On Saturday morning she was too busy to give Colin much thought. She and Lisa set out early to pick up the bride’s veil from the bridal shop along with a couple of the other bridesmaids’ dresses which had required steaming, then they had to stop and get the groom’s ring back from the jeweler after a last minute resize. Afterwards they met the bride and the other bridesmaids at the spa to get their nails and toes done, and once that was taken care of they stopped for a quick lunch where Angela handed out their bridal party gifts—adorable little silver heart-shaped jewelry boxes with their names and the date engraved on them. Then it was back to Angela’s grandmother’s house to finish setting up for the rehearsal and help get the house ready for the reception after the ceremony on Sunday.
Angela put the two roommates to work setting up the chairs on the lawn in front of the gazebo. Lisa had a measuring tape out and was laying out the rows with the mathematical precision of a surveyor. For once she had skipped her usual black miniskirt and boots in favor of cutoff denim shorts and a black t-shirt, and Kimberly noticed one of the groomsmen eyeing her roommate when a group of them came to drop off another load of folding chairs.
“I think you’ve picked up an admirer,” Kimberly said.
“Huh?”
Kimberly nodded her head towards the young man, who quickly looked away when he saw they were onto him. “See?”
“Are you sure he wasn’t looking at you?”
“No, I’m positive. He was staring right at you.” She grinned. “You do look awfully cute in those shorts.”
Lisa jabbed her in the ribs. “Oh, stop it. Besides, I don’t think they’re looking at either of us anymore.”
Kimberly could practically hear the groomsmen’s eyes clicking in their sockets as Kayleigh came up the path to stand at the edge of the lawn. With her shining blonde hair drifting in loose tendrils around her face she looked as though she had just stepped out of a magazine ad for summer fashion. Her matching red crop top and short skirt had been designed to show off as much of her tanned skin as possible, and judging from the looks on the men’s faces the outfit had achieved the desired effect
“Witch,” Lisa muttered.
“Meow.”
“Well, trying to be the center of attention at someone else’s wedding is a pretty witchy thing to do.”
“True.”
“And Kayleigh always has to be the center of attention.”
The word Lisa muttered after that wasn’t ‘witch,’ but it rhymed with it. Kimberly watched in disgust while the groomsmen practically tripped over their tongues as the other woman walked by. At least Colin wouldn’t fawn all over her like a hormonal teenage boy. Kimberly’s heart sank as it dawned on her just whom that outfit was intended to impress. While Colin might not act like a schoolboy at the sight of Kayleigh, there was no doubt that he’d sit up and take notice. Suddenly she remembered just which bridesmaid Colin was paired with, and her heart dropped like an elevator with its cables cut.
She wanted to kick herself. Why did she even care what Colin thought of Kayleigh? She wasn’t really interested in him, and even if she had been it wasn’t like she could compete with Kayleigh, especially when he had made it clear the night before that he intended to keep her at arm’s length. She was too young and too naïve for him to bother wasting his time on. Women like Kayleigh were his type, not innocents like her who hadn’t even kissed a guy in longer than she wanted to think about. She needed to stop worrying about him and focus on helping Angela with the wedding.
None of her arguments damped the ache in her chest as she watched the groomsmen following Kayleigh back to the house like a pack of puppies. How could anyone compete with that? How could Colin resist her? For that matter, why would he even try? What if Kayleigh was the woman who finally got him to settle down? They might be having their own wedding here this time next year. What if she had Colin’s children?
As her attention wandered the metal chair in Kimberly’s hands collapsed to smash her thumbs between the scissored legs and the seat, and the sudden, sharp pain brought her crashing back to reality. With a squeal she rose up on her tiptoes and blurted out a very unladylike curse.
“What’s the matter?” Lisa growled, her eyes intent on the measuring tape.
“Help me!”
