did I say something wrong?”
My mind buzzed with possibilities.Has Nathan seen Bree? If so, where? Why was he seeing her without me? Have they been hanging out? Are they seeing each other? Have they laughed about the croquet when they were in bed together?
Yeah, I could jump to a conclusion faster than anybody I knew. I wasn’t proud of myself.
Nathan might have been a master at maintaining a neutral expression, but apparently, I was so wide-eyed and sweaty he couldn’t contain his laughter.
“Oh, look at your face,” he said, swiping at his eyes. “You just had about eight different panic attacks over the course of five seconds.”
I glowered at him. “I wasn’t panicking.” I was totally panicking. I wouldn’t admit that to him under the threat of death, however. “I’m just curious how you knew about the croquet.”
“See, I thought you would deny it.” He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “I guess I owe Hayley fifty bucks.”
“Hayley? The clean-romance writer? What are you doing talking to her? She’s a lesbian.”
“I can communicate with women even if I’m not having sex with them,” he said dryly.
“Sorry.” I was instantly contrite. “I’m just … confused. Why are you communicating with her?”
“Because we made a bet at the last event.”
“About what?”
“How soon it will be before you and Bree are doing the horizontal mambo.”
I glared at him. “We’re just…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence because I wasn’t certain what we were. We had been mortal enemies. That was no longer true. We weren’t exactly friends, but we were friendly. We definitely weren’t more than that.
“Yeah, it’s been fun to watch,” Nathan said when I continued to struggle. He clapped his hand on my shoulder. “Are you ready to go?”
I was nowhere near ready to go. I nodded anyway. I didn’t want to be late. There was nothing I loathed more than lateness.
“Great.” Nathan lifted his phone. “The Uber is two minutes out.”
I FIGURED I WOULD HAVE TIME TO GETmyself together over dinner. Even though I wasn’t much of a drinker, there would be cocktails involved with my meal. Unfortunately for me, just as the server led us toward a table, I realized I’d been set up. There was only one table visible, and Bree and Hayley were already sitting at it.
“You suck,” I said to Nathan under my breath.
He ignored me and headed straight for Hayley, who stood to be engulfed in a bear hug from him. “You’re here. That’s good. I’m starving,” she said.
As a kid, I’d had a recurring nightmare that I was on a stage for a school pageant and was the only one who’d shown up. Everybody else had somehow gotten out of it. I’d stood on the stage, a spotlight on me, and all my clothes had disappeared. This moment reminded me of that dream.
Bree’s expression was hard to read when her gaze landed on me. “Hi,” she said softly.
“Hey.” I literally couldn’t think of another thing to say.
“Sit,” Nathan said impatiently. “Order something for dinner. It’s going to be a long night.”
I fumbled with the menu twice. Vic’s menu was fancy. It wasn’t that I was opposed to fancy menus—sometimes I loved them—but this one required my attention, and I was suddenly incapable of focusing.
Being a brutally honest individual, especially with myself, I recognized that I couldn’t focus because Bree was sucking up all the oxygen in the room. Not purposely or anything. Just her presence was enough to make me short of breath.
“What’s good here?” Hayley asked.
“I love this whole menu,” Nathan replied.
“Okay.” Hayley bobbed her head. “What are you getting?”
