“Sounds to me,” Gage said as he placed bacon strips on his plate, “like your ex is in your head.”
Eight
Andy followed beside Gage as he made his way to a table with their breakfast. He set down their plates and pulled out one of the folding chairs for her.
The theme was navy and red—Gwen’s favorite colors. The tables were decorated with white tablecloths and blue vases filled with dark red roses, the silverware wrapped in navy blue cloth napkins tied with red ribbon.
Like Gwen, the décor was bold and beautiful.
Portable air conditioners stood at each corner of the tent to thwart the summer heat. Andy was glad for them since it was warm already and it was only noon.
“Care to explain your last comment at the buffet?” Gage asked as he sat across from her.
She unwrapped her silverware rather than look at him. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. You stated you’re heartless as casually as you might tell me what time it is. You can’t believe that.” He jerked his chin over to where Matthew sat with his girlfriend, Amber, one of Gwen’s friends and bridesmaids. “You don’t believe you’re an ice princess.”
“Ice Queen,” she corrected, spearing a chunk of pineapple with her fork. “That was a long time ago.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I know my limitations. It’s part of being a good leader. I’m not warm. I can’t help that.”
“You were plenty warm when you kissed me a minute ago,” he murmured in a low, sexy tone.
He had her there. She’d kissed him to show up Matthew, but the truth was that the second her lips touched Gage’s, she’d forgotten her stupid ex was standing there. She’d been lost in Gage’s mouth, in his scent. Matthew gaping unhappily was a nice bonus, though.
“That was pretending.” She ate the pineapple.
“That was not pretending.”
“Oh? Are you secretly an escort on the side?” she whispered.
“Maybe.” His caramel eyes twinkled before he sent her a roguish wink. “I have been kissed enough to know the difference between a woman who’s frigid and one who’s—”
“Don’t say out of practice.” She didn’t want to talk about how lame her sex life had been over the last two years. About how she’d tried to be those attributes that didn’t come naturally: Bubbly, fun, laid-back. In the end the real her came forward. While she knew she wasn’t heartless, she definitely kept a wall around her heart. She felt she had to after the way she’d been let down in the past. No one really understood her. No one had tried.
“I was going to say nervous.” Gage’s eyebrows lifted. “How long’s it been?”
“Long enough that there are tumbleweeds blowing around.” She didn’t know what made her tell the truth. Although, maybe she did. If anyone could understand the real Andy Payne, it might be Gage. He didn’t look at her like a problem to be solved. He saw her success, her timidity, her vulnerability. It’d been a while since a man had bothered to see past her cool exterior.
“Cute and funny.” He laughed as he dug into his food and Andy was struck with the oddest sense of pride. Gage was cute and funny but she couldn’t recall a single time she’d ever been accused of as much.
Throughout her childhood she’d been told she was stiff. Her mother had instructed her to “loosen up” more times than Andy could count. When she and Matthew dated, he’d asked her if she could at least “appear to be having fun” when they were out. She’d always hated that comment. Like she should smile to set everyone else at ease.
Now that she thought about it, all she did around Gage was smile. Not because he goaded her into it. He made her smile just by being himself. He made her feel comfortable even in stressful situations. He helped her crawl out of her head and be in the moment. And she’d really enjoyed kissing him in front of Matthew.
You enjoy kissing him just to kiss him...
“How long did you date that bozo, anyway?” Gage shoveled a bite of scrambled eggs into his mouth.
“A little over a year.”
“A little over a year. You’re going to let a guy you dated for a little over a year, seven or eight years ago, dictate what you think about yourself?”
“This sounds like a lecture,” she pointed out blandly.
Andy was accustomed to being misunderstood and/or made to feel less-than. She could hold her own. Until she was with her family, and then those old hurts crept in and made her defensive. The difference here was that Gage was new. He was part of her work, not her personal life. She could compartmentalize that.
“Are you telling me you have no damage? That no one in your past has ever inflicted a wound that carried through into your adult years? That you didn’t change some aspect of your behavior because of it?”