Lisa glanced up, took in the scene of her roommate dancing around with the chair clamped on her hands, and shook her head. “I swear, Kimberly. Only you…”
By the time Lisa got to her, Kimberly’s thumbs were purple and oozing blood from gashes at the base of both nails, and they throbbed as though she had shoved them into a nest full of hornets. She bit down hard on her lip as Lisa struggled to free her without making things worse, and let out a sharp gasp as her hands finally came free.
“Ohmygoodness. Ohmygoodness. Ohmygoodness.”
She hopped from foot to foot as every beat of her pulse pounded fresh, searing fire through her battered thumbs, until Lisa grabbed her by the wrists to hold her still.
“It doesn’t look too bad,” she pronounced after examining them, “but you need to clean those cuts up and put on a couple of Band-aids. Go on, I’ll finish up here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Kimberly trudged unhappily down the path to the house, her thumbs held up before her so that trickles of blood slowly dripped down towards her wrists. As if things weren’t bad enough already, she had to go and mangle herself in a stupid folding chair. She was such an idiot. What else was going to go wrong? At least the muddy path had dried out overnight so she didn’t have to worry about sliding down the hill again and breaking her silly neck.
Thankfully no one was nearby when she got the side door open and darted inside to the bathroom. Under the cool tap water, the throbbing in her thumbs slowly began to recede and she watched the little tendrils of blood wash away with some relief. Though they were deeper than she had thought, the cuts didn’t look too bad. Still, she really wanted to clean them with something besides just water because there was no telling where those rented folding chairs had been. Her eyes roamed the small bathroom until they came to rest on a brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide on a shelf above the toilet. Perfect. Careful not to drip blood on the floor she palmed open the bottle with one hand and dumped a liberal dash of peroxide over her other thumb.
For a split second the liquid felt icy cool, and then it fizzed to life in the cut with a burn that made her gasp and drop the bottle. Squeaking in pain she jammed her thumb back under the faucet and ran more cold water over it while tears streamed down her cheeks. As she ran her thumb back and forth under the cool stream she whimpered deep in her throat. This was just not her day.
“Are you all right?”
Kimberly froze. It couldn’t be. She screwed her eyes shut, hoping that it was someone else, anyone else. Why hadn’t she closed the door behind her when she came in? Oh, yeah, because had it felt like both of her thumbs were about to fall off.
“Kimberly?”
Heaving a resigned sigh she turned her head and offered him a sad little smile. “Hi, Colin.”
When he stepped into the bathroom with her he seemed to suck all of the air out of the room, or at least that’s how it felt from the trouble she suddenly had breathing. With gentle fingers he reached into the sink and pulled her hand up so he could examine it.
“What happened?”
“I was daydreaming and smashed my thumbs in one of those stupid folding chairs.”
“Both of them?”
Before she knew it he had captured both of her hands in his own, and her palms were beginning to burn with a heat that had nothing to do with pain. It made absolutely no sense—she knew that Colin had the exact same 98.6 degree body temperature that she did, so why did his hands feel so wonderfully warm when he held hers? Soft fingertips prodded gently at her thumbs, running up past the knuckle but stopping short of her cuts.
“Just cut and a little bruised,” he told her. “Nothing serious.”
She could almost have wished they had both been broken, if only he’d go on touching her that way. Colin made no move to release her hands, and she certainly wasn’t going to insist on it. Every brush of his fingertips left warm trails that seeped into her skin and left her glowing inside. How could just touching somebody do that?
“Let’s get you patched up.”
* * *
Her hands were wonderfully soft and warm, and the longer he held them the less he wanted to let go. Restraint had never been his strong suit, and as much as he needed it now what little he had was slipping fast. When he had spotted her in those pastel tie dye shorts and lacy, white spaghetti strap top, a pulse of raw desire had surged through his veins. The powerful yearning to take her in his arms and ravish her lips, to give his hands free rein to explore her curves and silken skin, left him reeling as though someone had clocked him in the head with a sledgehammer. Even as he cursed himself for a fool he found himself moving closer to soak her presence into his skin.
