Andy took a swig from her water glass, lingering next to Ness for a moment.
“Everything all right?” She probably shouldn’t ask, but she loved Vanessa, grumpy or no.
“It’s always like that in the beginning,” her sister responded darkly. Ness gestured with her wineglass to Gwen and Garrett, who were all smiles while dancing to a swing song. “The infatuation and love...and blindness. Then a few years go by and what’s left is disillusionment and disappointment.”
Andy followed Ness’s gaze to where Alec stood chatting at the bar with Kenny and Gage, the three of them looking chummy. Andy lowered into the white folding chair next to her sister and leaned in. “Are you and Alec okay?”
Ness’s mouth hardened into a flat line. For a moment she looked as if she might cry, but she blinked and jerked her face around, her expression flat but still pretty.
“I don’t mean this in an unkind way, Andrea,” Ness said, and Andy felt her back stiffen with dread. “But what you have with Gage is fleeting. So enjoy him. Enjoy the sex. The rapt excitement whenever you two lock eyes. But don’t become entrenched. Don’t put yourself in the position of being in a relationship you can’t escape. And whatever you do, don’t involve paperwork.”
“We’re...not planning to” was all that Andy could muster as a response.
“Save yourself.” Ness finished the remaining wine in her glass and stood. “I’m getting a refill. Want one?”
Andy shook her head, shocked by...well, pretty much everything her sister had just said.
She’d thought Ness and Alec were doing fine. Thought they were happy, even. Granted, Andy hadn’t seen them together much this weekend.
A niggle of doubt crept forward. Ness wasn’t wrong. Even if one does make it to the altar, the ultimate step in any relationship, everything could still fall apart. And if that was the case, what could any of them count on? She stole a glance at Garrett and Gwen. How long would they be happy?
How long will Gage and I be happy?
Another peek over at Alec proved there was more under the surface than Andy had previously noticed. His smile fell when he met his wife’s glare across the tent, his shoulders lifting as if bracing for bad news. Ness approached the bartender to order and Alec curtly smiled at Gage and Kenny, excusing himself before walking off in the opposite direction.
“Oh, Vanessa.” Andy sagged in her seat, sad for both her sister and brother-in-law.
They’d been married, what, five years? Six? Wasn’t that the point when you could relax in a relationship? Weren’t things supposed to get better and better? A closer look at Kelli and Boyd showed they were having no qualms about their own marriage, slow-dancing despite a fast song playing. Even Carroll, who was shimmying with Amber, paused to blow Kenny a kiss that he pretended to catch in his fist. And obviously, Gwen and Garrett were at the peak of happiness today.
Gage parted from Kenny with a wave and walked toward Andy, his sights set on her. He held a glass of whiskey—or some kind of brown liquid—with a single, large ice cube floating in it.
“Danced out?” he asked as he sat next to her.
“Just...resting.” She didn’t want to air Ness’s dirty laundry. It wasn’t her story to tell.
“You sure?” He swept her hair aside and kissed her bare shoulder.
She wasn’t sure. Not really. But at the same time she wasn’t willing to mire herself in her siblings’ problems. What would come of Andy and Gage remained to be seen.
They weren’t five or six years into a relationship potentially circling the drain. Hell, they hadn’t even put a timeframe on what they had. Continuing to see each other back in Seattle might not last a month.
She wasn’t willing to stop kissing him or sleeping with him or enjoying him just because the clock struck midnight on Gwen and Garrett’s wedding. No matter what the future brought.
“I’m positive,” she said instead of sharing her tumultuous thoughts.
She stole a kiss from Gage, letting her lips linger over his, palming his scruffy jaw and then slipping her fingers into the open placket of his shirt.
There was one surefire way to dissolve the worry Ness had planted in the back of Andy’s mind, and that was to do what she and Gage were best at doing.
By the time she ended the kiss, he was on the literal edge of his seat, his breaths hectic and erratic.
“Want to get out of here for a few minutes, have some fun, and then sneak back in and eat some cake?” she asked in her best sex-kitten voice.
“Hell, yeah, I do.” He stood and pulled her with him, thrusting her purse into her arms. “Lead the way.”
Seventeen
Gage pressed a kiss to the left of Andy’s spine, then to the right of it, continuing the line of kisses as he drew the zipper on her dress up, up, up until she was dressed.
She sighed, contented, and admittedly sort of lost. Not literally. They might’ve stolen off to the woods for a quickie disguised as a nature walk, but they weren’t far from the festivities. She could see the lights twinkling from the tent and hear the faint sounds of the band playing.
“That was a first,” she said when Gage kissed her shoulder.
“Outdoor sex?” He scooted closer to where she sat in the grass and wrapped his arm around her waist. “I like hearing that.”
“What about you?” She shifted to face him, her legs damp from the dew. Now that night had fallen and the sun was down, the humidity sitting in the air had fallen to the ground. She recognized her error in asking when a firm line found his lips. “Oh. I guess... Never mind.”
“Not what you think, Strawberry.” He tucked her hair behind one ear.
