Page 36 of Crossing the Line

I laughed at his ridiculous statement as I looped my arm through his, but there was a noise from behind us that almost sounded like a growl.

“Take it easy, Casanova,” Damien said in a hard tone. I started to look back at him, but Aunt Cathy called out to us impatiently, so I kept my eyes forward as we started walking down the aisle.

The timing worked out perfectly, and the song playing on her phone ended just as Damien and Jess reached the arch last. We were standing in two lines, the women on the left and the men on the right. Then, Leanne came while a wedding march blared through the phone’s speaker. She smiled and held onto Uncle Ethan’s arm as they came toward us.

She was beaming with excitement, and it wasn’t even the wedding day yet. Everyone was watching her.

Well, almost everyone.

I wasn’t sure why I even glanced in Damien’s direction. Maybe I felt his eyes on me again. Or maybe I was just thinking about him a little too much, considering that I was trying to act cool and unaffected by what happened between us this afternoon.

But when I looked at him, I was shocked to find that he was already watching me. I raised an eyebrow in a silent question, but he just slowly ran his tongue over his bottom lip before looking away.

What the hell was that?

We didn’t run through the full wedding, but Aunt Cathy gave us a quick rundown of what we could expect. The ceremony itself would be simple. Exchange vows, then wedding rings. That would be followed by the first kiss, and the announcing of the couple to everyone gathered. Easy and brief.

“Then, you’ll all follow Leanne and Ryan up the aisle with the same person as before. You’ll lead the guests into the resort’s ballroom for the reception,” Aunt Cathy said.

Jake held his arm out for me again, and I took it, refusing to look around and see if Damien was watching us. I didn’t know if he was feeling possessive because we slept together today or what, but I wasn’t going to waste time worrying about it.

Instead of going into the ballroom, we all made our way to the terrace, where family and friends were already waiting. The small tables had been removed and replaced with a long one that was big enough to seat everyone. I moved to an empty seat across from my mother. Just as I sat down, Zoey started to reach for the empty chair beside me, but Damien was suddenly there.

“Would you mind if I sit here?” he asked, voice as smooth as silk. “I wanted to talk with Kelsie about something.”

She glanced around, frowning when Ford tried to gesture her to take an empty seat beside him. I recognized something achingly familiar in her eyes. Heartbreak. I didn’t know what the deal was between Zoey and Ford, but her broken spirit spoke to my own.

“Damien, let her sit beside me if she wants to,” I said.

“No, it’s fine,” Zoey said, but she didn’t go to Ford. Instead, she settled into an empty chair beside her brother Jake.

“What’s up with those two?” Damien murmured, leaning in close to me. His warm breath tickled my neck, and I wanted to put space between us, but we were all crammed in too tightly around the table. “They’ve been acting weird lately.”

“Seems like that’s going around,” I said picking up my wine glass, which was just filled by a waiter.

“About that… I need to tell you something.”

The ding of a fork against a wine glass drew everyone’s attention to where Ryan was now standing at the head of the table.

“Leanne and I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for being here.” He began. Leanne stood up beside him, and they glanced at each other. It was just a couple of seconds, but the affection in their expressions was visible to everyone. “Hardly anyone knows this, but Leanne and I almost didn’t have a wedding. We were so eager to get married that we were just going to elope.”

“I’d never let that happen,” Aunt Cathy called out, and Ryan laughed.

“Yeah, we figured that out when you threatened my life if I deprived you of a wedding for your only daughter.”

The laughter moved around the table then.

“But she had a point,” Ryan said. “This is something to be celebrated, and we’re both so proud to share it with all of you.”

We all raised our glasses in a toast, drinking wine as the waiters started passing out plates. Dinner was a butter-basted sea bass with sautéed spinach and roasted potatoes. It was upscale without being pretentious, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Conversation flowed easily, and even Damien seemed to shake off whatever was bothering him earlier.

“Kelsie, I’ve been meaning to ask you about the job offer in Minnesota,” Mom said just as we were finishing our entrees. “Did you make a decision yet?”

I could have sworn that the temperature dropped at that moment. A chill ran down my spine, and I glanced over at Damien. He’d gone completely still, as if he was carved from ice, and his eyes stared at me in disbelief. For a moment, he didn’t say a word, and that silence seemed to scream.

“What is she talking about?” he asked, and his voice sounded nothing like him. It was a low, jagged rasp. “What job offer?”

“Oh… I didn’t realize that you hadn’t told him,” Mom said uncertainly. I couldn’t even look at her. My eyes were locked on Damien, watching as shock turned to hurt, then anger.