“I won’t.” She hoped.
“I should go find Liz. They want to cut the cake and she’ll have a cow if she misses it.”
She took a quick sip of liquid courage and, before he got too far away, called after him, “Save a dance for me.”
He looked back over his shoulder and the grin had been replaced by a look she couldn’t quite decipher. “I will.”
“See?” Hailey said when he was out of earshot. “That wasn’t so hard.”
Lauren drained her glass and looked around for the glass-refilling fairy. One more glass wouldn’t hurt.
*
He was an idiot. That was the only word for what he was and, the worst part of it was that he couldn’t even blame alcohol. He was totally sober.
Ryan stormed into the lodge, cursing himself for a fool as he yelled his sister’s name. He couldn’t dance with Lauren. He should have told her he was too busy doing something wedding related or come up with some other lame excuse.
Just watching her in that dress all night had turned him into a walking erection. He’d spent more time hiding behind tables and chairs than anything else, and appearances were the least of his problems. He was afraid his balls were going to explode if he didn’t get to escape soon. Holding her in his arms in front of his entire family was nothing but a recipe for disaster.
He was halfway up the staircase when Liz appeared at the top. She was a little flushed and he wondered if she’d had too much to drink.
“Everybody’s looking for you,” he said. “They’re going to cut the cake in a few minutes and you don’t want to be missing from the pictures.”
“I’m coming.” She didn’t stagger on the stairs, so he figured she must not be too drunk.
“You doing okay?” he asked when she’d reached him. He didn’t imagine there was much worse after ending a long-term relationship than suffering through a joyful wedding.
“I’m fine.”
“You tell Rosie yet?”
“No. I told you, I’m going to tell her right before I leave.”
“Yeah, but she has a way of knowing when secrets are being kept, and that’s a pretty big one.”
She rolled her eyes and smoothed her hands over her dress. “I’ll tell her soon. But for now, I’m going to go have cake and try not to catch the bride’s bouquet.”
He was turning to go back outside when he heard a thump from upstairs and frowned. Running through his immediate family members in his mind, he realized everybody who had a room upstairs was out in the yard. The extended family was staying in the guest rooms.
“Who’s up there?”
“Probably one of the kids,” Liz said, but the flush across her cheeks grew more pronounced.
Oh, crap, he thought. Drew freakin’ Miller was upstairs. And the chief of police had put the color in his sister’s cheeks, not the champagne.
He did not want any part of that. God only knew how Mitch would take it. Not that it was necessarily his business, but there was kind of an unspoken code. Drew was Mitch’s best friend and Liz was his little sister. And Ryan was going to pretend he couldn’t add two plus two.
“I hope if the kids are running around, they don’t break anything,” he said, and kept on walking.
Somehow he ended up on the opposite side of the cake table from Lauren, which put her squarely in his line of vision.
When she laughed at something Hailey said, her eyes sparkling with amusement, Ryan’s breath caught in his throat. He wanted to be the one making her laugh. His body ached to be close to her, but at the same time he thought that might be a very bad idea.
He couldn’t take much more torture and that’s exactly what seeing Lauren and not touching her was. And he didn’t think dancing with her would be nearly enough. In fact, he was pretty sure that would only make it worse. And he’d been doing a good job of hiding his feelings from his family, he thought, but if he led her out onto the makeshift dance floor, everything he felt would be on display. Not only to the family—and his brothers would be merciless—but to Lauren.
“Ten bucks says she shoves cake up his nose,” he heard Kevin say, and he realized the cake had been cut.
“Done,” Josh said. “She won’t do it.”
Mitch had a small slice between his fingers and Ryan watched as he held it to Paige’s mouth so she could take a dainty bite off the end. The crowd groaned and the bride and groom both laughed. And, when Paige did the same for Mitch, he heard his cousin groan.
“Ten bucks,” Josh said in a gloating tone as the crowd applauded the happy, frosting-free couple.
When Ryan caught Lauren watching him over the rim of her glass, he forced himself to give her a polite smile and turn away. Maybe he could help Fran serve the cake or something. Anything to keep himself distracted.