Page 41 of The Au Pair Affair

“Lissa,” they said at the same time, scrambling apart to find their respective devices.

Burgess fumbled his out of the cup holder first, letting out a blast of breath when he saw the screen. “Oh, thank God. It’s Wells.” He bolted upright. “What the fuck is he doing calling me at two thirty in the morning?”

Tallulah turned her screen in his direction. “Probably for the same reason Josephine is calling me.” Her pulse was racing now for an entirely new reason. “I hope something isn’t wrong.”

They both answered.

“Hello?”

Josephine’s dear and familiar face beamed back at her, a welcome vision of auburn hair and clever green eyes. “Hey! I knew you’d be awake. Where are you?”

Tallulah shifted guiltily. “Never mind where I am. What’s going on?”

Instead of answering, Josephine shot a perplexed look at someone off-screen, and Wells appeared beside his fiancée suddenly, holding his phone in his hand. “Hold up, hold up.” His lips spread into a cocky grin. “Are you two together?”

“I’m hanging up,” Burgess snapped, doing just that.

“What are you doing together at two thirty in the morning?” Wells asked.

“She needed a ride,” Burgess near shouted from the driver’s side.

Josephine was failing to smother a laugh. “Ohhh. She needed aride, did she?”

Wells and Josephine fist bumped.

“Okay, you two. Very funny. Burgess was gracious enough to put his beauty sleep on hold to come pick me up.” Tallulah turned so that she and Burgess would both be visible on their screen. “Long story short, you’ve got us both. Now what is the meaning of this?”

“Well...” Josephine looked at Wells with heart-shaped eyes. “We finally picked a wedding venue. And the wedding... it feels like it’s really happening now. I got so excited that I had to call and ask you to be my maid of honor. I knew you’d be out and I thought it would be even better—read, funnier—if you were tipsy. Obviously, I’m screen recording this.”

“I’m not that predictable, am I?” Tallulah stared at the screen through a gathering veil of tears. “You’re really asking me to be your maid of honor?”

“Yes.”

A couple of tears popped free and rolled down her cheeks. “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Of course, it’s a yes.”

Something bumped Tallulah’s knee and she looked down to find Burgess had opened the glove compartment. He lifted the manual, shifted some paperwork aside, and found a small pack of tissues, taking one out and handing it to her.

“Thanks,” Tallulah sniffed.

He frowned at her, but it wasn’t an irritable one; it was more helpless than anything.

“I’m fine,” she mouthed at him.

A grunt was his response, surprising no one.

A lightbulb went off above Tallulah’s head and a weird lightness invaded all four of her limbs. “Wait, are you calling Burgess, too, because...”

“Yeah, hey.” Wells coughed into a fist, looking distinctly uncomfortable, but he also seemed grateful for the circles Josephine started rubbing into his back. “Do you want to be my best man, B?”

It was a true pleasure to watch the hulking hockey player do a double take. “Me?”

“Please don’t make me repeat myself.”

Silence landed like a splat.

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