by Noelle Adams
“You said scores of...”
I swallowed. “It was a joke, Sean.”
His eyebrows were still lowered. “Do you think I’m some sort of player?”
“No,” I replied quickly. “Not now. Not at all.”
“But before? You think I was ever a player?”
I was about to offer an immediate rebuttal, but the words stopped in my throat. The truth was I did assume he’d gotten around—not presently and certainly not when he’d been with Lara, but he was rich, sexy, handsome, and free. It seemed obvious that he would have been with a lot of women in the past.
Sean said slowly, “I’ve been with nine women in my life. Is that a lot? Does that make me a player?” He was utterly serious, as if he really wanted to know what I thought about him.
I grew very still.
Nine.
It was more than me but not significantly so. I couldn’t believe his number was so low.
Then I felt guilty about making assumptions based on nothing but his superficial qualities.
“I’ve only been with two in the past five years,” Sean added very softly. “That’s not a lot, is it?”
I inhaled sharply as I realized that meant Lara and me.
He hadn’t used the Wednesday night contract with any other women. Just me.
It felt like my whole insides were shaking helplessly, and I had no idea what to say.
But Sean was clearly waiting for an answer.
“No,” I finally managed to say. “It’s not a lot.”
His eyes held mine. “Are you... disappointed?”
“No,” I murmured, scooting over in the bed to give him a little kiss. “I’m not disappointed.”
Disappointed wasn’t even close to what I was feeling.
There might have been fireworks going off in my head.
He looked like he was going to say something else, but there was a knock on the door just then.
I sat up. “What’s that?”
“That’s room service,” Sean said, groaning slightly as he rolled off the bed.
“But our dinners already came.”
“This is for after dinner.”
I had no idea what it was, and I couldn’t see the door from where I was sitting on the bed. So I stared in astonishment when Sean wheeled in a tray with a bottle of champagne and long-stemmed strawberries dipped in chocolate.
Sean cocked one eyebrow and looked almost sheepish. “I thought we needed to reward ourselves after our exertions earlier. Too clichéd?”
I squealed and clapped my hands with naked excitement. “It’s perfect. I was hoping for dessert.”
This was more than dessert, and it felt undeniably romantic as we drank the champagne and ate the strawberries together in bed.
Especially after what he’d admitted to me earlier. I was the only woman he’d been with since Lara.
But I was smarter than to fall for silly daydreams anymore.
I wasn’t going down that road again.
To get myself back on the right track, I chatted to him about normal, non-intimate things—namely, work and my sister’s wedding, which was coming up the weekend after next.
After I’d told him about the current crisis with the wedding flowers, Sean said lightly, “You don’t seem like you’re looking forward to the wedding.”
“I’m not,” I admitted. “I’m happy enough for my sister, but the wedding just fills me with dread. There’s just so much stress involved, and all my old school friends will be there, and...”
“And what?” he prompted when I trailed off.
“And I won’t even have a date.” I made a face, wishing I hadn’t mentioned that as soon as the words came out.
“A date?”
“Yes, a date. I’ll admit it. I had all these daydreams about going with John, and all my old friends seeing me with this great guy.” I shook my head. “I’m not saying I regret ending it with him. He wasn’t the guy I wanted. But still... I’m not a completely insecure person. I mean, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. I like my job, and I like myself, and I like my life. But there’s always this little twinge when it comes to seeing people you used to know. You want them to... to see you doing really well. And in the case of a wedding, it means having a date.”
Sean didn’t appear to be laughing at me, although a smile was playing on the corners of his mouth. “So go with someone else.”
“Who exactly? I’m not exactly overrun with romantic partners, you know.”
“Go with anyone. It doesn’t have to be someone you have romantic designs on.”
“Right. So I’m just supposed to go up to my new neighbor or a random guy at work and say, Hey, I know we barely know each other and don’t take this the wrong way, but will you please go with me to a family wedding where everyone is going to assume we’re a couple?” I gave a huff of amusement.
Sean frowned. “Who’s your new neighbor? Some guy you’re interested in?”
“No! And would you please stay on topic. My point is that I’m not in the position to ask anyone to be my date to the wedding. What would you do if a woman approached you with that particular offer?”
“It would depend on who it was.”
“Don’t hedge. You know very well that I’m right. That kind of date would scare any guy off.”
“It might not.”
“Yes, it would.” I really wasn’t thinking. I was into the conversation and wanted to prove my point. “Say we didn’t have a contract preventing it and I asked you to go to the wedding with me. You’d run for the hills before I could get the words out.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, you would.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I’ll go to the wedding with you if you want me to.”
I stared at him. My mouth dropped open. I froze in place for several seconds. “What?” I finally forced out.
He was frowning again, like I was making a big deal out of nothing. “I said I’d go to the wedding with you. Why do you look so flabbergasted?”
“Because it’s in our contract that going to social events together is against the rules.”
