Unwrapping the Best Man

She giggles softly. ‘No, but I think we could do with a better understanding of the enigma that is Jackson.’

‘Yes, but I’ll be the one drilling him, okay?’

‘You’re going to have it out with him still?’

‘Yes.’ Too right I am. Like Coco says, the hardest things are worth fighting for. If he doesn’t want me, fine. But the least he can do is explain his actions and, while he’s at it, an apology wouldn’t go amiss. ‘If I can get him free of Blondie, that is.’

Coco grimaces as she looks back to the closed door. ‘Reckon we should still ask Ash to do the guy thing...’

‘Absolutely not, but speak of the devil...’ I gesture to the entrance, where Ash has just appeared. His eyes land on us and his brows hit the roof, his buzzcut, forbidding frame and mutinous stare enough to send the whole room into hiding. ‘Er...sorry, Coco.’

She frowns at me and turns in her seat. I know I don’t need to explain my apology now.

‘You know that caveman analogy you gave me earlier?’ She looks back at me, her green eyes sparkling.

‘Yup.’

‘You think it’s about to happen?’

‘Yup.’

I drop off the bar stool and make sure I get to him first.

‘Hey, this was all my idea...’ I lean up on tiptoe to give him a peck on the cheek ‘She was cheering me up.’

‘That right?’ He grins and gives me an affectionate squeeze around the waist that lifts me off the floor. ‘In that case, I’ll thank you later.’

I chuckle as he sets me down and moves past me to take his wife into his arms, the happy aura pulsating around them obvious to all. It makes me smile and cry inside. I’m so happy for Coco, so happy for the two of them, but...

They turn to look at me and I force my grin wide as I climb back onto my stool.

‘Drink, Ash?’ I beam. ‘Coco and I highly recommend the festive collection.’

He frowns. ‘Blacks has a festive collection?’

‘It does now.’ I laugh. ‘Bates is conjuring them up to suit our outfits.’

His eyes rake over Coco and the open affection, love and desire alive in his gaze have my heart squeezing tight in my chest.

‘Easy, Tiger, you can eat her when you get home.’ I lean into him, all sweet and lovely. ‘Right now, you have to entertain me. Tell me, do you have a friend just as awesome as you? Lovable, dishy, irresistible...’

He chuckles low in his chest, the blush on his cheeks an alien phenomenon that only makes me love him more. Coco’s one lucky lady.

‘I don’t know. What do you think, Coco?’

‘Well, I thought you did.’

I don’t need to ask who she means as I look to his door and see it opening, my pulse jumping. I check my watch. Ten minutes—twenty at most?

Hardly time to talk, let alone...and Blondie looks remarkably serene. Her outfit is smooth with no visible creases. Her smile is fixed, her hair unmoved. My heart’s already lighter.

‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.’

It’s Ash who says it, his eyes set in the same direction as mine, and my heart does a swift U-turn. ‘What’s up?’

I don’t like the anger that sparks in Ash’s gaze, worse still the way his eyes follow both Jackson and Blondie as they leave the room.

‘Ash?’ It’s Coco that prompts him. ‘What’s wrong?’