Apple and jasmine, the same perfume she had worn the day before, mixed with her own unique pretty girl scent in a heady cocktail that was quickly making him lightheaded. While he could still halfway think straight he took both her hands in his right hand and retrieved the bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the sink.
Eyes of liquid amber watched him with trepidation, and on instinct he slid her into the protective circle of his arm so that she nestled with her back against his chest. The sudden heat of her pliant body pressed against his was almost more than he could take. He couldn’t remember ever wanting any woman so badly. It had to be a punishment the universe had handed out for his skirt chasing.
“We need to clean those cuts out,” he told her, his voice husky with repressed need. “The peroxide will sting a little, but after that you’re home free. Okay?”
She nodded, her eyes still wide and fixed on his own. With a gentle tug he pulled her hands back over the sink and tipped the peroxide bottle so that a small stream dripped down onto her sliced thumbs. As the liquid bubbled in the cuts Kimberly winced and her hands jerked in his grasp.
“Easy,” he whispered. “It’ll be over in a couple of seconds.”
The girl took a deep breath and then relaxed, her body going limp as she leaned back against him, and he was able to finish rinsing her cuts out with no more trouble. His body, however, was going anything but limp while he tried to focus on treating her hands. Every muscle in his body was drawing tighter with each breath of her perfume, each second of her body pressed against his. Icebergs. Penguins. Polar bears. Glaciers. Nothing he could think of was the slightest help.
“All right, done. Wait here—I’ll be right back.”
It took a substantial force of will to release her from his grasp when every instinct he had was telling him to turn her around in his arms and kiss those perfect, rosy lips. He wasted no time finding Angela’s grandmother’s first aid box and rummaging through it for what he needed. Half afraid that Kimberly had fled in his absence, he hurried back to the bathroom and felt a ridiculous sense of relief wash through him to find her still standing with her hands over the sink. Why was he overreacting so badly? It wasn’t as though her cuts were dangerous. Anyone could slap a Band-aid on them and she’d be just fine, but for some reason it seemed important that he be the one to do it.
“Okay,” he said, forcing a light tone into his voice. “We’ll put on a little antibiotic ointment to make sure you don’t get an infection and to help the cuts heal faster, and then it’s Band-aid time.”
She held perfectly still as he finished up, although he noticed her smile a little as he wrapped the bandages decorated with pink hearts around her thumbs. When he had finished he found himself holding her hands and looking down into her eyes.
“Thank you, Colin.”
Her voice was very quiet, and her eyes gleamed with a longing that mirrored everything he had felt as he held her. With a jolt his heart took off and began to pound in a fast, deep beat that by all rights should have shaken the entire house. When he pulled her closer she didn’t resist; she just kept looking up at him with those bottomless eyes that tugged at his very soul. For a moment longer he fought it, knowing he was going to lose even as he struggled on, but when the tip of her tongue flickered out to wet her soft, pink lips he was done for. Releasing her hands, he grasped her waist and moved towards her mouth.
“Is she all right, Colin?”
Lisa’s grandmother bustled into the bathroom beside them and took Kimberly by the wrist.
“Oh, you poor thing,” she said, patting the girl’s hand as she looked at her bandaged thumb. “Come with me. I just put on a fresh pot of coffee and I think my date pinwheel cookies are ready to come out of the oven. You can take it easy in the kitchen for a while and be my guinea pig.”
Kimberly threw one pleading look over her shoulder as the elderly woman pulled her towards the kitchen, and then she disappeared around the corner. Heart still pounding, Colin stared after them in disbelief. He was insane. That was twice now that he had almost kissed her, and he knew that if the temptation arose again there would be no more fighting it. Her golden eyes floated in the darkness of his mind, taunting him.
Did he even want to fight it, now?