She’d worn a clip holding that side up earlier but had no idea where it’d disappeared to since her and Gage’s...dalliance. Having sex outside should’ve felt needy and shallow, but it had been deeper to her.
“The truth is I’m experiencing a few first times with you, too,” he said. “You’re different.”
She opened her mouth to give him a snarky “I know,” but he cut her off with a finger to her lips.
“Ah-ah. Your differences are all good ones. When I’m with you, it’s not about the setting or the act.” He tipped her chin. “It’s about what it feels like to be with you. Like I can’t get enough.”
Nervous at his admission, she swallowed. “Don’t go endangering your pact now.” The mention of him never being serious with a woman was supposed to ease her nerves and his, too.
“The pact? You think you’re in danger of being proposed to?” He canted one eyebrow and gave her an easy smile.
“God, no. What was the catalyst for Flynn reinstating it, anyway?”
“Veronica. He proposed to his first wife pretty quickly. They’d only known each other a month before tying the knot. Flynn believes if he hadn’t married her, they would’ve imploded naturally, and way before an ugly divorce, or her cheating on him with his brother. A lot of pain could’ve been avoided.”
“Garrett and Gwen had a quick engagement.” Andy cast a worried glance in the direction of the tent. “Did Flynn and Veronica start out as happy as Garrett and Gwen?”
“No.” That made her feel marginally better for her youngest sister. “Veronica and Flynn were never compatible where it counted.”
“He and Sabrina seem to be on the same page.”
“Those two.” Gage emitted an amused sniff. “They’ve been best friends since college. Sabrina predated Reid and me by a few weeks. Somehow Sabrina and Flynn had circled each other for years. Too distracted by dating people other than each other, I guess.”
“That’s sweet.” And it made sense. A relationship built over years and years had a strong foundation. “They seem solid. I can see why he didn’t stick to his pact... But you did.”
“Yes, the Brit and I carry that torch.” A self-deprecating smile decorated Gage�
��s handsome face. “For me it was about not being engaged again. For Reid, well, who the hell knows? He was in no matter what. He’s never been one to get too attached.”
“I know what that’s like.” When she found Gage regarding her with a curious head tilt, she explained. “It’s hard to get attached and then be left behind. If you’re not careful, your identity can become wrapped up in someone else.”
“You’re the independent sort.”
“As are you.”
He seesawed his head like he was turning over the thought. “Not exactly. I’m a team player. I like having someone. I like dating but I rarely turn and burn them like Reid.”
“You’re a serial monogamist.”
“I don’t know about that. But I can definitely feel when I’m getting in too deep, or when she’s getting in too deep, and that’s when I button things up.”
“Sounds sort of awful.”
“You mean I sound awful now that you know how shallow I am?”
“No. I mean it sounds like an awful way to live. Like you’re too afraid to keep going when there’s potential for a real connection.”
He watched her in silence for so long that a breeze swelled and she became aware of the music again. It also made her aware of the party they were missing.
The truth was she was afraid to pursue more with Gage, too. She’d never pursued deep connections in the past, even with her sisters. She’d gradually accepted that those sorts of relationships were for other people—people other than the Ice Queen, though that nickname had lost some of its sting.
She was changing, little by little, and the man next to her in the damp grass was a big reason why. She didn’t know what that meant for them, but she did know that she wasn’t giving him up just yet.
Outside of the “wedding bubble,” and when they stopped pretending, did they have a prayer of making it last?
She wasn’t sure that was the right question, considering Gage had made a pact never to marry anyone. She wasn’t in the market for a husband, either, but she’d be lying if she said she’d never imagined what marriage might look like for her. How could she hang any hopes on what she and Gage had together, knowing that he’d walk away with hardly a second glance?
Since those thoughts were too big for her, and much too big for the end of a wedding reception, she shut them down.
“Come on.” She stood and extended a palm to Gage, who was still sitting, his back to a particularly stout linden tree. “I need one more glass of champagne.”
One more glass of champagne, one more dance and at least one more evening in Gage’s arms before she lost her glass slipper at midnight.
Then it’d be airport, home, work and...whatever else followed. She hoped he still fancied her as much as he did in this moment.
Only time would tell.
* * *
Gregg and Lee Fleming had been residents of Leavenworth, Washington, for every year that Gage had been alive. The town was rich in Bavarian/German ancestry and boasted a festival every year to celebrate.
Gage’s parents had been coworkers at the Leavenworth fish hatchery until recently, when his mother retired to start her own online business crafting quilts and pillows. His father still worked there and loved every moment of it, even though Gage had paid their mortgage off last year so that his father could retire. Stubborn old man.
Leavenworth was a shortish two-hour jaunt from Seattle, so Gage saw his parents often enough for his tastes.
His sister, Drew, admitted she’d like to see them a little less often, but Gage had goaded her into hosting the family visit this time around.
Drew’s apartment was in a nice, newish building in Seattle teeming with millennials and career-driven singles. She’d ended up as career-driven as Gage as it turned out, the worry of ending up at the hatchery a worst-case scenario for her as well.
“Mom is driving me crazy,” Drew said in a harsh whisper as she pulled the lid off a pineapple upside-down cake their mother had brought for dessert.
