Sure, Kylie wore clothes that were arguably a bit too sexy by Sugar Falls, Idaho, standards. But underneath the beauty-queen smile, the spandex and the heels, she was a well-balanced and professional woman.
Heck, Kylie even did Cessy Walker’s—as well as half the town’s—income taxes. It seemed everyone trusted her sensible side when it came to important things like their finances and life savings. But nobody seemed to trust her when it came to moral values that were none of their business anyway.
She was just about to say as much when Freckles finally spoke up and pulled her friend’s arm. “Cessy Walker, don’t try to shame the girl for having a little fun. You were on your third marriage by the time you were Kylie’s age. C’mon now, let’s go meet everyone downstairs. She’s a big girl and can make her own decisions. Besides, she’s so smart...”
Their voices drifted down the hallway as Kylie slammed the door closed.
Just then, Drew poked his head out of the bathroom, probably making sure the coast was clear. “I, uh, don’t have any of my clothes except the ones I wore yesterday. Do you think I have time to go back to my room to change?”
His slim hips were barely covered by a knotted white towel; his wide shoulders and tapering torso were too much for her overcrowded mind to take in. “Just put on the same stuff and get down there before me. Nobody will notice what you’re wearing anyway.”
“Listen,” he started, and she could already see the pity in his face. “I couldn’t help but hear Mrs. Walker’s voice. I’m sorry for the way she spoke to you. I’m sure that if we put our heads together, we can figure out how to minimize the gossip.”
His words stung her pride even more than she’d thought possible. She hated anyone feeling sorry for her and was mortified that he’d overheard the older woman chastising her. Her parents had raised her to be tough, and she’d been on the receiving end of worse insults than the ones he’d just overheard. What she couldn’t handle was pity. His sympathy implied she had no control over her life and needed Doctor Goodbody to step in and save her.
“Don’t worry about it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that gossip in small towns is pretty standard. So just as long as nobody finds out who the man in my room is, I can live with one more blemish on my unearned reputation.”
With that, she grabbed his discarded clothes off the bathroom counter and tossed them toward him before locking herself inside. She didn’t wait to make sure he left before getting under the hot spray of the shower nozzle to scrub away her sins—along with her hurt and embarrassment. All she wanted was for him to get dressed as quickly as possible and get out of her room before she did something stupid, like let him hold her while she cried her fool eyes out.
But twenty minutes later, when she pageant-walked into the reserved dining room for the prewedding brunch as though everything in her life was as grand as could be, she realized she had seriously underestimated her friends’ skills of observation.
* * *
After Drew 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