It should make me nervous. Maybe it does, a little. Mostly, though, I’m amused. Barrett has all the subtlety of a falling tree, and somehow it only makes him more attractive.
“Rosalyn, did the resort confirm the breakfast room for tomorrow?” Mindy asks, touching my elbow.
“Yes. Ocean Room, nine o’clock.” I turn toward her and adjust the plumeria blossom in her hair. “Your aunt tried to move it to the lanai, but I told her the Ocean Room photographs better.”
Mindy exhales. “I love you.”
“I know. That’s why I get a blue dress and a bouquet tomorrow.”
“You also get my eternal devotion.”
“I’ll take that too.”
She laughs, and I feel Barrett’s attention even before I look back. He’s still there, gaze steady, mouth unsmiling. The man barely moves, but somehow he keeps making the air feel charged from fifty feet away. I have the ridiculous thought that if I waved him over, he would come immediately, cutting through every wedding guest in his path without caring who he startled.
I don’t wave him over. I’m the maid of honor, and this welcome party has at least six small fires that still need smothering. I check with the bartender about mocktails for Mindy’s pregnant cousin, help her grandmother find her shawl, and steer two groomsmen toward food before the cocktails get ahead of them. Through all of it, I remain aware of Barrett.
But when I finally look for him again, he’s no longer by the column.
For a moment, disappointment pulls at me. Then I spot him near the path that leads down toward the beach, half turned away from the crowd, his shoulders tense. An older woman is talking at him with animated hands, and Barrett is nodding at all the correct moments, but his gaze lifts over her head and finds me again.
I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling too much.
There’s no reason for me to be this charmed by his discomfort. It isn’t that I want him uneasy. I don’t. But I like that Barrett isn’t performing ease he doesn’t feel, and he isn’t trying to become someone softer just because everyone around him is cheerful. He’s exactly what he is, big and serious and silent in the middle of a beach resort, and I’mhopelessly intrigued.
I smooth a hand down the front of my dress and start toward him.Barrett, of course, sees me coming. The woman speaking to him notices his attention has moved and turns around with a polite smile.
“Sorry to steal him,” I say. “Best man business.It’s extremely serious.”
The woman laughs and pats his arm before she leaves. Barrett lets out a long breath.
“Thanks for rescuing me,” he says.
“Was it really that horrible?”
“She asked me whether my cabin has indoor plumbing.”
I press my lips together, but my smile escapes anyway. “Does it?”
His eyes narrow slightly, and my stomach dips in the nicest way. “Yes, Rosalyn.”
“Electricity?”
“Yes.”
“Windows?”
“Some.”
I laugh. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tease.Seriously, though. Are you okay?”
His response is a low, wordless grunt.
I try not to laugh again, but it comes out anyway.
“Come with me,” I say, before I can talk myself out of it.
I take him through the side of the terrace and down a lantern-lit path bordered by palms and flowers. The music softens behind us with each step, replaced by the rush of water and the steady sound of the waves. Soon the path opens to a stretch of lawn overlooking the beach. Rows of white chairs are already set up for tomorrow’s ceremony, all facing an arch covered in greenery and cream flowers. The aisle runner is rolled at the side, and the whole space is empty except for the two of us.
