The Groom Wager (Wrong Way Weddings Book 1)

by Lori Wilde

  8

  Tess seemed to have done well by him this time. Melissa was slender, beautiful, animated, and sweet. Everything a “nice” date should be.

  What wasn’t nice was double-dating with Tess and his twin. He was still steamed that Zack had asked her out, even though he couldn’t say why. He and Tess weren’t an item. She could date whomever she wanted.

  “Here we are,” Cole said, opening the door of the truck for Melissa in the parking lot of the restaurant that Tess had picked.

  Melissa was jabbering about golf. His grandfather had made such a big deal about lessons and practice rounds that neither Cole nor Zack had played in years. He was trying to be interested.

  “Oh, there’s Tess. Her date must not be here yet,” Melissa said.

  The minute he saw her, his spirits soared. She looked so cute in a red dress with a flared skirt, her hair combed smooth.

  “Hi.” Tess was waiting outside the solid wooden door with fake iron fittings. “Zack isn’t here yet.”

  “About Zack...” Cole said, suddenly feeling like an underhanded villain. What had seemed a good idea earlier crumbled in the face of Tess’ anxious expression.

  “Where is he?” she asked.

  “He had to handle an emergency.”

  “What kind of emergency?” Tess narrowed her eyes.

  “A tile emergency.” He grimaced. The excuse sounded so stupid. He should have come up with something better, but it was too late now.

  “What is a tile emergency?” She sank her hands on her hips and sounded like a teacher who’d just caught a little boy writing dirty words on the chalkboard.

  “We promised to grout some shower tiles for the woman who wants to renovate her kitchen, and she’s having some big-deal guests tomorrow, so she’s paying triple time to get it done today. One of us had to get over there and do the job. Zack lost the coin toss.” Fate had been kind, depositing the demanding woman in his lap when he needed it most. But Cole hadn’t been the least bit hesitant to take advantage of the situation.

  Guilt punched him in the gut. He was turning into someone he didn’t like and all because of jealousy. Why did he care if Zack dated Tess? It was a question he needed to give some serious thought.

  “You don’t have employees for that kind of thing?” she asked.

  “I can’t expect my employees to give up their Friday nights.”

  “And yet, you expect your brother to do so?”

  “I couldn’t stand up Melissa.”

  “So instead, you arranged it where I get stood up?”

  Cole gulped. He hadn’t thought this through. Melissa canted her head at him as if reevaluating her opinion of his character.

  “Why didn’t Zack call or text me?” Tess fished her phone from her purse and peered at the screen. “Oh, he did. I had my ringer off.”

  Fate once again was shining on him.

  “Well, you two have a good time.” Tess turned and wriggled her fingers.

  “Wait!” Cole said. “The three of us can have dinner together.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Tess said. “Three’s a crowd.”

  “Definitely,” Melissa agreed, putting her hand on his arm.

  “Zack is planning to meet us here if the job doesn’t take too long. He said to go ahead and order, and he’ll be here as soon as he can.” It was true enough, but he doubted Zack could finish the job in under three hours.

  “This doesn’t seem right.” Tess hung back.

  Cole opened the heavy door to the restaurant, held it with his knee, steered Melissa into the restaurant with one hand, and prodded Tess into moving by nudging her waist with the other.

  “Are all your condos sold?” Melissa asked after they’d ordered. “I have a friend who bought a condo by a golf course in Florida. She never has to buy a ball. They just plummet over the fence, good brands hardly used at all. Of course, it makes for hazardous sunbathing, but she’s a natural redhead—can’t tolerate more than fifteen minutes of sun or she turns lobster-red. Does your tan last all year, Cole?”

  She tossed off questions like an investigative reporter but never paused to hear an answer. Cole caught Tess’ eye and raised his brows, but she looked away as if it were his fault there were three people at the table but only one talking.

  “Are you sure Zack is coming?” Tess asked, checking the time on her phone.

  “He’ll make it if he can.”

