even arrived! But he had time to slip the waitress his card and tell her to call him when she got off.”
Bridget gasped. “Now, I remember. What a sleazeball! What does Tom say about him?”
“Just that Scooter’s a good guy with a complicated past. They’ve been friends for years. I’m trying to be kind and patient and give the guy another chance. He is Tom’s best friend, and my fiancé has a heart of gold. But I won’t lie. It’s not easy, and I’m concerned he may have ulterior motives.”
“What does this Scooter do again?” Bridget asked. She needed some intel on this creep.
“He and Tom went to law school together, but now he runs a business where he buys and sells companies. He’s a successful guy—a hard-nosed businessman from the sound of it.”
“What do you think his ulterior motives are?” she pressed.
“For one thing, Tom says that Scooter’s not sold on the institution of marriage at all. And I get the feeling that he thinks I’m wrong for Tom or doesn’t approve of me. I don’t know! I’m worried about what he might say or what he might do once he gets here.”
Bridget clenched her jaw as anger coursed through her veins.
Who the hell was anyone to judge her sister’s character? Smart, kind, and dedicated, women didn’t get better than Lori! And she wasn’t about to let anyone—let alone some douchebag named Scooter—wreck her sister’s happiness. She’d made a promise to her grandmother that she’d take care of Lori, and she wasn’t about to sit back and allow some jerk with an agenda to ruin her little sister’s wedding.
Hell to the no!
But she couldn’t unload on the guy—not to Lori. As much as she wanted to have a bitch fest and roast the guy’s testicles, it wouldn’t do any good. This guy was Tom’s friend, and she had to defuse this now and put her sister’s mind at ease.
Not to mention, she felt like there was something else weighing on her sister’s heart. But managing this Scooter was priority number one.
“Lori, honey, I’ve only met Tom once, but it was clear as day that he loves you. He could barely look away from you. It was like watching Mom and Dad.”
“Love at first sight,” Lori said, the wistful lilt of nostalgia replacing the worry in her voice.
“Love at first sight,” Bridget repeated. She closed her eyes. “Dad said the moment he walked into the lecture hall and saw Mom finishing up teaching her class, he knew right then and there that he was going to marry her.”
“Like me! When I got hired on at Abbott and Associates. Tom walked into my office on my first day to introduce himself, and I don’t think I’ve ever been the same since,” she answered, her tone growing dreamy.
Her sister’s romance with Tom was right out of a storybook. He’d swept Lori off her feet. The guy sent her flowers and took her on romantic getaways. And he’d done something she’d never expected. He’d asked her for Lori’s hand in marriage. The two of them had only been dating three months, but when he and Lori had flown down to Texas for a visit, the man was as genuine as they come.
“Is there something else you want to tell me, Lori?” she asked, her sister sixth sense kicking in.
For a beat, neither woman spoke.
“Look at me, blabbering on about Tom. How’s Garrett? Is he still able to come with you to the wedding?” Lori replied, shifting gears.
Bridget blinked. Was it odd that sometimes she forgot that she was dating someone?
Garrett was in the last year of his surgical residency and worked almost as much as she did. They were…fine. Compatible. Not the stop-the-presses kind of love like her parents or Lori and Tom had. No, what she had with Garrett was comfortable. The sex was…adequate. Or at least, that’s how she’d remembered it. With the holidays, she’d been working hundred-hour weeks, and he’d been equally busy at the hospital. They didn’t have a whole lot of time to tear each other’s clothes off. Well, they’d never done that. But who does that, really?
Bridget chewed her lip.
When was the last time they’d even kissed, not to mention slept together?
Worry settled in her belly, but she ignored the sensation.
It was all good.
Yep, totally fine.
The last time she’d stopped by his place, she’d seen a gift bag tucked away in Garrett’s closet. Upon closer inspection, she’d found it contained a sexy fire-engine red bra and pantie