Best Man with Benefits (Wedding Dare, #4, McCade Brothers, #3)(27)
Flashbacks to junior high had her automatically hunching her shoulders in an effort to minimize her chest. Stop, New Sophie instructed. This isn’t school and she’s not making fun of you, she’s paying you a compliment. Stand up straight and say thank you. She lengthened her spine, drew a deep breath, and said, “I’m not quite there yet. Not like you.” Okay, not exactly thank you, but not awful.
Regan made a dismissive sound. “Me? Honey, I’d kill for an ass like yours.” She grinned. “So, you were awful quiet the other night. Is there a groomsman you have your eye on?”
Her already run-flushed face heated at the question. Did she have “I’m so horny it hurts” tattooed on her forehead?
Regan continued. “I think it’s pretty clear Reed’s spoken for thanks to our Julie, and I’m all over Bro—holy shit, I mean Logan, but that leaves two highly eligible bachelors.”
Some deviant part of her brain envisioned turning to Regan and saying, “Didn’t I tell you? In addition to the same workout philosophy, we also share the same taste in men, meaning Logan. In fact, if I close my eyes, I can still taste him.” Instead she stammered, “I-I… Why would you think that?”
So much for playing it cool. A triumphant gleam danced in Regan’s eyes.
“Why wouldn’t I think that? Come on, spill. I can keep a secret.”
Maybe she should spill? This woman wasn’t a sociopath, for God’s sake. She was actually pretty nice. If Sophie confessed her feelings for Logan—whatever they were—Regan would most likely shrug, say, “good luck,” and set her sights somewhere else. But her phone rang before she could get her words in order.
She knew a reprieve when fate sent one, and grabbed the phone from where she’d propped it on the small shelf at the bottom of the treadmill’s display console. Colt’s name showed on the screen. She hit the pause workout button with one hand and engaged the call with the other.
“Yes?”
“Hi Soph. Sorry to call so early, but Tyler and Christine are missing. Nobody’s been able to reach either of them and nobody’s seen them since…”
His voice trailed off and she realized he was listening to something Kady was saying.
Uh-oh. “When?”
“At the scavenger hunt. Apparently they both headed out on one of the trails. Julie and Reed are already out looking for them. We’re going to meet in the lobby and organize a search party, just in case Julie and Reed can’t find them.”
Had they been stuck out on the mountain all night? “Oh crap, that’s not good. I’ll be right up.” She disconnected, told Regan what she’d just learned, and got busy gathering her stuff.
She had her hand wrapped around the door handle before she realized Regan wasn’t right behind her. She glanced back as she pushed the door open, and saw a wounded look on Regan’s face. Shoot. Had she said something wrong? Probably, but she didn’t have time to dissect their conversation right now and figure out where she’d gone awry, so she offered a simple, “It was…nice…talking to you.”
“Yeah, you too,” Regan replied, but as Sophie headed out of the gym, she wasn’t convinced.
…
Logan woke to a dark room, an empty bed, and the annoying sound of his phone vibrating on the nightstand.
He ignored the phone and peered into the darkness. “Sophie?” No response, but the unrelenting stillness of the space told him she’d gone.
What the hell? She f*cks me blind and then bails? After the marathon night they’d spent together, he honestly hadn’t expected to wake up before noon…or to wake up alone.
The nightstand clock confirmed it was too early to go pounding on her door demanding answers. Too early for phone calls as well, but apparently whoever was trying to reach him hadn’t mastered that particular etiquette lesson because his phone vibrated again. He picked it up, read the display, and tamped down on the geyser of guilt that immediately erupted in his gut at the sight of his best friend’s name. Okay, yes, this could be one reason she’d left before dawn, so her brother didn’t get wind of them spending the night together. He’d have to figure out how to break the news to Colt, because he fully intended to spend more nights with Sophie, and days, for that matter, and sneaking around wasn’t his style.
Neither was letting a call go to voicemail because he wanted to avoid a confrontation. He sat up and hit talk.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Logan. Sorry to disturb you at the ass-crack of dawn, but we’ve got a situation and I need your help.”
He recognized the tone in Colt’s voice, one that said, I’m not going to panic the woman standing beside me by saying this out loud, but get your ass in gear.
“What’s the situation?” He flung the covers off and stood, hissing out a breath as certain muscles balked at the sudden movement. Good God, had he pulled a groin? How long had it been since he’d lost himself in a woman, f*cked her forward, backward, and sideways, until they’d fallen into bed, shaking and spent? Self-conscious Sophie had charmed and exasperated him at the same time, but once he’d pushed her beyond the bounds of her self-consciousness, another Sophie had come out—an unguarded, uninhibited Sophie—and he couldn’t get enough of her.
“Tyler and Christine are MIA,” Colt explained, his voice carefully neutral.