Page 63 of The Best of Friends

Jayne found the filters and the coffee. “Sure. Hurry.”

“Will do.” Rebecca paused. “Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?”

Her friend frowned. “You’re a little wild-eyed.”

“Good. I’m feeling panic. It ought to show.”

“Then be happy. I’ll be right back.”

Jayne finished making the coffee, then tapped her foot impatiently as the brew slowly dripped into the carafe. By the time Rebecca returned, two cups were ready. Jayne handed her one.

“Drink,” she said.

“Don’t I get cream and sugar?”

“No. You take your coffee black.”

Rebecca grinned. “Just checking to make sure you haven’t been replaced by a pod person.” She sipped her coffee and sighed. “Okay. I’m braced. What’s going on?”

“David wants me to be his date for the dinner party Elizabeth is giving.”

There was more, of course. The fact that she and David had had sex. But that wasn’t anything she needed help with—at least not yet. The invitation, on the other hand, screamed crisis.

Rebecca stared at her. “The one for the purpose of finding him the right wife?”

“That would be it.”

Rebecca’s mouth twitched. “Doesn’t he know why Mom’s giving him the party?”

“I think he’s ignoring that little fact.”

Rebecca took another sip. “He asked you, like a date?”

“Apparently.” Jayne paced the length of the kitchen. “We were talking, and he mentioned the party. I said I didn’t know if I would be there helping his mother. He said that wasn’t going to work for him. I wanted to know why, and he said he wanted me to go with him. That Elizabeth would have to get by on her own.”

She still couldn’t believe it. There she’d been, eating a bagel out on her patio. She’d thought the most incredible part of the morning had been waking up next to David. Then she’d decided it was showering with him, an experience she longed to repeat. Then she decided it was their eating breakfast together and talking… like a real couple.

But she’d been wrong. The invitation was the most startling event.

“I can’t go with him,” she said, turning and pacing the other way. “Do you know what your mother would say? Your mother who, by the way, has already called me and asked for my help.”

Rebecca stared at her. “Really? The all-powerful Elizabeth Worden actually picked up the phone and asked?”

Jayne hesitated. “It was more of an assumption than a question. She called with a timetable and a list.”

“Then all is right with the universe.”

“It was until David asked me to be his date! This isn’t information that would brighten her day. She wouldn’t be happy. We’re not dating.”

“You and Elizabeth?”

Jayne glared at her. “Don’t be funny.”

“Why not? Come on, this is fabulous. My mother is combing through the richest families of Beverly Hills to find her perfect son the perfect wife. And he wants to take you.”

There was an ouch buried in there, Jayne thought, trying to accept the comment as it was meant. “The hired help.”