“Not at all,” Kit began, “but I think they’re about to start the show—”

Georgina hadn’t waited for a response. She was already heading for the door, squeezing her way through the tables that were crammed together.

Kit sighed. When nobody else wanted to join us, I should have just gone up to my room and watched a movie, she thought, suddenly aware that she was exhausted. Her foot started to ache. She longed to be back at the hotel, stretched out on her bed. Oh well, at least tomorrow night I’ll be with Regan and Jack. She hadn’t seen them since Memorial Day weekend when they’d been at Regan’s parents’ beach house in the Hamptons and gone through hundreds of wedding photos, dissecting every moment of Regan and Jack’s big day.

Kit had had a great time at the reception even though she hadn’t met anyone special. The one friend of Jack’s Regan really wanted to introduce her to had called the morning of the wedding to say he couldn’t make it. A girl he’d just started dating had been in a minor car accident and called him from the emergency room. He was on his way there. Turns out the damsel in distress had a couple of bruises and a fat lip that she milked for all it was worth. Now they were engaged. Just my luck, Kit thought, glancing around and checking out the crowd. I don’t think there’s anyone here who wants to fall in love with me while I recover from a bunionectomy. She then eyed the stage. Sitting this close to the action can be dangerous in a comedy club, she thought. But she’d been seated there to keep her sore foot out of harm’s way.

Minutes passed. Where is Georgina? Kit wondered. Finally a spotlight started bouncing around the room, and a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, please turn off your cell phones, pagers, BlackBerries, and anything else that’s sure to annoy your fellow man. And now, please welcome to Larry’s Laughs, straight from Paramus, New Jersey, Mr. Billy Peebler!”

The audience applauded as a cute twenty-something guy with dark, curly hair ran onto the stage with great enthusiasm. Clad in jeans, sneakers, and a black T-shirt, he had a boyish charm. His brown eyes were twinkling, and he was smiling broadly, but Kit got the feeling he was slightly nervous. Who wouldn’t be? she thought. Coming out onto a bare stage to tell jokes takes a lot of guts.

“Hey, everybody,” Billy called out. “Good to see you.” He pulled the microphone out of the stand, held it in his hands, and paused.

“Tell a joke!” a guy in the back yelled.

“Give me a chance, buddy!” Billy answered with a smile. “Have you ever heard of comic timing?”

“I’ve never heard of you!” the heckler answered loudly.

Billy ignored him. “You know it’s so hot out there, this afternoon I stopped for a nice cold one in my neighborhood pub. I was sitting there minding my own business when a horse wandered in. The bartender says to him, ‘Why the long face?’”