To Have And To Hold: The Wedding Belles Book 1 (10 page)

A heat that was once again threatening to burn him. To burn both of them.

“I can crowd you in here, too, if you want,” he said, flicking his eyes meaningfully at the privacy
screen that prevented Dex from having the slightest clue as to what was happening back here.

Brooke made a slight sniffing noise. “Do these moves usually work for you? Does threatening to manhandle women turn them on?”

His eyes locked on her lips. “Sometimes. Only when they like to be handled.”

Brooke’s expression remained unchanged, but he could have sworn he saw a slight twitch of her hand, as though she was itching to pull him toward her just as much as he wanted to haul her across his lap and lose himself in that perfect pink pout, to slip his hands under that fussy sweater to where he just knew she’d be warm and soft.

A tense moment stretched between them before she cleared her throat and lifted an eyebrow. “You were saying there’s something I should know?”

Right. Right.

“I don’t think Neil Garrett is the right man for my sister,” he said quietly.

“Well that comes as a huge surprise. It wasn’t at all obvious from the way you glower at him every chance you get.”

“I just don’t want to see her get taken advantage of and make a mistake.”

Brooke’s eyes softened slightly. “Of course you don’t. But Maya’s, what, twenty-six? Twenty-seven? Plenty old enough to be making her own decisions.”

“I realize that. I just want her to make her decisions with all of the facts.”

She shook her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I
mean that I think the Neil that Maya thinks she’s in love with isn’t the real man. Or at least not all of the man. He’s hiding something, and I need to figure out what it is before he traps her into a marriage.”

For a moment something awful and real flashed across her face—as though his comment struck a raw nerve. But then she merely shook her head and let her eyes go perfectly blank as the car finally came to a stop outside the Miller Museum.

He held her eyes as he waited for Dex to come around to open the door. “Do we have an understanding, Ms. Baldwin?”

She blinked. “Seriously? No, we don’t have an understanding. On the one hand, you’re hiring me to plan a wedding—not only that, you’re actively participating in the planning. On the other hand, you’re telling me you don’t intend to let the wedding actually happen. What exactly is it I’m supposed to do with that information?”

“Stay out of my way,” he said, without hesitation. “Let me do what I do best.”

“Which is what?” she said as the door opened, the rush of winter air providing a merciful reprieve from the building heat between them. “Controlling everything around you?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Pretty much.”
When I can.

She rolled her eyes and started to scoot toward the door, but he used his body to block hers, since he was closest to the curb.

“Brooke.”

She paused and looked at him, exasperated. “What?”

“Stay out of my way,” he repeated.

“Under
one condition,” she said with a wide, fake smile.

He narrowed his eyes and waited.

“I’ll stay out of your way, big brother”—Brooke reached a hand up to his cheek, patted it with a condescending familiarity—“if you stay out of mine.”

A
FTER
SPENDING A COUPLE
more hours with the happy couple and the not-so-happy brother, Brooke was more certain than ever that Seth was completely off base about his sister’s fiancé.

Sure, Neil had been just a bit pushy at their first stop about wanting a large wedding, but the second he’d realized that Maya hadn’t wanted that, he’d backed off completely. In fact, from what Brooke had seen so far, Neil Garrett might be perhaps the ideal groom. And she would know, having been in the business for a while and encountering virtually every type of groom out there. Generally speaking, they could be grouped into three main categories:

1. The passive-aggressive nightmares who swore up and down that they had zero opinions, that the bride could pick whatever made her happy, only to wait until after the DJ had been selected to announce they wanted a live band, or until after
   the red velvet cake had been selected to announce they wanted chocolate, and so on.
   
2. The guys who
   actually
   had zero opinions and had to be physically dragged to their suit fittings and rehearsal walk-throughs.
   
3. The more forward-thinking dudes who cared as much as—or more than—the brides about the flowers, who had strong feelings on crab cakes versus mini tartlets, and who had their personal tailor working on their wedding tux even before they’d bought the ring. These ones often cried.
   

From what Brooke could tell, Neil didn’t fit into any of these. He demonstrated that he cared, in that he provided input when explicitly asked, but he also seemed to be more concerned with what Maya wanted. He was polite and friendly, easygoing, and most important, completely smitten with Maya.

He seemed . . . decent.

If Maya did have a guy problem, it wasn’t on the romantic front.

On the sibling front, however, Maya had a serious issue to contend with. Seth alternated between silent and glaring and pissy and opinionated. If one place was too small, the other was too large. If one was too fussy, the next was deemed pedestrian. The only good news about the man being a complete ass was that he was making it very easy for Brooke to move past whatever this weird thing was between them. But she couldn’t ignore the effect he was having on her bride, whose smile was growing more strained by the minute, or her groom, whose skin had taken on a
distinctly pale pallor. By the time they were on their third and final venue of the day, it had become clear that they couldn’t keep going like this.

Seth, for his part, seemed completely unfazed by the fact that he was the storm cloud on an otherwise sunny occasion, and he walked a few paces behind them, typing distractedly on his phone while Maya quietly conceded that maybe they needed to call it a day.

Brooke walked Maya and Neil through the lobby of the lavish Biltmore Hotel that had been one of the front-runners for a possible reception site, assuring the distraught bride that it was only the first day and that they would of course find the perfect venue.

She didn’t add that they’d need to leave the overbearing big brother behind in order to do so, but that wasn’t Maya’s problem to deal with. People like the Tylers paid companies like the Wedding Belles a premium not only to identify problems such as this one but to solve them.

Although, Brooke had to admit, this particular problem was trickier than most—that the person who was paying her to solve problems
was
, in fact, the problem.

But she wasn’t worried. She wasn’t one of the best wedding planners in the country for nothing.

