His Best Man's Baby (2 page)

“So you brought a girlfriend with you?”

She thought she’d cornered him, but he stepped closer and took her hand. A chill raced over her skin, bringing goose bumps up on her arms. “I’m all alone. Would you fill in?”

“Not on your life, pal.” She tugged her hand free of his grasp and turned back to the counter. Once her business was done, she refused help with her bags and started toward the bank of elevators. Jax, strolling with the casual grace of a jungle cat, joined her. She peered over at him from the corner of her eye and took in the short-sleeved shirt that hugged powerful arms at the biceps and his slacks, which hugged narrow hips but gave room to the generous rise at the crotch.

“Are you checking me out, Tae?”

She jumped at hearing his low, sexy voice and frowned at him. “Of course not.”

“Hm.” He winked at her and held the elevator door open while she passed by him. His fingertips grazed her lower back for just a second until she moved away on the pretext of pressing the button for her floor.

“How is the private-investigations business going?” she asked. “Any interesting cases?”

“Every now and then. Often it’s following cheating spouses and gathering evidence for divorce court.”

She shook her head. “Great, more reason not to get married.”

He gazed at her. “That why you turned our guy down three years ago?”

She sighed. “Jeez, does everyone know my history?”

“Everyone like who?”

“Never mind.”

He moved closer, and all of a sudden the elevator seemed no bigger than a small closet. The scent of his aftershave tickled her nose, or it could have been cologne. Either way, he smelled yummy. She took a deep breath, finding no reason not to enjoy it for the moment. The problem originated with his charm and how he used it at every opportunity, on every woman, including her. She knew he didn’t mean anything by it, that it was just his way, but Jax was a temptation for any hot-blooded woman who hadn’t had sex with anything other than her vibrator for too damn long.

“Are you still in love with him?”

The question caught her off guard and ripped her from her thoughts. Odd that at that moment she’d been thinking of touching Jax and not of Daniel. The question couldn’t have been more ill timed. “Why would you ask me that?”

“It’s a question.”

“I know, but—”

“I’ve known you both for a long time,” he said, “and I watched the two of you together. You loved him, and he practically survived off every word that fell from those beautiful lips.”

She put her hand on her hip. “Are you trying to guilt-trip me?”

“Not at all.” When he touched a hand to her cheek, she gasped and stared up at him. “If you still love him, this will be hard for you, seeing him marry someone else.”

The unexpected empathy blew her away. Never in a million years would she have thought Jax would say such a thing to her. He and she were friends, but they never did more than flirt and tease. They didn’t hang out except when he’d double date with whatever woman had caught his fancy at the time with her and Daniel. He had always seemed nice but shallow.

She lowered her gaze and pulled out of his grasp. “I’m fine. Thanks. What Daniel and I had is in the past. I appreciate your concern.”

The elevator dinged a floor before hers. Jax reached out to play with a lock of her hair. A tingle of awareness raced through her system. “I like how you keep changing it, black one week, red the next, blond after that.”

She suppressed a grin. “You don’t see me often enough to know if that’s true.”

“Have dinner with me tonight.”

The elevator doors slid open just as she opened her mouth to turn him down. Words died on her lips when she came face-to-face with Daniel, an older woman, and a younger woman who could be her sister.

Chapter Two

“Tae, you’re here.”

“Hey, Daniel.” Tae didn’t get to finish her greeting before he dragged her off the elevator and into a bear hug. If she’d been aware of Jax’s sexy presence a moment ago, Daniel’s overwhelmed her senses and weakened her knees. His big arms encircling her generated both a feeling of comfort and one of panic. She pasted a smile on her face and fought to get free of his hold, stepping back when she did to put space between them. Despite the distance, her nostrils were filled with her ex-boyfriend’s scent, and all it did was evoke memory after memory of their time together.

“Let me introduce you to Alise,” he was saying, but Tae focused on the man himself. As usual, Daniel wore a suit. She’d teased him many times that he lived in them. Only when they dated had she convinced him to dress down. They’d had to shop for sandals for him the one time she had unbent enough to take him to a family reunion.

