Ava swats him, and Liam winks at Oliver.
They sway away, and the mood to dance vanishes.
“So, that’s my brother.” I quirk my lips out.
“That he is,” Oliver confirms. “We didn’t need that reminder,” he echoes what I’m thinking, because our few minutes of dancing just had cold water thrown on us. Oliver steps back, and my arms fall from his shoulders in the process. “I think I’m going to grab a drink.”
“Oh… right.”
He can’t get away from me fast enough.
Luckily, Esme arrives with a shot of alcohol for me. “It’s lemon-flavored, they say.”
I knock the shot back into my throat. “I don’t care.” It’s time to let loose.
“You know he couldn’t stop looking at you. During the ceremony, dinner, basically the whole day. I bet if I search over your shoulder, he will be pretending not to be staring at you.”
“Who cares. Will you go to the bar for me? Get me another shot or two. This is a celebration.”
The song changes to something upbeat, and we both set the glasses on a table nearby then head to the middle of the busy dance floor. I’m not sure how many dances it was until I ditched my shoes, or when I decided that I would rather sip champagne than down shots. And now I’m being dragged to the dance floorwhere a row of women wait with great enthusiasm while my sister-in-law has her back to us.
“Why am I here? Am I not competition if you want to get the bouquet?” I ask Esme.
She throws me a playful look. “Oh, I’m all good. I don’t need flowers to tell me I’m next to be married. But I need to be out here to block others, because you, my friend, are catching those roses.”
I laugh at her. “What?”
“You’ve always told me how much you love weddings and all of the traditions.”
I study the overenthusiastic women behind me while the room watches. Looks like I’m joining them in the fun.
Vaguely, I hear my sister-in-law counting, but I’m too distracted by the two women to my left reaching up in the air, trying to block one another. It’s only when I look forward that something lands in my hands without much effort.
Glancing down, I see that I caught the bouquet. Or rather, the flowers fell into my hands.
And when I glance up, I see Oliver across the room at the bar with a wry smile and his eyes pinned to me.
10
OLIVER
Sipping my whiskey as I lean against the bar, I watch as Esme and Hailey whiz away from the dance floor, and I’m wondering why my eyes haven’t torn away from the spot where they were just standing.
A nudge of my arm causes me to glance at Keats who is indicating to the barman for the same drink as me.
“I’ve figured it out, you know.” He grins.
“What may that be?” I reply flatly.
He throws me an “oh really” look. “So, when is Liam going to find out?”
Now, that causes my attention to snap to him. “Find out?”
His cheeky smirk tells me enough. “Point proven. Let me guess, you had an eventful road trip.”
I can’t deny it with him, and I could use an ear. “It was. The road trip, however, is over.”
The barman hands him his drink, and we clink glasses. “And?”
