Payton froze, the piece of melon she was about to bite still on the fork prong. Was that a hint that Benny knew that had happened last night?
“Stop, Benny,” Kate said still laughing. “She just might believe you.”
Payton pushed her suspicion aside and smiled into the woman’s wide blue eyes. Damn. She would kill to have those long lashes. “Should we expect you to table dance later on tonight?”
“Only if you’re joining me,” she said and they all laughed. Benny studied Payton another minute, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine being stuck in a car with my older brother for two long days. He’s such a backseat driver. When I was sixteen, he took me out once for a lesson but after twenty minutes of telling me I wasn’t holding the steering wheel correctly or that I should have put my turn signal on four seconds before I did, I was ready to push him out of the moving car. Dominic, thank God, was way more laidback.”
“Cruz must have mellowed over the years,” Payton said. “He mostly just gripped the dash if he thought I was going too fast or distracted himself by staring at his computer screen.”
Benny sighed. “Seriously? You should have tossed that thing out the window in Laredo. He’s on freaking vacation.” They all took that moment to look over to the other table where Cruz was studying something on his cell phone. “I love him and know that he’s working really hard all to make dad and everyone proud, but I wish he’d learn to have a little fun too. Since as long as I can remember he’s always been working toward something and keeping his nose to the grind, not permitting any distractions.”
“And this is coming from someone who easily works sixty to eighty hours a week doing her pediatric residency up at the U,” Kate added.
Payton looked at Cruz’s sister in surprise. Make-up free, her hair thrown in a simple ponytail and a large shapeless dress that did nothing to show her figure underneath, Benny looked more like an undergrad in herbology than someone who’d graduated medical school and was doing a residency at a premier hospital. In comparison to Daisy’s more trendy and pretty outfit of a flowing skirt and tank, Payton couldn’t help but wonder if the uninspiring look was on purpose, or because Benny really had no clue how gorgeous she was. The way the woman shifted and pulled the dress away from her body, clearly uncomfortable in the dress, she’d bet on the latter.
Payton felt self-conscious. Sitting there with two women, similar in age to herself, one a doctor and one a lawyer, she didn’t know if she’d ever felt more inadequate. If Benny were to ask her what she did, what would she say? That she was on the board of a number of charities, planning various events, phone drives—or in plainer terms, planning parties and what kind of wine goes best with cocktail wieners.
Payton knew one thing, however. She wouldn’t be gopher to her mother and her dozens of charity events, not anymore. She meant what she’d said to her mother. She was going to do something with more purpose. Whether she had her approval or not.
“How’s your big wedding coming?” Benny asked, taking a pull from a beer. “And how come your fiancé didn’t come down with you?”
Payton set her glass down. With surprising calm and relief, she said, “The wedding’s off.” The more she said it, the more real it finally seemed. She really was doing this. Or not doing this, rather.
“You’re kidding.” Benny’s eyes rounded like saucers. “What happened?”
The sting of Brad’s betrayal was lessening and Payton imparted the worst of it to Benny who added appropriate epitaphs and groans as the occasion warranted. She was funny and open and, surprisingly, even more sarcastic than Kate.
As Payton finished, she cautioned a glance over at Cruz and realized he was watching them, a strange look on his face. She wondered if he could hear their conversation from there and if, for all she knew, he’d been following it all along. It gave her a certain level of embarrassment and excitement to think so. Meeting her gaze and realizing she’d caught him, he dropped his own back to his phone.
“Well, you’re holding up pretty well, which I’d say is a good sign that you made the right decision,” Benny said.
“Yes, well, don’t tell that to my mother or she’ll murder you on the spot. She’s…having a harder time with it.”
Benny grinned. “I’ll bet.”
“Which means she’s going to be an even bigger pill later when she watches my best friend get married, thinking about everything she’s going to miss. Speaking of which…” Payton said and turned to Kate, looking so bright and happy and relaxed, “…you should probably be getting upstairs if we’re going to get you and Dominic married before the sun sets. Just like you always dreamed.”
Kate smiled over at Dominic, all the love she had for him shining in her eyes.
Payton’s own heart tightened in happiness and joy and, admittedly, a little envy.
How would it be to be able to express that love for someone you cared deeply about, without worry, without restraint? Kate had asked her how she felt about Cruz, and she’d managed to sidestep the question then.
Then there’d been the moment on the elevator, when their eyes met and she’d seen such yearning, such naked desire on his face, she’d been stunned. It seemed to echo what surely was reflected on her own face. He’d been about to kiss her, she was almost certain, and had anticipated the touch of his lips, the rush of blood flushing through her body, and her belly had fluttered—or perhaps it had been the motion from the elevator dropping. But then the moment was over and she was left breathless and frustrated.
She couldn’t deny that somehow, in the past few days, she’d dropped whatever defenses she’d put up where Cruz Sorensen was concerned and begun to possibly, just possibly, fall in love with the big brute. Just a little.
A man who hours before had said the moment that had culminated in their saying I do before God and the church full of people had all been a mistake.
“How you feeling?” Cruz asked, hazarding a look to his right, where the man of the hour was standing.
“Never better,” Dominic said with a surprising amount of calmness.
Cruz studied his brother’s face for any signs of distress or nervousness, even though both emotions weren’t anywhere near his more laidback brother’s usual MO. But the only emotion he could see was something akin to excitement, happiness, and a sort of…peace. As if he knew everything he’d ever wanted was about to be his. Which from what Cruz could tell from seeing the couple together over the past few months, was likely true. Other than his own parents, Cruz didn’t know if he’d ever seen two people more in love and right for each other. “Yeah. I can see that. You’re a lucky man.”
“Don’t I know it. I just hope that someday you’ll be standing where I am. Having found the one woman who you know will make you the happiest man on the face of the planet.”
Cruz could imagine standing in that same place. Had done it, in fact, just a few hours ago. Not that he was about to tell Dominic that, Cruz only nodded, and turned his attention back to scanning the familiar faces of the guests, seated in eight rows evenly placed on each side of the aisle. He paused when he saw Emily Vaughn’s surly expression.
Seated in the second row on the bride’s side—which technically was filled with most of Cruz’s abundant family—the woman was doing a great job of pretending that no one else sat on either side of her, keeping her gaze glued ahead in the distance. Fortunately, everyone around her was just as keen on avoiding Payton’s mother and were laughing among themselves. He heard more than a few joking references to the sour-faced woman—all in Spanish, of course, and he smothered a smile and turned away, taking in the rest of the view outside on the patio.