We make our way up to the very top deck, where there’s the best view of the sunset on one side and Santorini on the other. The ceremony is small, just their closest friends and family on either side of the aisle. And as we all stand at the front, waiting for Quin and her bridesmaids, my eyes catch on wild brown hair at the back. I do a double take and try to crane my neck around all the people.
“What’re you doing?” Jack whispers as the music begins to play and the bridesmaids start down the aisle.
“Nothing,” I tell him, ignoring the pull in my stomach telling me I know those curls. Flashbacks of Zo? flood my mind, the way her hair smelled and the way she laughed when she thought something I said was really funny. She would throw her head back, and the loudest cackle would burst from her throat. It was obnoxious and embarrassing and so fucking Zo? it hurt.
But there’s no way she could be at my best friend’s wedding on his yacht in Greece. To my knowledge, they don’t even know each other.
Could she know Quin?
After the ceremony, everyone makes their way down to the deck below, where the food and drinks are being served, along with a makeshift dance floor. My eyes keep glancing around, trying to find the girl from earlier, with no luck. I probably look like a crazy person, not paying attention to anything going on around me other than trying to find out whether or not Zo? is here.
“Who the fuck are you looking for?” Greg asks me, handing me a beer. I take it from him and try to pull my focus away from the people on the dance floor. There is probably a max of fifty people, but I still can’t seem to pick that hair out of the crowd. “You look like a stalker over here in the corner watching people.”
“I thought I saw someone,” I tell him. “Do you know if a girl named Zo? is here?”
“How do you know Zo??” Jack asks, popping into our conversation. I feel my stomach somersault like a teenager. I knew it had been her.
“So, she is here?” I ask him, feeling my entire body light on fire with electricity.
“How do you know Zo??” he asks me again, looking at me like I’m up to no good.
“We used to be friends when we were younger,” I tell him, scanning around the crowd again before zeroing in on her being pulled to the dance floor by Quin.
“She was Quin’s first friend out in California,” he says. “Quin answered Zo?’s ad for a roommate, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.”
“So why haven’t we seen her around?” I ask, never taking my eyes off her. God, that smile makes my heart triple in speed.
“She’s been off traveling for the past year or so. She’s a journalist that goes around writing blog posts for hotels and stuff like that. She’s been all over.” He pauses, and I feel his gaze swing over to me. “If you’re such good friends with her, why don’t you know all of this?”
“I told you,” I sigh, looking over at him and Greg. “We used to be best friends. She fell off the face of the Earth without a word when we were eighteen.”
“How’d you fuck that one up?” Greg asks with a laugh. “Literally fuck it?”
I give him a look and then move my gaze back to the dance floor to watch her. Without listening to whatever the guys were saying, I circle it, watching as her cheeks blush a deep pink and her silky blue dress spins around her legs as she twirls for Q.
Will she be happy to see me? Shocked, just like I am to see her? I can’t stop running back through all my old insecurities as to why she cut me out of her life without a second thought. I was worried about her, and then I was angry and hurt. She caused me to put up a lot of walls that weren’t there before her.
“Wes!” Quin shouts and waves in my direction. I smile as I watch Zo? freeze with her back to me, her shoulders tense. Her hair is half up in a bun, and the rest cascades down her back in a flurry of spirals.
“Hey there, blushing bride,” I say to Quin as I get close enough for her to hear me. I stay behind Zo? but get close enough she can feel me.
“This is my friend Zo?!”
Zo? turns around and looks up at me, an uneasy smile on her full lips as she takes me in. In her heels, she isn’t more than a few inches shorter than me, but her frame is so tiny I can’t help but feel a foot taller. I could easily swing her up and over my shoulder, taking her somewhere private to punish her for cutting me out of her life like she did. The idea sends the blood rushing to my dick, and I quickly shake the vision out of my brain.
“Hey, Zo-Zo,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest and smirking down at her big brown eyes. They’re wide in shock as her eyes graze down my body. Her eyes snag on the tattoos that color my arms. I notice she doesn’t have any that I can see, and there’s a lot of skin on display. Her navy blue dress is a slip of a thing with thin straps on her shoulders. It stops at midthigh, showing off her strong legs that I want wrapped around me.
“Hi,” she breathes.
“Do you guys know each other?” Quin all but shouts over the music, still half-heartedly dancing.
“Barely,” I tell her, letting my eyes leave Zo?’s for a moment to look at Quin. She hesitates before someone else comes up and steals her away. She motions with two fingers from her eyes to mine, letting me know she’s watching me. I laugh and wave as she gets pulled through the crowd of people.
“Barely?” Zo? asks, her face in a mask of smugness, but I know her well enough to know there’s some hurt under there at my brush-off.
“It was an honest answer,” I tell her. “I haven’t spoken to you in, what? Eight years? I’d say I barely know you anymore.”
“Fuck off, Wesley,” she says, using my full name like I’m a kid. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” She rolls her eyes and brushes past me, bumping into my arm with a pretty hard push for such a tiny thing. I smile and turn to follow her.
There’s nowhere to go, Little Doe.
CHAPTER TWO
I watch her ass as she walks in front of me. That fabric clings to it perfectly as it moves and, God, I want to reach out and grab it. She isn’t the little girl I knew anymore. She grew up, got curves, and got an attitude.
“Stop following me, Wesley!” she says over her shoulder, flipping me off.