Icing on the Cake (Close to Home) (6 page)

“What had Zeus howling?” Mom looked from their faces to the canine in question, sitting quietly at her side. “I’ve never heard him make a noise inside the house. You must have really thrown him off, whatever you and Conn were doing.”

Nia’s cheeks made the jump from pink to blazing-red. As for her lips, they’d parted, but nothing came out.

Rescue time. “They were trying to make the bed with new sheets that were the wrong size. Tugging them back and forth in what could’ve been an
I Love Lucy
skit.”

Meredith laughed. “Poor Zeus. He must’ve been so confused.” She patted him on the head and slipped him a piece of cantaloupe from the fruit platter.

“Yeah, I bet he was.” She settled in near the blushing bride-to-be, leaned across the corner of the dining table and whispered, “Kind of ironic that I saved your ass by covering up the story about your ass.”

“Oh my god. I’m never telling you anything ever again.”

Not for the first time—or even the tenth—today, Curtis popped into her head.
You sure do throw the ‘never’ and ‘ever’ around a lot.

She hadn’t noticed it until his comment, but she did use those words frequently. So did Nia. Another trait they shared. One of the few, all of them special.

“Hey,” she said, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. “Sorry about yesterday.” She wanted to promise it wouldn’t happen again, but that would end up being a lie. Good intentions never went the distance. She always fucked things up.

Nia’s delicate hand found hers and squeezed. “It’s okay, I get it.”

Of course she did, she’d been there, at Sara’s side, through everything. Sara cleared her throat and nodded. “Good. Great. Now pass the bacon. If I’m going to spend an entire day decked out in pink, I need porkification first.”

“Here you go, pig out.”

“Correction, pig
in
.” She popped a strip of crispy bacon into her mouth and flipped half a dozen more pieces onto her plate.

Their parents joined them at the table. Despite the hum of excitement surrounding the day, a hint of sadness lingered in her dad’s eyes. She’d put it there, calling him Peter when he’d been the best father a man could be to a child, blood-relation or otherwise. She’d talk to him about it later. A real talk, with feelings and stuff.

But not now. She’d be damned if she ruined another important moment or dragged anybody down today.

“Bacon, Dad?” she asked, offering the platter.

The three-letter word did the trick. His eyes lightened and the mood in the room jumped even higher. This was Nia’s big day, the beginning of her new life. In a way, it felt like a fresh start for Sara too. Another one. Maybe this time she wouldn’t screw it up.

Lawlers didn’t get nervous. They set their minds to a thing and took control, in professional and personal matters. Curtis had been ringside as Conn employed this method in his quest to woo Nia. Given his resourcefulness, patience and determination, Conn’s pretty little neighbor hadn’t stood a chance.

The guy who’d won the blonde was MIA at the moment, however. Conn had barely eaten breakfast, he’d torn the hotel room apart looking for his “lost” tie, and he’d checked his phone more times than he’d blinked. Now he was doing his best to wear a groove in the floor of the pastor’s office. No two ways about it, Conn was nervous.

“How much longer?”

Curtis pushed the cuff of his white dress shirt out of the way. “Not long now. Thirty minutes or so.” Since this was the third time he’d had to answer the same question, his idea of helping Conn relax by getting him to the church early could be classified as a fail.

“Shit. The waiting is killing me.”

Curtis too, though for less romantic reasons. He wore a flak vest for hours at a time and thought nothing of it, yet fifty minutes in a tux had him ready to crawl out of his skin. And the day had only begun. He wouldn’t get to ditch the rental monkey suit for another six hours, minimum. Just thinking about it had him itching to undo the top button of his shirt.

“I wish this window faced the front of the church instead of the parking lot. Then I’d know if she was here yet. We should have made it a one o’clock ceremony instead of two.”

A few of Curtis’ buddies had gotten married in recent years, but he’d never seen a guy more eager to don the ball and chain. “Here, you need this more than I do.” He pulled an airplane-sized bottle of vodka from his pocket and tossed it toward his brother. “You take care of that and I’ll go check on things.”

His move couldn’t have been better timed, because when he opened the office door, his sister was on the other side, hand poised for knocking.

