“Trust me,” he said, eyes still crinkled with laughter. “No one expects you to be sunshine and rainbows.”
Her brows knit. What was that supposed to mean?
“It’s not an indictment,” Brendon tacked on, eyes widening in alarm as if he’d realized he’d said the wrong thing. “We like you exactly as you are.”
Annie nodded briskly in agreement, but Margot couldn’t help but feel like maybe it wasn’t true. That maybe her friends would like her better if she were a little more sunshine and rainbows.
Margot dug inside her bag for her lip balm. She’d just have to try harder, lay it on thicker. “Who are we waiting on?”
Brendon fished around inside his pocket. “The facility manager had to step out to make a call, and the wedding planner texted a couple minutes ago and said she’s trying to find a place to park. She should be here—”
“I’m so sorry I’m late.” Breathless laughter came from behind their group. “Parking was a pain.”
The lid to Margot’s ChapStick slipped out of her fingers and bounced against the floor before rolling a foot away. Great. She crouched, shuffling forward to snag it from beside Darcy’s foot.
Brendon grinned. “No worries. Olivia, right? I’m Brendon.”
“It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. This is my fiancée, Annie; my sister, Darcy; her girlfriend, Elle.”
“Hi,” Elle chirped.
Margot stood, dusting off her knees.
“This is my friend and Best Woman—”
“Margot?”
All the air left Margot’s lungs in a punched-out exhale as soon as she locked eyes with the statuesque blond across the room.
Olivia Grant. Holy shit.
Olivia’s pouty, lush lips parted, mirroring Margot’s shock. An abundance of tawny hair spilled out from beneath her dark red beanie, tumbling down her back in soft waves, longer than Margot remembered. For a moment, Margot was too tongue-tied to speak.
Elle’s forehead furrowed, and Margot coughed.
“Olivia.” Her voice actually cracked. Kill her now. “Right. I thought you looked . . . familiar.” Familiar. Ha. Familiar was for acquaintances. Not whatever the hell they once were. “It’s, um, Olivia Taylor now, right?
Not that Margot had looked Olivia up online or anything. Not that she’d specifically not looked, either. Maybe she’d taken a peek at her Facebook profile, but only because it had popped up under suggested friends. Margot hadn’t sent her a friend request or anything like that. They weren’t friends. Not anymore. Olivia whatever-her-last-name-was was just someone Margot used to know.
Someone Margot had once spent the better part of a week with naked, tangled up in the sheets of Olivia’s childhood bed, wringing multiple orgasms out of, until Margot’s jaw had ached and Olivia’s voice had grown hoarse. Five days that were, arguably, the best of Margot’s life, full of toe-curling sex and laughter that made her stomach hurt. The start of something, a new chapter between them, one where Margot didn’t have to spend another second secretly pining for her best friend because all her feelings were returned.
Or so she’d thought.
“It was.” Olivia coughed and clasped her hands in front of her for a brief moment before dropping them back to her sides where they dangled loosely, like she didn’t know what to do with them. “It’s Grant again.”
Margot’s eyes dropped to Olivia’s left hand, her ring finger bare.
Huh.
Interesting.
“Wait.” Brendon pointed between the both of them, looking confused. “You two know each other?”
Color rose in Olivia’s cheeks, and Margot remembered tracing the southward spread of that blush with her fingertips, tasting it with her tongue, Olivia’s skin soft as satin and hot beneath Margot’s lips. For a split second, Margot went dizzy, blood rising to the surface of her skin, mimicking Olivia’s flush.
Know each other. Margot swallowed hard. You could say that.
“Olivia and I go way back.” Back to Girl Scouts and slumber parties and double-dog dares and pinky promises made beneath the stars. Promises that had been long since forgotten, broken. “It’s been, what, eleven years?”
Olivia’s hazel eyes rounded as she met Margot’s stare across the room. “Give or take. We, um, we went to school together,” she said, words rushing out of her in a jumble. “In Enumclaw.”
“Damn.” Brendon’s eyes darted between them. “Talk about serendipity, right?”