Love Out of Focus

by Rebecca Connolly

  Mal entered the breakfast room to find it only half-filled with bridal party members and various other relations who had just arrived. Jenna and Tom, looking like the perfect combo in a Doublemint commercial, were standing close together and mingling with some of Tom’s family. Taryn and Dan were already at work but gave her smiles and thumbs-ups.

  She glanced around and smiled at various other people, even Sophie, who seemed to have mellowed out after the bachelorette party. Lucas had been sequestered into conversation with Aunt Joni and gave Mal a pleading look that she pointedly ignored. Aunt Cady and Uncle Drake weren’t there yet, and Caroline was just behind her, so she couldn’t have been late, really.

  The prebreakfast spread of juices and fruit was on a table in the far corner, and the tables were decorated with simple floral centerpieces. All in all, the room looked great, with just a hint of the couple’s personal touches and not much else. That was refreshing, considering the rest of the day would be nothing but finery and details.

  She saw Hunter at last, leaning against the terrace railing, watching her. He’d probably seen her the moment she’d come in. And with that look in his eyes, he approved. She approved of him as well, with his white shirt—sleeves rolled as usual—and tie with a black vest and black slacks. He put a very subtle hand to his chest as if he couldn’t breathe.

  Mal smiled at him softly and winked.

  One corner of his mouth curved up.

  “Mal,” Jenna said, suddenly beside her. “Would you mind terribly taking some pictures of us before the rest of the people get here?”

  Mal smiled at her cousin and agreed, which earned her a tight squeeze.

  For the next several minutes, she worked her way around the room, taking requested pictures and generally avoiding interacting with the family members she didn’t mind being estranged from and strangers she didn’t care to meet. She compared notes with Taryn and Dan and then set to work getting the best shots she could of the tables before everyone sat.

  The room filled with more people, all related to either Jenna or Tom, and work was plentiful. People were kind and cheerful and in some cases very southern. If her heart got blessed one more time, she’d be an angel. But to her surprise, it was enjoyable, and she found herself looking forward to the rest of the day.

  She’d spent a while trying to get a good shot of the flowers on the end of one table when Hunter came up beside her, glass of orange juice in hand, with his back turned to the room so it would appear as though he were only looking out at the view of the lake. With the current crowd in the room, it was a good technique.

  “That was quite a way to start a day,” he murmured, and sipped the juice.

  “How’s that?” she asked nonchalantly, turning her camera for a different angle.

  “Seeing you look like that. I couldn’t decide if I’d just had breakfast or if I was suddenly starving.”

  A soft sound of distress came from her throat at the drop in his voice, and she looked down at the display on her camera. “Stop that. I’m working.” She turned to get some shots of the room in general.

  Hunter stepped closer, his shoulder close enough that if she leaned back, she’d make contact. “I’m grumpy this morning,” he muttered.

  “Sorry,” she quipped unapologetically.

  “You should be. It’s your fault. I barely slept at all.”

  She snorted softly and continued taking pictures. “Well, join the club, babe.”

  He cleared his throat and took another drink. “If you want to keep working this morning, you shouldn’t call me that again.”

  She smirked and half turned so he could see her better, camera still safely raised in front of her face. “Don’t like it?”

  “That wasn’t what I meant. At all.”

  She should know better than to play with fire with Hunter. “Good-friggin-night,” she muttered, fiddling with her camera strap.

  He laughed quietly. “How many Mississippis?”

  “I will be counting Mississippis all day, you jerk,” she scolded, tossing her hair and taking secret pleasure in the way it bounced. “Stop distracting me, and go be part of the wedding party. You have to be in some of these.”

  “So do you.”

  She gave a small shake of her head. “Later, when the rest of the family not in the party come in. Go.”

  “You’re cranky in the mornings,” he muttered.

  She shrugged, focusing back on the table in front of her. “Only when I can’t sleep. That’s on you.”

