“Good friends.” J.D. worked at the local grocery store and Ben was trying to make a go of a tire business. Chuck was a landscaper. “Maybe not up to your flashy standards, but -”
“I said they were nice. And worried about you, by the way.”
The distraction of him still so close made it take a few moments for his words to sink in. “What? They don’t worry about me.”
“It’s the upcoming wedding. They don’t like seeing you upset by it.”
Her spine went rigid. “I’m not upset by it!” This civic pity party was supposed to have ended with her New Year’s evening of chauffeuring. “Didn’t I drive him and his princess bri - your sister around all last night?”
Jack shrugged. “Don’t tell me, I’m just reporting. From what they said, though, it seems the whole town is certain your ex’s nuptial event has shaken you up.”
Her fingers curled into fists. “Who said that? I’ll shake them up. I’m perfectly fine, damn it. Not affected by the wedding. No threat to your sister’s big day. Perfectly fine.”
“Has anyone ever mentioned you’re a terrible bluffer?”
“Never.” She muttered the lie.
He grinned. “Oh, baby, I can’t wait to play with you.”
Her face flamed and her gaze shot to his.
“Play poker.” His grin widened. “Damn, I was right. You’re fun.”
She wasn’t fun. She was tough. Strong. Full of pride. And this stupid rumor that she was pining over Emerson Platt had to stop.
She could think of only one sure way to make that happen. Closing her eyes, Stevie inhaled a deep, calming breath. The single thing she couldn’t stand more than the edgy way she felt around Jack Parini was the idea that people pitied her. So…
“Monday. Nine A.M., at the Tanti Baci winery,” she said. “You, Emerson, and your sister need to be there to go over the details of those end-of-the-month I do’s with the event coordinator.”
Taking another deep breath, she leapt. “Who is me.”
Then He Kissed Me
4
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“I wish you’d reconsider,” Jack said, watching his sister pace the small room they’d been shown into at the Tanti Baci administrative offices. She’d nagged him into leaving for the appointment fifteen minutes too early, so it was no surprise that Stevie hadn’t yet arrived, nor the groom, who was stopping in at the headquarters of his commercial real estate business before the meeting.
“Reconsider what?” Roxy asked.
“There was no reason to rush into marriage. How long have you known this guy again?”
She paused, a stubborn expression coming over her face before she restarted her prowl of the room. “It’s irrelevant. The moment I realized I was in love with him, I decided I had to reach for my future happiness with both hands.”
Jack shifted in his chair, his sister’s conviction making him uneasy. Eleven months ago she’d been a mouse, quietly going about her life working for a San Francisco nonprofit. Then
But he didn’t want to think about that. He only had to deal with the repercussions - which were that his sister had set her sights on Emerson Platt and was now engaged to marry the man.
He frowned at her. “Well, at least you and Emerson should choose a different location for your wedding.” Taking into account her nervousness over Stevie’s involvement and despite Stevie’s denials, it only made sense.
Roxy paused a second time. “Are you kidding? The invitations have already gone out.”
“I’m serious.” It was such a simple solution, he should have suggested it the moment he understood it was Emerson’s ex who would be in charge of the event.“ Look at you, you can’t sit still.”
The room’s square footage was made even smaller by what it held: desk, trio of visitors’ chairs, and open shelving that displayed some photographs and a collection of bride and groom figurines that must have once sat atop wedding cakes. Yet Roxy had found a path that took her from the shelving to a window and then back again. And again.
“Just change the wedding and reception to some other place,” he urged.
“Jack, it’s not just the invitations. Venues fill up months in advance.” She spoke to him even as she was moving again. “In some cases, years. We were able to book the winery at such short notice because of the season and because it’s newly opened for events.”
“Oh.” He watched her stop in front of the shelves and her hand reached toward one of the small bridal couples. In a casual move, he rose from his chair and joined her. Roxy’s arm dropped and he pretended it was a photograph that had drawn him to her side. “I guess those are the Baci girls,” he said.
