“The best,” Jessica says without an ounce of sincerity.
I roll my eyes. The battle is done. I don’t care if she likes me or not. I’m here for my sister. But her words still ring in my ears, curiosity piquing. My gaze travels to where Reid and Jason areposted up at the elegant bar. “What do you mean he doesn’t date?”
“Jason says he hasn’t dated since he met him, like, ten years ago,” Kate says, following where I’m looking. Jason must feel her attention on him because he looks her way, blushes a bit, and waves. Kate blows him a kiss. He pretends to catch it and shove it in his pocket. She giggles. I gag.
“Lofty, ridiculously unrealistic standards for women,” Jessica adds. “So honestly we all dodged a bullet.”
I turn back to Jessica. “You dodged a bullet?”
“Jessica tried to date him in college too.”
“Really?”
Jessica tosses her glossy black hair over a shoulder. “Why do you sound so surprised by that? We would’ve been a gorgeous couple.”
“I just expected you to be with someone more . . .” My eyes travel back to the bar again, studying the groom and his best man. Reid’s smiling softly at something Jason says. He claps a hand on Reid’s back and lets out a laugh. And the word “submissive” dies on my tongue, instead getting swapped with, “More like Jason.”
Who is, in fact, massively submissive to Kate. He’d do absolutely anything for her. He follows her around like a lost puppy dog constantly.
Jessica makes a scoffing sound. “He’s much more Kate’s type.” She turns to my sister now. “So it’s a good thing Reid rejected you. Now you get to marry a man who sees my worth and values your worth.”
Kate doesn’t hear it for the backhanded compliment it really is. Kate sighs dreamily, extending her left hand and studying her diamond ring. I narrow my eyes at Jessica, who is too busy also admiring my sister’s ring, though she’s staring at it with a look of envy instead of awe.
“Right,” Kate says.
After another thirteen seconds of silently studying her sparkling stone, she drops her hand and sighs again. “Well, I’m going to make my rounds. Get me a fresh glass of champagne?” she asks me—though I know the only answer is yes—and she holds out her empty glass. I take it without question, then realize my mistake.
“Sure,” I murmur, glaring at the bar I need to visit where my nemesis stands.
Jason and Reid are both leaning elbows against the shiny, dark marble top and talking animatedly. Reid laughs at something Jason says and I’m momentarily caught off guard by how brilliant his smile is. Warm and inviting and contagious.
That’s when it hits me that he hasn’t offered me more than a glare or an irritated sigh the entire time I’ve known him. Which has been a handful of days, but still.
I march up to the bar, not willing to let Reid throw off my confidence, and set the empty flute on the counter. The bartender approaches me, raising an eyebrow in lieu of asking for my order.
“Another champagne for the bride,” I say, pushing the glass toward him.
“And for you?”
I eye the bottles lining the shelves behind him, suddenly needing something that’s not champagne or white wine or something expected of Kate and a venue like this. I want my comfort drink.
“I don’t suppose you have tequila back there.” Out of the corner of my eye I catch Reid’s head swiveling in my direction and I briefly take pride in the fact that I, Jane Sinclair, have surprised him.
“Patron or Cuervo?” the bartender asks.
“Doing shots already?” Reid says beside me. I slide a glancehis way, not realizing he had turned his entire body from Jason to me. He was still leaning an elbow on the counter, but now he had his hip against the bar too, one ankle crossed over his standing foot.
“If you’re going to continue being in my periphery, then yes. Several.”
He scoffs. Can I count that as sort of a smile? His lips did quirk up? Albeit sarcastically, but still.
“Shots then?” the bartender asks, trying to regain my attention.
“Any chance you have margarita mix back there?” I try. The tequila was a great sign, but a spicy margarita requires, at minimum, margarita mix. The bartender tragically shakes his head. I let out a sigh. “Fine, then one shot of Patron.”
“Don’t let Kate see you,” Jason says beside Reid.
“She’s not the boss of me.”
