Chapter Three
“Falling in love was easy. I fall in love with myself every time I look in the mirror.” - Derek
DEREK
I have to say, wearing a dress was incredibly freeing, but getting back into my slacks and button-down feels way better. I don’t know how women walk around in dresses all day. The chafing from half an hour alone was more than I can handle.
The party is going off, the sun has fully set, and the drinks are flowing steadily. There has already been one shuttle that came to pick up guests who are staying at the lodge up the mountain, but there are still plenty of people left at the ranch partying it up.
My eyes scan the area, looking for one particular set of eyes that caught me off guard during the ceremony.
I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a single moment to look for her again.
There is always the chance she had already left, and that would be disappointing. There’s also the chance she’s married, or a nun, or not into my gender at all.
And yet, I stand here, scanning the crowd like my super vision can find her.
I’m standing on the edge of the dance floor, a light sheen of sweat on me from doing the Macarena like my life depended on it, when a small body slams into my right leg. I turn, looking down at the girl in the bright purple dress looking up at me.
“Whoa, little one, are you okay?”
She smiles and nods. “I’m dancing!”
She twirls her dress, and I smile at the move, my eyes lifting above her to look for whatever person she belongs to. When I don’t see anyone, I kneel in front of her and give her my kindest smile. “You’re really good.”
“Thanks! I practice every day.” She says it so matter-of-factly that I laugh a little.
“Aurora!” I hear someone call, and suddenly, the air in my lungs leaves me when the beautiful woman from the ceremony comes through the crowd of people, her hand clutching at her chest in relief when she spots the young girl. “Aurora Valerie! You know better than to run off like that.”
“Sorry, Mommy, I’m dancing.” The girl shrugs innocent shoulders and grabs onto her mom’s fingers, twirling herself under her hand.
The woman softens with love and I’m sure relief while looking at her daughter. Then, as if remembering I’m standing there, she looks at me and smiles.
I’m struck stupid. She has long golden-blonde hair, almost the color of honey, and her bright blue eyes are striking, just enough so to tear my gaze off of her soft pink lips.
“Thank you. I’m so sorry if she was bothering you.”
I nod my head, then shake it, working over what I can say to her, and my tongue seems to get stuck to the roof of my mouth.
“Well.” The woman smiles again, and my head hurts from how idiotic it’s behaving. Say something, man! “We’ll leave you be now.”
No! Think, Derek!
Oh, right. That’ll work.
“I’m Derek,” I call out just as she turns to walk away, and my ears burn in embarrassment. Good Lord, how loud was I just now?
The most gorgeous woman on the planet pauses and turns, her hair swaying around her shoulders, and I’m pretty sure this woman is an angel. She smiles kindly at me, and I barely refrain from clutching my chest. “Thank you for your help, Derek.”
Oh my god, say my name again.
I shake my head. Man, something is seriously wrong with me.
She starts to turn again when Quinn squeals, running up to the woman of my dreams and wrapping her arms around her. I assumed she was one of Quinn’s friends, but my mind works long and hard, trying to figure out how they know each other and why I’ve never been introduced to her before.
I stand there, watching the girls talk and probably looking like a stalker, when Quinn notices me, and she beams. “I absolutely loved the song, Derek!”
Her arms wrap around me, and I hug her back, glad she was happy with my performance. “Thank you, thank you. I worked all week on it.”
Not true. I’ve been planning on doing that since the moment my friend got engaged.
“It was perfect.” She smiles and then turns back to her friend. “Oh! Derek, this is my college roommate and best friend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Graham’s best friend, Derek.”
Elizabeth.
Fuck. Even her name was hot and sophisticated. It suits her well.
I hold out my hand politely, and she places her warm skin against mine. I feel a zip of energy between our palms as they touch, and my eyes hit her bright blue ones. Hell. She is stunning.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, officially. Your performance was very entertaining.”
Her daughter tugs on her mom’s dress, getting her attention, and like it’s completely second nature, she tugs the little girl into her arms.
“I aim to please,” I say, and Quinn laughs.
“I’m pretty sure Graham will never forget this day solely based on your song.”
“I’m sure there are other reasons he’ll remember this day,” Elizabeth says with a smile, lightly nudging Quinn’s shoulder.
“Definitely,” Quinn replies, a beaming smile on her lips. “Oh, if Aurora is feeling overwhelmed, they have a bunch of the little kids watching a movie inside.”
“Movie!” Aurora yells, grabbing her mom’s cheeks and pulling her attention to her. “Mommy, I want to watch a movie.”
“Okay.” She laughs and turns to Quinn. “Just inside?”
“I can take you,” I offer, unsure of where it’s coming from. I turn to Quinn. “You go dance with your husband.”
Quinn squeezes my arm in excitement, thanking me, and I lead Elizabeth and Aurora to the house.
In through the front door and down into the family room, there is a group of kids, including Graham and Quinn’s two kids, settled into the couches and watching a cartoon movie. Most of them are conked out, and a teen girl stands when she sees us enter, smiling politely.
“Hi,” she says softly, looking at Aurora and Elizabeth. “I’m Lue. I’m hanging out with the kiddos for a little bit so they can relax.” She catches Aurora’s eye and says, “Want to come sit with me?”
“Are you sure this is okay?” Elizabeth asks, even though her daughter is squirming to get out of her arms already. “I don’t want to impose.”
“Nonsense.” The girl takes Aurora willingly and smiles at her. “Go have fun for a while.”
Elizabeth clasps her hands under her chin and smiles kindly. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
I smile at the sight; she clearly loves her daughter a lot and doesn’t want to leave her.
I turn to walk back out to the wedding, expecting Elizabeth to follow, but when I get to the door, I see she’s still watching the room, or more specifically, her daughter.
