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At this she laughed, the light, melodic sound that reminded him of those carefree moments in the car. Shoving Bueno bars in her mouth with relish as she joked about needing twine and Vaseline now to squeeze into that bridesmaid dress.
“Yeah,” she said finally. She looked up, her green eyes bright. “But somewhere in the past few days I’ve realized that I’m not afraid of her anymore. The power she had over me? That ever-present deep-residing need I’ve always had to try and please her, please my father, to make them somehow…love me?” She shook her head. “I can’t do it anymore. I’ve gone to the right schools, hosted the right parties, dressed the right way…even got engaged to the right guy. But I still didn’t feel good enough. There was always something I should be doing better. So I say the hell with it all. I’m not going to do anything to make anyone else happy first. I’m going to try and decide something new. What makes me happy.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You came into all of this in the space of one dinner with your mother? What kind of chicken were they serving you?”
She smiled. “Just sitting there tonight, hearing the usual Emily Vaughn complaints where no one was ever good enough when compared to the high standards she’s set for herself, it came to me. She isn’t ever going to be happy, no matter what I do. I started remembering things, happy moments in my life. Moments over the past few days that have made me realize there was more to life than trying to earn my parents’ love and approval. I want to try and feel that way again.”
Happy moments over the past few days. Was she saying moments with him? “So dodging yellow school buses barreling your way on a Mexican highway is your idea of happy times?”
“It was definitely a highlight. But none compared to the moments with you.”
Now his heart was stopping. “Like what?” he asked, his voice gruffer than he’d intended.
“Like discovering that, that night, when we first met? You were going to find me.” She smiled. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah, well you had been pretty unforgettable. Beautiful, of course, but it was your smile, the tilt of your head when you looked up at me. You were just brimming with life and love and spirit. Even in that first moment I felt that any man would be invincible with you by his side.”
She flushed at his words but didn’t say anything, instead letting him hold her as they danced like no one else was around them.
“Cruz?” she asked finally, she paused, biting her bottom lip. “I know you said it was a mistake, but when I asked you to marry me? I think that was the first time in my life I’d ever followed what was in my heart. I knew, in my heart, that you could make me happy.”
He stopped mid-step to study this vision in his arms. She was looking at him almost wistfully now, as she waited for his response. Payton Vaughn. The most enigmatic, passionate, and beautiful woman he’d ever known. He stepped more firmly into the next beat, tightening his arm around her waist, trying to find words.
But Payton wasn’t done. “I know it’s insane, but everything we’ve done the past two days has been absolutely crazy. And I’ve never been happier. What—what if we tried this out. You, me. Just for a little while?”
It was almost too incredible. Too impossible to believe.
But there was no denying she was there, slight but steady in his arms, her eyes staring at him with hope, her lips soft and parted, aching to be kissed. No—for him to kiss her.
Something he’d been fighting the desire to do since she first appeared at the end of that aisle tonight, walking toward him.
Maybe, just maybe…he could be that man.
He could be the lucky guy to have Payton at his side, loving and supporting him, just as he would love and support her.
He brought her against him, holding her there. Then with a quick flip of his wrist, he twirled her out, earning a yelp before he twirled her back in. “Mrs. Sorensen,” he said, the words surprising him as much as they did her. “Are you fishing for a date with me?”
She smiled, her dimples deep and etched in her face as she turned toward him. “I do believe I am.”
He looked down at where her hand rested in his, soft, graceful. He longed to kiss it, to hold it to his heart again. But there were too many eyes. Not here. Not just yet. “I have a few ideas of where we might want to go. But all of them involve you not leaving tomorrow morning with the old battle axe.”
She had dropped her gaze to where their hands were entwined, her breathing a little shallow. “Do any of them have to do with hockey? Because I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find an ice rink here in Puerto Vallarta.”
He chuckled and rubbed his thumb against the softness of her skin. “No, but they did involve you. In or out of a bikini. And sand and water, and maybe a few moments in that extra large tub in my room.”
“I think that might be something that can be arranged.”
This is absolutely crazy.
She, Payton Vaughn, just days after ending a longstanding engagement, was about to step into the suite of the one man who’d driven her crazier than any other man she’d ever known. Who would probably continue to drive her crazy.
But crazy seemed to be their mantra. Nothing they did was normal or rational—especially getting married just one night before on the spur of the moment. It was what made it all the more exciting.
Cruz slipped the keycard in the door, taking a moment to look down at her, his eyelids heavy as if he was already envisioning her naked. He had to stop looking at her like that or she’d be a puddle at his feet before they even got started.
He pushed open the door, waiting for her to go in.
She was doing this. She was really doing this.