“Hey. You look beautiful.” And she did. Lindsay was the natural-beauty type. A no-makeup and high ponytail kind of woman. Today her brown hair was swept up in some fancy kind of twist with a few loose, curled strands framing her face, and a light dusting of eye shadow and blush gave her skin an elegant shimmer. “You’re going to have all the single guys in one hell of a state at the reception. If you need some brotherly muscle to beat them back, just holler.”

Instead of shaking her head at his offer, or thanking him for the compliment, Lindsay grabbed his hand and urged him away from the door. Something was up, and by up, he meant up to no good. He hoped to hell it wasn’t— “Sara left.”

Fuck. “Elaborate.”

“On the way to the church, Nia asked where Sara had put Conn’s wedding band because she wanted to look at it. Sara was driving and I was sitting behind her in the SUV, so I couldn’t see her expression, but I did see Nia’s face when Sara told her she hadn’t brought the ring. Holy crap, Curtis. She held it together, but barely.”

And fuck again. But at least Sara had a valid reason for leaving. “So she went back for the ring. Shouldn’t be a problem, the ceremony doesn’t start for another half hour.”

Lindsay squinted at him. “How can you be so calm after that disappearing act she pulled at the party last night? Apparently she didn’t come home until everybody was asleep at the Chambers’ house. She let Nia go to bed wondering if she’d be coming back at all. What if this is just another obnoxious grab for attention? A lame ‘look at Sara as she rushes in to save the day’ stunt? Because I offered to go back for the ring, Curtis, so that Sara, the maid of honor, could stay here with her sister and supposed best friend. She
insisted
on going herself.”

Okay, when Lindsay laid it out that way, the warning lights flashed in his head too. He checked his watch again. Twenty-seven minutes ’til show time. Bloody fucking hell. “I’ll go out there.” He nodded to the pastor’s office door. “Tell Conn I ran out to get you something for your killer headache, and that I’ll be right back. Don’t tell him any of the other shit.”

“What am I, new?” She gave him a shove in the direction of the church’s back door. “Go. Get the ring. And hurry back.”

“Jesus. I feel like fucking Frodo.”

“Just
go
.” Pure urgency, without a hint of Lindsay’s classic, easy humor. No mention of bringing the maid of honor back either.

But that didn’t shock him. Lindsay and Nia had become good friends, and with Lindsay’s protective streak fully engaged, Sara had essentially provoked a miniature mama bear.

“I’m gone.” With a salute, he strode down the hall. He managed to slip out the side door and get free of the jam-packed parking lot without anybody stopping him. Small mercy number one. Number two came in the form of empty roads between the church and the Chambers property, reducing the ten-minute drive to a slim seven.

Still gave him plenty of time to conjure up various scenarios he might find once he reached the house. The worst being an absentee Sara. The ceremony could go forward without a wedding band for the groom. Curtis doubted Nia would be happy about going forward without her sister.

He turned down the laneway and breathed a sigh of relief. Meredith’s SUV and Sara’s classic Trans Am, both present near the garage. Whatever her game might be, Sara hadn’t left town. A fact that pleased him on levels other than relief about the impending wedding.

A stunning beauty with a hot body and more attitude than the last six women he’d dated combined—hell yeah, he wanted some of that. Once he’d prevented her from blowing their siblings’ wedding to shit, he planned to finish what they’d started in the front seat of her car last night. If she made him work for it—so much the better.

But before they got to the fun part, they had a wedding to attend. And time was not on their side.

He cut the engine and stepped out of his car. Four strides took him to the door, which he opened without knocking. He got through the mudroom and down the short hall that led to the open-concept main area of Peter and Meredith’s home without encountering any resistance, human or canine. It was way too quiet in here.

Sara stood at the picture window. Staring out. Immobile.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He spat the words before his cooler head had a chance to kick in. The wedding was in less than twenty minutes and she was doing what, exactly, aside from ruining the most important moment in their siblings’ lives?

She spun to face him. Her sagging shoulders straightened and her fuck-the-world mask slid into place. But not before he saw the raw emotion it hid.

“I’m ruining everything. But that’s what you expected, isn’t it?” The anger she infused in her statements didn’t make up for the glassy eyes and quivering lips he’d seen seconds earlier.

Something was wrong. Really wrong.

