The Best Man's Plan

“I had a very nice time with you tonight,” he said, testing her mood in the elevator.

She blinked a couple of times, as if the sound of his voice had roused her from deep thought. “I, um, what did you say?”

Wondering what she’d been pondering so intently, he repeated his comment.

“Oh. Well, the evening wasn’t as bad as I expected. I enjoyed the dancing.”

It wasn’t exactly a glowing endorsement of the event, but coming from Grace, it was close. “I was a bit surprised that you brought a reporter to our table.”

“I kind of liked her. Besides, she’s a real reporter, not one of those sleazy tabloid writers. Maybe if the media starts concentrating on your business ventures again, they’ll stop focusing so intently on your private life.”

“I agree. Most of that attention came from the ‘America’s Most Eligible Bachelors’ article that was published last year. It was right after that absurd list that gossip started going around that I was seriously seeing someone here in Little Rock, thinking about getting married, maybe. Now that so many of the columnists are feeling foolish because they can’t say with absolute certainty which twin I met and dated first, they’ve almost stopped saying anything at all about me.”

“Great,” she said a bit too heartily as the elevator doors slid open. “Then we’ve accomplished what we set out to do.”

He followed close behind her down the hallway toward her apartment. “That’s true—but we don’t want to abruptly stop seeing each other now, especially not before the wedding. That could start the gossip all over again.”

She sighed. “I guess you’re right,” she conceded grudgingly.

“So…what next? Do you have any upcoming social events at which we could be seen together?”

“I have no social events,” she replied, shoving her key into the lock of her door.

“I’ve noticed that you haven’t talked much about your life away from your shop. Other than dancing, what do you like to do for fun?”

“Oh, this and that. Good night, Bryan.”

She’d slipped inside her door as soon as she opened it, and would have closed it in his face had he not reached out to block it. “I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

She frowned. “Well, I…”

“We need to talk about our plans for the next couple of weeks,” he added. “While we have a chance to talk in private, I mean.”

Hesitating only another moment, she nodded and held the door open for him.

“I really do like your apartment,” he remarked, masking his satisfaction that she had allowed him inside. He wandered across the big, open main room to gaze out the window that dominated the back wall of her living room. Reflections of the moon and the city lights glittered like diamonds scattered across the black satin surface of the Arkansas River. The apartment itself was rather modest, containing the living room, an eat-in kitchen, a single bedroom and bath—maybe eight hundred square feet total—but the view was impressive.

“Thanks. I like it, too. Chloe prefers the suburban setting of west Little Rock, but I like being downtown. It’s been interesting watching the area transform itself from a row of dilapidated, abandoned warehouses to a thriving neighborhood filled with shops, galleries, museums, restaurants and breweries. I’m close to the main library and the Arkansas Repertory Theater, and the Alltel Arena is just across the river, so I can easily attend concerts and sporting events such as hockey and arena football.”

He knew all this, of course, being a Little Rock native, himself. He could only assume she was babbling because it made her nervous to be alone with him in her apartment.

She must have realized what she was doing at the same time he did. “I’ll make the coffee,” she said and hurried into the kitchen.

He moved to sit on the couch, his attention lingering for a moment on the intriguely shaped pottery pieces arranged on her glass-topped coffee table. Trying to find hints of her other interests, he looked around the colorfully decorated room, paying particular notice to a built-in bookcase crowded with an eclectic assortment of paperback novels and movies on DVD. Did she spend all her free hours alone here in her apartment, reading and watching films? That didn’t seem to mesh with what he knew of her, yet he saw no evidence to the contrary.

He knew Chloe had interests outside of work; she enjoyed volunteering through several community service organizations and she had been taking pottery classes at the Arkansas Arts Center. He wondered if the pieces on Grace’s table included any of Chloe’s work. Chloe also enjoyed fly-fishing and traveling, two of the mutual pastimes that Bryan had considered a sign that he an

d Chloe had a great deal in common.

But Grace was still a mystery to him. Chloe had chatted openly about herself during their few discreet dinner dates; Grace had revealed almost nothing to him. He’d learned only this evening how much she enjoyed dancing, for example.

He wondered why she was so reticent about revealing anything of herself to him. Was it because she didn’t expect to spend much time with him after Chloe and Donovan married? Or did she simply dislike him so much that she didn’t want him to know much about her?

If it was the latter, he’d have to see what he could do to change her attitude toward him. He had grown rather spoiled to having other people—of both genders—like and respect him, and he was well aware of that small conceit. But why wouldn’t she like him? He was a nice guy. Good company. A more than decent dancer. He wasn’t trying to charm her into falling desperately in love with him, of course, but he would like to think they could become friends in addition to reluctant co-conspirators.

She carried two mugs of coffee when she rejoined him. Handing him his mug, she settled into a chair with her own, eyeing him somewhat warily over the rim. “What do you want to talk about?”

He certainly had his work cut out for him. For whatever reason, she didn’t trust him entirely. That was a problem he would have to overcome before they could establish any sort of friendship, even a casual one. “The wedding is still three weeks away. I think we should probably be seen publicly together two or three more times prior to the wedding, and then a few more times afterward before we drop the pretense. Just to be on the safe side. Do you agree?”