Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“I drove. You could…come home with me.”
There was no hesitancy in her expression. She’d felt exactly what I had.
“Okay.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded. Then, she blinked, as if returning to the world. “Oh, wait. No. No, I can’t go.”
My heart lurched at the quick rejection. “Oh.”
“No, I want to,” she said immediately. “I just…I agreed to be the designated driver for my brothers. So, I have to drive them home.”
“Ah, I see. That is responsible of you.”
“Yeah.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Sort of regretting it now.”
I laughed. “It’s all right.”
“Maybe we could meet up tomorrow,” she offered hopefully.
“I was going to go kayaking with Bowie tomorrow. You could come.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding along. “I would love to do that. Here, give me your number, and we can make plans.”
She offered me her phone, and I added my details. I passed the phone back to her, and she tugged me in close, snapping a picture of us in the moonlight. It was blurry, but she was looking up at me with adoration in her eyes.
“There, now, you have my number.”
I pulled my phone out and saw the picture and laughed. “Good. And our picture.”
“A memory of our night.”
“I don’t want the night to be over,” I said, tugging her in for another kiss.
She sighed into me. “Me either. But kayaking tomorrow for sure.”
I cursed the Wrights for stealing the rest of my night as we headed back up to the wedding. It was easy to blame them for everything at this point. At least we had plans for the next day. Maybe that was for the better. Then, she would see that I didn’t just want sex from her. I didn’t just want sex. Because the way we’d collided in the vineyard made it perfectly clear that I wanted to ravage her all night long.
I let her go in without me since I was still indecent. I needed to calm down before I could reenter the party. That was when I realized…I didn’t need to go back.
I’d shown up for my oldest friend.
I’d found something inexplicably better.
The door was closed. I was ready to put it firmly behind me. I’d said my congratulations to Annie already anyway. There was nothing left to say. Time to move on.
So, I walked around the outside of the barn and toward the parking lot. The wedding planner was ushering people around to get them in place for the grand exit. People would probably still party for another hour, but Annie and Jordan were leaving. Another thing I didn’t need to say farewell to.
I caught Harley standing with one of her twin brothers, the one in Converse and not a suit—I couldn’t otherwise tell them apart. Our eyes locked again, and she shot me a bold smile. I smiled back. Her brother put his hand on her shoulder to stop her, which was my cue to get out of here.
Once I got to my Porsche a few minutes later, I leaned back against the hood. I could see sparklers lighting up the barn. The grand exit had begun. Yet I wasn’t thinking about Annie at all. I was wondering if the vivid blonde was having a good time. If she was wishing she were here with me right now, the way I wanted her to be. Was I an idiot for wanting to text her right now and ask to hang out after she dropped off her brothers?
I glanced down at my phone, ignoring Ashleigh’s barrage of texts, and pulled up the photo of Harley and me from the vineyard.
Fuck it.
No second-guessing.
I had another thought…let’s meet after?
After a few minutes with it on Delivered, but not Read, I sighed and stuffed my phone back into my pocket. She probably wasn’t even leaving yet.
I palmed the key to my car, deciding to call it a night, when a figure appeared out of the darkness.
Her eyes lit up. “This is your car?”
I glanced down at the outrageous sports car I’d purchased when I opened my own law firm here in town. “Yes.”
She laughed. “Of course it is.” She gestured to the Kia next to it. “This is mine.”
“Where are your brothers?”
Her grin widened as she stepped between my legs. My hands dropped to her hips.
“They are going home with their dates,” she told me. “I’m off the hook.”
“So, you’re free?”
“I’m all yours.”
5
Harley
I couldn’t believe I was doing this.
I’d had every opportunity to walk away, but I hadn’t taken them. Hadn’t wanted to take them. I wanted to go home with Chase. I’d regret it forever if I didn’t see where this was going.
Not that my brothers would see it that way. Well, they didn’t know what had happened out in the vineyards. I certainly wasn’t going to tell them.
Thankfully, Whitt had left with Eve while I was out. He was more overbearing about that sort of thing. But West had noticed that we’d both disappeared. He’d grabbed me before I left and told me not to even think about it. I’d laughed and told him I was going home. He was going home with Nora. Why should he care?