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“
It’s John,”
Marci mouthed to me.

John. The groom. Probably looking
for his missing bride because as the door slammed closed behind him
it was pretty clear he’d come alone. Beth wasn’t with
him.

His gaze found me.
Self-consciously I tugged the top of the corset higher, but my boobs
only popped up more so I decided to cut my losses and let my hands
drop.

“
Rose. Thank God, you’re
awake.” He came directly to my bed and sat on the edge. Concern
was written all over his face as he took my hand in his. “Are
you all right?”

I managed a nod, but that was
about it.

“
I was so worried about you
last night.” He cupped my chin as he leaned in and pressed his
lips to mine.

I pulled back to find the room
silent. Jen and Marci looked about as shocked as I was.

“
Um, all right. What the
hell happened last night?” Marci finally asked.

Since the groom was kissing me
the day before his wedding while the bride was missing, I figured
that was as good a question as any. And I certainly didn’t have
the answer. Nor would I anytime soon.

A wave of nausea hit me hard. I
pressed my hand to my mouth, shoved past the man on my bed and ran
for the toilet.

Even with my head surrounded by
porcelain I heard the door to the hallway open again and Jen say,
“Beth!”

I groaned. Oh man. Now the shit
was really about to hit the fan.

“
Shh. Not so loud. I have a
hangover. John had to take care of me all night. It wasn’t
pretty.” Hearing Beth’s voice eased my burden until I
remembered John, her fiancé who’d taken care of her all
night, was sitting on my bed after kissing me.

I managed to crawl my way to the
sink and hoist myself off my knees. I clung to the doorframe and
peered into the room.

“
Rose, are you okay?”
Beth’s brow furrowed

I shook my head. “Beth…”

She stepped closer to me. “I’m
so sorry. Tim called and told John all about what happened.”

She
was sorry? For what? I was the one kissing her groom in my bed. And
if she knew all about what happened, I wished she’d tell me.
Then again, I probably didn’t want to know.

Beth’s gaze went to the man
on the bed. “Thank you for bringing her back here last night.
John told me how you took care of her.”

“
No problem.” He
nodded once, then glanced at me. “It was the least I could do.”

“
Wait.” Marci stood
and pointed to the man on my bed. “He’s not John?”

“
No. This is Tim. John’s
downstairs parking the car.” Beth hooked a thumb toward the
hallway.

My breath caught in my throat as
another puzzle piece filled one more hole in my missing memory.
“Tim.”

His eyes met mine and warmth
spread through me…right before I puked in the sink.

Chapter 2: The Day Before

“
Rose!” Beth waved.
She wove her way around two travelers and their baggage and
encompassed me in a hug. “It’s so good to see you.”

“
It’s good to see you
too.” Especially good since I’d just gotten off the
flight from hell where we’d sat on the runway in Philly for an
hour for no apparent reason. I was late and annoyed. I kept one eye
on the luggage turnstile, waiting for my bag. “Thanks for
picking me up.”

“
Don’t be silly. Of
course I wanted to pick you up.” Beth looked gorgeous, as
usual. All Snow White-ish, right down to the hair as black as night
and skin as white as snow and eyes like bluebirds or whatever the
hell it was in the fairytale. If she weren’t so damn nice and
my best friend, I’d probably really hate her.

I ran my hand through my own
boring brown hair, which was starting to feel like a rats nest after
being crushed against the seat back for a few hours in flight. “Thank
you anyway. Sorry I’m late.”

She dismissed my apology with a
wave. “It’s fine. I checked online so I knew when you’d
be landing. We have plenty of time for you to go to the hotel and
freshen up before we go out. Jen and Marci are already checked in and
at the room.”

“
Good. So are you okay with
going to the bar right across the street from the hotel for your
bachelorette party?”

“
Of course. It sounds
great.”

“
It looked really cool
online.” That was another thing I hadn’t considered when
I’d said yes to this maid of honor gig. That I’d be
planning a bachelorette party long distance in a town I’d never
been to. Thank God for Google. I just hoped The Bourbon Cowboy bar
idea didn’t bomb. “There’s a mechanical bull.”
I threw out the only interesting fact I knew about the place.

Beth smiled. “Maybe
there’ll be cowboys.”

“
One can only hope.”
I laughed. My bag popped out of the hole in the wall and I stepped
forward to haul it off the conveyor belt. There was no way I could
dress for an entire weekend, maid of honor costume for this wedding
included, with just a carry-on, so I’d checked a suitcase. All
right, maybe I’d over packed a little. Whatever.

“
That it?” Beth
asked.

That’s what I loved about
Beth. In all of our travels together, no matter how much I packed,
she’d always pack more. I pulled up the handle on my suitcase.
“That’s it.”

She took her car keys out of the
designer purse I’d already begun to covet. “Great. Let’s
go. The French Quarter awaits.”

Having never been here before I
wasn’t exactly sure if I should be afraid of New Orleans, or it
should be afraid of us, since as a group we’d been known to get
a little wild back at Penn State in our college days. Of course, that
was before Beth had gotten engaged. Speaking of the fiancé…
“When do I get to meet John?”

“
Tomorrow at the rehearsal
and dinner. Then, of course, the wedding the next day. Then a brunch
the following day, when I get to fly away to my honeymoon in Hawaii.”
Beth grinned and clicked her key fob and a pretty little baby blue
BMW convertible winked its lights at us.

“
Sounds good.” I
climbed into the passenger seat, more envious of her car than her
honeymoon.

Beth paid for the parking and
pulled out of the lot. Once we were on the road, she glanced over at
me. “I’m really excited for you to meet John’s
brother Tim.”

Back in the recesses of my mind I
remembered Beth mentioning John had a twin brother. Now that she’d
brought him up, I started to get a bad feeling there was a set up in
the works.

