by Natalie Ann
“I would. I’d like that a lot.”
“And would you be wanting to spend the night with me after this wedding?” she asked, her eyelashes batting at him.
“Absolutely.”
He hugged her a bit tighter. Climbing out of the hole wasn’t as hard as he thought it’d be. Then again, it was just another date.
A Choice
Caleb reached up and loosened the tie around his neck. He wasn’t sure what was suffocating him more, the tie or the close to fifty people in the room right now. Forty-nine people too many.
No, that was wrong. Forty-eight people too many. He was fine with him and Celeste.
In the last month, he’d tried to think of ways to get out of going to this wedding, but nothing came to mind short of telling the truth—that he wanted to be alone. That he didn’t want to see other people’s happy endings. That he didn’t get his own and was jealous of someone else.
Or more so, that bringing Celeste to a wedding might give her ideas of things he wasn’t ready to even consider. Things he wasn’t sure he had in himself to ever do again.
But when the time came, he sucked it up and pulled his suit out of his closet.
When he saw her in a fitted peach-colored short-sleeved dress and sexy heeled sandals, he figured it was worth it, for the sight of her alone.
How she managed to brighten his bleak life up again, he wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t questioning it either. He learned to stop questioning things that never had an answer to them.
He looked over at her right then, watching him carefully. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Sure. What time is it?”
She laughed a little, then reached over and patted his hand. “They’re still outside taking the wedding photos. Sorry, we can’t sneak out yet.”
“Damn,” he said, adding a tiny smile, enough of one that had her winking back at him. Only he was serious: he wanted to escape.
People were starting to file in and find their seats. Caleb was happy he and Celeste were at a small table of four, but he had no clue who they’d be sitting with.
An older couple made their way over; the woman stopped at the table, looked at the number and then pulled her seat out, followed by the man she was with.
She held her hand forward to Celeste first, “Hi, I’m Katherine Gould, and this is my husband, Darin. I work with Nick, are you a friend of Mallory’s?”
Celeste looked over to Caleb, then back to Katherine. “No. I know Nick from childhood actually, but I’m just a date for this evening. I’m Celeste McGuire, and this is Caleb Ryder. He works with Nick also.”
Caleb shook hands with the couple and then watched as Katherine grinned, then laughed. “Ah, the elusive Caleb Ryder that Zach spent months hunting down, driving everyone insane.”
“That would be me,” Caleb said.
Katherine’s name didn’t sound familiar to him so he was wondering how she knew of him. Even though Nick said Caleb had free rein to work alone, he’d been stuck on two conference calls already. He was right: Zach talked nonstop, with Caleb not saying much more than ten words. He’d never seen Katherine’s name on any of those calls.
“I’m Nick’s CFO, so we haven’t had a chance to meet or talk officially. Glad you could make it. Nick speaks very highly of you.”
“Thanks.”
“And I believe he sat us together because he knows how much of a chatter box you and I both are.”
Caleb cracked a smile. Katherine was nice and friendly, but he was glad to know that the night wouldn’t be spent gabbing about mundane topics.
Two waitresses came to the table. One to fill their glasses with champagne, another to take their drink orders. Everyone ordered wine. Caleb said, “Any clear soda you’ve got.”
“Is ginger ale okay?”
“That’s good,” he said, and watched as Celeste gave him the eye.
He and Celeste had arrived a few minutes before the wedding started and had avoided talking to anyone until now. He was just as happy this way, but knew it wouldn’t last. He also knew who Zach Monroe was now, and was planning to avoid him like the plague.
The guy was just too happy and cheerful for Caleb, plus he never shut up. How Zach didn’t speak through the whole wedding ceremony was a mystery.
One by one, family members started to walk in and stopped at their table to talk to Celeste. He should have figured that would happen. She attracted people like ants to a picnic.
First it was Nick’s parents, John and Susan Buchanan, and since John had been on some of those calls, it was nice to put a face with a name. Thankfully they didn’t stay long, just long enough to hug Celeste and tell her how lovely she turned out and how happy they were to see her again.
Next came Nick’s younger sister Rene, who almost had to stand on her tiptoes to give Celeste a kiss on the cheek when Celeste stood up to hug her. Again, Rene quickly made her way to her own table.
“You’d like Rene. She was always a shy one as a kid, too. Took her forever to come up and talk to me and Cole when we were kids.”
“She didn’t seem so shy to me right now. Though she looks like she’s barely twenty.” Maybe it was Rene’s height, or the glasses that seemed to be falling off her face.
“No, she’s twenty-eight or there about. She was just a few years younger than me. I think Cole intimidated her, so she didn’t come around me much unless Cole and Nick took off and did something. We didn’t see them often, just when they visited as kids over the summers.”
“I know Lake Placid is small, but how did you know them?”
“My grandmother was friends with everyone. And Nick’s grandmother, Trixie, knows everyone, too. They brought us together a few times when Nick and Rene were here, trying to give them other kids to play with.”
