Kennedy blinked furiously, sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “Thank you so much.” She wrapped his mom in a hug. The embrace lasted for a long time. As they broke apart, Kennedy added, “I don’t have a lot of friends, so this means more than I can say.”
“You have a friend in me,” his mom replied.
Maverick kept his back to the women as he dried his hands on a dish towel. If he looked at Kennedy now, he was afraid he’d fall into friendship with her, too.
She made it easy.
Chapter Nine
Five days until the wedding
The smell of roasting marshmallows should be made into a candle. Actually, it probably was, and Kennedy made a mental note to find one. She’d think of tonight, and the ranch and wedding, whenever she lit it. Nothing beat an in-person cookout, though, and she stuffed her mouth with her second s’more.
“Do you know something I don’t?” Andrew asked from beside her.
She frowned at him, not understanding why he’d ask that.
“You’re eating that like Hershey bars are about to become extinct.”
“Shut up,” she said around a mouthful of deliciousness.
“I’m not judging, just don’t want you to bite off a finger.”
She waved her hand at him. “All here, Mr. Stunt Double slash Dance Therapist.”
“Andrew, hello again,” a man said, coming to stand next to them.
“Hi,” Andrew said. “Kennedy, this is Nathan and his wife, Jacqueline. They’re friends of Reed’s parents.”
Kennedy quickly rubbed her knuckle over the corner of her mouth. She hoped she didn’t have marshmallow or chocolate there. “Hi.” Again no Australian accent from Andrew.
“Your brother told us some great stories earlier,” Nathan said. “We’ve never met a bounty hunter in person before, and he had us in stitches.”
Oh my God. It took every ounce of strength she had to keep her expression neutral. So Andrew was her brother now, in addition to her work partner? Had he stuck to their original boyfriend-girlfriend plan at all? Probably not, given his crush on Liam. And bounty hunter? Bounty hunter! He’d obviously decided to take improvisational acting another step further, much to her dismay. “That’s Andrew, always telling stories to make people laugh.”
Andrew put his arm around her. “Don’t worry—I didn’t tell them the one about your ex.” He turned his face away from hers, cupped his hand around his mouth, and half-whispered, “Talk about funny.”
“Oh, you have to tell us now!” Jacqueline’s eyes widened in interest.
Kennedy slapped her brother on the chest. “Andrew, I thought your job was confidential.” He just loved making her the butt of his jokes, didn’t he? And how in the world was she going to keep track of his different personas? She made a mental note to steer clear of all guests. Or maybe come down with a debilitating case of laryngitis.
“Nate and Jackie aren’t going to tell anyone,” he said back with a wide grin, “are you?”
“Our lips are sealed,” Jackie promised.
Kennedy would like to seal Andrew’s.
“Long story short,” Andrew started, “I’m waiting for her ex when he gets home from work, and when he tries to run, I grab him before he’s even hit the sidewalk. My car is parked right there at the curb, back door already open like I had it all planned.” He winked at Nate and Jackie. “Not my first rodeo, ladies and gentlemen. So, he puts up zero fight since he knows me, and knows there’s only one way this ends. Still, I have to follow protocol, so I lay him down on the back seat where I can cuff him. He asks if that’s necessary and I tell him it is. Then I ask him to bring his ankles to his butt. He’s barely stretched when he argues, ‘That’s as far as I go! You think I do yoga?’”
Nate and Jackie laughed.
“It gets better. Eventually I get him handcuffed and drive him to jail. Since we have history, I feel inclined to ask him if there’s anyone I should call. I park the car and before we get out he says, ‘yeah, my sister.’ I didn’t know he had a sister, so I say, ‘no problem, what’s her name?’”
Andrew paused (for dramatic effect, no doubt) and pulled his metal skewer out of the fire, his marshmallow burned to a crisp. “I look at him over the seat, and he’s staring at me with a straight face when he says, ‘Anita Weiner.’”
Everyone cracked up, even Kennedy. She had to hand it to her best friend—she didn’t know where he came up with this stuff.
“Seriously?” Nate asked.
“Seriously.” Andrew gave Kennedy his marshmallow. She took it without a second thought to make one final s’more.
The couple saw someone else they knew and walked away with smiles on their faces. No doubt they’d be sharing that story a time or two over the course of the week. Kennedy bumped Andrew’s shoulder. “I love that you make people happy, but I hope you can keep all your personas straight.”
“Piece of cake.” Andrew playfully nudged her back.
She looked at their beautiful surroundings. Spread out around the large fire pit were white Adirondack chairs and small tables with benches. There were maybe fifteen people enjoying the firelight and sweet treat, each person receiving their own s’mores kit in a brown paper bag. A couple dozen kits remained for guests who ventured over later. Unfortunately, she’d yet to see Reed or receive a text from him.
Across the way, Liam gave a chin-up to Andrew. Andrew had been right about the man of honor—he was very attractive. And by all appearances, as interested in Andrew as Andrew was in him.
“I hoped Reed and Elle would be here,” she half whispered. “With it being so dark, now would be a good time to try to talk to him without any notice.”
Andrew lifted his chin back in Liam’s direction, paying her no attention.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“What? Sorry.”
“Never mind. Go on,” she said. “Go have fun with your new BFF.”
“I have only one BFF and you know it.”
She did know that. “Don’t forget your accent,” she whispered.
“I won’t.” He handed her his s’mores bag and strode away. This was another reason they got along so well—she had the sweet tooth and he had the salty one.
“Hey, Kennedy.”
She turned to find Hunter on the other side of her. “Hey.”
“Two bags?” he teased, nodding at her hands. “Don’t tell me this is your first time having s’mores.”