Smoke Signals (11 page)

STUBBORN, STUBBORN MAN.
Why couldn’t Razor accept that there was only bad, nothing good, I could bring into his life? Even after I’d told him about the Tambovs, he was still determined that he could somehow save me. I was trying to save
him
from getting involved in a world he would do much better to steer clear of. If anyone should know that, it was me.

But he would have none of it.

And, despite myself, I appreciated his determination, even if it was misplaced.

Razor might not think he was a good man, but he was wrong about that. Maybe now that he and I were married, and he was insisting that we remain so, I could help him to see the truth about himself.

If I stayed.

I still wasn’t convinced I should. Yes, it would be better for me…but not for him.

After I finished crying my eyes out on his shoulder and cleaned up to hide the evidence of my misery, he convinced me we should return to the wedding, promising it would be all right for me to be there. After all the time we’d been gone, technically we returned to the reception. His friends had already finished saying their vows, and the whole crowd had moved inside to a big ballroom filled with so much glitz and glam—and I didn’t mean just the guests—it was blinding.

By the time we came through the door, everyone was seated for lunch, with the bride and groom at a big table up front. Razor waved at his friends before taking me to a table off to the side. The pregnant woman I’d been next to before running out of the wedding smiled reassuringly at me when I took the seat next to her.

“Tori, this is one of my teammates, Hunter Fielding, and his wife, Tallie,” Razor said softly by my ear. Then he looked at the man. “I thought maybe it’d be okay to leave Tori with you two while I go deal with
best man
stuff. All right?”

“Sure,” Hunter said warily.

His wife had no such qualms. She took my hand and squeezed, either oblivious or choosing to ignore my uneasiness at her touch. I had to fight the urge to snap my hand back to my own lap.

“I’m glad you came back,” she said quietly, her Southern accent thick and oddly comforting. “Any friend of Razor’s is a friend of ours, whether
those
bitches”—she nodded toward a group of blondes seated a few tables away, who were giving me the evil eye—“treat you right or not.”

“Tori’s not my friend, exactly,” Razor said before I could stop him. “She’s my wife.”

Hunter nearly spit out a sip of water at the revelation, which was a better reaction than I’d hoped for. But Tallie didn’t seem fazed by the news. She squeezed my hand again before patting the back of it.

“We’ll take good care of her. You go do what you need to do.” She gave him a meaningful glance. When he didn’t immediately leave, she waved her hand at him. “Go on. Shoo. We’ve got this. Those girls ain’t gonna get near her as long as I have anything to say about it. And trust me, they don’t want to get walloped with a dose of Southern sass on a good day, but they
really
don’t want to mess with me while my hormones are going wild.”

“That’s true,” her husband murmured once he’d stopped choking on his water.

Tallie gave an emphatic nod.

I couldn’t decide if staying with them was the best idea, even if she was bound and determined to defend me.

But Razor nudged my chin until I tilted my face upward and met his gaze. “I’ll be back with you as soon as possible. I just have to go do this. You’ll be fine with Hunter and Tallie.”

He was sure, but I wasn’t. Still, I nodded. I’d kept him from his duties long enough already. He kissed the tip of my nose, which sent a line of shivers racing through my body, and then he walked away. I was torn between following him so I could hide myself at his side and attempting to slip out the side door again. The only thing I absolutely did not want to do—stay put—was exactly what I
had
to do, though.

I was still watching Razor make his way up to the bride and groom’s table when Tallie insisted on getting my attention.

“So you two are married?” She didn’t sound shocked or intrusive. Just curious. Like it was the most natural thing in the world for the two of us to be sitting where we were—her in a sparkling teal dress that flattered her pregnant belly, me in a garish hot pink dress that didn’t belong anywhere but on some dark street corner—making small talk. “When did y’all do that? Hunter and I, we haven’t seen Razor since the end of the season, really, but we sure didn’t know he’d gotten hitched.” She passed a quizzical glance in her husband’s direction. “Did you know? You would have told me, wouldn’t you?”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Didn’t know a thing.”