“Oh,” he said, then looked around when the bride and groom made their way in. Good, they could get this show on the road now and he could stop with the introductions and idle chitchat.
“We’re going to do things out of order. First the toast and then the bride and groom’s dance,” the DJ announced. “During that time dinner will be served, and we’ll eat at the end of the song.”
Caleb sat back in his chair and prepared to get comfortable for what was most likely going to be the longest toast on the face of the earth by Zach.
“Ah, a captive audience,” Zach said right when he stood up, and there were several laughs around the group. “Everyone pick up your glasses, please.” Caleb did as he was told, reached for the champagne glass, and noticed Celeste watching him again. He’d deal with that later. “To the happy couple, and their second chance meeting. Proof that if you wait long enough, your time will come. Cheers,” he said, holding up the glass with everyone else in the room.
Short and sweet, just the type of speech Caleb appreciated, and he brought his glass to his lips and drained it like the rest of the room. Because Celeste was looking at him with a worried expression, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Relax, I’m not a recovering alcoholic. I just don’t drink anymore. It was a choice, not a recommendation.”
She laid her hand on his cheek, then kissed him softly on the lips, whispering back, “It wouldn’t have mattered to me if it was a recommendation or a requirement.”
He nodded his head once and sat back, touched that she never judged him. He couldn’t say that about too many people he’d crossed paths with in his lifetime.
***
Celeste enjoyed the ceremony out by the water. The bride was simply gorgeous and the groom gave her a run for her money. She loved weddings, but never got that sparkle in her eye wondering if or when her time would come.
She’d learned a long time ago that it might never happen. That she most likely wouldn’t find someone to marry and spend the rest of her life with.
She had way too much baggage and couldn’t offer them what they’d want. That didn’t even count her job, that most men couldn’t reconcile with. She’d learned that the hard way, too.
&nb
sp; Caleb was more uncomfortable at the wedding than she’d figured he’d be, but he hadn’t made an excuse to leave yet, which actually surprised her.
The poor guy sat through more introductions than anyone with his dislike of people should have to. But he didn’t appear too grouchy. Not even when Zach Monroe came over, all excited and bragging about how Caleb had been his toughest find, but the hardest ones reaped the best rewards.
Caleb had looked annoyed over that comment, and then said, “Do I want to know how you found me?”
Zach had only laughed and said, “I can’t give up my secrets. Then I’d have to kill you.”
“I’m surprised you’ve made it this long,” Katherine had said. “Caleb, just ignore Zach…the rest of us do.”
“You love me, Katherine, just like everyone else does.”
“We put up with you because Nick tells us we have no choice,” Katherine had said, smiling.
Celeste liked Katherine and her husband Darin. They were polite and sweet, but not overbearing, the perfect couple to sit with Caleb. Sure, Celeste might have liked someone with a bit more personality, and liveliness, but she was good with anyone.
There was a moment of pause when Zach had made the toast and Caleb drank the champagne. The last few months they’d been together, he’d never drunk any alcohol and it’d never come up as a topic. It really didn’t bother her one way or another if he was a recovering alcoholic.
“Hey, Celeste, I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
She turned and smiled, then stood up and hugged Max. “Caleb, this is Dr. Max Hamilton, my new business partner.”
Caleb reached his hand out for the introduction. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Max said.
“I hear congratulations are in order for you and Quinn.”
Max and Quinn had gotten engaged a few weeks before, but she hadn’t had a chance to see him and offer her congratulations in person.
“Thanks. Just like Zach said, if you wait long enough, your second chance can happen.”
“Quinn is a sweetheart. I can’t thank her enough for coming down and talking with me during the setup of the B&B.”
“She has nothing but great things to say about you. Are you two ready for this? The first patient will be there next week, then two more following. Amber is booking people left and right.”
“I think Quinn and I have this covered. You do your thing and we’ll do ours.”
“I’m not sure who is more excited over this, Amber or me. I had my doubts in the beginning, but something tells me it’s going to blossom.”
“Of course it is, with me running it.”
He laughed, then shook his head. “I better rush back to my table, the dance is starting. Hopefully Quinn won’t have to tell Zach to zip his lips during the bride and groom’s dance. Man, he’s been a character. I’ll talk with you soon.”
While the couple was on the dance floor, dinner was quickly and quietly served to everyone.
It was a fast-moving reception and Celeste was sure that Caleb was thrilled over that.
“All the single ladies to the floor, please,” the DJ announced a short time later.
Celeste hated this part, but gladly got up and went to the floor with a scattering of others. There weren’t too many single women in the room.
Mallory got in place and turned her back, then tossed the bouquet in the air right toward the spot where Celeste was standing. She’d taken a strategic step to the right, and the flowers ended up hitting Rene square in the chest where she’d been hiding behind Celeste’s taller form.
There was a lot of laughter over that move, and thankfully everyone was more focused on how bright red Rene’s face had gotten than the fact Celeste had managed to avoid the catch.
When the men were called to the floor, Caleb stood and excused himself to the bathroom.
He returned a few minutes later when the tossing of the garter was over, and Celeste leaned over. “You suck.”
