Best Man With Benefits

by Samanthe Beck

  Message delivered to the best of her ability, she slipped into her room.

  Ten minutes later she stood in the lobby with Kady, Christine, and Julie, secretly grateful she wasn’t the last to arrive. Regan held that honor. She strode off the elevator a minute later, and Julie joked about sending out a search party. Regan deflected the comment by pointing out that Christine was the only one of them who’d needed a search party. While Kady and Julie took turns teasing Christine, Regan surprised her with a sly question. “How was your night?”

  She felt her face go oven-hot. Oh God, what had Regan seen? “J-Just fine.”

  “I’ll bet.” Regan leaned closer and lowered her voice. “He’s a really great guy.”

  “I know.” Okay, apparently at least one member of the bridal party knew she’d spent the night with Logan. Interestingly, the brunette didn’t sound the least bit bitchy or jealous. But that didn’t mean the rest of the world needed to know her business. She shot a glance at Kady. “Can we not talk about this now? I don’t need my brother or the other two Amigos getting wind of it.”

  “Sure.” Regan smiled. “I think they’re all going to be plenty busy today.”

  Julie stopped between them and looped her arms around both their shoulders. “Hey, there are no secrets among friends.”

  Sophie’s heart tripped a little at the offhand gesture and comment. Friends. After five days of interacting with them, she could actually see herself becoming friends with these women.

  “Now let’s go get some food,” Julie said. “I’m hungrier than a badger with a hangnail.”

  After breakfast she ran up to her room to grab her stuff and then headed to the bridal suite. In one hand she held the garment bag containing her bridesmaid’s dress. In the other she clutched a bag containing her underwear, shoes, jewelry, and toiletries. The net effect being she had no hands free to knock on the darn door. From inside the suite came sounds she could only describe as chaos. Chatter, laughter, music, and a hair dryer.

  She put her mouth close to the seam where the door met the frame and called, “Hello!”

  Miraculously, somebody heard her. A woman Sophie didn’t recognize opened the door, and then Julie appeared wearing a robe, a few huge Velcro rollers in her hair, and a big, relieved smile. She reached over and swept Sophie into the room.

  “Oh, thank God, sweetie. I was beginning to think alien abduction. Come on over this way.” Julie lifted the garment bag and tote from Sophie’s fingers and passed them to the woman who’d opened the door. “Marisa is one of the event coordinators. She’ll put your things in the closet ’til you’ve gotten your hair and makeup done. But first”—whirlwind Julie paused for breath and took the mimosa Marisa handed her—“this is for you. Now, come stand right here.” She positioned Sophie in front of a curtained window and waved a woman with a large camera over. “Before picture,” she explained and then a flash went off in Sophie’s face.

  “Oh,” she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots dancing in front of her eyes. “Okay. Thanks.”

  Kady came over and nudged her shoulder. “Girl, you earned that.” She pointed to the mimosa. “Dinner last night went smooth as ice. Colt and I can’t thank you enough for keeping your mom and dad civil. Heck, better than civil. They actually looked happy every time I glanced over.”

  “They are happy. Despite all their differences they have one important thing in common—they love their kids. They’re thrilled for you and Colt, and determined to play nice and enjoy the wedding.”

  “Oh God, that’s a relief. You’re a miracle worker, Soph.” Kady’s chin trembled. “I think I might cry.”

  Regan and Christine stepped over, both in various stages of hair and makeup. “No waterworks,” Regan said firmly. “If any of you start crying, I’ll start crying, and I refuse to walk down the aisle with tear tracks marring my makeup.”

  Sophie couldn’t hold back a giggle. “For some reason, I wouldn’t have pegged you as the sentimental type.”

  Regan pretended to glare. “Well I am. I cry at weddings. Don’t spread it around.” Then she grinned. “We all have our little secrets.”

  “Not me,” Christine said proudly. “No secrets anymore. Want to know who rocked my world last night?”

  Kady put her hands over her ears. “No. I’m not listening to you. La. La. La.”

