“I’d love to.” Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight.
“Excellent.” They walked into the ballroom, arm-in-arm. The band was playing an upbeat tune at one end of the room, and the dance floor was packed. At the center, he could see the bride and groom. He nodded toward them. “They look like they’re having a good time.”
“They sure do.” Ruby’s face lit with a smile, and Flynn’s breath caught in his throat. “What?” she asked.
“I just got my first look at you in actual light, and I had no idea I’d been sitting outside with the prettiest woman at the party.” He nudged her shoulder playfully. Ruby scoffed at his compliment, but he wasn’t joking, not this time. She was lovely, with her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, pinned back to accent her heart-shaped face and those rich chocolate eyes shining behind her glasses. Ruby wore a floor-length pink dress—a bridesmaid’s dress—and it hugged her petite frame just right.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be waiting.” He turned toward the bar, only to see his mother waving him over.
“Flynn,” she called. “There you are.”
And he felt a bit like Ruby had in the garden when Ellis Mayberry caught up with them, because there was a woman standing beside his mother, a blonde in a knee-length black dress smiling shyly in his direction.
“Darling, this is Rebecca Creekmore,” his mother said. “Rebecca, this is my son, Flynn.”
He glanced over his shoulder in the direction Ruby had gone. This time, it would be her turn to save him.
2
Ruby stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, one hand in her hair as she turned to the side, surveying her reflection. She hardly recognized the woman staring back at her. Somehow, Flynn had managed to salvage her ruined hairdo and turn it into something kind of beautiful. She didn’t usually like how her hair looked when it was down, but the way he’d tucked the sides back really worked, at least with this dress. It was a different look for her, but then again, this week was all about trying new things.
Lotsof new things.
The flush she saw in her cheeks wasn’t due to the makeup the artist had carefully applied earlier that day. It wasn’t even embarrassment over all the various ways her evening had gone wrong so far. It was excitement, a kind of excitement she hadn’t felt in too long to remember. The rest of the reception should be a lot more fun now that she had Flynn to hang out with. And tomorrow, she would begin her uncharted adventure in London.
“Whoa,” Megan said, appearing in the mirror behind Ruby. “You took your hair down!”
“I had a run-in with a rosebush. I had no choice.”
“Well, I love it.” Megan walked up to stand beside her, wearing a floor-length rose satin dress identical to Ruby’s, as Elle had made them both her maids of honor. “I think I might like it better than your up-do.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Megan grinned at her in the mirror. The scar that ran down the left side of her face was barely visible tonight beneath her makeup, but it wrinkled slightly when she smiled, a permanent reminder of the car accident they’d been in together a year ago.
“Don’t laugh, but I met this guy in the garden, and we really hit it off. He even offered to show me around London tomorrow.”
Megan’s eyebrows crawled up her forehead. “What? Who? Do we know him? I told you that you could tag along with me and Jake.”
“No way. I’m not playing third wheel to you two lovebirds, and besides, I want to do this on my own anyway. I really like Flynn, but I think I’m going to turn him down.”
“Well, let’s not be hasty,” Megan said, shifting gears. “Tell me more about him. What’s he like? What do we know about him?”
“He’s a friend of Theo’s,” Ruby told her. “Apparently, their families go way back. He’s very nice, funny too.”
“You know what? I think it sounds exciting. You should go.” Megan pulled out a lipstick from her bag, pursing her lips as she reapplied it. “You did say this week was about having a grand adventure, right?”
Ruby rolled her eyes, then pulled out her own lipstick. She never fussed with her appearance in front of the mirror. But she didn’t attend an earl’s wedding every day either. Surely that was the reason she was unnaturally obsessed with her appearance tonight. “This adventure is about me, not a man.”
“And sometimes,” Megan said as she led the way out of the bathroom, “a man can be part of your adventure. It doesn’t make it any less yours.”
Ruby was still stewing on that bit of advice as she made her way toward the bar where Flynn stood chatting…with another woman. She was about Ruby’s age, a pretty blonde who was currently leaned against the bar in a way that accentuated her cleavage, staring at Flynn like he’d just told her she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Ruby faltered, heat rising in her cheeks as her stomach dropped. While she’d been in the bathroom, gushing about Flynn to Megan and letting her halfway convince Ruby to accept his offer, he’d been out here finding a new woman to flirt with in her absence.
Maybe Ruby ought to turn the tables on him and find a woman to flirt with too—hey, there were certain advantages to being bisexual—but that wasn’t really her style. And honestly, tonight she only had eyes for Flynn. He glanced over, and their eyes locked. Before she could decide what to do, he was waving her over.
