talk about this with you two is like herding cats.”
Leland was enjoying himself now. It was rare to see his unflappable partner off-balance.
“Forget all the details,” Derek said. “I’ve been thinking about my best man. I know it’s supposed to be just one man, but this job calls for two. You’ve both been there for me through all the ups and downs of our roller coaster ride with starting KRG. You helped me make my proposal to Alice an event straight out of her dreams.”
“Leland even wore a wig. He gets extra credit for that,” Tully interjected.
Derek’s fiancée loved Regency romances, so Derek had rented a mansion in New Jersey and asked his friends to dress up as a coach driver—that was Tully, since he somehow knew how to drive a team of horses—and a nobleman’s butler. Hence the wig, which had itched like the devil.
“You’re the kind of friends a man is lucky to have one of, let alone two.” Derek swallowed visibly. “It’s a little unorthodox, but I would be honored if you would both agree to be my best men.”
“Hell, yes!” Tully said. “I’ll drive you to the church in a coach-and-four.”
Derek chuckled. “That won’t be necessary.” He turned to Leland.
“The honor is mine.” Leland meant it. The three of them had been through hell and high water together since business school. They’d had each other’s backs when they thought KRG was going to fail. They’d celebrated every success, of which there were pitifully few in the beginning. They’d beaten the odds because when one of them got discouraged, the others were there to shore him up. These men were more than brothers to him.
“Are we going to have a group hug?” Tully asked. “Because I’m in.”
Derek laughed. “Maybe at the wedding. Thank you, both of you. You are indeed the best men.”
The happiness that glowed around Derek these days would have been nauseating if he didn’t so richly deserve it. Leland hadn’t believed that any of them could find that kind of love. They were too driven by their own personal demons, always striving for the next level of success.
All this talk of Alice brought his thoughts back to her friend Dawn and his disappointment that the Wi-Fi problem had been resolved without his help.
Although he still wondered what had generated such a high level of traffic on a local gym’s Wi-Fi. Especially since it had continued for two weeks without anyone detecting or blocking it. Even an idiot could see that it was what had caused the streaming impairment. Did that mean they weren’t able to stop it, or they didn’t want to? The second possibility intrigued him.
Leland started when Derek plunked a glass of neat bourbon down on the coffee table in front of him.
“A toast,” Derek said. “To best men and best friends!”
Leland raised his glass and let the smooth whiskey burn down his throat while he celebrated with his partners.
But part of his brain was still back at the Work It Out gym. He hated an unsolved puzzle. Even more, he would miss the little edge of fun in his email exchanges with Dawn.
Chapter 3
“Okay, that’s it for today,” Dawn said to her client, a high school tennis player who came after classes to improve his flexibility. She offered him her hand to get up from the mat.
“That was a good workout, Coach,” the young man said, wiping his face with his sweat towel. He draped it around his neck, grabbed his water bottle, and checked his cell phone.
Dawn sighed. Getting a kid to leave his phone in the locker room was nearly impossible, but she’d insisted that he put it on mute.
“Shi-oot!” he said with an apologetic glance at her. “I’m running out of data allowance again. I don’t get it because I’m on the gym’s Wi-Fi.” He tapped at the phone. “Mom’s gonna be pissed.”
“You’re the third person who’s complained about that today, so I don’t think it’s your fault.” She grinned at him. “Tell your mom I said so.”
“Thanks, Coach, I will.” He looked relieved as he started toward the door.
Dawn smiled as she picked up the mat to clean and rehang it. She got a kick out of being called Coach. Her smile turned to a frown as she remembered his complaint.
The customers were getting cranky about the ongoing IT issues at the gym. That was bad because people were often just looking for an excuse to cancel their membership. She didn’t want to see Ramón’s business get