  She narrowed her eyes, her lips pressed into a hard line. “Maybe I really should go.”

  “You’ve already ordered.” Cole nodded at the waiter who appeared with their meal. “Here it is.”

  Melissa continued her chatter as they ate. She was so lovely, yet so loquacious. Maybe it was his fault for insisting on a threesome, but he didn’t want Tess to leave.

  “Excuse me.” Tess stood up after she’d finished her branzino.

  “You’re not leaving? Zack could still show up,” Cole said. “In fact, I’ll text him to see how far along he is.”

  “I’m only going to the restroom.” Tess’ voice was flat.

  “Oh.” He watched her walk away, feeling more and more like a jerk as the evening wore on, realizing how unkind it had been of him to send Zack to do the grouting work alone.

  “Have you ever been abroad?” Melissa was actually waiting for an answer.

  He’d started to tell her about his fishing camp to Canada when he felt her foot creeping up his thigh.

  She knew what she was doing. Her toes wiggled against him.

  Shocked, he grabbed her ankle to remove her foot, but she misinterpreted, giggling seductively.

  He stood abruptly, nearly knocking over his chair and putting her off-balance on hers. But like an experienced horseback rider, she kept her seat.

  “Excuse me, please,” he said.

  For the first time, Cole saw some merit in massive potted plants. He discreetly positioned himself behind one of the jungle giants, hiding while he waited for Tess to come out of the women’s room.

  “Come here,” he whispered, grabbing her arm as she passed by.

  “Oof!” she exclaimed, caught off guard. What on earth are you doing?”

  “Dodging your friend.”

  “Oh, no.” She groaned. “So she talks a bit excessively. Maybe she’s nervous. Maybe this isn’t her idea of a double date. I really tried this time, Cole.”

  “And I appreciate it, but as soon as you left the table, she started feeling me up.”

  “Oh, be serious. In a crowded restaurant? On a first date?”

  Cole raised his eyebrows. “You tell me. She stuck her bare foot between my legs.”

  Tess shook her head. “She wouldn’t do something like that.”

  “She would and she did.”

  “Why are you telling me? She’s your date. Solve your own problems. I’m going home,” Tess said. “Tell Zack I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

  “You can’t go.”

  “Clearly, Zack isn’t going to make it, and I have a sneaking feeling you knew that all along. Did you sabotage my date with your brother?”

  “Sabotage is a strong word,” he hedged.

  “I don’t know why you wanted me to chaperone, but I resign. You’re a big boy. You handle it.”

  “I didn’t want you to chaperone. The double date was your idea.”

  “But you insisted I stay when you knew Zack probably wasn’t going to make it. That’s on you, bucko.”

  He wanted Tess to stay. It was that simple, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Melissa and her wandering foot. When Tess was around, the sun shone, and all was right in his world. He just didn’t know how to backtrack on their dumb deal and all that had happened since he’d asked her to be his matchmaker.

  Just tell her.

  Yeah, that sounded simple enough, but in reality, it was a lot more complicated than that.

  “You’ve got to get rid of her.” What he wanted to say was, please stay because I want to be with you. But this was Tess, and he
didn’t know exactly how to tell her about the feelings growing in his heart.

  “Me? She’s your date. You brought her here.”

  “She’s not my type.”

  “Be a man and just tell her the truth.” Tess let out a long sigh. She could have been talking about his feelings for her.

  “Could you please let her down easy for me?” he insisted.

  “What am I supposed to do? Tell her there’s a tile emergency, and she has to let me drive her home so you can go save another shower?” She glared at him. “No, I can’t tell her for you. Man up.”

  “She groped me under the table, Tess. If you hadn’t left me alone with her…”

  “Oh no, you don’t get to do that. You can’t blame this on me.”

  She was right.

  She was always right. Chagrinned, Cole hung his head.

  “It’s time for all of us to go home. I have to open the store in the morning. My assistant manager went to Cleveland for a wedding.”

  “But someone has to take Melissa home.”

