“So sweet he’s been gawking at me for the last two hours?” She adopted his more benign word for ogling for no particular reason.

“Is that all?” Aubrey crinkled her nose. “All the single men, as well as some married ones, have been doing the same thing. Men stare at you all the time. Aren’t you used to it by now?”

“They do not.”

“You just never notice.” A sly grin spread across her face. “So why would you notice Seth’s attention?”

Curse you, hyperintuitive, recently married woman.

“I have to pee. See you outside, Mrs. Kim.” Tara spun Aubrey around, zipped her back up, and pushed her toward the door. She had no desire to find out where the conversation would lead.

“Seth is a really good guy. You should talk to him. Just tell him to quit doing whatever it is that’s bugging you.” Aubrey ignored Tara’s not-so-subtle shoving to help zip up her dress, and pecked her on the cheek. Only then did her best friend turn to leave. “You know where to find me if you need me.”

When the door closed behind Aubrey, Tara sagged against the sink. The good thing was she didn’t feel light-headed anymore. The bad thing was she didn’t know what it was about Seth that annoyed her so much. There was no harm in some light flirting. So why did it bother her in this case? Maybe it was because of her heart-stuttering reaction to him … No. Her heart was not to be trusted. Ever. She blinked rapidly and pulled herself back from the darkness she was tiptoeing around. None of that tonight.

Where the hell was she going with this anyway? All she knew was that she was very bothered. And hot. She just needed to have a firm word with herself. There will be no hookup between the maid of honor and the best man tonight. There.

Tara liked men. She enjoyed sex with men. But she kept her love life completely separate from the rest of her life. The men in her life have never, ever crossed paths with her family. Serious relationships went against the very fiber of her being. There was no point in having her family meet men she had no intention of keeping. It would make her life unnecessarily complicated and messy. And she was so done with complicated and messy.

She liked things light and simple. Like with her traveling lover, Roger Stephens. He used to be Weldon High’s revered quarterback. He was a couple years ahead of Tara, and she’d had a giant crush on him. Then his family moved out of town, and she was heartbroken. Young, unrequited love. But until college, all she knew was love of the unrequited sort.

When he returned for a short stay at Weldon as a salesperson for a pharmaceutical company, he came into the brewery and they hit it off. He’d never noticed her in high school as a lowly freshman, but he seemed to appreciate the woman she’d become. Since then, they would get together a few times a year whenever he was in town. She liked and respected Roger and enjoyed their convenient, no strings attached arrangement. Even after three years, no one, other than Aubrey, knew of their dalliance, and that was how it was going to stay.