“Izzy!”

I moved just in time or I would have probably lost an eye from the massive diamond that projected off the new bride’s finger like a marlin spike.

Jesus. Ella hadn’t been wrong when she said that not just any ring would do in this crowd. 

Allyson did that high-pitched squeal overly excited girls emitted when they were over-the-moon-happy. And I fought the urge to stick my fingers in my ears to block the sound.

While Allyson hugged Ella and bounced like a two-year-old on a cotton-candy bender, I took a second to look around. The upper deck was filled with people, and they’d all stopped what they were doing to look in our direction. Some smiled, while others seemed to be looking down their noses at the display Allyson made of herself.

“This is Joshua.” I felt Ella’s hand curl around my elbow, her thumb digging in to get my attention.

I gave Allyson my best smile and put my hand out. She knocked it away and bear-hugged me.

It caught me off guard. A lot. And when I looked at Ella, she gave me a flash of smile that I would have missed if I blinked. The curve of her shoulder came up as if shrugging, but moved into the upswing of her arm as she brought her hand up and settled it on my chest when Allyson stepped back and took my hands in hers.

“I can’t believe you brought a date. But now I see him, I can under—” Her eyes rounded. “Is that a ring?” She dropped my hands and grabbed Ella’s. “Oh my God, Izzy!”

I had a moment of panic when her voice pitched really high again. My feet itched to carry me away, but I forced myself to remain beside Ella.

“Allyson, love, you’re making a spectacle,” the guy from the picture on the TV said, taking hold of Allyson and pulling her gently back to his side.

She waved her hand as if dismissing what he said, and then came up on her tiptoes and pecked a kiss to his lips. He smiled down at her as she said, “Alex, this is my Izzy, and her fiancé—”

I stuck my hand out. “Josh. Nice to meet you.”

“And you as well,” he said, giving me a firm handshake.

When he turned to Ella, he lifted her hand, placed a chaste kiss to her knuckles, and then said, “Izzy. It’s nice to finally meet one of Allyson’s closest friends.”

“Ella, please. Just Ella.” It was a good thing he’d dropped her hand. If not, he would have felt the tension that ran through her body. I pulled her closer to me, hand cupped at her side, thumb moving in slow up and down strokes as if that would somehow calm her.

“There is nothing just about you, Ella,” he said, giving her something like a nod of approval.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to nod along with him and add a ‘see, I told you so,’ or get jealous and stake my claim by putting Ella over my shoulder and hauling her off to show just who she belonged to. Which was a stupid thought, because she wasn’t even mine… not really. I was saved from making an ass of myself when Ella turned further into me and said, “Josh tells me that all the time.”

“Must be true then,” I replied.

She pulled back slightly to look up at me. A smile bloomed and her eyes twinkled as she shook her head. The slight breeze blew a strand of hair in front of her face, so I reached out and tucked it behind her ear and then kissed her forehead.

“Drinks!” Allyson clapped, causing Ella to jump.

A tray of champagne flutes appeared between the four of us. Allyson plucked two up and held them out for us to take. “A toast,” she said, taking her own tall glass of bubbles and holding it up in front of her so the sunlight sparkled against it. “To happily ever afters.”

“To my Ella,” I said, clinking my glass against hers.

“Sooo… when’s the big day?” Allyson asked as we followed her over to a shaded seating area.

“Oh, we haven’t set a date,” Ella answered as we sat on one side of the L-shaped outdoor couch facing Allyson and Alex.

I was glad for the shade and that meeting Allyson had gone so smoothly. At least she hadn’t been an uppity snob like the suitcase girl.

“Well, you better be sure to let me know when you do,” Allyson said, quirking her brow as she tipped the rim of the champagne flute at Ella.

“You’ll be the first to know,” Ella said, finishing her own glass as she gripped my fingers tightly in her own.

Like a jack-in-the-box, Allyson popped up from her seat and waved at someone behind us. “Over here, Summer.”

Introductions were made once again when Summer, Allyson’s sister, joined our little group. Curious onlookers watched, a few of them strolled by shaking hands with the groom and offering their best wishes to the couple as Allyson, Summer, and Ella caught up on the years they’d been apart.

Alex leaned forward and asked, “How about a beer?”

The chatter around me broke out into gales of laughter, and I winced. “How about two?”

Alex leaned over, kissing Allyson’s lips and stopping her midsentence. “The boys need a beer.”

“Too much girl talk?” Summer asked.

His answer wasn’t anything I expected, and the reason I decided right then and there that I liked him. “There’s only so much tittering a man can take before he either puts on a dress to join in, or goes in search of a beer.”

Summer snorted. “I have one that might work for you. It’s stretchy so it might fit your ego.”

“Summer…” Allyson laughed, swatting her on the leg. “Leave him alone.”