“Don’t be jealous that you didn’t think to do that.”
She laughed and wrinkled her nose at him. “Hey, I have my way of getting out of it, and you have yours.”
“Yeah,” he said smiling back at her, “but mine was less obvious to everyone in the room.”
He had a point.
Nick walked over to the table right then. “Hey, Caleb. Glad you came, and sorry to do this to you, but I’d like to introduce you to a few members of the management team. It will just take a moment, I promise, not long enough to make you quit after tonight.”
Celeste watched Caleb follow Nick, then turned to Katherine. “I’m going to apologize now, but when Caleb comes back we need to leave.”
Katherine’s face softened. “That’s sweet of you to make an excuse for him, but no worries. I was pleasantly surprised to find him here tonight. Most of us around the office wondered if he actually existed.”
“Oh, he’s real all right. A little different, but real. Still, thanks for understanding.”
Caleb returned, but didn’t sit, just looked around like he wanted to leave but wasn’t sure how to. Then he pulled his chair out to sit, but instead she stood. “I hate to be rude, but I need to get back to my business tonight. It was lovely meeting you both.”
“No problem, Celeste. We understand. Have a nice night. Maybe Darin and I will come visit and stay with you sometime.”
“I’d love that.”
“Caleb,” Katherine said. “Nice putting a face with a name. I can go back and tell everyone you’re a real person now. I have proof.”
He laughed and shook both their hands, and together they snuck out the side door.
“Thank you,” Caleb said, “but I know there is no one in the B&B right now. They’re all here at the wedding.”
At the time, Celeste hadn’t known it, but Nick’s four cousins and his aunt and uncle had booked her entire B&B for the long weekend.
“We can go back and enjoy the rest of the wedding if you want then. We never did get to dance together.”
“No, I’m good,” he said quickly.
“You’re going to be even better when we get home.”
Content
Caleb pulled into the empty parking lot of McGuire’s and looked over at Celeste. She was absolutely radiant right now. He’d always found her beautiful, not just on the outside either, but tonight there was almost a halo around her. Glowing was more like it.
“Do you have speakers for music in your house?”
“Of course, why?”
“Just asking,” he said. “I hope Sparky was good.”
“I’m sure he was fine. I’ve left him alone in the house before. He’s probably lying out on the deck right now,” she said.
“You’ve got a deck?” He didn’t remember seeing one before, but then again, he hadn’t been in the back of her little cottage.
“Just a tiny one off the back. Really, Caleb? You don’t pay much attention, do you? You’ve been in my bedroom before, and you didn’t notice the glass doors?”
“I did, but the blinds were closed on them, so I just thought they were there for light.”
“I’ll give you a pass. No, there’s a deck there, but there aren’t any stairs. It’s only accessible from my room, and I left the door open a crack for Sparky to get some air if he wanted it.”
She knew his dog well, that he liked to lie outside.
They made their way into the house, with Caleb walking over to her iPod that was plugged in. He swapped his phone out with it and thumbed through until he found a song and set it to play.
“Come here,” he said, reaching his hand out and pulling her close.
“What are you doing?” she asked, laughing lightly as she was pulled toward him.
“Giving you your dance.”
She snuggled in close and lay her head against his chest, and that contented feeling he had before started to increase. Yeah, there was nothing wrong with feeling content. Not if it felt like this.
; “I didn’t expect you to have a romantic side.”
He’d never had one before, and really didn’t think he had one now. “It’s the least I could do after dragging you to a wedding tonight.”
“You didn’t drag me. I enjoy weddings.”
“Yet you hopped out of the way of the bouquet.”
Which had completely shocked him. He’d never seen a single woman do that before. Part of him was thrilled, another part not so much.
“Not wanting everyone looking at me and wondering when I’m taking the walk down the aisle myself isn’t the same as not enjoying other people doing it.”
He turned her in a half circle, only partially listening to what she was saying. He’d rather focus on the feel of her in his arms. The softness that emitted from her. Tenderness he hadn’t felt often in his life.
Putting his finger under her chin, he tilted her face up and settled his mouth over hers. “Either way, I’m glad you were with me tonight,” he whispered.
“I’m glad you wanted me there with you.”
She wound her arms around his neck, and together they swayed to the music playing. He couldn’t tell you the song or the words. They didn’t matter. All that mattered was Celeste in his arms at this moment.
Someone that he’d never thought he’d find. Someone that was bringing a light back into the dark abyss of his life. And someone that he didn’t want to let go of right at this moment.
When the song ended, he bent down and lifted her up, cradling her in his arms, and kissing her with everything he had…everything he was feeling.
He walked into her room and went to lay her on the bed, but instead stood her up and reached around to unzip the back of her dress. “I didn’t tell you how stunning you looked tonight, did I?”
“No, you didn’t. I was wondering if you noticed.”
“I notice everything about you.”
“Ah, romance again. If you’re trying to win me over, you already have.”
He wasn’t sure what to make of her words—the meaning behind them—and decided he would try to figure it out another day.