Tempting the Best Man - By J. Lynn Page 0,27

could use some help.”

Damn that meddlesome woman.

Taking a deep breath, she plotted about a thousand ways to stitch her mom’s mouth shut. “It’s okay. I got this. I’m sure there are other things you’d rather be doing.”

He raised one brow suggestively and she blushed. And now she was thinking there were things she’d rather be doing, too. Damn him.

He motioned at the full boxes. “From up here, it looks like you need help.”

She shrugged as she folded a program, ducking her head and letting her hair shift forward and cover her flaming red face.

Inching into the room, he nudged the door shut. “At the rate you’re going, you’ll be here until the wedding.”

“Hardy-har-har.” She watched him sit down on the other side of the boxes. “Chase, I appreciate this…but you don’t have to.”

He shrugged and grabbed a program. A frown creased his forehead. “What the hell?” Turning over the stark white paper with crimson lettering, he shook his head. “This layout makes no sense.”

Laughing softly, she set hers aside and leaned forward. “See these faint dots?” When he nodded, she sat back and picked up her own. “You have to fold them at the dots, going in a different way, like a pamphlet. See?”

It took Chase a couple of tries before he got the edges to line up perfectly. As she watched his nimble fingers slide along the crease of the second program, her cheeks heated.

He looked up, fingers pausing. “So now that I’m here, you’re just going to sit there and…stare at me?”

Madison blinked and snatched another program. “I’m not staring at you.”

“Sure.” He drew the word out.

“Certain you don’t have something better to do?” Dividing the programs into halves, she again wanted to strangle her mom.

“Better than annoying you? There’s no such thing.”

Madison tried to ignore the teasing tone to his words, but it was hard. A small grin broke free and after a couple of moments, they fell into an easy, companionable silence as they worked on the programs.

The quiet was broken by Chase’s low chuckle, drawing her attention. “What?” she asked, wondering what she had done now.

“It’s just strange seeing you do this. Crafts aren’t your thing.”

Relaxing, she steadied the growing pile between them. “You never struck me as a craft guy, either.”

He laughed again. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You’re making sure that Mitch and Lissa’s wedding goes off without any problems.”

“And helping you.”

Madison smiled at that. “And helping me. By the way, I’m really grateful you are helping, because this would’ve taken me forever.” Pausing, she placed another on the stack and reached for one more. “But I’m sorry my mom conned you into doing this.”

Chase’s fingers stilled over the program, and his gaze met hers. It was crazy. Dressed down in worn blue jeans and a black shirt, he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. And the moment was sort of perfect.

Even with the deer head staring over his shoulder like a total creeper.

His gaze moved to the program in his hands. “Your mom did mention you were doing this now.”

His sentence seemed loaded, like she was missing the punch line or something. Tilting her head to the side, she waited. “Okay?”

“But she didn’t ask me.” The tips of his cheekbones flushed. “I figured you could use the help.”

Her mouth opened but nothing came out. Sure, he was just helping her fold programs out of the goodness of his heart, so it wasn’t a ringing declaration of love, but still…

Chase cleared his throat. “And with all this wine laying around, someone needs to keep an eye on you.”

Madison laughed. “I’m not a wino.”

“You were last night.”

“Was not!”

He arched a brow. “You were dancing on a bench with some tool.”

Shaking her head, she smiled. “His name is Bobby.”

“I think his name is Rob.”

“Oh.” She bit down on her lip. “Same difference.”

He leaned forward, tapping her knee with his knuckles. “And you sat down in the middle of the pathway.”

She remembered. “I was tired.”

“And you started talking about how big the moon was.” He sat back, grinning. And suddenly… God, suddenly it was five years ago and everything…everything was normal between them.

Her chest ached, but in a good way.

“It was like you’d never seen the moon before. Surprised you still don’t think it’s a ball of cheese in the sky.”

She threw her folded program at him. “I’m not five, Chase!”

He picked up the paper. “But you were that tipsy.”

Giggling at his comment, she grabbed the box of programs and realized it was