“I meant, who is he? How do you know him?”
I shrugged, not understanding where the attitude was coming from. “I don’t. We just met. He made my drink.” I held up the cut crystal tumbler so he could see for himself.
“Huh.”
“What does that mean?” I didn’t like his tone is what I meant.
“It means, I thought you were a nice girl.”
Now that sounded like an insult. “Excuse me?”
“I used to date nice girls. They didn’t work out for me. So, I stopped dating them.”
“Okay.”
“And then I met you. I assumed you were a nice girl. I thought I would make an exception. Just for you. And you’re telling me we’re at The End. I was wrong about you being a nice girl.”
I stopped, whirling around and planting my free hand on my hip. “I am a nice girl. I’m a very nice girl. I’m the nicest girl you’ll ever meet.”
He leaned in, a surprising smirk tilting one side of his mouth. “No, Dillon, you’re not.” Just when I contemplated smacking him, he added, “But don’t worry, I think I’m into it.”
He turned away and made his way back to his seat. I mumbled, “You think?” to his back, but he was already gone. What did that mean? He thinks he’s into it? Into me?
I took a long sip of my Old Fashioned, even though I usually preferred to wait until the ice melted. I tried to decide if last night was a fluke or if Vann Delane was going to drive me to drink. Er, all the time.
* * *
Three hours later,I was full of all kinds of amazing food, the best drinks I had ever had, an insanely delicious honey, vanilla, and lavender wedding cake, and so much laughter.
The dinner had been one of the best I’d ever had. The toasts from Ezra and Molly had been heartwarming and moving, the cutting of the cake adorable, and Kaya happened to catch the bouquet—when Vera tossed it directly to her while she was sitting down.
Dancing had started an hour ago and I was having the time of my life moving around the floor with my friends and a string of single guys that never let me stop. I’d only had one other drink so I was also pleasantly sober.
This was a night for the books.
And I was so happy that Vera and Killian would have these perfectly beautiful memories for the rest of their lives.
I had just escaped the dance floor to take a break and sit with my brother for a few minutes—who had two left feet and hated anything but slow dancing where he could just sway back and forth—when I nearly bumped into another girl practically throwing herself at Vann.
The moment surprised me so much that I had to take a step back and regroup.
To be honest, I’d had my eye on him the whole night. Not that I was being a creepy stalker or anything. But after last night, and then today, there was just this awareness of his presence. I couldn’t help it! I was female after all.
It was in our DNA to know where available, attractive, mysterious men were at all times.
Er, at least I’d found that to be true in the last twenty-four hours. When it specifically applied to Vann Delane.
But let’s not analyze that too closely.
Okay, so maybe I’d picked this side of the dance floor to walk off because he happened to be standing nearby. And maybe I’d totally nailed my aloof exit with a laughing conversation with Molly so that I could pretend that I had no idea he was over here. And maybe, just maybe, but probably not likely, I had been hoping he would stop to talk to me.
He hadn’t said anything to me since before dinner and I found that I didn’t like that he was also playing the aloof game.
It was okay when I did it. But frankly, he was annoying me.
Also, since when had I turned into this girl that was all, “Pay attention to meeeee?” I wasn’t that girl. I was levelheaded. I was unattached. I was perfectly confident in my single status.
Where were all these emotions coming from and what did I do with them? Because keeping them and dealing with them was not a viable option.
