“Let’s go find our seats,” Avery suggested, hoping to take some pressure off this rapidly dying conversation.
Bex’s fiancé, Gabe, held open the door to the ballroom and waved her ahead. Avery stepped inside the venue and gasped.
“Breathtaking, isn’t it?” Bex asked from beside her.
“Literally.”
It’s no wonder the Dome Room was famous. The enormous space featured a huge stained-glass dome, with Rocco gilding and ornamental cornices lofted over a wedding aisle decorated with candles and a white silk runner. Original frescoes embellished the walls of the venue, and the air smelled like the soft white flowers that covered every surface.
Bex gestured at the seating area, a sea of chairs with ribbons laced through the spokes of the backrests and plush white cushions covering the seats. “Bride’s side or groom’s?”
“Both?”
They laughed and took their seats spread across the aisle, Bex and Gabe on one side, Emma and Deacon and Avery on the other. Sean, one of the Sales team members, took the empty seat next to Avery, and she let him pull her into idle conversation as the room filled with guests.
The noise level in the space rose as people greeted each other and showed off their wedding finery, but the scale of the huge room still dampened the noise. For all the grandeur of the room, the wedding wasn’t huge. A manageable number of people filled the room to create the perfect blend of intimacy and glamour.
At the front of the room, a violinist played a small, sweet song, and the room hushed with expectation. Avery turned her eyes toward the back of the room, where Jeremy’s groomsmen had started to proceed down the aisle.
Ramon Rodriguez, X Enterprises’ Sales Manager and Jeremy’s best friend, led the procession, his handsome Hispanic features pulled into a proud smile. Jeremy followed close behind with what must have been a custom tux clinging to his body. When you looked at him, it was easy to forget he was standing here, getting married. Jeremy wasn’t totally Avery’s type, but her boss was undeniably hot. No wonder Vanessa had fallen for him, rules be damned. But if even they could make their relationship work with all the pressure of Jeremy running a company, why couldn’t Avery and Geoffrey get past his show?
A dark-haired little girl, barely past the walking stage, toddled down the aisle, a silk basket with white rose petals clutched in her chubby fists. The room gasped and giggled as she started walking, realized everyone was staring, and buried her face in her hands.
You can’t see them, they can’t see you.
Avery smiled, her chest warming as Ramon stepped forward from his spot at the altar. He kneeled on the ground and opened his arms for his daughter. Emilia wasn’t just Ramon’s daughter, she was also Jeremy’s goddaughter, and the crowd clapped as she scrambled down the aisle and into her dad’s arms. A tall woman with gorgeous red curls followed Emilia down the aisle. That must be Bea.
Then the crowd hushed again. Avery ran her fingers over the fine raised ink of the wedding program and returned her eyes to the back of the room. A bridal processional began to play, and the doors swept open once more. Avery and the other wedding guests rose to their feet as the doors revealed Vanessa’s silhouette, elegant and beautiful in a mermaid-cut dress.
Avery wished she didn’t feel so alone in the room as Jeremy met his bride at the altar, wiping away tears. She wished Geoff was here to hear the couple repeat their vows to each other, to promise to love each other even when things got rough. She didn’t need to marry Geoff. She just needed him to try.
That was the sticker out of all of it. Geoff had been part of her life for so long that with him it had felt like they were skipping straight to the good parts. Only now they’d skipped straight over any of the happiness into this disappointment that crushed her chest like someone had driven a tractor-trailer onto it and parked. This bitterness that tasted like ash in her mouth.
Avery smiled and clapped for the couple as Jeremy dipped Vanessa in a back-bending first kiss. In a few more hours Avery could go home and climb into her bed and pull the covers over her head for the rest of the weekend. But for now, she needed to be strong. This was just another mask to wear. It was a matter of survival, of getting through.
“You ready to go?” Sean asked, turning to her.
She realized she’d been standing there, staring at the now-empty altar, for long enough for the whole wedding party to have walked back through the doors.
