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These were the moments that Viv used to live for. The hot guy, the flirting, the build-up, the game. Now, it just felt…disingenuous. It felt unauthentic. It felt like a chore.
What the hell was going on with her?
Internally, she was freaking out. But, thankfully, on the surface she was able to remain calm, cool, and collected.
She placed her hand in Arturo’s and he led them to the center of the dance floor. As his large hand slid around her hip to the base of her back and he pulled her close to him, she waited to feel the spark. Or to use a term from across the pond which she’d learned from watching Love Island UK with Nonna, she waited to feel fanny flutters.
But there was nothing. If her hormones were a living breathing thing, they had flatlined. And it was all Glenn “The Gladiator’s” fault.
* * *
Glenn was trying notto stare at Viv, but his damn eyes had a mind of their own. She truly was his anglerfish.
Tonight she was wearing a dress that brought every Jessica Rabbit boyhood fantasy to reality. The slit up the thigh had beads of sweat breaking out on the back of his neck. And her curves. Those curves that he knew like the back of his hand had the ability to do something no man in the ring had ever done—knock him out. Her body was calling to him like a beacon in the darkness. Her hair was flowing down around her shoulders and she looked like an angel. A sexy angel, but an angel, nonetheless.
He hadn’t spoken to her. She’d been busy mingling and he hadn’t wanted to bother her. As much as it was killing him to watch her dance with other men, he didn’t want to take up her time. Also, the things he wanted to say were not things that could be said in public. And he didn’t trust himself not to pull her into a dark corner and do very inappropriate things to her if he got the opportunity.
The epiphany that he’d had earlier in the night after seeing his daughter get picked up by a carriage with her cousins had lit a fire in him. All the wishy washy back and forth he’d been doing about whether or not it was the right thing to do to stay in Hope Falls evaporated.
It was like he’d been looking at his life through a fog that lifted and the sun was shining through. His life wasn’t back in Chicago. Sure, he’d grown up in the city and he’d thought that’s what he wanted for his daughter. But even if he stayed there, Bree would never have what he had.
He was raised by two parents and a brother. He might not be able to give her that, but he could give her cousins, aunts and uncles, and even pseudo grandparents in his Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Sean. They were the next best thing to his own parents.
He wanted so badly to tell Vivien about his decision to stay here. To tell her that he loved her and that he hoped they could actually try and make this work for real. But this wasn’t the place. This wasn’t the time.
So, he’d watched from the sidelines as she danced with Cruz and several guys from the police and fire stations. As badly as he’d wanted to stalk across the dance floor and cut in, he’d managed to stay in his seat. But it was killing him.
He checked the time and saw that he’d been there close to two hours. He’d had dinner. He’d bid on several of the silent auction items, and now he thought it was time to say goodnight.
If he stayed any longer he was scared that the seal of his self-restraint would snap and he’d say things to Vivien that he couldn’t take back. Things like he was madly in love with her, he wanted to marry her and fall asleep next to her every night and wake up next to her every morning. This was not the place or time for those declarations.
He’d just stood from the table when his sister-in-law Adriana appeared in front of him with her hand outstretched. “I have no kids tonight a killer dress that deserves a spin on the dance floor and your brother is talking to Lucky about Cruz.”
Glenn grinned, he knew that once Gabe and Lucky started talking MMA the conversation could go on all night.
“Let’s do it.”
Glenn and Adriana moved onto the dance floor and she placed her hand in his as he rested his on her hip.
As they swayed in time to Ed Sheeran’s Perfect, she looked up at him. “It’s been really great having you in town. Gabe has missed you. A lot.”
He’d missed his brother, too.
“And the girls love having Bree here. I walked in on them planning what they were all going to go as for Halloween together. When I reminded them that Bree was leaving to go back to Chicago before then they all started to cry.”
“Are you trying to guilt trip me into moving to Hope Falls?” He grinned down at his sister-in-law.
“That depends.” She smiled up at him innocently. “Is it working?”
“No.”
Her face fell in disappointment.
“I already decided I was staying.” He hadn’t planned on telling her, it had just sort of come out. It was probably because he was holding back saying so much to Vivien he didn’t have any room to keep anything else in.
“You are?!”
He nodded. “I haven’t told anyone yet. Not even Gabe.”
