With a sigh, Cath clasped her hands.“This isn’t the play yard, you two.”She offered a polite grin to the passersby gawking at the iconic Scott duo before casting that sunbeam of a smile back on Elodie.“I do hope I see you again soon, Miss Benavidez.Aiden doesn’t bring enough friends around.”She waved her goodbyes and headed over to a nearby cluster of beckoning attendees.
Blair tapped a taloned finger on her glass, her nailbed raw and red.“That would be because I”—she pressed her palm against the high neck of her perfect dress—“his dear sister, am Aiden’s best and only friend.”
Shock muzzled Elodie, sizzling against her tongue.
Aiden rolled his eyes and, with a smirk Elodie assumed only little brothers could pull off, said, “Good thing I feel sorry enough for you to be your best and onlytoo.”
A warm smile played around Blair’s lips like a bee around a bloom.“Well.”She sucked in a breath and it was gone so quickly it might not have been there at all.“If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find some munchies that won’t make me bloat.I’m famished, but there’s not an inch of extra room in this dress.”Blair waved goodbye, her fingers twitching like spider’slegs.
Elodie felt Aiden’s gaze pressing against her, but she couldn’t stop staring at the empty space the formidable Scott women had left in theirwake.
He cleared his throat.“That’s what I was about to tellyou.”
And if he had, maybe Elodie would have had the wherewithal to ask the Scott women her questions, instead of standing there like lawn furniture.
Aiden shifted uncomfortably.“What can I say?I have a successful family.”He forced a chuckle and shoved his hands into his pant pockets.
“Anything else you think you should share?”Elodie threwout.
“El!”The familiar voice smacked against herback.
She stiffened.She’d completely forgotten to look forRhett.
“There you are.”Her fiancé’s golden eyes beamed down at her, so much less hollow against the bright navy of his suit.“I was looking all over for you before the service, and then I ran into some of the guys, and your mom, and...”He trailed off, his steady gaze flicking to Aiden.“Who’sthis?”
Aiden’s lips pursed.“Aiden.Aiden Scott.”Had he taken a step closer to Elodie?
Rhett rocked onto the balls of his feet.“Scott?Like, BlairScott’s little brother?”
Aiden’s chin tilted toward the sky.“Exactly like.”If only he’d been so forthcoming with Elodie...
Another bot whizzed by.Elodie wished she could grab on and ride away from these men and this service and her unanswered questions—away from Westfall.“But Aiden was just leaving,” she said,“so—”
“I’m MajorRhett Owens.”He rocked to his heels and back to the balls of his feet.“Elodie’s fiancé.”
Elodie’s teeth dug into her bottom lip.If she was lucky, thesubduction-zoneearthquake the Pacific Northwest had been waiting for would happen right at this moment and the ground would split and swallow herwhole.
Aiden let out a strangled sort of grunt.“Fiancé?”His brows arched toward his mohawk.“Huh.”
Rhett slipped on his most smug grin.“Actually, El, Gwendolyn was talking about showing you some flowers she saw during the procession.Something about table settings...”
Oh, great.Her mother and Rhett were now on aGwendolynbasis, the name her mother reserved forspecial relationships.Whatever thatmeant.
Rhett shrugged dramatically.“It’s best to leave all that decorating nonsense to the ladies.Am I right?”He waggled a brow in Aiden’s direction.
Elodie could have puked all over her newshoes.
Aiden went rigid.“I didn’t realize you were engaged.”
She clamped her chattering teeth as she searched for an explanation.
Luckily, Elodie didn’t need her voice when Major Owens was around.“The Key came to me with the suggested match,” he began, rubbing his hands together.“I thought about it, and, at the time, said to myself, ‘Rhett, you’re nineteen, she’s almost sixteen.Good genetics, okay connections.She can’t marry until her eighteenth birthday, but you should lock it down.Can’t let her turn into an old maid.’”
Aiden’s lips twisted and he glanced down at her, wide eyed, before turning his attention back to Rhett.“An old maid?Oh, gosh, no.Wouldn’t wantthat.”
Elodie tamped her hysteria with a sharp clap of her hands.“Rhett, I amreallythirsty.Would you mind getting me a drink?”
Rhett aimed and fired a pair of finger guns in her direction.“You got it, babe.”He bobbed his wide chin in Aiden’s direction before heading off to find a drink, and, if Elodie was lucky, a different group to entertain.