“Home?” she murmured.
Sean pointed to the adjacent room. “To cocktail hour and then the reception. There’s still a party to enjoy.”
Of course there was.
Avery took the arm Sean offered her. “What are the odds of an open bar?” she asked.
Sean met her with a smile. “Very good odds. Outstandingly high.”
Chapter 28
Geoff stabbed the End button on his cell phone to drop the call, then tossed it on his couch. It wasn’t as effective as slamming down a receiver on a landline, but he’d have to work with what the technology gave him.
“How hard can it be to get a tux in this town?” His jaw was wired tight enough that he could pass as a Nutcracker ornament at Christmas, and even his teeth hurt as he ground out the words.
Ryan pointed at Geoff’s discarded phone. “Harder than you thought.”
Geoff grunted. Thanks, Ryan.
“Yeah. Harder than I thought.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
“Why can’t you just go to this wedding in a nice suit?” Ryan asked.
“I need to make the best possible impression. I need to show Avery I’m serious about our future. Make a grand gesture. A suit says, ‘I showed up in what I had lying around.’”
“But it’s true.”
Geoff shook his head. “Don’t care. I need a tux. Do you know anyone who might have one? Friends, parents, siblings…”
Ryan scratched his knee. “I mean, my brother did jazz band thing back in college, and if I remember correctly, he might have had to buy a nice outfit.”
“A tux?”
Ryan shrugged. “Something fancy.”
“Okay, I’ll take it. Get him on the phone and tell him we’re on the way.”
Ryan shook his head and reached for his phone while Geoff raced into his bedroom and pulled a backup suit from his closet. Ryan was hanging up as Geoff returned, and Geoff looked at him expectantly.
“So?”
Ryan nodded. “He does, indeed, have a magical tux.”
“Magical?”
“Apparently it’s the key to getting laid.” Ryan grinned.
“Let’s hope so.”
Ryan inspected Geoff’s body and frowned. “I don’t know that it’s going to fit you.”
“It’ll have to work.”
Geoff combed through his pants and pulled out his car keys, then pushed Ryan out the apartment door.
As they stepped onto the elevator to ride down to the parking lot, Ryan raised an eyebrow. “What time does this thing even start?”
“Um, six?” Geoff guessed.
“You don’t know?”
“I never officially got an invitation. Everything went to Avery.” The elevator doors opened with a ding.
“Does that mean you don’t know where we’re going either?”
Geoff gave him a look and stepped through his apartment building’s lobby and into the parking lot outside. “Minor details.”
Ryan threw his arms in the air. “Not minor details. Major details. The most important details of all.”
Geoff pressed his car keys into Ryan’s hands. “That’s why I need you to drive. I have some calls to make.”
Geoff hung his suit on the hook in the backseat of the car, then pulled out his phone and dialed as Ryan drove in what was presumably the direction of his brother’s house.
“Sophie, hi,” Geoff said when his sister picked up the phone. “I need your help.”
“Hmm,” she said. “That’s not the best lead-in to a conversation I’ve heard.”
&
nbsp; He gritted his teeth. “Look, I’m sorry for everything that went down with me and Avery.”
“Are you?” she asked without heat.
“Of course I am. And like I said the other day, I’m sorry for the way I lied to you. I’ll say it until the day I die if you help me.”
Sophie sighed. “What do you need?”
“Avery booked you that wedding job for her boss, right?” Avery had done too good a job keeping the press for this wedding under wraps, and the internet search Geoff had conducted earlier hadn’t returned a venue for the wedding. There wasn’t going to be a grand gesture if he couldn’t find the damn location.
“She might have.”
“Jesus Christ, Sophie.” Did his sister have to be a pain in the ass today?
“Okay, yes. She did get me the job. Why?”
“Where’s the wedding being held?”
Sophie probably didn’t mean her laugh to sound so mocking, but it did. “That’s confidential information. Jeremy and Vanessa literally had me sign an NDA.”
