Free The Fireside Inn by Lily Everett Page B

experience for Leo. Just as when Miles had insisted on taking his new speedboat over to Winter Harbor when Leo called earlier, Leo wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to the friendly consideration.
    Unsticking his tongue from the roof of his mouth he said, “It’s not a huge problem. At least, I don’t think it is.”
    Surely if he told Miles the truth, Miles wouldn’t shun him. Miles wouldn’t jump up from the card table and run out of the Fireside Inn’s sitting room as fast as his legs could carry him. Right?
    “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. I’m in problem solving mode,” Miles said easily, hooking an elbow over the hard wooden chair back as comfortably as if it were one of the luxurious sofas in the Billionaire Club lounge. “Greta and her mother tend to spin each other up under the best of circumstances. Planning a wedding together? Not the best of circumstances. Thanks for giving me an excuse to get out of there for a breather.”
    Leo winced. He hated to add to the man’s wedding-related troubles, but he had to come clean. He couldn’t count on Serena’s help to find the perfect reading any longer. Nerves coiled around Leo’s midsection, squeezing like a boa constrictor. But he had to tell Miles, no matter how humiliating it was.
    Even if he lost his friend, Leo simply couldn’t let him down by pretending a miracle would occur between now and the wedding, mere days away. Serena had given him plenty to choose from, sure. But the thought of reciting one of the poems she loved most pierced his heart. Miles would simply have to choose his own reading, and if he still wanted Leo to deliver it, Leo would figure out how to memorize it, even if it meant having his poor, long-suffering valet read the damned thing aloud to him over and over until he had it.
    This didn’t have to be an insurmountable difficulty. So why couldn’t he open his mouth?
    Cold sweat prickled at his hairline and along his palms. For a moment, he wished he could curse Serena’s name for consigning him to this hell—but he couldn’t. He had only himself to blame for this situation. If he’d been honest with his friends—with her—from the start, he wouldn’t be in this ridiculous, mortifying mess. Still, even though he knew it was impossible, he wished Serena were here with him. He’d never felt stronger or more of a man than when he was in her arms.
    Not going to happen, he reminded himself ruthlessly.
You were never in her league, and now she knows it. What would a bright, clever woman like Serena want with a dullard like you?
    After all, the instant she found out how stupid Leo was, she’d been on her way out the door. Exactly as he’d feared. He could only pray one of his oldest friends would react differently—but Leo honestly didn’t hold out much hope.
    Wiping his hands against his trouser legs, Leo sat forward in the booth. He forced himself to meet Mile’s worried gaze. “I have something to tell you. Something I’m not proud of.”
    The crinkle in Miles’s brow hurt Leo’s heart. “I’m listening.”
    Just do it
, he thought desperately.
Quick and ruthless, like ripping off a sticking plaster
. Unwilling to watch for the moment when Miles’s friendly concern would morph into derision, anger, or worse, pity, Leo directed his gaze and his words to the green felt-covered tabletop between them. “You see, Miles. When you asked me to do the wedding reading, I agreed. But there’s a problem.”
    “What? For God’s sake, spit it out, Strathairn.”
    Blowing out a breath, Leo nodded, but when he opened his mouth to tell this man he admired and liked that he was a defective freak, too stupid to learn the simplest of life skills, another voice cut across the tense silence before he could speak.
    “The problem,” Serena said lightly, “is that there are so many wonderful readings out there!”
    Leo’s gaze flew to the petite woman standing in the sitting room doorway. Her beautiful blond curls were