All Tied Up (Business of Love Book 2) Page 11

  Our guests shuffled in their seats and turned to look back the way I’d come.

  My heart fluttered in my chest with wild anticipation. My palms were getting sweaty and I marveled at how nervous I actually was. I didn’t think I was capable of feeling like this anymore, like a thirteen-year-old boy at his first dance contemplating asking the girl he liked to dance.

  And yet I did.

  Chessie rocked back and forth on her heels and let out a giggle. The music doubled and the officiant gave me a side-eyed grin.

  Verity would appear through the glass garden doors at the end of the aisle any minute now.

  I wondered what her dress would look like. She’d kept it a secret from me for the last few months and the anticipation was killing me.

  The harpist continued to play the same string as she waited for the bride to arrive.

  Our guests began to look from the doors back up to me.

  I frowned.

  She was late.

  Odd.

  Then again, Verity had a bad habit of always arriving late so she could be seen by everyone who had already arrived and make her grand entrance.

  That’s all this is, I told myself. Just Verity being Verity.

  But the unease in the crowd began to seep into me. Something was amiss. The harpist continued to play the same chords over and over until the music sounded like it was mocking me.

  Then Kim appeared at the end of the aisle with her hands clasped in front of herself. She and I immediately locked eyes. Her lips were pressed into a firm line.

  Fuck me.

  I turned to the officiant. “Give me a minute.”

  He nodded and I stepped off the platform. I could feel every pair of eyes on me as I strode purposefully down the aisle and through the doors to meet Kim on the glossy marble floors of the foyer. She bit her bottom lip and searched my eyes.

  “What is it?” I demanded.

  She swallowed and glanced behind me at the crowd. Then she reached out, took my wrist, and pulled me off to the side and away from prying eyes. As she tried to find her voice, her eyes grew glassy. “Rick, I—ugh, God. I’m so sorry. She’s not coming. She’s gone.”

  “What do you mean gone?”

  “She left the hotel. Half an hour ago.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  Kim didn’t flinch. She held her ground and lifted her chin. “It means she doesn’t want to get married. She left her dress behind, got in a car with her maid of honor, and drove off. She didn’t tell anybody. I just found out she was gone.”

  All the air came out of my lungs in a rush and I felt immediately lightheaded.

  I took a step back and slumped against the wall. Then I tipped my head back and raked my fingers through my hair. “How could she do this to me?”

  Kim didn’t say anything.

  “I had no idea,” I breathed. “How could I have had no idea? Why didn’t she say something? Why didn’t she—”

  “Rick.” Kim’s voice was firm but warm. She put a hand on my upper arm. “Listen to me. This isn’t the kind of thing you can make sense of right now. Neither can I. But I can handle this for you. I’m going to get Chessie and send her here to you so you can go back up to your room and not have to deal with this. Then I’ll dismiss the guests.”

  My throat was dry. My hands were shaking. I couldn’t tell if it was from nerves or fury.

  Perhaps a healthy mix of both.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head and pushing off the wall. “I’ll tell them. Verity put you through enough bullshit planning this wedding. I want them all to know why this fell apart and that they flew halfway around the world for a goddamn joke.”

  Kim let her hand fall from my arm. “I’m so sorry. Tell me what I can do.”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “There has to be something. Anything.”

  My whole body felt heavy like lead. “Just have the staff tear it all down. Give them their tips. You still have the envelopes I set aside, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay,” I said. “Do that for me and then… I don’t know. Just relax. You’ve earned it.”

  “Rick,” she said softly.

  But I’d already turned from her and stepped out the door to make my way down the aisle. All the guests already knew I’d been stood up at the altar. I could hear it on their lips as they bowed their heads together and whispered in each other’s ears.

  “What a shame.”

  “I guess you never truly know a person.”

  “How could she do that to Rick? Look at him.”

  “How humiliating.”

  “I thought this kind of thing only happened in the movies.”

  I turned to face them and squared my shoulders. They fell into an eerie hush and they all stared up at me like I was some lost puppy dog that had been kicked to the curb.

  Which I had.

  “You can all go home,” I said. “The wedding is off.”

  The whispers turned to murmurs, which turned to people calling my name as I took Chessie’s hand and led her off the platform. She called out to me, confused, but I didn’t stop. I led her across the grass and wove back up to the main building so I could get her upstairs and away from prying eyes.

  I couldn’t stand the way they all looked at me.

  “Daddy?” Chessie asked when we stepped onto the elevator.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you okay?”

  I didn’t meet her eyes. “I will be, kiddo.”

  Chapter 18

  Kimberly

  My bottom lip was raw from chewing it for the last three minutes as I stood at the entrance to the lobby bar. The hostess, a young Hawaiian woman with big brown eyes and thick hair pulled into a tight knot high on top of her head, waited patiently for me to decide whether or not I was going to sit and have a drink.

  “We offer room service, miss,” she said sweetly.

  I smiled at her. “No. Thank you.”

  “A table then?”

  I swallowed and shook my head. “No, I’m going to join someone.”