  Christine pulled Kady’s hands away from her ears. “Your brotherrrrrr,” she teased in a singsong voice. “First he swept me into his arms, then he tossed me on the bed, and then I got my hands all over that fine ass of his, and—”

  Kady clamped her hand over Christine’s mouth. “Sophie, I hereby apologize for any UN-seemly and highly IN-appropriate comments I may have ever dropped which hinted at your brother and I having a sex life. I see now how very wrong that was.”

  “Come on, mouthy.” Regan took Christine’s arm and tugged her back to the hair stations set up across the room. “He’s not my brother, and I want to hear all the details.”

  “I’ll bet you do,” Christine said, then turned and stuck her tongue out at Kady as Regan led her away. “First he kissed me, and then…”

  As they walked away, Christine’s voice faded. Sophie was half tempted to follow along and hear the rest. Tyler wasn’t her brother either. Instead she grinned and said, “Something tells me this is going to be one wild wedding reception.”

  “Damn right, it is,” Julie agreed. “But we gotta get through the wedding first. Go on over there to the last station. The redhead there is named Elise, and she’ll get you all fixed up. Then we’ll dress, help Kady dress, pose for some after photos and group shots, and by the time we’re done with all that, it will be time to take this show on the road.”

  Sophie made her way to Elise’s station in a slight daze. A couple hours from now her brother would be married—something he’d sworn he’d never do. She and tough, smart, slightly intimidating Kady Dresco would be sisters, and she didn’t feel at all intimidated anymore. Fate worked in strange, amazing ways sometimes.

  Also amazing? The way she looked after two hours of being styled and groomed like an America’s Next Top Model contestant. By the time she stepped into the bedroom to zip herself into her short blue strapless bridesmaid gown, she barely recognized herself. Her hair had enough spray to deflect a baseball, but Elise had managed to transform her simple bob into loose, face-framing waves. Smoky eyeliner and soft plum-colored shadow turned her boring brown eyes mysterious and sultry. Tinted gloss gave her lips a pink, just-been-kissed pout. Who knew she had a pout? A sexy one, too.

  For one fanciful moment, while she stared at her reflection in the bedroom mirror, an image of Logan materialized at her side. He smiled down at her as they exchanged vows to love each other forever. A disembodied voice said, “You may kiss the bride.” Her pulse raced. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. Logan took her in his arms, slowly lowered his mouth to hers and—

  “Don’t leave us in suspense!” Kady called from the other side of the closed bedroom door. “Get out here and show us the finished product.”

  She blinked herself back to reality, laughed a little self-consciously in the empty room, and made a mental note to schedule an appointment for a makeup overhaul when she got home.

  The other girls were deep in the midst of the beautification process by the time she stepped back into the main room. Kady looked up at her from beneath an intricate, partially assembled updo and smiled. “Woo, Sophie, check you out! I knew you’d kill in that dress. Hold on, I want to get a picture.” She hopped up and ran to a luggage-sized purse, then dug around for her camera. Instead, she pulled out a white index card. “Oh, shoot.”

  “What?” Julie prairie-dogged up over the top of her vanity. “What’s wrong?”

  Kady frowned at the card. “Probably nothing, but Colt and I wrote our own vows, and I just realized I still have his. I wonder if he needs this to, you know, review again before the big moment.”

  “Want me to have someone run that little old cheat s
heet over to him?” Julie asked.

  “I’ll do it,” Sophie volunteered. “I’m good to go.”

  Kady smiled and handed her the card. “Thanks. And while you’re over there, scope out the scene because I expect a full report. If any of those boys has corrupted my sweet, innocent groom with cheap liquor and fast women, I need to know.”

  Sophie took the index card, and then posed so Kady could get her picture. “I’m on it. Back in a few.”

  Colt’s groom’s suite was a few floors down at the end of a hall. She knew she’d found the right place because the door was open and room service waiters were wheeling carts laden with dirty dishes out. Clearly, she’d missed brunch. She stepped to the side to allow the room service carts to pass, and spotted Colt and Logan standing just outside the door, deep in conversation. Her insides did some kind of fancy arabesque at the sight of Logan all handsome and polished in his tux.

