The Bff Bride

The Bff Bride
Allison Leigh

“You might as well just kiss me. It’s gonna happen, one way or another.”Ever since those fateful words on the playground—and the resulting childhood kiss that ended in a broken nose!—they’d been besties. But four years ago, after a misguided night of passion, Justin Clay went from best friend to worst heartbreak in Tabby Taggart’s book. Now he’s back in Weaver, Wyoming, and the next kiss feels inevitable. But the closer they get, the more Tabby wants to run. And when she takes a drastic step to escape, it might be time for Justin to call her bluff—just like he did on the playground—and make her his bride…

He just wanted things the way they’d been.

When they’d been as comfortable and familiar as a pair of old, beloved boots.

He dropped his hand and looked at Tabby from the corner of his eye. “If I let you punch me in the nose, would you finally get over your anger?”

She stabbed her fork into her pie, seeming to focus fiercely on it. “We’re not five.”

“We were nine.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I remember it vividly, since you managed to break it.”

“I never intended to break your nose,” she muttered.

“I know.” He waited a beat. “We survived that. So can’t we survive another kiss, even one—I hate to admit—as badly executed as the last one was?” It had been a helluva lot more than a kiss, but he didn’t figure she wanted to get into that territory any more than he did.

“It doesn’t matter. It was years ago.”

He leaned over the arm of his chair toward her. His gaze caught on the wedge of creamy skin showing between the unbuttoned edges of her shirt. Stupid, because there wasn’t anything like that between him and Tabby.

Except that one time they were both trying not to think about.

A frequent name on bestseller lists, ALLISON LEIGH’s high point as a writer is hearing from readers that they laughed, cried or lost sleep while reading her books. She credits her family with great patience for the time she’s parked at her computer, and for blessing her with the kind of love she wants her readers to share with the characters living in the pages of her books. Contact her at www.allisonleigh.com (http://www.allisonleigh.com).

The BFF Bride

Allison Leigh

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For my daughters and the fine young men who love them.

Contents

Cover (#u2240cf83-0b13-5145-91ed-a78ea267669c)

Introduction (#u01f408de-516d-5232-bb43-90a5f0861923)

About the Author (#u1e4fd034-3fab-517a-a4e6-3349ec74692f)

Title Page (#u9d7b8e86-09a9-55c1-89e5-a9e627d717bd)

Dedication (#ufd1d6ea7-23da-5e5b-90d3-efcef64262fd)

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue (#u58d57248-4676-58ef-866e-3372cc61cd6d)

Nineteen years ago

“Come on, Tabbers.” The boy holding the chains of the swing leaned closer to her and grinned. His weird bluish-purple eyes were full of mischief. And goading.

But that was something Justin Clay had always been good at.

Goading. And a whole lot of it.

Usually, it led to her getting her rear end in trouble with her mom and daddy.

“I told you. I go by Tabitha now,” she said firmly. She’d just turned nine. Tabitha seemed more fitting than Tabby, much less Tabbers.

Justin’s eyebrows skyrocketed, and he hooted with laughter, giving the swing’s chains a shove so that she shot backward then forward again so unevenly that her bare toes dug into the sand beneath the school’s swing set.

“That’s bat-crap crazy. You’re Tabbers,” he said with the annoying superiority he’d developed lately. Catching her chains again, he stopped her forward progress with such a jolt that her chin snapped against her chest. “And you might as well just kiss me. It’s gonna happen, one way or another.”