Page 5
Chapter 2
“No Tyler?”
A simple question on the surface, but there was no mistaking his tone. He hated her boyfriend and absolutely didn’t mind if she knew it.
It wasn’t fair, really. To everyone else, Lawrence was the perfect gentleman. Well, maybe not to Kenton. Lawrence had a seven-hundred-year history of despising Alessandra’s fiancé, although one would never know it. They’d put aside their bygones now that Kenton had abandoned his goal of eliminating the Cheld, and anyone who didn’t know their history would think the two shared a deep and abiding bromance.
When their drinks arrived, Toni couldn’t help but notice the way the bartender let her hand linger on Lawrence’s as she passed over his beer. She looked like a college student. Certainly too young for Lawrence, but that didn’t stop her from looking at him with the same hunger Toni had noticed in every other single, and not-so-single, woman here.
The same way you did the first time you saw him. And every day since. The same way you’ve snuck glances at him all night.
Oh, if only the voice in her head didn’t know her so well.
Why was he here anyway?
Softening her tone slightly, she asked, “Who do you know here?”
He took a long swig from his beer.
“The mayor.”
Of course. Just like Kenton, Lawrence knew only extremes. Upon arriving in Stone Haven, they’d purchased the only two mansions in town. Power was a given with them. They had relationships with the top officials. Money on top of money. Sex appeal, and . . .
You shouldn’t have let yourself think of that word.
“This doesn’t seem like your kind of thing,” she said.
He raised his brows. “Oh?”
“Weddings. They’re so very—”
“Romantic?”
She’d meant to say human.
“You think they’re romantic?” she asked, despite herself.
Lawrence held up his beer to indicate the dance floor packed with people swinging their arms in the air to a rap song lauding lower back tattoos.
“Perhaps not this particular song,” he acknowledged with a quirk of his lips.
Taking a sip of wine, her third thanks to Lawrence’s presence, Toni tried not to smile. She was fully aware of his easygoing manner and deadly sense of humor. She’d spent half the summer struggling not to laugh at his jokes when Tyler was around.
“And you?” he asked.
Toni nodded toward her aunt and uncle. “The bride’s mother is a good friend of Birdie’s. One of Ye Old Curiosities’ very first customers. A fortune teller, or so she says.”
He looked as if he would say more, but he simply nodded.
If he had an opinion about her working there instead of doing something worthwhile with her life, he kept it to himself.
Toni’s gaze drifted to the dance floor. The sight of the guests swaying happily to the music made her sigh aloud. If only one of her girlfriends were here. Tyler would have been useless in this situation.
He didn’t dance.
“You’re looking at the dance floor as if it’s a long-lost lover.”
The words wrapped around her like a seductive promise. An image flashed through her head, one of the time she’d attempted to go running with him and Alessandra. She’d been so distracted by the flex of his back muscles, Toni nearly forgot how much she despised the sport.
