had gone through the buffet line, loading his plate with a custom-made omelet, sausage links and four buttermilk pancakes, he’d tried to sit next to Kylie. He didn’t want to seem as if he was avoiding her and, truthfully, he liked being near her. But his best friend and the groom, Matt Cooper, had steered him toward the opposite end of the table.
“You must’ve gotten lost last night,” Cooper said right before digging into his own breakfast. “Nobody could find you after we left the cocktail lounge.”
“Hmm,” Drew replied noncommittally as he forked piping-hot eggs into his mouth. He wasn’t going to lie to anyone—especially not to Cooper, who was a former military police sergeant and had just been appointed as the chief of police for the town of Sugar Falls. His friend was too canny for that. And, judging from the smug grin across the guy’s face, he was also too excited at the prospect of exploiting Drew’s possible fall from grace.
“And it looks as though the airlines must have lost your luggage, because you’re wearing the exact same clothes you had on when we saw you last.”
Yep, the cop definitely knew something had happened. But as much as Drew wanted to confide in his friend, he’d promised Kylie that they wouldn’t tell anybody yet. Instead, he shoved a bite of a syrup-drenched pancake into his mouth, trying to avoid answering any more questions.
Drew stole a look down the long table to see how his wife was faring.
Wife.
That sounded weird. Not horrible and scary, he thought. Just weird.
She was seated next to the bride and their friend Mia, the other maid of honor. But unlike Drew, Kylie merely pushed the food back and forth on her plate while her friends talked incessantly around her. She was several feet away from him, but he could’ve sworn he heard her asking the waitress if the soft-serve ice cream machine was working this early in the day.
“So are you excited about the wedding?” Drew asked Cooper, trying to change the subject. But his buddy wasn’t having it.
“Kylie’s being rather quiet this morning,” Cooper said. “That’s kind of unusual for her.”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t know your friends very well.”
“Really? Because you two were thick as thieves last night. I got the feeling you and Kylie were getting to know each other really well.”
Drew gave Cooper his listening expression but still didn’t respond. He found it was the best way to get information out of people. Unfortunately, Cooper was making the same face.
“Here’s the deal,” Drew finally relented. “I don’t remember much about last night, and I wasn’t really myself. So let’s just drop it, okay?”
His friend let out a guffaw before patting him on the back. “Don’t worry, Saint Drew. Your secret’s safe with me. Besides, you could’ve done a lot worse than Kylie.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that whatever is between you and my soon-to-be wife’s best friend is just that—between you two. But I’m still gonna give you a hard time whenever I can.”
“Yeah, you’re an emotional vault, so I know I can count on you for discretion. You don’t talk to anyone about anything.” Sadly, Drew was serious, but he knew that since Cooper had met Maxine, his former-loner friend was starting to open up more. “But what do you mean that I could do worse than Kylie? Like I said, I really don’t know anything about her.”
“Kylie’s a good person.” Coming from Coop, who was suspicious of everyone, that was quite a compliment. “She’s smart as hell and she speaks her mind. Very loyal and protective when it comes to the people she loves. So she dresses a little over-the-top and likes to go out with a new guy every week, but Maxine says she just does that because she was the only girl growing up in a male-dominated household and likes to flaunt her femininity. She’s a real spitfire, but she has a heart of gold.”
Drew chugged his orange juice, trying not to look at Kylie again. Cooper’s assessment pretty much aligned with his own first impression of the woman. At least, what he could remember about it.
“And from the way she’s sitting down there all prim and proper, trying not to stare at you just as hard as you’re trying not to stare at her, I’d say something good definitely happened between you two.”
“And I’d say don’t make any risky bets before you leave the casino today. Gambling on the odds isn’t in your best interests.”
Cooper laughed again, this time drawing the looks of the other twenty or so people crowded around the table.
Drew turned the unwanted attention to his advantage and suddenly announced to the group, “I hate to eat and run, but I’m supposed to be in Boise later today to pick up my nephews. I’ll see all of you in Sugar Falls in a few days for the big weekend.”
He then excused himself and made his way down the table, saying his goodbyes and shaking hands before he got to the person he wanted to talk to the most.
“Ladies,” Drew started, acknowledging both her and her friends, yet Kylie wouldn’t look at him or meet his gaze. She kept shoveling ice cream into her mouth so quickly she would no doubt give herself brain freeze. He wanted to get her phone number or figure out a way for them to contact each other since they still had a lot to talk about.
“Drew,” Maxine Walker said, looking between him and her redheaded friend. “We’ll have to get together as soon as you arrive in Sugar Falls. Cooper tells me you’re bringing your nephews with you and staying at the cabin for the summer.”
“What?” Kylie’s spoon clattered to the floor. “You’re moving to Sugar Falls?”
The suspicion in her eyes made him think she was seriously opposed to the news.
“That’s the plan.” One he didn’t intend to change just because he’d stepped out of character one night and had too much to drink.
“Drew’s from Boise originally,” Maxine explained, probably trying to diffuse her friend’s growing tension. “He just transferred assignments and is going to be the psychologist in charge of the new PTSD unit at Shadowview Military Hospital.”
“But Shadowview is closer to Boise than to Sugar Falls.” What was Kylie getting at? That she would rather him live an hour away so she wouldn’t have to be reminded of him or what they’d done?
“Seriously, Kylie,” their friend Mia spoke up, a quiet and calm voice of reason. “The hospital is only thirty minutes from the cabin.”
“What cabin?” Kylie asked.
“You know, the one off Sweetwater Bend? Where Cooper lived when he first moved to town?” Drew just stood there awkwardly, letting Cooper’s fiancée explain everything he should have told Kylie last night. “It belongs to Drew’s family. He’s going to be living there with his nephews and taking care of them while his brother is on deployment.”
“I had absolutely no idea.” Kylie wouldn’t make eye contact with him, and he decided to get this conversation under control before the woman he’d spent the night with made it obvious to everyone at the table that there was a reason she was acting so uncomfortable around him.