  Deciding to surprise him, she stayed close to the wall as she closed in on the men. Colt’s back was to her and her brother’s frame blocked her from Logan’s view. She sneaked up behind Colt and raised her arm to tap him on the shoulder with the note card when she overheard him say, “…and I can’t thank you enough for taking Sophie under your wing these past few days. Kady and I made bets she’d hide in her room the entire week, but thanks to you, she actually participated. I know you were crushed with work, so the fact that you found the time to befriend her means a lot to me.” Colt paused and touched his coffee cup to Logan’s, while her heart crumbled. “You went above and beyond the call of duty.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was on the tip of Logan’s tongue to tell Colt he’d had the best week of his life hanging out with Sophie, to admit he planned to convince her they should hang out on a permanent basis—for the rest of their lives—but a strangled sound interrupted. Colt turned, and just beyond him, Logan saw Sophie standing in the hall, holding a note card.

  His first thought was that she looked beautiful. The next, more urgent and overriding realization was that something was wrong. Huge, wounded eyes stared out from an alarmingly pale face.

  “Hey, Sophie,” Colt said. “What brings you down—”

  Sophie held the note card out in a shaking hand. “Your vows. Kady thought you might need them. You”—her attention shifted to Logan and her eyes narrowed—“can consider your duty done. I hope the time we spent together wasn’t too boring for you, but the good news is, you don’t need to waste another second on me.”

  With that, she spun and stalked off.

  Duty done? What the hell was she talking about? His mind replayed the conversation he’d been having with Colt before they noticed Sophie and his gut tightened. Oh shit…

  “Sophie!” He sprinted after her, hooked her elbow, and pulled her around to face him.

  She struggled out of his grasp and slapped at him. “Don’t even. Get your hands off me. Don’t ever touch me again.”

  In his peripheral vision he saw Colt rush up and then heard his best friend’s shocked, “Sophie, what the fuck…?”

  “That would be me,” she practically spat, and pulled away. “The duty fuck. Ask your friend.” She raked Logan with a look that suggested he’d crawled out of a drainpipe. “You”—she pointed at Logan—“Stay. Away. From. Me.”

  He considered himself a strategic thinker, but right then and there, strategy went out the window, and all he could think to do was tell her everything, immediately. “Sophie, wait. You’ve got the wrong impression. Okay, yes, I originally sought you out as a favor to Colt, but it stopped being a favor somewhere between racing through the sprinklers and waking up in your bed. And it’s a hell of a lot more now. I know what you think you heard, but I need you to listen to me, and trust me, because—”

  “You’re a liar.” With that, she rushed off in a whirl of blue silk.

  “Fuck it, Sophie, stay put for one second and let me explain. I screwed up and I’m sorry. I should have told you everything days ago.” She didn’t so much as pause, so he started to chase after her, but his best friend’s fist in the middle of his chest stopped him.

  “I’ll repeat, what the fuck is going on?” Colt pushed him into the wall and then closed in until he was right up in Logan’s face. “Talk fast because I’m about three seconds from inflicting serious bodily harm here.”

  “I love her. Sophie. I’m in love with Sophie.” Saying the words aloud to Colt lifted a weight he hadn’t realized had become so heavy.

  “Christ.” Colt stepped back, groaned, and rubbed his hand down his face. “She’s my sister, man.”

  “I’m painfully aware. Look, kick my ass if you have to, but I didn’t plan this. God knows I never intended to drop the news on you hours before your wedding, but it’s true.”

  “Well, obviously she doesn’t feel the same way because…” Logan could practically hear his friend replaying their interrupted conversation in his head. Colt scrubbed his face again and said, “Oh, shit.”

  “Yeah, shit,” he agreed and sank down the wall until he sat on the floor.

