Play Date (Play Makers Book 3) Read Free Page B

playing Wagner’s “Wedding March.” And even though there was no bridal procession per se, it stirred the right juices. Then as Rachel watched in rapt anticipation, the huge satin drapery was pulled back and the perfectly arranged tableau was revealed.
    Everyone in the audience, including the most drunken of the athletes, gasped. And so did Rachel.
    The prospective bride and groom dominated the center in their traditional, resplendent clothing. Dark-haired Johnny Spurling was at least as hunky as his brother Jason, not that it mattered. It was the look on his face as he gazed down at his bride that made him a keeper in Rachel’s eyes.
    Behind Johnny, and to his left, were the two best men. Sean looked awesome. No surprise there. Still, Rachel melted. With his fair hair and handsome face, he should have stolen the show. And in a way he did, but so did the other best man, who was a completely different kind of hot. Six full inches taller, infinitely broader, lean and ripped, the guy looked like Thor reborn. Long brown hair streaked with bronze. The face of a barbarian. The build of a gladiator.
    And yet because both best men were wearing tuxedos, and so attentive to the bride and groom, they meshed perfectly.
    They’re best friends, Rachel reminded herself. Sean, Johnny and this Bannerman guy.
    And they were more than that, as she had learned during the Super Bowl. This was the vaunted “Triple Threat” of the Portland Lancers. Johnny as the quarterback. Sean as the kicker with the boot of gold. And Bannerman, who played some other position that apparently mattered too.
    To the right of the couple and slightly behind the bride were the two maids of honor, one blonde, one brunette, both gowned in off-the-shoulder garnet-toned satin that coordinated perfectly with the red roses in Erica’s bouquet. On the edge of the tableau were threesomes in the best sense of the word, each composed of a pretty woman flanked by two handsome men.
    Erica’s a genius, Rachel decided reverently. Two ushers to every bridesmaid? That should be the law.
    One of the bridesmaids was Beth Spurling, Rachel’s friend and former colleague at the grade school where she worked. Beth was short, dark-haired and curvy. Dressed as now in dark red satin, she was actually stunning. Husband Jason in his tux was on her left, a distinguished-looking man on her right. Rachel couldn’t tear her gaze away long enough to check the cheat sheet in her purse, but she had a feeling this was a sports agent named Murphy.
    Rachel knew the other bridesmaid too, although only as an acquaintance. Sophie James was the groom’s cousin, and there was a real danger she might steal the show with her confident smile and sexy shape. Her boyfriend, whom Rachel had met once and immediately lusted over, was Jake Dublin, a football coach. Hilarious, sweet, and dangerously subversive. On Sophie’s other side was a good-looking college-aged boy with dark hair. Even if Rachel hadn’t known that the bride’s brother would be in the wedding party, she would have recognized this kid as a McCall.
    And then there was the McCall. The bride. One could admire the entire entourage and scan its constituent elements, but the eye was always drawn back to Erica. Whether by design—she was an advertising professional, after all—or just the sheer force of her happiness, it didn’t matter. She was the focal point, not just visually but emotionally.
    The woman was stunning, with long dark curls swept up and pinned behind her head. Her white satin gown, made even more luscious by the deep red of her bouquet, was both strapless and plunging at the neckline, revealing beautiful shoulders and full breasts. Diamonds adorned her neck, her hair, her wrist, her earlobes and presumably her ring finger.
    But it was the expression on her face as she gazed up at her future husband that stole the show. Not reverence. Not even hope. It was the promise of fun everlasting. Of adventures and lovemaking and