Chapter Five

Alex

I stood outside of Lake’s condo in the dark and checked the itinerary on my clipboard with a penlight. Everything was set, but in the morning, I needed to double check that the flower shipment had arrived at the Astonian on time. I should have run over there to take a look at the bouquets myself, but if I hadn’t taken Lake to all her appointments, she would have skipped them and brewed beer instead.

A cold gust blew me against the side of the building, and I dug closer into my coat. I checked my phone again. I was the last one to leave The Treehouse, yet neither Lake nor Melissa was here yet. I tapped my screen to send yet another text message when headlights lit up the dark parking lot.

Lake climbed down from Walsh’s truck and slammed the faded yellow door. She sauntered over to me, her heels slung over her shoulder and her short blond hair sticking up in the back.

“Seriously? What did you do? Go park at the lake?”

“Of course not.” Another car pulled into the parking lot, and Lake flashed me an evil grin. “Melissa and Anthony beat us there, so we had to make do with the Astonian parking lot.”

Sure enough, Melissa hopped out of the newly arrived car and blew a kiss at Anthony in the driver’s seat before skipping over to us.

“Lord, the two of you are worse than teenagers whose parents left them alone for the weekend.”

“Yep.” Melissa pulled a bottle of wine out of her purse and waved it in the air. “I snagged this before we left the restaurant.”

“That’s my girl.” Lake unlocked her door and led us all inside.

I kicked my shoes off and marched straight to the fridge. My stomach had been too upset at dinner to eat, but after hours of wine and only a handful of crackers for lunch, I needed food. I pushed aside several to-go containers and pulled out some Chinese.

“I’m eating this,” I yelled from the kitchen.

Melissa and Lake were already settled on the couch with the wine poured when I made it over with half a container of cold fried rice. I sank into an armchair and propped my feet up on the end table.

“Okay, but I’m going to need a favor.” Lake took a sip of her wine and schooled her face into a neutral expression.

“Um...it’s old Chinese food, so don’t get crazy with the favor business.” I took a bite and swallowed. “That’s not bad, but not great. I’m thinking you could negotiate a ride to the airport.”

“It’s a little bigger than that.” Lake poured another glass of wine. “You should have a drink.”

I took the glass but didn’t drink any of it. “All right, Lake. We all know you suck at delivering bad news, so just get out with it.”

“I don’t suck at bad news.”

“Yeah,” Melissa said from the couch next to her. “You kinda do.”

“What are you talking about?” Lake looked from Melissa to me, honest confusion marring her features.

“The day you discovered the tank filter quit working and all our fish died, you tried to cook us dinner to break the news.” Melissa tucked her feet up under her and nodded at me, a thin smile lifting the edges of her lips.

“What’s wrong with that?”

I choked down a mouthful of rice. “You made fish fillets.”

“That’s all we had in the freezer,” Lake said, slapping at my feet.

“The goldfish crackers are what took it over the edge for me,” Melissa spit out before bending over in a fit of giggles.

“You are both officially the worst best friends ever,” Lake said, nudging Melissa with her elbow. “Which is why I need you to do me this really big favor that I know you’re going to hate, but you’re going to do it anyway, because you love me and I’m getting married tomorrow, so you can’t say no.”

I set the empty rice container on the end table. “Fine. What is it?”

“I need you to keep an eye on Damian while we’re gone.”

My stomach rolled, threatening to send back up the recent intake of cold rice. “That’s going to be a no go.”

“Please, please, please.” Lake climbed into my lap and laid her head on my shoulders so she could beg directly into my ear. “He wants to help out around the brewery while we’re gone, and he’ll need someone to show him around and make him feel welcomed. Plus, he’s staying in the cabin right next door to you.”

I rolled my eyes so hard they practically spun out of my head. “Isn’t that a convenient coincidence?”

“That’s what I thought,” Lake said, batting her eyes at me.

“Why do you torture me like this?” The last thing I wanted to do was spend more time with the guy I’d made a fool of myself in front of and who’d then acted as if I tried to have him whacked.

“Oh, just say yes already so we can get to the heavy drinking and dirty talk.” Melissa winked at me and took another sip of wine.

“Traitor,” I shot back at her. Of course, she was right. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for either of them. “He can cover some of the sales manager duties until I can hire someone else.”

“Thank you!” Lake squealed, jumping back into her own seat. “And maybe you could spend some time with him during the wedding tomorrow since neither of you has a date.”

“Wait.” Melissa set her empty wine glass down. “I thought you were going to bring that business guy who you go out with sometimes. I forget his name. The guy from Denver.”

“Vincent, and he couldn’t come. He has to be in Boulder this weekend. And before you say anything, Lake, that does not mean I’m free to entertain Damian.” I shot her my best angry glare. “I’m going to be very busy tomorrow, and I actually plan to enjoy myself, which I know won’t happen if I have to spend the evening with Mr. Sourpuss.”

“He’s not that bad,” Lake said, batting her baby blues and adding in a pout. “He’s just not used to being around strangers. Walsh said he’s barely left his house since his injury. Can you honestly harbor ill feelings toward a war hero?”

“I don’t harbor any feelings toward Mr. Thorne.” Lie. My lady parts had distinct feelings earlier when I was failing to clean him up. Despite the awful situation, I’d have to be a nun not to appreciate a well-defined body. But that doesn’t make up for him being a rude asshat.

“That doesn’t sound like the Alex who advised just going for it when it came to Anthony and me.” Melissa grabbed the bottle and poured herself another glass of wine.

“That Alex was talking to a hopeless romantic who was bound to fall in love eventually. So why not fall in love with a good-looking, professional athlete?”

“And what would be so awful about falling in love with a successful, rich, American hero?” Melissa hugged a pillow to her chest.

“Because I don’t fall in love.”

Not now, not ever. Because falling in love could only lead to falling out of love. Eventually, it happened to everyone, so the only way to win the game was to never start playing.