My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

by Erin Nicholas

  Wow, that was cold. Paisley clearly didn’t expect Tori and Andrew to be a part of each other’s lives going forward. Was she right that they were friends just because there hadn’t been a lot of other options in their little town, or were they tight the way Tori believed? Josh had no idea. But he did know that keeping Tori occupied for the next several days sounded like a hell of an idea. Regardless of his feelings for Tori, Andrew was getting married and he needed to have his attention on Paisley. If he was getting cold feet, well, he needed to figure that shit out. And that was on him to work through. Not Tori. And certainly not Josh.

  “I’m in,” he said.

  “Good,” Paisley said, almost seeming as if she’d expected his cooperation.

  Josh fought a smile. He wondered how often, if ever, people told Paisley no.

  “You are hereby invited to any and all wedding activities,” she said. “Standing invitation to be wherever Tori is.”

  “Sounds perfect to me.” It really did. He didn’t give two shits about Andrew. But he did care about Tori, and being enemy number one of the bride was not going to be a very fun place to be for her. Josh could make that all better.

  “And speak of the devils,” Paisley said, focusing on something behind Josh. “I swear, that’s the last time they go off alone together.”

  Josh turned to find Tori and Andrew coming into the ballroom together. Tori looked dazzling. She was the one pop of color in a roomful of black and white and dark blues and purples. Everyone was wearing a dark suit or a dress in a dark color. Tori’s red dress with the sequins that caught the light and sparkled looked like a jewel.

  Andrew was stopped by a cluster of people in the doorway. He smiled and shook hands, looking like the perfect host. Tori, on the other hand, frowned and tugged at the waistline of her dress as if adjusting something uncomfortable.

  Josh took a step in that direction, but Paisley put her hand on his arm, stopping him. “He’ll be over in a minute.”

  Right. The princess didn’t go to people. They came to her.

  And sure enough, Andrew was already extracting himself from his guests and starting for Paisley. He left Tori behind, adjusting the neckline of her dress and looking like she was trying to itch a spot between her breasts without anyone noticing. Well, Josh was noticing because he wasn’t taking his eyes off of her. For the next few days.

  Josh started in her direction again. He didn’t care how Andrew and Paisley worked. He was going to Tori. He passed Andrew on his way to her and didn’t even make eye contact with the other man. He was leaving Andrew in Paisley’s hands now.

  Tori saw him when he got halfway across the room. Her face broke into a huge smile and Josh felt his heart thunk hard against his sternum. That was all he needed to see. If he could keep that look on her face through all this wedding stuff and weirdness with Andrew and Paisley, then he’d feel like he’d done a very good thing.

  “Hey,” he said, not stopping until he was standing as close as Andrew had been. And there was no alcove or shadows hiding them.

  “Hi.”

  Then she shocked him by taking his hand, tugging him close and going up on tiptoe to kiss him. And it wasn’t a short, sweet press of her lips to his. She took the lapel of his jacket in her fist and kissed him. In the middle of the ballroom, in front of all of Paisley’s guests, in front of Andrew.

  The heels she wore put her two inches closer to his mouth and Josh appreciated the hell out of that.

  After a moment, he lifted his head, not even close to being done, but not willing to make all of his displays of affection quite this public. “You look amazing,” he told her gruffly. Sincerely.

  “Thank you. I’m so glad you’re here.” She was still gripping the front of his jacket, as if she had no intention of letting go. Maybe ever.

  Fine with me.

  See, it was those kinds of thoughts that should worry him. Not only because he and Tori had really just met, but even more now since Paisley had pointed out that Tori probably wasn’t the type to pack up her life and move it to Louisiana. Tori was comfortable in Iowa. Even if she shouldn’t be like an old pair of slippers to Andrew, maybe Iowa, or her farm, or whatever, was her old pair of slippers. Maybe she was the old-slippers-at-night kind of girl rather than a…new-dancing-shoes-every-weekend kind of girl.

  Josh didn’t know her well enough to know. Not that Tori and Paisley were especially close either, but he had to assume that hearing about Tori from Andrew, or even just knowing Andrew’s background, would lead Paisley to some accurate assumptions.

  “I’m glad you’re happy to see me,” he told her. Very honestly.

  She widened her eyes. “Are you kidding? Of course I am. This way I have one person here who likes me.”

  He laughed. “I’m the only one?” But he noticed her serious expression and dropped his smile. “Really? What are you talking about?”

  She grimaced. “Apparently kissing the groom is a good way to get labeled a pariah.”

  “Come on.”

  “Seriously. And then the red dress…” She sighed. “I’m kind of messing everything up.”

  “What about the red dress?” He leaned back to take another good look at it. Yeah, he still thought it was sexy as hell.

  “You didn’t notice?” she asked.

  “Notice that you look fucking amazing? Yeah, I definitely did.”

  Her face relaxed into a smile. “I’m glad you think so. But I’m kind of…bright.”

  “So?”

  She glanced around. “You didn’t notice that everyone else is in dark colors? Except for Paisley, of course. She’s the one who’s supposed to stand out.”

