Page 21 of Friend Me

8

My vision blurred.Living with Dad during college, I hadn’t played too many drinking games. All I knew was I didn’t understand this one, and I’d already lost.

“Jasmine.”

“Nectarines.”

“Petroleum,” Tyler said with a confident smile.

“Show-off,” Jamila said.

I sniffed my glass. Wine. I knew if I tasted it, it’d taste like…wine. Though I might’ve burned my taste buds off with everything I’d already drunk. I shoved the glass to the far side of my dessert plate. Shit, was that where it belonged? I stole a look at Jamila’s place setting. She’d set her wineglass on the other side of her water goblet. I corrected my mistake. The rehearsal dinner with all of its fancy forks and glasses was way out of my league.

“How’d you learn about wine?” Jamila asked him. “Your parents?”

“No.” He chuckled. “My family is more Shiner Bock than Riesling.”

She set down her glass and leaned forward. “Texas?”

“Dallas, born and bred.”

“You’re far from home, cowboy. Do you miss it?”

“Nah. I love it here. The opportunities. Plus, home was always a little crowded.”

“Tyler comes from a large family. Four brothers and a sister,” Cooper said. “Most of them were college athletes, and one is a pro baseball player.” Cooper could do that, pull up interesting facts about almost anyone at Synergy. He cared so much about the company. So thoughtful and generous.

But when I turned to Tyler, he wasn’t glowing with admiration like I was. He took his glasses off and inspected them, his lips in a tight line.

“Which team?” Jamila apparently hadn’t noticed that Tyler’s happy bubble had burst.

“Minnesota,” he said.

“Mom and Dad must be so proud.”

More tension crept into his jaw. “They are. Though they’d be happier if he played closer to home.”

“They just missed the playoffs this year,” was Jackson’s brother Andrew’s addition to the conversation.

Jackson’s sister Sam dragged up a chair and plopped into it. “Sammy!” Andrew turned to her. “You escaped Bachelor Number Twenty-Two?”

“Why would she think I’d hit it off with a banker?” She tugged her skirt to cover her knees.

“Because she’s tried entrepreneurs, CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, even a couple of trust-funders. She’s getting desperate.”

“I’m only twenty-four. And maybe I’m not interested in partnering up. Now or ever. I introduced him to Nat and snuck off.” She waved her hand across the room where, sure enough, the youngest Jones chatted up a cute guy in an expensive-looking suit.

Huh. I knew there were women like that—Alicia said before she’d met Jackson, she’d been one of them—but it was hard for me to imagine not wanting true love, the kind that made you feel sparks when you touched, the kind that made your toes curl when you kissed.

“You know Mother. She’s always looking to expand the Jones empire, either organically”—Andrew nodded at Alicia at the next table, resting a hand on her belly—“or through acquisition. Besides, what’s the harm? Maybe one of them will be a hidden gem.”

She rolled her eyes. “The only gem I’m interested in is the Ruby programming language. Our mother can keep her white knights and Prince Charmings.”

I jumped when Tyler whispered in my ear. “I think that’s our cue.”

“Our cue?”

He stood and hauled me up by our joined hands. I wobbled and sagged into his side. Whoa. I was more unbalanced than I’d thought.Stupid wine.

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