  He said something under his breath and cleared his throat. “If I live through this day …”

  “We’ll both be grateful,” she finished firmly. “Go away.”

  He turned and discreetly stroked her waist as he set down his glass and moved past her to another table, effectively cutting off her train of thought and having the emphatic last word. She moved to the other side of the room as quickly as she could without making a scene, but it was no use. His eyes followed her, and eventually she migrated back in that direction.

  Once the guests had all been officially welcomed by Jenna and Tom and Tom’s father had offered a sweet toast, the food was brought out and set up buffet-style. Mal was officially supposed to be done with her photography duties, so she handed her camera off to Dan and took her place at the table she’d been assigned to, with some distant cousins she only had faint recollections of, but they seemed normal.

  When it was her table’s turn, she went up to the buffet table again, helping herself to the food as if it were perfectly normal for her, being with rich people, wearing a designer dress, eating fancy breakfast food, at a wedding at which she was both working and a guest.

  She was scooping some fruit salad onto her plate when she felt someone move behind her, and she shifted closer to the table to get out of their way, but they followed. A hand rested on her hip briefly.

  “Eat up,” Hunter murmured as he slowly passed, his voice close to her ear. “You’ll need it.”

  She had no idea how he made generic advice about breakfast sound like an invitation to bed, but she smiled and tried not to make a scene. “Thanks,” she murmured as he moved on, looking for all the world as though he really did need another napkin from the end of the table and nothing else.

  She shook her head, still smiling.

  As he’d said, if they lived through this day …

  The rest of the day was a mad, frantic mess of things, but Hunter couldn’t mind that—not when his best friend was happy and getting married, and not when the woman he loved was everywhere he was today.

  Someone, probably Caroline, had forced Mal to change into a different dress for the wedding, and he liked it just as much as the dress she’d worn at breakfast. He didn’t know how she was working in it, with the sensual wrapping and ruching and folding of the champagne bodice that disappeared into a fitted black skirt, let alone in the heels that made her legs seem endless. But working she was, and incredibly well.

  He had to flick a couple of guys on the ears as they gawked and made comments about her, but he couldn’t say he blamed them. Despite looking like the high-class wedding guest she was, she ordered them around with the authority and efficiency of a drill sergeant, somehow looking calm and collected and as fresh as if she’d only just arrived. She was flawless, his Mal, and he couldn’t mind that others took notice of that, not that she heard any of it. She was in her element and as such was completely absorbed by it.

  She had taken pictures of the wedding party separately so as not to throw the world on its ear by having the bride and groom see each other before the wedding. It was an odd arrangement, but because the wedding was in the afternoon and there wasn’t time for all the pictures between wedding and reception, it would have to do. Guys had gone first since the girls would take more time getting ready.

  Hunter tried to steal a moment with Mal, but all he managed to do was brush by her again, and she said something about how the cream suit looked on him. The specifics were lost on him at
the moment, as she was looking at him, but whatever she’d said had made him count Mississippis, and she chuckled at that.

  He had initially been unsure about the cream suits, considering Tom would be in a gray tux, but now that he saw them all together, with Tom’s cream vest and the matching berry-colored ties and boutonnieres, he could safely say that it worked. More than that, it was the least ridiculous monkey suit he’d ever had to wear, and that was a relief.

  He shouldn’t have been surprised, really, considering it was Tom. He had always been a class act, as his stag night the night before had proven; it was probably one of the most relaxed events of that nature Hunter had ever attended—and certainly the first one where he’d been in bed before three in the morning.

  His fully functioning brain was grateful today.

  Mal raised a brow at him from where she sat, now officially among the wedding attendees, with Taryn and Dan floating around as discreetly as possible. He mentally shook himself and turned his attention back to the ceremony in front of him. Or more specifically, in the gazebo to his right.

  So far, the ceremony had gone perfectly, no doubt thanks to the hours of practice the day before, and the girls all looked lovely in their elegant gowns. The mothers of the bride and groom were equally gorgeous, wearing gowns in a shade similar to the bridesmaids’, and the flower girls had been shockingly well behaved, as if their lives depended on their perfection.

