Chapter 7
“You looked like you could use another drink.” Kean handed her a glass, and Charli smiled weakly as she took it. “Fancy some company?”
He filled her glass and then his, before putting the bottle on the floor. She shrugged and tipped her head back, gulping down the full content of the glass without even taking a breath. Kean’s eyes widened. Well, he hadn’t pegged her for an alcoholic.
“Um… would you like another one?” He handed her his glass as a joke, and his jaw dropped when she stole it from his hand, raising it in thanks.
“I don’t usually drink this much, in case you’re wondering,” she said, and took a sip from the glass. At least this time she didn’t gulp it down, but stopped to savor it before she swallowed. Then she picked up the bottle from the floor and topped up her glass.
“I just needed some time out. I couldn’t take all that happiness and lovey-dovey stuff any longer.” She leaned against the wooden railing again and stared up at the starry sky. They’d been lucky to get such a great day for February. Adam was sure Hannah was behind the strangely clear day they’d had. He’d said he knew his wife would’ve wanted his special day to be perfect.
Kean took a step closer. “Not a die-hard romantic, are you?”
Charli lifted a shoulder. “I’m so happy for Ellie, really I am. She’s like a sister to me, and after all she’s been through, she deserves to get a fairy-tale marriage.” She sniffed, and as uncomfortable as seeing a woman cry made him, something warm fluttered in his chest. He was tempted to reach out and hug her, but he crushed the urge as soon as it formed. “But pretending I’m doing great while my life is imploding is taking up all my energy.”
“What do you mean, your life is imploding? I thought you had a successful career in the city? Ellie mentioned something about a promotion you were going to get, and let me tell you, you did an amazing job with their wedding.”
“Ha.” She shook her head, then sipped from her flute, swirling the wine in her mouth as she kept her gaze focused on the sky. “I wish my boss could hear you now. Perhaps she wouldn’t have given my promotion to my cheating lowlife of a boyfriend just because he’d gotten into her pants.” She lifted her index finger in front of her and scrunched up her nose. “Wait, make it ex-boyfriend. And actually, she was wearing a skirt, but you get the picture.”
“Ouch. You were dating a colleague?”
Charli nodded. “I actually helped him get into the company, and he knew how important that promotion was for me. He knew I wanted it more than anything else in the world. I’d been Penelope’s slave for nearly five years and I was sure she’d appreciate my hard work and make me a partner but, apparently, I’m missing a piece of flesh somewhere in the lower departments.”
Kean bit his bottom lip to keep a chuckle from escaping. Laughing at her right now wouldn’t be a tactful move, but her choice of words had been hilarious. “I’m sorry. It must have been tough.”
She shrugged. “What hurt the most was the fact I didn’t get the promotion. He was just an ultra-ambitious workaholic who made for an awful boyfriend, but it was fine for me because I could keep working even when we weren’t in the office. Our dates pretty much always involved some work-related stuff, and I thought it was the perfect relationship: absolutely no demands, no pouts if I said I had work to finish, and he wasn’t exactly eager to meet my family or put a ring on my finger either.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound like a very healthy relationship, but it sure must’ve hurt to know he was cheating on you. That he was sleeping with someone else.”
She brought the glass to her lips again and gulped down the remaining wine. He surreptitiously moved the bottle away with his foot, thinking he’d save her from a massive hangover tomorrow. Then he reached for her glass and put it on the wooden floor. When he straightened again she was looking at him with narrowed eyes.
“I don’t know what kind of exceptional tricks he did with her because, truth be told, he wasn’t exactly mind-blowing when it came to sex.” She brought a hand to cover her mouth as her eyes widened. “Oh, um… too much information, I guess. Oops. Sorry.” She lifted a shoulder and he couldn’t help smiling at her naughty and yet innocent expression.
“Then perhaps you’re better off without him.” He wondered how attractive their boss was and how important that job must have been to the guy because, honestly? You’d have to be crazy to cheat on such a hot woman. He frowned. Where had that thought come from?
“And without my job, and without my house. Well, at least I’ve still got my car.” She lowered her voice as she leaned back with her hands on the railing. He instinctively took a step closer so he wouldn’t miss her next words. “I obviously couldn’t work there anymore, so I quit the day I found him with his pants down in what should’ve been my office. I thought it’d be easy for me to find a job with my excellent résumé, but apparently the event planning world in San Francisco and its surroundings is saturated. So I had to leave my apartment too, because I couldn’t afford the rent without a job, and I definitely wasn’t going to ask for Daddy’s money.”
“Well, wow. That sucks. I hadn’t realized you were—”
“Nobody knows. You’re actually the first person outside of my family I’ve told this to. Ellie thinks I’m using my vacation time that I hardly ever have time to use anyway, and that Donnie couldn’t come here because he’s busy doing my share of work. I didn’t want to ruin her special day with my sorry tale.”