He didn’t need Roxy to confirm, because the answer was obvious. All seemingly aged under ten, they shared the shot with a kiddie pool filled with grapes. The smallest sister, curly-haired, stood in the center holding up the hem of her dress as she smiled at the camera. The oldest girl had a hand on her littlest sister’s shoulder as if to steady her.
And then there was Stevie.
Jack had to bite back his grin. The photographer had caught her mid-jump. She looked as if she’d cannon-balled into the grapes a few times already. There was juice staining her feet and ankles below rolled-up jeans. Her dark hair was floating around her and it was certainly more smushed grapes smeared along one cheek. Unlike her sisters, she wasn’t looking at the camera. Instead, her gaze was on a dark-haired woman standing to the side, as if she’d just come upon the scene. Stevie’s small face was stamped with guilt.
“That has to be Stevie’s mother,” Roxy said.
“Yeah.” The resemblance was remarkable. She’d grown up to be as beautiful as the woman who had given her birth. And, God, yeah, Stevie was beautiful. He couldn’t decide what attracted him more, though: her brash bluster or her long-legged body. Every time he told himself to stay clear of her, she’d show him another side - a distinct lack of talent for poker, a surprising ability at darts - that drew him closer despite himself.
“You like her.”
Jack turned his head to look at Roxy. She was stroking a fingertip over the filmy veil on one of the toy-sized brides, her expression tense. Yeah, he wasn’t wrong about Stevie’s involvement making his sister anxious. His gut clenched. “Rox, don’t have the wedding here.”
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t. Move it. Move the whole damn thing to Ardenia.”
“Papa -”
“Will pay whatever it takes, you know that.” He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. The memories they evoked
Roxy put her hand on his arm and he knew she’d followed the dark train of his thoughts. “Jack. Imagine this instead. At the castle in Ardenia, Mom in charge of my wedding.”
He groaned. “Gone with the Wind meets a Disney princess movie premiere.” There’d be parasols and diamond-studded crowns. Southern food, elephant processionals, and probably seven dwarves, too. His mother had never met an excess she’d didn’t like, and the thought of that was enough to make even a bystander shudder. “Okay, maybe you are better off with Stevie.”
“I think so,” Roxy agreed. “Despite the fact that she and Emerson share a past. I should be able to handle that. I can handle that.” Then his sister hugged herself, and she resembled once more that little mouse she’d become a decade ago.
It shredded his gut. He hated seeing Roxy doubt herself or the man she’d fallen in love with. He’d kill Emerson if he hurt her. And as for Emerson’s ex
Well, this was a guarantee he could make. “Don’t worry about Stevie. I’ll handle her.”
At those words, the woman herself crossed the threshold of the room. He stepped back in surprise, his shoulder hitting the lowest shelf, sending one of the bridal sets to the floor. Roxy bent to pick it up as he stared at Stevie. She’d found yet another way to surprise him.
She was dressed in black again, high-heeled boots, bl
ack tights, a scrap of a black skirt, but on top of that was a powder-pink, skin-tight sweater that made her flesh look pearly and that highlighted cleavage he hadn’t anticipated with those boyishly long legs and slender hips.
She’d been hiding full breasts beneath oversized sweaters and tailored shirts. I’ll handle her.
Christ, he’d just promised that.
The wary glance she shot him as she strode toward the desk made clear that the task wasn’t going to be easy. From their first meeting, she’d resisted the idea that he’d be sticking close.
Emerson rushed in next. He went directly to Roxy, brushing a kiss against her cheek. She smiled, relaxing a little, and then her fiancé leaned across the desk to bestow the same chaste caress on the wedding coordinator.
Jack stiffened, though he noted that Stevie herself didn’t react, appearing as unruffled as if her ex’s lips on her skin was an everyday occurrence. Hell
What if it was?
