Unless he’d invited someone.
That thought stopped her dead. He’d said he wasn’t inviting Mia, but he hadn’t said whether he’d have another woman on his arm today. That would ruin her whole plan.
She looked down at the store-bought cupcakes she’d brought, melting in their plastic container, and blew out a breath. Too late now.
The front door was propped open by a rock—typical—and she slipped around it into the living room. Dylan’s house didn’t scream bachelor pad, but it was heavily implied. Instead of art on the walls, there was a vintage beer sign from Camden Yards hanging over a bar cart in one corner. The other walls were mostly covered by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, sparsely populated and organized in no particular way. His furniture was all high-end, though. Too bad he couldn’t be bothered to spruce it up with some decor.
“Dani!” a voice called as she stepped through the back slider, out onto the patio. Cat sat on the edge of Dylan’s kidney-shaped pool in a white bandeau bikini, her hair tucked through the back of one of Josh’s baseball caps. She jumped up and crossed the grass to greet her.
“Hey, Kit Cat.” Dani leaned in for a hug, but Cat pinched the inside of her elbow with her short, sherbert-colored nails.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“That picture you posted of me in the bridal suite, swishing mouthwash and digging under my dress for my garter.”
Oh, yeah. She’d forgotten about that. That post got over a thousand likes. She’d captioned it: Bridezilla #nofilter.
“I was commemorating my best friend’s wedding day,” she said. “It was artsy.”
“Whatever. I hate you but I’m glad you’re here.” Cat hooked her arm through Dani’s and dragged her to a couple of empty lounge chairs. She plopped onto one of them and picked up a plastic tumbler of iced tea.
Josh and Shawn waved to her from the pool, and she waved back, wondering where Dylan was. She’d like to get the awkward hello out of the way and work on pretending things were normal before she made them complicated again.
Dani heard a splash and looked up to see Josh hoisting himself out of the water. He skipped a towel, instead walking straight to Cat’s chair and wrapping her in a soggy, full-body hug. Cat squealed and swatted at him as he soaked her. It was their usual nausea-inspiring adorableness, but then Josh whispered something in Cat’s ear that Dani couldn’t hear, and Cat’s shoulders fell.
“I’m fine,” she whispered back, less stealthily than Josh had.
Dani’s Spidey-senses flared. That was weird. There was an edge to Cat’s voice Dani hadn’t heard directed at Josh before.
She studied her nails, pretending not to be intrigued by that little interaction.
Josh kissed Cat on the forehead and stood. “I’m going to get a drink. Dani, you need one? Shawn’s mixing.”
“Absolutely.” For a big, Irish, ginger-headed dude, Shawn made an unrivaled margarita. It was all they drank when he was around. She was surprised Cat wasn’t double-fisting them.
“What was that all about with Josh?” Dani asked when he was out of hearing range.
“Nothing.” Cat’s eyes flickered with guilt. She should never play poker. “I wasn’t feeling well this morning. You know how he is.”
Obsessed with her every breath? Yeah, they all knew. But Cat usually liked that. She certainly never snapped at him over it. Dani studied her friend a little closer. For having just returned from her honeymoon, Cat didn’t look at all sun and sexed-out. She looked more like she’d just returned from a grueling trip up a mountain on horseback.
“You don’t look great.”
“Thanks.”
“No, I’m serious.” That pink glow in Cat’s cheeks that had popped so beautifully in all of her wedding pictures was gone, and she had bags under her eyes like she hadn’t slept in a month. “Is everything okay in Josh Land?”
Cat’s nose wrinkled. “Of course.”
Stupid question—things were always okay in Josh Land. But what else would have her stressed out?
“Anything new going on at work you want to talk about?” Cat was a victim’s advocate attorney. She worked long hours and saw depressing shit every single day, but Cat never missed an opportunity to prove how tough she was. Still, doing that kind of work could wear on anyone.
Cat wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “No. No. I’m just… tired. It’s been a long month.”
“Sure,” Dani said, letting it drop.
She was about to bite the bullet and ask where Dylan was, when she felt a familiar tug on her ponytail. She steeled herself to turn around and see her plan shot to hell by a busty brunette or a blonde swimsuit model beside him, but when he rounded her shoulder and took a seat on Cat’s lounge chair, he was alone.
He was also shirtless in bright red swim trunks and he had a pair of Oakleys pushed into his hair. Pool water, or maybe sweat, beaded on his bare chest and glistened in the deep ab lines across his stomach. Dirty memories made her mouth water.
“Dani-pie,” he said, his eyes glowing in the sunlight. “Glad you could make it.”
“Me too. Thanks for the invite.”
“Open invitation,” he said. “You know that.” Something secret sparked between them as they pretended her attendance here hadn’t been pre-negotiated. It fizzled just as quickly when he reached over and poked Cat’s arm, needling her over her drink choice. This was fine. It was just Dylan. Sure, the last time she’d seen him she’d been at the bottom of a hill, but today she was a warrior with a plan. She just needed to invite him along.
“So, how was Hawaii, guys?” Minnie asked Josh and Cat. She climbed onto the picnic bench beside Shawn and clinked her glass on his.
Cat sighed and snuggled under Josh’s arm on the lounge chair they’d decided to share despite it being a hundred degrees. “It was amazing. It was so hard to come back.”
“I bet,” Dylan said. “Did Josh get you on the board?”
Josh laughed into his beer.
Dani already knew the answer to that. Cat was no daredevil, nor was she particularly outdoorsy. One time in college, she and Sonya had tried to talk Cat into taking a rock climbing class with them. Sonya was into it for the full-body workout, and Dani had checked out the website and found a page full of hot instructors who she decided she didn’t mind being harnessed to. They’d forced Cat to come, and she’d made it about ten feet off the ground before she curled into a ball and made the instructor carry her dead weight back to the ground.
“Do I look like I have a wetsuit tan line?” Cat asked.