“Well, they did it.”
Candy sat beside Ren and watched her sister beam up at her new husband as they shuffled their way through their first dance. Charlotte looked blissfully happy—and Candy felt the same sick churning in her stomach that she’d felt since she woke up that morning. And here she was, fresh out of Tums.
If it had been a beautiful wedding, Candy hadn’t noticed. She’d been too busy praying fervently for Charlotte to wake up and smell the douchebag.
Aiden and his daughters had returned in time for the ceremony—upholding the illusion that the Raines family was whole and happy—only to vanish as soon as the reception began. Candy had performed her reading—but she couldn’t remember if she stumbled over the words. All she remembered was the buzzing in her ears. The wrongness of it all. She’d felt like such a fraud.
But that was what marriage was in her family.
“I don’t understand how she could have married him,” Candy mumbled to Ren under her breath, her chair tucked up close beside his so the other guests at their table didn’t overhear.
Ren kept his voice equally low. “You did your part. You told her. It was her decision.”
“But why would she do it? Is it all for political gain? For the image of the perfect marriage? Is that really worth it?” She shook her head, more confused than frustrated. “Coming here makes me crazy. It’s like falling though the rabbit hole where everything is upside down.”
A new song began and the singer invited other couples to join Charlotte and Tug on the floor as the band played the familiar melody of It Had to Be You. Their table emptied as the other couples moved to join the crowd on the floor, but Candy didn’t move and neither did Ren.
“Your sister married an asshole. It happens.”
“She married a man who cheated on her last night and never apologized. Never even acknowledged it. Made her feel horrible for even considering that he might. While my parents were less worried about that than they were about convincing Aiden to dump and fire the first woman who has made him smile in years just because her religion is politically controversial.” She ticked off the insanity on her fingers. “None of us acknowledge our dead half-sister who our father left with kidnappers when she was eleven. Scott is probably about two seconds away from another rehab stint, but at the moment he seems the most sane of any of us. While we’re all smiling and pretending everything’s perfect. That we’re one big happy family.”
“They’re still your family.”
“How can that still be a free pass with you after today?”
“It isn’t a free pass. But you love them, even when you can’t understand them. Even when they make you crazy. Because that’s what family is.”
She frowned, running his words over in her mind. He made it sound so simple, for something as incredibly complicated as her feelings about her family. But she did love them—that was this feeling that lingered beneath the frustration, making it more keen, making everything matter so much more where they were concerned. They were her foundation. She couldn’t escape that, no matter how many times she ran away to California. Because she still loved them?
Ren stood, extending his hand, palm up. “Come on. I love this song.”
While she hadn’t been paying attention, the song had changed. An old Rat Pack tune about making memories. She eyed his hand dubiously. “You dance?”
“Candy Raines, there are still things you don’t know about me.”
So many things. But she wanted to know them. She wanted to know everything. Like his incredible capacity to see the best in people, to drag her out of her neuroses right when she needed it most. Candy put her hand in his and let him lead her to the floor.
* * * * *
He’d told Max he knew what he was doing.
He really shouldn’t lie to his boss like that.
He’d told Candy he wasn’t sorry he’d come—and he wasn’t, but he also was. It wasn’t as simple as yes or no. But then, nothing with Candy ever was. They’d been an exercise in simultaneous yes and no, with no room for maybe, since the day they met. The push and pull of it had made her irresistible, but it was also driving him mad.
She was an enigma, but he knew her now in ways he never had before and he couldn’t help feeling grateful for that. He couldn’t seem to walk away from her, no matter how he tried—and at the moment, trying was the last thing on his mind.
Back home she was Candy of the quick wit and changeable appearance designed to mess with people’s perception of her, but here she was real. Vulnerable and raw. And he loved her even more.
His chest ached as he pulled her into his arms, tucking her close on the edge of the dance floor. How could he walk away now, when he finally had her in his arms? The real Candy, not the one hiding herself from him. Hiding her truth.
“You’re good at this,” she murmured as he spun them easily into a turn.
“Don’t sound so shocked.” He pivoted again, sweeping her into a brief dip and back up again, fluid and smooth. “Dance is like kata. And you know I’m good at martial arts.”
