Bedding the Best Man by Yvette Hines

 
    All’s fair in love and war…
     
    “ Kamari, how handsome is
Travis in that tux?”
    “ I don’t know, Aunt Renee,
how handsome is he?” I didn’t even look in the direction my aunt
indicated. Travis Huffman, my older brother’s best man, a.k.a his
best friend, had been a thorn in my side since middle school. I had
my eyes set on Patrick Rockell. A sexy doctor and groomsman number
three.
    I had begged my new sister in-law, Faith, to
pair Patrick and I together down the aisle. I was all about the man
getting a reality check of how good we would look going down the
aisle side by side—as man and wife.
    Since Ronnie and Faith were now married, I
was the last one in my family unmarried—single. At twenty-seven, I
was already hearing comments at every family get together about my
status. Being the youngest of six had its perks, but it also had
drawbacks. I was considered the spoiled one of my family, the wild
child without direction, and rightfully so. I knew I’d earned my
titles through high school and my first couple years of college.
However, an arrest for playing a silly prank when I was twenty was
a wake-up call. Especially when my father refused to bail me out
until morning. Even after the cops told the parents none of the
students would be charged for the streaking as long as our parents
picked us up.
    So, I learned to straighten myself ass out.
Seeing the disappointed look in my father’s eye wasn’t worth it. My
career as a product analyst was on track and I just needed the last
piece, a family. Patrick was the start.
    Even now, he was standing across the room
talking with a group of fraternity brothers and giving me the eye.
I knew he was talking about me because I occasionally noticed a few
of the other men glancing in my direction—trying not to be
obvious.
    Oh, I could have this in the bag
tonight.
    Smiling to myself, I knew there was one last
trick up my sleeve to secure this catch.
    “ Ow.” I turned to my aunt,
who had just given me a pop on the arm like I was a child instead
of a grown woman. “What was that for?”
    “ Kamari Jenson. You’re not
listening to a word I’m saying.” Placing her hand on her hip, she
gave me an evil eye like only older women in a family can
effectively pull off.
    Gritting my teeth, I swallowed down the
retort I wanted to give her. Aunt Renee was my mother’s older
sister. She was bossy, nosey and always had to get her way.
    “ Now that you’ve bruised
me, you have my full attention.” I rubbed my arm, still stinging.
Curse Faith for going for the sleeveless gowns. I couldn’t stay
angry for long with my brother’s new wife because I did look
good.
    “ Could you just look at
Travis, please. And stop ogling Mr. Nothing.”
    “ He’s eyeing me, too.
Besides he’s a doctor .” I reminded her. Hell, what woman didn’t want to land a
doctor.
    “ Ha!” Aunt Renee cackled.
“He’s an eye doctor. That’s why he’s staring.” She laughed
harder.
    I shook my head and allowed myself the
pleasure of an eye roll.
    “ Now, Travis. He owns his
own company.”
    “ Yeah, some kind of
programming or software business. I don’t know…that just screams
geek.” Travis was smart, very smart. I really didn’t hold that
against him much. He’d helped me not only pass calculus in high
school, but when I was struggling in college, at the risk of my GPA
dropping, my brother had orchestrated Travis’ help. Travis had
showed up and spent spring break of his senior year tutoring me,
again.
    “ But still a man running
things.” My aunt surmised.
    Huffman Cloud Programming was the name of
his company. I knew he was one of the early developers of cloud
systems. I was familiar with the fact that his company ran clouds
in multiple tenant environments, even managed the one my employers
used. However, I kept what I knew about Travis to myself. Ronnie
went on frequently about his best friend’s successful business, so
much that at times I wanted to scream.
    Knowing my