Chapter Eight
“Where’s the bride?”Yawning, Amy pulled out the chair beside her friend Linda.
“She should be down any minute.I left her cooing on the phone with Bryce.”
By the time Amy had gotten home last night, her friends had already gone to sleep and left her a message to meet at the terrace for breakfast at seven.Still being on California time, the early hour should have been easy.Too bad she’d spent the better part of the night tossing and turning.What she’d hoped for, once she and Ray had returned to the hotel, was a chance at an uninterrupted good-night kiss.Instead she’d run smack into an overprotective brother, practically standing guard in the hall, until she and Ray were safely behind separate closed doors.Curled up in bed, she’d relived that one little kiss over and over in her mind until sleep finally won out somewhere near the crack of dawn.
Amy’s phone buzzed with a text.Emily’s number.Meet us for breakfast?
Already on terrace, she texted back.
Great.On our way.
For a split second she considered adding she was having breakfast with her friends, and Doug would be outnumbered, but she figured, if the guy could survive the Persian Gulf, he could survive a table of women.
“Amy,” a familiar voice called out.Lisa scurried in her direction.“Is this the other bride?”
“Other?”Linda asked.
“Nope.The maid of honor, Linda.”Amy waved between the two ladies.“This is Lisa, the other maid of honor.”
“Hey.”Tish came up behind Lisa.A round ofnice to meet yous were exchanged, and Tish extended her hand to Linda.“You must be the other bride.”
Linda shot Amy awhat the heck is everyone talking aboutlook just as Courtney stepped out of the elevator with Carrie at her side.
“That”—Amy pointed to Carrie—“is the other bride.”Amy turned her attention back to Linda.“On the tour yesterday we made friends with another group.Courtney, the redhead has the same idea for the perfect destination wedding as Carrie.Here.”
Another elevator opened and out came Doug, Emily, and Matt.
“Here?”Linda repeated.
“On Saturday too,” Lisa added.
“What’s on Saturday too?”Carrie was the first of the brides to reach the table.
“Your wedding.”Brows furrowed, Linda looked as though she’d sucked on a lemon.Shifting her gaze to the left, she waved an extended finger at Courtney.“And hers.”
“Oh.”Courtney’s face lit up.“You must be the other bride?”
Linda rolled her eyes.Emily, Doug, and Matt walked up to the table, and another round of introductions and explanations ensued as nearby tables and chairs were pulled over to accommodate the larger group.
Another couple with a baby arrived, and Amy glanced toward the elevators.Still no Ray.During the earlier chair-shuffling on the terrace, the women had wound up at one end of the table and the men at the other.The elevators had come and gone so many times since the entire group had arrived that Amy had finally stopped looking in that direction every time the ding sounded and got caught up in the telling of how Carrie wound up canceling her big, stressful wedding.
“I love my mom, really I do,” Carrie repeated.“But I swear, if I heard her complain one more time about inviting Uncle Herbie’s new wife under protest or how it would be easier to do a seating chart for the Hatfields and McCoys than for our family, I would have strangled her with my bare hands.”
“My mother is a bit… different,” Courtney said, glancing at her friend Lisa.
Amy figured there was a story there but Carrie was on a roll.
“Good morning.”
The raspy male voice coming from behind Amy startled her stiff.Pressing her hand to her chest, she willed her heart to slow.At first from the surprise and now from the sight of Ray smiling down at her.
“Sorry.Didn’t mean to scare you.”Ray dragged a chair beside her, forcing Lisa to shift down the table to make room.
It shouldn’t have made her smile so wide, but having him sit by her instead of in the empty seat at the other end of the table with all the guys sent her heart racing again.She hadn’t let herself think he was avoiding her this morning.But deep down she had worried that maybe the vacation romance had run its course.
He leaned over and whispered in a low, soothing tone, “Sorry I was late.I finally gave up on a good night’s sleep, so I hit the beach for a jog.”