  He and Caroline had, of course, been the best couple down the aisle, playing their parts to perfection. He had his usual somber face, and she had smiled brilliantly, shocking everyone present who didn’t know that the famous Jenna Hudson had a twin.

  Jenna had been stunning, he could say objectively, in her vintage off-the-shoulder lace gown. She’d opted for a band of ribbon around her trim waist that matched the groomsmen’s suits, and no veil, which he understood was a point of some contention among her bridesmaids. But nobody cared about any of that now. Jenna’s smile banished any thought about her dress or hair or flowers or lack of veil.

  Hunter had heard Tom’s breath catch in his throat when he saw Jenna, and he felt an echo of it in his own. What would Mal look like coming down an aisle toward him?

  He tried to focus on the emotional and heartfelt vows of his friends, but his eyes kept drifting over to Mal. Oddly enough, every time they did, she was looking at him as well. It was slightly unnerving, in a ticklish way.

  After the fifth time, he heard an irritated sigh from behind him. “Do you want me to serenade you two or … ?” Reed muttered.

  Hunter cleared his throat softly and forced himself to look back at the service, where the “I dos” were being exchanged.

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the minister said with a knowing smile, just as a breeze came up and tossed Jenna’s curls.

  Tom had a suave moment as he reached out and tucked one of the curls behind her ear, then glanced at the minister, who chuckled.

  “Yes, Mr. Yardley, you may now kiss your bride.”

  A cheer went up as Tom gladly did so, not dipping her this time.

  Music from the string quartet swelled as Tom and Jenna were presented and started down the aisle. Hunter and a slightly tearful Caroline followed, as did everyone else.

  Hunter winked at Mal as he passed her, and she winked back, earning her a knee slapping from the older relative she was sitting next to. He made a mental note to ask her about that later.

  The wedding party was shuttled into golf carts and driven to the locations Tom and Jenna had selected for pictures, with Mal and her assistants directing. She was all business once again and had even pulled her hair back, which did nothing to lessen her beauty; instead, it highlighted the delicate bone structure of her face.

  Everyone obeyed her implicitly, not arguing with her suggestions but laughing at her smart quips and treating her the way they should have been treating her all week. Reed was watching her with too much fascination for Hunter’s taste, but he always kept his distance, occasionally glancing at Hunter guiltily. She didn’t seem fazed at all, assessing their positions and the lighting with skill and artistry, seeing everything all at once. A strand of Grace’s hair out of place, a bouquet that needed a quarter turn, a wrinkle in Caroline’s skirt … And to her assistants’ credit, they didn’t need her to tell them in complete sentences what she saw. She only had to begin, and then they could see it too.

  She was a brilliant mentor for them.

  And a sight to behold.

  She didn’t need the makeup or designer dresses or fancy hair to be gorgeous, no matter how much others were taking notice now. What they didn’t realize was that the unspoken quality that had them all entranced had nothing to do with how she looked or how she dressed. It was Mal, pure and simple, in all her exquisite loveliness.

  “Hunter, you look like a deer in headlights,” Mal said with a smile. “Pick an expression, will you?”

  His eyes narrowed briefly as the rest of the party snickered, and Mal teased him with a lift of a brow, drawing a half smile from him. And so it went, from place to place, quickly and efficiently, without anyone noticing time at all. A few last photos, and they were dismissed. Hunter checked his watch, and it surprised him. They would get back to the pavilion and reception before the drinks and appetizers for the guests were done and well before they were scheduled to return. The others piled into the carts again and started back down, everyone cheerful and excited and ready for a party after all that formality.

  Hunter, however, stood where he had last been posed and waited for the other carts to start off, then moseyed over to where Mal and her assistants were having an impromptu meeting.