At the thought, his muscles tightened and a white-hot spear jabbed his gut. It felt like - anger. Yeah, that was the name of the emotion. It made him mad as hell to be wondering if his sister’s fiancé was keeping his options open.
Or still had Stevie on the side.
The flame in his belly crawled up his back and he stomped to one of the free chairs and yanked it closer to her desk. Then he sat. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Stevie shot him a look. “Emerson and your sister and I can do this alone. You don’t have to -”
“Thorn on your rose,” he reminded her.
Her eyes narrowed. “Fly in my champagne.”
“Exactly.”
The bride and groom took the other two chairs as Stevie opened a folder on the desk, then cleared her throat. “I spoke with Allie first thing this morning and I don’t see any looming problems -”
“My mother,” Emerson put in.
Stevie continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “- except Emerson’s mother.” Her gaze met her ex’s, and they shared a quiet laugh.
The intimacy of the moment rankled. Jack edged his chair closer to the desk. “What does Senator Platt have to do with my sister’s wedding?”
“Jack,” Roxy started, her voice soft. “Remember there are two involved in this marriage.”
“As long as it’s only two,” he muttered.
Stevie was giving him another of her wary looks. “Though this is Roxy and Emerson’s big day, his mother is hosting the rehearsal dinner the night before in the Tanti Baci wine caves.”
Dark. Dank. “Perfect.”
One of Roxy’s hands crept into the pocket of the faux fur-edged jacket she wore as her gaze cut to Jack. “Maybe I should talk to her,” she said nervously. “Maybe there’s another location…”
“You’ll like this one,” Stevie said. “It’s different than you’re thinking. Very atmospheric. Romantic.”
Emerson laughed. “Steve, remember a couple of years ago when we stumbled across J.D. and the waitress he was dating in that hidden alcove? We thought we were the only ones who knew of it and were -” He broke off, glancing at Roxy.
Though a red flush crawled up her neck, Stevie acted as if her ex hadn’t spoken - and spoken of some private moment they’d obviously been pursuing themselves. “There’s a beautiful burl wood and walnut table that seats thirty comfortably. We can squeeze a few more in, if necessary.”
Jack wanted to squeeze someone’s throat. Emerson and Stevie’s past history only became more problematic by the passing hour. It made his sister doubt her standing, it made the prospect of the next few weeks torturous, it
Fine. For whatever reason, it made Jack crazy to think of the dark-eyed beauty involved with anyone but him.
I’ll handle her.
Hell, yes, he wanted to. He really wanted to.
Making a lap of the room as the wedding couple and coordinator discussed some further details didn’t cool his mood. He ended up leaning against the credenza behind Stevie’s seat at the desk, and she kept glancing back at him.
As Emerson and Roxy studied some paperwork, he reached past Stevie to pluck a pen off her work space. His arm brushed hers, and she jumped. Then he grabbed her hand. She resisted, as he knew she would, but he held firm.
Turned up her vulnerable palm.
Slowly etched his cell phone number there, as if it was foreplay.
It was, of course. He’d said from the beginning that he was sticking close, yet he’d resisted following up with any real moves for reasons that he couldn’t explain, not even to himself. But he was determined to push forward now. “So you’ll always know how to reach out and touch me,” he whispered to her as he traced the last digit.
Because he was definitely going to stay near enough to touch her. Physical responses couldn’t lie, and because of hers, he figured his odds of success in the touching department were pretty damn good. There was no reason to feel guilty about it, either. No laws would be broken - and no one expected Jack Parini to toe any respectable lines anyway.
So, since he couldn’t persuade his sister to relocate her wedding, then he was going to be breathing Stephania Baci’s same air for the next few weeks. He planned to keep her very, very busy, all the while making sure she didn’t have the time, inclination, or energy to stir up any embers with her old flame.
*****
Roxy accompanied Emerson across Tanti Baci’s gravel parking lot toward his car. The chilly fog made the air heavy and muffled the sound of their footsteps. Glancing over at her fiancé, she wondered if it was today’s weather that made him seem both burdened and silent.