“I’m sorry.” His hand lifted of its own volition, before he even realized it was a bad move, and rubbed her upper arm. She shivered, and he realized she must be freezing by now, wearing only that silky number and nothing else. “Perhaps we should carry on this conversation inside. It’s pretty chilly out here and I’m sure that dress is doing a poor job at shielding you from the cold.”
She shook her head, rubbing her arms to warm herself. “I’m not in the mood to watch any more smooching for the night.”
He shrugged out of his tux jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She didn’t fight him, although he’d expected she would, and he let out a mental sigh of relief.
“Thanks. You’re a real gentleman.” Her voice came out as a whisper and cracked slightly on the last word. She sniffed, then hiccuped. Once, twice. On the third hiccup, Kean realized they were actually sobs, and had confirmation when she threw herself against him and wrapped her arms around his torso.
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. If crying women made him uneasy, drunk, sobbing women made him downright terrified.
“My life’s such a mess!” Her words were muffled as she spoke against his chest, into his white shirt that, considering the amount of makeup she was wearing, wouldn’t remain white for long. “I thought… I had… That I… That he…” More sobs followed the unintelligible words she was saying, and seeing as she didn’t seem to be about to pull herself together anytime soon, he hugged her and started rubbing his hands on her back in up and down strokes he’d learned were a perfect way to calm Sophie when she cried. He hoped the trick worked on grown-up women too, because this was getting extremely uncomfortable.
Whether the soothing technique worked, or she got tired, a minute or so later the sobs were slowly replaced by sniffles. Again. And again. And again. Wait a minute… was she sniffing him?
“Mmm… you smell good. How can you smell so good after such a crazy long day? Men don’t smell so good. I don’t smell good right now.”
Kean laughed. She was unbelievable. And when he made the mistake of moving his face closer to her head and taking a whiff, he had to bite his tongue to avoid telling her she smelled delectably good, too.
She pulled back slightly and placed her hands on his chest. His muscles clenched in response to the touch before he’d even realized it.
“Wow. You have some hard muscles,” she said, her voice just a bit slurred. “I bet you have a six-pack, too. Oh, yes, you do.”
He stopped her hands on his abs before she moved them any farther down his body. She looked up and his legs went weak when those Bambi eyes stared at him from underneath long, thick lashes. Even with her makeup smudged on her cheeks, she was quite breathtaking.
What’s going on here?
“How did you get so ripped? Do you work out? ’Cause Donnie was a gym rat, and I hated that he seemed to spend more time in the gym than with me. Then again, maybe he just went there to impress some lucky lady with his biceps. I bet he was telling them he was single. Ugh, why am I talking about him anyway?”
Kean smiled, in spite of the weird feelings rushing through his body and troubling his mind. “Hard work, mostly. I’ve never been a fan of gyms. I did work out a bit before I started my company, but just to build some muscle I knew I’d need. These days, lifting wooden beams and bags of cement is enough of a workout.”
“I used to go jogging. But when Ellie left, I stopped. Donnie didn’t like it, he preferred treadmills at the gym, and I thought jogging alone was depressing. Plus, it attracted all kinds of weirdos.” She sniffled again and let out a whimper. “Now she’s married, and I’m single, fat, and jobless, and…” She let out a sob and Kean rolled his eyes.
Please, not again.
“Don’t be ridiculous—you’re not fat. You look hot in this dress.”
Huh? Had he just said that out loud? Apparently he had, because Charli stopped sobbing and looked up at him, tears hanging off her long lashes and glistening in the light coming from the porch lamps behind him.
“You think I’m hot?” A flicker of hope crossed over her face, as if she couldn’t believe anyone would ever find her attractive. He couldn’t help smiling. What sane man wouldn’t think this woman was hot? “You’re not too bad yourself,” she half-mumbled, half-slurred, patting his chest. “You clean up well in a tux. In fact, I think you’re quite sexy.”
Kean choked on a chortle and shook his head. “Charli, you’re drunk.”
“Am not. Just a little tipsy, maybe.”
She pulled back abruptly and stumbled, proving his point. He reached out his hands to steady her, and when they lingered on her shoulders and his thumbs rested on her neck, his fingers itched to skim that smooth skin. He caught himself just in time.
“Although the first time we met I thought you were a serial killer, I also thought you were pretty handsome.” She smiled dreamily. “A handsome serial killer would be a good way to go, after all.”
He laughed at that, remembering their first encounter. “I thought you were the serial killer.”
She lifted her chin to stare at him, and when her dark eyes locked with his, something flared to life inside him.