I wasn’t opposed to meeting
a hot guy. Not at all, but I’d like to at least see him first.
Talk to him. Make sure he wasn’t an asshole before I was
expected to start double dating with him and my best friend and her
new husband. So far all I’d done was see a picture of John on
Beth’s Facebook page.

Since I had yet to respond, I
floundered for something appropriate to say that wouldn’t
encourage this set up too much. “So are they like identical
twins?”

“
Oh my God. Totally. I can
barely tell them apart. John’s mom told me they were always
switching places growing up and playing tricks on people. Even in
school. I joke all the time it’s a good thing John has that
USMC tattoo on his shoulder and Tim doesn’t so they can never
swap places on me.”

Hmm. I didn’t know how I
felt about the identical part. It would be like me buying the exact
same tangerine-colored Coach bag Beth sported today and us wearing
them out together. It just seemed…wrong. I glanced over and
could sense her excitement about this fix up. I figured I had better
say something else to at least show a little bit of interest. I
didn’t want to seem ungrateful. “Is Tim a Marine too?”

“
No. He used to be, but he
didn’t reenlist like John. Tim went to work for some big
aeronautics company instead.”

At least there was one
difference. I was a little less weirded out about the carbon copy,
identical twin thing.

We pulled in front of the hotel
and I found myself immersed in old New Orleans. It looked just like
the pictures I’d seen. Wrought iron balconies, hanging flowers,
all of it.

Beth put the car in park and
turned to me. “Is it okay if I just drop you off and don’t
park the car? I want to run home and change for tonight. Then I’ll
be back.”

“
Sure.”

“
Great. You’re in
room two-ten. Jen and Marci have your key.”

“
Perfect. Sounds good.”
I got out and was hit with thick, hot summer air. A shock after the
cool, air-conditioned car.

Beth opened the trunk so I could
retrieve my suitcase. “I’m so excited.”

I could tell, just from how high
the tone of her voice had risen. Too bad I was certain Beth was more
excited about making a match between me and Tim the twin than the
weekend’s wedding related events.

“
Me too,” I lied with
equal excitement, truly hoping Tim wasn’t an ass.

She drove off and I wrestled my
bag inside where the staff directed me to the elevators. Once I’d
reached my room upstairs, I was bombarded by squeals and hugs from
Marci and Jen.

I plopped my suitcase in the one
open spot in the already crowded room. Except for us being a few
years older and in Louisiana, this could have been us in our dorm
back at Penn State.

“
Isn’t New Orleans
absolutely beautiful?” Jen showed her usual enthusiasm.

“
It would be more beautiful
if it wasn’t August.” Marci scowled.

I could see Marci was still her
same glass-half-empty self. I smiled, comforted knowing some things
never changed.

“
It’s fine. We’ll
be in air conditioning the whole night.” There was Jen looking
on the bright side again.

Marci cocked one auburn brow. “I
certainly hope so.”

I did too, since I’d chosen
the bar. I glanced out the room’s sliding glass door hoping we
had a view of the Bourbon Cowboy’s building across the street
so I could determine if they had a nice big air conditioning unit to
keep Marci cool. No luck. I couldn’t see.

I turned back to face the room.
“So, has anyone met the fiancé yet?”

“
Oh my God, yes.”

I figured John must be something
else since Jen’s eyes had practically rolled back in her head
from just talking about meeting him. All righty. Maybe a carbon copy
wouldn’t be so bad.

“
He came with Beth to pick
us up at the airport today.” Marci looked less enamored.
Interesting.

“
And?” I prompted.

She shrugged. “I don’t
know. He’s a little Marine-ey for me.”

“
Marine-ey?” I
laughed. “As in too much of a Marine?”

“
Yeah, you know. Too neat.
Overly polite. Kind of controlling. He insisted on taking both of our
bags and didn’t let us carry anything but our purses.”
Marci shrugged.

“
You poor thing. He sounds
like a nightmare.” I snorted.

“
I know, right?” Jen
laughed.

My college boyfriend had been the
exact opposite of what Marci described. Lazy. Dirty. That was the
main reason he became my ex shortly after graduation. A girl can
tolerate old pizza sprouting mold under the bed while in school, but
in her first apartment, not so much.

“
Anyway, it doesn’t
matter what I think. Beth is head over heels and that’s all
that matters. Get changed so we can go out,” Marci ordered,
being pretty controlling herself.

“
And find a messy, impolite
man for you?” I asked.

“
Exactly.” Marci
grinned.

It was amazing we were all
friends, as different as we were. That’s probably why the
friendship worked. We complimented each other and we had different
enough taste in men there was usually no danger we’d all be
after the same guy. That was always important. Marci could have
whatever hippy or cowboy or zydeco musician we met tonight since Beth
had already earmarked my potential man for the weekend—Tim the
twin.

I had just pulled on fresh jeans
and stepped into a pair of insanely high heels since we’d only
be walking across the street, when pounding on the door had us all
staring at it.

“
Must be Beth.” A bit
enthusiastic on the knocking, in my opinion, but maybe she was just
excited about tonight.

As Jen opened the door, Beth
pushed past her and into the room. One look at her face told me there
was trouble in paradise.

“
That pig.” Her voice
cracked on the word.

Jen let the door slam closed and
touched Beth’s shaking arm. “What happened?”

“
There’s going to be
a stripper at John’s bachelor party tonight even after he
promised me there wouldn’t be.”

I could understand her being
pissed, but it was a bachelor party after all. Wasn’t that kind
of the tradition?

“
And the worst part is he
didn’t even tell me about it. I saw a text come through his
phone from one of his old friends from high school. It said ‘stripper
arrives at eleven. Don’t be late.’ So, of course I asked
him about it.”