It was time to prove herself worthy of that title.

The dejected group filed outside and prepared to separate, Seth staying behind in the lobby to finish up whatever apparently super-important call had his phone attached to him like a third ear. Acting on instinct, Brooke pulled Maya into a quick hug before
the other woman could slip into her waiting town car. “I’ll talk to him,” she whispered.

Maya didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “He means well,” she said to Brooke in a hushed tone. “Seth’s just so used to controlling everything, and now that Daddy’s not here, he thinks he has to be my protector and my brain, and . . . I love him to death, but he’s driving me crazy.”

Brooke squeezed her tighter before pulling back and giving Maya a reassuring smile. “He loves you to death, too. But maybe I can convince him to show his love in other ways than all this hovering.”

“Yes, please,” Maya said gratefully, grabbing Brooke’s hands. “Let’s find a way to make him feel involved without having him be so . . .”

“Involved?” Brooke rejoined with a knowing smile.

Maya nodded. “Exactly.”

Neil came up beside them, sliding an arm around Maya’s waist and kissing the side of her head tenderly. “Let me take you to an early dinner?”

Maya smiled up at him gratefully and nodded, and Brooke’s heart twisted just a little in jealousy. Yes, she was a very self-assured woman. Yes, she could take care of herself, support herself, the whole enchilada, but sometimes after a long day when you were aching, it was nice to know that someone else was there. To share a cocktail with and let the day’s tensions fade away.

She missed that.

“Maya!”

Brooke glanced over to see an unfamiliar man
headed their way, but from the way Maya’s face lit up, it was obvious she knew him.

“Grant!” She rushed toward the man and wrapped both arms around his waist in a friendly hug. Brooke appraised the man with interest—he was handsome, in an easy, likable sort of way. He was unusually tall, but carried his height well, his movements smooth and easy as though he was accustomed to maneuvering all six-plus feet in whichever way he pleased. He had medium-brown hair that Brooke imagined would glint a bit red in the sunlight, warm whisky-colored eyes with thick lashes, and a good smile.

A
great
smile, Brooke amended as he grinned down at Maya.

Maya returned the happy smile. “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in weeks, and I see you outside a hotel of all places.”

“I was just on my way home from the office,” he said. “What’s your excuse?”

“Oh my gosh,” she said, laying a hand on his chest as though it was second nature. “I haven’t seen you in so long, you might not have heard.” Maya reached for Neil’s hand, tugging him forward. “I’m getting married!”

It was hard to say which man disliked the other more. Neil, for his part, clearly hadn’t missed the easy familiarity with which Grant and Maya greeted one another, and it didn’t seem to be sitting well. And there was no mistaking the flash of agony on Grant’s face at Maya’s pronouncement.

“Seth told me the good news. Congratulations,”
Grant said, his flat tone indicating he was feeling anything but celebratory about Maya’s announcement.

The men silently shook hands, and the unspoken challenge there was like déjà vu from when Seth and Neil had first met.

Maya looked at Neil lovingly. “Neil, babe, this is Grant Miller. He’s my brother’s best friend. Well, and one of mine, too. We grew up together, so he’s practically like a second brother.”

Neil nodded in acknowledgment of this. Grant said nothing.

Maya finally seemed to realize that something was amiss but was clearly clueless as to how to fix it as she looked helplessly between the two men. Brooke stepped forward and extended a hand to Grant. “Hi there. I’m Brooke Baldwin. The wedding planner.”

Grant’s smile returned, not quite as bright as it was when he’d seen Maya but friendly nonetheless. “Ah yes. The
damned
wedding planner. I’ve heard all about you,” he said with a little wink. “Speaking of, where is the magnanimous Seth?”

Now it was Brooke’s turn to be confused. Seth had talked to his friend about her?

“He’s on the phone,” Maya said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “As always. Neil and I were just about to grab an early dinner. You should come!”

“Thanks, but I have plans later,” Grant said, in what Brooke would have bet money was a smooth lie.

“Ah,” Maya said. “Who’s your latest lady?”

He clucked her playfully under the chin. “Nobody you know, Miss Nosy.”

Maya giggled, Neil frowned, and Brooke was
suddenly feeling a little bit parched for a drink herself, preferably of the alcoholic variety. There was always drama in the wedding-planning world, but so far the world of Manhattan’s rich and famous had a whole other layer of subtext. She’d always thought the East Coast was made up of a bunch of straight shooters, but so far she’d only seen a whole lot of what people
weren’t
saying.

“Shall we get going, sweetie?” Neil said, rudely interrupting Maya’s animated description to Grant of the various venues they’d looked at today.

She glanced at him, her smile dimming. “Right. You must be starving. You sure you don’t want to tag along, Grant? Or Brooke?” she added politely.

“Definitely not,” Grant said.

Brooke shook her head with a polite smile.

“Okay, well then. I’ll see you both later?” Maya said as Neil ushered her into the car. “Bye!”

Then the car door closed, and Brooke lifted a hand in send-off. Grant, for his part, didn’t move as the town car pulled away from the curb.

Brooke sighed and dropped her wedding planner into her oversized bag, and then, even though she’d known the guy for less than five minutes, found herself turning toward Grant. “You want to talk about it?”

His eyes snapped to hers, and she watched as surprised wariness was quickly replaced by a mischievous grin. He glanced over her, although not in the lecherous, checking-her-out way, more in an “I have a plan” kind of way.

He jerked his chin toward the hotel before them. “Seth still inside?”

Brooke
shrugged. “I suppose so. He said he had a phone call, and I haven’t seen him come out.”

“Huh.” His expression turned even more speculative as he scratched his chin. “Brooke Baldwin, would you like to have a drink with me?”