“If I’d known having a one-night stand was going to be so hard for you to handle, I wouldn’t have dared you,” I quipped, returning to the last-minute cleaning of the kitchen, making sure nothing was remaining of our game or our sex. Like my bra and tank top that were on the floor by the table. Like his belt and his shoes and socks.
I picked up all the items, shoving his into his hands. Our fingers collided, an energy that was like a battery charging, hot and full of electricity, shot over my skin, and I cursed at myself as I pulled my hands away from him.
“I’m going to go shower,” I said.
“Dani,” he breathed out again.
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” It was childish and stupid, but I didn’t know what else to say. Wasn’t sure how else I could keep my voice calm and sassy before I escaped the room.
I headed upstairs to Tristan’s bedroom and the walk-in shower. The shower big enough to have sex in. That had a seat for just that purpose, even though the realtor would say it was for shaving your legs.
I sat with my head in my hands, letting the water spray over me. I’d been stupid.
It wasn’t the first time, but hopefully, it would be the last. I’d been stupid the night of The Oriental, too, getting into the elevator to look for Russell in the rooftop bar. My ego had denied the fact that he was standing me up. My heart hadn’t wanted to believe it. It had led to a disaster. This was no better. I’d been foolish, and it had resulted in a mess that was going to take a shit ton of digging to get out from under.
♫ ♫ ♫
The house was chaos. People in and out. The wedding planner, directing furniture in and out of the house and backyard like a dictator directing their soldiers. I’d retreated to the kitchen to make a call. At least the kitchen was fairly quiet as the caterers had already done everything they could do for the day and had left. I hit the off button on my phone after reassuring myself that Georgie’s mom was only a few minutes away. Georgie deserved to have her mom at her wedding. Every woman deserved that, if humanly possible. Since I loved Georgie almost more than my sisters, and I’d known how to make it happen, I’d used a little good, old-fashioned D.C. bribery to get Manya a very temporary visa.
Georgie’s mom had forty-eight hours to make her appearance and get back out of the U.S. That was all they were giving her in the country, and if she violated those terms, they’d be hunting her down with a black ops team.
I wanted to flick my cheek at the thought as it brought my mind back to a certain member of the black ops forces. A certain SEAL. He, and his hands, and the way my body had reacted to both were on repeat in my brain. Just like the beautiful sensations of his muscles colliding with mine. The way he’d been rough and gentle all at once. A gentleness I wasn’t sure he even noticed in himself.
I hated it.
I hated him.
But I hated myself more for being the one who’d started it.
I needed to get a job and get as far away from all of this as possible. But for the next two days, I was building a steel vault around myself because I couldn’t avoid seeing him. Eli, Truck, and Nash were Mac’s best man and groomsmen. Ava, Raisa, and I were Georgie’s bridesmaids. We had an entire evening of rehearsals and a wedding to get through where Nash and I would be close to each other.
My brother came into the kitchen, grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, and then leaned against the cabinet next to me. Our shoulders touched. He was dressed down for him. Jeans and a button-down shirt instead of his Navy uniform.
“How you doing?” he asked.
“Fine, why?” I asked, heart thudding, hoping Nash hadn’t done something stupid like apologize to my brother for our night of sin.
His eyes narrowed. “We just haven’t gotten to talk much. I miss you, but now you’re all squinty-eyed and making me wonder exactly what is wrong.”
I kicked him in the shin playfully, trying my best to put on my game face. “What could honestly be wrong with me? I’ve been lying around watching streaming TV for weeks. It’s the least interesting thing I’ve done in twelve years.”
Mac knew all my tells, and I was doing my best to not rub my finger along the counter. It was a tell I hadn’t even realized I had until Nash had raised his eyebrows at it. Damn, that man would not get out of my head.
“Walking away from something isn’t always what we think it’s going to be,” he said, eyes concerned. His own pain at walking away from the Navy and not being there to stop the op which had ended with the death of a friend was at the forefront of his brain these days. A year was not enough to heal those wounds. I wasn’t sure a lifetime was, but Georgie was helping him do his best to get through it.
“I have no regrets about leaving The Hill,” I told him truthfully. I didn’t. It had been time. “I just need to find something to do before my brain turns into a TV mushroom.”
“There you are,” the wedding planner said as she hustled into the room. “We’ve been waiting for both of you in the backyard.”
I wasn’t sure if a wedding planner should look as frazzled as this one did. Shouldn’t they be the calm in the storm? But I was grateful for her interruption so Mac wouldn’t continue to stare and get me to cough up one of my secrets.
“Let’s go before Georgie
