Hannah Spencer was another downside. She had a boyfriend, and she probably hated my guts right about now. We would have to dance and take pictures together. After that kiss we shared in that bathroom I didn’t trust myself enough to be that close to her. Although I would enjoy watching her blush in front of her boyfriend while I whispered something dirty into her ear during the photoshoot.
I ignored Lucas’s texts, even though he could see I read them, and went about my day.
Hours later I glanced at my phone and I saw I had another message.
Unknown: Also, don’t bring a date to the wedding. Hannah will be solo.
Dr. Douchebag probably had to save lives and all that shit, but knowing little Spencer, I suspected she might have told him about the bathroom incident, so I had to ask.
Me: Why?
At this point I saved Lucas’s number. I was already invested in the conversation.
My phone buzzed just a minute after I texted even though he wrote me hours ago.
She broke up with her boyfriend.
Why?
I don’t know. Maybe it was a huge-ego-small-dick situation. He seemed like that type of a guy.
I laughed out loud. I even inserted a laughing emoji, but then deleted it without sending it.
Going to Cali wasn’t bad idea. I could check Madison’s progress with the venue.
Party in Vegas?
If I was attending a bachelor party as a best man, I would make sure it was a decadent one.
No. Cali. Not leaving Clem.
Grow a pair, Cole.
We sent each other profanity for a few more minutes. Then I sent him one final text.
Me: I’ll do it.
Ignoring Lucas’s messages, I called my new friend Kieran. It was a first. He usually just found me here. I rarely spend time anywhere else besides my apartment. The kid answered on the first signal.
“Someone died already?”
“Something like that. My sister’s getting married. Remember?”
I might have told him about my sisters. He might have told me about his siblings. It wasn’t a big deal.
“And how is that concerning me?”
“I have to attend a bachelor party. And the wedding. These things usually happen on the weekends.”
“Asking for favors already?”
“Well, I may extend the favor into an invitation, if you are up for a little trip to California.”
Kieran remained silent for a few beats, then he answered.
“You really have no idea what you got yourself into.”
Chapter Twenty
Hannah
I boarded an evening flight to California on Friday, praying that Tyler wouldn’t. Him agreeing to be the best man surprised everyone and made me proud in a way it shouldn’t have. But being proud of him didn’t mean I was ready to face him again. Luckily for me, the plane took off and Tyler was nowhere to be seen.
We landed in the middle of the night. Just as I expected, my father didn’t bother to start the conversation he promised we would have, and I didn’t do it either.
The next morning, we gathered at Clem’s. Madison was the only one missing. She texted she would meet us at the villa and asked for the address. I gave it to her along with the code she had to enter to open the front door.
I knew two of the girls who were coming to the villa. They worked with Clem at the bakery she opened about a year ago. There was a slightly older woman I didn’t know. She turned out to be the wife of one of Lucas’s colleagues.
The groom to be helped us load the luggage in the cars. He seemed contemplative.
“Relax, Cole,” I patted him on the back and leaned closer. I assumed the girls knew about the baby, but I wasn’t sure. “She’s pregnant, not dying.”
“I know.”
“You don’t look like it.” And then because the curiosity was killing me, I asked. “What are you guys doing tonight?”
“I don’t know. Tyler canceled everything I had planned. He is in charge now.”
“I would be scared if I was you.”
Lucas shrugged. “As long as he doesn’t fly us out to another state, I am okay.”
Not that I could share it with Lucas, but I personally preferred them in another state. Maybe visit Chase at his training camp, wherever the hell that was. They could return after I boarded a plane back to Boston.
At noon, we arrived at Amanda Reed’s villa. The pictures I had seen didn’t do justice to the enormous mansion.
I had ordered lunch in advance, so by the time we looked around and each of us picked a bedroom, the food arrived. We were just lying around by the pool like lazy cats in the sun, when Madison stormed in, looking furious.
“This place is a like a maze,” she complained.
I had only seen Madison in two states up until that moment. Irritatingly calm and collected or openly condescending. She never lost her shit. Never showed any weaknesses.
With a lethal expression on her face, she stomped over to me. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong and yet I braced myself for what was to come out of her mouth. Clem probably sensed me tensing, because she intervened before Madison had the chance to say a word.
“Is everything okay?”
Madison closed her eyes, like she couldn’t bear to look at her younger sister and raised a hand in the air. That’s when I took a good look at her. Her hair was a mess, the makeup smudged. Something had happened. Something bad, by the looks of it.
“I just need a minute,” she said and opened her eyes to look at me. “Where is my room?”
I pointed behind me. “That’s the kitchen. When you reach the hallway turn right and pick whichever bedroom you like.”
She nodded and left as fast as she came.
“Your bedroom is there,” Clem said.
That was true. There were four bedrooms on the right side of the house and four on the left. The others took all four bedrooms on the left side, so I chose one on the right. So I was going to share a wing with Madison. Yay for me.
“She can have my bedroom, if that gets me off of her shit list.”
Half an hour later the bartender I had hired for the evening arrived. He positioned himself on the bar in the kitchen. Every room in that villa had a bar area. Even the bedrooms. Scott was around my age and immediately started flirting with everyone. Clem was the first one to cut him off.
When Madison finally returned an hour later, she looked poised and cold as always. She stretched out on a sunbed, one long leg over the other with her phone in her hands, typing again.
Scott approached her and that was his first mistake. She was sending strong do-not-come-near-me vibes. When he asked her if she would like a drink and called her sweets in the process, the death glare she sent him made me worried I would have to scrub blood from my boss’s floors by the end of our stay. Fortunately for us both, Scott got the hint and focused on the rest of us.
Clem drank the same fruity cocktail I did, sans the vodka. It was my second one and I didn’t usually drink vodka, so I felt my limbs going soft. Leaving the cocktail on the ground beside my sunbed, I told myself I would go easy from that moment on. I didn’t want to get drunk before we even had dinner.
“You are the tamest bachelorettes I had even seen,” Scott teased us when he brought the others their drinks. He made an entire show about pressing a button on some remote control. Seconds later, Beyoncé’s “Naughty Girl” blasted from the speakers that surrounded the pool area.