Page 4 of Braden

“Special Forces.” Braden was trying hard not to let his enthusiasm as a tisba fan get the better of him. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he’d ever meet the great Renald.

“We’re doing flag tisba tomorrow,” Renald said. “I want you on my team. I can tell you’ll be an asset on the offense. You do play?”

“Not in your league,” Braden joked. “But yeah, who doesn’t enjoy a good game?”

“Great. I’m sure Elodie has the agenda. I’ll look for you there.” And the athlete directed his attention to the next guests queued up behind Elodie and Braden, waiting to offer their congratulations.

Tamarind sent them off with a smile and Braden wanted to pinch himself. “Did that really happen?” he asked Elodie.

“If you enjoyed that, you’re going to love this week,” she replied. “Tamarind has all kinds of activities and mixers planned leading up to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. We have to get you a suit though since I’m guessing you didn’t exactly bring one for your beach vacation.”

“I’ll need a dress uniform actually,” he said. “I’ll see if the concierge at my hotel can rush through an order for me.”

“I love a man in uniform,” she said and then blushed all the way to the roots of her hair.

A woman with long silver hair rushed up to them, carrying an oversize handheld and looking frazzled. “So your date finally arrived?” she asked Elodie in a teasing tone. “He’ll have to sign the nondisclosure agreement and the agreement to be filmed.”

“The what?” Braden asked.

Elodie turned to him. “This is Migs Antemirr, the wedding planner. She and her staff have helped Tamarind organize this whole week and the ceremony of course. We all had to sign NDA’s that we wouldn’t discuss any behind the scenes stuff we might see or hear. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. I did tell you about the filming though, right?”

“No problem.” He shook hands with Migs and then gestured for the handheld. “I need to read it.”

She steered them to a spot against the wall and handed over the device. “A routine form, standard when celebrities of this magnitude are involved.”

“Uh huh.” He kept reading. Most of it was boilerplate language and he had no intention of talking about the event in any case but he couldn’t sign a document that conflicted with his military oath. “I’ll have to take exception to clause 12,” he said. “I’m on active duty in the Ardannan military and if my superiors ask me any questions I’ll have to answer them.”

Elodie fidgeted nervously, wringing her hands.

Migs reread the offending text and considered. “All right. We’ll add a caveat so you can share with your superiors as necessary. Any other objections?”

He had several other modifications he wanted, all of which Migs agreed to and then he signed both documents. She rushed away without another word. Elodie was staring at him in awe.

“What?” he asked.

“I didn’t know you could take exception to any of it,” she admitted. “I just signed at the X.”

“Always room for negotiation,” he replied. “How long do we need to stay at this event?” Braden didn’t want to linger making small talk with a room full of people he didn’t know, not even famous ones. He’d seen more people he recognized already and felt no need to try and socialize with trideo stars and sports legends, although the latter might have been interesting.

“We should circulate a bit. I’m a bridesmaid after all.” Elodie grabbed his arm. “Don’t look now but Chet and Ivoria just walked in. Over there.”

“He’s dating Ivoria?” Braden asked. Even he’d heard of her. She was a supermodel and an aspiring actress from what he could recall.

“I think she’s using him for his contacts actually,” Elodie confided, head close to his. “They’re in the line to talk to the bride and groom now.”

Cautiously Braden looked in that direction and assessed Elodie’s cheating ex. The man was good looking in a too-carefully groomed way. He was six feet tall, which put him four inches shorter than Braden stood and muscular, but more likely as a result of a lot of time in the gym versus the way Braden earned his muscles, carrying damn heavy equipment and weapons on recon runs and in battle. In Braden’s line of work sometimes the only thing which saved your life was being stronger than the warrior trying to kill you. Sure he wore full power assisted battle armor on occasion but his specialty was slipping behind enemy lines and carrying out dangerous missions with his team. He’d been in more than a few situations where it was him or the other guy, hand to hand in an alien jungle. He had the scars to prove it. Needless to say Chet didn’t impress him and especially not when he knew the guy had cheated on Elodie.

“Tell me we’re not going to say hello.”

Elodie frowned. “I kinda have to talk to him, sorry. But we’ll keep it short, okay?” She glanced at the open bar across the room. “I need a drink for this though.”

Braden eyed the crush of people. “I’ll go, you wait here.” He ushered her to one of the small tables dotting the edges of the room. “Have a seat and I’ll be right back.” Making sure she was okay, he headed for the bar and got himself a feelgood and a fancy one for her. As he arrived at the table he found Chet and Ivoria there. Ivoria was ignoring Elodie and conversing with another woman he vaguely recognized but Chet and Elodie were deep into conversation and from the tone of Elodie’s voice, she was upset.

“No, I didn’t bring it here to the party,” she said, apparently repeating herself.

“But it is here at the resort?” Chet asked impatiently. “You did do as I asked, right?”

Braden inserted himself at Elodie’s side, elbowing Chet out of the way with a murmured and insincere apology. “Here, babe,” he said, handing her the drink which she immediately took a big sip of. He extended his hand to Chet. “I’m Braden, Elodie’s date. Is there a problem here?”