Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
He chokes back another laugh.
“Why is this so funny? Renn got accidentally married in Vegas. Jason married his secretary. You married my best friend. And you somehow think that meeting your soulmate on a plane is wild?” I ask. “It sounds like a pretty normal way to meet a woman, if you ask me.”
“You know what? Valid point.”
“Thank you.” I step into the en suite. “Where is Carys? I need her.”
“My wife is home, and let me reiterate to you for the thousandth time that I don’t like you saying you need her.”
I ignore him and give the room a quick once-over. After my shower, it’s not too messy, but the vanity could use some work. I gather my toiletries and shove them back into my Dopp kit. Then I wipe the counter down with a washcloth. Much better. Still, the suite is missing something …
“Well, for the thousandth time, she was my best friend before she was your wife.”
“Whatever,” he mumbles. “I have a meeting in ten. Give Carys a call. And Tate?”
“Yeah?”
“Ask Kelly if she knows Slater.”
“What—”
Gannon’s laughter fills the line just before he ends the call.
I roll my eyes as I press Carys’s name. As the phone rings, I straighten the pillows on the bed and toss my candy bar wrapper in the bathroom trash. I grab my cologne on the way out and give the pillows a little squirt in case Kelly makes it back to my room tonight. Women usually love a bed that smells like me.
“Hi,” Carys says brightly. “Sorry for all the rings. I couldn’t find my phone.”
“You, Carys Brewer, have done the impossible,” I say, cutting to the chase.
“Oh really? What did I do?”
I open the closet, pull a few things, and lay them on the bed.
“You’ve started to rub off on your husband,” I say, surveying my selections. “The fucker almost has a personality.”
“Be nice, Tate.”
“I’m always nice. But this isn’t about Gannon. I need a favor.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“I need your help choosing something to wear tonight.”
“At least it’s not helping you choose a shirtless picture for Social, I guess.”
I roll my eyes. “You are literally the only woman in the world who finds it painful to look at my shirtless pictures.”
“Because I know the real you, I’ve seen a million shirtless photos of your abs, and most importantly, I’m married to your much hotter, much sexier brother.”
I make a face as I hit the video call button, and she answers immediately.
“What do I wear tonight?” I ask, flipping the screen so she can see my choices on the bed.
“You called me on the way to the airport.”
“So?”
“So how did you get a date in Columbus that fast?”
I swivel the camera, so she sees my face and smile.
“What are you doing?” she deadpans.
“I’m just reminding you who you’re talking to.”
She glares at me. “Turn the camera around and let me pick your clothes so I can get off here.”
“I liked you better before you married Gannon.” I turn the camera around again. “I’m meeting a woman at the restaurant downstairs, if that matters.”
“Of course, it matters. Where are you staying?”
“I’m staying at the Picante hotel. We’re having dinner at Ruma downstairs.”
“Ooh, I love that hotel. Gannon took me to a Picante in Atlanta a few months ago, and we—”
Ugh. “Carys?”
“What?”
“I don’t have much time here, so I need this to be about me.”
“You are seriously a pain in my ass.” She sighs dramatically. “Okay. What kind of vibe are we going for?”
“I want to make her fall in love with me,” I say without thinking.
“Well, you aren’t going to do that with clothes.”
I smirk. “I know. I’ll do that after dinner when she rips your carefully chosen outfit off my body.”
“Oh my God,” she groans.
“But I want to set the stage first. I need to be … irresistible—more than usual.” I wince. “Especially because she doesn’t know she’s meeting me for dinner …”
I cringe at the pregnant pause.
“Excuse me?” Carys asks, her voice a couple of decibels higher than usual.
I understand her shock. When I say it aloud like that, it also sounds like a bad plan to me. But that doesn’t change how it feels inside me because I’m drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Despite her turning me down … she didn’t. Eyes don’t lie.
Twisting the camera to face Carys again, I frown. “I asked her out, and she kinda turned me down.”
“What?” Carys’s eyes go wide before she bursts out laughing. “You got turned down?”
I glare at her. “It’s not funny.”
“What happened? How did you manage to get denied? And why are you meeting her if she said no?”
“She said no, but she didn’t mean it. If I get there and she did mean it, I’ll leave her alone and never talk to her again. But she did let it slip where she would be tonight.”