  She stepped aside to let me in and I brushed past her. I’d traded my white pointed-toe pumps for a pair of more sensible sandals and swapped my tight gray dress for a knee-length flowy blue summer dress. I had a cardigan over top and I’d already taken off my makeup.

  It had been a long day.

  But I was sure it had felt much longer for Rick, who I suspected I might find down here if I went for a stroll through the hotel.

  I hadn’t been wrong.

  I’d spotted Rick sitting at the bar with his back to me the minute I hit the lobby, and it had taken a great deal of time for me to decide whether or not I wanted to approach him or not. There was nothing I could say that would undo the hurt he’d suffered this afternoon, not to mention the embarrassment, and part of me thought it might be best to let him wallow alone.

  Then I realized how untrue that was.

  I’d been there to support him throughout all the stages of planning his wedding. It was only fair that I was there for him now.

  So I approached him at the bar and cleared my throat when I stood behind his stool.

  He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Kim, what are you doing here?”

  I peered around him and spied three empty whiskey glasses sitting on the bar. His eyes were a bit red from drinking and his wedding ring sat on the bar beside his left hand.

  I pointed my chin at the stool beside him. “Can I join you?”

  “Knock yourself out. I’m not the best company tonight.”

  “I’m not here for the best company.”

  “No?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. Just here to sit with a friend and let him know I’m here for him.”

  He studied me quietly. Then he nodded at the shelves of liquor on the back shelf behind the bar. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “I’ll have what you’re having.”

  “A whiskey girl?”

  I
shrugged. “I can appreciate a stiff drink at the end of a particularly shitty day.”

  His lips twitched and he raised his hand, calling the attention of the bartender. He flashed two fingers, pointed back and forth between me and himself, and then at the empty glasses. The bartender nodded and Rick let his hand fall.

  The music playing in the bar was soft and low. Candles burned along the bar spread out about five feet apart each. Dim overhead lights glowed and cast reflections on the windows. It was close to midnight and the place wasn’t busy, which was a nice reprieve after a day of running around like a crazy person.

  “How’s Chessie doing?” I asked.

  Rick sighed and leaned back in his stool. “She’s confused. She doesn’t understand why Verity wouldn’t show up. I think she’s feeling rather protective of me at the moment.”

  “That’s sort of sweet.” I could understand protectiveness. Hell, I felt it a little bit myself. Had Verity strutted into the bar right then, spitting apologies and begging him to take her back, I might have intervened on his behalf and told her to stuff her self-serving apologies up her bleached little asshole.

  “How many times has this happened to one of your clients?” Rick asked.

  I bit my bottom lip.

  Rick groaned. “This was the first, wasn’t it?”

  “Would it make you feel better if I lied?”

  “No.”

  “Then yes, this was the first,” I said.

  The bartender appeared with our whiskey and I took a dainty sip from the edge of my glass. It was strong as hell. Probably expensive, too. But the warm trickle of it rolling down my throat was pleasant, and I liked how it sat full and hot in my belly.

  Rick leaned forward and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve never been so humiliated in my life.” He massaged the sides of his nose in slow circles and closed his eyes. I admired his dark lashes and wished there was something I could do to spare him the anguish he was feeling. “It’ll be all over the tabloids by tomorrow morning, I’m sure.”

  “Don’t worry about the dickheads at the magazines. Even if this wedding had gone off without a hitch, they still would have found something to pick you apart for. It’s what they do. Besides, you’re not the one who should be embarrassed, Rick.”

  He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. Only bitterness. “Yeah. Right. I’m just the asshole who was in way over his head thinking this was finally it, finally my chance to have a family, and in the end, it turns out she doesn’t even love me.”

  Was Verity capable of loving anyone besides herself or her shoe collection?

  I doubted it.

  “This wasn’t about you,” I told him. “This was about her. Rick, forgive me if I’m overstepping, but there is a big part of me that thinks this might be for the best.”

  He gave me a look I couldn’t read out of the corner of his eye. “Oh yeah?”

  I took another sip of whiskey and grimaced. “Yeah.”

  He smirked and shook his head. “Well, I wish I could see it that way. All I can think about is how pissed off all our guests are that they flew out here for no reason. Now I’m on the line to cover travel expenses as well as close everything with the vendors.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Everyone is paid, Rick. I handled it.”

  He didn’t say anything for a minute and neither did I. We both sat and sipped our drinks and I pretended not to struggle getting mine down. By the time I was halfway done, there was a pleasant buzz in my head that chased away the fatigue and bitterness that had taken residence there due to the day’s events.

  “I’m sorry, Kim.”

  I blinked at him. What on earth did he have to be sorry about? The only person who should be sorry was Verity. “For what?”

  “This wedding was supposed to be your big break,” he said. “Your career was going to change because of this. You put in all the work and the time and now you’re not going to get any of the credit you deserve. Hell, you might even get dragged through the mud in the tabloids too.”

  “I doubt it,” I said. “The coordinator is usually forgettable unless she fucks something up royally.”

