Kieran followed Lacie’s progress, his grin growing when he saw who Lacie was talking to. “Tori, huh? Good for you, man.”
No, it wasn’t good for him. Not good at all.
He watched helplessly as Lacie approached Tori and spoke, presumably introducing herself. Then they both turned toward the table and Tori’s gaze met his. If there was any consolation, it was that Tori didn’t look any more comfortable about the situation than he was. No one could say no to Lacie though, not without feeling like an ass. When Tori smiled politely and nodded, he felt an odd mixture of relief and trepidation.
The three men stood as the women approached. The apologetic look on Tori’s face nearly gutted him when she realized the only open seat was next to him.
“Are you okay with this?” she asked quietly, leaning slightly toward him under the guise of slipping her small purse over the back of the chair. The fact that she’d asked made him think maybe he wasn’t as good at concealing his thoughts as he’d believed. Or maybe Tori was just really good at reading him. Neither idea was particularly appealing.
“Of course.” He summoned a smile—it wasn’t all that hard with Tori—and held out the chair for her. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too.”
Aware of Lacie’s close scrutiny (and Shane and Kieran’s amusement), Brian made introductions.
“Tori, you’ve met my sister, Lacie,” he said, shooting Lacie a sidelong glance promising they would talk later. “This is her husband, Shane Callaghan.” Shane nodded politely. “You know Kieran, and this is his wife, Faith.”
They exchanged pleasant greetings. Tori seemed a bit nervous, so Brian asked if she wanted anything from the bar. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, though he felt the strong urge for a drink himself.
“I would, yes,” she said, confirming his suspicions.
“What would you like?”
“To see what they have.”
She smiled sweetly and stood, fleeing to the safety of the bar. Those protective instincts rushed to the surface again. Brian stood to follow, but was stopped by a gentle hand on his arm.
“Give her a minute,” Lacie said. “I think she’s feeling a little overwhelmed.”
“Overwhelmed?” Kieran asked. “Why would she feel overwhelmed?”
It was Faith who answered. “Because whether you realize it or not, you guys have this intense, powerful vibe thing going on. I felt exactly the same way when I first met you.”
“The first time you met us, you banged your head beneath your kitchen sink,” Shane grinned.
“Exactly my point.”
Brian reluctantly remained at the table. The Callaghans did have a strong presence, especially around those who didn’t know them. But him? Tori hadn’t seemed skittish around him when he’d given her a ride home that night. Quiet, maybe, but not skittish.
He continued to track her progress, watching as she waited patiently for the bartender to notice her. When the guy finally did, he gave Tori a wide smile and leaned in—a little too close, in Brian’s opinion. The music wasn’t that loud that he needed to lean in so close to hear her order.
Tori got a glass of wine. Brian released a breath when she turned and headed back toward the table. Until that moment, he’d half expected her to just keep going.
The men stood again when she returned, and once again, he held out the chair for her. She seemed to appreciate the gesture and offered a soft “thanks” as she sat down.
Brian had to hand it to his sister. She knew how to put someone at ease. She kept the mood light and friendly, asking polite but not overly intrusive questions. For his part, he had it easy. He got to simply sit back and listen.
He learned, for example, that Tori had been in Pine Ridge for nearly six months and confirmed that she was a licensed physical therapist working full-time at the rehab center over in Birch Falls. Lacie and Faith shared some things about themselves, too. To her credit, Tori seemed just as impressed by the fact that Lacie was a Kindergarten teacher as she was that Faith was the head of interior design for the Celtic Goddess franchise.
By the time dinner was served, Tori seemed to have relaxed a bit. He had, too. In fact, the longer he sat next to Tori, the better he felt. His earlier resolution to remain at the reception just long enough to be polite didn’t seem quite as important after a while.
“Are you doing okay?” Lacie asked quietly. She didn’t know the depth of his issues, but she did know that crowds and noise could be a problem for him.
“Yeah,” he answered, and surprisingly, he was.
He refused to read too much into that, crediting the well-chosen table location and the company of family and friends for his ability to cope so well.
“Hey!” Faith exclaimed when the opening of Cotton Eyed Joe came over the speakers. “They’re playing our song!” She grabbed Brian’s hand and tried to tug him out of his seat. “Come on!”
He resisted. Performing the dance with Faith on his parents’ patio at Shane and Lacie’s reception after having tossed back a few was one thing, but doing so in front of hundreds of people in the Celtic Goddess Grand Ballroom was quite another. Then he caught sight of Tori looking up at him with those big hazel eyes bright with surprise and the refusal died on his lips. To the disbelieving stare of his sister, he downed what was left of his drink and allowed Faith to lead him to the dance floor.
The first few steps felt stiff, but once he stopped thinking about it and let his body take over the familiar movements, he slipped into the music and actually had fun. Others stepped back to give him and Faith more space. When the song ended, they clasped hands and bowed to the applause and cheers.
Brian glanced over at the table to see Tori grinning widely and clapping, too, and in that moment, he knew the trip to the dance floor had been worth it.
The DJ said something about taking a short break, and he and Faith made their way back to the table. “Not bad for an old man,” Lacie teased, but the sheen of moisture in her eyes let him know that she understood just how hard that had been for him.
