Cole beamed at me. “That’s why.” Cole pointed to a woman hustling into the room. She was walking fast and applying lip gloss, her curls bouncing and her voluptuous chest jiggling as she went.
It was Jenny.
“Ho my frickin’ God!” Jenny shouted when she saw Audrey. She practically bowled me out of the way to get to her.
“Yay!” she yelled, grabbing Audrey into a hug and jumping up and down. “You got me my own billionaire! I’m so freaking excited!”
“Oh, Jesus.” I said to Cole. “You didn’t.”
“Yes, I did. Ho my frickin’ God, I did,” he said. He looked very pleased with himself. “I’m gonna marry this girl. She’s got a mouth like a—”
“Cole,” I said, cutting him off. “My mother is ten feet away from us. Please.”
“I don’t have to finish the sentence, anyway,” Cole said. He was watching Jenny. “You know what I mean.”
I sighed. “I can guess.” We stood and watched the girls talking excitedly to each other.
“You’re the one who told me to call her,” Cole reminded me.
“I didn’t mean for you to bring an escort to my brother’s wedding functions,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “You should talk, bro.”
I glared at him, but I didn’t mean it. “Buy me a free drink. I need one.” He motioned for the bartender. “I’m happy you’re here and that Jenny’s working out for you. But I need to protect Audrey. No one but you knows the truth. It has to stay that way.” Cole slid a martini in front of me, and I ordered some wine for Audrey.
“Of course. I promise I won’t say anything about either of them,” he said. “I wouldn’t do that to you—you know that. But I have to say, for the hired help, you’re being very protective of her.”
“She needs my protection,” I said darkly. I took a sip of my drink, and the vodka warmed me instantly. “She’s a sweet girl. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.”
“It doesn’t sound ridiculous. But what are you going to do after this is all over?”
I shrugged. “Probably nothing.”
“That sounds ridiculous,” Cole said. “And I’m only saying that because you’re my best friend.”
“Sometimes I think I need to protect her from myself,” I said lowly.
Cole looked as if he was going to say something admonishing, but Jenny and Audrey came to the bar then, still happily chatting. I put my arm around Audrey and pulled her to me, kissing the top of her head. The two minutes we’d been apart were too long. Cole looked at me, reading me like a book, and just shook his head in mock disgust.
“I didn’t know you owned part of the Rhode Island Thunder, Cole. Jenny just told me. That’s so cool,” Audrey said.
The Thunder was the NHL farm team that Cole was currently obsessed with. “We have box seats tonight,” Jenny squealed. Cole put his arm around her and squeezed her against him.
“We can have box seats whenever you want, Princess,” he said and kissed her on the nose. Jenny smiled at Cole happily, and he beamed down at her. I didn’t know how sophisticated Jenny was, or how well she could read people. But I hoped she knew that Cole was a player, through and through. He would be happy to play with her and spoil her for a while, but he was not a one-woman man. Never had been.
Jenny snuggled up against Cole, and Audrey watched her friend carefully. “Jenny, come to the bathroom with me,” she said after a while, grabbing her by the hand. She flashed a dimpled smile at us. “We’ll be back in a few, guys.”
“What’s that all about?” Cole asked, watching Audrey drag Jenny away from him.
“I think Jenny’s going to get a talking to,” I said.
“About what?”
“Not getting her hopes up about the billionaire with the box seats,” I said.
“Huh,” Cole said, watching them retreat.
Audrey
I steered Jenny past the ladies’ room, down the hall to the empty coat check. I looked around carefully, making sure that no one from James’s family was nearby or could see us. “Jenny,” I said gently. “Cole hired you through AccommoDating, right?”
“Of course,” she said.
“He seems like a nice guy.”
“He’s awesome, Dre. We’ve been having so much fun.” She beamed at me and grabbed my hands. “Thank you for doing this for me. Elena’s so happy that James sent her a referral. I told her I was going to rock Cole’s world and make him a regular.”