by Evie Claire
“What is who doing here and you’re welcome…” Phebe said, eyes wide, unable to fathom Lorie’s agitated state.
“Saam. Dr. Sherazi. He’s here. Why?” Lorie pointed behind her, afraid to look herself.
“What? Where?”
“Between the flower column and the cake. Nine o’clock. Gray suit.” Lorie took a deep calming breath. But it did little good.
“Oh, right. Hello, Dr. McSteamy…” Phebe giggled until Lorie landed an elbow in her side. “I would say…he’s being somebody’s date.” Her mouth twisted in disgust. “Who’s that beside him?”
At the word date, Lorie’s palms started sweating. What the…
“I can’t look,” Lorie mumbled through her teeth. “He’ll see me looking at him.”
“Yes, you can, he just turned away.”
Lorie stepped behind Phebe for some cover, just in case.
“Oh, never mind, the woman turned away, too. Looks like they’re walking down to the lake.” Phebe raised up on her tiptoes. “You’re way hotter, if it’s any consolation. This hair and makeup is really working for you.”
“Hell no, it’s not any consolation. What the hell is he doing at my best friend’s wedding? With a date?” Lorie was hissing now, her words a low, angry sound spewing from the very bottom of her gut. A place that was also twisted into a million knots as she processed all the possible connotations of the word date.
“Okay. Let’s calm down.” Phebe rubbed her hand up and down Lorie’s back to placate her and nodded encouragingly. “Brody, will you get us some more champagne, please? Lorie and I are going to take a walk.”
“Sure, babe.” Brody disappeared into the crowd.
Phebe took Lorie by the elbow and led her from the crowd in the opposite direction from Saam and his date.
“I mean what are the odds? Who could he and Liza possibly have in common? He doesn’t have friends. He doesn’t date. And now this?” Her voice grew higher, tighter in her throat, which was doing nothing but confusing the hell out of the wretched feeling clawing at her gut.
“Sweetie, there are over two hundred people here. I know you know your entire hometown, but there are bound to be a few connections even you can’t make.” Phebe guided Lorie to a gravel path that wound up to a vegetable garden tended by campers.
Lorie narrowed her eyes at Phebe’s reasoning, hating how right she was. Yes, Lorie did know her entire hometown, but since she hadn’t kept in touch with anyone except Liza, she couldn’t possibly expect to know who was dating whom. And then there was the online dating factor that totally screwed up everything even further. But Saam was supposed to be in Jacksonville. Not at Camp Sunshine.
Lorie’s heels sank into the pebbles as she stormed up the path. She switched her focus to her walking, balancing on her toes to avoid ruining her satin heels, and thinking about the major plot twist in her evening.
“Thank you,” she said when Brody sprinted up the path behind them and handed off flutes of champagne.
“Of course. How do I get to that dock on the far side of the lake? I’d love an afternoon cocktail on the lake as the sun sets.”
Lorie’s stomach roiled at the mention of the dock. At this rate, it would be roiling all night long. Unless she could get herself under control.
“Follow that path around to the archery range. You’ll see it.” Lorie waved her glass in the general direction Brody needed to go.
“Thanks. Phebs, I’ll catch up with you later?” Phebe and Brody exchanged a wordless look, the kind couples do when they are so in tune they can read each other’s thoughts. The look they now exchanged was Phebe saying, I really need to help my friend right now. Alone. To which Brody’s look answered, Cool. Find me when you’re done. I’ll be waiting…
Brody’s dress shoes crunching on the gravel path grew quieter until they faded completely. Crickets chirped from the thick grass bordering the lake. Birds sang from branches. The breeze still blew gently over Sugar Lake. Everything was still the same. But the evening Lorie had been confident she could conquer an hour before was now looking so insurmountable; she just wanted to disappear.
“Okay, girl. I love you. I would never judge your emotions because that’s seriously shitty for a friend to do. But what’s up with this sudden change of heart? You chose your career over Saam. Everything seemed fine. And now, seeing him here with someone else has totally sent you into a death spiral.” Phebe brushed off a bench and pulled Lorie down onto it with her. When her hand moved up to Lorie’s shoulder, she noticed how quickly she was breathing.
Lorie sank onto the bench, lowering her head into her hands and sighing to calm her lungs.
“Technically, he’s not off-limits anymore. He’s not a client. He’s a 1099 employee with Durden. But I’ve royally screwed things up with him now. He’ll probably never speak to me again.”
“What did you do?”
“It was more what I said, and how he heard it. But that doesn’t matter.”
“Why not?”
“He’s supposed to be in Jacksonville. Not at Liza’s wedding. With a date.”
“I understand, but he’s a grown man. He can go wherever he wants.”
“I know that.”
“It’s because he’s here with someone else?”
Lorie whimpered and nodded, biting at her lip to keep it from pushing out into a full-on pout.
“Have you ever been so absolutely certain of a choice you made in one area of your life that it blinded you to what really matters in other parts of life?” she asked, toeing the pebbles with a satin pump.
“Um, yeah. That’s what some would call blind ambition and it’s basically been the ruling force in my life for longer than I can remember.” Phebe pursed her lips, smacking them and then moving toward her champagne. “Until Brody came along,” she added after swallowing.
