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“What are you doing?”
“My brother danced with his wife to this song.”
Viv glanced up at the head table, where Evie was watching them with a curious smile. “Declan?”
“No,” Aidan said, drawing her gaze. “Finn and Cait.”
Her heart took another slow slide at the look on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know the first dance would mean that much to you.”
His eyes searched hers. “It doesn’t, really. Just this song was the first one that popped into my head. I suspect it means something to you, though.”
“Why are you being so weird today, Callahan?”
“Weird?” His eyebrow lifted, and she felt his fingertips caressing the bare skin at the small of her back.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect you to lay it on this thick. A much better performance than the engagement party, I have to say.”
He made a noise in the back of his throat. “More photographers here this time,” he murmured. “Song’s almost over.” He spun her out and back in, leaving her breathless. “I told them to play something for a father-daughter dance next.”
When the song finished, Aidan released her. Before she could speak, her father was beside them, and the next song began. She saw something flash in Aidan’s blue eyes before he turned and made his way to his place at the head table.
“You look beautiful today,passerotta,” her father said, and she smiled.
“Thank you, Papa.”
“Are you okay?”
“Of course.” She tried for an encouraging smile. “It’s finally done, and I can breathe. I’ll worry about everything that comes next tomorrow.”
“You’re your mother’s daughter that way.” He looked over her shoulder at where his wife sat. “She’d much rather look at things with a clear head. I wish this could have been different for you.”
“I know.”
“You deserve to be married to someone who would go to the ends of the earth for you.”
Her chest tightened at her father’s words because he was admitting what she already knew, that Aidan would not be that man for her. But if she acknowledged it today, she’d crack wide open, unable to scoop all the pieces up again.
“It’ll take time, Papa. We’re putting the puzzle together out of order, but we’ll get there.”
He didn’t respond, simply twirled her around the floor until the song ended. When it did, he cupped her face in his hands like he had when she was a little girl and kissed both her cheeks, her forehead, and the tip of her nose.
“May your life be like good wine,” he whispered.
“And get better with each passing year?" she finished for him around the lump in her throat. “I love you, Papa.”
“I love you too,passerotta,” he replied, leading her off the dance floor and releasing her.
She paused to talk with everyone who stopped her on her way to the head table. She felt Aidan’s eyes tracking her across the room, felt the heat of his gaze on her skin like the sun. Jesus, she was teetering on the brink of insanity today.
When she finally collapsed into her seat next to him, he set a glass of wine in front of her and motioned for a waiter to bring her a plate of food.
“Is the chicken good? I ordered the steak.” She reached over for his fork to take a bite, hissing when he smacked her hand.
“Get your own.”
She dropped her chin into her palm at the teasing light in his eyes. This she was familiar with. This was the Callahan she could handle. The verbal sparring they were so good at felt much less constricting than the heavy weight of his direct gaze.
“What’s yours is mine now, Callahan.” She picked up her fork and attempted stabbing a piece of chicken again. “Wow,” she said when he batted her hand away a second time. “You’d let your wife starve before you shared your food.”
