Edie’s leg was aching from all the walking, but she did want to see the cat. Most of the time, she liked cats more than people. When Gretchen opened the double doors to the room, she eyed it as she would for her own cats. There was a deluxe cat fort set up in one corner of the room, and a perch set against one of the massive windows, which made Edie happy. Curled up in the center of a massive bed was a beige wrinkly bag of flesh that stretched his long legs as Gretchen went and picked him up.

“Iggy doesn’t mind it here, but he tends to get lost so I try to keep him confined to this room,” Gretchen explained. “The house is just too big, and this room’s practically a thousand square feet as it is.”

Igor, Gretchen’s hairless sphinx cat, looked good, and Edie smiled. He’d been a rescue that Gretchen had taken on a few years ago because Edie already had too many cats, and at the time he’d been skinny and miserable, with a nasty skin infection. Now he was sassy and fat, and as Gretchen held him in her arms and rubbed his wrinkly head, Edie felt a happy pang of seeing a happy cat with a loving owner. She’d put the two together.

“Can I pet him?” she asked as Bianca wandered past, admiring the room.

“Of course,” Gretchen said, “But I’m not sure that he likes strangers, and he hasn’t seen you in years. I know he’s still getting used to Hunter.”

Edie reached out and held her fingers close enough for Igor to sniff. The cat gave them a cursory whiff, then hissed and batted Edie’s hand away with his claws.

Gretchen hauled him away from Edie with a wince. “Yeah, he’s not Mister Friendly.”

“It’s okay,” Edie said with a laugh, wincing at the scratches the cat had left. “He probably smells my cats on me and that’s making him anxious.” She put her fingers to her mouth and sucked on the welts.

“I’m so sorry—”

“I’ve had worse in my line of work. No big deal.” Edie gave her a grin to ease her fears. “It’s a perfectly normal reaction to strange-smelling people invading his space. I’d love to see you and Hunter interacting with him, though. Maybe I could—”

“No,” Gretchen said, depositing the cat back on the bed. “You’re not here to analyze us, Edie. You’re here as a guest. And speaking of, we should probably get back to them. Hunter’s going to wonder where we ran off to.” She smiled, her face softening at the mention of her fiancé.

They left the room and Edie continued to suck on her fingers as Gretchen chatted on about the different wings of the house and the days the cleaning crew came by. Bianca’s big eyes were wide as she drank it all in (no doubt storing information for later use) and Edie was content to let them talk. Her knee was aching something fierce at this point. Four hours in the car in a bent position wasn’t good for it, and now walking around was making it worse. She needed a nice long soak and some Tiger Balm, but the night had barely started. This was why she wasn’t fun at parties.

“Here,” Gretchen said as they turned a corner. “We’re in the red dining room. It’s just down this way. I—”

“Actually,” Edie said, interrupting. She held up her bleeding fingers. “Can I run to the restroom and grab some Band-Aids? I’ll catch up with you guys.” It’d give her a chance to rest her knee before going in and enduring the rest of the evening.

“You want me to go get it for you?” Gretchen asked. “I don’t mind—”

“Oh, no, I can do it,” Edie said quickly, already hurrying down the hall. “I’ll just run to the restroom and catch up with you and Bianca.”

“Go to the kitchen all the way down the hall,” Gretchen called after her. “I keep the Band-Aids in there.”

Edie gave her a thumbs-up as she walked, footsteps determined, down the long hall. She didn’t glance backward until she heard Bianca’s and Gretchen’s voices recede. After a few more moments, she looked backward and sure enough, she was alone. Whew. She sat down on a settee against the wall and rubbed her knee, trying to ease the ache that throbbed under the scar tissue. Stupid knee. Stupid body that had to fail on her.

Her fingers were no longer bleeding after a few minutes, but since she’d bailed for a Band-Aid, she might as well find one. Hauling herself back to her feet, she headed back down the hall again, looking for a door that might lead to a kitchen. One door at the end of the hall looked promising as it had no handle, but instead, swung on its hinge. That seemed like a kitchen door. Edie limped toward it.

And then paused.

There were voices coming from inside. Masculine voices.

“So . . . what about Daphne?” one voice said.

Edie heard the sound of what sounded like a bottle being opened, and then a pause. “Daphne’s not in the wedding.”

“No?” the first man said. “Damn. I wanted to meet her. She’s hot.”

“She’s a fucking mess,” said the other. “Rehab. Gretchen’s leaving her alone for now.”

“Well then, what about the other bridesmaids?”

A third voice came in, a deep baritone that was instantly recognizable. “Is pussy all you think about, Asher?”

“Why you blaming me? Levi here started it.”

“Everyone knows brides pick hot chicks for the wedding party.” That one was the one named Levi.

“Yeah, but you haven’t met Gretchen, have you?” said the one she guessed must be Asher.

“No, why?” said Levi. “She insecure?”

“She’s weird,” said that abrupt baritone voice. “He’s trying to say her friends are probably fucking weird, too.”

“Oh no,” Levi groaned. “Seriously?”

“Probably cat ladies or some shit,” said the baritone voice again. “Cat ladies and astrologists. So your dick is just gonna have to wait for some other opportunity.”

The other two voices laughed, and Edie brimmed with rage at the men. How dare they? From what Gretchen had told her, she and Hunter were insanely happy. And Gretchen was just picking her friends to be in the wedding with her, like any joyous bride-to-be. Did it matter if they were weird?

Most of all, though, she resented that fucking cat-lady remark made by the guy with the baritone voice. Because fuck him. Just because girls happened to like cats didn’t mean they were hideous unlovable creatures. He was probably an ugly slob himself. Her nostrils flared with anger.

“Come on,” said Levi. “You know the groomsmen always get to nail the bridesmaids.”

“You’d probably rather keep your dick to yourself,” said Baritone. “Gretchen’s a pretty decent girl and she likes Hunter, so what the fuck else matters?”

“Tits,” said another. “Tits matter.”

“Shut the fuck up,” said Baritone with a laugh. “Or I’m gonna insist you hook up with the cat ladies. Just don’t get them too excited or you might end up with a hairball on your—”

That was it. Edie shoved the door open and stormed through, ignoring the flare of pain her knee threw at her. She was good and pissy now. How fucking dare these assholes come into Gretchen’s house and judge her and her friends? They were her goddamn guests.

The kitchen was utterly silent at her arrival.

Three men lounged in the room, two leaning against the marble countertop island in the center of the kitchen, one at the fridge getting another beer. All three straightened at the sight of her.

She gave them her most withering glare and limped forward.

“Can I . . . help you?” the baritone rumbled, and she turned to give him the full fury of her cat-lady wrath. It was a shame that such an unpleasant man was so appealing-looking. Dark, short-cropped hair capped his head, a little too long to be a buzz cut, and a little too short to be anything else. His jaw was wide, his features too blunt to be handsome, but his eyes were an incredible shade of greenish-brown that were so vivid they practically glowed, and were framed by dark lashes. He smiled at her to make her easy, and his whole face lit up with that smile.

He might have been appealing, but he was also a world-class jerk. She gave him another icy look that made the smile on his face disappear. “No, you cannot help me.”