by Erika Wilde
“Don’t worry about it,” Grace said kindly.
Nothing else was said, and neither Daisy nor Serena offered any explanation or details as to why Amanda had called off the wedding, either. A part of her was hoping for some kind of clarity and some answers, but they weren’t happening here. Which was only fair. His family was undoubtedly protective of Leo and whatever had happened with his ex-fiancée, and she respected that. There was also the possibility that they assumed that Leo had already told her the story.
“You’re a designer in New York, correct?” Daisy asked, changing the subject, and the mention of fashion at least gave them something to talk about for the next half hour because it was a language they all understood.
Grace finally announced that dinner was ready, and an assembly line started at the kitchen island, where everyone served up helpings of the delicious-smelling chicken enchilada casserole the woman had made, along with a salad. Once everyone was seated at the table, which was made bigger to accommodate everyone by adding a leaf in the middle, the conversation was nonstop, most of which consisted of the three brothers giving each other a hard time.
Peyton ate her dinner and enjoyed the lively conversation, along with the back-and-forth ribbing and the one-upping between Leo, Dylan, and Aiden. Despite them being grown men, it appeared that none of them had outgrown their sibling rivalry, and there was plenty of laughter at the table as stories of them as kids were shared—some tales adamantly refuted and others admitted to.
For the entire time, Peyton had a grin on her face. Dinners at her house had never been this loud and entertaining, and Grace seemed to take it all in stride, as if her sons’ rowdy behavior was all normal to her, even at their ages.
Serena, who was sitting next to Peyton, leaned her way and murmured, “Boys will always be boys, and when these three get together, it’s like they’ve never grown up.”
Peyton heard the amusement in the other woman’s voice and grinned as she glanced Serena’s way to converse with her despite all the other chaos at the table. “Leo told me you lived next door to them growing up.”
She nodded. “Yes. Dylan and I are the same age, so we played together all the time, went to the same schools, had the same teachers, and all that. We’ve always been best friends.”
Yet there had been a few times when Peyton had caught Serena looking at Dylan, her best friend, with a subtle longing that revealed her feelings for him ran much deeper than just friendship. But if Dylan knew how Serena felt about him, he gave absolutely no indication.
After everyone was finished eating, the girls helped Grace clear the table, wash the dishes, and put the leftovers away. Once that was done, Leo’s mother clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention and excitedly announced that it was time to cut the cake because she was dying to find out if her grandbaby was going to be a boy or a girl.
Everyone gathered back around the island in the kitchen, and Leo shocked Peyton by standing very close behind her, his body brushing hers. It was a subtle touch, but she was instantly aware of him—the scent of his cologne and the warmth radiating from him—and she bit her bottom lip to keep from exhaling on a sigh of pure pleasure. As it was, it took extreme effort not to lean back into him.
While the family focused on Aiden and Daisy as they playfully bickered one last time whether it was a boy or girl, Leo placed his hand on her hip, startling her once again with the daring, intimate move. She’d worn a pair of capris with a loose, peasant-style blouse that fell off her shoulders and enabled him to slip his hand beneath the hem, and between the occasional gust of Leo’s breath along the back of her neck and the thumb caressing the bare skin right above the waistband of her pants, she couldn’t contain the shiver that coursed through her and made her nipples hard.
When his hand quickly fell away, it was because, Peyton realized, and obviously so had Leo, that Serena was watching them curiously from across the island. Peyton smiled at the other woman to dispel the awkward moment and shifted her gaze back to Daisy and Aiden, who was cutting a slice of the cake. Once the triangle piece was ready to be removed, Daisy did the honors of sliding the section out. The cake inside was pink, and Aiden was the first one to let out a happy whoop and execute an excited fist pump in the air. Then he spun Daisy around and kissed her on the lips.
Daisy laughed, and even though she’d voted for a boy, she was clearly just as happy with the daughter they were going to have—as was the rest of the family. Cake was served, and Peyton took her plate and decided to go out onto the deck where it was quiet and cool. She sat down in a padded chair and only had the chance to eat one bite before Serena came out and joined her.
Their conversation started with the obvious, about Daisy and Aiden and the fact that they were having a little girl and how happy everyone was for them. But it quickly took a turn that Peyton didn’t anticipate.
“You know . . . you’re the first woman Leo’s brought home since Amanda, and considering it’s been two years since he essentially got stood up at the altar, having you here is a pretty big deal.”
Two things hit Peyton at once . . . that Leo hadn’t brought a woman home to meet his family in two years and, more shockingly, finding out that Leo had been rejected by the woman he loved on their wedding day. She felt just as blindsided at the news as Leo must have been. Her stomach rolled, a little bit nauseous at the thought of how humiliating that rejection must have been for him, not to mention having his heart shattered.
After only a few bites of the cake, she set it on the glass-topped table between her and Serena. She wanted to ask how and why it had happened, but if she was going to hear the story, she wanted Leo to be the one to tell it to her, of his own free will. So, instead, she responded to the first part of Serena’s comment, the one where she’d stated that Leo bringing her today was a big deal.