  “You do it,” she insisted. “She’s your date, a date you insisted I find for you. I tried, Cole. She’s gorgeous, friendly, sharp....”

  “Aggressive, pushy, threatening...”

  She burst out laughing. “Don’t tell me Cole Bailey is afraid of a sexually assertive woman.”

  “Please,” he said, pressing his palms together. “Help me.”

  “How do I do that without causing a scene in the restaurant?”

  “Go out and pretend your car won’t start. Then come back inside, and I’ll offer to give you a ride home too. That way, I won’t be alone with Melissa.”

  “You want me to lie?”

  “Just to spare Melissa’s feelings.”

  She pursed her lips. “Isn’t this getting ridiculous? Every time I’m with you, we abandon a vehicle.”

  “I’ll drive you back to get it as soon as we drop her off.”

  “That won’t take any time at all. Just a couple of hours of fighting Friday night traffic.”

  “You’re a good sport, Tess.”

  Her face told him that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Truth to tell, it wasn’t what he wanted to say, but he was groping his way through a fog when it came to the way he felt about her.

  They went back to the table separately, Tess first. Cole hurried after her, not allowing the women any time to get chatty, then Tess left.

  For a few anxious moments, he was afraid she wouldn’t come back. Melissa moved over to the chair Tess had vacated beside him and started caressing his thigh.

  Cole flinched and shifted his leg away from her.

  A few minutes later, Tess returned. She looked glum enough to have real car trouble. “Bad news, guys.”

  “Oh, Tess, I thought you’d left.” Melissa looked annoyed.

  “My car won’t start. I’ve heard excessive heat can be as hard on batteries as extreme cold. Now that I think of it, I probably do need a new one.”

  She was overdoing the stranded motorist bit. Cole glanced at Melissa to see if she was buying it.

  “Have you called your towing service?” Melissa asked, pinching his thigh to send him a message—get rid of her.

  “Tess mentioned just yesterday she forgot to renew her AAA membership.” He surprised himself at how quickly the lie came. Normally, he was a terrible liar and rarely fell back on it.

  “Can’t you just call an Uber?” Melissa asked.

  Tess shot him a look that said, Yes, Cole, why can’t I just call an Uber?

  Okay, the lie wasn’t working, and he felt pretty darn underhanded for having suggested it in the first place.

  “Tess is our friend,” Cole said. “We need to make sure she gets home safely.”

  Melissa made an unhappy face, then snorted. “Fine.”

  “I’ll drop you off first, Melissa, and come back to see what I can do about Tess’ car,” he said resolutely, wondering which woman would have to ride in the back seat with his toolbox. He would have put the tools in the bed of his truck, but it was filled with—of all things—tile for a job he was doing.

  He solved the problem by asking Tess to drive and sitting in the back seat himself, safely out of Melissa’s reach.

  Tess not only drove the pickup as though she owned one herself, she tactfully soothed Melissa’s ruffled feathers by praising her skills as a golfer and keeping her talking about putters and par and pitch.

  His plan worked well except for Melissa insisting he walk her to her door, which was inside a ritzy gated complex. She rubbed against him like a cat with an itch, but at the door, he broke free before she could put him in a lip-lock.

  Back at the truck, Tess insisted on driving to the restaurant. He’d put her behind the wheel, and she was staying there. After they retrieved her car, he tailed her home and hopped out before she could run inside.

  “You didn’t need to follow me,” she said, walking fast.

  He rushed to catch up with her. “I wanted to make sure your car was working okay.”

  “There was never anything wrong with it.”

  “Actually, I was hoping to come in for—”

  “My couch is not available tonight. You can hop in your truck and go home or wherever. I’m going to bed.”

  “I need to talk to you for a minute.”

  “I know, your blind date was a dud or whatever. You don’t need to make a report. I was there, Cole. I’m sorry, but how could I know she’s voracious? She’s Lucinda’s cousin, and I’ve only been around her a few times.”

  “You fixed me up with Lucinda’s cousin?”

