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“Dammit, hear me out.”
“No.” Bill threw an arm around Liam’s shoulders. “No, for once, Malone, you hear me out. This is love. The real thing, and don’t judge it by your need to bed every good-looking female in sight, or by figuring a man with a bank account is always a hostage to his money.”
Liam looked at his old friend. He thought of telling him he’d changed that attitude when he’d finally decided there were better ways to indulge a love of risk than on the fall of the cards, but then he’d have to explain more than that, and this wasn’t the time to do it. Not on Bill’s wedding day, and it looked as if this really was going to be his wedding day.
Hell. Maybe Bill was right. Maybe the marriage would work. The bottom line was that there was nothing more he could do, except hope he was around to help pick up the pieces if, and when, the time came.
“Liam?”
Liam looked up.
“You could, at least, try and look happy for me.”
“Sure.” Liam sighed. “I hope it works out. You know that.”
“It will,” Bill said solemnly. “Jess is the best thing that ever happened to me. Once you get to know her, you’ll think so, too. Come on, get that sour look off your face and admit the truth. You’re just jealous ‘cause I’ve found the perfect woman.”
Bill smiled. Liam tried to, and wondered if he’d succeeded. “I hope you’re right.”
“I know I am. Now, drink up, wish me luck and then get out there and do your duty. I fielded half a dozen phone calls after the rehearsal dinner last night, every last one from a lady aching to know more about my best man.”
Liam grinned. “Only half a dozen?”
“All right, a dozen.” Bill grinned, too, and touched his glass to Liam’s. The men finished their brandy, put down the snifters and walked to the door together. “You know how come you’re such a cynic, my man? It’s because the ladies let you get away with murder.”
“The Malone charm,” Liam said lazily. “Love ’em and leave ’em, that’s me.”
“Yeah, well, sooner or later, you’ll meet a woman like my Jessica and you’ll change your tune.”
“Sure,” Liam answered, because an intelligent man always knew when it was time to admit defeat. “Maybe in the next century.”
Bill laughed. “Go on out and charm the ladies.”
Liam strolled through the house to the music room, where the ceremony would take place. Pink and white roses filled the air with their perfume, and strains of Vivaldi drifted from the library. A pair of bridesmaids, ethereally lovely in gowns of palest pink, flashed him welcoming smiles.
Welcoming smiles to what he knew was going to end in disaster.
Liam turned on his heel and made his way through the house and out a side door to a garden with narrow, hedge-lined paths winding through it. He’d done what he could to convince Bill he was making a mistake. He was his friend’s best man, not his conscience.
From this moment on, everything was up to fate.
* * *
UPSTAIRS, in one of th
e guest suites of her fiancé’s home—the home that would soon be hers—Jessica paced restlessly from one wall to the other.
She’d longed for a perfect wedding day, and she had one. Blue skies, bright sun, not a single cloud to obscure the silhouette of Mount Rainier on the horizon…rare things in Seattle, but then, this was a special day. She was marrying the man she loved.
“Fate has really smiled on you, Jess,” her maid of honor had said just a little while ago.
It was true. Jessie had never put much stock in fate, but how else could she explain all the wonderful things that had happened in the past few months? She and William had gotten to know each other. Their mutual respect had become friendship, and friendship had become love.
Jessica looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled. How could the day be anything less than perfect? Not just the weather but everything. The music she and William had selected. The menu they’d planned. The vows they’d written together.
I, Jessica, do solemnly vow that I will love you, William, for the rest of my life, that I will always be at your side…
Her stomach did a slow, dangerous roll.
