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THIRTY-SEVEN
Cari
When I get to their table, Conner and Tess are fighting.
“Why are you being so stubborn?” Con asks, glaring at her over a pint of Guinness. Tess scoffs at him in response. On the table between them is the pale pink envelope Jessica gave her this afternoon.
“You’re kidding, right?” she shoots back, sliding across the booth to make room for me without taking her eyes off him. “You are the poster boy for stubborn.”
Con’s jaw flexes tight. “This isn’t about me, Tess.”
She rolls her eyes. “Are you sure—because everything seems to be about you these days.”
For a second, he looks genuinely wounded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tess answers his question with one of her own. “How many times has she called you today?”
Con’s face goes white. “It’s not the same thing.”
“Bullshit.” Tess comes up, out of her seat, to jab a finger in his face. “It’s exactly the same.”
He finally looks at me. “She actually wants to go to this fucking shitshow,” he snarls at me, flicking the invitation with the back of his fingers.
I feel my eyes widen and I look at Tess. She’s got her arms crossed over her chest, eyes narrowed and glaring at the space next to Con’s head. She’s chewing on her lip ring so hard I’m afraid she’s going to rip a hole in her lip. “I think she should.” I say it to her and watch her face change instantly. She’d been expecting me to agree with Con. The truth is, I don’t think she should go within a country mile of Declan’s wedding but it isn’t my decision, and it isn’t Con’s either.
“Fuck me,” Con groans, picking up his pint and taking a gulp. “You’re not helping, Legs.”
“You think I should go?” Tess says. Now that she has back-up, she suddenly looks unsure.
“I think you need to go,” I say, ignoring Con completely. “I think you need to find a hot date, get dressed up and sit your ass in the front fucking row. And after he makes the biggest mistake of his life, I think you need to drink too much on his dime, dance with Mr. Hot Date and show him what moving on looks like.”
Con, set his glass down and sighs. He knows I’m right. “At least let me take you.”
“No fucking way,” Tess says.
“What?” he says, his mouth lifting in a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I’m not hot enough?”
Tess opens her mouth, but I rush in before she can say something insulting.
“You’re in the wedding,” I remind him, shaking my head. “We all are. She needs someone who’s going to be there, exclusively for her.”
“Fine.” His jaw goes tight before he slumps back in his seat, the picture of defeat. “But I’m doing a full background check on whatever dickbag you manage to scrounge up.”
“Like I can’t find a decent guy who wants to go out with me?” Now it’s Tess’s turn to look wounded. “Thanks.”
“Christ—” Con rolls his eyes, heaving a put-upon sigh that sounds nothing like him. Hearing it makes me wonder what’s happened to him since I left. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What about the new guy?” I say, casting a quick look over my shoulder. Logan and Patrick are manning the bar, flirting and smiling at the crowd of women around it. Is it my imagination or are there way more females in the place than usual?
“Logan?’” Tess says, craning her neck over the back of the booth. “You think?”
“Yeah,” I say, shooting Con a quick look. He seems mollified by the prospect. Good. That means whatever his questionable past might include, Logan is a good guy. Con never would agree otherwise. “He’s got the hot nerd thing going on.”
Suddenly, my view is blocked by a set of massive shoulders, and I look up to see Declan standing in front of our booth.
“Hi,” he says to me, like he saw me yesterday, before looking directly at Tess. “Can we talk outside?” he says, his gaze leaving her face long enough to catch sight of the envelope on the table in front of her. He doesn’t look surprised to see it.
“Where’s Jess?” Con pipes up slamming his empty pint on the table. “Off, polishing the jar she keeps your balls in?”