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Rory was enjoying Robin's suffering. There was no doubt about it. She hoped her bestie understood that karma was a real thing. Rory was going to be toast someday.
"Kids, stay close. I don't want to lose anyone in this crowd," Nick said, shifting Becky a bit and tightening his hold on her. "Rory, I trust you can do the same? No running off without telling us? There are a few Tyler cousins in there that might just gobble you up, as pretty as you are.”
"Sweetie, if they look anything like you, they can gobble away. But I’ll take a few extremely effective bodyguards. I’m swearing off men for this decade. Kids are great for running away available guys. Hand some over.” Rory grinned at him, then reached for Becky. She held out a hand to Nova. "We can conquer, ladies. Let's do this!"
Rory walked ahead with the girls as the boys ran ahead a bit when they saw Robin's nephew Parker at the door to the barn waiting for them.
Leaving Robin with the bane of her existence.
The first time they'd been alone since he'd shown up on her doorstep, two freshly washed and almost pressed kids next to him.
“Come here." Nick snagged her around the waist and pulled her closer. She found herself pressed against his suit coat, the thin material of her dress no real barrier.
"Nick, what are you doing?"
"What does it feel like I am doing? You wore this dress to torment me. There is no other explanation." His fingers toyed with the strap over her shoulder.Ghosted over the skin left bare.
Scorching her.
She almost purred like a cat just at a simple touch.
What had he said, something about the dress? She’d admit it—to herself, anyway. She’d bought the dress with him in mind. “It's a perfectly acceptable dress for an almost forty-year-old mother of three..."
"What does age have to do with anything? You make my damned insides burn, do you know that? Make me want to get you alone somewhere and finish what you started twenty years ago. All it took was one look when you came out from under the desk that first day and I catapulted right back to the man I was back then, being all noble and keeping my hands to myself. But you were too young back then. Far too young. But now…now…nothing is standing in our way.”
She couldn’t breathe. Robin had completely lost the ability to breathe ever again.
Because of the look in Tyler-blue eyes.
Just like that, he covered her mouth with his own. Her wishy-washy resolve to not kiss the man ever again just dissolved like cotton candy. Robin pressed her hands against his chest. Nick had the best chest of any man she had ever been this close to.
His head lowered—either that, or he was lifting her off her feet. He liked to lift her—she knew that instinctively. He liked having her helpless in his hands. Beneath his hands.
He had strong arms, too. Perfect for lifting a woman right where he wanted.
She was...insane. She had never thought this way about any man before.
Well, not since she'd been eighteen and consumed with a blue-eyed, redheaded, broad-shouldered devil nine years too old for her.
And damned if he'd not gotten so much better with age.
He kissed her quickly, then pulled back as someone walked up behind them.
"Let the woman breathe," a male voice said, clear amusement for them to hear in his tone. Robin jerked back, knowing her cheeks had to be flaming red now. "Hey, Robbie, Nick trying to consume you again? I’ve counted a dozen times in what is it? Two, three weeks now—that I’ve caught him kissing you when he didn’t know I was there.”
"Don't you have a wedding to cater?" Nick asked pointedly. “Go put your apron on and get to making your little purple cupcakes. I’m busy here.”
"I am sharing that duty with the Talley Catering Company—minus Dusty. She's a bit occupied keeping Nikki out of the clouds today. That is a job I do not envy. Nikki is about to bubble over with gushy romance happiness right now. She’s twice as bad as Mags ever was.”
Robin took a quick moment to learn how to breathe again. To focus on the man in front of her. Not on the one who still had his hands all over her.
Chandler looked good in his suit. In fact, he looked very much like his uncle. Tall, broad-shouldered, and too hot for a woman’s own good. Nick and Chandler resembled each other a great deal, though Nick was an inch or so shorter. More ruggedly handsome, whereas Chandler belonged on a magazine cover somewhere.
He was around seven years younger than she was—that didn't mean Robin was blind.But Nick...there was just something more about Nick.
What that meant for her, she didn't have a clue. When Nick let his fingers trail down her arm to capture her hand in his, she let him.
She held a man's hand for the first time in what had to be twenty-something years as he led her around the side of the building to the extra-large tent that was already filling with people.
