She went straight to the window, which he could see from the door had a great view of the ocean. He peeked behind the two closed doors, finding a closet and a bathroom. It wasn’t big and it had a single shower stall instead of a tub, but they didn’t have to share it with everybody on the third floor, so that was good.
“The drive took longer than I thought,” he said, even though he’d factored in the unspeakable traffic. “We should go downstairs soon.”
Tonight there was a cocktail mixer on the beach, so everybody could get to know each other before tomorrow’s ceremony. Because he’d been listening to Jim and Emily talk about the wedding for months, he knew there would be food, too.
Carly turned away from the window and unzipped the suitcase he’d put on the stand for her. “I have to unpack real quick first.”
“Unpack? We’ll only be here for the weekend. You don’t have to move in.”
“Maybe you don’t, Mister Permanent Press, but I’d rather not look like I dug my dresses out of the bottom of a laundry basket.”
“Dresses? Plural?”
“It’s a wedding, dumbass.”
“Yeah, a beach wedding.” He knew it was a wedding, but hadn’t given a lot of thought to her wardrobe except the one sundress they’d talked about.
She’d looked hot in that dress. He’d tried not to notice because it was Carly, but when a woman had legs like hers, a man paid attention to them. And, yeah, he’d always known she had great legs, of course. He’d seen them in shorts and bathing suits their entire lives. But it was a totally different ballgame when she was wearing a sundress and the silky fabric of the skirt played peek-a-boo with her thighs.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Noah blinked. What the hell was he doing? “You mean looking at you like I’m wondering why you don’t hurry up because I didn’t come here to hang out in a hotel room and watch you unpack?”
She looked like she was going to argue for a second. Like maybe she was going to say no, that he was looking at her like he was imagining her skirt riding up on thighs that were toned and tanned due to her being the outdoorsy, athletic type.
His type, really, which probably explained why they were such good friends. Best friends.
Then she laughed. “Calm down before we’re not just a fake couple, but that fake couple that makes everything awkward and uncomfortable because they obviously had a big fight and now they aren’t speaking to each other.”
And just like that, Noah was snapped back to reality. And in this reality, he didn’t ogle his best friend’s legs and he remembered that the current awesomeness of his employment situation depended on staying in Carly’s good graces.
“Anything I can do to help?” he asked.
“Since I’m unpacking, if you want to help, you can take things out of my suitcase and put them away.”
She grinned at him as she walked to the closet with what looked like a week’s worth of flirty sundresses. Rather than risk having inappropriate thoughts about her legs again, he ignored the dresses and stuck his hand into her suitcase.
And came out with a black lace bra that was so delicately sinful looking, it made his mouth dry.
“Jesus, Carly,” he said in a strangled voice before his brain had a chance to intervene.
“What’s the matter now?”
Before he could come up with a good lie, she was next to him and after rolling her eyes, she took the black lace from him.
“What the hell do you need that for?” he asked.
Carly laughed as she grabbed an entire handful of lacy things from the suitcase and carried them to the dresser. “It’s a bra. It supports my boobs. Maybe you need to get out a little more.”
“I know it’s a bra, wise ass. I just don’t know why you need a bra like that. It’s not as if you can hook up with anybody this weekend.”
“Well, I could, but that wouldn’t look good for our fake relationship.” She closed the drawer and then leaned against the dresser with her arms crossed. “And what does my bra have to do with hooking up with anybody?”
“Black lace?” When she just kept looking at him expectantly and then shrugged, the truth dawned on him. “You wear stuff like this all the time?”
“A bra and panties? Yes, I generally wear underwear.”
“No, those bras and panties. With the lace.”
“Yes, Noah, with the lace.”
“Even while we’re four-wheeling? Or kayaking? And...stuff?” He wasn’t sure why his mind went there, but at least he wasn’t thinking about her legs anymore.
“No, not on the quads or when we’re doing other stuff. I have sports bras for that.” He felt a really weird pang of disappointment, and then she looked at him funny. “Why are we even talking about my underwear?”
“I don’t know.” And wasn’t that the truth. “Bored, maybe? Hungry?”
“Nervous?”
He snorted, but he was a little nervous. It would be so easy for one of them to screw up and, if that happened, he was going to be humiliated. And he doubted explaining to Jim and Emily that he’d lied to keep from being set up with Sara would help his case any.
“I thought of one thing that could be a problem,” Carly said, and Noah could swear he felt his blood pressure spike. “You told them we’ve been friends since we were little kids, right? Because you live near my grandparents?”
“Yeah. Other than the fact we’re not actually dating, everything else was mostly the truth.”
“Did you tell them how we started dating?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what made us go from life-long best friends to a real couple six months ago? That’s probably the only question about you—or us—that I don’t know the answer to.”
Noah frowned, trying to remember if either Jim or Emily had asked him that question and coming up blank. “I don’t think that’s come up.”
