“More like the other nights are devoted to band practice. The guys don’t like it when I’m distracted by girls, the girls don’t like when I’m distracted by the band.”
Heather put a hand over her chest. “You poor thing. And you’ve lived this long?”
Barely. He’d barely lived this long.
Josh frowned as the dark thought overtook him. He didn’t let his mind go that direction these days. Figured that his storm cloud of a neighbor would rub off on him.
Time for a subject change. “Where you from, 4C?”
“None of your business.”
“Would you quit being prickly for two minutes?” he asked, exasperated. “I’m just making friendly conversation.”
“You are not, you’re trying to get in my pants.”
“Honey, if I wanted to be in your pants, I’d be there already,” he said, even though he wasn’t at all sure it was true. She seemed very determined to dislike him.
“Go away,” she muttered as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“Tell me where you’re from, and I’ll leave you alone.”
For now.
She rolled her eyes. “Midwest.”
“Where in the Midwest?”
“What do you want, like, a map?”
Josh’s head fell backward as he stared at the sky. “How about a state, 4C. Jesus. Why of all the women did you put this one next door to me?”
“It’s not like I’m begging you to talk to me,” she grumbled. “I’m just trying to go about my business.”
Josh let out a little laugh. “Fine. You win. I’ll leave you to take over the world of weddings.”
He lifted his own hand for a cab. One stopped immediately, and she huffed in annoyance. “Of course.”
Josh opened the car door and gestured for her to get in.
“No, go ahead,” she said grumpily.
“I don’t need a cab.”
“Oh,” she said, frowning, as though trying to figure out how to spin his gentlemanly gesture into something else. “Where are you going?”
He shook his head. “Too late for small talk, 4C. This chatty thing has to go both ways or not at all.”
“Not at all sounds great,” she said enthusiastically, stepping down from the curb to get into the cab.
Then, at the last minute, she looked up and caught his eye. “Hey. 4A.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m from Michigan. Specifically, Merryville, a little town you’ve never heard of and likely never will again.”
He studied her for a moment. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She didn’t answer, starting to drop into the taxi when his fingers brushed hers where they rested on the top of the cab door.
“Hey, wait, you didn’t answer my most interesting question of the day,” he asked.
“What?” she asked warily.
He tried again with the slow, sexy smile. “Did you touch yourself this morning? And, important follow-up question, did you think of me?”
“Oh, for the love of— Good-bye, Josh,” Heather said, pulling her hand free and dropping into the cab and slamming the door shut.
He watched the cab pull away, feeling a stab of victory when she turned to look at him over her shoulder. Her head whipped back around the second their eyes made contact, and he barked out a short laugh.
Yup, Heather Fowler of 4C was going to be a challenge, all right.
Chapter Six
THE WEDDING BELLES KEPT two kinds of champagne on hand in the main office.
Good and really good.
Alexis had even taken a trip to the Champagne region of France in the company’s early days to be able to speak knowledgeably about the topic of all things bubbly. And she’d paid for all the members of the team, including Jessie the receptionist, to attend champagne-tasting class so they were able to identify both the diamonds in the rough and the overhyped brands whose tastes didn’t live up to their price tags.
In other words, the Belles only served the good stuff.
But apparently, none was good enough for Danica Robinson.
After expressing snobby disbelief that they didn’t have any Dom chilled, the celebrity reluctantly agreed to give the Krug Brut Rosé a try. It was a bubbly, layered concoction that Heather knew to be perfectly delicious, even to the most discerning of champagne palates, but Danica had merely wrinkled her perfectly shaped nose and pushed it away as if it had personally offended her.