AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll tell everyone myself,” he promised. “I swear. I wouldn’t do anything that I thought might put you at risk.”
“I know.” I sighed, resigned to keeping his secret. “My lips are sealed.”
He gave me a relieved smile. “Thank you, Sam. You don’t know how much I appreciate that.”
I gave him a small grin and tried to hide the worst of my worry. I wasn’t sure I was at all successful, but he didn’t say anything about it.
“You want a drink?” he asked, nodding toward the bar on the other side of the room.
“Yes, please.”
We crossed the room, and he ordered me a glass of wine while he had a scotch. I glanced around to make sure Henry was with my parents, and when I saw that he was being well cared for, I let myself focus on Ryan as we hung out on the periphery of the gathered crowd together.
“Jason and Mandy look happy,” he commented.
I chuckled. “I would hope so. It would be awkward at the altar tomorrow if they weren’t.”
“True,” Ryan conceded and grinned. Looking at me intently for a moment, he asked, “Did you ever think about getting married?”
I blinked and stared at him, completely caught off guard by the question.
“Uh, I mean, yeah. Sure. I’ve thought about it, but I’ve never had anyone specific in mind.”
That wasn't exactly true. When I was younger, I'd always imagined marrying Ryan. That was way too embarrassing to admit out loud, though. Besides, I’d just been a kid back then. Naïve and idealistic. Thinking about marriage now, I wasn’t so sure. I pushed the thought aside for the time being and told myself to focus on the here and now. To just enjoy my time with Ryan and take it for what it was.
He appeared thoughtful for a moment, but I couldn’t tell what exactly was going through his mind.
“Hey, should we sit down?” I asked, deciding it was best to move on from the conversation. “I think they’re going to serve dinner soon.”
He looked like he wanted to say more, but thankfully, he just nodded and followed me as I made my way to one of the round dining tables that had been set up in the center of the room. We sat, and soon enough, the rest of the party began filling up the other tables as well. A few of the other bridesmaids and groomsmen sat with us, and we made polite small talk for several minutes until Jason stood up and tapped a spoon against his scotch glass to get everyone’s attention.
“I want to thank you all for coming today to help Mandy and I celebrate,” he began with his charming smile and booming voice. “We’re so happy to have so many of our family and friends with us already. Tomorrow is gonna be a crazy day, so I just wanted to take a moment to express our appreciation and to tell my beautiful bride-to-be how incredibly lucky I am that she wants to marry me.” He grinned down at Mandy, who also beamed up at him, her gaze brimming with happiness. “I love you, sweetheart. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He bent down and kissed her while the rest of the room awwwed and clapped and even threw out a few whoop whoops.
I smiled as I watched Jason and Mandy gushing over each other.
Suddenly, I felt Ryan’s hand grip mine under the table. He gave it a gentle squeeze. I turned my gaze to him, heart racing. He was looking at me with an expression that would have terrified me just a few days before. There was adoration and longing in his eyes, and it made my stomach flutter with my own want and need.
I quickly looked away, unable to hide my reaction to him. I didn’t want to draw any attention to us at that moment.
Thankfully, it didn’t seem that anyone had noticed our brief exchange. He gave my hand another squeeze before letting it go, and we both acted as though nothing had happened.
As the dinner was served, we chatted with each other and the other people at our table, as if there was no sizzling sexual tension burning between the two of us. I was rather surprised at how good we both were at maintaining cool and collected demeanors.
As the night progressed, however, I began to feel a strange sense of awareness creeping up the back of my neck. It gave me goosebumps, and at first, I couldn’t figure out what caused the sensation. It was during dessert that it finally hit me. It was the feeling of being watched. I glanced around the large dining room, but I didn’t spot anyone looking at me in any significant way.
I couldn’t shake that feeling, though. It continued to linger, and it grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment. It was unnerving. Frightening. Was I going crazy? Was I just being paranoid because of everything happening with Ryan and his ex-employee?
Maybe, but that didn’t chase away the feeling. Didn’t chase away my growing fear.
Didn’t make the feeling of impending doom disappear.
Chapter twenty-three
Ryan
Astherehearsaldinnercame to an end and everyone began getting up from their chairs to linger and visit or leave, I turned to Sam and reached for her hand again. I’d held it earlier in the night for reasons I still didn’t fully understand. I’d just needed to touch her at that moment, and she had seemed both happy and freaked out when I did it. Now, she just looked at me with a curious, little grin.