He made an impatient face. “I’m not asking you out on a date. I’m just saying that if you need someone to go with you to the wedding, I’d go with you. What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that people would see us there together and assume we were dating. All my friends would... They’d assume you were my boyfriend.”
“What do I care about that? I assure you I’m capable of brushing off nosy questions.” He sounded perfectly cool, perfectly unconcerned, as if what he was saying wasn’t shaking the very foundations of my world.
“And you’re kind of well known, you know,” I continued, trying to even out my tone but not being very successful. “What if it ended up in the gossip columns that you were dating some nobody?”
“Are you planning to have the paparazzi at your sister’s wedding?”
“No. But the story could still get out.”
“They write stories all the time about me dating everyone from Queen Elizabeth to Hillary Clinton.”
Despite my distraction, I couldn’t help but giggle at this.
“And don’t call yourself a nobody,” he went on in a different tone. “I don’t like that.”
“I just meant—”
“I know what you meant. And I’m not saying you need to take me as your date. It’s no big deal either way to me. If you want a date, I can go with you. If not, then don’t worry about it.”
I was still staring at him with wide eyes, but he really seemed like he meant what he said.
This wasn’t an invitation to change the terms of our relationship.
He wasn’t initiating a romance with me.
He was just being a nice guy.
As I thought, he kept his eyes on my face, and there was a slight tension in his shoulders that belied his casual expression.
Finally I said, “All right. If you really don’t mind, it wo
uld be nice to have a date. You as a date.”
He gave a little nod, and the tension in his shoulders relaxed. “Good then. It’s the Saturday after next?”
“Yeah. It’s outside the city but not far, so it should only be a few hours of your time.”
“No worries.”
He could say no worries. He wasn’t the one who was going to attend a family wedding with Sean Doyle as her date.
I had no idea what to expect, but it made me jittery from my head to my toes.
WE FINISHED MOST OF the champagne, and the alcohol made us sleepy, so we ended up falling asleep without having sex again.
At about three in the morning, I woke up in the dark room to find that Sean was practically on top of me. He was asleep, so he must have rolled over unconsciously. His body was as hot as a radiator, and he was hard in his pants.
I could feel him pressing into my belly.
I shifted beneath him uncomfortably, and my motion must have woken him up. He mumbled groggily and started to kiss me.
This seemed like a perfectly reasonable activity to me, so I kissed him back. We were both half-asleep as we fumbled together, and he ended up buried inside me. My legs and arms were wrapped around him, and I clung to him and rocked beneath him.
Sean was still mumbling, and my head was still too clouded with sleep to decipher what he was saying, but it felt soft and sweet and intimate and natural, finding each other in the dark this way.
He pumped his hips against me and buried his face in my neck, and it didn’t take him very long to come.
I didn’t come at all, but I loved it anyway.
We stayed tangled up together as we fell back to sleep, and I didn’t want to let him go.
I didn’t ever want to let him go.
I wondered if second best had ever felt like this before.
Nine
A WEEK AND A HALF LATER, as I was walking down the aisle in my bridesmaid dress, I was regretting inviting Sean.
Just a little.
Not that he’d done anything wrong. In fact, he’d done everything right. But I kept worrying that he was having a bad time or feeling awkward or that he might never want to hang out with me again.
After all, this family wedding couldn’t possibly be fun for him.
I’d told him I could just meet him here since I had to arrive early as part of the wedding party. But he’d insisted on picking me up and looked a bit annoyed when I kept arguing, so I’d eventually just let it go. After we arrived, I was busy with getting dressed and helping my sister, so Sean had to sit for a long time on his own.
He was on his own for the wedding ceremony too since I had to be part of the proceedings.
What guy in the world would enjoy being dragged along and then having to sit by himself doing nothing for so long, in the middle of a bunch of strangers?
So I kept worrying—mostly about him.
The wedding was taking place outside at an orchard and farmhouse that was now hired out for events. White chairs had been placed in neat rows in front of the arbor, and I was walking down the aisle in the middle, trying to slow myself down since my habitual walking pace is fast.
I caught Sean’s eye as I walked, and he gave me a little half smile, looking interested and amused and not at all bored or annoyed.
His expression made me feel better, and I had to fight not to grin at him in response.
I wished my dress were a little more attractive though.
It wasn’t a terrible bridesmaid dress. I’d seen far worse many, many times. But bridesmaid dresses have to fit women of varying body shapes and coloring, so inevitably they’re not perfectly flattering on everyone.
I would have gone with something less formal for an outdoor wedding at four in the afternoon, but my sister had always had visions of long, fancy dresses—for herself and for her bridesmaids. So I was wearing a satin dress with a full-length, A-line skirt, a fitted bodice, and cap sleeves.
Rose pink.
The dress was rose pink.
A very pretty color but very bad with my red hair.