“That sounds about right.” Lorie lifted her head long enough for some champagne. “How does one go about regaining their sight in such instances?”
“Just to clarify here, you’re regretting your decision to end things with Saam?”
“What else could I possibly be regretting right now?”
“Okay. Okay. Just wanted to double-check. You know I have a hard time with feelings.”
“What am I going to do?” Lorie again raised her head, a forlorn look darkening her entire face.
Phebe’s eyes flared and she struggled to get a sip of champagne down. Setting her glass aside, she stood, pulled Lorie to her feet, and pushed the hair off her face, finger-combing it into place.
“Right now, you’re going to get your shit together and go be the maid of honor Liza needs. You were caught off guard seeing Saam with someone else, and it rattled you. You’re stronger than this.” Phebe waved a hand up and down Lorie, the insinuation forcing Lorie’s shoulders back into place, lengthening her posture and solving the erratic breath problems. “Tomorrow we will get absolutely wasted, talk shit about Saam’s date, and figure out how you’re going to get him back.”
Lorie gave a half-frown, skeptical, but still chuckling at her friend’s plan. She smoothed her chiffon skirts and adjusted an errant earring.
“You’re right. I have zero cause to be angry with Saam. He’s moving on. Just like I wanted him to. I’m being irrational because I got rattled. That’s all.” Lorie shook her head, getting her thoughts in order. Laughter and music drifted into the garden from the tent near the gazebo. The reception. Her BFF’s wedding was happening…without her. It was time to put her big girl panties on and deal with the card life had dealt her. One she had insisted on, but still…“Tomorrow,” she added.
“Tomorrow,” Phebe repeated. “Tonight, you need to go be the badass bitch I know and love.” She leaned over and slapped Lorie’s ass, sending her on her way down the gravel path. Two steps later, Phebe’s elbow linked through Lorie’s.
“But wait on me. You know I don’t do outdoorsy shit like this.”
Chapter 36
Lorie
“There you are!” Liza exclaimed, her voice a high, excited pitch Lorie hadn’t heard before. It put the smile right back on Lorie’s face. Liza was living every ounce of the wedding day dream she could, and it was infectious. Lorie wouldn’t breathe a word of Saam to Liza. What was the point? Only a shitty friend would rain on Liza’s parade with her own drama.
“There you are!” Lorie shot back, joining Liza behind a buffet table where she was discreetly downing a flute for her nerves.
“I have to pee, but we’re about to do our first dance.” Liza shivered at the thought. “Pray I make it through?” Liza’s eyes widened at the prospect.
“Then let’s go pee. You can push the dance five minutes. It’s your wedding.”
“No, it’s not.” Liza looked over her shoulder to where her mother stood consulting the wedding planner. “She has the night scheduled down to the second. I’ll be fine. Just make it snappy.”
“I can handle your mother.” Lorie said in a steady, low voice.
Liza landed a soft blow on Lorie’s arm and handed over her flute. Lorie drained the glass and set it aside.
“Are you ready?” Liza asked with her smile growing wider—something that seemed physically impossible.
“I’m always ready for my stage.” Lorie brought a hand to her chest, playfully resting it there like a true diva. “But, I’m going to ask you one last time. Are you absolutely sure you want me to sing a song about unrequited love for your first dance?”
“Lorie, it’s your song.” Liza side-hugged her friend. “And when you sing it, it becomes something entirely different. My wedding will not be complete without you on that stage singing and me on that floor dancing.” Liza pointed to the open area then extended an arm to welcome Jay to her side as he approached. “With my perfect forever partner.”
Lorie cleared her throat, and found her first chord, getting ready for her next duty of the night.
“Congrats, Jay. I can certainly say you picked the best of the bunch.” She swallowed her giggle when Liza’s eyes flared. It was all good-natured joking. Lorie hugged them both and went to take her place onstage, making her way to the piano where the harpist from earlier now waited to accompany her. They’d practiced once or twice that morning. She’d sung the song a million times, but this time it held way more importance than it ever had on a pageant stage.
Lorie took the microphone, checking the switch to be certain it was on.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Jason Scott Baxter.” One more smile and a golf clap for the couple as they walked into the center of the gathered crowd. Then she closed her eyes, exhaled her nerves, and waited for the first chords to lead her into the start.
“When the rain is blowing in your face…” Like every time before, Lorie forgot herself in the song. Calling on her emotions, where they lay dormant within her waiting on the man that would finally bring them to life. She imagined the butterflies in her belly when she saw his smile. The burst of her heart when their eyes met. The way her flesh would flame for his touch alone. She felt every one of them to her core and then pushed them out with her words, singing with emotion and passion that possessed her.
With her eyes shut tight, she imagined Liza and Jay lovingly embracing each other, spinning around the floor, dancing for the first time as husband and wife. She tried to muster the emotions they must be feeling, the love and excitement and danger and reckless abandon that you couldn’t exist without once you found. A love like she wanted. One day.
And as her vision widened, picturing in her mind what was probably happening on the other side of her shuttered lids, she saw the crowd looking on. Adoring a couple’s first dance.
