What the hell did the single guy know about communication?
“Hey.” Velma approached the table.
His pulse did a nosedive before picking up again. He’d gotten used to her presence doing that to him.
“Hey.” He held his arm out so she could slide beside him. “You wanna dance?”
She grabbed his hand to pull him out of the booth. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Hands on her hips, he pulled her close and nuzzled Velma’s neck. “Thought we might call a truce.”
“I like that idea.” Her arms around his neck, she met his gaze. “Claire said we have to be out of here by midnight. She wants everyone to get sleep.”
“Then we’ve got approximately thirty more minutes to figure out a way to get kicked out of this bar.” He twirled her in a circle.
“What do you have in mind, Mr. Montgomery?”
He pulled her palm to his mouth and pressed his lips against it, then kissed each of her fingertips. “I’m going to start a bar fight.”
“Claire will literally kill you if you show up tomorrow with a black eye and ruin her pictures.”
He grinned. “Then I guess I’ll just make out with my girlfriend.”
And he did.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Claire & Dean’s Wedding Day
Velma dropped her laptop onto the cart holding the video projector. She’d been running around all day getting things ready for the wedding. All that was left was to set up the slide show for the reception and then watch her sister get married.
Claire would actually be Dean’s wife by the end of the day. The wedding video Velma compiled had come out fantastic—if she did say so herself. She tapped a finger against the top of her computer. Now she had to figure out how to set the darn thing up.
The ballroom was perfect. The “Purple Rain” theme had been a challenge. But Brek and Jase had hung lights strategically from the ceiling of the country club, so it appeared to be drizzling. They added various water fountains staged meticulously around the dance floor, and the tulips hung from the ceiling in the entryway. The place would’ve made Aspen proud. The editor fromRosettewas already losing his mind over the photos they were getting.
Velma and Brek continued with their cautious truce. He hadn’t been around much since their argument, between preparing for the wedding and spending time with his sister and his nephew. Brek had clearly fallen in love with being an uncle.
Could Velma ever really make a relationship work with him? She opened her laptop and stared at the screen. He would always be Brek, and no matter how much she changed, she’d always be Velma.
She slid the curser over the video program but skipped it to click on her spreadsheet file instead. With a few keystrokes, she added Brek’s name and filled in the accompanying cells. The algorithm she had worked so hard on gave him a…four.
Her heart cramped.
“Except…” She brought her face closer to the screen and jolted.
Finger on the mouse, she clicked through the columns. “Oh my gosh.”
He had been so odd the day he’d told her he loved her, asking her random questions and making crazy declarations about haircuts and disability insurance. He’d asked all those silly questions because he’d been checking off columns of her spreadsheet. She pinched her eyes closed, hope rising in her belly. This is what he had meant? He had been worried he wouldn’t be enough. Thatheneeded to change.
Her breaths came quickly.
He loved her.
And, holy goodness…she loved him. She. Loved. Him.
Her heart stumbled over itself. They would be okay. They loved each other.
The spreadsheet could never account for how Brek made her feel. Like she mattered. Like he genuinely cared about her. Trying to ward off a heart attack with this new discovery, she dug her knuckles against the pressure forming in her chest. He wanted to be the man she needed. She wanted nothing more than to let him.
