Chapter 5: The Tasting

Low Tide Taproom had string lights over the door and a bar made of walnut so smooth it looked wet.

Cade had built that bar.

He ran his hand along the end of it as we walked in, quick.

Forty people stood around with little glasses of beer.

Jo had lent me a green dress, and the neckline was kinder than the stitches under my hair.

"Remember," Jo had said at the door, "you're a poor sweet confused thing. Use it."

I took Cade's arm at the threshold.

He looked down at my hand on his sleeve.

"Public," I whispered.

"Right," he said, and his arm went around my waist.

It was a good arm.

I made a note of that, as a professional.

Trevor spotted us from across the room and came through the crowd with both hands out.

"There she is!"

He kissed my cheek and looked at Cade's arm.

"Hey, you two. Getting along?"

"He's quiet," I told him. "I like it. It's like being next to a lamp."

Someone nearby laughed.

Cade's mouth twitched.

"A lamp," he said.

"A nice one. With a shade."

Trevor's smile held, but his eyes went flat.

"Come meet everyone, baby."

He towed me around the room with his hand tight on my back.

"This is my fiancee, Lainey," he told a couple in matching quarter-zips. "She had a fall, so be gentle, she's not herself."

"Congratulations!" said the wife.

"Oh, let me see the ring."

I held up my bare left hand.

"It's being sized," Trevor said.

"Which jeweler?" I asked. "I'd like to call them."

"Don't worry about it."

"I like to know where my things are."

The wife blinked.

Trevor squeezed my waist hard enough to leave a mark.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Faking It with My Ex's Best Friend from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.