“It really isn’t,” Peyton said with a smile that belied all the other feelings swirling inside of her. “We’re just friends.” Yeah, that’s what they’d agreed to call this thing between them, but it was all starting to feel like something much deeper and far more real and emotional. At least for her.
Serena gave her a knowing look that said she wasn’t convinced they were just pals. Certainly not after seeing the way Leo had been touching her a little while ago before realizing they’d had curious eyes on them.
“Here’s the deal,” Serena said, her voice direct but softened with kindness, too. “I care about Leo like he’s my own brother, and it’s taken him a long time to get over Amanda and what she did to him. Out of Aiden, Dylan, and Leo, he was always the optimistic one who believed in love and wanted to get married and have a family and all that. Despite what happened with his parents and how nasty the whole situation was with his father just up and leaving at a time in their lives when they needed him the most, Leo still thought he’d beat those odds. And Amanda, quite frankly, gave him every reason not to believe in love.”
Peyton swallowed past the huge lump in her throat, unable to imagine how devastated Leo must have been. What woman in her right mind would willingly give up such a great guy? And on their wedding day, no less.
“I know the two of you are in a fake relationship,” Serena continued, cutting into Peyton’s thoughts. “But Leo wouldn’t have agreed to something like that if he didn’t want to. . . which means he likes you. And honestly, he seems happier around you than I’ve seen him in a long time.”
And she was just as happy, she realized, despite her professional life being up in the air. “I really like him, too,” Peyton admitted to the other woman, though the term like didn’t even come close to describing what Leo was coming to mean to her and how she truly felt about him.
“I know. I can see that,” Serena said, her tone sincere as she tucked a wavy strand of short blonde hair behind her ear. “But I also know that you live in New York, and this thing between the two of you is just temporary, which means you’re going to leave. Whatever happens, just don’t break his heart, okay? Because I don’t t
hink Leo would be able to bounce back from a second rejection.”
Peyton understood Serena’s concern, but hurting Leo in any way was the last thing she wanted. The other woman was right . . . she was leaving in a few days, but the thought of putting her feelings out there without knowing his was an incredibly scary proposition for her, as well, because her greatest fear was that he wouldn’t feel the same—and she’d be the one with the broken heart.
The slider leading to the deck opened and closed as the subject of their discussion walked outside, one of those sexy, irresistible smiles on his sensual lips.
“There you are,” he said, his warm gaze on Peyton before shifting to look at Serena, his expression a little curious. “What are you two doing out here all by yourselves?”
Serena waved a flighty hand in the air. “Oh, you know, just girl talk,” she said, and stood up. “But now that the baby’s gender has been revealed, I think it’s about time for me to leave since I have to work in the morning.” She turned toward Peyton. “It really was great meeting you. I hope I get to see you again sometime.”
“Same here,” Peyton replied, liking Serena despite the conversation they’d just had about her situation with Leo.
Serena said her goodbyes, and as soon as she was in the house and Peyton was alone with Leo, he came to stand in front of her, forcing her to tip her head back to meet his concerned gaze and the frown creasing his brows.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes searching her face. “Serena didn’t say something to upset you, did she?”
Peyton shook her head and pushed up from her chair. “No, not at all,” she replied, keeping things vague for now. But once they were alone, she intended to get some answers to all the questions Serena had left unexplained about Amanda and why she’d ended things with Leo the day of their wedding.
Chapter Ten
“Did you have a good time?” Leo asked as they walked into the guesthouse a while later after leaving his mother’s place.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t had any time to talk on the ride home. As soon as they’d turned out of the residential neighborhood, Leo’s partner, Eric, had called about a minor fender bender one of their drivers had had while going to pick up a client. It wasn’t an emergency, but Eric wanted Leo to be aware of the issue, and their conversation about handling the insurance aspect of the incident had taken up most of the drive back to her parents’ place.
“It was a really nice evening,” she said, strolling into the living room and sitting down on the couch. “You have a great family. Including Daisy and Serena . . . Speaking of which, what’s going on between Serena and Dylan? I know you said they were best friends, but from the way she looks at him, I’d bet money she has a thing for him.”
“You noticed that, huh?” He grinned as he sat down beside her on the sofa. “I think it’s obvious to everyone but my idiot brother. She wants to get married, have kids, but Dylan swears he’s perfectly fine being single and a bachelor. It doesn’t help matters that, in his last relationship, the woman he was with used him for his money and what it could buy her. He was so caught up in the girl and his business that it was Serena who finally brought it to his attention. So, I think that has just made him wary and guarded with women in general.”
It sounded like the two brothers had that in common, for very different reasons. Before she lost the nerve, she asked the question that had been on her mind. “Has what happened with you and Amanda made you guarded with women?”
His entire demeanor changed, grew tense. “Who brought her up tonight?”
Now that she’d put the subject out there, she wasn’t going to back down, despite how irritated he suddenly appeared. “Does it matter?”
He frowned at her. “Was it Serena?” he guessed, his tone gruff.
