“Oh, what the heck? I wanted to dance, not to get married,” Meg said, following Gabi across the wide-planked wooden floor.
Samantha hung back.
“You’re not going to dance?” Emily asked her. “You used to love dancing. You taught both me and Gabi.”
“That was when I could stand up without falling right back down,” Samantha said.
Emily laughed. “Your head’s already swimming?”
“Uh-huh,” she admitted. “You were right. I am a lightweight. And since I do not want to make a fool of myself in front of Ethan again because I’ve had too much to drink, I’m switching to coffee.”
“Do you think Boone will be furious if he comes in and catches me dancing with another man?” Emily asked, looking enviously at the other couples who were stumbling their way through the two-step by now.
“I think he’d want you to enjoy your bachelorette party,” Samantha told her. “Just skip the slow dances.” She looked across the room. “Looks to me as if there’s someone over there without a partner. Go for it.”
Emily started to cross the room, then turned back, her eyes wide. “It’s Boone,” she said, her voice hushed. “He’s not supposed to be here yet.”
Samantha chuckled. “I guess he couldn’t stay away.”
“Maybe he doesn’t trust me,” Emily whispered.
“That glint I can see in his eyes suggests something else entirely,” Samantha told her. “He’s on his way over here, so put on your prettiest smile and go dance till you drop. He’s always been the only man for you, so why pretend otherwise, even for a night?”
“He is pretty gorgeous, isn’t he?” Emily said, a slow smile spreading across her face. She put a little extra sway in her hips and headed in Boone’s direction. “Hey, sailor, want to give a girl a turn on the dance floor?”
Boone grinned. “I was looking at that beauty sitting over there behind you. Is she available?”
Emily punched him in the arm. “Not even remotely funny. You stay away from my sister.”
Boone looked down at her, his expression filled with adoration. “She doesn’t hold a candle to you,” he assured his bride-to-be.
That was the last Samantha heard as he pulled Emily into his arms. She sighed. She wanted that. She really did.
“Care to dance?”
Startled, she glanced up to find Ethan standing beside her. “You’re here!”
He smiled. “So it seems. I’m not so sure what sort of moves I have left, but I’m willing to try if you are.”
“Sure,” she said, eager to feel his arms around her.
She stumbled on the way to an empty space on the floor. Ethan’s eyebrow went up. “Tipsy already?”
She sighed. “Afraid so.”
He laughed. “This should be fun, then.”
But when he drew her into his embrace, she could feel all that solid muscle and taut control and knew with absolute certainty that she was in safe hands.
“Ethan, are you mad at me for talking to Cass?” she found herself asking.
“Not now,” he said, his breath feathering across her cheek. “Let’s just live in the moment.”
“But you aren’t happy with me, are you?” she persisted.
He looked down into her eyes. “I’m still worried, that’s all. And we’re not going to resolve this tonight, so let’s leave it for another time. Why don’t you just enjoy tormenting me?”
“Tormenting you?” she asked, intrigued.
“Sure. Don’t you know that holding you this close and knowing that this is where it’s going to end is pure torture for me?”
“A lesser man might conclude it didn’t have to end here,” she whispered.
She felt his smile against her cheek.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not a lesser man,” he said.
“You could reconsider,” she suggested. “Go a little wild.”
He laughed. “Believe me, darlin’, that idea holds a lot of appeal.”
“But you’re not going to give in to temptation, are you?”
“Afraid not.”
She sighed and rested her head against his chest, listened to the steady beat of his heart, wondered what it would take to scramble his pulse so badly he’d have to give in.
One of these days, she decided, she was going to do everything in her power to find out.
15
“Do you think Ethan will hire a stripper for Boone’s bachelor party?” Emily asked plaintively over breakfast on the morning after her bachelorette party. “I don’t think I’d like that, especially after the guys crashed my party and kept me from having my last fling as a single woman.”
“There was never going to be any fling,” Gabi said sternly. “You’re all talk, little sister. You’d never do that to Boone.”
Emily smiled, her expression dreamy. “You’re probably right. Why would I want to cheat on perfection?”
“Oh, gag me,” Gabi said.
“I think it’s sweet that she’s all caught up in the romance,” Samantha said. “That’s the way it should be. Watching you and Wade being all sensible and practical, well, it’s a little scary. What happened to being crazy in love?”
“We are crazy in love,” Gabi insisted. “We’re just mature.”
“Uh-oh,” Samantha said, catching the glint of annoyance in Emily’s eyes. “She doesn’t mean you’re immature, Em. Just that all couples are different, right, Gabi?”
“Absolutely right,” Gabi said hurriedly.
“Whatever,” Emily said, taking another sip of her coffee. “Let’s get back to the bachelor party. What if Ethan does invite a stripper?”
Samantha chuckled at her sister’s genuinely worried expression. “That doesn’t strike me as Ethan’s style,” she reassured her sister, then thought about it. “But I don’t think I’d be all that thrilled about it, either, now that you mention it. I wouldn’t want my man ogling a naked woman right before our wedding.”
“Exactly,” Emily said.
Gabi listened to them and shook her head. “You could order a cake and jump out of it just to see what’s going on,” she suggested mildly.
Emily’s expression immediately brightened, taking her ludicrous comment seriously. “Great idea! Samantha, you do it. I don’t want Boone to think I don’t trust him.”
Samantha frowned at the pair of them, Gabi for coming up with such