  On the opposite wall Colt did the same. “Want me to talk to her? Explain that when I asked you to look after her, that wasn’t code for—Jesus—being your pimp. Or hers—”

  “No.” He shook his head and then thumped it against the wall behind him in an effort to kick-start his brain. “What she overheard was bad. She pinned me down at Spago and asked me, point-blank, if you’d bribed me to babysit her. I told her no, because I didn’t want to get you in trouble—or maybe because I already sensed there was more to it, for me, than that—but I didn’t level with her. I thought I’d made the right decision, at the time, but it turned out to be a huge mistake, not being honest. The irony is, just last night I told my board of directors to find another CEO.” He laughed at the timing. “I agreed to stay on as president, but I realized my role needed to change if I expected to find time for a personal life. I wanted the freedom to relocate to Los Angeles—or wherever—to be with her…a woman who now thinks I’m the kind of man who would toy with her for a week as some kind of favor to her brother.”

  Colt blew out a breath and then stared at the ceiling. He rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes, then blinked. “Why didn’t you just tell Sophie how you feel about her?”

  “I planned to talk with her after the wedding, but my feelings have been strongly implied. I assumed she knew. She ought to know.”

  “Dude, women are intuitive creatures, but when it comes to love, they need to hear the words. ‘Strongly implied’ does not cut it.”

  “In case you missed it, I just begged her to trust me and listen to me—”

  “I’m not taking her side,” Colt said, “and I’m not taking yours either. I’m just saying.” He pulled himself to his feet and then kicked Logan’s heel. “If I’d relied on my assumptions, Kady would not be about to become Mrs. Colton Brooks.”

  Okay, message received. Good to know he and Colt were on the same page, because he hadn’t planned on giving up. Logan forced a smile and stood as well. “That’s how you think she’s going to refer to herself. Seriously?”

  “That’s how the holiday cards will be signed. Mr. & Mrs. Colton Brooks. Mark my words.”

  “Yeah right. I bet you a grand right here and now the holiday cards are signed, The Dresco-Brooks, and another grand says you’ll be the one signing them.”

  “You’re gonna owe me two thousand bucks.”

  “What’s a couple thousand between family?”

  “Family? Jesus. Don’t get ahead of yourself, McCade. And don’t jack things up with my sister, or I will have to kick your ass.”

  …

  Stupid. Stupid. How could you have been so stupid?

  Sophie gave herself five minutes to hide in her room and bawl her eyes out. Now everything made sense. The way he’d cajoled her into attending the Spago dinner that first night. The way he’d stuck by her side the entire evening. The afternoon of the scavenger hunt. The climbing expedition. All that t
ime she’d been slowly but surely falling in love with him, he’d merely been keeping a promise to her brother. She was nothing more than a favor.

  New Sophie? What a joke. All the makeup and sexy underwear in the world didn’t change a thing. She was still the same shy, awkward, uninteresting person she’d always been, just more pathetic for actually believing Logan had found her fascinating. Lesson learned. Painfully and indelibly.

  When she could inhale without her breath hitching on the cold, jagged shards of her shattered heart, she washed the mascara tracks off her cheeks and did her best to hide the evidence of her meltdown. No way could she return to the bridal suite looking like the walking wounded. Doing so would only arouse concern and lead to questions. She didn’t feel anywhere near ready to discuss the humiliating mistake she’d made, and Kady didn’t deserve that kind of drama on her wedding day.

  She thought she did a decent job of hiding her emotional wreckage behind a smile, but when Julie opened the door, she took one look and said, “Honey, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” A quick glance around the room assured her everyone else was occupied. “I might have had an allergic reaction to the mascara. My eyes started to burn and water. I had to wash it off.”

  “Ugh. I feel your pain. That happens to me, too. I know they’ve got the hypoallergenic kind around here. Elise?”

  The beautician led Sophie to the vanity and repaired her makeup in no time. The woman was a magician. No one would guess she’d been crying her eyes out a few minutes ago.

  A voice shouted, “Okay girls, here I come,” from the bedroom. The double doors opened and Kady stepped out. All the chatter in the room stopped, and a collective gasp filled the silence.

  Kady lifted her hand and touched her veil. “Somebody say something.”