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Roxanna gave her a sympathetic smile and reached to squeeze her hand again. “Well, be patient. It’ll all work out the way it should.”
The way it should?
Shelby raised her eyebrows at the odd phrasing, but before she could ask if patience was a professional psychic recommendation, or if she was just voicing platitudes, the wedding planner breezed in with her clipboard.
Her future sister-in-law glanced at the buttoned-up, blond tornado talking a mile a minute into her headset, then leaned forward to whisper, “Can you do me a favor?”
“Of course.”
“I had planned to message Loyal this morning, but Maria confiscated my phone last night. Will you go find Loyal and tell him I love him?”
“Aw, that’s sweet, but you’ll be telling him yourself in a half-hour.”
Maria abruptly swung back toward the door. “I swear, he’s completely incompetent. I’ll be right there.” She pointed at the bride on her way out. “Twenty minutes to go-time. Do not leave this room.”
Roxanna turned pleading eyes to Shelby.
A laugh bubbled up as she rose to her feet. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”
She passed her fellow bridesmaids while following Maria out, then started across the church foyer to the opposite side where her brothers had been banished two hours earlier. She noticed her bodyguard near the main doors, chatting up her cousins from Texas and Washington D.C.
Blake didn’t even glance her way, though with Raine’s dark Diamond beauty, and Noelle’s blond bombshell looks from her mother, it was no wonder his focus was concentrated elsewhere. It was kind of nice to have the break, and with all her family around in the church, she wasn’t worried. She’d have even been fine giving him the day off.
In front of her, the wedding planner glanced back over her shoulder, and when she saw Shelby, she did an abrupt about face. “Where do you think you’re going?”
One of her silver heels slid on the tile floor as she pulled up short while scrambling for an answer. “To pee.” She arched her brows. “Or am I not allowed a potty break before the ceremony?”
Maria’s gaze narrowed as she pointed in the direction they’d just come. “The bathrooms are over there.”
Shelby pointed in the direction she was headed. “There are some over there, too.”
“Make it snappy,” the blond ordered before pivoting to head down the center aisle of the church.
She gave a mocking salute to the woman’s back, then rolled her eyes as she dropped her arm and turned to go find Loyal.
Her gaze collided with Dev’s where he stood at the back of the church with his parents, and his sister, Solana.
Embarrassment burned her cheeks at the possibility of him having heard her saying she needed a potty break. Her breath caught when she saw what looked like a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Freshly shaved and sporting a recent haircut above the navy blue suit that fit his broad shoulders perfectly, the striking Torrez good looks were on full display.
“Hey, cuz—you look gorgeous.”
Raine’s voice drew Shelby around. After a quick hug, she shot Dev one last glance, but he was now walking with his family toward the front of the church. She couldn’t help noticing the limp he seemed so self-conscious about—and the absence of his cane—and the absence of a date.
Nope, don’t care.
She turned back to her cousin to find Raine watching the Torrezes, too. “Holy hotness. Is that Devante all grown up?”
“He was grown up the last time you saw him,” Shelby pointed out.
“Yeah, but that was what, ten years ago?”
“Yep.”
A year prior to her failed deflowering, when they were fifteen, Raine had been up for a summer visit when Dev was home on leave. The two of them had drooled over him at the pool most of the afternoon. He’d been twenty, tanned, muscled, and a military hero in their young, romantic eyes, even though he had yet to be deployed.
Now he was thirty, still muscled, a seasoned Special Forces soldier, and a true military hero to her realistic eyes.
And also a Neanderthal jerk.
