The Best Man (Alpha Men 2)

“Good?”

“Yep. I love an amuse-bouche, it’s like getting a fun little predinner gift. I can get really comfortable in a world that gives you predinner presents.”

“So why do you think you’ll never get married?” he asked, remembering her statement before Liam’s arrival and grateful for a topic that could take his mind off his rampant hard-on.

“I don’t think, I know.” She seemed vehement about that.

“Why?”

“I’m not suited to it.”

“Why not? Your parents are happily married, Daisy and Mason are clearly in it for the long haul . . . you’re surrounded by nothing but happy couples. Why wouldn’t you be suited to it when it’s in your DNA?”

“Lia’s wedding fell through,” she reminded him.

“Lia deserved better than that asshole. As far as I’m concerned, that was a happy ending for her. And you know as well as I do that it’s only a matter of time before she falls for some other lucky guy and winds up happily married. I always figured you were headed the same way.”

“Not with the assholes I’ve dated in the past.”

“There must have been a good guy or two in the lot,” he probed, not really wanting to hear about her previous douchebag boyfriends, but curious nonetheless.

“Nah, rotten apples, the lot of them. I seem to attract losers and freaks.”

“Freaks? How so?” Her eyes slid from his and she started to look a little cagey, sending his curiosity into overdrive. What was she hiding?

“What about you?” she hedged. “You still holding out for that happily ever after, even after what Tanya did to you?”

Ouch. Living in a small town blew big-time. It hadn’t taken long for everybody from the priest to the local grocery packer to hear all about Tanya’s threesome. In fact, he estimated it had been less than a day before the whole town heard that he had caught her cheating. The humiliation had been unbearable, but he’d kept his head down and refused to discuss it with anybody. The only reason it got out was because one of Tanya’s asshole lovers—the local mechanic—was a blabbermouth who couldn’t wait to brag that he’d stolen the local rugby hero’s girl. As if he could steal Tanya—she didn’t belong to anybody, she belonged to everybody. She’d apparently flirted and fucked her way through half of the male population in town, seniors and high school kids included. A lot of them while she’d been with Spencer.

“I’m the eternal optimist,” he said grimly, and she giggled—as he had intended—at those words delivered in that tone of voice.

“Were you in love with her?”

“No.” He hoped the curt tone in his voice would discourage further questions, but she scooched forward in her chair and rested her chin in the palms of her hands, her eyes intent.

“You were with her for three years.”

“Habit.” Even more curtly. It didn’t deter her at all.

“Yes, but . . . three years. I was expecting a wedding announcement soon.”

“It never felt completely right with her.”

“Maybe that’s why she cheated? She knew you weren’t entirely into her.”

“Way to blame the victim, Daff,” he chastised. “But maybe it never felt completely right because she was fucking everybody she could almost from the moment we started seeing one another.”

“Yikes.” She winced theatrically.

“Come on, everybody knew.”

“I didn’t . . . not while it was happening. I found out afterward, of course, but I never knew it went that far back.”

“As far as I could tell, she was never faithful to me. She said that—” The memory of her exact words made him press his lips together in an attempt to stifle the laughter rising to the surface. He wasn’t wholly successful and pinched the bridge of his nose and lowered his face as the chuckles escaped in fits and starts.

Alarmed, Daff watched Spencer lower his eyes and cover his mouth. His shoulders started to shake and she gaped, horrified to discover how very raw the whole Tanya situation still was for him. Was he sobbing?

Oh God.

She cast an embarrassed look around the room, but nobody else seemed to notice his reaction, and she scooted over to the chair on his left.

“Hey, come on now, buddy. She’s not worth this,” she soothed, running a hand over one shaking shoulder. He looked up, and tears were gleaming in his eyes. His face was red and he seemed to be attempting to curb his sobs.

Wait. Were they sobs? His eyes widened at her sympathetic words, and his shoulders shook even more. She tugged at the hand he had clutched over his mouth, and when she managed to draw it down she saw that Spencer was laughing. Huge guffaws shook his body, and her concern seemed to set him off even more.

Exasperated, she flounced back to her chair and sat with her arms crossed over her chest, waiting for the chuckles to subside.