The boy grinned impishly. " 'Kay!" As soon as Joel set him back down, Cody took off once again, with another one of Joel's little relatives following behind to see the cake, too.
Joel chuckled and shook his head. "Talk about double trouble."
"And you and your two brothers weren't triple trouble at that age?" Ben asked, certain the Wilde siblings had been an equal handful. "Besides. I'm sure you and Lora will be adding to the brood in a year or so."
"I'm looking forward to it," Lora chimed in. "Maybe a little girl who'll wrap Joel around her finger."
A half-grin curved Joel's lips as he met Lora's gaze. "Oh, man, you know I won't stand a chance against that."
She gently touched his cheek, the abundance of love between them so evident. "That's what I'm counting on."
The photographer came up to the new couple and pulled Joel and Lora away for some wedding photos with Joel's parents. Ben guided Christine toward the patio area where the food was located, and introduced her to a few other people on the way. They said a quick hello to Scott and Ashley, whom Christine had met at the charity event the previous weekend, and Adrian-one of Joel's cousins-and his wife, Chayse, stopped to chat with them, too.
After loading their plates with finger sandwiches, potato salad, fruit, and a few other appetizers, then picking up drinks at the bar, they made their way back to a table where Ben's buddies and coworkers, Kevin, Jon, and Zach, were sitting with their own meals. Christine sat down next to Kevin, the most familiar face of the group, and Ben took the chair next to her.
After introducing her to Jon and Zach, Kevin leaned toward her and said with a charming smile, "I think it's only fair that I should warn you that I wanted you here today so I could steal you away from Ben."
Christine suppressed a grin, but couldn't disguise the amusement dancing in her eyes. "A man with ulterior motives, huh?"
"You bet. Especially when it comes to beautiful women." Kevin winked at her.
"Be careful," Jon piped in from across the table. "Kevin's a player."
The other man snorted in reply. "Oh, and you're not?"
"I'm just not so obvious about it." Jon said with a smug look, and took a big bite of his potato salad.
Kevin dismissed his comment with a wave of his hand. "Yeah, whatever, Jon Boy."
Zach, the quiet one of the group, finally spoke up. "Geez, do you guys ever quit?"
"No." Kevin and Jon answered at the same time.
Christine laughed, then took a sip of her champagne. "You all sound like you could be brothers. Argumentative and very competitive."
"We're as close to being brothers as you can get," Ben said, knowing everyone else at the table felt the same exact way.
"Hey, Zach," Ben said, garnering the other man's attention. "How's things going for you at ESS?" He'd only been with the firm for a few months and hadn't been assigned any outside jobs yet. They all wanted to be sure that Zach would be ready, mentally and emotionally, to tackle the stress and pressures of an actual security job.
Zach finished taking a drink of his soda-his choice of beverage since alcohol was off-limits for him-then shrugged. "I'm becoming quite the computer geek," he said, a slight bit of humor in his tone as he referred to his current office position of using the computer and Internet to research specific information on some of their cases. "By the way, that reminds me. Kevin gave me that return address on the box that was delivered to Christine's office earlier this week, and it led to a dead end."
Ben noticed that Zach's comment had piqued Christine's curiosity, as well. "What do you mean?"
"The address led to one of those postal stores where you can rent a postbox for a tee." Finished eating, Zach pushed his empty plate aside. "Except whoever sent the package just used the postal store as a bogus return address, since the box number he listed didn't even exist."
Ben wasn't surprised that the person had covered their tracks. "Thanks for checking it out. We have a pretty good idea who sent the snakes. It would have just been nice to get some solid evidence so we could press charges against the guy."
For the next half an hour, the conversation turned to more inconsequential topics that led to either Kevin and Jon ribbing one another, or Kevin flirting with Christine-no doubt to annoy Ben. There was a whole lot of laughter at their table, and once the DJ started spinning fun, upbeat tunes and encouraged guests to get up and dance, Kevin didn't hesitate to do so.
He stood up and grinned at Christine as Pink's "Get This Party Started" blasted from the speakers. "Since all the women here today are either married, engaged, or in a serious relationship, and you're not," he added, just to annoy Ben, "how about you and I go and dance?"
Kevin held his hand out to Christine, and she let him pull her up from her chair. "I'd love to dance," she said, and let him lead her toward the far end of the patio that had been designated as the dance floor.
Ben watched the two of them go, his gaze drawn to Christine's slender backside and the way her long-sleeved knit dress clung to all her soft curves. The dress was simple in design, but it was the jewel-toned purple hue of the material that made her look so vibrant, and those high heels that made her legs look so damned long and sexy.
"Are you going to let him make a move on your date like that?" Jon asked, clearly hoping for a tussle between the two men.
"Christy is free to dance with whoever she'd like."
Christy. Now the name slipped from his lips much too easily. Much too intimately. And that so was not a good thing.
"Then why are you glaring at Kevin?" Zach asked.
Ben didn't bother denying the truth. "Because he's deliberately provoking me and he knows it."
Jon chuckled much too knowingly. "You wouldn't feel provoked if you didn't have a thing for her, now would you?"
Ben transferred his dark scowl to Jon. "Shut up, already, will ya?"
"Sure thing, Benjamin." Grinning, and obviously done tormenting him, Jon stood up. "I think I'll go and put in a request with the DJ. 'Great Balls of Fire' ought to do it."
It was one of those songs they'd sang together in the military during down time when they were trying to find things to amuse themselves, and Ben knew it would bring back a lot of fun memories for all of them.
"While you're there, make a request for me, too," Ben said. "Garth Brooks's 'Friends in Low Places.'"
Jon laughed. "You got it."
Ben nursed the last of his beer and returned his attention back to Christine, who was having a great time out on the dance floor with Kevin, and a lot of the other guests. After putting in a few song requests, Jon joined the party revelers and did his best to try to steal Christine from Kevin so he'd have a dance partner, too.
He couldn't help but notice how well she fit in with everyone. She was classy, yet so approachable. So likeable and accepting. Compared to her mother, a person would never have known that Christine came from a very prominent, wealthy family.
Nearly a dozen songs later, and after being dipped, twirled, and generally worn out from the energetic dances, Christine returned to the table looking happy and relaxed. She sat down next to him, her face flushed as she tried to catch her breath.
She swiped away a damp strand of hair clinging to her cheek, her eyes a bright, sparkling shade of blue. "Those two sure know how to wear a girl out."
Since the two of them were currently alone at the table, Ben decided to stake his claim where he could. He placed a hand on her bare knee beneath the table, and leaned in close. "Lucky for me, I know how to wear you out in the way that matters most."
"Mmmm." She touched her fingers beneath his chin, her gaze brimming with desire and heat-all for him. "That you do. And you don't have to worry, I have plenty of energy left for later."
"Christine?"
Both Ben and Christine turned at the sound of a female voice calling her name. Ben instantly recognized Mia Wilde with her unique gray-silver eyes, who was holding a bundled-up baby in her arms as she approached.