Slowly, a face came into focus. One that stood out from the crowd.
One that she shouldn’t be picturing, but try as she might, was helpless to force from her mind.
“The winds of change are blowing wild and free…”
A falling sensation swept down the length of her. She paused too long, missing a half beat that required her to rush the next lyric to stay on tempo.
Because suddenly, he was everywhere. In her mind. In her body. In her heart. Chills flowing through her veins like lifeblood and then out of her with the words she sang. Her facial muscles trembled, tugging at her lips on the instrumental break.
Dr. Saam Sherazi.
Saam.
He had pushed his way to the very core of her, right at the dead center of her rapidly beating heart, in a way no man had ever touched her before.
Liza and Jay disappeared from Lorie’s focus. The crowd ceased to exist. The moment painted itself into a surreal reality where every word she sang was for him. It was all for him. And her. Them. Tears burned behind her eyes, several slipping out onto her lower lashes.
“…make your dreams come true.”
If she was going to finish the song for her friend, she needed to pull it together.
Lorie forced her eyes open, slid her palms up the microphone stand, and, gripping the mike, focused on Liza and Jay. Blinking frantically, she forced the wetness away. She would finish the song, get through the last bit and then figure out the crazies swirling through her. Possibly even drown them with Phebe and a bottomless bottle of champagne.
Because he had a date.
“To make you feel my love.” Lorie slowed her pace as she sang the final notes, blowing a kiss Liza’s way at the end and taking a small bow. Turning to the pianist, she offered up another bow, a thank-you for the accompaniment. Having gotten through the song, she mentally prepared for her next goal—a mad dash to the open bar.
Lorie stepped off the stage.
Ready to run.
Into the waiting arms of Dr. Saam Sherazi.
Feeling the capability she had witnessed when his hands held her bouquet earlier now wrap around her, the possibility of struggling to free herself didn’t even register.
A wordless moment passed, neither knowing what should be said. Before they could figure it out, the band started up, playing a tune that encouraged the rest of the wedding guests to join Liza and Jay on the dance floor.
Silently, and because their bodies had a habit of coming together in all the right ways, Lorie fell seamlessly into a gentle back-and-forth rhythm with Saam. Silently still, he took her arms, lifting them around his neck and then securing his at the small of her back. Hope swelled in her chest, pushing against a heart that was trying its darnedest to climb out of her throat and into his coat pocket. The sapphire blue in his eyes swayed just as dangerously as his hips. Entrancing her. Fascinating her. Trapping her with a force she couldn’t bear to watch slip through her fingers again. But she was going to have to. Wasn’t she?
He had a date.
“I liked your song.” His whisper was hot and low, moving with his breath across her cheek and curling into her ear. In all the right wrong ways—for a dance floor covered with people.
“Thanks.” Lorie finally broke the spell, looking over his shoulder. Where is his date? her snide inner diva asked. “Congrats on your funding, by the way. I’m so sorry we got interrupted at the luncheon,” her inner angel forced out of her mouth.
“Thank you. And thanks for the Mario’s pizza, too. That was the best celebration meal I’ve ever eaten.”
“You know me. Always aim to please.” She tried to laugh, but it ended up turning into a cough when it lodged in her throat. Because, damn, his hips were working way too flawlessly against hers.
“You look beautiful. Is this your beauty queen look?” he teased, pulling away just far enough to admire her makeup and hair.
“Yes,” she answered, empowered by the knowledge that she was looking good for their chance meeting.
“And your beauty queen song?” He nodded
toward the stage.
“Liza insisted. She didn’t seem to care that the song is about unrequited love.” Lorie moved her hand, readjusting it on his shoulder. His body jerked when she made contact again, his arms instinctively pulling closer around her.
Wait…what was that?
“Hmm…” He didn’t comment further. His attention stayed on a loose curl looping around her chandelier earring. With his gaze averted, she took the moment to take him in. Really take him in. He was looking good. His skin warmer and glowing more than she remembered. Was that because he had returned to the hot Florida sun as planned? Or because he had found so much happiness in his life it was practically pouring from him?
But if that was the case, where was his date, and why was Lorie in his arms?
“How’s Flo—”
“Truth or dare,” Saam interrupted, obviously not wanting to talk about the distance he’d created between them.
“What?”
“Truth or dare?” he said more slowly.
“Saam, what are you doing?” Was he not as tortured by remembering as she was?
“Come on, where’s that competitive edge of yours?” he teased. “Truth. Or. Dare.”
Oh no, he didn’t. Lorie’s competitiveness flared like it always did. So, he didn’t want to talk about Florida. Okay. If he was going to be so nonchalant about what had happened between them, she could certainly outdo him in that area, too.
“Hmm…dare,” she said, punctuating her answer with a sassy head tilt.
“Who did you see when you sang that song just now?” Saam said before she’d finished, like he had to get his question out before he lost his nerve. Of course, he had to. Given their history with the game, a question so intimate wasn’t something they should be sharing right now. He had a date.
And the answer wasn’t one Lorie was prepared to admit.
“I said ‘dare,’ ” she pushed back.