May the Best Man Win Read Free Page B

keeping her voice light and teasing for her friend’s sake.
    And that’s when he’d spotted her. She could tell by the way his steady progress through the crowd came to an abrupt halt and his mouth formed a four-letter word familiar enough to her own tongue that she recognized it on sight.
    Real classy, Jase .
    What a dickhead.
    But then Jase had rubbed a hand over his mouth and jaw, wiping it clean of the flash of hostility he’d let slip. They were at an engagement party for friends close enough to slot them as the honor attendants in their wedding—and there was no place for a decade-old grudge in this celebration. Besides, she could rest assured that the depth of her loathing for Jase Foster was as clear to him as his was to her. And if not, she had the next eight months to reinforce it.
    Now, staring up into the hard lines of Jase’s face as he held her suspended precariously over certain humiliation, she couldn’t believe she’d once thought this man could be her whole world. She’d thought he was her friend . She’d thought…
    Well, lesson learned. Through bitter experience, she’d come to realize that Jase could only be counted on to let her down at the moment she needed him most.
    Which meant she really needed to apologize—and fast.

Chapter 3
    â€œSorry.”
    One word. Grudgingly issued. But still, Jase was taking it for the victory it was. Not that he’d have actually followed through on his threat. Not a chance. And that she believed he would… Well, he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that.
    â€œVery big of you, Em,” he offered, prepared to pull her back up when her soft eyes narrowed on him.
    â€œAnd typically small of you.”
    He sighed, looking down at the woman still caught in his arms, wondering when he’d finally be able to put her behind him.
    Those damn legs of hers were the problem. Miles long and distracting as hell, they’d been strutting through Jase’s life since he was sixteen, walking over whatever bit of peace he’d found and then strutting right back out, leaving nothing but a path of destruction in their wake.
    Still, he was the lucky one. Thirty seconds had decided it. Thirty seconds difference, and maybe he’d be the one whose life never recovered.
    His molars ground down, because that wasn’t something he ought to be thinking about at Dean’s wedding, but every time he saw Emily working that honey-and-sunshine routine of hers, he wanted to puke. Why did she even bother? It had to be exhausting to pretend you were someone you weren’t 24-7. But maybe she liked the collection of friends that hiding the truth had garnered her.
    Or maybe she actually believed her own bullshit, which was even worse, because how the hell was the population at large supposed to defend itself against that?
    Jase pulled Emily up to standing, restoring the distance between them that he never should have breached.
    â€œThank you,” she said, and then winced as if annoyed to have given him even that much.
    â€œYou bet,” he answered, keeping the civil smile.
    The song was almost over, and this dance was the last of the forced interaction with her—at least, until the next time their circles of friends happened to overlap in holy matrimony, and genetics once again threw them together as the tallest pairing in the wedding party. Maybe they’d luck out and it wouldn’t happen for another year or so…or, better yet, ever again.
    The song ended, and sure enough, Emily wasn’t about to linger. No niceties being offered tonight. Without even looking back at him, she turned out of his hold. Fine by him.
    Or it would have been, except that in her typical obliviousness to anyone beyond herself, Emily seemed unaware of how her body was lining up with his. Before he could pull out of the way, the bare skin of her arm met the back of his hand in a mesh of contact that could only be