“Who are you calling old?” he snorted.
“That was wonderful!” Tori told him. “Where did you learn how to dance like that?”
“Billy Joe Sanders.” A familiar ache rolled over him at the mention of his old Army buddy. “The man couldn’t hear a fiddle without his legs moving.”
He kept his expression neutral and his voice even but Tori’s eyes softened, confirming that she had some kind of sixth sense when it came to hearing what he didn’t say.
Brian swallowed past the constriction in his throat as the sudden tightness in his chest lessened. He did have good memories of Billy Joe, or “Hee Haw” as he and the others had come to call him.
“He used to play this hillbilly music that drove the rest of us crazy. He said it was his mission to put a bit of good ol’ boy in all of us. I guess he did at that.”
There was a moment of silence, then Tori said softly, “What a wonderful way to remember someone. I can guarantee no one will smile like that when they think of me dancing. I have two left feet.”
Without thinking, Brian made a show of leaning back and peeking under the table to look at her legs. Toned and curvy, they looked phenomenal in heels—something he may have noticed earlier. “You sure about that? Because they look just fine to me.”
A pretty rose-tinted flush blossomed on her cheeks as she crossed her legs at the ankles and tried to move them out of view. Shane cleared his throat, and Brian looked up to find his sister looking at him with an amused smile on her face and a raised brow.
Shit.
“I mean, hell, I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right.”
If possible, Tori’s face grew even redder. Great, he had embarrassed her.
She pushed back away from the table and stood. “Excuse me, please. I, uh, am going to visit the ladies’ room.”
Faith stood, too. “I’ll join you.”
As the two women walked away, Lacie turned to her husband. “I think
I saw Aidan earlier. Why don’t you and Kieran go say hi?”
“Subtle, Lace,” Shane chuckled, earning himself a stern look. “All right, all right. We’re going.” He rose and gave Brian a manly pat on the shoulder. Brian took it for what it was: a silent show of support.
Brian waited for Lacie to say what she wanted to say, wishing he’d had the foresight to grab another drink on the way back to the table earlier.
“I like her.”
Brian nodded noncommittally. “She seems nice.” He chose his words carefully, knowing Lacie would zero in on each one. One thing he didn’t want to do was give the impression that he knew Tori better than he did. Or wanted to.
“How do you know her?”
“I’ve seen her around BodyWorks a few times.”
“And...?” When he didn’t say anything right away, she prompted, “Come on, Bri. I know there’s more.”
He didn’t ask how she knew. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “And... I gave her a ride home after Phoebe’s bachelorette party.”
Lacie raised her eyebrows.
“What? Her boyfriend didn’t show, it was late. It was the decent thing to do.”
A slow smile graced her lips. “And you are a decent man.”
“Don’t go reading into it, Lace.”
“Oh, I’m not reading into anything. I don’t have to. I saw the way she looked at you. She likes you.”
That was what he was afraid of. He liked Tori, sure. Probably more than he should. That didn’t mean he would allow it to go anywhere, not with where his head was at most of the time. He sure as hell didn’t want Tori, his sister, or anyone else for that matter to believe otherwise.
“Let it go.” He glanced across the room and saw Faith and Tori returning. Something told him that had Faith not accompanied her, Tori would already be on her way home. He wouldn’t have blamed her, because he knew exactly how she felt.
He wondered vaguely if Lacie and Faith shared some kind of secret signals they used to communicate with each other. Maybe it was a female thing. He’d worked with trained soldiers who hadn’t operated as seamlessly together as those two did.
He stood and grabbed his glass. “I’m going to get another drink. Do you want anything?”
Lacie’s lips turned slightly downward, the closest she came to an actual scowl. “No, thanks.”
He made his escape, joining the others at the bar. Aidan was there, too.
“She worries about you,” Shane stated unnecessarily, pushing a glass toward him.
“I know.” And he did. He just wished he could stop giving her a reason to. He needed to either get his shit together or get a whole lot better at hiding it.
“You sure leaving her and Faith there with Tori, unsupervised, is a good idea?”
Brian looked back to the table, a sinking feeling in his stomach when he saw Lacie and Faith on either side of Tori. Whatever Lacie was saying, Tori looked uncertain. She shifted in her seat, her expression somewhat pensive.
“Damn it, Lace,” he murmured. He looked to Shane. “Help a brother out here, would you?”
Chapter Eight
“So what do you think of Pine Ridge?” Lacie asked.
“It’s nice,” Tori answered. Her attention was splintered. She was trying to maintain a polite, pleasant conversation with Brian’s sister and Faith, the woman who had accompanied her to the rest room. Simultaneously, she was wondering why Brian had fled to the safety of the bar the moment he’d seen them returning. Had she offended him somehow?
She didn’t think so; at least she hoped not. He probably just felt the same urge to take a few minutes and regroup as she had after that harmless bit of flirting.
Because that’s all it had been. Harmless. Completely innocuous. The result of the good spirits of celebration and the good spirits flowing from the open bar.