  Josh looked over to where the bride was talking earnestly to her fiancé. “Well, it’s hard to miss Paisley,” he said, looking back to Tori. “But you look amazing. They didn’t tell you about the dress code?”

  Tori lifted a shoulder. “I was just supposed to know, I guess. I never buy cocktail dresses. So, I really just grabbed something I liked and didn’t think anything more about it.”

  “Fuck ’em.”

  She looked up at him. “You really didn’t think anything about me wearing bright red amidst all of this, did you?” she asked.

  “Not really.”

  She smiled. “Because you’re used to being around people who are…vibrant and don’t mind extra attention.”

  He laughed at that. “You might have something there.” He hadn’t really thought about it, but he didn’t really blink at someone doing something that stood out from the crowd. Everyone he spent any significant time with did that in one way or another.

  “And people who think nothing of making a scene?”

  “That too,” he agreed. “But you weren’t doing that. You just put on a dress.”

  “Well, Paisley and everyone here doesn’t know that.” Tori actually seemed embarrassed.

  Embarrassed was the last thing this woman should feel about how she looked tonight.

  “There have to be people from back home here, right?” he asked. “Andrew’s friends and family? Surely they know you well enough to know that you weren’t trying to upstage Paisley and that you’d never make a move on a guy who’s engaged. Especially right before the wedding, when you’re here as a bridesmaid.”

  She shrugged. “Well, only one guy from high school is coming for the wedding. The rest of the groomsmen are friends from here.”

  “His mom and dad are here though, aren’t they?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you’ve known them all your life.”

  “Yeah.”

  He reached down and lifted her chin, making her move her eyes from his collar to meet his gaze. “These people know what kind of person you are. They won’t believe that it was a mistake?”

  She sighed. “I’d like to think so. But they don’t really know me,” she said. “I mean, it’s not like we’ve sat around and talked a lot.”

  “I thought you and Andrew grew up together?”

  “
We did. But it was just me and Andrew talking.”

  “No family dinners with his parents? Holidays? Barbecues?”

  She tipped her head. “Is that what you did with your friends’ families?”

  “Sure. And them with us. We hunted and fished. My buddy Garrett’s dad was the one who taught me to pitch baseball. My friend Matthew’s mom taught me to shoot a bow and arrow. I helped Sawyer’s friend, Carter, train hunting dogs for a couple of years. We were all always in each other’s business.”

  She seemed to be taking that all in. She gave a soft sigh. “That sounds nice.”

  “But you and Andrew weren’t like that?”

  “No. When we were little, I always talked him into things that got him muddy or wet, and his mom would get annoyed about him tracking his boots in the house. When we were older, he’d hang out at the farm with me, but his mom thought it was weird that I had so many animals…and stuff…” She swallowed and her eyes went back to the base of his throat where he’d pulled the knot of his tie loose and unbuttoned the top button. “They wanted him to be out for sports and on the debate team and class president and everything. I wasn’t into all of that, so I think she just thought our friendship was strange. And she didn’t really encourage it.”

  There was something about that that really bothered Josh. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it made him like Andrew even less. “What kind of stuff?” he asked.

  She looked up. “What?”

  “You said she thought it was weird you had so many animals…and stuff.” He gave her a grin that had gotten phone numbers out of more than a few women over the years. “What stuff? You can tell me.”

  Tori shook her head. “You don’t really want to know.”

  “Oh”—he reached out and snagged two glasses of champagne, handing her one—“but I do.”

  “You’re going to get me drunk so I’ll spill my secrets?” she asked, smiling even as she asked.

  “Hey, I’m not driving tonight. We can get totally lit up. As long as we can make it upstairs.” He assumed her room was upstairs.

  “Oh, you’re not driving back to Autre tonight?” She asked it with one brow up as she took a sip of champagne.

  He grinned and knocked back half the glass at once. “I’m not. I told you—well, and my family—that I intend to stay glued to your side for the next several days.”

  She nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess you did.”

  He leaned in and put his lips next to her ear. “And I’m happy to try other methods of persuading you to tell me everything about you.”

  He felt the little shiver that went through her and grinned with satisfaction as he leaned back.

  “Well, you can give it your best shot.” She tipped her champagne glass back and swallowed the rest of the contents in one gulp. Then she further stole his heart by reaching for two more from the next waiter.

  Josh laughed, took a glass, linked his fingers with hers, and tugged her toward the back patio of the house. He wanted some quiet, but they couldn’t get too far out of sight of the party. These people needed to know that Tori was very much with someone tonight.

  7

  Tori had never been happier to see someone in her life as she had been to see Josh standing in the middle of the ballroom at the Buckworth Plantation.

  She hadn’t been lying when she said he was probably the only person who was glad she was there. Sure, Andrew still liked her, but she was pretty sure the strain she was causing with Paisley was making it harder to be glad Tori was here.

  This dress. Ugh. It was the last thing she’d ever typically wear. For some reason, though, she’d seen it in the store and thought it seemed perfect for a New Orleans cocktail party. It was bright and fun and different. Just like New Orleans.

  Yeah, she’d really miscalculated that one. Elegant parties at plantations were not like the parties in the Quarter. That was for sure.

