Everyone began to make their way over to the tables as the band struck up. Vaughn, however, found Vivien. “I’m heading back to the hotel. Are you alright here?”
“Yes. Of course. And everything seemed fine at the hotel when I left,” she said. “You could stay, enjoy a glass of champagne.”
“Yes, stay!” Kell and Jake were at his side, thrusting a glass of champagne in his face.
Not wanting to be rude, especially to people he’d been making an effort to turn into friends, he accepted it with a smile.
“To the happy couple!” Kell lifted his glass in the air. Jake and Vaughn clinked theirs against his.
“Wait for us!” Mayor Jaclyn Rose and her husband, Cliff, pushed their way into the little circle.
Jaclyn Rose was a tall, statuesque woman in her late fifties. Vaughn had never seen her in anything but a power suit, heels, and red lipstick. She was a force of nature, outspoken and strong, like Bailey. Her husband, a man two inches shorter than her, with a receding hairline and kind eyes, was quiet and unassuming. He was her complete opposite.
Jaclyn was a good friend of the Hartwells, and when Bailey took umbrage against his hotel, she pit the mayor against him.
He had not had the easiest of relationships with the mayor, but apparently his growing friendship with Kell and Jake was working its magic on Mayor Rose.
Vaughn felt satisfaction as they all raised their glasses together and she shared a smile with him.
Three years ago he wouldn’t have believed that he’d care about ingratiating himself with these people, but these people were the town of Hartwell. To be included as one of them, as a peer enjoying the celebration of one of their own, filled him with a pleasure he barely understood.
Finally Hartwell was truly becoming his home.
Now he only needed one thing to feel true contentment.
Bailey
As much as my chest swelled tight with emotion watching the photographer take photos of Jess and Coop in each other’s arms on the boardwalk, I knew the pressure on my chest was born of another reason, too.
I wanted nothing more than to give all of my concentration to my best friends, to the bride, who looked beautiful in her ivory satin ballgown, looking like a starlet from the 1950s, and her groom, who looked so damn handsome it was a sin.
They were stunning together, and not just because they were good-looking people but because they were kind people so freaking in love they glowed with it.
I wanted to focus on that.
Yet, I couldn’t.
Because I’d felt that damn devil’s gaze burning through me from the moment I’d gotten out of the limo. He’d stared at me throughout the entire ceremony. And it wasn’t just his attention. It was the nature of his attention. Vaughn Tremaine looked at me as if he wanted to ravish me, protect me, and keep me forever.
How was any woman supposed to stay strong against the kind of longing and determination in Vaughn’s eyes? It was the kind of expression that gave a woman hope; that made a woman think maybe she was being a coward; maybe she was giving up on the one person that might be worth fighting for.
Damn him to hell!
I flushed under the hot sun, wishing the photographer would hurry up and finish so we could get into the shade. Cooper was starting to look a little flushed in his tux, and Joey, usually a good-natured kid, was ten seconds away from throwing a fit. Someone had gotten him a juice box to cool him down but it didn’t look as if it was doing much to appease him.
Jessica turned to the photographer. “I think we’re good!”
“Just a few more,” he said.
“No. My husband is about to pass out and my nephew is about to strip naked and run into the ocean. We’re good.” She took Cooper’s hand and led him past the unhappy photographer. “You’ll get plenty of candid shots at the reception.”
“But I wanted a few more of you on the beach.”
“We got plenty.” Cooper’s tone was final.
The photographer shut up.
I grinned at my friends. “We love you.”
Jessica winced. “Everyone’s dying, huh?”
“Just a bit.”
“Let’s get inside.”
We walked toward Paradise Sands and I felt a flip in my belly when I remembered the last time I’d been inside the building. Cat fell into step beside me, while Joey chatted up ahead with Jessica’s Aunt Theresa.
Cat nudged me playfully. “So, I heard something this morning.”
“What was that?”
“Tremaine basically announced to us that he was going to pursue you.”
My heart flipped over in my chest, and my hot sweat turned to cool sweat as little goose bumps rose up all over my body. “He did not.” I couldn’t even imagine Vaughn saying anything so personal in public.
“He did so.”
“You’re not joking?”
“Not at all.”
Well. That certainly would account for all the emotional eye-fucking I’d received from him. “How dare he,” I hissed, terrified and thrilled by the prospect.
“Oh, I know. A gorgeous, sexy, incredibly successful, rich man known for his taciturnity cares enough about you to declare his feelings in public. What an asshole.”
I scowled. “He is actually.”
“If you don’t want him, I’ll have him.” She shrugged.
Even though I knew she was joking, jealousy burned through me at the thought.
Cat laughed at my expression. “If looks could kill.”