Perhaps they had given his sister the wrong impression that there was something more to it than that... or that she wanted there to be. Lacie seemed to be the sensitive sort, the kind who worried about others and wanted them to be happy. There was nothing wrong with that, although it could make things awkward.
“Thank you, Tori,” Lacie said.
Tori turned her attention away from the bar and back to the woman beside her, wondering what she had missed. “For what?”
“For sitting with us.”
“Oh, well, thanks for asking me.”
“I know Brian appreciates it, too.”
“Does he?” Tori wondered aloud. Given that he was still over at the bar, she wasn’t so sure. However, this was the perfect opportunity to correct any possible misconceptions. “We’re just friends, you know, and barely at that.”
That didn’t seem to deter Lacie at all. In fact, she looked quite pleased. “I know. Most women want something from him, but you don’t, do you?”
Tori blinked, confused. “No.”
Lacie nodded. “Good. Listen, do you have any plans for next weekend?”
Tori blinked again at the sudden change of subject. “I might,” she said warily. “Why?”
“Because next weekend is Brian’s birthday. We’re doing a cookout. Just something small. You should come.”
“Oh, I don’t know...”
“No pressure. But I will say, I don’t think Brian would still be here if you hadn’t shown up. You have a very calming presence about you.”
While that was a nice thought, Tori had a different theory. “That’s probably the Jameson’s,” she said before she could stop herself.
Lacie laughed. “No, it’s you, Tori. Trust me on this.”
Tori sought out Brian again at the bar. Lacie’s husband said something to Brian and Brian’s gaze met hers.
“Just think about it, okay?”
Tori didn’t have the heart to say “no” outright, especially when Lacie looked at her with so much hope. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt the other woman’s feelings.
“Kieran and I will be there, too,” Faith chimed in. “And my son, Matt, and his girlfriend.”
Lacie pulled a small notebook out of her clutch and scribbled something with the attached miniature pen. “This Saturday, two to whenever, three ninety-four Bear Creek Road. I put my number on there. Call anytime. I hope you’ll come.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Thanks.”
Lacie’s husband returned to the table and asked Lacie to dance. Faith’s husband did the same, leaving Tori sitting alone. She considered making a quick escape, but decided it would be rude to take off without at least saying goodbye, especially after they had been so nice, including her as if she was part of their group.
The question was, why would they do that?
Maybe they are just nice people.
Or maybe, despite your assurances otherwise, Brian’s sister thinks you are something more than you are.
There wasn’t any more to it, was there?
Tori thought of the haunted look she saw in Brian’s eyes sometimes, the one that made her want to make it go away. Could she blame his sister for wanting the same thing? For seeing things that weren’t there?
At least that was something Tori understood. There had been enough times in her life when she had wanted something so badly that she’d seen what she wanted to see. That, compounded by her incessant need to overanalyze, had led to some cringe-worthy misinterpretations.
Tori was determined not to make those same mistakes again, especially not where Brian was concerned. She liked him. And she could definitely see them being friends.
Who are you kidding? You’ve imagined a whole lot more than that.
Shut it. We’ll talk about this later.
She looked up to where Brian had been standing at the bar, but he was no longer there. Her heart fell. Maybe he’d made his grand getaway after all.
Tori finished the last of her wine, watching as Lacie and Faith danced with their husbands. They looked so happy. Was it so wrong to want the same thing? To have a man look at her like that, as if she was the mo
st important thing in his universe?
They did seem like genuinely nice people, and she had enjoyed the evening. Now that Brian seemed to have disappeared, however, perhaps it was time to call it a night. She’d wait until they returned to the table, wish everyone a good night, and head out.
Maybe she would see them again next week, if she decided to go to the cookout; she hadn’t made up her mind about that. Part of her wanted to go, another part said it wasn’t a good idea to make friends when she wasn’t sure she’d be sticking around after her contract with BFR was up.
She hadn’t been lying when she told Lacie she liked Pine Ridge. She did. Set in an idyllic mountain valley, she was fond of the natural beauty and the change of seasons. But there were plenty of other places in the northeast where she could experience the same things. There was nothing tethering her here.
She wasn’t even sure she could settle down. Other than college, she’d never lived in one place for longer than a year or two. Hers was more of a transitory existence, having been shuttled from one family member to another for most of her childhood, then changing jobs every year or so since college. She had learned early on that it was easier to leave when you didn’t feel like you were leaving anyone or anything you cared about behind.
Birch Falls was a nice place to work, but she wasn’t sure that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. While she liked what she did and the people she worked with, her dream job was to work at a place that used therapy animals as part of their program, specifically horses.
When she was a teenager, she’d worked part time at a ranch in Wyoming that had a hippotherapy program. Her job was only cleaning out the stalls and taking care of the animals, but it had planted a seed that had firmly taken root. Not only could she indulge her love of the outdoors, but her love of animals as well.
In truth, she felt more comfortable around animals than she did people.
The problem was, there weren’t a lot of accredited hippotherapy ranches around, and the ones that did exist weren’t hiring. Perhaps when she got back to her place, she’d do some more research. She hadn’t looked since moving to Pine Ridge. Who knew? Maybe she’d get lucky.
Not Quite Broken: A Callaghan Family & Friends Romance Page 5