A waiter came around and set plated dishes in front of us, never batting an eye at my appearance. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious but looked too pretty to eat.

“Mmm,” Tallie murmured, taking a deep whiff. “Chicken cordon bleu.”

“Looks a lot better than yours,” he said and then ducked to avoid getting hit by the napkin she flung at him.

She turned to me. “Did you hear that? See if I cook for him again, the ingrate.”

“Is that all it’ll take?” He winked at me. “I’ve been trying to get her to stop cooking for me for months.”

“It’s not like I’m going to poison you.”

“That remains to be seen.”

Their banter was adorable. This was a couple who absolutely belonged together. They couldn’t be more different than me and Razor.

I was content to let them keep at it as long as they wanted, as the more they teased each other, the less they expected me to say. In fact, I wasn’t sure they realized I hadn’t said a single word since I’d sat down with them.

They talked and laughed some more, digging into their meal. I decided to follow suit, hoping they would just forget that I was there. It wasn’t long, however, before Tallie steered the conversation back to me.

“So when did you say you and Razor tied the knot?”

Should I tell the truth? Hunter was one of Razor’s teammates, so if I made something up, it would likely get back to him, and then he might have to cover my tracks. Not the best plan. I supposed I would just have to come out with it.

“Last night,” I said between bites, preparing myself for the shock and derision.

“Last night?” she squealed. “Really? So you two got married here in Vegas? Did you know him long? How did you meet? I haven’t seen you around Tulsa. Oh! Did you do it at one of those drive-thru chapels? That would be so cool. I wish he’d told us about it. We could have come with you. I told Hunter before we got on the plane, I told him that if there was anything at all I wanted to do while we were in Las Vegas, it was that I wanted to see someone get married in one of those drive-thru places. With an Elvis. That would be the best. Did you have an Elvis at your wedding? Sorry. Pregnancy hormones do two things to me. They make me babble nonstop, and they make me horny as hell.”

Hunter winked at me. “I appreciate that last part.”

“Probably TMI. Sorry. But tell us all about you and Razor!”

All her questions left me feeling dizzy. I couldn’t keep up with her. I shook my head, taking my time before answering. “Met yesterday.”

“Wait a minute,” Hunter said. “You two just met yesterday, and you’re already married?”

I’d barely nodded before Tallie was squealing in delight again.

“We got married almost as soon as we met, too. Well, it was a few days after we met, but less than a week. Everyone thought we were crazy, but it was the best thing ever. Wasn’t it, Hunter? I’m sure it’s going to work out great for you and Razor, too.”

“Yes.” I nodded, despite everything inside me screaming how wrong she was. There was nothing even all right about us right now, let alone
great
.

But then Razor stood up at the front table, and he hit the tines of his fork against his wineglass to get everyone’s attention, saving me from having to carry on this conversation for a bit. Gradually, the talk in the ballroom died off as everyone focused on him.

“The kind of speech most people would typically expect me to make wouldn’t be fit for polite company,” he said to a chorus of laughs, his voice filling the massive space thanks to the microphone. “I have a feeling a few people in this room have been cringing as they waited to hear what might come out of my mouth. I promise you, Webs, I’ll be on my best behavior.”

The bride’s father gave him a surly look. “Too bad for you I know what your best behavior really is.” He didn’t attempt to keep his voice down, and more laughter rang through the ballroom.

“Fair enough,” Razor said. “But I owe it to your daughter to surprise even you with my ability to keep a civil tongue in my mouth. And I have to apologize to both of you.” Now he turned to the bride and groom. “I was supposed to be by your side for the biggest moment in your life, and something came up. I had to leave for a bit to straighten it out. And you know what?” he asked, turning to the audience. “Babs didn’t even bat an eye. He just told me to go. To do what I needed to do. This guy kills me because he just gets it. He recognizes what’s important in life, which is something I think will serve him really well for the next eternity he’s going to spend with Katie. He’s not messing around. He’s not wasting time, because he knows there’s no time to waste. He’s making their time together count.”

