Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(3)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Then again, she glanced down at the check on the table in front of her. For that kind of money, she’d let the best man sit on her lap. They’d shove people wherever for thirty minutes, throw some bridal magazines at them, then she’d get rid of them.

“I’m not good with decisions,” Nikki said.

Yet she’d decided to marry a man she’d been dating for six weeks. Huh. That was promising. “No problem. That’s what I’m here for, to guide you through the choices. Now let’s talk overall tone of the wedding. Do you want it formal? Casual? Is there a certain location that appeals to you?”

“I want a Gone with the Wind theme.”

Suzanne’s pen paused over her paper, horrific images of hoopskirts, parasols, and skinny faux mustaches popping into her head. “How literal do you want to take that concept?”

Nikki’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“You were thinking like maybe doing the wedding outside on the lawn at an antebellum home? But then simple elegance for the décor?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s what I mean. Just like it really was during the Civil War. That was the Civil War, wasn’t it? Anyway, whatever. Plus I want the big dresses they wore in the movie, and the guys in those long coats, and horses, and curled hair, and, well . . . all of it.” Nikki beamed.

Maybe she’d like cannons, poverty, and runaway inflation in her wedding as well.

The doorbell rang, praise the Lord. Suzanne had nothing to say at the moment, which was damn near a first for her.

But how in the hell could she slap her name and wedding-planning reputation behind a Civil War-theme wedding? She’d be stuck doing theme weddings for the next decade, and everyone who knew her was aware that her well of patience wasn’t very deep.

“I’ll get that. Excuse me just a sec, Nikki.”

Suzanne hustled to the door and opened it. She blinked to see Elec and Evan Monroe, Ty McCordle, and right in front, her gorgeous and annoying ex-husband, Ryder Jefferson.

“Hey guys, what’s up? I’m kind of busy at the moment.”

“We’re here for the wedding-planning thing,” Ty told her.

Oh, no. That meant that Nikki’s fiancé Jonas had asked them . . .

“We’re the groomsmen.”

Damn. Just what she needed. None of them would listen or take her seriously. She’d lose control of the whole situation.

Ryder brushed past her, dropping a soft kiss on her cheek, his familiar cologne wafting up her nostrils and acting like a sexual trigger. She smelled Ryder, her ni**les got hard. They were just trained that way.

“Good to see you, babe. And lucky me, I’m the best man in this wedding.”

Suzanne fought the urge to grimace. Good God, this fiasco just got more and more ludicrous. Now she was going to have to spend a fair amount of time around Ryder for the next month, and she just couldn’t deal with that on top of all her worrying about her future. He made her crazy, plain and simple.

And there was no way this best man was sitting on her lap.

Ryder handed her a manila envelope. “Oh, and this came addressed to both of us. It’s from our divorce lawyer.”

Suzanne looked at it blankly. It did have their divorce attorney’s name on the envelope, and it was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Ryder and Suzanne Jefferson. Ouch. It had been a long time since she’d seen her name linked with his, and damn it, it still hurt, which pissed her off. It didn’t matter anymore, shouldn’t matter. “What is it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t open it. Figured you’d want it.” He moved past her and the other guys did likewise.

Jonas Strickland was coming up her walk and there was a gaggle of Nikki clones behind him, women in their early twenties, tanned and thin and indistinguishable from one another except for the color of their various sweaters. There was red and yellow and aqua and two in white.

“Hi, come on in. I’m Suzanne,” she said absently. “Nikki’s in the dining room.”

Curiosity killing her, Suzanne ripped open the envelope as she walked behind them, their giggles and chatter a buzzing backdrop. There was a pile of papers that looked like their divorce decree. Okay. She read the cover letter from the lawyer.

And stopped halfway down her hallway, the words blurring in front of her.

Oh. My. God.

She was going to kill Ryder. She was going to rip his arm off and beat him with the bloody stump.

This paper was telling her she and Ryder were not divorced.

They were still married.

“Ryder!” she screamed, aware that her voice sounded like a fair approximation of a banshee.

Everyone in the room looked up at her.

“You know,” Nikki said, “I had a thought. I’m blond.”

Elec let out a crack of laughter and Ty elbowed him.

“What?” Suzanne looked at the twit in front of her and didn’t bother to hide her irritation.

“I can’t do a Gone with the Wind theme. Scarlett O’Hara was a brunette.” Nikki pointed to her head. “And I’m blond.”

Jesus. “Good point,” Suzanne managed. “Now would you all excuse Ryder and I for just one teensy minute?”

Ryder gave her an uneasy look, and the guys looked curious, but she didn’t care. She had to discuss this with him immediately before her head exploded off her shoulders.

“What’s up, babe?” he asked her, moving in really close to her, his hand landing on the small of her back as he guided her into the next room. “If we’re going to fight, maybe we should be out of earshot.”

Suzanne got two feet into her kitchen then couldn’t hold back. She whirled and smacked the envelope and stack of papers against his chest. “This says we’re still married!”

Ryder’s eyebrows shot up. “No shit? Does that mean we can have guilt-free sex then?”

Oh, yeah. She was going to kill him.

CHAPTER TWO

RYDER always knew when Suzanne was mad at him because of the way her face took on the look of that chick in The Exorcist right before the green stuff came flying out. This was one of those moments. And while so far in the six years he’d known her, nothing like pea soup had ever ejected from her mouth, you never knew. He could make Suzanne that mad without even meaning to.

Okay, so maybe he shouldn’t have made a joke—not that he would turn sex down if she offered it—but hell, what was he supposed to say? They were still married? That was a shocker, to say the least.

She still wasn’t speaking, she was just breathing hard and clenching and unclenching her fists on his chest.