“Weird. It probably will this weekend, though, because when a bunch of women have to make small talk at a wedding, stories about how they met their guy and proposal stories are always at the top of the conversation list, so come up with something.”
He could probably spin a convincing yarn about seeing her in a black lace bra and not being able to keep his hands off her, but he really didn’t want to think about that right now.
While she finished unpacking—without his help because he’d had enough of that—Noah pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the photo album. Scrolling back, he found February and scanned the pictures, hoping for inspiration.
“We didn’t do much in February,” he said. “With all the snow we got, I was plowing so much, we only went skiing once.”
“Valentine’s Day,” she said. “Neither of us was seeing anybody, so we decided to stay home, get take-out and watch a movie, and then one thing led to another.”
“Oh, that’s good.” And since they got take-out and watched movies together a lot, it wasn’t even really a lie. Except for the one thing led to another part. Their one thing generally led to him nodding off on her couch, snoring, and her kicking him to make him stop. “A horror movie, and you got scared and ended up on my lap.”
Carly laughed pretty hard at that. “You getting scared and ending up on my lap would be closer to the truth.”
“Jim and Emily don’t need to know that.”
“Fine. Horror movie. I got scared, ended up in your lap, and we talked about the first thing that popped up.”
He tried to give her a disappointed look because that joke was older than them, but he ended up chuckling. “That was bad.”
“I’m saving my best stuff for cocktails on the beach.”
Noah groaned, wishing he’d packed some antacids. He had a feeling he was going to need them. “If I lose my job, I’m moving in with you and eating all your food.”
She just laughed, which did nothing to calm the nerves. He was more of a beer guy, but cocktails on the beach sounded like one hell of a good plan right now.
* * *
Noah was pacing in front of the window by the time Carly came out of the bathroom. She’d freshened up as quickly as she could manage, but he was wound tighter than an eight-day clock. “You ready yet?”
He looked at her with a grumpy face, but then his eyes widened. “Damn, Carly. You look smoking...pretty.”
She laughed. “Smoking pretty?”
“I was going to say hot, but that would be weird. I guess.”
If anything was weird, it was the way he was acting. Having his hands in her lace underwear must have scrambled his brain. “And you look exactly the same as when I went in the bathroom.”
He looked down at himself and then shrugged. “I brushed my teeth before you went in there. What else should I do?”
“Nothing.” Noah was Noah and nobody’d managed to change him yet. Not that she was complaining. She liked him the way he was. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“According to the notecard included with the invitation, there’s a room downstairs that opens onto a patio, which leads to the beach. There’s supposed to be a sign.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Because they were running slightly late, Noah wanted to take the ancient elevator down, so Carly mentally crossed her fingers and agreed.
They stood shoulder to shoulder and, as the door closed, he turned to look at her. “You ready for this? You remember everything?”
“Yes. You’re my boyfriend. I remember.”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I. I don’t need to remember our lives. I just need to remember the part about Valentine’s Day and the horror movie and one thing leading to another.”
“And maybe not mention that guy you were dating a couple of months ago.”
Carly groaned. “I went on one date with him. Trust me, that was enough.”
As the elevator creaked along, she felt his hand brush her ass. For a few seconds, she thought it was an accident. There wasn’t a lot of room to move around in the tight space, which she was trying really hard not to think about. But his hand lingered, his fingertips a light pressure just south of the imaginary line between the small of her back and her ass.
“Noah, you’re touching my butt.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, why are you touching my butt?”
“Boyfriends do that. Jeez, Carly. What kind of guys have you been dating?”
He knew very well she hadn’t been dating too much lately except that one dinner. “You’re my fake boyfriend. And nobody can see us right now.”
“Oh.” His hand fell away. “Practicing, I guess. Or maybe it’s the ghost of the original owner and he randomly possesses guests in order to touch butts for all eternity.”
“You’re funny.” She elbowed him hard in the ribs. “Are you planning to touch my butt a lot in front of your boss? And his future bride? And their families?”
“You do have a pretty great butt, you know. People will think it’s weird if I don’t touch it.”
The elevator finally let them out, which put a welcome end to the butt-touching conversation. They knew the patio was on the backside of the inn, so they headed in that direction and had no trouble finding an ornate sign outside a set of French doors.
Noah touched the handle but hesitated before opening the door. “Before we go in there, you know this job is wicked important to me, right?”
“I do know that.” She touched his arm so he’d look at her. Maybe somebody who hadn’t known him for his entire life wouldn’t notice, but she could see the anxiety written all over his face. “Relax, Noah. The only lie we have to remember is that we’ve been romantically dating for six months. I don’t have to pretend I love you or that we have great times together or that I think you’re the greatest guy in the world. You’re my best friend, remember?”
The stress melted away and he gave her a very typical Noah grin. “I remember.”
