But today’s wedding was already on her favorites list, and the guests were only just beginning to arrive at the beautiful grounds of the private arboretum on the shores of Lake Washington. The reason was simple: The bride and groom were clearly each other’s best friend. Every time she’d met with them, she’d been struck by how wonderful they were together. Over the months that she’d worked with them on the large wedding, she’d seen them laugh and kiss and dance like lovers—and she’d seen how well they worked together to deal with difficult things, too.

Over the years, Kerry’s vision of the love she wanted for herself had taken clearer and clearer shape as she’d not only watched so many couples come together, but also paid close attention to which ones stayed together.

Of course, she wanted heat and can’t-keep-their-hands-off-each-other passion. But more than anything, she wanted her husband to be her best friend, and she wanted to be his. She wanted him to be the person she whispered all her secrets to in the middle of the night. She wanted her shoulder to be the one he cried on behind closed doors.

The thing was, Kerry had never really been friends with a man before, might never have thought it was even possible until this morning, when Adam had said he was her friend and she realized she was his, too.

She’d been full of angst and worries over everything when she’d awakened in his bed. She’d been so afraid that they had made a huge mistake. But after they talked things through—with Adam ending up being the surprisingly rational, calm one when she hadn’t been able to find one single rational, calm bone in her body—she was able to smile again as she thought about him.

How unexpected their relationship was. Adam Sullivan was the last person she would ever have thought she could become friends with. And yet, their relationship was one of the most wonderful she’d ever had.

He not only knew just how to make her laugh, but also precisely when she needed that laughter.

He was easy to talk to about the things that mattered to her, and she loved listening to him talk about what got him juiced up, too.

Seeing him smile always made her smile.

And few things in her life had been as comforting as simply holding his hand.

At first, she’d wanted to keep things straight and clear between them because she’d been afraid of getting her heart broken. But now, there was even more at stake. Because she didn’t want to do anything to lose his friendship. Not when he’d come to mean so much to her, so quickly.

Before Adam, her life hadn’t been bad by any stretch of the imagination, but in the past two weeks, it had been bright and colorful in a way that she hadn’t known it could be. Part of it was the hot sex—of course she knew that had to be a factor. But if she’d been having sex with someone she didn’t like, they wouldn’t be hanging out and talking afterward. They wouldn’t be laughing together.

And they definitely wouldn’t be looking out for each other.

As the caterer gave her an update through her headset on their preparations for the post-wedding reception, Kerry knew now wasn’t the time to be thinking about her night or her morning with Adam. She had a job to do, and do well.

The groom’s mother had been one of her mother’s clients, a widow who had found love for a second time twenty-five years ago, and Aileen Dromoland had hinted on the phone that she might drop by. If ever there was a wedding to get right, it was this one.

Kerry always wanted her mother to feel that her daughter had done right by the company she’d worked so hard to build. So since it wouldn’t do to let either the bride and groom or her mother down, she corralled her focus and got back to work on making sure all of today’s moving pieces worked in perfect concert with each other.

The crush of guests arriving to take their seats began in earnest now that the ceremony was scheduled to start in less than fifteen minutes. Kerry had already checked in with the bride, her bridesmaids, and her parents, and all of them were relaxed and happy in the final minutes before the wedding began. The groom and his crew were also equally at ease, and she gave silent thanks that everything was so well on track.

Ushering an older couple to their seats came as second nature to her, and she enjoyed her chat with them about the gorgeous Seattle weather and how lucky they were to be there today. More than three hundred people would be attending. The groom was a prominent financier, and the bride owned one of the best beauty salons in the city. It stood to reason that their guests were an uncommonly good-looking and successful bunch.

Still, she couldn’t help but think that none of them were quite as good-looking as Adam. Perhaps she was biased, she thought with a little flush of pleasure she couldn’t quite contain, given that she had firsthand knowledge of just how gorgeous he was head to toe, clothes on and off.

A message from the florist popped up on her iPad, and she realized she’d lost focus again. It was so unlike her to daydream while on the job.

Then again, it was also extremely unlike her to meet up with a gorgeous, totally unsuitable man for wild sex.

Giving her head a shake, she turned to greet another guest. But her greeting stuck in her throat when she realized she was looking at her favorite face, the one she couldn’t seem to get out of her head no matter how hard she tried.

“Adam?” Her tongue felt all tied up, probably due to the way her heart and stomach immediately started jumping around whenever he stood this close to her. “What are you doing here?”

He held up his invitation. “My friends Jodi and Paul cordially requested the honor of my presence at their wedding and reception this afternoon.”