Chasing Shadows (First Wives #3)(30)

“Not going to happen, Liam. I don’t know you well enough. It’s Trina’s day. Nope, nope, and nope.”

He put one foot in his truck. “Whatever you say, Princess. You figure it out and I’ll be there.”

She tossed her hands in the air and turned back toward the stairs.

“Avery?” He called her attention back as he climbed into his truck.

“What?” She was flustered.

He liked her that way.

“You’re beautiful.”

She opened her mouth like a guppy gasping for air, twice, and then jogged up to the house.





Chapter Thirteen

“I’m not bringing him!” Avery exclaimed.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. Any man in your life is going to have to meet us eventually.” Trina sat in the back of the limousine, wearing a white cowgirl hat, white boots, white skirt . . . white everything. They were starting their night with a decent meal, and then on to the strip club, the dance hall, and whatever bad decisions they could find before the night was over.

“He isn’t the man in my life. We’ve already gone over this.”

“You were on the phone with him before we left the ranch,” Lori pointed out.

“I was talking about work. He’s helping me with a project.” Thursday didn’t pan out, so she had to call him.

Lori, Shannon, and Trina all exchanged glances.

“You guys are hopeless,” Avery told them.

“I think Trina’s wedding is the perfect place to flesh out a new man,” Shannon told her. “Think about it. Men and weddings . . . they are either into the idea or completely turned off by them. By the end of the weekend you’ll know if he is even marriage material.”

“I don’t want to get married,” Avery reminded them. Not that her friends were listening.

“Not to mention that your status in life is going to be an issue,” Lori offered.

“My status?”

“Your wealth. The lifestyle you like to live. I don’t have to tell any of you how a woman having her own money emasculates many egotistical, chauvinistic men.”

Shannon nodded. “Even if the guy isn’t a chauvinist, they still have a hard time dealing.”

Avery thought about their one meal out and how Liam refused to let her pay for her half of the meal. It was strangely satisfying to have him take the check. Outside of getting men to buy her drinks in bars, where she looked like just another girl in a miniskirt instead of a woman who drove up in a quarter-of-a-million-dollar car and returned to her two-million-dollar condo, Avery always found herself pulling out her wallet.

“The decision is up to you,” Trina told her. “But I think it would cut a lot of BS if he could handle a weekend wedding with all of us around. You’ll know if you’re wasting your time.”

“Thank you for your endorsement and parental guidance, now can we get on with the party?” Avery leaned over and turned on the stereo, filling the limo with music that had them singing along. Lori opened the champagne, and by the time they reached their first stop, they were laughing and out of breath.



“Hey, Michelle?” Liam captured his sister’s attention from the textbook she currently studied.

“Hey, what?”

“Have you ever been to a bachelorette party?”

“A couple. Why?”

He shrugged. How bad could they be? He thought of the hired strippers and the clubs he’d gone to in his years of playing partygoer when his friends bit the marital bullet. “Nothing.”

She lifted her gaze.

“Nothing, huh?”

“They can’t be as crazy as a bachelor party.”

Michelle smirked. “You go ahead and believe that if you want.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Does this have anything to do with Miss Avery?”

Cassandra had let the Avery cat out of the bag the morning after Liam had had his niece record the message.

“No.” He shook his head and then slowly started to nod.

“I think the party intensity has a direct coordination to the closeness of the friends that are going.”

“Explain, please.”

Michelle leaned back in her chair. “Well, if the bride has a handful of really close friends and, let’s say, a strip club is involved . . . well, those parties are often forever remembered and only talked about by those that were there.”

“What happens in Vegas?”

“Right. Now, if there is a large party, a dozen or more, things tend to be a little more politically correct. No one wants rumors to get started right before a wedding. Truth is the bride almost never does anything crazy . . . but the single girls, or those that have been married forever, those women tend to go nuts. Like a bachelorette party is a permission slip for impropriety. I bet the women have a better time than the guys do. Men get drunk and watch a woman dancing on a pole. Women get tipsy and pay for lap dances for their friends.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Sounds fun. I haven’t been out on a night like that in years.” Michelle drifted off in her own thoughts.

The images pixelating in Liam’s head started to come into focus. He could see Avery being the life of the party. He also envisioned her putting a guy in his place if he went too far.