  Tori let Josh lead her to the big French doors on one end of the ballroom and out onto the huge stone patio at the back of the mansion. She hoped every person in that room was watching them go. Damn right, Josh was real. And damn right, that kiss had been real.

  It had been a long afternoon. Leo had dropped her back at the plantation after the bridal party luncheon was already over. Everyone had been resting and relaxing in their rooms, so Tori had done the same, more than happy to avoid any interactions with the other bridesmaids or Paisley.

  But that meant she’d missed the invitation to have facials with the rest of the bridesmaids. Not that she cared about that, but it was one more way she was ending up left out of things. She was a bridesmaid because of Andrew. But she wasn’t welcome among the bridesmaids and wasn’t included with the groomsmen. It was…awkward.

  Then she’d had to get dressed in what had to be the scratchiest dress she’d ever worn and twist her hair up into an updo that was similar to how she put her hair up underneath the ball caps she wore at work sometimes. This, however, required an exorbitant number of bobby pins that were making her head ache.

  But now Josh was here. And he was giving her a great reason to leave the ballroom without looking like a weird introvert sneaking up to her room to be alone.

  Come to think of it, sneaking up to her room with Josh to very much not be alone sounded like a great idea.

  “You know, we could take these glasses up to my room,” she said, tugging on Josh’s hand.

  He shot her a sexy grin. “Well, I want to talk for a little while.”

  “We could talk up there.”

  He stopped in the middle of the patio. It was quieter out here. The strains of the music and laughter and conversation were only muted background noise now. It was also dark beyond the light cast from the ballroom, but the patio itself, including the stone benches and the near side of the fountain and the many topiary trees, were all bathed in a golden light intermingled with the occasional shadow.

  As Josh moved in close and gave her a hot look that made her toes curl, they stood inside the circle of light like a spotlight. Anyone inside would be able to look out and see them.

  “No, I don’t think we could go up to your room to talk,” he said, his voice low.

  “No?”

  “Talking won’t be the first thing on my mind. And that’s probably a good thing to talk about.” He moved in closer. “I would love to spend the night here with you. But I want to be sure you’re good with it. I’m sure I can find another room if not.”

  Oh, he wasn’t staying in any other room.

  “You can’t ask for another room,” Tori said quickly. “Everyone has to think we’re together. Really together.”

  He nodded. “Okay. I can sleep on the floor.”

  “I can’t make you sleep on the floor,” she said. “You’re here to help me out. I can’t expect you to camp out on the hard floor.”

  He looked like he was fighting a smile. “Okay, then you can sleep on the floor.”

  She lifted both eyebrows. “I’m not sleeping on the floor.”

  “You have a bad back?” He did smile now.

  “I have a great back.”

  “You have a really great front too.” He laughed at his own joke.

  Tori snorted softly. Then leaned in closer and grinned up at him. “There’s no way I would sleep on the floor when there’s a hot, sexy, funny, dangerous bayou boy in my bed.”

  He was still smiling as he bent, a hot, mischievous look in his eyes. “Ah, a risk-taker. I like that.”

  “In certain situations,” she said with a nod. “What am I risking here, exactly though?”

  He lifted a hand to her face. His expression was still playful, but there was a touch of seriousness now. “Me ruining you for all other men.”

  That shot a bolt of heat straight through her. She swallowed. “Yeah. In that case, I’m feeling especially daring.”

  He brushed his lips over hers. Tori started to go on tiptoe to fit their mouths more fully together, but he lifted his head before she could really get into
it.

  “So, let’s go talk for a little bit,” he said.

  The arrow of disappointment was surprising. She sighed. “Okay.”

  Josh laughed. “That bad an idea?”

  “Well…” She shrugged. “No. I guess not.”

  “You’re not a big talker?” he asked.

  “Not unless you have four legs and a tail.”

  “The animals you work on are good listeners?” He pulled her over to one of the stone benches. It was still visible from the ballroom, but from certain angles, they’d be hidden behind a tree shaped like a swan.

  “They think I’m brilliant and funny and incredibly interesting,” she said with a nod. “At least they’ve never said otherwise.”

  He laughed again. “Yeah, you might worry a bit if they start talking back.”

  Wow, she really loved the sound of his laugh. It was a deep, sexy rumbling that seemed to come from his gut. Sincere and full of pleasure. As if he was just loving whatever was going on at that moment.

  After spending an hour or so with his family, that seemed pretty genetic, actually. They all seemed to be really good at enjoying the little moments and details. Sure, they apparently had a legacy of grand gestures and big stories, but it was in the way they teased each other and smiled and relished good food and long-term relationships. It was clear they enjoyed sitting in Ellie’s bar, just being around each other, as much as some people enjoyed special events or elaborate parties. Tori thought about the mansion behind her and the grand ballroom and the woman in a tiara—for fuck’s sake. Yeah, some people needed more to have a good time. But not the Landrys.

  “Okay, what do you want to know?” she asked, turning to face him and tucking one leg under her on the bench. They could talk. But they could do it quickly.

  He looked at her with a soft smile for a long moment.

  “What?” she asked.