Chewing on a bite of her food, she swallowed, then turned to him. “Favorite comfort movie.”
“Princess Bride.”
Her gasp made him grin. She didn’t even have to say the words; he knew he was right. “But your guilty pleasure movies areThe Fast and the Furiousseries.”
“Have you been spying on me?” she snapped, setting down her fork and staring at him. “This isn’t funny, Kasey. That’s creepy as fuck.”
“You’re much easier to read than you think,” he said simply. “Your phone case has blue tiger lilies on it, and the tag on your suitcase is some other kind of blue flowers. That onewasjust a lucky guess. I didn’t take you for a pink kind of girl.The Fast and the Furiousseries is a no brainer with your affinity for cars. I’llbet you and Tristan have had marathons watching those movies just the two of you.” Picking up his coffee, he took another drink. “The Princess Bridewas a little tougher, but you made several references to it in your maid of honor speech yesterday; so that was really just a wild guess.”
“That’s still creepy,” Shaun muttered, turning back to her food.
“I’m just observant,” he chuckled. “I was the odd man out, the middle child, so I spent a lot of time watching other people as a kid. Just something that followed me into adulthood, I suppose.”
“Is that how you knew?” she whispered, looking at him with narrowed eyes. “You could see it?”
His heart thudded in his chest. He knew what she was referring to. “It was more… what Ididn’tsee.”
Her fingers tightened around the fork in her hand and she stabbed another bite of French toast, her motions stilted and angry.
“What happened, Shaun?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head, then turned to fix him with that intense sapphire gaze. “I’m not rehashing my failed engagement with you, Kase. If I decide to stay, and that’s a big if mind you, there’s no digging into pasts, no long, heartfelt talks. I don’t want to get to know you, and quite honestly, I don’t want you to know anymore about me than you already do. This can be a break from constantly making each other’s lives hell, but at the end of it, nothing changes. This is just to scratch the itch of whatever this is. Understand?”
His lips twitched with the need to smile at her fervent declaration, knowing full well that this wasn’t going to be finished at the end of this holiday break.
Her eyes narrowed, witness to the teasing glint in his own, and she waved the tines of her fork in his direction. “I mean it,Kasey. We get this out of our system, and we go our separate ways. I can’t deny that we have chemistry, and clearly we are attracted to each other. But at the end of the day, I can’t stand you and you can’t stand me.”
“Bet I can change your mind, darlin’,” he drawled, reaching out and running his finger down the edge of her jaw and down the side of her neck.
“Kasey…” she muttered through clenched teeth, though her head did tilt into his touch, her eyes softening as desire took over. Damn woman would try to fight to the bitter end.
“Get that whipped cream to go,” he murmured, sliding his mouth over hers languidly. “If this weekend is all I get, I’m going to ruin you, darlin’.”
TWENTY-FIVE
“Do you not know how to answer a cell phone?” her mother demanded the second she stepped inside the front door of the rental lodge. Her face flamed a hundred shades of red when her aunts turned to look at her with knowing eyes.
“I’m sorry, I was safe,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes to the floor. “I was… with Kasey.”
“Roxy let me know,” Serenity said gently, though her blue eyes were still narrowed. “Still, you could have let me know yourself so I wasn’t worried last night when you couldn’t be found after the reception ended. For all I knew you’d been kidnapped or murdered.”
Summer laughed out loud, shaking her head. “You’re being intentionally overdramatic.” Turning to Shaun, Summer murmured in a hushed tone, “She watched you hightail it out the door after Kasey, and when neither of you returned, we put two and two together. We knew where you were.”
Shaun grimaced, letting out a sigh. “Awesome.” Raising her eyes to her mother’s, she said with more bravado than she felt, “I actually just came to get my bag.”
“What? Why? Are you trying to go home early? Did he hurt you?” her mother asked, looking her up and down once, as if checking for injury.
“No! Ugh, no, Mom. I’m fine,” Shaun muttered on a whisper, her face flaming again.Oh my god this is worse than I thought.“I’m—I’m going to—”
“She’s going to go with Kasey is what she’s trying to say,” Sadie laughed as she walked up, leaning over the marble island in the kitchen, winking. “They’re not finished yet. Nice walk of shame outfit, by the way.”
“Ohmygod,” Shaun groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Can wenot?!”
The three older women laughed, and Summer squeezed Shaun’s shoulder gently. “There is nothing wrong with having a healthy and active… life.”
“I’m going to die,” Shaun breathed from behind her hands, shaking her head. “Okay! You all get it—”
“Well, yes, we do, but we’re talking aboutyougetting it right now—” Sadie chortled, making Shaun groan in agony at the embarrassment that had taken up residence in her body.
