His Best Friend's Wife (Bachelor Best Friends 2)

“My mother-in-law blames Mr. Hottie, as you call him, for causing her son’s death,” Renae blurted. “She doesn’t even know I’ve been meeting with him, much less—well, that there would be any possibility of anything more.”

“Oh.” Cathy blinked. “Um, wow.”

“Yeah.” Grimly, Renae cleared her screen and entered the correct data.

“Why would she blame—Evan, isn’t it?”

Renae nodded without pausing in her work. “It was Evan who helped Jason buy a motorcycle a few years before the accident, to Lucy’s disapproval. And Evan was the one who talked Jason into going for that last ride, even though Jason had originally made other plans. Evan made it safely through the intersection only moments before Jason followed and was hit by the car. So Lucy decided that Jason would still be alive if it weren’t for Evan.”

“Wow,” Cathy said again, apparently at a loss for another word.

Renae nodded again and hit a few keys with a bit more force than necessary.

“I take it you don’t agree with her?”

“Of course not. Evan would never have done anything deliberately to hurt Jason,” Renae insisted.

Cathy eyed her with a frown. “Hmm.”

Renae wasn’t sure what she meant by that murmur, but she didn’t ask for clarification.

After another few minutes of working in silence, Cathy said, “I know you’re very close to your mother-in-law, but are you really willing to stop seeing a man you’re interested in just to keep her happy?”

“I think the question should be, am I really willing to risk alienating a woman who has been like a mother to me for a decade over what could prove to be a passing attraction to a man who only showed up in my life again a couple of months ago?”

“Well, when you put it that way...”

“When I put it that way, the answer is obvious,” Renae said with a renewed determination, struck by her own reasoning.

“But maybe—”

“I appreciate your concern, Cathy, really, but I need to finish up here so I can get home. Lucy and the kids are waiting for me.”

“Okay, but if you want to talk, the offer stands.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” And she did, really—but this was a problem Renae knew she was going to have to resolve for herself.

* * *

Evan hadn’t been exactly enthusiastic about the compromise Renae had suggested for the party, but he’d made the best of it, greeting her with a kiss when she arrived at his apartment. They would still walk into the event together, but she simply hadn’t been comfortable with him picking her up at her house.

“You look great,” he told her, stepping back to admire the total effect of her outfit. She’d obsessed a little over what to wear, finally settling on flowing black evening pants and a sparkly black-and-silver top with a deep scoop neckline and three-quarter sleeves. Conservative, but figure-flattering; classic, but with just a touch of bling for the holidays. The appreciation in Evan’s eyes made her feel that her choice had been worth the dithering.

“You look very tasty, yourself,” she assured him, eying his dark suit and holiday-red tie in approval. Evan could definitely rock a suit.

Drawing her gaze from him, she uttered a sound of surprise when she saw the Christmas tree displayed in front of his big window that overlooked the river. “Oh, how pretty.”

Before she even touched the blue spruce’s dense needles, she could tell by the scent that it was real. Tiny white LED lights glittered among the thick branches and reflected off delicate glass ornaments in red, gold and silver. A gold star sat proudly at the top of the tree, almost touching the ceiling. She couldn’t help thinking how much more elegant this perfectly coordinated tree looked compared

to the big artificial tree at home, covered haphazardly with multicolored lights, a hodgepodge of ornaments collected through the years and a few crafts-project ornaments made by the twins. While Evan’s tree was perfection, she decided she preferred her own.

She wondered how he would view her kid-friendly decorations. And whether seeing them would make him, like her, wonder how their very different lives would mesh. “Your tree is beautiful,” she said, pushing those disconcerting thoughts away. “Did you decorate it yourself or hire someone to do it?”

He shrugged, looking a little self-conscious. “I was at loose ends one evening, so I decided to put up a tree. I don’t always bother, but I thought you might like it.”

She moistened her lips. “You did this for me?”

“Well, I enjoy it, too, but—yeah. Mostly for you. I don’t have many other visitors.”