The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(17)

People came in and out of the kitchen as he and Carlos worked, but always just to grab another plate of food or something else to drink, wave at them, and leave again. Why had he never tried hiding in a kitchen during a party before? You got to be around the party, but not, like, right in the middle of it, do something at least semihelpful, and not get stuck in prying conversations. Win-win.

Carlos handed him a chip dipped in guacamole.

“Taste this. Does it need salt? I think it needs salt.”

Theo popped it into his mouth.

“Just a little. And maybe some more jalape?o?”

Carlos pointed at him.

“You’re right. Yes, that’s it.” He touched up the guacamole with his back turned to Theo. “So, did you and Alexa ever date?”

Theo almost choked on his beer, and Carlos turned around.

“Oh, sorry, I thought you’d probably be used to that question.”

Theo swallowed and shook his head. He just hadn’t expected the groom’s best friend to ask him that at the engagement party, but then it was his own fault for hiding in the kitchen away from Maddie.

“Oh, I am, you just surprised me, that’s all. We’ve both gotten that question a lot. But no, never, even though it seemed like the whole world was trying to get us to date each other for years. Including Alexa’s mom, which she reminded us of when I walked in. We’ve just been really good friends from basically day one.”

A burst of laughter preceded Alexa’s entrance into the kitchen. This time with Maddie. Perfect.

“Hey, that’s where you are!” Alexa said. “Carlos, I like that you’re putting all the men to work. You can come up here and take over my kitchen anytime. He has you making more pigs in a blanket, huh?”

He made eye contact with Maddie just for a second before she looked away. Why did she look better every time he saw her? This time her hair was curly and brushed against her shoulders whenever she turned her head. It made him think of that first morning when he’d woken up and looked at her lying there on his pillow, her hair spread everywhere, the sheet barely covering her. It made him want to . . . What was wrong with him? He looked down at his . . . weenies? Really? Oh my God, this was a nightmare.

“He was all by himself in here. I had to do something,” Theo said. He tried to smile like everything was normal, and he didn’t desperately want to push Maddie down onto the nearest surface, pull her panties down like last time, and— “I’m just glad I got extra of all the ingredients.” Carlos took the now-full cookie sheet away from Theo, slid it into the oven, and put an empty cookie sheet down in front of him. “I prepped a bunch of these this afternoon, but all your people have eaten these up like this is the first real food they’ve had for weeks. And I thought it was people in L.A. who were all on the juice cleanses.”

Alexa and Maddie both grabbed bottles of champagne out of the cooler.

“Oh no, people in the Bay Area are like that, too, unfortunately,” Maddie said. “But that’s not why the people here are eating so much. It’s just that Alexa’s friends all really like food.”

They made eye contact again, and this time, she didn’t look away. They looked at each other for what felt like forever, while Alexa teased Carlos about some girl.

“And see, I was going to try to introduce you to someone up here to try to lure you to the Bay Area, but it seems like you’re taken now.”

“I’m not taken! I never should have told you about Nik; it’s not like that. Don’t you have things to do? Take your food and go away and leave the kitchen to the men.”

“Come on, Mads, let’s let the boys do their thing,” Alexa said, right before she popped a pig in a blanket in her mouth.

Maddie picked up the guacamole and chips tray.

“This will get demolished in about ten minutes. I’m warning you now. Theo, I hope you’re getting good at making those things. Go faster.”

She looked right at him and smiled, damn her. She knew the effect she had on him, and now she was just fucking with him.

He smiled back at her.

“I’m good at everything.”

Ooh, he got her to blush.

Theo let out a deep breath as he watched Maddie walk out of the kitchen.

Carlos looked at him and grinned.

“What’s the story there?”

Theo looked back down at the puff pastry.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Carlos shook his head.

“Okay, man. If that’s the way you’re going to play it. I didn’t see a thing.”

Maddie set the food down in the living room and escaped as soon as she could to the bathroom. She needed to stay away from him. Fine, yes, okay, she’d worn this dress tonight because she knew it looked fantastic on her and she wanted him to see her looking so great, but she hadn’t really thought about what it would do to her when he looked at her like that.

It made her want him to rip her panties off again, that’s what it did to her.

Damn it.

If he was so definite that they shouldn’t sleep together again, why the hell did he look at her like that? It wasn’t fair. No one should be able to reject a woman and then stare at her like he wanted to eat her up like one of the appetizers.

No, she was making too big a deal of seeing him again. This was going to be fine. They hadn’t seen each other in a while; of course they’d both maybe think about things, but she’d go back out there and the rest of the party would be normal and they wouldn’t interact at all and they wouldn’t have to see each other again for months. Maybe even years!