Baiting the Maid of Honor (Wedding Dare #2)(24)

“Word of advice?” Regan climbed onto the treadmill beside her. “When insomnia strikes, drink till you pass out.”

She laughed in spite of herself. “How are you handling running with a hangover?”

“I guess we’ll find out.” Regan started to jog. “I’ve got to do something to work off this excess energy. My libido is running like a hamster on one of those little wheels.”

“There’s a picture.” Julie increased her pace. “Care to share who’s got your hamster all worked up?”

“Dropping the hamster reference now.”

“You started it.”

“Guilty.” Regan punched a button and broke into a run. “I’m not worked up, per se. Just a little itchy when I shouldn’t be. Know what I mean?”

“Too well, actually.”

“Oh! Really? Do tell.”

Julie’s pace faltered, suspicious gaze swinging toward Regan. Something about her tone was deceptively innocent. No one had ever accused Regan of being innocent. “Why don’t you start with the telling? You’re acting like a toddler with pudding on his face.”

“Please, Julie. Please, speak English. It’s way too early for me to translate Southern.” She sighed loudly, adding under her breath, “And I’ve heard way too much of that accent lately.”

“It’s a musical accent.” Julie nudged Regan in the arm. “I’m waiting for an explanation of your tone. You didn’t sound quite as sympathetic over my itchiness.”

“If someone walked in on this conversation, they would be seriously confused.” Regan sent her a sly smile. “I guess I was just wondering why Reed hasn’t gotten around to scratching your itch yet.”

Julie veered to the side, then righted herself. “How’d you know about Reed? Has he…has he been talking about it?”

“About what?”

“Regan.”

She rolled her eyes. “No, he hasn’t been talking about it, goober. Anyone who was in the same room with you and Reed that first night knows. You guys were two seconds away from wild, oh-God-I-think-I-see-Jesus sex.”

Julie lifted her chin. “I was talking to Logan the whole time.”

“Yes, but you were communicating with Reed in every way that counted. A little nudge was all you needed.” A flash of uncertainty crossed Regan’s face. “Right?”

Julie smacked the stop button and the treadmill screeched to a halt. “You switched the keys, didn’t you? I should have known. I assumed this whole time it was Reed.”

“He sure as shit didn’t protest.”

Her body reacted instantaneously, which angered Julie even more than Regan taking matters of her love life into her own hands. “Of course he didn’t. He has the manners of a tomcat on Sunday.”

“You’re going Southern on me again.” Julie punched a button and started an all-out sprint that had Regan raising her eyebrows. “Uh-oh. She’s madder than a wet hen.”

“Now who’s going Southern?”

Regan gave a firm shake of her head. “Correction. I’ve gone Southern. Now I’m going West. It’s like my own sexual version of the Gold Rush.”

“Panning for orgasms.”

“Couldn’t have put it better myself.”

Half an hour later, Julie shoved open the door of Spago and checked her watch. An hour to clean up and twenty minutes to shower before she headed to the scavenger hunt starting point to help Kady hand out lists to the participants. She rounded the corner of the empty lounge and came to a dead stop.

Lights had been taken down and placed neatly in their boxes. Banners were folded and stacked on a table. Centerpieces had been tucked into the packing crate marked “centerpieces” in her own loopy handwriting. Someone had obviously gotten up even earlier than she had to clean up on her behalf. Before she registered the obvious answer, a folded note caught her eye. Upon closer inspection, she saw it had her name written on the front. Ignoring the accelerated pounding of her heart, she opened it.

If I were the kind of man who apologized for something he said, this may or may not be how I would go about doing it. Reed.

Julie reread the note five times before she realized her mouth had stretched into a goofy smile.





Chapter Ten


Julie checked her watch, smiling to herself when she saw that the scavenger hunt was set to begin right on schedule. No matter that her friends’ postures suggested the only object they were interested in hunting down was a cold, stiff drink. Kady stood beside her holding the stack of lists, preparing to pass them out to the amassing group of wedding guests. Julie had insisted that Kady compile the items to be hunted so she herself could compete. And win, if she had her way. More than happy to sip a latte and await the winner in Starbucks, Kady had readily agreed.

Christine stood beside Kady, fussing with her hair. Putting it up in a ponytail, then cursing and letting it back down. She looked hot under the collar about something, but Julie knew better than to ask. They’d often joked that the term “fiery redhead” had been coined on Christine’s behalf. Once she got started, they had a hard time calming her back down. Best to let that sleeping dog lie a spell, she decided.

All three of them raised a questioning eyebrow when Regan strolled up and joined them. Wearing a short dress that left little to the imagination and six-inch heels.