Except he’d been frowning and quiet for days. Since … New Year’s Eve? She hated the weighty quiet between them.
Shivering, she crossed her arms over her chest. Her movement caught Emerson’s attention. He was a solid man, six feet tall with the all-American handsome features of a college fraternity president. Which he’d been, at the University of Southern California. His hair was only one shade darker than her own honey blond, and when she’d met him, she could think only that she’d never mistake him in the dark for a whip-thin European with lean hands and a slivery smile.
Emerson - when he smiled - had a grin that drew people like a crackling fire in winter. It thawed them exactly that way, too.
It had thawed her, almost from the very first.
His brows drew together now. “Princess?”
He’d called her that the night they’d met, at a benefit in San Francisco, and it had immediately tripped her heart. Outside of Ardenia, she didn’t use her title or live like royalty. Thinking of the attention such notice might garner in her daily life had churned her stomach and she’d stepped back, instantly on guard.
“Princess Leia is who you’re supposed to be, right?” the big blond man had gone on to say.
She’d blinked then, laughing a little. “Yes. Princess Leia.” The staff of the nonprofit where she worked had attended the charity event at the planetarium that night in costume. Everyone had been invited to dress as characters from a science fiction movie and the entire office was in Star Wars gear. Because she had the long hair, she’d been relegated to attending as the female lead of the first film, complete with a white robe and those goofy cinnamon buns on either side of her head.
Once the ice had broken, she and Emerson had spent the rest of the evening together, looking at the exhibits and chatting in a casual manner. Few personal details were exchanged. Maybe it was because of the relative anonymity, but there hadn’t been another time when a man had gotten under her defenses so quickly - though that might be due to the fact that she so rarely went out at night and absolutely never dated. Even a month before, she would have made excuses and not attended that particular party, either, but recent events had jolted her from her decade-long somnolent state.
She’d been ripe for life. And love.
“Princess?” Emerson said again now, his frown deeper.
“You were still calling me that two days after we first met,” she recall
ed. “When we ran into each other at that coffee place.”
“Because you never told me your name at the planetarium.”
“Yes, I did.” She shook her head. “You just can’t admit to forgetting it.”
It was an old, teasing argument, and she hoped it might lighten his mood and bring out one of his sweet grins. Instead, he just sighed and ran a hand over his hair as they came to a stop beside his BMW. “Are you in any hurry to get somewhere this morning?”
The cold found its way to her bones, despite the jacket she wore. “No hurry.” She stuffed her hands in the pockets, fingers seeking - but that’s right, there was nothing there to find.
When Emerson leaned against the side of the sedan, she mimicked his pose, angling her head to look into his face. His gaze was focused on the distance, but she didn’t think he saw the rows of naked vines or the mountains rising behind them.
“Did you, uh, have something you want to discuss?” she asked, trying to hide the nervous quaver in her voice. But she should be happy he wanted to take a few moments alone with her, she reminded herself. The wedding process, the proximity of his family here in Edenville, and the fact that Jack had arrived in town had curtailed their chances for much private conversation.
She swallowed. “You know you can tell me anything.” When he was silent another long moment, she withdrew her hands from her jacket and shoved them in the pockets of her wool slacks. There was something at the bottom of the left … a glass wine stopper. Every night, the small devices came out along with bottles of wine during the happy hour tasting at the resort where she was staying. Running her fingers over it relaxed her. “Anything, Emerson.”
He smoothed his hand over his hair again and moved his head, as if taking in his surroundings for the first time. “It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”
Her heart cracked a little. If he appreciated the Baci lands so much, did that mean he felt the same way about the Baci sister he’d once dated? Her fingers tightened on the stopper. “The winery is lovely.”
His glance cut to her. “I don’t just mean Tanti Baci. I mean the entire valley, the wine country. Maybe to someone who grew up in Ardenia -”
Then He Kissed Me Page 5