Alex leaned closer to Allyson, whispering something in her ear that made her blush. “Behave,” she said, clearly not meaning it.

She licked her lips, and Alex, who’d been ready to head to the bar, hauled her up from her seat and said, “The beer will have to wait a bit. I’m craving something different right now.”

There may as well have been just the two of them instead of a vessel brimming with guests, because neither had eyes for anyone but the other.

He swept her past a group who called out to them, both intent on a specific direction.

I was unable to keep a smile from my face. If ever there were two people who clearly loved each other, it was those two, and they didn’t give a damn who saw it.

Summer sighed after them. “One day someone will look at me the way he looks at her,” she said, tipping back the half-full champagne flute and finishing it in three large swallows. “I swear they make the temperature go up a million degrees when they get near you.”

Ella snickered. “I’m pretty sure that’s the sun.”

“Just you wait. You’ve only had a small taste of the two of them together. Pretty soon, you’ll join the rest of us girls who walk around in a state of sexual frustration when the two of them turn it up a notch.”

“Don’t worry. I have Ella covered,” I said, lifting Ella’s fingers to my lips and nipping at the tip of her thumb.

Ella’s only tell that it affected her was the fluttering pulse at her neck.

She didn’t snatch her hand away, knowing if she did, Summer would have noticed, and we didn’t need anyone paying that close of attention to us.

Summer settled back in her seat, waved to a passing waiter carrying tall glasses filled with chunks of fruit swimming in a pale-yellow drink. “White sangria,” Summer said, taking a glass from the tray. “The alternative to running off to my room and having a fling with myself.”

Ella chuckled. “What happened to the guy you were dating? Matthew, wasn’t it?”

Summer fished out a piece of pineapple from her drink, popped it into her mouth, and chewed it before answering. “He was a douche bag.”

Watching Ella joke with Summer, relaxing a bit, gave me a glimpse of her I’d never saw before. Even on our mission in Barbados, I’d never caught a flicker of what could only be called her true smile. She practically glowed with happiness. Bubbled with laughter. If champagne could come to life and be a person, it would take the form of Ella as she was in that moment.

“Oh, he has it bad,” Summer said, nudging me with the tip of her perfectly manicured foot.

I looked between the two of them, feeling my face heat up.

But before I could come up with some sort of witty reply, we were interrupted by the demanding voice of a man who glared at us with his hands on his hips.

“Where is Alex?” His tone was what Riley would have called snarky. His question, well, more of a demand, carried a hint of something I couldn’t put my finger on, but knew I didn’t like it. Evidently, neither did Summer.

She pierced the newcomer with a heated look, lips pulled into a smile that held more than a touch of annoyance before answering, “He’s with his wife.”

He didn’t like that, but refrained from being a complete asshole by saying, “Tell him I’m looking for him.”

He walked away as she muttered, “Yeah, I’ll get right on that, ass-hat.”

“Who was that?” Ella asked, leaning forward to see past me as we watched him walk across the deck around the outside bar.

“That would be Alex’s cousin, Nick. Fitting that his name rhymes with dick. Listen, all joking aside, be careful around him,” Summer said, looking between Ella and me.

“Careful?” I asked, adding, “I’ve met plenty of assholes in my day. What’s one more?”

She shook her head and leaned forward, closer to Ella, and said, “Ella, you know my dad has some… let’s say shifty friends, but Alex’s family?” She quirked an eyebrow as if that would fill in all the blanks.

“What about them?” Ella prodded.

Summer flashed a brilliant smile, waving her hand as if the quiet conversation the three of us were entangled in was light bantering to anyone observing. “Alex is the only good one out of them. The rest are shady bastards. He doesn’t have much to do with them, though. He’s kind of the black sheep of his family. Which is funny, because they should be the black ones and he should be the white one.”

A twinge of unease worked up my spine until it got to the base of my skull, sending tiny pinpricks of warning. Could Alex’s family be responsible for the threats against Garett?

“I think I’ll go get that beer now. You ladies want anything?” I asked, getting to my feet.

“Actually, I’m getting a little hungry,” Ella said, holding her hand out to me.

“I better feed you then.” I helped her up and then pulled her against my chest, her scent overwhelming me. It started out innocent enough… as a believable show of affection… but my blood stirred when she looked deep into my eyes and I couldn’t stop myself.

I leaned in and nipped at her lips.

She squeaked, and then covered it up with laughter as she said, “As much as we want to, we can’t live on love.” Her eyes pulsed with something more… something I couldn’t decipher.

“Oh, great, like my sister and Alex need any competition.” Summer huffed as she tilted her glass back to finish it off.

“Would you like to come with us?” I asked, remembering my manners.

“More than you know,” she muttered, adding, “I think I’ll just sit here and sulk while eating my weight in wine-infused pineapple. You kids have fun.”

Ella rolled her eyes, saying, “If you change your mind, we’ll be right inside.”