Peyton shifted on the couch, tucked her feet beneath her, and turned to better face Leo, who was sitting ramrod straight. “She’s just looking out for you because she cares,” she said, not wanting to get the other woman in trouble. “She told me that Amanda broke things off with you on your wedding day. I had no idea that’s how things ended between the two of you.”
He swore beneath his breath and rubbed his fingers across his forehead, clearly not happy Serena had shared that personal bit of information with her. But Peyton had opened Pandora’s box, and now there was no taking back what she’d started. And besides, she didn’t want to. This was one part of Leo she wanted and needed to understand.
“What happened?” she asked softly, and before he could state the obvious she left me standing at the altar, she got more specific. “What would make her end things on the day of your wedding?”
“Just the fact that I wasn’t enough for her,” he replied bitterly.
Peyton reeled at his response. “I find that hard to believe.” What more could the other woman have wanted from someone who was responsible, hardworking, devoted, and had clearly loved her?
He laughed, but the sound lacked any humor. “It’s absolutely true. And honestly, looking back at the week before the wedding date, I should have seen the signs that something wasn’t right, that she was off and distant and not herself. But I wrote it off to nerves and being stressed out over the wedding preparations.”
“That would be a logical assumption,” she agreed.
He shoved his fingers through his hair, furrowing the thick strands. “The thing is, Amanda was born and raised in South Carolina before attending college here in San Diego, and her mother wasn’t happy that she was marrying me and moving to California permanently, when she’d expected her daughter to return home after graduation. Her mom had even made a few comments that I should move to South Carolina so Amanda could be near her family.”
Peyton blinked in surprise. “Didn’t you two talk about your living situation before getting engaged?”
“Of course we did,” he said, a cynical edge to his voice. “I knew Amanda was close with her family, and before I put a ring on her finger, I wanted to make sure she realized that I couldn’t move to South Carolina. My business was just starting to do well and was building steadily to the point that Eric and I were making a decent profit. And since Amanda and I wanted to start a family fairly soon after getting married, being financially stable was important to me, and I was very close to that point a few months before our wedding date. It made no sense to leave everything here and start over in South Carolina. Amanda agreed and never gave any indication that she wasn’t okay with that arrangement, so I never thought it was an issue.”
He gave his head a brief shake, his normally smiling lips now in a flat line as he continued. “Her mother, Monica, insisted we get married in South Carolina so she could plan the wedding and reception since they had so much extended family who lived there, and I was fine with that because it’s what Amanda wanted, too. I honestly didn’t see any red flags.”
Hearing the self-blame in his voice, she reached out and placed a hand on his arm, needing to touch him. “That’s because you weren’t looking for them,” she pointed out.
“True.” Finally, he started to relax, the stiff set of his shoulders easing a bit the more he talked. “So, fast-forward six months of planning for a big, fancy wedding that cost more than my Mustang. Five days before the date, my family and I flew out to South Carolina, along with the close friends I wanted to be there, and like I said, she was distant and not her normal happy self around me. I remember asking her if she was okay, and her forcing a smile and saying she was just tired and stressed. It made total sense to me and I figured she’d be back to normal after all the wedding stuff was over.”
Peyton smiled to herself. Leo was a guy. Of course the reasons for her odd behavior had made sense to him.
“I thought everything was fine, and the day of the wedding I was standing at the front of the church, waiting to see how beautiful Amanda looked walking down the aisle in her dress . . .” His voice turned hoarse. “And instead of that happening, her maid of honor came up to me in front of all of the guests s
itting in the church waiting for the ceremony to begin and said that Amanda needed to talk to me. I remember being so confused at first, because she was supposed to be walking down the aisle literally any second, and it wasn’t until Aiden, who was one of my best men, put a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Go talk to her, and I’m here for you if you need me,’ that my stomach started to churn.”
Hearing the rough edge in his voice, Peyton had to swallow back the tight knot in her throat, her own emotions invested in this man’s pain.
He scrubbed a hand down his face, staring straight ahead, as if he was back in that church reliving every detail. “It was such a surreal moment, and it was like I was walking in a fog to her bridal room, because my head was telling me that there was a logical explanation for why she needed to talk to me, but my heart knew exactly what I was walking into. She was already in her dress and she was just sitting there and I could tell that she’d been crying, and then she looked at me and said, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t marry you. I don’t love you enough, and I don’t want to leave my family and South Carolina to live in San Diego.”
He turned his head and looked at Peyton, his gaze somber. “And just like that, it went from being the happiest day of my life . . . to the absolute worst day of my life. I loved her and wanted to give Amanda everything, and it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough to make her happy.”
There was no pity in his voice, just an acceptance of what had happened, though Peyton was certain something like that would affect a person’s ability to trust someone with their heart again. “I’m so sorry, Leo.”
He shrugged. “At the time, I was devastated, and it felt like there was an empty, bottomless hole inside of me for the longest time. I just never saw it coming, and I think that was the hardest part of it all. Being blindsided by the fact that I had no clue what she was really thinking or feeling, and then to be told that what I had to offer, which was everything I had, wasn’t enough for her to make that commitment after being together for over two years . . .”
