“Mm.” It took me a second to register Steph was looking over my shoulder, offering a pleased hum. Her eyes went down to the floor before backing up again as she bit her lip. Apparently, she had seen something pleasing, and I wondered if her fiancé had come to crash our party and take her away from me.
Slowly and not very gracefully, I looked behind me and felt the shot I’d just consumed threaten to resurface.
“That man is so good looking,” Stephanie said happily.
Swiveling back around, I tried to bring her face into focus. Placing my hand on the bar, I closed my eyes and prayed that I wouldn’t throw up.
“You’re married.” Again, I slurred.
“Not yet,” she corrected, giving me a nudge, and it took all I had in me not to tumble backward off the barstool. “Looking is okay as long as I don’t touch or act on impulse, and that man is worth looking at.”
She didn’t have to convince me. Landon Layne painted a real pretty picture without even trying. Rugged, hardworking, strong, and the confidence he offered. A firefighter-slash-construction worker, too, he was the kind of guy you just knew without a doubt one night in his bed would change your life forever. The man had to be one of the sexiest guys to walk this earth. He could wear a pair of jeans and cowboy boots better than any other man I’d ever seen. The dominant way he overpowered any space, you almost didn’t have to look to know he was there. There was this heaviness, this presence that filled a room the moment he stepped into it. I had felt it over and over, from the first day he showed up at one of our family’s many cookouts with Mike at his side. I cursed and praised Mike silently every day for bringing him around. Praised because, again, the man was yummy and so much fun to look at. Okay, stare at and fantasize about, but hey, a girl can’t help it. The cursing came to point in the same category, because again the fantasies only went so far before a girl needed to live them out. And I needed to, like really needed to have them come true.
“You seriously need to sample that and then give me all the details after you’re done with him.”
What if I was never done with him? A sample would never be enough.
“He’s coming this way.”
The room was spinning a little, my lips were numb, and through it all, I suddenly felt like dancing.
Wait, what did she just say?
“Chloe.” My body grew rigid, and I knew my eyes were the size of saucers. It would explain why Stephanie was grinning wider than before, doing her best to hold back her laughter. “You having a good time?”
Remain calm. Who was I kidding? I was an idiot when it came to this guy, which was why I normally kept a distance.
Turning around ever so slowly, I did my very best to stay upright. Face-planting on the floor at his feet or, worse, puking on him would be humiliating.
“Hi.” I went for simple. You can do this. I pressed my lips in a tight line and chanted inside my own head, Do not puke, please do not puke.
“Hi.” He chuckled and lifted his beer to his lips. “How many of me are there, Chloe?” Squinting, I went for a sarcastic eye roll, but truth be told, he was right. I wasn’t sure which image before me was actually Landon and which was a figment of my drunken haze.
“If only it were possible to have a ménage à trios with multiple Landons.” I sighed, and then it hit me. I meant to only think the words, but alcohol seemed to make me loose-lipped. Stephanie laughed, and Landon arched a brow. Yep, I so said that out loud. Kill me now.
“Is that so?” His deep chuckle felt like a kick to my confidence.
“What, you don’t think you could handle me?” Crossing my arms over my chest, I knew without a doubt I was setting myself up for more disappointment, but the problem was drinking made me say and do things I normally would shy away from. I felt more confident, and that was a dangerous game. “I’m not so innocent when you get me behind closed doors, Landon. In fact, I think I just may be more than you know what to do with.”
I would climb him like a tree, dry humping him along the way, of course. What in the hell was wrong with me? Again, he chuckled, and I wondered if I said that out loud, too.
“Come on, kid.” And there was the verbal kick to my pride. Kid. “I think it’s time to get you home.”
Nope, a deep dark hole in the ground would be good enough. A cave, maybe? One I could live in for the rest of time. Because I planned on hiding there forever, so I never had to face the fact that I was just dismissed by the one guy who had played the leading role in almost all of my dirty dreams over the last few months.
How would I ever face him again?
Kid.
Chapter One
Chloe
My hands shook as I gripped my arrangement of lilies just a little tighter, a bouquet that matched every other bridesmaid and closely resembled that of Maddison’s larger one. To my left was Landon in his tux, looking all GQ and mouthwatering, which was the exact root of my nervous energy. It would seem
