Payton exhaled a tiny bit in relief. Kate pulled on her hand, but Payton felt a strange pang at the thought of leaving Cruz behind. She turned to him, hoping her face showed only relief and gratitude instead of the unsettling sadness that their time together was over. “Thanks again for making sure I got here in one piece. It’s definitely been an adventure.”

“That it has.” They studied each other a few heartbeats more before Kate pulled on Payton’s hand.

“Come on,” Payton heard Dominic saying to his older brother, “Let’s get you cleaned up. And mom wants to see you, make sure you’re actually in one piece.”

“The roads down here weren’t that bad.”

“I wasn’t talking about the roads,” she heard Dominic distinctly say, followed by their laughter.

“Okay, I’m guessing we have less than ten minutes before your mother starts pounding on that door demanding an audience with you,” Kate said a few minutes later as they stepped into Payton’s room and shut the door. “So you had better start talking.”

Payton dropped her purse on the desk. “Talk about what?”

“Oh, let’s see,” Kate said and tossed her long red hair over her shoulders before turning those laser-like gray eyes on her friend. “About the fact that two nights ago you were devastated to discover your fiancé was sleeping around and then last night, when I tried Cruz’s phone four times to reach you to see if you were okay, I only got voicemail. And then Cruz tells me this morning you got a late start and you couldn’t talk because you were in the shower.”

Payton raised her brow, feigning confusion. “And?”

“And you’re my best friend and I know when you’re avoiding talking to me. So I wondered, what on earth could you have done that would have you dodging my calls? What kind of trouble could you get into with a dark brooding guy whose picture, if I wasn’t happy and in love with Dominic, I would be pinning to my fridge?”

Payton laughed a little uneasily. “Kate, you know how Cruz and I are together. We can barely stand each other.”

“Some might call that mere…foreplay. Because I know that despite how much you and Cruz seemed to hate each other sight unseen, there was also a certain chemistry there from the moment you met. The first time,” Kate added, having heard the whole story that same night. “But since you were engaged to Brad the Bozo, I didn’t give it a second thought. Until…you weren’t engaged. And I thought, knowing my impetuous young friend who was reeling from a bad break-up and who might be looking for some payback, what would she do that might have her too embarrassed to talk to her old friend?” Kate crossed her arms in front of her, towering over Payton by a good six inches. “So spill. Don’t make me wrestle you to the bed and tickle it out of you.”

Payton wasn’t intimidated in the least by her friend. A friend who knew her so well that it was sometimes freaky how she could get into her head like she did. But Payton had resolved not to bend Kate’s ear any more than she already had with the tumultuous and disastrous twist her life had taken. This was Kate’s weekend. No—her wedding day. This wasn’t about Payton.

“Kate. I love you. You know that and I really appreciate your concern, but today is your big day. A day when you are about to commit to the man of your dreams for the rest of your lives.”

“You think that me wanting the salacious details of your life is going to ruin my day? Heck, Payton, I’m dying to know, and if you make me wait another minute, I’m seriously going to dial your mother’s cell right now and have her come up here pronto.”

From the determined gleam in her friend’s gray eyes, Payton knew Kate had her beat. In defeat, Payton flung herself onto the bed, her arm draped across her eyes. “Let’s just say that the night started with good intentions. But somewhere between my first and—oh, ninth?—shot of tequila, it appears I managed to kiss the best man, and later…” For a moment, Payton considered spilling everything to Kate. Like the fact that she’d said I do somewhere in the past twelve hours. But she couldn’t be that selfish, not on her best friend’s wedding day. She’d wait until the dust settled to come clean with everything. Instead, she took a deep breath and finished her sentence. “And ended up in bed with said best man.”

Kate’s mouth dropped open, but nothing came out. Instead, she blinked several times.

“Kate? This has got to be a first. I have actually stunned you speechless.” Her friend would be practically catatonic if she were to tell her the whole truth.

Kate sank on the mattress next to Payton, shaking her head, as if trying to understand something. “Okay. Wait. Let’s go back. You’re saying that all it took was one kiss from Cruz to get you two horizontal? Wow. That must have been some kiss.” There was a smile in her voice.

“Well, it was a kiss—a fantastic toe curling kiss—followed by some dancing, a little more kissing, and loads of tequila. But only because we had to keep up the charade we were in Mexico to get married.” She closed her eyes. “Man, if I’d known when I told that fib—you know, just to get under Cruz’s skin—to the busload of Texan square-dancers who ran us off the road that we’d be staying with those people for the rest of the night, I probably would have rethought it.”

This time Kate actually grabbed both sides of her head. “What? Okay. You really have to go back a few more steps. Start with the bus.”

It took Payton five minutes to relay the whole story, careful to keep out any details of the impromptu wedding ceremony. Which wasn’t hard since a lot of that was still blurry—although bits and pieces were coming back to her.

“I knew something was up when Cruz answered the phone this morning. I could sense it in his voice,” Kate said, shaking her head. She turned sideways to look at Payton. “And?”

“And what?”

“And what happened this morning? Did you guys talk about it?”

They certainly talked, talked about how the heck they were going to get out of their mess. But did they talk about all the emotions that had been building that led to that moment? That up until things got hazy thanks to the barrel of tequila she’d consumed, she’d been having strong feelings for the best man that had left her confused but also excited?

“No. Not really,” she answered truthfully. “We focused on getting here.”

Kate snorted. “That must have been some ride back. Well, now that you’ve had some time to process it all, how are you feeling? Do…do you like him?”

Man, she knew confiding as much as she had with Kate was going to be trouble. “Do I still think he’s a complete Neanderthal with no redeeming qualities other than his silence? Probably not.”

Kate laughed and pushed Payton’s shoulder. “Come on, tell me the truth. You like him. You did when you first saw him, no matter how much you talked yourself out of it. And now that you’ve dumped Brad and have nothing stopping you from getting to know him better…”

“Actually, I do have something stopping us. Or someone. You know this huge deal Cruz has been putting together? Did you know that it’s with Eastman Motors?”

Kate’s brows furrowed for a moment. “Eastman Motors? As in… Oh. But you’re not engaged to Brad anymore. I’m not sure if this is as big as you think it—”

“Did I tell you that Dick already had a nice chat with Cruz yesterday? About trying to bring me around to resolving things with Brad?”

“What a slimeball. But Cruz didn’t do it. He was upfront with you…” She trailed off when Payton shook her head.

“He wasn’t initially. But you’re right; he did own up to it and apologize when I caught onto him. But it just goes to show you how important this deal is to him. So whether I have any feelings for him or not, that isn’t what’s relevant here. Not when I can’t see Cruz running the risk of jeopardizing this deal by ticking off Dick Eastman. This is the only thing that that matters to him right now.”