Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
It was the first good look I’d had at his face in daylight. And he had freckles across his perfect nose. Subtle ones I hadn’t noticed in the low light on the rooftop.
“There he is.” Matt said, grabbing my hand to pull me along.
I jerked my arm back, hoping no one saw. “Remember?” I asked tersely, through my clenched jaw.
“Fuck, sorry,” he said under his breath.
My eyes darted around the room. Mom and Dad were too far away to have noticed the slipup, and Scott was—“Look, he’s over there.”
Following the direction of my pointed finger, Matt raised a hand and waved to Scott, who stood a few tables away.
“Hey, man. Where’s your fiancée? I have a surprise for her outside,” Matt called to him.
“I can find her. She can’t have gone too far,” Scott replied.
“Get her and meet me outside,” Matt told him, then turned to me and said, “You’ll want to see this too.”
A suspicious, foreboding feeling grew in my chest. I followed Matt out of the dockside restaurant, to the beach. A crowd of interested wedding guests and unaffiliated tourists stood on the grass, laughing and taking photos. And in the middle of the group was…
“Daisy?” Lauren shrieked, racing across the grass to the enormous grizzly bear sitting happily on her haunches, munching watermelon. As in, a whole, gigantic watermelon that she handled like a candy bar. Lauren launched herself at the beast and hugged her tight around the neck, but Daisy was clearly too drugged to concentrate on anything but her snack. The animal’s two handlers joined in on the bear hug. Their khaki uniforms were clearly emblazoned with the bear preserve logos, so I assumed they knew the bride.
“No way.” Scott stepped up beside us and clapped Matt on the back. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“Look!” Lauren called back to Scott, as if he could have somehow missed the probably thousand-pound animal sitting right in front of him. “They brought my maid-of-honor!”
I echoed my brother’s statement, but not his enthusiasm. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“She wanted her bear here,” Matt said, watching as Scott went over to join Lauren and Daisy.
My jaw dropped.
Matt continued, with a gesture toward the restaurant, “There’s a linen storage room in the hallway, near the restrooms. Meet me there, but don’t follow me.”
Heat flooded my face, and my heart pounded in my throat, hard enough to choke me.
He turned to walk away, whistling, but he paused to say, “What do you think is harder to arrange? A threesome, or flying a grizzly bear from Montana to South Carolina?”
I didn’t have an answer.
“I guess we’ll see,” he mused cheerfully, then took up his whistling again as he walked away.
CHAPTER EIGHT
(Matthew)
I waited in the darkened storage room, barely hidden by two industrial wire racks. It was terrible cover, but that didn’t matter. I doubted anyone would be wrapping silverware or replacing tablecloths in the middle of breakfast.
And what would happen if I got caught in there, anyway? Would they fire me?
The door handle pushed down, and I caught a glimpse of Charlotte as she slipped inside. “Matt?”
“Back here,” I whispered, and she wound through the shelves to reach me.
She covered her sudden giggles with both hands. “I can’t believe you brought a fucking bear here.”
“That’s what I do. I make the impossible happen,” I said with a flourish of my hand.
She shook her head. “You’re such an asshole.”
“I know I am. But I also want your brother to have the best wedding possible. He deserves it.” Sure, it had been fun to see Charlotte’s face when she realized that if I could get a bear to a wedding, I could get someone to do a three-way on the roof, but the real point of the gesture was to make the bride and her family happy. “Lauren’s family doesn’t think Scott fits in at all. He’s been struggling with that for a long time. I was hoping that this wedding surprise would make them lay off a little bit.”
Two little lines appeared between her brows. “Oh.”
Something about her confusion made me uncomfortable. “What?”
“Well, I didn’t know that was a problem,” she said, like it was an admission of guilt. “My family kind of assumed it was a good thing he didn’t fit in with them. And I’m a little…”
“Embarrassed by how snobby that was?” I didn’t want to go on the attack, but it was something I’d thought for a while. “Lauren’s family doesn’t have a lot of flashy stuff. They’re not glamorous or polished and they don’t fit in with that upper-middle-class lifestyle your family enjoys, but that doesn’t mean Scott shouldn’t want their approval. He’s marrying their daughter.”
“That’s fair.” She looked down. “I know we’re snobs. I guess I’m surprised that we’re snobbier than the guy who’s the literal billionaire.”
“And I come from old money,” I pointed out. “So, if anything, I should be the snobby one.”