“I think I want to kiss you,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “In fact, I’m going to kiss you right now. To hell with that dumbass. He doesn’t know what he’s lost.”
Before Kean even knew what was happening, she crushed her lips to his, her hands locked at the back of his neck as if holding on for dear life. His head told him to stop, that she was drunk and he shouldn’t take advantage of her, but his body refused to comply. When he responded to the kiss, her lips parted on a sigh and he took it deeper. He’d kissed his share of women ever since that first kiss to Becky Townsend at fifteen, but none had ever been remotely close to this. None of those kisses had ever lit his body on fire like this one. His hands went up to cup her face and when his thumbs grazed her skin, she moaned against his mouth.
Aw, hell.
His body temperature spiked and he no longer felt the chill he’d been feeling since he gave her his jacket. He nearly growled in disappointment when she pulled back, and had to stop himself from bringing her face back to his.
“Mmm… that was… that was…” She let out a contented sigh and rested her cheek against his chest. “Quite an amazing kiss.”
He wrapped his arms around her deliciously curvy body when she leaned against him, her hands sliding down from his neck to his hips. She sighed again, nodding against his chest. “Yes, quite amazing indeed,” she repeated, her voice a little muffled against his shirt. He thought exactly the same, as his heart beat erratically in his chest. He rubbed his hand up and down her back absent-mindedly. The soft rise and fall of her breathing calmed the crazy beat of his heart, until it returned to normal.
“I think we should get back inside now. Aren’t you cold?”
She didn’t move.
“Charli?”
He pulled back a little. Her eyes were closed and her lips slightly parted. The moment he moved away she fell against him, completely asleep. And snored.
“Are you kidding me?”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. He didn’t know if he should take offense because she’d fallen asleep after the most amazing kiss he’d had in years—if ever—or he should feel flattered that his kiss had soothed her so much she’d passed out on him.
“Right, okay.”
He swept her up in his arms and glanced briefly behind him, through the window, at the room full of people. She wrapped her arms around his neck, let out a sigh and leaned into him. His protective instinct kicked in. There was no way he’d carry her to the bedrooms upstairs if he had to walk through the room and turn her into the laughing stock of the town. She already wasn’t fond of Spring, and having people laugh at her or make good-natured jokes at her expenses wouldn’t make her love the town at all. He wanted her to like his hometown, call it pride or whatever it was. So he didn’t think twice as he left his parents’ house behind and strode toward his own cabin. He didn’t have the usual flashlight he carried when he went home from his parents’ after dinner, but he could walk the path in his sleep.
He managed to open the door while still holding Charli in his arms, and went straight toward his bedroom. The small guest room was still only little more than a storage closet, and he couldn’t let her sleep on the couch, so his bed was the only option. As he laid her down, a soft moan escaped her lips, and she rolled on her side. He smiled. She didn’t look like an annoying pest now.
He decided that letting her sleep in her clothes would be the wisest idea; removing her high-heeled shoes, in case she accidentally speared herself in her sleep, was as far as he was willing to go. Even though, after that amazing alcohol-induced kiss, walking out of that room and letting her sleep it off was the last thing on his mind.
After his big, rough fingers finally managed to unclasp the tiny buckles on her sexy burgundy shoes, he pulled the comforter from underneath her and tucked her in. He stared at her for a minute: her long, dark hair fanned out on the beige pillowcase, her plump lips slightly parted in a cute pout, her long lashes fluttering ever so slightly with each tiny movement of her eyes behind her closed eyelids. He wondered what she was dreaming of and if she would remember their kiss in the morning. How would she feel about it? Would she change her mind about him? But why should he care anyway? She wasn’t staying and he had no plans of ever leaving Spring for a woman, especially one who was all wrong for him.
He shook his head and walked out, back to the reception. If someone noticed both he and Charli were missing, they might get strange ideas, and that was the last thing he wanted. He hoped nobody had seen them kissing, because he was pretty sure his brother would give him grief if he found out. Last night, after he and Charli had been bickering about something he couldn’t even remember now, Adam had asked him to try to be nice to her for Ellie’s sake, at least until the wedding was over and Charli went back to San Francisco. Well, perhaps tonight he’d been too nice, but when her lips had grazed his, he’d lost it. He didn’t remember ever being so turned on by a simple kiss. Just the memory was enough to make him feel hot and bothered. He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs to the point they nearly burst, and let it all out on a groan. When morning came and he’d have to face Charli, he was going to be screwed. Absolutely, utterly screwed.
* * *
“Have you seen Charli? I’ve been looking everywhere.” Ellie stopped him as soon as he walked back into his parents’ living room, where some of the closest guests still lingered, seemingly having no intention of going home as they sipped champagne and chatted about anything and nothing at all.