With an aggrieved sigh he began to clean up the mess in the bathroom. No matter what he wanted, Kimberly was being unwittingly chaperoned by Angela’s grandmother. He wouldn’t even get a chance to see her again until the rehearsal, and then there would be too many people around for him to get her alone for a moment. He groaned at the thought of the rehearsal. Kayleigh. Dear god, he had to escort Kayleigh down the aisle, and the whole time she’d be playing it up for all it was worth while Kimberly watched and probably assumed that he was enjoying it. Which would make him look like a total jerk to her.
How had he gotten himself into this mess? Usually he had at least a modicum of sense and self-control, but somehow with Kimberly he found himself teetering towards sheer lunacy. He knew this was stupid, knew it was a huge mistake. Something told him that he was going to kiss her anyway, though. At least. Her eyes and lips just weren’t going to let him go in peace.
* * *
By the time she escaped from the kitchen Colin had disappeared, and everyone else in the wedding party was heading to the gazebo for the rehearsal. Kimberly found Lisa and Angela in the small tent which had been set up for the bride behind the gazebo.
“They’re going to drive me crazy!”
Lisa patted her arm. “It’s going to be fine, kiddo.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s going to be a freakin’ disaster because my parents are being completely unreasonable and no one else is even trying to do what they’re supposed to. Look at them,” she insisted, pointing towards the door of the tent. “It’s like a freakin’ zoo out there.”
In response to Lisa’s pleading look Kimberly stood behind Angela and squeezed her friend’s shoulders. “Let’s just try to relax. Lisa will go get things organized, okay?”
“You’d better believe it,” the pixie-sized girl growled as she stomped out of the tent.
A moment later Kimberly heard her barking out orders in a voice that would have done justice to a drill sergeant, and she sat down with a smile by the bride. “She’ll whip them into shape. Stop worrying.”
“All right,” Angela said, taking a deep breath. “I’ll try. Where does that voice come from, anyway?” she wondered. “She’s like four feet tall.”
As they stepped out into the late afternoon sunlight a few minutes later to head towards the row of other bridesmaids, Kimberly tried to stifle her own worries. Where was Colin? He wasn’t with his brother or the groomsmen. Her eyes lit on Kayleigh and she frowned. Little as she wanted to admit it, the older bridesmaid might very well know where Colin had gone. The last thing Kimberly wanted to do was talk to her, or stand anywhere next to her where people might compare them, but with Angela freaking out she needed to find Colin before there was another explosion.
“Kayleigh, have you seen Colin?”
Crystal green eyes regarded her with cool condescension. “What difference is it to you where he is?”
Kimberly’s temper flared, but now wasn’t the time. “I was just wondering because we’re about ready to start the processional.”
“Uh huh. I’m sure that’s why. I’ve seen you trying to flirt with him. You’re not exactly subtle, you know.” She shook her head in mock pity. “Do you really think that a man like Colin is going to waste his time on an innocent child like you?”
“Probably not,” Kimberly admitted through clenched teeth. No fighting. Not today.
“You wouldn’t know what to do with him if you got him, would you? So why don’t you do yourself a favor and stick with guys more your own speed? I’m sure there’s a middle school around her somewhere.”
Her heart hammered with fury, but Kimberly wasn’t going to screw up Angela’s wedding, no matter how much she wanted to rip the other woman’s hair out by the roots. “Look, if you can get him, you’re more than welcome to him,” she said.
Kayleigh tipped her head back and laughed. “If? Honey, I’ve already got him.”
She reached into her red leather clutch purse and pulled out a hotel key card that Kimberly recognized immediately, because it looked just like the one the hotel clerk had given her the day before. Colin had given this witch his room key? An icy fist squeezed her heart until she could hardly take a breath. It shouldn’t have bothered her so much, it really shouldn’t have and she knew it, but it did. Oh, heck. What had she gone and gotten herself into?
