Ward thought about it for a second and then smirked. “Ok. Good point. You know what? I’m not going to say anything. I’m just going to ignore it and enjoy our party. Let’s let them figure it out on their own.” He grabbed us a pair of champagne flutes and we toasted to it. Champagne tasted a lot better when I didn’t have to serve it.
“Sounds good to me. It ought to be entertaining, at the very least.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
Epilogue
Kate
Emma looked gorgeous in the outfit I picked out for her. The delicate tulle of the skirt could have easily looked too cutesy on somebody so petite, but when paired with the simple silk bodysuit, the studded, metallic heels, and matching clutch and jewelry it totally worked. She was so pretty and delicate-looking that she was easy to dress, but it still felt good to see the look for her engagement party come together.
“Emma! You already look like a bride,” I told her proudly, turning my finger in a circle to direct her to spin. The skirt spun out like a goddamn Disney princess when she did. It was perfection.
“Ward showed me the office,” she told me after I stopped admiring her, “I can’t believe you and Lily kept that from me!”
I grinned at her astonished expression. Ward was supposed to take a video of her reaction, but I would bet good money he forgot. I could still barely believe we’d pulled off the surprise. There had been several close calls, including the time that she had come home early and Ward had just carried her to the bedroom to give me time to sneak out. But she didn’t need to know about that.
“You could have gone in there at literally any second,” I told her in between chuckles. “I was so scared you’d go and ruin the surprise, but if we told you not to go in there, it only would have tipped you off. It was all very nerve-wracking.”
She smirked and shook her head at me. “You poor thing.”
“So, do you love it?” I asked anxiously.
“Oh my god, yes!” Emma cried. Her porcelain skin was flushed with happiness. Seeing her happy made me happy. I couldn’t have asked for a better sister-in-law.
Our little celebration noise caught Ward’s attention. He looked at us like we’d just transformed into a pair of cackling goblins.
“What’s going on over there?” He said, recapturing his future bride’s hand. “That noise was straight out of my nightmares.”
Emma frowned. Leave it to Ward to be a huge buzz kill.
“Oh, it’s because Emma’s pregnant,” I told him with a big, shit-eating grin on my face. “Congratulations!”
His fear was instant and total. I laughed. For a man who claimed he would never marry, he’d readjusted his thinking within months when the right woman came along. I was sure he’d adapt to having kids just fine when the time came. Emma made no secret of her desire to populate the world with little towheaded babies. Hopefully they’d get her brain.
“Stop that! Stop that! You’ll give him a heart attack!” Emma scolded me, covering my poor, gullible brother’s ears. She whispered something in his ears to soothe him and he relaxed. He hugged her and glared at me.
“You’re evil, you know that?” he scolded.
I shrugged. “It runs in the family.”
“Kate,” Emma said a second later, touching my arm and looking at me seriously, “I have something really important to ask you.”
Did she already find the giant dildo I hid in her bookcase? Or that one of the pictures on her gallery wall was of Rick Astley?
“Oh no, what did I do?” I asked.
Ward grinned, and Emma elbowed him. I’m sure he enjoyed watching me squirm.
“Will you be my maid of honor?” she asked, watching me eagerly for a reaction.
I made an unintelligible happy noise and threw my arms around her neck in answer. Emma’s tiny size meant it was like hugging a kid and she toddled backwards on her high heels.
“Is that a yes?” Emma asked to confirm.
“Of course, it’s a yes!” I replied, and then added, “oh my god, does that mean I get to go dress shopping with you?”
Visions of lace, tulle, satin, and silk charmeuse danced in my head. Emma needed to wear a slinky style. She was built for an old Hollywood dress. Something that Vivian Leigh would have worn to the Oscars in the 1940’s. Not white either, antique ivory or maybe even a light champagne gold. I could already see it coming together in my mind’s eye.
Staring dreamily off into the distance as I weighed the pros and cons of a corseted style, my eyes caught on a familiar face. Cole’s face. He was staring right at me.
In a dizzy instant, my happiness drained out me all at once. I felt empty and lightheaded from the sudden shift.
Oh god, why didn’t somebody warn me he’d be here? My own mind answered back with a snide reply, because nobody knows about your weird, fucked-up fascination with him. Cole was still staring at me knowingly.
“Kate?” Emma asked, following my gaze. “Are you ok?”
Well, almost nobody.
“Yeah, fine,” I said, shaking my head. I needed to get away before I lost it. “I’m going to go powder my nose. Be right back.”
I scuttled off and splashed cold water on my face (who the hell powders their nose?). I looked at my cowardly reflection in the mirror until I couldn’t stand the sight any more. Although I was sure I’d just given away my carefully concealed secret away to Ward and Emma with my bizarre reaction, at least I was able to breathe again in the dark hallway near the bathroom. I leaned against the wall, counting to ten, then twenty, and then thirty. By the time I got to one hundred and ten, I had to admit that the counting wasn’t working.
“Hey there, stalker,” a familiar, humor-filled voice called to me. Cole had found me. He approached down the shadowy hallway, causing my heartbeat to race with a suicide mixture of feelings I couldn’t even try to identify. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you weren’t happy to see me again.”
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Also by Taylor Holloway
For fans of exciting, romantic mysteries full of twists and turns, check out my Scions of Sin series!
Prequel: Never Say Never - Charlie
Bleeding Heart - Alexander
Kiss and Tell - Nathan
Down and Dirty - Nicholas
Lost and Found - David
Admit You Want Me Page 24
