To Have and to Hold (The Wedding Belles #1)(24)

“Huh.” His expression turned even more speculative as he scratched his chin. “Brooke Baldwin, would you like to have a drink with me?”

“Ah—”

Grant held his palms out. “No funny business. Just two people in need of a drink. I’ll buy.”

It was tempting. Very tempting. She did want that drink. But . . .

“I’d like to,” she said, giving a regretful glance over her shoulder. “But there’s something I need to take care of first.”

Grant gave a soft laugh. “If it’s giving Seth the dressing-down I’m sure the bastard deserves, can I be there to watch?”

“I thought you two were friends.”

“Oh, we are. Best friends,” he said, looping an arm casually around her shoulder and pulling her in the direction of the lobby bar. “Which is why I can’t wait to see his face when he sees us having a drink together.”





Chapter Nine





SETH LIKED TO THINK he was a man who was prepared for all things.

Hurricanes. Market crashes. Breakups.

But twice in the past month he’d found himself blindsided.

First, by his sister’s engagement announcement.

Second, by his instant and slightly insane attraction to the Malibu Barbie wedding planner.

And now, just as he was hanging up the phone with the Tyler Hotel’s Tokyo office, there was a third shock: the sight of his best friend and said wedding planner having a cozy cocktail in a hotel lobby bar as though it was no big deal.

“Oh, hell no,” he muttered, dropping his phone back into his suit pocket and charging toward them.

The hotel lobby at the Biltmore was one of Seth’s favorite places to drink in the city. The high price tag of their drinks scared off the vast majority of tourists, ensuring that the bar was generally quiet enough to have a conversation.

Something Grant and Brooke seemed to be managing quite well as they sat hip to hip on the small love seat by the fire.

“Well, this looks cozy,” Seth blurted out the second they were in hearing distance.

Brooke glanced up in surprise at the interruption. Her hands had been waving wildly as she’d been talking to Grant, but the second her eyes met Seth’s, her hands dropped to her lap, and her smile froze in place.

He wasn’t surprised at the obvious change in her demeanor, but he was a little . . . stung. Seth knew he’d never been quite as charming as Grant, not quite as smooth with the ladies, but he usually didn’t cause someone with so much light to dim the second he got near.

“Hey, man!” Grant said in a more enthusiastic greeting, taking a sip of his cocktail and seeming completely unaware of the strange tension between Brooke and Seth.

Then he glanced up and met Seth’s eyes, and Seth saw from the slight smirk that his friend wasn’t unaware at all. The asshat had planned this.

Seth sighed and sat in the leather chair across from his best friend and his sister’s wedding planner, and tried to ignore the fact that they looked like the perfect couple. He also tried to ignore how much that bothered him.

“Explain,” he said, lifting a hand to gesture between the two of them as his other hand reached for the small black leather drink menu on the table in front of him.

“Ran into your girl here while she was ushering off Maya and that complete tool she thinks she’s marrying.”

Brooke groaned just as she was about to take a sip of her cocktail. “Oh God. Not you, too.”

“What?” Grant asked, looking at her in confusion.

Brooke jabbed a finger in Seth’s direction. “It’s bad enough that I have to deal with his unfounded anti-Neil campaign. Now you’re hating on the poor guy, too?”

“Well, he—”

“Is perfectly wonderful to Maya,” Brooke said, interrupting Grant. “And I can maybe, maybe, get how big brother here would be all spoiling for a duel, but what’s your deal?”

“I . . .” Grant glanced at Seth for help, but Seth could only shrug. If he knew how to wrangle the wedding planner, he would have done so by now. “I’m like her brother,” Grant said finally.

“Riiiight,” Brooke said skeptically as she took a sip of her martini.

Grant shrugged. “It’s true.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed at the too-casual note in his friend’s tone. He knew when Grant was faking it, and something was off there. But before he could figure it out, Brooke had directed her attention back to him. “Mr. Tyler. I’m glad you found us, because we need to talk.”

Grant grinned and rearranged himself in his seat as though settling in for a show. His arm was around the back of Brooke’s seat, and Seth gave him a warning glare, but Grant merely grinned wider.

“Can I at least get a drink first?” Seth muttered as he looked around for a server.

She nodded as though granting her subject a brief reprieve.

Seth ordered a Manhattan to match Grant’s before he shrugged out of his suit coat and set it on the chair next to him.

“All right. Let’s have it,” he said, leaning forward slightly and rolling up his sleeves to hear whatever lecture Brooke Baldwin was going to throw his way.

His eyebrows lifted when she didn’t respond right away, and he saw that her eyes were tracking the motion of his fingers, watching as he navigated around his cuff links and rolled the white dress shirt to his elbows.