  “They’re nothing alike. Anyway, Lucinda has her good points. She’s fun when she’s not getting married.” She stabbed her key into the keyhole.

  “Give me five minutes,” he pleaded.

  He wanted to take Tess in his arms so she’d have to listen to him. “Three minutes…please.”

  “Okay,” she relented.

  He followed her inside.

  “If you’re going to complain about Melissa, forget it.”

  “She wasn’t all bad.” Once upon a time, he would’ve thought Melissa was hot stuff. “About Zack...”

  “What about Zack?”

  “I’m the reason he didn’t make it tonight.”

  “Surprise, surprise,” she said dryly.

  “Don’t get me wrong. He didn’t want to break your date.”

  “He just preferred to spend the evening with shower tiles?” She arched an eyebrow.

  “No, I pulled rank.”

  “Isn’t he the oldest?”

  “I started the construction firm; he came in after the fact.”

  “What? Why would you sabotage our date?”

  “I know my brother. He’s not interested in settling down.”

  “That’s lame, Cole, really lame. Zack’s not the big bad wolf, and it’s been a long time since I needed rescuing.”

  “I just didn’t want you to get your heart broken.”

  “Like it doesn’t hurt my feelings to get stood up, not to mention roped into being a third wheel? You were manipulative, Cole, and I do not appreciate that.”

  “You’re right,” he said, owning responsibility. Why was he acting so out of character? “I’m sorry. I have no excuse, except…”

  Except I’m falling for you.

  But he couldn’t say it for fear she didn’t feel the same way.

  She blinked at him.

  Filled with shame, he hung his head. “I meant well.”

  “Cole, I’m a big girl now. I can take care of myself. I always could, even in high school. Time to go home, Cole. Your three minutes are up.”

  9

  In the two weeks since she’d been a third wheel on that disastrous date with Melissa, Tess had set Cole up with three more dares. He was giving new meaning to the word picky.

  Last night he took Brandy, a cute redhead, to dinner and a movie. He called Tess afterward to report in.

  She didn’t want or need to kn
ow the details. Did he have any idea how she felt about all these blind dates? It was high school all over again, watching him pursue one girl after another when she secretly dreamed of being with him.

  Zack called once to ask her to a motorcycle rally, but she had to work. He looked like Cole, more or less, and sounded like Cole, but her heart knew the difference. She wasn’t crushed when he didn’t call again.

  She’d already paid a high price for losing that ridiculous bet. She couldn’t concentrate at work, and her social life was going to hell in a handbasket as she moped over Cole.

  It was time to tell him she was through. She’d found him six dates, and none of them had worked out. What was the point of a seventh?

  He hadn’t come to her apartment since the fiasco with Melissa, but afterward, he sent her a first edition of a Tale of Two Cities and a note telling her how sorry he was for his lack of honesty and promised to do better.

  It was a magnificent gift. The best of gifts and she knew the book had set him back a pretty penny. His thoughtfulness touched her, but more than that, it let her know she simply could not throw even one more woman at him.

  Playing his matchmaker was breaking her heart, and she was done.

  She didn’t want to have the conversation over the phone. On Sunday afternoon, she drove to his place in Livonia, rehearsing what she’d say. She’d never been to Cole’s house, but she programmed her GPS and away she went.

  If the address she found online was correct, he lived in a swanky townhome near a hip area filled with trendy restaurants and shops. She didn’t see his pickup parked outside, but the garage door was closed.

  She marched up the steps, ready to tell him exactly what was on her mind, but at the door doubt swamped her.

  This was a bad idea.

  She almost turned and fled, but she’d already pushed the door buzzer. Besides, she didn’t want to leave without telling Cole what was on her mind.

  “Come on in,” called a muffled voice from the other side of the door.

  Feeling like an intruder, she turned the knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. Tentatively, she stepped into the foyer. “Hello?”

  “Be out in a second,” Cole’s sexy voice called from farther inside the townhome.