“She’s passed out in my bed.”
“What?” Ellie’s eyes widened, and he realized his poor choice of words one second too late.
“Ooh-kay, that didn’t come out right.” He chuckled to lighten the mood and reached out to pat her shoulder. “Relax and pull your head out of the gutter. She had too much to drink and literally passed out on me. So I carried her to my house and let her sleep it off in my bed. Completely dressed.”
“Why didn’t you take her upstairs?” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him, probably trying to intimidate him.
He shrugged. “Because I didn’t want people to make fun of her tomorrow. She’d hate Spring even more than she already does. She probably would never come back and you’d never see her again.”
Ellie’s stance softened, and she smiled. “In that case, thank you for being so thoughtful.”
“What’s he done this time?” Adam approached them with a sleeping Sophie in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder. His free hand went around Ellie’s waist and she looked up at him with eyes that nearly shot sparkling hearts like a cartoon character. The same look was on his brother’s face. These two were so in love it was almost sickening—no wonder Charli had felt the need to gulp down copious amounts of alcohol. He was happy for his brother and he loved having Ellie as a sister-in-law, but he couldn’t help feeling a little envy creep up. He wanted what they had—even half of their happiness would do.
“He took care of Charli like the knight in shining armor he is.”
Adam frowned and his dark eyes studied him. Kean shrugged. “What can I say? I like rescuing damsels in distress. Is there any champagne left at all?” A change of subject was probably the best way to avoid raising suspicions. He could tell the cogs in his brother’s brain were already spinning, as his cop instinct took over.
“I think so. There were still a couple of bottles on the table close to the fireplace.” Ellie leaned into her husband, totally oblivious to the inquisitive stare directed at his brother. Her gesture was enough to make Adam relax and forget about Kean, as he pulled her even closer to him and placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. Kean’s heart squeezed. When was the last time he’d been so smitten with a woman that even just a simple, innocent gesture like that had been enough to make him happy? To make him feel like there was nowhere else he’d rather be?
He looked away from the over-joyous couple and spotted Kyle sitting by himself on the couch, a half-empty glass in his hand, and the same sad puppy look he’d had that time Scott had stolen his favorite truck when he was five. Kean followed the direction of his brother’s gaze and when his eyes landed on Lauren, he smiled to himself. Teasing his baby brother just for the sake of it sounded like the perfect way to stop thinking about Charli and how sexy she’d looked sprawled on his bed. That, or a cold shower.
“You still got the hots for her, don’t you, baby bro?”
Kyle, who’d been staring at Lauren all day probably believing no one would notice, took his eyes off the object of his longing and looked at Kean with that wide-eyed expression he’d been so good at when they were kids and he’d wanted to get away with something he’d done. It always worked on their mother, even now that they were older, and Kean and Adam would always end up getting blamed even when they were innocent—which didn’t happen that often, but still.
“What are you talking about?”
Kean grinned as he sat next to him. “Playing dumb won’t work with me. I saw the way you’ve been looking at her all day, probably wishing you were her plus one at this wedding, instead of Nate. You’re still in love with her.”
Kyle took a sip of champagne from the flute in his hand and shook his head. “It was a long time ago. We were barely more than kids who wanted to have what our older siblings did. You were dating Paige, Adam was practically already engaged to Hannah. Lauren wanted the fairy tale too, and I wanted to be the one to give it her.”
“But you didn’t.”
Kyle took another sip from his glass and shrugged. “I still want her to have it all. She looks happy with Nate. I think he’s good for her, isn’t he?”
Even as he directed the question to Kean, he never took his eyes off Lauren. She laughed as Nate swirled her around the dance floor and then pulled her flush to him and leaned down to peck her on the lips. Kean saw the moment his brother’s heart broke at the sight. His fingers squeezed the stem of the glass, to the point Kean was afraid he’d snap it in two, his jaw twitched and he bit his bottom lip, his eyes narrowing as they seemed glued to her—to them.
“He’s a good guy.” Kean stood up and took the glass out of Kyle’s hand. Then he patted his shoulder. “Ask her for a dance before the night is through. You’ve barely spoken to her since you’ve come home. She was one of your best friends, before she became your girlfriend. It’d be a pity to lose her friendship, too.”
Kyle shrugged and kept staring at Lauren and Nate, who were now swaying to a slow song. Heartbreaks sucked, and he hated to see his baby brother hurting like that, but it was none of his business, after all. He’d already screwed up enough times in his life. He was the last person who should give relationship advice at all. Especially considering he’d just kissed the daylights out of the maid of honor who was supposed to be off-limits and who’d probably punch him in the face when she woke up tomorrow and remembered what had happened.