She glances back at me and smiles kindly before taking a hesitant step away from the room and following me.
I guess she doesn’t need to follow me, though I am hoping that she will take me up on an offer of a dance. Just as soon as I get the courage to ask her.
Which will happen.
Any second now.
“Sorry. I’m not used to leaving her with strangers.” Elizabeth blushes, and I track the way it flushes up her cheeks.
“No big deal, you’re a good mom for not wanting to leave her.”
She shrugs and says, “Don’t all moms want to stay by their babies all the time?” Her laugh tells me that she’s poking fun at herself, and I nod my head.
“They definitely should,” I reply, thinking back to my own mother. Though, I mostly just think of her as the time before, not really remembering much of her.
She took off on me when I was four, leaving my dad and me high and dry to chase some life I doubt she found. Dad raised me all on his own, and somehow, we managed.
Edging near the dance floor, we see that there are several couples who settled into each other, talking softly as a slow country song plays over the speakers. I want to ask her to dance, to talk with me more, but the words get stuck on the edge of my tongue.
Something is definitely wrong with me. I clench my fists in frustration. The thought of asking her and her rejecting me is tripping me up.
She’s not going to reject you. She’s not like other women who trample all over your feelings. Man up and say something.
“Hey.” I let out a breath at the sound of my friend Enzo and turn, seeing him stride up to me. He has a beer in one hand as he watches the crowd around us. “What a day, huh? I’m sure Graham is glad to have this all behind him.”
“Are you kidding? He’s been looking forward to this day for years,” I defend, looking at my best friend who holds his new wife close. Both were grinning ear to ear at each other on the dance floor. “Where’s your significant other?”
He points to the side, where Nora, his girlfriend and business partner, is talking with the caterer.
“She’s grilling them about the consistency of the salmon.
It’s the one thing she can’t quite get nailed down.
” He grins at the thought, and if I had to guess, I would say he’s teased her about that relentlessly.
Enzo and Nora used to be childhood enemies, and they then ended up working together at a restaurant, fighting for the head chef position until they inevitably fell in love.
Until Nora was fired and Enzo quit. Then they worked all the time trying to save for their restaurant.
They opened it last month, and it’s been an enormous success.
“Who was your friend?” Enzo asks, and I remember myself.
“Oh, this is.” I turn back to Elizabeth, only she’s not there. I look around, my eyes scanning for her everywhere, and turn up empty. “Elizabeth.”
“Pretty name. She was quite the looker,” Enzo comments, taking another sip of his beer. He may be complimenting Elizabeth, but his eyes haven’t left his girlfriend.
“She’s gorgeous,” I comment absentmindedly, still on the hunt, my neck craning to find her. How did she slip away?
“Uh oh.”
“What uh oh?” Garrett has now joined our little group, followed by Archer, another tight member of our friend group and Enzo’s brother-in-law.
“Derek found another woman to fawn over.”
I jerk my attention back to the guys and see some knowing smiles on their faces. “I did not.”
“I don’t blame you, that woman you walked over with was fine as hell,” Garrett comments, not even giving me the decency to look in my direction.
“She is fine as hell, probably the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. But don’t ever say that again,” I demand, not thinking any of their comments were funny.
“See?” Enzo says to our smiling friends. As if they know everything about me.
“What are you chuckleheads laughing at?” My eyes take another involuntary sweep around the area we’re in. She seriously disappeared. Maybe she is an angel.
“You and your dog with a bone trick,” Garrett says, and Archer smacks his shoulder.
“Be nice. He just likes having a girlfriend, who could blame him?”
“Me,” Garrett comments. “Why would anyone want to be tied down like that to a woman?”
He gets collective stares from the rest of the guys, and he shrugs his shoulders. “What?”
“You just insulted our girlfriends,” Enzo says, deadpan.
“Wife,” Archer supplies proudly, not seeming to be bothered by the conversation when he gets to pipe in with a comment like that.
We get it, you’re blissfully happy with your best friend’s sister.
“Can we circle back to talking about me?” Because really, they came over to just insult me? Ridiculous. “I don’t like having a girlfriend, I want a partner in life.”
“Okay, but any woman here could walk up to you and ask you out and you would say yes,” Garrett says, getting a nod of agreement from the guys.
I gape at them all, placing my hands on my hips, affronted. “That is not true.”
“It is true.”
“What’s true?” Chris, the last member of our group that didn’t just get married, walks up.
“Derek never being single.”
I glare at Garrett, since he seems to be the one with a bone to pick. “Are you calling me a serial dater?”
“I’m saying, you don’t know how to be alone. You are not happy with yourself, therefore, you try to find happiness in someone else.”
The words shock me for a moment, and my other friends lift their brows in surprise that Garrett just called me out like that.
“You all think this?”
Enzo sighs and shrugs his shoulders. “I mean, Stace did a number on you. But it does seem like you could use some time to focus on yourself, man. I know you want to find someone, but dating just anyone who comes along is not good for you.”
I shudder at the mention of my ex. That was a low point in my life, one I would gladly erase from my mind if I could find a way to make it happen.
Finally, over his shoulder, my eyes catch on Elizabeth, and my feet are begging me to move. But here I am, being accosted by my best friends in the world, and now, I’m not sure about anything.
One of the ranch’s wranglers walks over to Elizabeth. and she gives them a kind and shy smile. He holds out his hand, and for a moment, she glances around the area, and my breath lodges in my chest.
Then, she places her hand in his and follows him to the dance floor.
Something in me hurts to see it, and I shake my head, turning back to the guys. “Fine.”
“Fine?” Archer asks, watching me closely.
“Fine. From this moment forward, I hereby swear off dating.”
“Really?” Garrett looks positively giddy at the prospect, and I just glare at him.
“Yes. I can live with myself, thank you very much.”
At least, I hope I can.