The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            She almost couldn’t breathe.

            Every time she tried to stop laughing, she pictured it again.

            She screamed when the door flew open behind them, dropping them both out of the closet and onto the lobby floor.

            A housekeeper stood there, blinking at them with her hand on the doorknob.

            Hallie quickly scrambled out from under Jack and into a sitting position as the bright lights assaulted her eyes. She looked at him, lying on the hotel floor with red lipstick smudged all over the bottom of his face and hair sticking up everywhere. He looked as shell-shocked as she felt.

            He sat up, and then he looked at her.

            That grin crawled all the way up his face before he threw his head back and started laughing all over again, even as the hotel employee stared blankly at them.

            That was the moment she knew.





Chapter

TWENTY-ONE



Jack


            “So it’s cigars and scotch on the east patio for the gents and cosmos on the west patio for the ladies.”

            Jack watched Hallie’s sister put the microphone back on the stand, and he thought it was interesting how different they were. Lillie seemed great, but Hallie was just so . . . Hal.

            “Are you freaking kidding me?”

            Speak of the devil.

            He turned around as Hallie approached, looking put together again. No more eye makeup smears, no more red lipstick all over. He missed the mess. He played innocent on her remark and said, “Pardon?”

            “Where are we—Victorian England? The gentlemen will retire for scotch and cigars while the ladies rest their delicate constitutions?” She watched as the rehearsal guests started heading for their respective patios. “What if I want a cigar?”

            He looked at her lips. Couldn’t keep his eyes off them, all of a sudden. He asked, “What exactly is a constitution?”

            Hallie shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m positive mine is just as strong as yours.”

            “You wish.” He patted down a piece of her hair that was sticking up. “Do you even want a cigar?”

            “Not really,” she said, smoothing down the same piece of hair while finally meeting his eyes. “But I don’t want a damn cosmo, either.”

            “C’mon, Jack,” Chuck said, walking over and giving a chin nod toward the east exit. “Time for us gents to get our stogies on.”

            “I want to go with you guys—”

            “Get over here, Hal,” Hallie’s mother half shouted from the west exit. “Please?”

            “Git,” Chuck said, giving Hallie a tiny push. “Go be a good little female.”

            “Screw you,” she said to Chuck, and then she pointed at Jack and said, “Be ready to hold my hair tonight, because if I have to drink cosmos with my mother and talk about what happens on the wedding night, swear to God I’m getting hammered.”

            He and Chuck were still laughing when she turned and marched away, and there was nothing he could do but watch her go.

            What a fucking force.



* * *



            • • •

            “So, can I ask you a question about Hal?”

            Jack slowly shook his head and exhaled a puff of cigar smoke, watching it rise in the night sky. “If you must, Chuck.”

            Chuck cleared his throat and said, “So, things are good with her?”

            Jack tilted his head and looked at the guy. He really, really liked Chuck. Chuck was nerdy and nice and funny as hell. Jack said, “Yeah.”

            “So you like her a lot?”

            “Yeah.” Jack looked at the other side of the patio, where the groomsmen were playing some stupid drinking game, and said, “I do.”

            “Here’s the thing.” Chuck frowned and said, “Did she tell you anything about Ben?”