  “Good thing you didn’t get an opportunity to do that.”

  “Are you cracking a joke at me?”

  “Trying,” he said.

  I smiled. “Don’t be sorry, Rick. This was out of your hands. Mine too. Sometimes, shit just goes wrong. People make bad choices. And then good men like you are left picking up the pieces.”

  He swirled his whiskey around in the glass. Then he tilted his head back and polished off the last few mouthfuls. When he set the empty glass down on the bar, he looked pointedly at my drink.

  I licked my lips. “I’m going.”

  “I’m not rushing you.”

  “It feels like you are.”

  “Never.”

  I picked up my glass and followed suit. I drained the contents of the glass, grimaced, puckered like a bitch, and set it down with one eye closed and my tongue burning.

  Rick chuckled. “That bad, huh?”

  “It’s definitely a sipping drink for me.”

  He stood up and offered me his hand. “I’m going to head back up to my room. Can I walk you to yours, or are you going to stay here a little longer?”

  I put my hand in his and slid off my stool. I fixed my dress when he released my hand and then followed him out of the bar and across the lobby to the elevator. The doors slid open and we stepped inside. It was dimly lit and the same music played on the small speaker in the ceiling as what played in the bar.

  I pressed the button for my floor and stood back to lean against the back wall beside Rick.

  “Are you going to stay for a few days or head home?” I asked.

  “I haven’t decided yet. Part of me thinks it might be nice to stay. I already have the time booked off. Chessie and I could make a time of it and find some redemption in this trip.”

  “And the other part?”

  He offered me a sad smile. “The other part wants to go home and pretend none of this happened.”

  “I understand.”

  “What about you?”

  “My flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be back in Nashville for a cup of tea tomorrow night. I could make a pit stop at your place and key Verity’s Porsche if you want?”

  My offer caught him off guard. Rick snorted and started laughing and I couldn’t help but laugh alongside him.

  “I was being serious,” I said as the elevator doors opened. I stepped out into the hall and hooked a right before turning around so I could face him while I walked backward. “I mean, no offense, but she’s kind of a pain in the ass.”

  “I bought her the Porsche.”

  “Of course, you did,” I said. “Does that mean it’s no longer hers?”

  “I suppose. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

  We reached my door and I leaned up against it so I could face him as he stood in front of me and slid his hands in his pockets. “Well, just remember the offer stands. Scratched paint, slashed tires, you name it. I’m your girl.”

  He chuckled. “Wedding planner by day, justice-seeking vigilante by night. I like it.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Suits you.”

  “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” I flashed him a smile before turning to my door and sliding the key card in the lock. I slid it down but the green light didn’t flash. Blaming the whiskey, I turned the card around and tried again, but that didn’t work either.

  “Damn it,” I muttered. “The door won’t open.”

  Rick stepped in close behind me, took the card from my hand, and tried it again.

  My breath hitched in my throat.

  He was so close. Too close. I could smell his cologne, rich and masculine with undertones of sandalwood. My back was pressed to his chest as he leaned in and tried the lock again, and I was immediately caught up in a whirlwind of memories from my dream when he’d stood behind me on the b
each.

  The light flashed green.

  “There you go,” he said, flicking the handle and pushing the door open. He slid his hand up so he could hold it above my head. “Operator error.”

  I knew he was taking a jab at me but I didn’t have it in me to laugh as I turned around. I was caged between him and the door, and all I could think about was kissing him. Would the kiss be as wild and passionate as it had been in the dream?

  I licked my lips.

  Rick’s eyes danced back and forth between mine.

  I stepped closer to him.

  He lowered his head.

  I stretched to the tips of my toes. His eyes closed and so did mine, and before I knew it, his lips grazed mine in the softest kiss I’d ever had. Then he released the door. It clicked closed behind me and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in close against his body. I pressed my hands flat to his chest and breathed in the smell of him as the kiss deepened and his tongue slid between my teeth.

  It ended before it really began.

  Rick stepped back and held out a hand. “I’m sorry. I’ve had too much to drink tonight. My head isn’t on right.”

  My cheeks burned. “That’s okay. I shouldn’t have—”

  “It’s okay.”

  We both stared at each other.

  Then I spun to my door, scrambled to get the key in the slot, and pushed it open.

  When I turned back, Rick was calling goodnight and already walking down the hall back to the elevator, leaving me with tingling lips and the need for another cold shower.

  Chapter 19

  Rick

  My office chair creaked when I leaned back on it and listened to my great aunt bitch about how much it had cost her and her kids to fly out to Hawaii for the wedding.

  Or rather, as she put it, “the most anticlimactic vacation of all time.” Because weddings were about the guests and their vacation needs. Not the couple. Or her nephew who’d been dropped at the altar like a bag of out-of-currency coins Verity no longer needed.

  “I understand it’s frustrating,” I said for the thousandth time that day, “but it was out of my control. I didn’t know Verity was going to bail on the wedding. Obviously. Otherwise, why the hell would I have spent so much money and worked so hard to make sure everyone could be there?”