Page 54 of Last Night Was Fun

He stroked his jaw again like he might have been remembering it. “Yeah, sure. I can do that.”

“Thank you—and. Shit,” she mumbled, suddenly drowning in embarrassment again. She set her coffee down so she didn’t spill it in her fluster. “I was going to tell you this anyway—well, the other you—but that was before we realized... And now—” Her words were messy and jumbled, and she wanted to melt through the floor, but Gabe was looking at her with sincere interest.

“Tell me what?”

Emmy took a breath, knowing she needed to be honest with him because this tidbit would be an unfair bomb to drop on him three thousand miles away from home. “The reason I’m so desperate to have a date to this wedding is because my ex is going to be there.”

The interest on Gabe’s face bent into a frown while one brow flicked up. He almost looked protective, and it made Emmy tingle. “The one who told you to choose between him and your career?”

It took her a moment to remember that when she’d told Axe Murderer that information in confidence, she’d been talking to Gabe.

God, he knew so much about her. She felt like she had secrets popping out of her like confetti. She fought to maintain her composure and not dissolve into a puddle of shame. But he wasn’t looking at her with any judgment, but rather, concern.

“Yes, that ex is going to be there,” Emmy confirmed.

“Why?” He asked a very legitimate question.

“Because he’s my brother-in-law’s cousin’s plus one. My sister can’t uninvite them; it’s a whole thing.” She was mumbling again, rushing out words in a flood of embarrassment. She threw her hands over her face. “It’s just... I can’t have him show up and see me there alone and think he won.” She listened to the sound of her breath bounce off her palms, her nervous pulse racing, until she felt hishands circle her wrists. He gently pulled her arms down so he could see her face.

“Hey. I promise you he lost, Emmy.”

They stared at each other for a heart-thudding moment that made Emmy forget to breathe. It sounded like something Axe Murderer would say in text, and there was Gabe saying it to her face.

They’re the same person.She heard Beth’s words again.

She didn’t have time to fuse the two men she knew into one being before Silas appeared at the kitchen doorway.

“What’s going on in here?” he asked when he came to an abrupt stop at the sight of them.

Both Emmy and Gabe startled and looked up to see him approaching. Emmy flushed at the suspicious look on his face, feeling like they’d been caught and hadWe’ve been having a secret texting affairwritten across both their foreheads. Not to mention, Gabe was still holding her wrists.

He quickly let go.

Silas blinked a few times and then grinned. “You guys are supposed to hate each other. Why are you in here looking all chummy?”

They obviously could not answer him honestly.

Relief flooded through Emmy when Gabe reached out to slap him on the back. “Jameson was just showing me the wonders of oat milk. That’s all. Turns out, you all are onto something.” He left the kitchen casually sipping his coffee.

Silas looked at Emmy with an arched brow.

She simply shrugged, thankful Gabe had come to her rescue in multiple senses: for covering about their conversation and for agreeing to be her wedding date.

Now all she had to do was figure out how she was going to handle being in Mexico all weekend with her archnemesis turned anonymous pen pal who made her heart flutter. No big deal.

Chapter11

When Emmy arrived at the palatial oceanfront resort in Cancún, she expected to find her sister in a state of prewedding preparation: focused, slightly jittery, maybe a little unhinged, but overall glowing and bride-to-be happy. Never in a million years did she expect the look of sheer terror on Piper’s face when she met her in the marble lobby.

Instantly, Emmy’s mind flitted to grave disaster: Ben had jilted her thousands of miles from home, and they’d need to find a place to dump his body, and then she’d spend the rest of her life evading arrest for his murder.

But she knew that couldn’t be true because she could see Ben plain as day right in front of her putting his expensive private school education to use by having a spirited conversation in rapid Spanish with one of the hotel employees. For once, his Prince Charming demeanor had slipped. His face had reddened, and he kept stroking a frustrated hand through his hair while the other rested on his hip.

Piper stood off to his side looking both like she’d seen a ghost and like she was going to burst into tears. The warm greeting Emmy had expected—a hug, maybe a celebratory margarita shoved into her hand—was markedly absent, and instead of embracing the tropical air and letting herself sink into the spirit of the weekend, she fought to control her suddenly speeding heart at the look on her sister’s face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, and dropped her bag.

Piper and Ben had arrived earlier that morning on a differentflight. First class, obviously. Emmy had taken a later flight where she sat smushed up against the window beside an overly friendly middle-aged couple on an anniversary trip who did not get the hint she didn’t want to chat, even when she put on noise-canceling headphones and tried to listen to an audiobook.