Gage was resolutely silent.
That was what she thought.
“Everyone has skeletons in their closets,” she told him.
Before she popped a strawberry slice into her mouth, she noticed two of her sisters barreling toward her.
“Hey, you two,” Gwen, the blushing bride-to-be, flicked a gaze at Gage and then back at Andy.
“Good morning, Gwen. Ready for the big day?” Gage asked. It was predictable banter but somehow it sounded fresh coming from his mouth. He really was skilled with people. Andy was better with plans. Numbers. Websites.
After Gwen answered that she was “so ready!” Andy’s other sister Kelli spoke up.
“Ready for the couples’ cruise today?” Kelli gave Andy a saucy wink. “It’ll be Andy’s first, so we’re pretty excited about it.”
“Kelli.” Andy let her tone be her warning, but her eldest sister was not intimidated.
“Couples’ cruise?” Gage flashed a smile at Andy and she felt her cheeks heat. She hadn’t exactly called it a couples’ cruise. She’d told him that they were going on a boat ride, which they were. It was a sizable pontoon boat, which was basically like a floating patio, and Andy was absolutely dreading it. Unfortunately—
“I’m making her come,” Gwen chirped. “Andy is totes uncomfortable about it because she’s Andy, but I want all of my sisters there.”
And that was why Andy was allowing this ridiculous charade to go on. She loved Gwen, and this was her big weekend.
“It’s just a boat ride,” Andy told Gage, though he didn’t look like he needed soothing.
“With champagne and kissing!” Gwen clapped.
“It’s tradition in our family,” Kelli explained, pressing her fingertips to her collarbone. “I started it with my pre-wedding festivities, and everyone has carried it forward.”
“Because it’s fun. All eyes will be on you two. You know what you have to do when it’s your first CC.”
Yep. Andy’s face was flame red. She could feel it. Gage’s inquisitive look paired with his indelible smile of his and then, to her sisters, he said as smooth as you please, “I look forward to finding out what that is.”
* * *
What was it, exactly, that had Andy wanting to hide beneath the tablecloth right now?
Gage wasn’t sure, but it intrigued the hell out of him. He bade Kelli, who had a conniving glimmer in her eye not unlike Estelle’s, and Gwen adieu and turned back to his wedding date.
“Are they going to make you walk the plank or something?”
“Something like that” was the only answer he got.
After brunch Gage and Andy returned to the room to change into “boat clothes.” Other than a ferry, Gage wasn’t really a boat guy. Not that he was intimidated by a pontoon, or by her family. He wasn’t intimidated by much, especially not the couples’ cruise initiation that had made Andy twitchy since brunch.
“I packed a few towels from the room into this bag, along with...” He trailed off when Andy came out of the bedroom and into the suite, hair pulled bac
k into a slick ponytail. She wore a gauzy white cover-up over her blue bathing suit. The sight of her legs glued his tongue to the roof of his mouth and stalled his brain. Long, pale, smooth legs. Andy was tall, and at first glance appeared almost too slim. But her curved calves and delicate ankles thwarted that notion immediately. They were subtle, but oh, yes, Andrea Payne had curves.
Her eyes rounded, and her eyebrows rose. “Along with...”
It took him a few seconds to realize he’d been in the middle of speaking.
“Sunscreen.” He gestured to the bag. “You’re fair-skinned, so I didn’t want you to burn.”
Very fair-skinned. Her freckles stood out in subtle contrast like her peachy-pink lips. Lips he’d tasted and was already itching to taste again.
“Okay, thanks.” She bounced past him and he shook his head. He didn’t know how, but was it possible Andy had no idea how gorgeous she was? “Ready to go?”
“Yep.” Board shorts and T-shirt on, he pulled the tote over one shoulder and followed Andy to the car. Twenty minutes later they were standing on a dock in the hot summer sun while her sisters and their husbands—or fiancé in Garrett’s case—settled onto the wide vinyl seats.
“Whose boat is this?” Gage asked Garrett as he settled in next to him.