“I’ll give you twenty bucks.”
Sophie scoffed. “You’ve never bribed someone before, have you?”
“A hundred bucks.”
“A hundred bucks and an explanation,” Sophie said. Geoff could picture her smile.
“It’s for Avery.” His heart raced even saying her name. “She’s the one, Sophie.”
“Oh god, are you going to make me throw up in my mouth?”
“I’m going to throw up if I don’t get there in time.”
Sophie’s sigh was a happy one, and he knew he had won. “Are you going to remember the name of the hotel, or do I need to text you?” she asked.
“I’ll remember,” Geoff promised. He would commit the information to heart.
Ryan eased Geoff’s car into the valet station in front of the Arctic Club Hotel and cut the engine.
“You sure I can’t crash this wedding with you? The more the merrier.”
Geoff opened his mouth. “This is something I need to do—”
“I was kidding.” Ryan smiled. “I’ll leave your car with the valet and catch a Lyft home. Maybe even grab a drink at the bar first.”
Geoff tightened his fingers on the door handle. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And for what it’s worth, you look good.” Ryan’s brother had come through, and the tux he’d bought for his jazz band escapades fit Geoff almost perfectly.
Geoff nodded his thanks and opened the door.
“Go get the girl,” Ryan called, and Geoff strode through the hotel doors and into the lobby.
A concierge stood behind an elegant desk, shuffling papers. “Can you point me toward the Glass and Reese wedding?” Geoff asked the man. “It’s being held here tonight.”
The concierge eyed him up and down. “A little late, no?”
“Am I?”
“The ceremony started at five. I’m afraid you might have missed it, sir.”
No. He couldn’t have. Geoff glanced at his watch. Seven-thirty. “But the reception?” For all the money they were shelling out for this place, it had to be here, right?
The concierge tipped his head. “The Main Dome Room.” He pointed in the general direction. “But you’d better hurry.”
Geoff didn’t just hurry.
He ran.
He arrived at the Dome Room breathless. Dance music filtered through the thick doors, and his heart leaped at the thought that they hadn’t left yet.
They had to still be here.
He swung open the doors, staggered by the massive size of the room. How was he going to find Avery in this giant space?
The room had a romantic vibe, complete with candlelight glittering on every table. Silver highlights accented the room’s cream and blue decor, and some of the tables held low, elegant flower arrangements, while others held centerpieces made of tall, scraping flowers. Half of the wedding guests sat at the tables to enjoy dessert, and the other half twirled on the dance floor. A scan of the room told Geoff it would be hard to find Avery without going spot to spot. Unless…
He approached the DJ, a guy in his mid-thirties standing behind a complicated projection booth.
“Can I put in a song request?”
The guy nodded at him, and Geoff shouted the song name over the noise of the song. The strains of Sweet Caroline faded out, and the unmistakably iconic beat of Wannabe by the Spice Girls rose up to fill the silence.
Mel B sang about what it took to be her lover, about forgetting the past to embrace the future, and a wave of goosebumps raced over Geoff’s skin.
He skimmed the room, looking for movement. For Avery.
There.
Toward the back of the room he caught a flash of brown hair, the gorgeous curves he’d come to love. He knew the shape of her in a crowded room, had memorized the freckle on the left side her neck, knew the way her body would move as she danced.
And he’d known she would dance for this song.
Avery hadn’t spotted him yet, but Geoff glided across the floor to her, savoring this moment of anticipation. She wore a long-sleeved blue dress with a lacy bodice that gave him a hint of her creamy skin underneath. She was so familiar that his knees went weak at the sight of her, and his stomach twisted in a knot that only her smile could soothe.
She drew him in without knowing, and he came to her. They were magnets, after all. Once they connected again, he was going to make sure they were inseparable, but right now they hovered somewhere between push and pull.