But it was my sister’s wedding. Not mine. She could have anything she wanted.
I hoped Sean didn’t think I looked too unattractive.
The wedding ceremony itself was thankfully short—lasting not even twenty minutes—and then we processed back up the aisle and had to take all the photos.
The whole time, I was thinking about Sean, sitting alone at the reception, waiting for me to finally join him.
I vowed that if I ever got married, I was going to do the photos before the ceremony. I could live with my husband-to-be seeing me before the ceremony if it meant my poor guests didn’t have to wait an hour killing time at the reception before we finally arrived.
Eventually I was able to escape and make it into the big beautifully decorated barn where all the food was set up.
It was all heavy hors d’oeuvres rather than plated meals, which was another relief. I looked around and didn’t seen Sean in the barn, although I did notice that the tray of smoked salmon was mostly gone since we had taken so long with the pictures and that also there were no more chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Typical.
Cursing the extended photo session, I wandered outside to the patio where little tables had been set up for guests to sit.
I found Sean at a table in the corner under the shade of a tree. He’d managed to snag the best seat.
That too was typical.
“Sorry,” I said, sitting down at the empty chair next to him. “Sorry it took so long.”
“That’s the way it always goes when pictures are afterward.” He looked relaxed and like he was in a good mood, so he must not have gotten too impatient waiting.
He slid a plate over to me, on which was a very good variety of the best food, including smoked salmon and dipped strawberries.
I stared down the plate speechlessly.
“It was going quickly,” he explained, as if responding to my expression. “So I went to get you some.”
I lifted my eyes to his face and whispered, “Thank you.”
His eyebrows lowered. “You okay?”
I shook off my strange reaction. “Yeah. Sorry. It’s just the whole thing has been pretty stressful, and it all took so long, and you’ve been waiting here for ages...”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been fine. I know how weddings go.”
“Have people been staring at you?”
He chuckled. “A few.”
“They recognized you, I guess.”
“Yeah. At least some of them did. One old man came over and pitched me a real estate deal.”
I’d been munching on my food, but at this my mouth almost fell open. “You’re kidding! Who was that?”
Sean nodded over toward an elderly man dozing on a bench by himself.
I giggled. “That’s my great-uncle Larry. I can just imagine his pitch.” I peered at Sean’s face but saw nothing except amusement, so he really must have meant it when he said he wasn’t bored or annoyed.
“It was something. Then he got angry because I said I wasn’t sure it would work out for me, and he snapped that he expected more from Ashley’s fella.”
I paused, a cracker halfway to my mouth. “Sorry. I told you that’s what everyone would think if you came with me.”
“Stop saying sorry,” Sean said, standing up with his empty champagne glass. “I can think of worse things than being called your fella.”
I couldn’t think of a response to that, so I just sat there, my mind whirling, and watched Sean walk over to get more champagne and also a glass for me.
He brought them over, and I accepted mine gratefully.
I really wished I knew what Sean was thinking, but his face was as composed and clever and unreadable as ever.
THE RECEPTION WAS THE best part of the wedding, as far as I was concerned.
We did have to put up with curious people coming over and asking needling questions of us, but Sean was cl
early a master at that sort of thing and managed to end the interrogations before they really started, without ever seeming rude. He always just changed the subject without the other person realizing what was happening.
My sister and her new husband came over, but my sister was in too much of a tizzy to really focus enough to be curious about Sean and me. I told her we’d met because we both worked in real estate, and that seemed to satisfy her.
When my mother came over, it was more awkward since she kept talking like Sean and I were a couple. I tried to gently set her straight, but I wasn’t sure she got it.
That meant I’d have some work to do with her after this was over so she wouldn’t start planning my wedding.
But all in all, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as I’d feared, and Sean didn’t even appear in a hurry to leave.
When the cake was cut, he made a point of getting a piece of the wedding cake to save for his grandmother. He said he always saved her a piece whenever he attended weddings. It was some sort of tradition they’d had since he’d been a kid.
I thought it was kind of sweet.
When all the other traditions were completed, my sister and her husband did their first dance on the part of the patio set off as a dance floor. Then she tried to get other people to dance too.
No one really wanted to.
Some settings lend themselves to dancing, and some do not. This was an outdoor wedding in the afternoon, and it was now just after six o’clock. It was getting a little chilly, and everyone had eaten a lot. No one wanted to get up and look stupid on a makeshift dance floor.
I shook my head. “She’s always had these daydreams about one of those big festive occasions where people stay and dance through the night. Sort of like those big parties in Sabrina.”
Sean must be familiar with the movie because he nodded. “It never turns out that way, does it?”
“Nope.” I sighed when I saw my sister gesturing toward me urgently. “Shit. She wants me to dance.”
Sean chuckled. “Well, you better be a good sister then.” He stood up and extended a hand toward me.
I took his hand as I rose, but I stood still as I murmured, “You don’t mind?”