Chapter One
Ruby Matthews had her life together. She had a perfect little house, with a perfect little yard. She had a very perfect little dog. She had the perfect engagement ring and the perfect fiancé—deployed at the moment—and a perfect wedding dress in her closet waiting for her very perfect day.
It was important to Rue that she had those things, because her life growing up had been very, very far from perfect. Things being the way they were now felt right, after the chaos of her upbringing.
Everything had a place. A perfect, neat place where it belonged.
All of her yarn organized by weight and fiber in little baskets in her extra bedroom.
Her dresses belonged in rainbow-colored order in her closet.
Her beloved grandmother’s ashes belonged beneath a cherry tree at King’s Crest, the place she loved most in the world.
Asher belonged by her side as her husband, and their wedding was in one month, which meant it was almost time for that to happen.
And Justice? He belonged right up at the front of the church when she and Asher had their wedding.Because he was her best friend in the whole wide world, and he was her man of honor. It was his place.
Oh, Justice.
It was impossible to oversell the impact of Justice King. When he walked into a room, he created a ripple. You couldn’tnotnotice. He was tall, halfway over six foot, with broad shoulders and sandy brown hair. His eyes were a deep green that seemed almost otherworldy. His jaw was square, his nose straight, his lips...
She had heard a woman say once that his lips were made for sin.
Rue wasn’t sure what that meant but it had stuck with her.
He was her best friend. The greatest guy she knew.
Except he was late for his suit fitting because he was a careening, disastrous mess who washed his face only when she reminded him to. Or when he was going out to pick up women, which he did a lot.
It could be argued that Justice’s place was actually in the dog pound, because the man was nothing but a hound. But she was way too fond of him to argue that point.
She was getting anxious because she was had been waiting with the seamstress in her front room for ten minutes, and Justice hadn’t answered his text and he was eight whole minutes late. The seamstress had been early.
Rue herself was always early, and Justice was always late.
It made her want to...
But just then his truck pulled into the driveway andher heart lifted. She was so, so glad to see him. Because time was wasting and she hated wasted time.
He parked his truck and walked through her front door without knocking. Which made her feel a strange note of wistfulness, because when she moved in with Asher, Justice wouldn’t be able to just do that. She and Asher would be being newlyweds and having... sex and intense conversations about meal planning. At least that was her understanding of newly married life based on TV and books. She would not be basing her marriage off her parents.
No matter what, the shift would change Justice’s position in her life.
She frowned.
“You’re late,” she said.
“Sorry, Rue,” he said, his voice sounding scratchy and unrepentant. “I’ll do better next time.”
He always said that. Rue could only assume that his version ofbestworked for her on some level or she wouldn’t have made him such an integral part of her existence.
“When, at the next tux fitting or my next wedding?” she asked.
He grinned. “Yep.”
“The only way I’ll be having two weddings is if the first one is ruined because the man of honor is late.” She gave him the evil eye and Sue Quackenbush, the seamstress, gave him a swift once-over.
“Come on over here,” she said.