Now, instead of laughter, the room was filled with sniffles, as people reached for the tissues strategically placed near the centerpieces on each table. Wordlessly, the waiters returned to remove the plates. I ducked out of their way as they reached over me.

“From the very first moment Babs met Katie, I think anyone who could see the two of them together knew they were something special. We could all tell they were meant to be together. Now, don’t get me wrong. I did my best to corrupt Babs over the years. He was always a bit too perfect and maybe a little too sheltered, or so I thought. I was probably wrong about that. I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong.”

A few masculine chuckles rumbled through the crowd, but Katie laughed so hard that she nearly knocked her tiara free.

“Watch it,” Razor said, winking at her. “There might be a few people out there who don’t know the truth about me. Don’t want to spoil it.”

I would count myself among those few. I had to. One night together wasn’t anywhere near enough, particularly when he seemed so different when he was around his friends than he did when it was just the two of us. With me, he was quiet and determined, caring to a fault, but as single-minded a man as I’d ever come across. Here? He was laughing and gregarious, carrying himself with such a swagger I almost didn’t recognize him. Not that he wasn’t confident when it was just the two of us. If anything, he might be too confident. But here, it came off as being sociable and cocky. I was struggling to make sense of how he could be one way with me and something entirely different here.

“Anyway,” Razor said. “I was wrong. One hundred percent wrong. Because if he hadn’t been that same blushing, dimpled, too-fucking-perfect—”

“He said
fuck
!” the little ring-bearer shouted from somewhere in the crowd.

“Sorry, Jonny!” Razor called out, looking in the direction of the boy’s voice and holding up a hand as though to ward off the child’s father. “My fault. I’ll try to do better. Remember what your daddy said, Connor. We don’t use Mommy’s words in public.”

Eventually, the chuckles died off…but it took a while.

“Here’s the thing. If Babs hadn’t been that same blushing, dimpled, too-perfect, slightly sheltered guy he was, he would never have won Katie over. I swear, it was the dimples. Those dimples and blushes kill me, still to this day. See? He’s doing it now. I think it’s safe to say they’re working for him, though, because now he’s married to his princess. You know, there was a point a few years back when we were together at another wedding. I was all wrapped up in myself that day because I found out I got traded. I was a shi—I mean
bad
.” The emphasis was directed toward the toddler’s father again. “I was a
bad
friend that day because I was all
woe-is-me
about something that wasn’t anywhere close to the end of the world, when Babs’s world might as well have been ending. Because Katie told him that day that she was going off to Hollywood to become the star we all knew she could be. I was so trapped in my own self-pity that I didn’t see how everything was crashing in on my best bud. He was a much better friend than me. He listened to all my griping and moaning, and he tried to help me see the positives. Because that’s what he does. If I’d been a better friend, I probably would have told him not to worry about it, because she would definitely come back. I mean, who could walk away from those dimples?”

“I could,” the bride’s father called out, and his wife elbowed him in the ribs.

“Time and again, Babs has proven himself to be just about the most perfect human alive. I don’t know why he puts up with me, but thank goodness he does. And thanks to Katie, maybe now he’s not quite as sheltered as before.” Razor winked at her. “We’re all working together to corrupt him, still—me, 501, Katie, and probably another dozen people in this room or more—but at least his parents can rest assured that there’s not a damn thing we can do about the dimples. He’s stuck with those, which means the rest of us are screwed.”

Everyone laughed again, and he held up his glass. Once the crowd did the same, he said, “To Babs and Katie. May your days be filled with blushes, dimples, and more love than you can handle. I’ll do my best not to cut out on the next most important moment of your life.”

He drank, and everyone followed suit. I took a sip from my own glass as he shook hands and hugged Babs while they slapped each other on the back. He kissed Katie on the cheek. Then he made his way back over to me.

“Making speeches is not my thing,” he said, plopping down in the chair next to me. He kissed my cheek, much as he’d just done to Katie’s. I bit down on my tongue as a reminder not to react. Because he was acting like more than just my husband…he was acting like a man in love, when we both knew that wasn’t possible.

“Better you than me,” Hunter replied.