“We’ve got this.”
He must have believed her because he opened the door and gestured for her to go in first. There were a ton of people in front of her and, for the first time, her confidence in their ability to pull off this operation wavered. The amount of small talk this crowd would generate could slip them up. She stepped quickly to the side so Noah could follow her in, and she was thankful when his hand closed around hers, their fingers threading together.
And then she remembered it was a fake gesture. Everybody in this inn thought they were a couple and he was just putting on a show.
“Jim and Emily are over there by the bar. They’re the two glowing people holding hands. And Sara’s standing next to Emily.”
The bride and groom were a good-looking couple. Jim had short brown hair and was dressed much like Noah was. Emily was slim, with her long black hair making a stark contrast to the white sundress she was wearing. She laughed at something her almost-husband said and he looked down at her with so much love on his face, it was almost painful to watch.
Sara, sister of the bride, was a stunner. She had the same black hair as Emily, but was taller and slightly curvier. With her flawless skin and a floral sundress with strappy sandals showing off killer legs, she probably turned heads everywhere she went.
“Explain something to me,” she whispered to Noah after glancing around to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “They’re trying to fix you up with her and you said no?”
“It’s a trap.” He leaned in closer so he could keep his voice low. “If I go out with her and she likes me, I’ve got one foot down the aisle.”
“I think that’s your weird aversion to marriage talking.”
“There’s nothing weird about it. Your active hunt for a husband, though. Now that’s weird.”
“It’s a small town with a limited dating pool. I just want to get a head start. It’s not like I want to get married next week. But I want to have kids while Grandad’s still young enough to teach them to fish.”
“Well, I don’t want to get married next week, either, which is why I’m going to put my hand on your butt again.”
“If you think touching a woman’s butt is the best way to signal you’re in a relationship with her, it explains why you can’t keep a girlfriend. And we’re digressing. She totally looks like your type.” Mostly because he didn’t have a type, other than liking—or maybe needing was a better word—a sense of humor.
“They see us.” His fingers tightened around hers so painfully, she wondered if her fingertips were turning purple or had gone straight to white. “Jim’s waving us over.”
She forced back her nerves and gave him a confident smile, hoping to bolster him. “Let’s go say hi.”
Chapter Four
Noah had been worried for nothing. Okay, maybe not nothing, but he should have trusted his past-self’s decision to fake-date Carly. She’d always been friendly and outgoing, and owning the bookstore with Zoe had honed her people skills.
And they were so comfortable together that it wasn’t as awkward as he’d feared to rest his hand at the small of her back or link their fingers together while they chatted. Unless his mind wandered to the lace she was wearing under that sundress.
He was doing his best not to think about his best buddy’s underwear.
“It’s so great to finally meet you,” Emily was telling Carly, and he forced his attention back to the conversation at hand. “Noah talks about you all the time, and we’ve seen pictures, but it’s nice to have a real person to go with the stories.”
“He really does love to tell stories,” Carly said, and if they’d been sitting at a table, he would have kicked her underneath it.
He didn’t love telling “stories” to his boss, but sometimes it was easier to li
e than to end up married to your boss’s sister-in-law because you ran out of polite ways to tell him you really weren’t interested.
“Oh, I see somebody I have to speak to for a second,” Jim said. “Noah, I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes?”
“Not a problem.”
“Have you been to the Cape before, Carly?” Sara asked after Jim walked away.
“A few times, but not in a while and never a place as gorgeous as this.”
Noah tuned out the ensuing small talk about the venue, looking out at the patio and beyond that, the beach. As soon as it wouldn’t be rude to pull Carly away, he intended to make his way out there and enjoy the ocean air.
Then the women laughed and Noah turned back to them because the three of them laughing together was an almost musical sound. He noticed his wasn’t the only head that turned, which wasn’t a surprise. All three of them were beautiful women.
It probably would have made his life a lot easier if he’d been attracted to Sara. She was gorgeous and smart and as warm and friendly as her sister, who Noah platonically adored. Technically, he supposed he was attracted to Sara, since he wouldn’t have hesitated to ask her out if he’d met her under any other circumstances other than her being his boss’s future sister-in-law. But he didn’t need a crystal ball to tell him they had so little in common, they’d be lucky to make a fourth or fifth date.
Somebody tapped his elbow and when he looked, Jim nodded his head toward the other end of the bar. The women paid him no mind as he stepped away and followed his friend.
“How was the drive up?”
“Good, until we hit the traffic.”
Jim nodded. “Some of Emily’s family got here yesterday to avoid the worst of it.”
Noah waved his glass in the direction of the view beyond the patio. “Worth it, though. I can’t imagine a prettier place to get married.”
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to wait until it was finally over but now that I’m here, I want to enjoy every minute of it.”
One Summer Weekend Page 3
