Rachel looked at her friend and her eyes flashed.
I tried to ignore the strange tingling feeling inside of me. Almost like when I was in high school and I had any interaction with the popular crowd who always made fun of me for not wearing name-brand clothing.
“Just some hard-boiled eggs, and we’ll split a slice of whole wheat toast,” Rachel said.
I didn’t need to jot anything down on my pad. That was the easiest and most boring order I’d ever received. I could almost hear their stomachs screaming for nutrition.
“You’re Parker’s best man?” her friend asked. Her thin eyebrow rose questioningly.
I put my pad in my apron pocket. “Yeah. We’ve known each other forever.”
“Hm,” the girl said.
I stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. “Well, if you don’t need anything else, I’ll get started on your order.”
“You can have that sexy man beast come out with our food,” Rachel’s friend said.
“Sure thing,” I said turning around. I lost the smile, relaxing my sore cheeks.
“Doesn’t he remind you of the second guy you slept with last week?” the friend said to Rachel.
I sucked in a breath at the same time Rachel did.
“Shut up, Ophelia,” Rachel hissed. “We promised to leave all of that on vacation.”
Rachel slept with at least two guys on her vacation away from Parker. What the hell was I going to do with that information? The right thing to do was to tell Parker, but how could I do that when he knew I already hated her? Would he think I was trying to break them up? I had been right about Rachel this whole time, but telling Parker would break his heart.
I stood in front of the pass-through, locking eyes with Tony.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Tony said.
My hands gripped the counter as I stared at Tony, and my mouth went completely dry.
Chapter Twenty-One
Parker
I was floating between a dream-like state and wakefulness when two things happened. My phone’s text tone went off three times in a row and was immediately followed by incessant banging on my front door.
I sat up and inhaled sharply. What the hell was going on?
I grabbed my phone from the side table and turned the screen on.
Sienna had texted me in three separate texts:
“Let”
“Me”
“In”
I rubbed my hand over my face and then the banging started again.
I glanced over my shoulder at Rachel, who was sleeping like a rock. I knew that wouldn’t last long. And we’d had a good night last night; I didn’t want to ruin that. She’d been attentive and even stayed up until nine with me to watch a movie. The vacation had been good for her and for us, adding to my resolve that I was making the right decision by going through with this wedding. Sure, it would be stressful with planning something so soon, but if the rest of our married lives would be easy like this, then I’d do whatever it took.
I typed a quick response to Sienna, telling her I’d be there in a minute. I stood up from the bed and put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. I sneaked out of the room and closed the door behind me. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
Rachel hadn’t moved during the entire exchange. I supposed with her sleep schedule, she was probably thrown off by our “late” night. Funny how I remembered her being fine with late nights unless I was around. Weird.