He spins a steak knife deftly between his fingers. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t anticipate it either. How intense this would end up feeling.”
He picks up his champagne glass and takes a sip, considerablysmaller than the ones I’ve been drinking. I guess being sober on his wedding night is yet more of that Slade Rhodes self-discipline in action.
“I’m sorry too,” he adds.
“For what?”
“For making it confusing.” His gaze dips. “At least that kiss looked good for the cameras.”
Frost creeps over my insides.Good for the cameras.Of course. I was standing there with heart galloping wildly, thinking about his mouth, and he was thinking about optics.
He’s certainly proving himself to be the superior strategist between us.
I’ve been here before. Wanting more from someone than they’re capable of giving. I thought I’d learned my lesson.
I set my champagne glass down carefully. “Excuse me,” I murmur. “I’ll be right back.”
I find the restroom. In the bathroom I run cold water over my hands and press my palms against my overheated cheeks. I might look like a literal blushing bride, but I’ve got to get ahold of myself. None of this means anything. No matter how incredible that kiss was.
Good for the cameras.
I head down the hallway to the kitchen, hoping to find a glass of ice water to cool myself from the inside out. Before I can make it inside the kitchen, I pull up short.
Josie and Rafe are standing close together at the far end by the stove. In the time since I’ve met Rafe, I haven’t seen a smile that reaches his eyes. But there’s a smile like that now as he gazes at my sister-in-law approaching him. She playfully drapes a dishcloth over his shoulder and goes up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear.
His dark brown eyes flash. Bending his head, he murmurs something to her. His hand lands low on her hip and rests thereas she laughs. The look in his eyes is impossibly tender as he gazes at her.
Okay then.I’m not about to intrude on such an intimate moment. I guess I’m glad someone has a chance of getting laid on my wedding night, even if it’s not me.
I quietly head back down the hallway.
The rest of the evening passes in a blur. By the end, Rafe, Tanner, and Josie are making quick work of the bottle of whiskey between them. Daryl regales all of us with a tale of Rosemont circa 1923, when some of the more disreputable Rhodes’s were doing brisk business peddling whiskey during Prohibition.
Jonah’s eyes are starting to get heavy as he leans against his grandfather. Sadie’s nursing one baby in an armchair in the corner while Walker sits propped on the armrest next to her, playing with a lock of his wife’s hair while their other baby snoozes open-mouthed on his shoulder.
I cannot fall in love with this family.
I can’t fall in love with them any more than I can fall in love with my husband, because it’s going to break my heart into that many more pieces when it’s time for our divorce.
Slade stands and holds a hand out to me. “Ready?”
I nod.
As we head outside, Tanner appears with a box of sparklers from somewhere. Suddenly everyone is lighting them and lining the path from Rosemont’s front door to the driveway and hollering at us to run.
Slade takes my hand.
We run.
Chapter 18
Horny Jail
LILA
Sparklers arc and fizz on either side of us, gold light brilliant against the dark, everyone cheering and Jonah, now fully awake again, shouting with delight. Lucky is barking from the porch where Rafe and Josie are holding her back from the sparklers. The cold air hits my face and my wedding dress streams behind me and I’m laughing so hard I can barely see.
And then I see the truck.
