We’d all be back together in Halstead before too long. The new T&S Track and ProShop—Reid had insisted that Sallinger be added to the title—was going to open in the spring. I was proud of both of them for planning for the long term. The opening would probably happen right around the time I graduated, so we’d all be together soon. Bonus, it was going to be sweet to see Beau Gregurich finally get what he had coming to him. I knew we were all anxious to see him leave town. The karma train was slow going, but it would catch him eventually.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the officiant said. “I’m pleased to introduce for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Reid Travers.” The applause was as loud as I’m sure that chapel had ever heard. A room full of race fans and family will have that effect. Reid swept Nora in his arms, dipped her low, and placed a kiss on her lips that would have made any woman jealous. Hell, it might have made any man jealous.
The two of them walked down the aisle hand in hand, I wiped the tears from my eyes that I seemed to be unable to stop.
“Come on, pretty girl,” Brett said, walking up next to me and offering me his arm to escort me back down the aisle. I smiled widely, my heart was completely full. Of love for him. Of love for my sister and her new husband. Of love and gratitude for the life I’d been given. “There’s a party for us to get to.” I tucked my arm through his and he kissed my cheek.
“Care if I join you two?” Hoyt stepped up on my free side.
“Let’s go,” I said as I looped my other arm through his and the three of us followed the happy couple out of the chapel. I didn’t miss the lingering look Hoyt gave a certain female rider as we made our way over to the reception hall.
“I’m glad you brought a date,” Brett said. “I don’t mind sharing this one for a short stroll,” he said, giving me a wink, “but I’m the only one dancing with her all night long.”
“Lucky girl,” Hoyt teased. “Try not to step on her toes all night long.”
“You know I’m the best dancer here,” Brett defended. I started to tug him away from the battle of wit he and Hoyt would have continued for far too long.
“And for the record,” Hoyt clarified, “she’s not my date. I didn’t have much of a choice.” Hoyt may not have brought Chayse McCade to the wedding by choice, but he was watching the door pretty hard, waiting for her to enter.
“Yeah, let me know how that works out for you,” Brett added as a parting remark. His arms were around my waist as he spun me around the room, the wedding guests were already starting to trickle in. “You look beautiful,” he said.
“Why thank you,” I said, kissing the tip of his nose. “You in a suit is not a bad look, either.”
“I might have to wear one more often, if you’re into this kind of thing.” He lowered my feet to the ground. “Mr. Sallinger will see you now,” he said, adjusting his tie. The devilish look in his eyes was as tempting as the smug grin on his face.
“Don’t get any ideas,” I deadpanned.
“I can’t stop them from flowing,” he said with a shrug. I laughed and shook my head.
“We should probably go congratulate the happy couple before they’re swarmed by the masses,” I said, before he had a chance to suggest I let him tie me up. Not that I was opposed to the idea, but my sister’s wedding was not the time or place to discuss it. I slipped my hand in his and started to lead him off the dance floor only to be tugged back into him once again. “And I think we are supposed to go take some pictures,” I reminded him.
“One more kiss,” he said, pressing his lips to mine. He leaned back and looked into my eyes. The rush I felt every time I was with him didn’t seem to be fading. In fact, I think it was growing stronger each time we kissed. “Two more,” he said, lowering his face to mine.
“I love you,” I told him, smiling against his lips.
“I love you more.”
Wrapped in Hoyt’s arms on the dance floor, I forced my mind to replay his earlier comment to Brett over again in my head.
“She’s not my date. I didn’t have much of a choice.”
It stung. Each and every word was like an angry hornet with a taste for pain. But remembering them over and over kept me grounded. Kept me from getting lost in the scent of him, the sound of him, and God help every woman who ever came near his rock hard body, the feel of him.
I was stupid to think that when he’d asked me to come with him to his brother’s wedding that it was anything more than a work obligation. Of course he’d asked me as way of making sure I stayed out of trouble.
“You look beautiful tonight,” he said as we swayed back and forth to the slow song. I tried to stifle the chill that wanted to run down my spine in response to his low words in my ear. I wouldn’t have agreed to dance with him after what I’d heard him say, but the bride had insisted.
“Just dance with him, please,” Nora had pleaded. “I don’t have another bridesmaid and the picture will look terrible if he’s standing out there by himself.”
It was her day after all. And she was damn near the nicest person on the planet. I could at least make things a little less stressful for one person.
When his hands rested on my hips, I told my body to ignore the way it made my heart race. I thought that we’d turned a corner in our relationship. I apparently didn’t hate him anymore and I thought that maybe he was feeling more amicable toward me as well. On the track, I was listening to him. I was taking his suggestions seriously. Most of them, anyway. I was taking my career seriously for the first time in my life. Off the track, we were getting closer, learning to trust one another a little more each day. But I must have imagined that line blurring between us. The one that separated friendship and more than.
When he’d asked me to join him for the weekend in his hometown, I had assumed it was because he wanted me here with him. Me, Chayse McCade, woman in a date-like capacity. Not the immature, impulsive rider the company hired him to tame.
I felt so stupid that I was literally having a physical response to my personal shame. The heat in my body wasn’t just because I was angry at him for not being honest about why he wanted me here. I was angry because I’d made the painfully incorrect assumption, when, after a lifetime of my dad letting me down, I knew better by now. Or I thought I did. But Hoyt Travers had majorly messed with my hardwiring. I’d started to let myself fall for him. It was infuriating that I enjoyed the way I felt in his arms. That I felt alive looking up into his eyes. That I craved being close enough to him that I could smell his cologne. But I’d heard him after the ceremony. Heard those painful words I couldn’t unhear.
Thank God. Otherwise I might have humiliated myself this weekend.
“You don’t have to say that,” I snapped. “I’m not your date after all. Wasn’t like you had much of a choice, right?”
The look on his face made it clear that he had no idea I’d overheard him. Until now.
“Chayse. I—” he began.
“I don’t need you to make excuses,” I said, pulling myself from the warmth of his arms. “And I don’t need a babysitter either. I know why you asked me to come here. I’m not an idiot.”
I actually was an idiot, but there was no need to admit it right this moment. Leave a girl with some shred of integrity, why don’t you. I stalked off the dance floor and made my way as far from Hoyt Travers as I could get.
This is exactly what I need, I thought to myself as I swiped a bottle of whiskey from behind the bar in the corner.
The Travers’ wedding reception was well underway. No one would notice if I disappeared. I just needed a few minutes to myself. And a drink. Or ten.