Best Man with Benefits (Wedding Dare, #4, McCade Brothers, #3)(51)

Julie stopped between them and looped her arms around both their shoulders. “Hey, there are no secrets among friends.”

Sophie’s heart tripped a little at the offhand gesture and comment. Friends. After five days of interacting with them, she could actually see herself becoming friends with these women.

“Now let’s go get some food,” Julie said. “I’m hungrier than a badger with a hangnail.”

After breakfast she ran up to her room to grab her stuff and then headed to the bridal suite. In one hand she held the garment bag containing her bridesmaid’s dress. In the other she clutched a bag containing her underwear, shoes, jewelry, and toiletries. The net effect being she had no hands free to knock on the darn door. From inside the suite came sounds she could only describe as chaos. Chatter, laughter, music, and a hair dryer.

She put her mouth close to the seam where the door met the frame and called, “Hello!”

Miraculously, somebody heard her. A woman Sophie didn’t recognize opened the door, and then Julie appeared wearing a robe, a few huge Velcro rollers in her hair, and a big, relieved smile. She reached over and swept Sophie into the room.

“Oh, thank God, sweetie. I was beginning to think alien abduction. Come on over this way.” Julie lifted the garment bag and tote from Sophie’s fingers and passed them to the woman who’d opened the door. “Marisa is one of the event coordinators. She’ll put your things in the closet ’til you’ve gotten your hair and makeup done. But first”—whirlwind Julie paused for breath and took the mimosa Marisa handed her—“this is for you. Now, come stand right here.” She positioned Sophie in front of a curtained window and waved a woman with a large camera over. “Before picture,” she explained and then a flash went off in Sophie’s face.

“Oh,” she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots dancing in front of her eyes. “Okay. Thanks.”

Kady came over and nudged her shoulder. “Girl, you earned that.” She pointed to the mimosa. “Dinner last night went smooth as ice. Colt and I can’t thank you enough for keeping your mom and dad civil. Heck, better than civil. They actually looked happy every time I glanced over.”

“They are happy. Despite all their differences they have one important thing in common—they love their kids. They’re thrilled for you and Colt, and determined to play nice and enjoy the wedding.”

“Oh God, that’s a relief. You’re a miracle worker, Soph.” Kady’s chin trembled. “I think I might cry.”

Regan and Christine stepped over, both in various stages of hair and makeup. “No waterworks,” Regan said firmly. “If any of you start crying, I’ll start crying, and I refuse to walk down the aisle with tear tracks marring my makeup.”

Sophie couldn’t hold back a giggle. “For some reason, I wouldn’t have pegged you as the sentimental type.”

Regan pretended to glare. “Well I am. I cry at weddings. Don’t spread it around.” Then she grinned. “We all have our little secrets.”

“Not me,” Christine said proudly. “No secrets anymore. Want to know who rocked my world last night?”

Kady put her hands over her ears. “No. I’m not listening to you. La. La. La.”

Christine pulled Kady’s hands away from her ears. “Your brotherrrrrr,” she teased in a singsong voice. “First he swept me into his arms, then he tossed me on the bed, and then I got my hands all over that fine ass of his, and—”

Kady clamped her hand over Christine’s mouth. “Sophie, I hereby apologize for any UN-seemly and highly IN-appropriate comments I may have ever dropped which hinted at your brother and I having a sex life. I see now how very wrong that was.”

“Come on, mouthy.” Regan took Christine’s arm and tugged her back to the hair stations set up across the room. “He’s not my brother, and I want to hear all the details.”

“I’ll bet you do,” Christine said, then turned and stuck her tongue out at Kady as Regan led her away. “First he kissed me, and then…”

As they walked away, Christine’s voice faded. Sophie was half tempted to follow along and hear the rest. Tyler wasn’t her brother either. Instead she grinned and said, “Something tells me this is going to be one wild wedding reception.”

“Damn right, it is,” Julie agreed. “But we gotta get through the wedding first. Go on over there to the last station. The redhead there is named Elise, and she’ll get you all fixed up. Then we’ll dress, help Kady dress, pose for some after photos and group shots, and by the time we’re done with all that, it will be time to take this show on the road.”

Sophie made her way to Elise’s station in a slight daze. A couple hours from now her brother would be married—something he’d sworn he’d never do. She and tough, smart, slightly intimidating Kady Dresco would be sisters, and she didn’t feel at all intimidated anymore. Fate worked in strange, amazing ways sometimes.

Also amazing? The way she looked after two hours of being styled and groomed like an America’s Next Top Model contestant. By the time she stepped into the bedroom to zip herself into her short blue strapless bridesmaid gown, she barely recognized herself. Her hair had enough spray to deflect a baseball, but Elise had managed to transform her simple bob into loose, face-framing waves. Smoky eyeliner and soft plum-colored shadow turned her boring brown eyes mysterious and sultry. Tinted gloss gave her lips a pink, just-been-kissed pout. Who knew she had a pout? A sexy one, too.