“There’s no telling what kind of freaky stuff he’s into,” Macy said seriously, all joking aside. “Really. You don’t want your first time to be with someone who scares the hell out of you.”

Candace dropped her gaze and took a long pull on her drink, uncomfortable under her friends’ scrutiny. If Macy only knew some of the fantasies she’d entertained about him, she might roll out of her chair in a dead faint.

“I’m sure he’ll forgo the freaking ball gag her first time out, Macy,” Sam said sardonically.

“He might. He might even be considerate of where he stabs her as he sacrifices her virgin body to his demon gods.”

Okay, Candace had to laugh out loud at that.

“Do you have a mental disorder?” Sam asked. “I mean seriously. You’ve gone completely off the reservation.”

“Will you stop encouraging her!”

“Will you stop discouraging her? You’re the one trying to scare her.”

“Okay, if you guys don’t stop it, I’m seriously leaving. I officially declare the matter closed.” Candace downed the last of her icy slush and leaned over to pick up her purse, holding it in her lap like a shield. Both her friends looked crestfallen. “Now, are we going to get a movie or what?”

“So you are in fact not calling him, right? I win?” Macy asked, collecting her own bag from the one empty seat at the table.

“No, you don’t win—”

Candace raised her voice to talk over Sam’s outrage. “You did not win, because I made that decision the second he gave me his number. That’s why I gave him mine, and as you know, I haven’t heard from him. You two have been going on and on for nothing.”

“Dammit, Candace,” Sam muttered, shaking her head. Candace blinked innocently at her just as the cell phone deep in her purse rang.

Tired of the wild jolting of her heart every time her ringtone blared for the past week, she’d assigned Brian his own ringer ID. That way there were no more instants of sheer panic when she heard the thing. Now there was only the moment of mild annoyance when the external display showed it was her mother calling.

“Great,” she muttered. There’d be an inquisition later if she didn’t answer, so she flipped it open and greeted her mom as she and her friends stood to leave the shop.

Not one for small talk or beating around the bush, Sylvia cut right to the chase. “Candy, have you spoken with Deanne?”

Deanne was her cousin, and Michelle’s older sister. Despite being close as sisters to Michelle, Candace rarely spoke to Deanne unless forced to at family functions. “Um, no. Should I have?”

“I got off the phone with her a little while ago. She’s in a tizzy. One of her bridesmaids has been dismissed and she’s desperate for a replacement. I told her you’d be glad to stand in for her.”

Dismissed. Wow. Two weeks before the wedding. And how nice of her mother to volunteer her services. “Does she even want me?”

“She was all for it. I think she’d take anyone at this point.”

Anyone? Sometimes, Candace swore someone had left her abandoned on Sylvia and Phillip Andrews’s doorstep when she was an infant. “I’m bowled over,” she muttered.

“Don’t be cute. Tomorrow you’ll go to the dress shop with her and see what alterations need to be made, so they’ll have plenty of time to get them done.”

“Okay, yeah, fine. Can she call me up and ask me to do this? Since I’m her bridesmaid and all?”

“She has a million things to worry about right now. We don’t have time for you to get all in a snit. I’m sure she’ll get in contact with you and tell you what time.” Her mother paused for a moment. “Where are you?”

Great. She glanced up at the back of her friends’ heads as they walked down the sidewalk of the shopping center toward Blockbuster. Falling behind a few more steps, she pitched her voice lower and mumbled her answer, knowing full well how her mother felt about Samantha. “I’m out with Macy.”

She could hear the relief in her mom’s voice. “Oh, good. What are you girls up to tonight?”

“We’re going to rent a movie and go to her place.”

“Well, have fun, dear. If Deanne doesn’t call you, then call her. She’s likely to forget all about it, she’s in such a state.”

Right. Candace flipped her phone closed and shoved it in its pocket in her purse, jogging to catch up with her friends.

Samantha smiled at her, and she felt like throwing herself under the car that was easing by out in the parking lot. Was she such a coward that she couldn’t stand up for someone who’d been such a good friend? It wasn’t fair. Sylvia’s disapproval didn’t even have anything to do with Sam as a person, but the girl’s mother was an alcoholic who’d been in and out of jail and rehab. So naturally, in Sylvia’s eyes, Sam must be one too, or either on the brink.

“I have to be a bridesmaid in Deanne’s wedding,” she told them.

“Oh, you have to, huh? Fun,” Sam said.

“Hey, maybe you’ll meet someone at the wedding. Fall madly in love and not give another second’s thought to what’s his name.”

Not likely. Not even possible. Candace sighed. “No, Macy, I will not meet someone there. I can say this with absolute certainty.”

Macy wouldn’t be dissuaded. She pulled open the door of the video store and they all filed in. “How?”

“Because Brian’s the one,” Sam said happily. “Now we have to reel him in.”

Yeah, this was pretty much one of those moments when she felt like strangling both of them. “Did you guys trip over the dead horse? Please, stop beating it.”

It was at that moment something happened that almost caused her knees to give out. For a split second she thought someone else’s cell phone was ringing, but when Sam and Mace looked at her in puzzled expectancy, she realized it was her own. Playing a ringtone she’d heard only once…when she’d set Brian’s number to it.

“Oh…oh, God.” Her fingers were shaking as she plunged her hand into her purse and scrabbled to get it out of its pocket. She fumbled and dropped it into the depths of the bag, uttered a word she rarely used, and followed the little square of light to retrieve it again.

Sam was practically standing on top of her. “Is it him? Is it?”

“Damn it,” Macy muttered.

“Oh, crap, it’s him.” Candace was almost stuttering.

“Answer it, fool!”

Licking lips that were suddenly dry as the Sahara, she flipped it open and almost dropped it again before she got it to her ear. “Hello?”

Sam beamed at her. Macy glowered.

“Hey,” came the casual reply in her ear, toe-curlingly deep and with that easy male confidence that could drive a girl right out of her mind. Her heart was beating so crazily she wondered if her friends could hear it. “A phone number is like the combination to a safe, isn’t it? I figured you gave me yours because you wanted me to crack it open, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.”

As his voice purred into her ear, the breath left her lungs in a rush. It was a struggle to fill them again before she could speak. “Of course, I wanted you to use it.”