Daniel’s blond hair had been cut recently, she assumed, by the way it lay in perfect order. She’d always preferred it a little longer and somewhat disheveled, what she’d called the fresh-from-bed look. Only a hot white guy could pull off the look, and Daniel could, but that wasn’t his style. His blue eyes shone with happiness, and she had a twinge of jealousy, which she stomped down to pay attention to his words.

“This is my fiancée, Alise Harper and her mother Mrs. Juanita Harper. Alise and Juanita, this is a good friend of mine, Octavia Croft, but everyone calls her Tae.”

Alise wrinkled a cute little nose with a dusting of freckles on it. “What kind of name is Octavia?” Her skin tone was a close match to Tae’s if a hair lighter, and Tae suspected the wave in her hair didn’t come from a flat iron. Tall with long shapely legs, shown off in a minidress, the woman made Tae the cheap knockoff to the original, but her snooty attitude left a lot to be desired.

“It’s the kind of name my father gave me,” Tae snapped. “It was my grandmother’s name.”

“Alise,” Daniel scolded.

“Oh, sorry,” she said with clear insincerity. “I get pissy when I’m hungry. Danny, you know I don’t like waiting.”

Tae looked from Alise to Daniel to Jax, whose expression held amusement. Was Daniel seriously going to marry this chick? Tae drew in a breath and blew it out. She decided to extend Alise the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this was just prewedding jitters. Yeah, that must be it.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you both,” Tae said between clenched teeth. “If you all will excuse me, I’m going to get settled in my room.”

Daniel grabbed Tae’s hand, saw the evil glare Alise gave him, and dropped it like a hot potato. “Tae, if you don’t have any plans for dinner, why don’t you join us?”

“I—”

Jax’s big hands settled on her arms. She’d forgotten he stood behind her and about his offer. “She’s agreed to have dinner with me.”

Tae gave him a break and didn’t call him out on the lie, but Daniel’s smile seemed forced. She noted the annoyance in his gaze. “The more the merrier. I made reservations at Nakato.”

“I thought you didn’t need reservations there,” Tae said.

Daniel smiled and took Alise’s hand in his. “I wanted to be sure everything worked out perfectly and there wasn’t a wait.

Of course, or she’d pitch a fit.

“Oh okay. Um, I don’t want to horn in on your time…”

“I’m not taking no for an answer, Tae, so put your stuff in your room. We’ll be in the lobby.”

She suppressed a sigh.

“I’ll help you,” Jax told her.

“I don’t need—”

He shuffled her down the hall, and the impatient Alise dragged Daniel toward the elevator. Tae recognized a losing battle and gave in. Twenty minutes later, she, Daniel, Jax, and Alise and her mother sat around a table with a hibachi grill in the middle of it, waiting for their personal chef to begin his show while preparing their food.

The chef began his routine tapping his fork and metal spatula on the grill in a smooth rhythm to capture all of their attention. He swung the utensils around, flipped them in the air, and ducked his head beneath them a few times. Tae and Jax clapped and cheered. Daniel smiled, and Alise appeared less than impressed while she clung to Daniel’s arm as if someone might steal him away. Tae wasn’t sure if Mrs. Harper was awake.

Piles of veggies were added to the grill, atop a generous amount of oil, then shrimp. Tae always enjoyed watching how the chef’s hands blurred as he prepared the shrimp. He sent the meat to one pile and flicked the tails in another direction. When he was done, he flipped the tails so they disappeared. She had no idea where they landed. Next, he carefully compiled a volcano made of onion. He poured vodka and olive oil into the center. Tae glanced at Alise, but the woman paid the chef no mind. The little volcano went up on fire, and Tae whooped.

“You’re like a little kid, easily entertained,” Jax whispered in her ear.

She punched his arm. “You liked it, too. Don’t lie.”

He shrugged. “I never pretended to be mature.”

“Idiot.” She laughed at him, and he grinned back. Tae noted how Alise placed a manicured nail beneath Daniel’s chin and directed his attention toward her. She said something too low to hear, and Daniel’s blue gaze flashed with interest. Tae looked down at her hands, barren of any rings. She’d taken them off that morning to wash a few dishes and forgot to put them back on. Three years ago when she told Daniel she couldn’t marry him, she had asked herself a million times if she made the right choice. Every so often, she reaffirmed, if only to herself, that the decision had been right for her.

