Page 36 of Nothing to the Wedding

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Surprise.”

“That’s not an infinite get out of jail free card,” she said.“You can only use it so many times.”

He laughed.“Then what happens?”

“I turn into a pumpkin.”

“Meh,” he pondered.“I can work with that.”

“Casanova—”

“You’re not mad, Lola Bunny, or you wouldn’t be marrying me in ten days.”

“Maybe I’m not.I’ll send a ringer.”

“I’m not worried.When you’re really mad and want to yell at me there’s always a charged cellphone nearby.Ever noticed that?Strange, isn’t it?”

“You’ve been working, could be I did call.”

An amused half incredulous laugh left his throat.“Do you think Roxanna Kyst, mad, could call Tibbs and let him get away with not handing me the phone?No, baby.You call, I answer, that’s how it works.”

Boosting back onto the bed, she lay in the middle.“Why aren’t you in this bed with me, Casanova?”

“You should’ve told me to get on a plane.”

She pressed the camera button and held the phone up in front of her face.“I spent all day with the show people.Bambi’s going to stay with me and Astrid for the next ten days.”

“Really?”A view of their bedroom ceiling flickered onto her screen.“What happens in ten days?Remind me.”

“Laugh it up.It’ll be real funny until you get stood up at the altar, Playboy Extraordinaire.Wouldn’t that be newsworthy?The world’s most eligible bachelor gets jilted.”

“The altar’s a bonus round, wife.Do I have to remind you again that we already have the piece of paper with our names on it?”

She loved their secret; Tripp didn’t count as “knowing.”And it wasn’t that she didn’t want people to know, no, they could know, that was fine.It was the sheet of paper that got her off.She was married to him.The man she loved belonged to her, and she with him.Who could’ve predicted that commitment could be so damned sexy.

But that wasn’t the only secret Tripp knew.

“Ah, huh, that reminds me, while we’re on the subject…” were they?“I have a bone to pick with you.The whole Jane and Knox getting married at our wedding is supposed to stay secret until the last minute.”

“Just figuring that out?”

“Me?No, not me.I know why you asked if I’d told Tripp.You wanted to cover for your slip.”

“My slip?”

“Someone told Tripp and it wasn’t me.Two of your friends knew and only one of mine.That makes the leak twice as likely to have come from your side.”

“The leak?To Tripp?”

“Knox and Ballard know, they’re your friends.One of them must’ve told Tripp.Now three of your friends know and I only have one ally.Is that fair?”

“Doesn’t Tripp count as yours?That makes us even.”

Okay, so she’d claimed him as hers two days ago.Bygones.All in the past.Wasn’t everything fluid?

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” she said.True?Who knew?“Who’s known him since he was a pimple-faced brat unable to string two words together in front of girls?”