Elbows and knees struck out as people danced to the upbeat song, and Geoff dodged them, making progress across the room until a woman with sky-scraping heels stepped directly on his toe. Geoff winced but persevered. “Avery,” he called, and his girl spun.
Her eyes widened, and she froze, her mouth dropping open.
“Geoff? What are you doing here?”
He gathered his courage and opened his mouth to win her.
Chapter 29
Geoff took a step forward, and Avery’s chest tightened.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, swallowing a rush of tears. She refused to let herself react to him, but he was here, wearing a tux unbuttoned just enough to show off the kissable skin of his neck, his warm eyes filled with hope and longing. Lights from the DJ’s setup scattered over his skin and highlighted the angles and planes of his face, and he looked so damn good.
Avery’s heart lodged in her throat, and the whole room swirled—not just because of the lights on the dance floor.
“I’m here for you, Ave. I don’t want to run away anymore.”
Her heart pounded so hard she could feel it in her fingers, and her throat went dry. “Is this why Sophie cornered me in the restroom and told me not to leave until the end of the wedding?”
Sophie had given her a funny look over the plush hand towels at the bathroom sink, or at least it had seemed that way at the time. Avery had since had at least two more glasses of wine, so the details were a little fuzzy.
Geoff’s lips quirked. “It might be.” He leaned closer to her ear. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
Sean, who’d been dancing a few people away, noticed the way Avery had frozen on the floor, and he spoke up now. “Is that okay with you, Ave?”
She could see the way Geoff bristled and drew himself up to his full height, and she nodded. “I’m fine.”
She motioned toward the far side of the room, and Geoff closed the distance between them, placing a hand on the small of her back to protect her as they wove through the crowd. His touch burned, and her body begged to lean into it, but she pushed back her shoulders and made her spine go straight and tall.
They emerged from the group and moved toward the wall, and somehow the air felt clearer already, just by being off the sweaty dance floor. Avery moved away from Geoff’s touch and leaned her shoulders against the wall for support.
Geoff turned to her, his eyes sweeping over her body with a mixture of appreciation and concern. “You’
re gorgeous,” he whispered.
“I am…” she faltered. “Drunk. Open bar.” Dammit. Avery shook her head. It was so hot in here. “I mean, thank you.”
Geoff cracked a smile. “You’re welcome, Cheese Girl. You always did have a way with words.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you here?” She leaned forward an inch, equal parts nervous and eager for what he had to say. Over Geoff’s shoulder, the party was continuing on, but here in this bubble it was just his body and hers and the way she tried to stop herself from jumping into his arms just because he’d shown up.
Geoff took a deep breath “I know I told you that weddings represented the death of a single man.”
“I do recall,” Avery said wryly. The memory of that revelation still stung.
“Well, I don’t want to be a single man anymore, Ave.”
She searched his eyes, and all she saw was how heartsick he looked. Was that the same expression on her own face right now? It was the way her chest felt, anyway, trying to expand under the weight of the pain that had crushed it these last few weeks.
Geoff continued, his voice low and thick. “You were right, you know. I spent all this time shutting myself off and not fully committing to anyone, but I think it’s because I got caught up in this girl ten years ago and never really got over it.”
“Oh.” Avery’s heart dropped, and she lowered her gaze.
Geoff brought a hand to her chin and lifted it, so she was looking him right in the eye. “It was you, Ave. And once I had you for real…” His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. “I didn’t know how to stop being the single guy. But god help me, I want to try.”
Her chin trembled as she spoke. “You do?”
“I’m here, Ave. I want to be your lover. I want a future with you, and I know I haven’t been perfect in the past. But I want to try. So, so much.”
Avery twisted her hands together. “Did you just quote the Spice Girls at me?”
Geoff cracked a smile. “I might have paraphrased a bit.” His smile grew. “You like my song choice?”
“I love it.” She gathered her courage because it was now or never. Show her cards or let this crash and burn. If Geoff was trying, she was going to try, too. “And I love you, you know.”
His Temptation (X Enterprises Book 4) Page 15