The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,259

had a room in his apartment stuffed so full with football paraphernalia, he could star in an episode of one of those hoarder shows. What semi-intelligent man could be with Libby St. Clair without being infatuated to the point of distraction over her?

The next morning he called her as soon as he was sure she’d be awake.

“Lib, I’m sorry. I said some things I wish I could take back.” He was surprised by how easily the apology rolled off his tongue. The first apology he could remember making was the one he’d been forced to give to his mean next-door neighbor after cutting her flowers to make his mother a bouquet. He was four at the time. Apologies had been soured for him ever since. But while he hadn’t been sorry about the neighbor lady’s flowers, he did regret hurting Libby. She was the very last person he wanted to hurt.

Libby didn’t respond for several seconds, and his heart thudded against his ribcage. Had he pushed her too far? Finally, she cleared her throat. “I want you to be in the wedding.”

“What?” Rein it in, Noah. He couldn’t lose control again. He softened his tone, then joked, “I’m warning you I won’t wear a tacky rayon dress. I’m more of a silk guy.”

“Very funny,” she chuckled, but it wasn’t her genuine laugh—the one that made him feel good inside just from hearing it. “You’ll be one of the groomsmen.”

“Does Mitch know about this?”

“He thinks it’s a great idea.”

That didn’t surprise him. Mitch was one of the most laid back, albeit clueless, guys he had ever met.

“So? Will you?”

“Sure.” Not that he ever expected the wedding to take place. Libby had stepped up twice to keep her friends from making mistakes with their marriages. They owed her big time, and surely they would see what he did—that while Mitch was a good guy, he wasn’t the type who could snare Libby’s heart.

Only it didn’t happen that way.

When Noah brought it up to Josh at the office a week later, Josh played it off. “Megan and Libby had a good heart-to-heart talk, and Megan thinks Libby’s happy.”

Noah frowned. “She’s taking Libby’s two years of acting in college into account, right?”

Josh had looked up from his computer. “Why would she pretend to be happy? Especially when she was so adamant about making sure Megan and Blair made the right choices.”

Noah shook his head. “I’ve heard her mention something about getting married before her thirtieth birthday. Her birthday is next month. Maybe she’s feeling the pressure.”

“Libby? Feeling social pressure? Not likely.” Josh laughed. “If anything, it’s that stupid curse nonsense.”

Noah perked up. “What curse nonsense?”

Josh shrugged. “Megan mentioned it right after our wedding. Something about Libby believing all three of them were cursed to have disastrous weddings.”

“What does that have to do with her getting married before her birthday?”

He gave Noah an ornery grin. “I confess, my attention was on other things when Megan told me, so a lot of the details escaped me.”

Noah cringed. “TMI, dude.”

“Really? This from the king of TMI? How many of your exploits have I been forced to hear about?”

“That was different. Megan’s my sister-in-law.”

Josh gave him a look of surprise, then continued. “Like I said, I don’t remember a lot of the details, but I do know Libby totally believes in it.”

Noah sucked in a breath, trying to quell his brewing nausea. “I don’t know, Josh. I have a really bad feeling about this.”

Josh’s gaze narrowed. “Maybe you need to take a good look at why you have that feeling.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Maybe you need to examine your own life.”

Here he was trying to save his friend from making the biggest mistake of her life and Josh was using it as yet another opportunity to point out what a screw-up he was. He started to walk away, but Josh called after him.

“How’s the Abrahams account coming?”

So Josh really didn’t trust him. Noah stopped in his tracks and turned to face his brother. “Great. I have a meeting with Scott next week.”

“You’re sure you’ve got this? I know you went to college with him, but I can help if you need me to intervene.”

Noah tried to stifle his irritation. He couldn’t really blame Josh for being cautious. After all, he had spent the better part of a decade trying to do as little as possible. Still, it sucked to be treated like a preschooler, even if he deserved it. “I think we’re good.”

Josh lowered his voice. “Look,