Chapter 3 #3
“He must’ve had a last-minute change of plans or something and decided to surprise me.”
“We gave the caterer certain numbers,” Danielle is saying, even though I happen to know people dropped out at the last minute.
“I’m sure he won’t eat much!” I’m off there like a shot, weaving around stunned guests with their little plates of hors d’oeuvres, and then bolting across the expanse of green grass to intercept him.
Bruno Blackwood stops when he sees me bulleting toward him. I’m sure I’m a scary sight, running at him in my sad blue dress.
Behind him, another man is climbing out of the helicopter. He has the same burnished brass hair as Bruno—light brown with plenty of gold, like the fixtures on a really high-end farmhouse renovation.
“Bruno.” I touch his sleeve and lower my voice.
“I just want to profusely apologize for sending you that wedding invitation. It was a stupid joke sort of thing trying to impress my sister, a.k.a. the bride. I swear to bejesus, I didn’t mean to fool you or make you think you knew us and like you had to drop everything and come to this wedding.
Clearly, I wasted your valuable time, and for that I am so sorry.
Like so, so sorry! And I’ll explain everything later and I’ll find a way to make things right—I swear I will—”
Is that an annoyed expression on his face? I can’t tell. I can’t read him. It’s like his intense handsomeness is blocking my brainwaves.
“But right now, I’m begging you, like I will literally owe you my firstborn, if you would just, for the next few minutes, play along like we know each other in front of my family. You’re my plus-one, okay?”
Then, in a low voice, he says, “Can we carry out this ruse without my having anything whatsoever to do with your firstborn?”
I stiffen. “Is that a ‘yes’?”
“Yes.” The other man is catching up. Bruno flicks his gaze to him and then back to me. “I’m your plus-one?”
“If only you would do that, I would be so deeply in your debt. And I get it; you probably have everything a person could ever need...”
Before I can finish my desperate plea, Bruno’s arm slides around my waist and pulls me against him. He kisses my hair.
I nearly go catatonic. What? He’s actually playing along? I feel like I’m in a dream.
“Name,” he growls into my head.
“Um... Kelsey?”
“Was that a question? Are you sure or do you need a second to decide? Because you sound like you might not be sure what your own goddamn name is.” He is annoyed. Well, why wouldn’t he be?
“Kelsey Winters.” I pull back and gaze up into his eyes. “Thank you, thank you thank you thank you—”
He settles a warm hand on my cheek. All words fall out of my brain as he gives me a smile that’s beautiful as the sun and all the stars. “I’ve missed you, baby.”
The man who shares Bruno’s hair color and excellent bone structure stands a few feet away, blinking at us uncertainly, as though we’ve just shapeshifted into Care Bears or something.
Bruno turns to him. “Thanks for the ride, Russell.”
Russell eyes me, incomprehension all over his face. Is it my catatonic state showing on my face? Is it my sadface dress? “You’re not going to introduce us?” Russell asks.
Bruno sets a hand on the small of my back. “This is Kelsey. Kelsey, allow me to present my brother Russell. Russell is now leaving.”
Russell’s eyes flick to Bruno. “Oh, come on. Come on,” he adds, emphasizing the “on.”
Bruno frowns. “Come on...what?”
Russell looks me up and down. “You expect me to buy this?”
Bruno lowers his voice to a growl. “Take that insulting tone with Kelsey one more time and we’ll have a problem. Understood?”
Russell’s suspicious gaze suggests that nothing is understood.
Bruno lifts my hand and kisses my knuckles. My heart nearly pounds out of my throat.
“And you met where?” Russell asks.
Bruno grumbles something that sounds like “none of your business” at the exact same time I blurt out, “He saw me in my Broadway show. Anything Goes.”
“Bruno doesn’t like musical theater,” Russell says.
“And you’re an expert on my taste since when?” Bruno asks.
“Since I happen to know you don’t like anything fun. Or lively or funny.”
I can see at this point that Bruno’s “none of your business” was the superior answer, but it’s too late.
I smile up at Bruno. “Well, he liked Anything Goes. He was waiting outside the theater door to meet me.”
“Kelsey?”
I spin around.
It’s Danielle, coming up with Cara and some of the cousins. Hopefully the babysitters have gotten back on the job.
“Behold my sister, Danielle, a.k.a. our beautiful bride-to-be.” I try to say it jokey and not like I’m giving him critical information for our ruse. “This is my friend Bruno and his brother Russell.”
Danielle looks at the helicopter. At Bruno. At Russell. At me.
“His brother’s not actually staying. He just gave him a ride.”
Bruno puts out his hand. “I’ve heard so much about you, Danielle.” The way he says it, so sexy and rumbly, I nearly melt.
So does Danielle, judging from her dumbfounded expression.
What have I done? I have to get him out of here.