Still, I suspected I knew why he’d sought me out that night. If he and Sam were going to get married, then he needed groomsmen. A best man, even. He’d asked me during his second engagement to Sam, the one that lasted the longest of the first two, and I’d said yes, had even gone so far as to begin to plan a bachelor party weekend in New Orleans before things were called off. Their first engagement had ended after three weeks, well before any groomsmen had been asked to join the wedding party.

“Well, that’s great,” I said. “You look great, and I’m glad you two have worked things out.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Really.”

But he didn’t say anything else. He stared at me, and the silence settled between us like a leaden cloud.

The clock ticked. Ten minutes were up. I knew Amanda was waiting at home. I knew Henry was falling asleep without me.

“Is that all you wanted to tell me?” I asked.

“Right, right,” he said. He tapped his index finger against his lips. “There is just one more thing I need to ask you. Just a small request.”

CHAPTER THREE

Amanda and I had both been in several weddings over the years. They caused a lot of stress, and it always seemed as though the wedding party ended up growing irritated with the demands of the bride and the groom. Being in someone’s wedding could end even the most enduring friendship.

Still, if Blake wanted me by his side, there was no question I would do it. We’d been friends for too long. We’d been through too much.

My dad had died suddenly during our sophomore year of college. He just dropped dead of a heart attack with no warning signs at the age of forty-eight. He’d been in the garage moving some boxes around, come back in and told my mom he was hot, and then gone facedown onto the kitchen floor like a falling piano, his head against the dishwasher, his feet under the table. I found out pretty quickly that my parents didn’t have life insurance and that they hadn’t set aside enough money for me to continue in school.

The private college I attended was expensive, close to forty thousand dollars a year, and before I even went home for the funeral, my mom told me I might not be able to stay. I was still processing the reality of my dad’s death, so the news that I might have to leave college and all my friends nearly paralyzed me.