“Rental. Biggest, newest one they had.” Garrett was Gage’s height, a few years younger, but not by much. Gage had talked to him at the bar that first night. The guy seemed cool. Kelli’s husband, Boyd, waited by her side while she talked animatedly to her other sisters. Gage sensed a distinct taming-of-the-shrew feel from those two.
Vanessa’s husband, Alec, took the captain’s chair, wearing a captain’s hat to go with it. Gage had pegged Ness as a mean girl the moment she and Estelle pecked at Andy, but he didn’t think she did it on purpose. She seemed to like being in charge, though, and he could tell she approved of Alec manning the boat.
Carroll, Gage decided, was the quiet sister. She was amiable and polite, with no real dog in the fight over whether or not Andy would arrive single to the wedding. Her husband, Kenny, was as laid-back as she was, more so actually. His scraggly goatee and hippie wear gave him a definite I-smoke-weed vibe. Gage had decided Carroll and Kenny were also cool.
“Let’s do this!” Gwen called, earning applause. She was the shameless youngest child, happy with the attention, not because she craved it like Ness, but more because she expected it. Cute and plucky, she beamed with an infectious smile that was hard not to return.
Andy sat primly beside him, a pair of sunglasses on her nose and a tentative, nervous smile on her face. Gage lifted her hand in his and kept his gaze on her while he pressed his lips to her knuckles. Her smile shone as bright as the sun overhead...until Ness spoke.
“Aww! Look at those two!”
Everyone focused on them and Andy promptly stiffened and snatched her hand away.
“So shy! Honestly, Andy, who would believe you two have been dating for eight months?” Ness added and sat on Andy’s immediate right on the L-shaped cushion.
“Not everyone is as comfortable making out in public as you are,” Andy told her sister.
“That’s true. And I happen to be really good at it,” said Alec from the captain’s chair.
Ness smiled, but her expression was as stiff as Andy’s spine.
In moments like this, when Gage bore witness to Andy’s chillier side, he felt like his past had walked over his grave. As sure as he was that Andy wasn’t heartless, he had doubts that pursuing a physical relationship with her—even temporarily—was wise.
During those chillier moments, he was reminded of the idiot he’d been when he promised forever to Laura. She’d made him look like a bigger idiot when he was left holding the engagement ring she returned and the remnants of his broken heart.
Since then, Gage kept things on the surface with the women he dated. He liked women and loved sex, but getting in any deeper wasn’t an option. What had started out with a simple agreement to keep Andy on board at Monarch had turned into meeting her complex family, and her ham-handed ex-boyfriend.
And yet he couldn’t help coming to Andy’s rescue and changing the subject.
“I notice Estelle didn’t make the trip,” he said to Ness.
“This is a sibling-only affair.” Ness swept her hair off her neck and piled it on top of her head in a sloppy bun.
“Hang on to something,” Alec announced as they puttered from the no-wake zone into the larger portion of the lake. Cheered on by his passengers, he pushed the speedometer to the middle, sending Andy’s ponytail whipping behind her.
Gage settled back, his arm on the bench and Andy sent him what appeared to be a gracious smile. She leaned back into the curve of his arm and he rested his palm on her shoulder. Whatever cooler moments he’d witnessed from her, she was warm where it counted. Andy was completely responsive to him and he enjoyed the hell out of getting her to respond.
Enough lingering in the past. He’d rather sit here, his arm around Andy, and enjoy the cool breeze, hot sun and random splashes of water kicked up by the buoys on the sides of the boat.
Nine
Alec dropped anchor in a private cove surrounded by trees and a few villas. Kelli and Ness opened coolers and divvied out drinks into plastic flutes. Sparkling rosé for the ladies, and ales brewed and canned by a local brewery for the guys.
Andy gladly accepted her drink, letting the bubbles tickle her throat and relying on the summer sun as well as the alcohol to take her down a notch.
Or ten.