“He gave me this for later, after the rehearsal dinner,” the other woman gloated. “Think about that while you’re watching cartoons alone in bed tonight.”
Unable to bear the taunting any longer, Kimberly spun and stalked away. She should have known better. Men like Colin would always zero in on the Kayleighs of the world. That almost-kiss in the bathroom had meant nothing to him. To believe otherwise was just wishing after fairy tales. She couldn’t even blame him, really. After all, what did she have to offer to compare with the gorgeous blonde? She was nothing but a plain, inexperienced, shy little virgin. What guy wouldn’t prefer Kayleigh? That was just how the real world worked, and she could handle that. It was having her nose rubbed in it so viciously that had her seeing red.
With the rehearsal about to start she couldn’t even go somewhere to get a few moments to herself, so she did the next best thing and hid herself behind Angela and Lisa. Everyone was doing their best to keep their distance from those two, and her friends were too engrossed in getting things organized to pay any attention to her.
“Kimberly!”
She started from her reverie to find Lisa staring at her in irritation. “Oh, sorry. What do you need?”
Her roommate shoved a handful of stick-on nametags into her hands. “They forgot to put these on the chairs for the bride and groom’s families. Will you go do it for me?”
“Sure.”
Mother of the bride. Slap! Father of the bride. Slap! Grandparents of the bride. Slap! Slap! Who did Kayleigh think she was, talking to her that way? Middle school? She should have punched the witch, wedding or no. Angela would have understood and forgiven her. Eventually. Mother of the groom. Slap!
“Kimberly?”
Colin had finally deigned to appear and was looking down at her with an odd expression of concern. Not that he really cared, of course, but apparently something in him compelled him to be kind to her. It was worse than being ignored.
“What?” Father of the groom. Slap!
He blinked in surprise at her tone and then laid a hand on her arm. “Can we talk for a few minutes after the rehearsal?”
Kimberly jerked her arm away. The last thing she wanted was his pity. “Look, I know you’re just being nice to me because you feel sorry for me or something, because I’m the plain, clumsy bridesmaid. It’s really not necessary. I don’t need you to rescue me or whatever it is that you think you’re doing. I’m fine. You can run along and go play with Kayleigh. I understand.”
She slapped the final nametag on the back of a chair and left him standing behind her with his mouth open. Good. For once she had left someone else at this stupid wedding speechless.
“Alright, people, listen up,” Lisa barked. “Bridesmaids and groomsmen need to line up behind the chairs now, in the order you’re going to go down the aisle. You know where you’re supposed to be, so get there. Ushers and members of the immediate family? As soon as the others are in place you can get moving.” She gave an imperious wave of her finger and the music started.
Kimberly dashed to where the other bridesmaids had formed a line off to the right of the aisle and took her place behind Kayleigh. Angela’s cousin didn’t bother looking at her, which was a good thing because Kimberly was still fuming and it would have been a really bad time to start a fight. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the groomsmen milling around, but she refused to turn her head and look, instead keeping her gaze focused on Sean and the minister where they stood in the gazebo. It was bad enough that she was going to have to watch the two of them walk down the aisle arm in arm. She wasn’t going to torture herself more than she had to.
Lisa went first, and then Angela’s younger sister, and then it was Kayleigh’s turn. Kimberly didn’t miss the seductive smile the other woman put on as she turned in and took a step towards her partner, but when the smile faded to annoyance her head turned automatically. Instead of Colin, the groomsman who had been ogling Lisa earlier had stepped across the aisle as her escort. For a second Kayleigh faltered and looked as though she might protest, but then Angela hissed at her to move so she stormed up the aisle with her new partner.
Unable to help herself Kimberly’s head turned back to the remaining groomsmen, where Colin stood at the head of the line. Seeing that he had her attention, the groom’s brother shrugged then gave her a wink and a grin that threatened to turn her spine to jelly. What was he doing? Angela was going to skin him alive if he screwed things up.