Dinner had already been consumed—fish tacos, of course. Gage’s father insisted on bringing his hard work to the table even though Gage had eaten enough fish to sustain him for a lifetime.
“I told her three times that Devin couldn’t come to dinner because his schedule is too demanding and still she accuses me of ‘hiding’ him. I don’t know why they want to meet him so badly anyway. He’s a chef, not a celebrity.”
Gage bit his lip. To Drew, chefs were celebrities. She was a public relations manager for various restaurants under the corporate umbrella of Fig & Truffle. She managed soft openings mostly and was a self-proclaimed foodie. She poked at the pineapple upside-down cake and frowned.
“I should’ve had Devin make crème brûlée.”
“Don’t be a snob.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and he smiled. She left the room with a confidence that didn’t used to be there. He admired the hell out of her for it—his sister hadn’t always been so sure of herself.
She’d always been petite, though, which had been her downfall when she was younger. Her curvy figure had been named a “weight problem” by their less-than-eloquent mother, and Drew had referred to herself as “chubby” which showed even less eloquence.
Gage might have noticed his sister looked different at age sixteen versus age twenty, but it wasn’t as if the fifty or so pounds she’d lost had made an iota of difference in how much he loved her.
He was glad she went after what she wanted. She’d always contended that good food was her number one passion, and she wouldn’t sacrifice a pat of real butter for margarine no matter what health magazines suggested. She’d balanced her fitness goals and her passion, never indulging in too much of either one. Gage couldn’t be prouder of his only sister.
He turned to resume making his and Drew’s drinks, not the least bit intimidated by the fancy espresso maker in her apartment—they had one like it in the executive break room at Monarch. It made him laugh that while her dining room table was a scarred hand-me-down from their parents, her espresso maker was top-of-the-line and probably cost close to what it would take to replace that entire dining set twice over. Drew had her priorities straight, Gage thought with a smile.
Their parents had retired to the living room, which was connected to the kitchen. Drew came from that direction now to grab dessert plates as he finished their espressos.
He handed Drew one of the petite cups and she sagged against the countertop. “Why aren’t they giving you a hard time about meeting who you’re dating?”
“Because I never tell them I’m dating.”
The TV was blaring so loudly that he was confident neither Mom nor Dad could overhear the discussion in the kitchen. Fine by him. The less they knew about his love life, the better.
“You would’ve been smart to keep Devin to yourself. Or Ronnie, for that matter,” he said of her last bad breakup. Devin didn’t have much more potential than Ronnie in that arena. Gage had met Devin once and, culinary degree aside, had determined he was a self-indulgent butthead, and that was putting it kindly.
“I like talking about my feelings.” She sipped her espresso and her eyebrows jumped. “Mmm! This is delicious. So, big bro, do tell. Are you seeing anyone?”
He debated his answer for one sip, then two, from his espresso cup. Finally, he opted to level with Drew, since they’d been nothing but honest with each other for most of their lives. “Her name is Andy. I met her at work and she asked me to attend her sister’s Ohio wedding with her last weekend as a favor.”
As he spoke, his sister’s eyebrows climbed her forehead until they were lost in her mahogany, previously mouse-brown hair. He hadn’t gotten used to the darker hue yet.
“You went to a wedding in Ohio?”
“Yes.”
“And then what?” She smiled like a loon.
“And then w
e came back to Seattle.”
“Do you like her?”
“It’d be weird to attend a wedding with someone I didn’t like, wouldn’t it?”
“So coy. Where is she?”
“She’s working.”
“Monarch isn’t open on Sunday.”
“She works for herself. She was freelancing at Monarch.” He and Drew had a mini standoff. “It’s too soon to bring her in to meet the fam.” If ever.
“I can’t remember the last time you brought a girl around to ‘meet the fam.’”
She was right. It hadn’t been something he’d even considered. He couldn’t say that he was considering it now, but when he’d mentioned to Andy he had a family thing today, he’d briefly entertained the idea of inviting her. He didn’t, of course, because that would’ve been insane.
“What girl?” Their mother, Lee, strode into the kitchen.
Enter: the reason he hadn’t invited Andy. His very loving, oft-prying mother.
“I want to hear all about her. Can you Face-Call her so we can meet her?”
“It’s called FaceTime, Mom,” Drew said.
“Face-Call, FaceTime. Whatever. Pull her up on your mobile phone so we can say hello.”
Gage opened his mouth to say “hell, no,” but their mother interrupted with “Do you have any real coffee, Drew darling? I don’t like expresso.”
Drew ignored their mother’s mispronunciation of espresso and pulled a “real” coffee maker out of a lower cabinet. As she set up the drip pot, she smiled over her shoulder. “I don’t think Gage is ready to introduce us to his girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he grumbled, sounding like a less mature version of himself.
“Well, why on earth not?” their mother asked. “The same reason you won’t introduce us to Devin? Are we that embarrassing?”
Gage grinned at his sister, content to have the topic swivel to her. “Yeah, Drew. Where is Devin tonight?”
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