No one made her as prickly as her sisters. She wasn’t like them—any of them. Sure she might have a dose of Kelli’s self-assuredness, but Andy didn’t have her eldest sister’s confident, sexy vibe. And while Ness was a go-getter, she wasn’t plagued by Andy’s shyness. Carroll was genuine and sweet, whereas Andy had never been referred to as “sweet,” and the bride-to-be, Gwen, was adorable and fun. Andy hadn’t been accused of being either of those.
She was the black sheep among her reddish-flaxen-haired sisters, sharing their coloring but not their personalities. Every time she was around them she felt as if there was an invisible yardstick measuring her to see if she’d blossomed into a Payne lady yet, and if her mother’s assessment was anything to go by—Andy hadn’t.
She’d settled for being the best at her job, and excelling in her field rather than competing socially. They all knew what she did for a living—that she was the mysterious Andy Payne who was often imitated, never duplicated—but praise was more often given for personality and looks—especially by her former-beauty-queen mother.
As a teen Andy had been lanky, thinner than any of her sisters. Fairer, too. By age sixteen her nose was a touch long and her feet a not-dainty size ten, and she’d felt firmly entrenched into the black-sheep role she’d assigned herself.
She’d moved away from Crown, Ohio, to become someone else, someone new. Someone who wouldn’t be contrasted and compared to her sisters. Her nose was still a touch too long, she was as curve-free as she ever was, and her feet were still a size ten, but she’d used her frosty personality to help build an empire. And she wasn’t as socially awkward as she used to be. She was open and polite, even if she didn’t exude warmth.
“That went fast,” Gage said, taking her empty plastic flute. “Can I refill it for you?”
“Yes.”
He pushed his sunglasses on top of his head and studied her, his eyes a lighter shade of brown in the sunlight. The stubble on his chin and jaw was short and rakish, his hair windblown and curling on the ends.
“You have nice hair.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth she wanted to die. What a boring compliment. Not to mention it was more the kind of thing you’d say to someone when you’d just met them, not after you’d been in a relationship for eight months. Thankfully no one was paying attention to them or she would�
�ve just given away that they’d known each other only a few weeks. Her brothers-in-law were behind them stripping off their shirts to dive in and her sisters were huddled over the ice-filled coolers at the front of the boat, chatting.
“So do you.” He wrapped her long ponytail around his fist and gave it a subtle yank, smiling as easy as you please. She swallowed thickly, unsure what to do with the attention.
“H-has it always been curly?” she stammered. Gage looked at her with a combination of heat and admiration, curiosity and a bit of bemusement. Like she was a puzzle he wanted to solve. Another new feeling for her. “Sorry. Stupid question. Of course it’s always been curly.”
“The bane of my existence.” His smile didn’t budge. “I try to keep it short, but it still curls.” He pushed his hand through his hair again and the wave snapped right back into place. She had to grin. And before she thought of what she was doing, her hand was in his hair, sweeping the strands. It was soft and thick, adding a boyish charm to a man who was all man.
“You two are positively adorable,” Gwen said, sneaking up on them. Although, you couldn’t really “sneak” on a twenty-four-foot boat. Andy had been completely absorbed in her pretend boyfriend. “Did you pick your movie yet?”
“Movie?” Gage asked as Andy returned her hands to her lap.
Gwen aimed her wide grin at Andy. “You didn’t tell him.” Back to Gage, she said, “If it’s your first couples’ cruise as a couple, you have to reenact a movie kiss for everyone. Extra points for authenticity.”
“Boyd and I did Gone with the Wind,” Kelli announced proudly. “Ness, Dirty Dancing—”
“Complete with dance moves,” Vanessa called over.
“And Carroll,” Gwen said, “chose The Princess Bride, while I went with Twilight.” The youngest of the Payne sisters swooned. “How I love my sparkly vampires.”
“Sorry I missed that one,” Andy said, genuinely meaning it. She hadn’t made it home for the engagement party here at the resort, which is when the Twilight magic must’ve occurred.
Temporary To Tempted (The Bachelor Pact Book 2) Page 6
