The Wedding Bargain

A surprised Paige fumbled the bouquet but didn’t drop it, and Jess grabbed the unfettered twin before she could make a lunge for the daisies.

The bride whirled around, quickly surveyed the situation and gave her a thumbs-up.

The twins gave her a pair of matching glares.

Paige, clutching the bouquet in both hands, laughed and looked at Andy.

Gotta love it when a plan comes together. “Sorry, girls,” Jess said to the irate teens. Not that she meant it. They couldn’t be a day over seventeen, which meant they were way too young to even think about getting married.

Nic was in stitches. “Nice save, Jess. And nice catch,” she said to Paige.

In every respect, Jess thought as she glanced from Paige’s blush-pink cheeks to Andy’s bewildered smile. Very nice catch.

Jess hiked up her full-skirted dress and stuck a foot into one of her shoes. Her toes complained vigorously. She crammed her other foot into its shoe and was hobbling off the dance floor when she spotted Michael near the bar. His gaze was still on her, and he still looked amused. Was he entertained by life in general, she wondered, or was he laughing at her? He picked up two glasses of wine and walked toward her.

I guess I’m about to find out.

He handed one of the glasses to her.

She accepted, knowing without asking that this time it was merlot.

“My money was on you catching that bouquet.” So he had been laughing at her.

“It wasn’t my turn.” She stopped herself before blurting out that there was no point, since she didn’t have a man in her life. He didn’t need to know that she had made up her mind a long time ago—at fourteen, to be exact—that it would take a very special someone to make up for the bad example set by her mother’s endless string of boyfriends.

“Those shenanigans seemed to take your mind off the dress.”

“What do you mean?”

“Earlier you were concerned that it would reveal too much.”

He was right. For those few moments while it was her job to get the bouquet in Paige’s hands, she had completely forgotten about the dress.

“So you had nothing to worry about.” His gaze traveled over the top of her dress.

Sure. Nothing to worry about.

“I understand you’re not seeing anyone.”

How the hell had he figured that out? “That’s a pretty big leap. Just because I didn’t bring a date to the wedding doesn’t mean I’m not seeing anyone.”

“I’m not big on assumptions. I’d rather have facts, so I asked the mother of the bride if you were involved.”

There was something surprisingly suggestive about his inference. “Involved as in…?”

“You know what I mean.”

Was she supposed to be flattered that he’d gone to the trouble to find that out? “All right, then, it only seems fair that I have a few facts about you.”

“What would you like to know?”

“Are you ‘involved’ with anyone?”

“Not at the moment.” He touched her glass with his.

Interesting. She was tempted to ask if he was on the rebound, but that might sound as if she had more than idle conversation in mind. Instead, she decided on a different line of questioning. “How long have you known Rory’s mother?”

“Several years. We met at one of her art exhibits.”

Also interesting. She was usually quick to figure out what people did for a living, and she had not pegged Michael as an artist, or even an art aficionado. “Are you in the art business?” she asked.

He hesitated before answering, which made her suspect he was hiding something.

“Business, yes,” he said finally. “Not art. As it turns out, your friend Nicola’s husband is also a colleague of mine.”

Jonathan was a lawyer. “Do you work with him?” she asked.

“No, I’m not a lawyer. Just a client.”

“One of their criminal cases?”

His laughter was genuine. “Good one. I try to stay out of trouble, or at least not get caught. Besides, Jonathan is a corporate lawyer.”

Did that make Michael a corporation or just someone who worked for one? She owned her own business, but the only time she’d talked to a lawyer was when she had settled her grandfather’s estate.

“You haven’t tasted the wine.”

Neither had he, she noticed. She obliged and took a sip. “Nice.”

He looked taken aback, as though he’d expected her to say something else.

“Very nice.” To emphasize her point, she took another drink.

He gave the wine in his glass a gentle swirl. “Does the Whiskey Sour have a wine list?”

“Not a list, exactly, but I do stock two kinds of wine.”

“What are they?”

“Red and white.”

His laugh was even sexier than his smile. “Seriously?”

Completely serious. “I really want to reinvent the place as a cocktail lounge, but right now most of my patrons are beer drinkers. A couple of my friends—Nicola and Paige, who is one of the other bridesmaids—drink wine, so I keep a few bottles on hand.”

“Tasting a wine should be like a first kiss. You need to take your time and give it all your attention.”

He tipped his glass slightly to one side. “Did you notice the color of this one?”