Page 59 of Make the Play

I inhale sharply, hating that Chase and I agreed on this explanation, and hating even more that it’s based on a fact I’m trying to forget.

“At your wedding.”

Tamara blinks. “Excuse me?”

Charlie snickers, completely unaware that the one-night stand was real, thinking she’s just playing along with the act.

I choose my words carefully. “It just… shifted things. We, uh, we started spending more time together, and it kind of just happened.”

Tamara squints, her mind turning and fitting pieces together, still not entirely buying it.

“So, you’re telling me this one single event—even though I agree, it was obviously the best day ever—made you reevaluate every feeling you’ve ever had about Chase Walton, and instead of strangling him, you decided todatehim? Just like that?”

“Yup! Just like that.”

Lulu nods, stirring her drink absently. “I mean, statistically, if you’re going to fall in love with someone, a wedding is a solid setting for it.”

Tamara shoots her a look, and Charlie presses her lips together to keep from laughing, while cold panic rises in me.

“Who said anything aboutlove?”

Lulu shrugs and sips her drink with a smile.

Before Tamara can launch into round two of her interrogation, Gary appears at the end of the table, balancing a tray of drinks and wearing his usual unimpressed expression.

He sets another lemonade down in front of Charlie, a vodka soda in front of Tamara, and something obnoxiously pink in front of Lulu, all the while muttering about not being a damn cocktail bar.

Then he looks at me with a disdainful frown, sets down a shot of tequila, and slides a single lime wedge next to it like an insult.

“On the house,” he grunts.

I narrow my eyes suspiciously. “Why? You don’t give anything away for free.”

Gary shrugs. “Just figured you might need a little liquid courage, given the situation.”

“Whatsituation?”

He crosses his arms. “The one where that Walton kid called just now and asked me to order another whiskey sour for hisgirlfriend.”

I lurch forward and put my head in my hands, shaking it slowly from side to side. “No. No, no, no…”

Charlie points at the shot, then back at Gary. “Then why the tequila?”

“Because a man pre-ordering a woman her favorite drink is sweet, but a woman needing a drink when she realizes whatthatmeans? That’s tequila territory.”

I groan. “This is not tequila territory, Gary.”

Gary lifts a brow. “Kid, your whole damn life is tequila territory.”

Lulu stirs her pink drink, then glances up at me with a completely straight face. “I think he’s suggesting that your life choices are a little questionable.”

“They’re notquestionable!”

“Coulda fooled me.” Gary snorts and then turns back to the bar, grumbling as he goes.

Charlie pats my arm like she’s soothing a grenade. “You should take the shot, Zo.”

With a sigh, I grab the glass and lift it to my lips, holding my breath so I don’t have to smell it. The tequila hits my tongue like a thousand tiny razor blades, burning its way down my throat.

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