Page 11 of Always a Bridesmaid

“Intentional, I assure you.”

She turned to leave, and as he gently grabbed her elbow, it felt as if he’d been electrocuted by a live wire. Chemistry. Strong and potent. More potent than he’d felt in a while. If ever.

She jerked her arm back as if she’d felt it too.

He might rub her wrong, but there were parts of her he could tell he rubbed right. The kind of parts, had she been anyone else, he might be interested in exploring. But he dated only celebs for a reason. They got his world, understood secrecy, had just as much to lose. He didn’t know this girl from a stranger, which was the only reason he could come up with for why he asked, “Bride or groom’s side then?”

She blinked up at him with these bright, emerald eyes sparkling with confusion. “What?”

“Are you a friend of the bride or groom? I assume the groom.”

“Why, because I’m American? I assure you I won’t drop a singley’allorfixin’ to.”

“You’re too uppity for that?” he teased.

Her accent, although American, wasn’t from the Midwest like Wayne’s family. No, it was more refined, not so much as to say posh, but she definitely came from money. Her clothes, clipped words, designer shoes. She was what Jake would call high maintenance. Very unlike the girl he’d met at the airport in an oversized sweatshirt who was throwing barbs at him right and left. Hell, at one point he had been pretty sure she was going to cut off the family jewels.

She lifted a brow, just one and it was cute as hell with those freckles. “Youreally don’t know whoIam?”

“Besides the girl from the airport who cut in front of me?”

“It was you who cut in front of me.”

“If you say so.” He flagged down the bartender and ordered a Scotch on the rocks. “So tell me, Elle, how do you know my sister?”

“Sarah and I have been friends and pen pals since we met at horse camp one summer in Connecticut.”

It was as if a light switch flipped. Sarah talked nonstop about Elle, the cool rich girl from Manhattan who always had the best clothes, the best horses, the best everything—except Henry had never been a fan. Elle sounded like one of those Queen Bee types who wave their wand and the other girls would buzz around to do her bidding.

Sarah wasn’t like the other kids, she was a scholarship kid from across the pond. The way Sarah had told it, Elle had reached down and plucked Sarah from obscurity and into the cool crowd. But not before some mean girl hazing.

“Little Elle Vaughn? So you’re the kid who put bleach in my sister’s shampoo.”

4

“We all do stupid shit when we’re kids,” Jane croaked, her dress suddenly feeling like a corset pulled tight around her waist. This was news to Jane and Jane didn’t like news. To do her job she needed to know all the skeletons in the closet. Apparently, Sarah had been holding back on a few details.

“Stupid shit?” He lifted a brow. “There’s the smart-lipped girl from the airport. I can practically smell the bleach on your hands.”

“What does that mean?”

“One minute you’re telling me to go fuck myself, then the next you’re talking like a bloody debutante.”

“Sorry, it happens every time I have prolonged exposure to assholes.”

He laughed. She wanted to punch him. Then run and find Sarah for a WTF chat about Elle and summer camp. Because it didn’t sound like it had been all friendship bracelets and daisy chains.

According to the extensive dossier, which had been painstakingly compiled from interviews with Sarah, lettersbetween Sarah and the real Elle, and a lot of cyber-searching—some questionable on its legality, by Roxy—and all of which Jane had memorized down to the minute detail, there had been no talk of bleach. And from the anger simmering in Henry’s eyes, he wasn’t the only asshole in the conversation.

Then those pissy slits narrowed even further. “You look different.”

Jane’s palms began to sweat, and she fought the urge to run. Instead, she went chin up, cocked a hip, and held his gaze. “It’s called cocktail attire. I don’t seeyourball cap either.”

“It didn’t match the penguin suit.”

“Mine didn’t match the dress.”

“And your eyes are greener than they were before.”

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