But then it was her turn and she didn’t have time to think about it any longer. She stepped out into the aisle and tucked her hand around Colin’s muscular bicep and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other for the whole thousand miles or so to the gazebo, where Lisa stood watching them with her lips pursed in disapproval. The prickling heat in her palm against his bare skin had to be her imagination—pure nerves—and there was no reason at all for her heart to be madly thumping as though she had just run a race. Maybe she was coming down with the flu. It certainly didn’t have anything to do with Mr. Man Whore who had given his hotel room key to Kayleigh.
Taking a deep breath she risked a look up at him. Bright blue eyes danced with amusement while a smile played at the corner of his mouth. He was enjoying himself! At least he didn’t seem to be afraid of Lisa like everyone else. Why had he done it? He had to know it would make Kayleigh mad. Maybe he was just using her to make Kayleigh jealous? That she could get on board with. The other bridesmaid was glaring daggers at them from where she stood at the side of the gazebo, and Kimberly found her lips twitching. Whatever the reason behind Colin’s switch, she had gotten a little of her own back.
As they reached the gazebo steps, she reluctantly released her grip on Colin’s arm and peeled off to stand beside the now-furious Kayleigh. Biting her lip, she debated with herself for about half a second before giving in to temptation and leaning closer to the older bridesmaid.
“Maybe you should try your luck at that middle school,” she murmured, then took a step back before Kayleigh could round on her.
Petty? Maybe so. But it felt pretty darned good.
Kimberly was still puzzling over the reason behind Colin’s tradeoff as they sat down at the rehearsal dinner for the bridal party that evening. By then she had about given up on ever getting him alone again and was just trying to figure out how to make it through the rest of the weekend when he appeared at the empty seat beside her as if by magic.
“Saving this for me?”
As a matter of fact she had been out of some last, desperate hope, but she wasn’t going to let him know that.
“Nope. Looks like you just got lucky.”
His grin told her that he wasn’t fooled. “That remains to be seen.”
She rested her chin on her palm and tilted her head. “Well, don’t get too cocky. You’re on thin ice after trying so hard to avoid me. I was beginning to think you didn’t like me.”
“Oh no, I like you.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I think I like you just a little bit too much.”
She laughed. “I can’t wait to hear you explain this one.”
“I’m not going to try. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either, but I can’t seem to stay away from you. Maybe I just think you need a keeper.”
“Oh? Are you volunteering?”
“That will depend on whether Lisa and Angela kill me first. They were pretty unhappy about that stunt I pulled at the rehearsal.”
“I think you’d have more to worry about from Kayleigh.”
He gave a wry grin. “Now her I can handle.”
“Oh, I’m sure you can. Assuming you haven’t already.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Her lips wrinkled into a moue of distaste. “You gave her your hotel room key.”
“I did no such thing.”
“Colin, she showed it to me at the rehearsal.”
“Look at me.” Colin took her hand, careful of her hurt thumb, and his eyes gripped hers. “She may have shown you a key, but it wasn’t my key.”
“Really?” The sincerity in his denial made her doubt. She wanted so badly to believe him.
“Kimberly, I promise you that I did not give her my key.”
“But why would she say that?”
He shrugged. “Probably to make you jealous. She saw us flirting earlier at dinner last night. And…” Colin’s voice trailed off and his expression grew sheepish.
“And what?” she prompted.
“Yesterday—when you saw us in the bar—I kind of gave her the impression that we were going to spend some time together after I got back to the hotel.”
She held up her free hand to stop him. “I do not need details, thank you very much.”
“It never happened. When I got in, I snuck past her where she was waiting at the bar, and this morning I told her I’d forgotten all about our little rendezvous.”
Suspension of disbelief was one thing, but this took it to a whole new level. “Now why would you do a thing like that? Every man in the whole county is slobbering over Kayleigh, and she’s practically gift wrapped herself for you.”
“I just realized that I wasn’t even slightly interested in her.”
