Kady clamped her hand over Christine’s mouth. “Sophie, I hereby apologize for any UN-seemly and highly IN-appropriate comments I may have ever dropped which hinted at your brother and I having a sex life. I see now how very wrong that was.”
“Come on, mouthy.” Regan took Christine’s arm and tugged her back to the hair stations set up across the room. “He’s not my brother, and I want to hear all the details.”
“I’ll bet you do,” Christine said, then turned and stuck her tongue out at Kady as Regan led her away. “First he kissed me, and then…”
As they walked away, Christine’s voice faded. Sophie was half tempted to follow along and hear the rest. Tyler wasn’t her brother either. Instead she grinned and said, “Something tells me this is going to be one wild wedding reception.”
“Damn right, it is,” Julie agreed. “But we gotta get through the wedding first. Go on over there to the last station. The redhead there is named Elise, and she’ll get you all fixed up. Then we’ll dress, help Kady dress, pose for some after photos and group shots, and by the time we’re done with all that, it will be time to take this show on the road.”
Sophie made her way to Elise’s station in a slight daze. A couple hours from now her brother would be married—something he’d sworn he’d never do. She and tough, smart, slightly intimidating Kady Dresco would be sisters, and she didn’t feel at all intimidated anymore. Fate worked in strange, amazing ways sometimes.
Also amazing? The way she looked after two hours of being styled and groomed like an America’s Next Top Model contestant. By the time she stepped into the bedroom to zip herself into her short blue strapless bridesmaid gown, she barely recognized herself. Her hair had enough spray to deflect a baseball, but Elise had managed to transform her simple bob into loose, face-framing waves. Smoky eyeliner and soft plum-colored shadow turned her boring brown eyes mysterious and sultry. Tinted gloss gave her lips a pink, just-been-kissed pout. Who knew she had a pout? A sexy one, too.
For one fanciful moment, while she stared at her reflection in the bedroom mirror, an image of Logan materialized at her side. He smiled down at her as they exchanged vows to love each other forever. A disembodied voice said, “You may kiss the bride.” Her pulse raced. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. Logan took her in his arms, slowly lowered his mouth to hers and—
“Don’t leave us in suspense!” Kady called from the other side of the closed bedroom door. “Get out here and show us the finished product.”
She blinked herself back to reality, laughed a little self-consciously in the empty room, and made a mental note to schedule an appointment for a makeup overhaul when she got home.
The other girls were deep in the midst of the beautification process by the time she stepped back into the main room. Kady looked up at her from beneath an intricate, partially assembled updo and smiled. “Woo, Sophie, check you out! I knew you’d kill in that dress. Hold on, I want to get a picture.” She hopped up and ran to a luggage-sized purse, then dug around for her camera. Instead, she pulled out a white index card. “Oh, shoot.”
“What?” Julie prairie-dogged up over the top of her vanity. “What’s wrong?”
Kady frowned at the card. “Probably nothing, but Colt and I wrote our own vows, and I just realized I still have his. I wonder if he needs this to, you know, review again before the big moment.”
“Want me to have someone run that little old cheat s
heet over to him?” Julie asked.
“I’ll do it,” Sophie volunteered. “I’m good to go.”
Kady smiled and handed her the card. “Thanks. And while you’re over there, scope out the scene because I expect a full report. If any of those boys has corrupted my sweet, innocent groom with cheap liquor and fast women, I need to know.”
Sophie took the index card, and then posed so Kady could get her picture. “I’m on it. Back in a few.”
Colt’s groom’s suite was a few floors down at the end of a hall. She knew she’d found the right place because the door was open and room service waiters were wheeling carts laden with dirty dishes out. Clearly, she’d missed brunch. She stepped to the side to allow the room service carts to pass, and spotted Colt and Logan standing just outside the door, deep in conversation. Her insides did some kind of fancy arabesque at the sight of Logan all handsome and polished in his tux.
Deciding to surprise him, she stayed close to the wall as she closed in on the men. Colt’s back was to her and her brother’s frame blocked her from Logan’s view. She sneaked up behind Colt and raised her arm to tap him on the shoulder with the note card when she overheard him say, “…and I can’t thank you enough for taking Sophie under your wing these past few days. Kady and I made bets she’d hide in her room the entire week, but thanks to you, she actually participated. I know you were crushed with work, so the fact that you found the time to befriend her means a lot to me.” Colt paused and touched his coffee cup to Logan’s, while her heart crumbled. “You went above and beyond the call of duty.”
Chapter Thirteen
It was on the tip of Logan’s tongue to tell Colt he’d had the best week of his life hanging out with Sophie, to admit he planned to convince her they should hang out on a permanent basis—for the rest of their lives—but a strangled sound interrupted. Colt turned, and just beyond him, Logan saw Sophie standing in the hall, holding a note card.
His first thought was that she looked beautiful. The next, more urgent and overriding realization was that something was wrong. Huge, wounded eyes stared out from an alarmingly pale face.
“Hey, Sophie,” Colt said. “What brings you down—”
Sophie held the note card out in a shaking hand. “Your vows. Kady thought you might need them. You”—her attention shifted to Logan and her eyes narrowed—“can consider your duty done. I hope the time we spent together wasn’t too boring for you, but the good news is, you don’t need to waste another second on me.”
With that, she spun and stalked off.
Duty done? What the hell was she talking about? His mind replayed the conversation he’d been having with Colt before they noticed Sophie and his gut tightened. Oh shit…
“Sophie!” He sprinted after her, hooked her elbow, and pulled her around to face him.
She struggled out of his grasp and slapped at him. “Don’t even. Get your hands off me. Don’t ever touch me again.”
In his peripheral vision he saw Colt rush up and then heard his best friend’s shocked, “Sophie, what the fuck…?”