Page 49 of Wedding Bet

“Feels just like being back home,” I muttered, kissing my money goodbye.

“There,” he said. “I must go to my next appointment.”

“I’m very sorry,” I called to him again as he huffed out through the hotel’s front doors.

“You handled that very well,” one of the workers behind the front desk said as I went back over to the delivery of flowers, which I’d placed on a bellhop cart.

“I thought I might lose a pinky finger,” I said. “Thank you.”

I was tasked with taking the cart full of fresh flowers down the hall and toward the grand ballroom where the wedding and reception were being held. But as I turned the corner into the ballroom, one of the hotel staff, along with Adam at her side, intercepted me.

“There they are! Beautiful,” the staff member said. She took the cart from me. “We can handle it from here.”

Adam was still in his regular clothes. He leaned in to give me a quick hug. “They look amazing. Thank you for handling the florist, Jamie. When I spoke to him on the phone, he seemed like such a sweet man.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, nodding once. “Right. Sweet. He was a very nice guy.”

“I just saw your mom, by the way. She’s with your brother’s wedding party and she looksincrediblealready.”

My heart swelled with pride. Chase and Adam weren’t having traditional groomsmen, even though they’d had various bachelor-style activities leading up to the wedding. But they’d offered to have professional makeup and styling for my mom, and I knew she was going to love it, even if she tried to refuse at first.

“I know she’s going to have a great time. And bawl like a baby, but still.”

Adam squeezed my shoulder. “Thanks again for grabbing the stuff from the florist.”

I knew that if I mentioned the tip, Adam would have arranged to have me paid back in full. But my pride wouldn’t letme mention it. I didn’t want him to have to think about anything else on the morning of his wedding, when he was already swimming in plans and to-do lists.

Helookedserene, though, with none of the nerves that Chase had shown me earlier. “It’s all happening,” Adam said with a smile. “I suppose the next time I see you, I’ll be getting married.”

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” I offered.

“You are free,” Adam said. A moment later, a person carrying multiple different cufflinks came up to him, whisking him off.

I was left to my own devices again, and I had a good few hours to kill before the wedding began. I walked down the street to grab a small coffee and an egg sandwich, since I hadn’t had a chance to get anything yet today. But after I’d fueled up, I was aimless.

I was faced with a few hours of totally free time—something that I rarely had back home, but had a surprising amount of here in Colorado. For some reason, I’d thought that every moment would be jam-packed with things to do—Chase had always been one for adventure, and he’d definitely had a little bit of that with the skiing lessons.

But as I walked around the cobblestone sidewalks this morning, I realized that for the first time all week, I was… lonely.

Lonely, even though I was about to attend my brother’s wedding.

Lonely, even though I’d literally slept right next to the most attractive man on the planet last night.

I walked up and down the street for at least an hour, just watching the world go by. I stopped on a bench for a while. I dipped into a tiny bookstore. I spent almost all of my remaining money on little tourist gifts for Mom and Nicole.

And then all it took was seeing a young couple walking down the street, stopping to kiss and take a selfie.

I realized what felt soofffor me this morning. It was as if everybody had somethinggoing onin life, and I was just… a cheerleader. So many people were in love. Not Landry, but he didn’t even want love to begin with, so it didn’t count. He had a thriving business life and the opportunity to have plenty of fun one-night-stands and hookups.

I was getting older and I had nothing to show for it. By this time in my life, I had always thought I’d havemore.

A house. A marriage. Maybe even a kid.

But I was as free-floating as a snowflake in a snowglobe, just waiting for the world to put me where I belonged.

As I stepped out of the little tourist shop the midday sun was just starting to peek out as all of the morning’s clouds faded away. I squinted into the sunlight and saw a familiar face, and suddenly it was as if everything inside me felt warmer.

“Landry,” I said, a breeze blowing through my hair. “Fancy seeing you here.”

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