“True,” she admitted, matching him step for step, though her eyes flicked over his shoulder rather than gazing deeply into his own. “Everyone’s looking at us.”
“I assume from your tone that they aren’t all awed by our dancing prowess.” He spun her out, reeling her back again. “Your mother has been telling everyone she can find about my parentage.”
Candy’s gaze flew to his, her eyes wide and horrified. “Oh God, I’m so sorry—”
“Candy. It’s okay. It’s who I am. And the cat’s out of the bag now anyway.”
She grimaced, looking out of the side of her eye toward where her mother was beaming at the edge of the dance floor. “I think it would bother me less if she weren’t so damn pleased with herself. Though I suppose she’ll just have to eat that much more crow when she’s forced to admit we aren’t actually married. There’s some comfort in that.”
The song changed, slowing, and Ren tucked her against his chest, keeping her on the floor as they began to sway to the band’s creditable rendition of At Last. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed, the music wrapping around them.
Max had warned him about the romance of weddings, but he hadn’t felt it until this moment.
“They’re still staring,” Candy muttered irritably. “Don’t they have anything else to look at? Like the bride and groom?”
“We are a pretty gorgeous couple.”
She snorted. “If they were just staring at your pretty face, I would understand it. But they’re staring at the haze of fame around you.”
“It is blinding.”
She leaned back so she could look up at him. “I guess. I know this probably sounds stupid, but most days I forget who your parents were.”
Ren stopped moving, careless of the other couples bumping into them on the dance floor as he stared down at Candy.
She’d known the truth from day one and sometimes he’d wondered what she saw when she looked at him. To have her say she only saw him, sometimes to the exclusion of who his parents were…
She pulled a face. “I know. It’s like saying I have a hard time remembering your father was Michael Jackson. Who forgets…What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
He shook himself. “Nothing. It’s just—that may be the sexiest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
She looked up at him—and his mouth went dry at the sudden heat in her eyes. “Ren…”
“Do you want to get out of here?”
“Hell yes,” she breathed.
He was towing her across the dance floor before the last word died. They wove between the tables that had been set up on the side lawn, not caring who stared. Nothing mattered but the two of them in this moment.
She slipped in front of him as soon as they reached the edge of the area that had been lit for the reception, laughing breathlessly as they began to run. He put one hand on the small of her back to steady her in her heels—and because he needed to touch her, to feel the warmth of her against his palm.
Candy. His Candy.
Her smile was breathless with lust and mischief as she opened the carriage house door. “I kept expecting my mother to appear to stop us. She’s going to kill me for bailing on the reception early.”
He met her grin with one of his own. “We stayed through dinner and the speeches. What’s left? Cake and the bouquet toss?”
“I’d rather have you for dessert,” she said with an exaggerated wag of her eyebrows that made him laugh.
Only with Candy did he feel this head-spinning combination of lust and euphoria. So freaking delighted to be with her, on the edge of laughing for the joy of it and ten seconds away from losing his mind if he couldn’t get her naked.
Ren knew, as they raced up the carriage house stairs, that this could be a bad idea—the last thing he needed was to get in any deeper with her—but he couldn’t turn her away. He could never turn her away.
Instead he spun her into his arms as soon as they crossed the threshold, catching her lips in a kiss that spoke of everything he’d never been able to make her hear. Love. So much love. Dear God, she reached into his heart and made it beat just for her.
“Candy,” he breathed against her skin when she turned her head to the side, breaking the kiss, but pulling him closer, tighter, tugging at his clothes.
“Hurry,” she whispered, matching his desperation.
He kissed her again, yanking at his tie and collar while she kicked off her heels and backed toward the bed, sliding down her side zipper. Neither of them broke the kiss as they struggled out of their clothes, half-laughing when he tripped over her shoes and she stumbled against the bed.
Something was different tonight—not just the sense of frantic urgency mixed with champagne bubbles of delight in his bloodstream, but something about her. The way she looked at him. The way she kissed him. With all of her. Nothing held back.
This was finally it.