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  He lowered his voice to a loud whisper as if he was being discreet. “You’re not having cold feet, are you?”

  “I guess I am,” she said, her voice full of exaggerated worry. “I think this was a mistake.”

  Brad rolled out from underneath the car, his face pale. “What did you say?”

  Amanda and her father started laughing. “I said, get your butt up here and kiss me goodbye. I’m going to Kelli’s for the night.”

  He grabbed a towel and wiped his hands before pushing to his feet. He put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. “Don’t scare me like that. And I still don’t know why we can’t be together tonight.”

  “Because we can’t,” she said, “and I’m not going to try to explain again because you don’t want to hear it, anyway. And I am nervous. Half the world is coming to our wedding.” Despite their desire to keep things small, the event had snowballed into a massive social gathering. Brad had re-signed with the Rays, so his team would be attending. On top of the Rays, many of her father’s team members were also coming.

  The L.A. Woman editors had convinced Amanda and Brad to allow them to do a special feature on the wedding now that she was their employee. Reggie would be the photographer. She’d appreciated his work enough to ask him along for the ride. Apparently, that was how Jack had burned him. Jack had promised Reggie a future he hadn’t delivered.

  Amanda thought of all those eyes on her path down the aisle. “I can just see me tripping in the ridiculously high-heeled shoes Kelli talked me into buying and embarrassing us both.”

  “Telephone, Daddy,” Kelli said, appearing in the doorway. “One of the players.”

  He sighed. “I never get a night off.”

  “And you love it,” Kelli and Amanda said at the same time.

  Kelli snapped her fingers at Amanda. “Come on, woman. You need your beauty sleep.” She eyed Brad. “And you might want to make sure that best man of yours gets plenty of sleep, too.”

  Brad arched his eyebrow. “I don’t think Kurt is worried about his beauty sleep.”

  “But he will need his energy. I’m a rather demanding maid of honor.”

  “Behave, Kelli. This is my wedding.”

  “Since when do weddings demand good behavior?”

  Bill poked his head in the room. “Your pager just went off.”

  “Oh, good grief,” Kelli protested. “Now, I can’t get a day off.” She narrowed her gaze on Amanda. “Do your whole kiss-kiss, bye-bye thing and come on.”

  Brad waved her off. “Go answer your page. She’ll be there in a minute.”

  “She better be,” Kelli said, talking as she exited. “I’m serious about her beauty sleep.”

  “I’m beginning to think we should have eloped,” Amanda said.

  “We still could,” he suggested, his eyes lighting with the idea.

  “Hmm,” she murmured, as his lips brushed hers, teasing her with their soft touch. “Tempting, but a lot of people would be upset if we didn’t show up for our own wedding.”

  He smiled at her, tenderness in his eyes. “I guess I can share you with them tomorrow. As long as I get forever.” His fingers trailed down her cheek. “I love you, Amanda.”

  “I love you, too, Brad.”

  And for the first time in Amanda’s life, she believed in happily ever after. Oh, she knew they’d have fights. But somehow, Brad always made her laugh when she thought she was too mad to do anything but scream. And he made her feel safe and confident. He had become more than her lover. Brad had become her best friend.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-0397-0

  HARD AND FAST

  Copyright © 2007 by Lisa Renee Jones.

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