  “Lighting might be tricky at the reception,” Mal was saying, “so we’ll just play that by ear. Stay as long as you want, but no pressure. We’ll get what we can. Early flight tomorrow morning, so don’t miss the car.”

  “Do we have to leave?” Taryn pouted, adjusting the strap of her black-and-blue gown.

  “Taryn stole my question,” Hunter said, putting his hands in his pockets.

  All three heads turned toward him in surprise. Taryn and Dan looked at each other, then wordlessly headed for the last cart.

  Mal smiled as he approached, squinting up at him in the sunlight. “Hi.”

  He returned her smile and kissed her. “Hi yourself.”

  She released a sigh and wiped at her brow. “Boy, am I glad that’s over. It’s like herding cats.”

  “You made it look effortless.” He wrapped his arm around her waist.

  She held his arm in place with her hand. “I had extra motivation to be charming today. Guess it worked.”

  “It did,” he assured her, reaching his other hand around to tug the ponytail down and let her still-curled hair fall free. “There. I like it down.”

  Mal smiled curiously. “What, so I can do this?” she asked as she tossed her head and let the curls dance.

  His heart caught somewhere in his throat. “Yes, exactly like that,” he said, touching her jaw and kissing her again.

  One of the others honked the horn of the golf cart impatiently. “Party on, guys! Let’s go!”

  Hunter tried to ignore them. “Do you really have to go tomorrow?” he whispered.

  Mal put a hand on his lips and shook her head. “We’re not talking about tomorrow right now. It’s wedding day. I’m still working, and there is a reception to get to. We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

  He smiled and heaved a mock-irritated sigh. “Okay, fine. But the owner had better do an impressive job with this reception, or the whole thing will have been a waste of some very rich and famous people.”

  “Shut up,” Mal scolded as they headed for the cart. “I know the owner, and you’ll like it.”

  “Promise?” he asked as he sat on the cart and set his arm on the back of the seat.

  Mal sat next to him and leaned into him. “Promise. Now cheer up, boss man. The hard part is over. Now we get to party. With Tom and Jenna running the sh
ow, I think we’re in for a good time.”

  Chapter 16

  It was indeed a good time, and she wasn’t just saying that. The staff at Rambling Ridge had done a fantastic job turning the lodge and pavilion into a perfect reception venue with the stylish southern twist that personified Tom and Jenna. And the DJ hadn’t had a bad number yet; he played enough country to satisfy the crowd without overplaying it enough to annoy those guests with more varied tastes. The food was perfection, the guests happy, and the same romantic lighting from jazz night gave the whole venue a magical feel.

  Giving in to the cliché, Tom and Jenna had chosen to have their first dance to Martina McBride and Pat Monahan’s version of Train’s “Marry Me.” It should have given Mal plenty of cause to roll her eyes, but somehow, she had no desire to do anything but smile and endure the odd burning sensation behind her eyes and in her throat.

  She stood near her family, and Caroline wrapped an arm around her, at which point Uncle Drake did the same with Caroline and Aunt Cady, and Lucas followed suit with his mother. It took Mal longer to recover from that moment than she would have expected. Despite her best attempts in the past to claim that she had no family, it now felt as perfect as any family could ever be.

  Maybe she was done shutting her childhood away. Now that she realized what she had been missing, there was no way she could go back. She was a Hudson, after all—through and through.

  Drake and Jenna shared an adorable and laughter-filled dance, and Tom took his mother for a spin on the floor, making her smile and look every bit as warm as her son.

  Mal found Hunter often over the course of the night, but they didn’t spend as much time together as she would have liked. It wasn’t possible with her having to take pictures at times as well as join in the party, especially with the likes of Aunt Joni and Great-Aunt Pearl trying to snatch up whatever gossip they could. She dodged her second cousin Vance, who’d spent too much time in the more rural parts of Kentucky, it seemed. She also caught sight of the infamous stripper from the bachelorette party, who was dancing a little too closely with Alexis. Apparently, there was something going on there.