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Vikki glanced between them like she was watching a tennis match before they all descended into fits of giggles again.
“I think you ladies have had enough for one night,” Paul declared as he reached them.
Annie’s eyes lit up like Christmas. “There’s my point,” she cooed, clutching his hand and hugging it to her chest. “Short men are just as sexy as tall men. And they make the best husbands.”
Paul crouched beside her, leaning in for a kiss. “That’s only because we find the best wives.”
“You two are so adorable I might puke,” Vikki said.
Giving them a moment of privacy, Lexie tilted her head back and gazed up at the sky. It was a clear night, thousands of stars glittered overhead.
“Nico is tall,” she blurted out.
Annie made a sound of appreciation and agreement. “Like a mountain.”
“Hey,” Paul protested. “You just said you liked short guys.”
“I do, but I also can’t deny that that man is pure sex on a stick.”
Vikki raised her hand. “Seconded. That is a man with confidence and height. You’re basically guaranteed eight inches.”
“Okay, I think that’s my cue.” Paul retreated to the safety of the house once more.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Annie,” Vikki said around a mouthful of pretzels. “But I never figured you for the marrying type. Especially not . . . well . . .”
“What? Someone like Paul?”
Vikki shrugged, a guilty smile on her lips. “He plays Dungeons & Dragons and wears matching flannel pajamas.”
“He looks cute as a button in those pajamas!” Annie argued, looking back at him.
“I’m not saying he doesn’t. But I am the new girl in town and a barkeep. I hear the stories. Wild, crazy, will-do-anything-for-a-dare Annie, who changes lovers like she changes her underwear. Ring any bells?”
Annie rubbed her temple like she had a headache. “Far too many bells, if you must know.”
Lexie remembered those days fondly. She and Annie became friends when she moved to town their senior year—following Lexie’s falling out with Isabelle and Darcy—and she’d reveled in the freshness of it. Sassy and cool, Annie was the extroverted yin to Lexie’s toned-down yang, each of them experiencing their fair share of love, laughter, and heartbreak together through the years that followed. Though it had been a hoot to watch Annie plow through guys like a hot knife through butter, Lexie was relieved to see her friend walk away from the single life with such a good man.
If only she’d been so lucky.
“But you’re right,” Annie said, knocking Lexie back into the present. “I never thought of myself as the marrying type either. To tell you the truth, Paul has been in love with me since high school, but I never thought of him in that way. At least, not until this one night at work when a couple of rednecks were giving me trouble. Paul stepped right up to them and threatened to knock their lights out if they put an unwanted hand on me again.”
“He didn’t!” Vikki exclaimed.
“Uh-huh.” Annie nodded. “Got two black eyes and a broken nose before Wade intervened.”
“Poor guy,” Lexie said.
Annie had the grace to look mildly ashamed. “I know, but it was so sweet. I took him out the back, cleaned him up. I don’t know,” she said, gazing dreamily at the table in front of her. “Something changed, and it was like I saw him for the first time, you know? So, I asked him out. A month later, I asked him to move in. A year after that, I got down on one knee and asked him to marry me in front of the whole town.”
“It was the cutest, most romantic thing you’ve ever seen,” Lexie said. “Like a scene from a movie.”
“And now you and your Prince Charming are living happily ever after,” Vikki finished.
Lexie raised her glass. “May we all find our Prince Charmings.”
“Cheers!” Vikki shouted.
Annie caught Lexie’s eye with a meaningful look—uncertainty of her so-called perfect marriage etching her features—then gently clinked her glass against the other two.