“You’re not ruining anything, because I’m not going to let you.”

“Fuck you.”

Shit, he’d definitely worded that wrong. He stepped toward her with hands raised. “I’m here to help. That’s all. Grab Conn’s wedding band and let’s go. A couple more hours and this wedding will be over with. We just have to smile and get through it, then we can go back to reality.”

“Reality sucks as much as this fairytale crap.”

Too bad time didn’t allow him to see where that breadcrumb trail might lead. Later. “Sometimes, yeah. So we’ll blow off reality too. Get drunk and forget the rest of the world for a while.” He offered his hand and nodded toward the door. “Come on. Don’t make me do this wedding shit alone.”

She took his hand. And her mask crumbled. “Zeus is gone. I screwed up the party last night but Nia forgave me. How did I repay her? By forgetting Conn’s ring this morning. I didn’t know it was my responsibility to take it to the church. I should have known, yes, but once again, I fucked up. It’s what I do.”

“Sara—”

“No. You should have seen her face. So I rushed back here to get the ring, and Zeus was whining at the door. I let him out for a pee or whatever. He’s a good dog, I figured he’d be quick, but he didn’t come back. He’s gone and what am I supposed to do now? How do I go stand at their wedding, then tell them afterward that I lost their dog?”

Oh man. He checked his watch. Minutes, that’s all they had before they needed to leave. Fuck. “We’ll handle this, Sara. Nothing is getting ruined today, trust me.”

“Okay.”

That one, softly spoken word spurred him to action. “You have the ring?”

“Yes, right here.” She raised her left hand to display the gold band on her thumb.

He nodded. “Good. We’re on the road in three minutes. Period. Let’s go find Zeus.”

*

As much as Sara wanted to fight it, she needed help. Curtis’ help. Desperately.

She followed him out of the house, matching the quick pace his long legs set despite her four-inch stilettos sinking into the spongy grass like two pink, single-pronged lawn aerators.

Halfway across the large clearing that had been her childhood yard, he let out one of those loud, sharp, do-I-have-your-attention whistles it seemed only men could make. Zeus didn’t come bounding toward them, but he did bark in response.

“He’s in the woods.”

Curtis glanced at her as they reached the tree line. “Yeah. And you’re right, he’s a good dog. If he could’ve come when I whistled, he would have.”

“Oh shit. What if—”

He cut her off with a piercing stare and a single shake of his head. “I don’t deal in what-ifs.” Off came his jacket. The white shirt and charcoal-gray tie. His pants.

“Um…” What else could she say with Curtis’ almost-naked, insanely hot body a mere two feet away? At least the
um
hadn’t come out as
yum
, which would have been more accurate.

“Hold these,” he said, dumping the lot in her arms. Then his boxer-brief-covered ass disappeared into the thick, shaded covering of the trees.

She couldn’t see him, but she could hear him. Cursing, grunting, moving through brush.

“Got him,” he called. “Go open the door to the garage. And get a towel.”

For once in her life she didn’t argue. Just hightailed it to the house. She punched the code into the keypad and watched the door rise at a painfully slow speed. Especially with Curtis jogging toward her carrying a mud-covered beast-dog in his arms. Holy shit.

She darted for the back door. By the time she’d returned with a couple of her mom’s older towels, Curtis had lowered the garage door, leaving a six-inch gap for fresh air.

“Is he okay?” she asked while Curtis rubbed himself clean.

“No blood, no whimpering or signs of pain.” He tossed a second filthy towel toward the garage door. “I’ll clean him up and check him over later, but my guess is he ran through some of the really boggy ground out there, pitched forward and got stuck, nothing worse.”

“Oh, thank god.”

“I would’ve settled for sir, but whatever works for you, babe.”

“You’re unbelievable.”

He smiled for the first time since arriving on the scene. A devilish grin befitting a tall, heavily inked, mostly naked hottie who knew he’d saved her bacon in an epic way.

She had no choice but to smile back. And stare at every inch of him. Including the inches covered by his tight black boxers. Because hello, the very three-dimensional bulge told her there were
many
excellent inches hiding there.

He grabbed his pants and began covering all his lean muscles and sexy ink. “Don’t look so disappointed. I’m sure you can think up another excuse to get my clothes off later.”