Not that he’d gotten a word in anyway. Audrey and Alexis had hit it off immediately, talking not just about their “wedding” but about the latest fashions, a new wine bar on Central Park South, and Alexis’s husband, who used to be Audrey’s accountant.

For an island with a couple million people, Manhattan was a tiny-ass world.

Alexis seemed to notice his silence and turned slightly toward him with a smile. “Clarke, I was so pleased to hear from your mother.”

His eyebrows lifted, and he smiled. “Truly?”

She laughed, not pretending to misunderstand his skepticism. “She’s a frequent speaker at a women-in-business group I belong to.”

He felt Audrey stiffen slightly beside him. He knew that as hard as Audrey worked—and she put in more hours on the job than anyone he knew—she would never earn the respect she deserved. Never mind that she near outearned him, never mind that she was named on just about every most-influential list around. People didn’t know what to do with jobs that didn’t have set hours and a regular office space. She’d never be invited to Alexis’s and Linda’s women-in-business groups or anything even close.

Without really thinking, he reached out and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. Audrey gave him a surprised look but then squeezed back, playing her part of the in-love couple. Something tightened in his chest that he couldn’t identify—and that he didn’t want to examine.

“All right, now in these early stages, I’d just like to get a very high-level vision,” Alexis was saying, “so we won’t be talking dates or details. I want to know the type of wedding you envision. Who’s there, how do you feel, that sort of thing. And. I like to start with the groom.”

Clarke looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“I know, it’s the cliché for the bride to have all the visions, and it’s a cliché that often holds true,” Alexis said with a quick smile at Audrey. “But I find that the guys often have some thoughts of their own. They just need to be asked.”

“Ah—”

Clarke casually slid his hand away from Audrey’s, clasping his together and leaning forward slightly. “I hate to break it to you, but I don’t know that I’ve done much thinking about it.”

“Never?” Audrey asked in surprise.

“Not unless you count the times you made me play wedding when I was ten.”

“You were childhood sweethearts?” Alexis asked. “Your mother didn’t mention that.”

No, I bet she didn’t, he thought before remembering that they weren’t actually childhood sweethearts.

“Clarke would sit for hours while I tried to learn how to tie my dad’s bow tie on him,” Audrey reminisced with a grin. “My dad was less than pleased to find Cheez-It fingerprints all over the imported silk.”