“Oh, really? And what inspired this little epiphany?”
“Well, I called her Kimberly.”
“You what?”
“I was sitting with her at the bar, but all I could think about was you and I accidentally called her Kimberly.”
A snort of laughter turned the eyes of the people around them onto her, and she blushed as she tried to contain her merriment. “Somehow I doubt that went over very well.”
“I managed a stick save with a really bad line.”
Hm. “So is this another pickup line?”
He looked into her eyes and gave a slight shake of his head. “No. You are something so special and I do want you,” he said softly, his fingers lifting to brush along the line of her cheek bone, “but I’d never forgive myself if I hurt you.”
Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him in shock as her heart began to pound. Ohmygoodness.
With a smirk Colin turned to take a sip of his tea. “Now see, that was a pickup line.”
“Oh. My. God. You are such a jerk.”
His smirk widened. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“It’s a miracle some woman hasn’t bludgeoned you to death in your sleep.”
“It’s all a game, Kimberly,” he told her with a shrug. “The women I play it with are like Kayleigh. They know the rules, know we’re just playing for fun. It’s kind of like riding a roller coaster—you get that excitement and adrenaline rush, but you’re never really in any danger. But I don’t seduce nice girls who still believe in knights in shining armor. I may be a jerk, but I won’t do that.”
“So I guess I’m not getting your room key, either.”
“No. But that’s my loss, not yours. You deserve better. Don’t ever settle for what a guy like me has to offer. Hold out for what you really want.” He gave her a wistful half-smile that tugged at her heart. “And no, that wasn’t a line.”
What she really wanted she couldn’t have, but then she had never expected to get it in the first place. No point in being bitter, though, and she refused to believe that there wasn’t more to him hidden somewhere behind that bad boy exterior.
“What I really want is that kiss you’ve dangled in front of me twice now.”
Amusement glittered in his eyes. “Is that so?”
“Here you’ve got this huge reputation as a ladies’ man, and somehow you can’t manage to give a girl a simple kiss. I’m beginning to think the rumors about you are exaggerated.”
“Maybe I just don’t think a kiss with you would be simple at all.”
It was her turn to smirk. “Oh, that was good. I like that one.”
“It was, wasn’t it? Of course the very best lines always have a grain of truth to them.”
She wasn’t remotely satisfied with that as his final answer, but they fell back into the same pattern of easy flirting as the night before, and dinner was over before Kimberly knew it. When she looked back on it later her favorite memory of that night was the way those blue eyes looked at her as though there was no one else in the whole world. She got warm and shivery at the same time when he looked at her that way, and by the time dinner was over she had already begun to regret letting the matter of the kiss drop.
She wanted him to look at her like that all night, and she wanted him to kiss her. Even if it was just a game and didn’t mean anything to him. Even if it was all of him she ever had. It didn’t make any sense and maybe he was right and she’d come to regret whatever happened with him—but somehow she didn’t think so. As they stood up to leave she stopped him with her fingers on his arm. This time she wasn’t just going to let him walk away.
“Are you headed back to the hotel?”
The regret in his eyes told her the answer. “I can’t. Not yet. And no, it’s not about avoiding you. Sean is getting a case of last minute nerves. I’m going to stick around for a while, see if I can get him calmed down so he can get some rest before his big day.”
She snickered. “You’re going to talk the groom out of a case of cold feet? That’s like sending a suicide bomber to talk a jumper down off a ledge.”
“Ha, ha. Just because I’m not the relationship type doesn’t mean that I’m down on all relationships. All you have to do is look at the two of them together to know they’re meant for each other.”
“It’s totally sickening,” she agreed. “Too bad you had his bachelor party so early. You could have taken him out to a strip club and gotten him drunk. By the time he sobered up, the wedding would be over and it would be too late for him to chicken out.”
“Next time we’ll let you plan it,” he laughed.
“Go take care of your brother.”