“You’re missing the show,” Jax said.

She looked up, but the chef could no longer keep her focus. Determined to keep a positive outlook, she turned to Jax. His green eyes, which always held a sense of mystery, were trained on her. Right now, the knowing they reflected pissed her off, but she swallowed the emotion. “Is work ever dangerous?”

He hesitated, and at first she thought he’d call her on the attempt to distract herself and him, but he gave in. “Sometimes. Not long ago, I followed a guy whose wife believed he was having an affair.”

“Was he?”

“No, that’s the thing.” Jax frowned, remembering. “He had an addiction to gambling—
illegal
gambling—and I stumbled onto the people he owed money. A case of mistaken identity.”

The wince as if he recalled pain made her put her hand on his arm. “Oh wow, you didn’t get hurt too badly, did you? I guess you didn’t considering you look okay to me.”

Jax leaned in closer. “You like the way I look, Tae?”

“Does your mind ever leave the gutter?”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

She smirked and shook her head. “So what did they do?”

He shrugged. “Cracked a rib, a few bruises. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Of course.”

They chatted some more, and then Daniel drew them into conversation, entertaining and charming all rolled into one. When she got her food, Tae shifted it around her plate, half listening to the conversation around her. Only when she couldn’t avoid it did she join in. Old emotions, insecurity, questions, all bubbled up inside her regarding Daniel, and what made it worse was he seemed so oblivious of how confused he made her. One minute he looked at Alise as if she were his world, and that was the way it should be. The next he said something Tae and no one else would know the meaning of, directing a devastating smile at her that she had to fight a reaction to with all her might.

After one such instance, Jax bumped her arm with his. “You okay?”

She made a small sound of dismissal and waved her fork. “Please, I’m having a great time.” Internally, she groaned.
Why would I say that? It sounds stupid.

For once, Jax didn’t tease her, and she was grateful to him.

Halfway through the meal, several ladies called out to Alise from across the restaurant, and for the first time that evening, Alise perked up, a smile spreading over her face as she waved the three women—two white and one black—over to their table. “At last my friends are here,” Alise gushed. “This boring dinner will have some life.”

Tae’s mouth fell open, and her eyes widened. “She did not just—”

Jax grabbed Tae’s hand and drew it into his lap. “Let it go,” he murmured under his breath.

Tae frowned at him. “You’ve got to be kidding,” she whispered back while the others were talking. “She didn’t just diss us. She disrespected Daniel. If he’s that boring, why is she marrying him?”

“Tae.” His stern tone was enough to snap her out of her anger, and she shut her mouth so fast her teeth clicked, sending a sharp pain through her jaw.

She opened her purse and pulled out her wallet. “I think I’ve had enough for one evening. I’m going to go back to my room. You all enjoy yourselves. Daniel, this should be enough for my part of the check.”

Daniel leaned across the table and closed her fingers over the money she tried to hand him. A tingle of awareness raced from her fingertips, across her hand, and up her arm. “Don’t insult me offering to pay, and don’t leave. I was thinking we’d all go across to the hotel bar and have a few drinks.”

“I’m really tired,” she lied. “Thanks though. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Tae tugged her hand free of his and stood up. Jax started to rise, but she held him where he was. “Good night. Thank you for dinner, Daniel.”

Before anyone could say more, or for that matter before
she
could, she hightailed it out of the restaurant. With luck, the rest of the weekend would go better. She would wish Daniel all the happiness in the world and walk away.

* * * *

Tae checked the minifridge in her room and then realized she’d need to go to the ice machine. On the way, she could grab a cola and some chips from the snack machine.
Tomorrow, no next week, I’m going to get healthy and start exercising.

She rifled through her purse and found change, but it probably wasn’t enough, so she pealed off a few dollar bills from the thin stack in her wallet.

Standing in front of the vending machine, balancing the ice bucket on her hip, she debated between Cheetos, her favorite, and Doritos, her second best.

“Still a snack junkie, I see.”

Tae jumped, and Daniel squeezed her shoulder. Her heartbeat skidded out of control. “Daniel, I didn’t hear you behind me.”