Page 89 of All Signs Point to Malibu

“This best man speech.”

My eyes widen. “You actually wrote one? Not just gonna wing it?”

“This is a big deal.”

“Iknow that. I just didn’t thinkyoudid.”

Warren sighs and grabs his jacket. He slides into it and again I admire how handsome he looks. His tall, muscular frame fills out the jacket and his broad chest and shoulders remind me of how safe I’d felt wrapped in his arms.

“Let’s go,” he says, heading toward the door.

“Wait. Let’s hear it.”

“Don’t trust me?”

Such a loaded question. With a best man speech or with my heart? The jury’s still out on both. “If you’re worried about it, it might be good to rehearse in front of an audience.”

Warren hesitates then reaches for his cell phone. He opens the speech, takes a deep breath, pauses. “What if it’s bad?”

“Better for me to hear it than the bride and groom. Go.”

Warren shoots me a look at my bossiness, but clears his throat and starts to read. “Love is fucked up.”

My eyes widen, but I wholeheartedly agree with the statement, so I allow him to continue. I need to hear where this is going.

“It has a way of completely turning a person’s world upside down, messing up well-laid plans and making its victim reconsider everything they ever thought they knew.” He glances up at me then continues. “It has a way of sneaking up, knocking you off guard and tearing through your soul. But it also has a way of healing, of opening a person’s eyes to a different future they’d never dared to imagine—one full of unexpected passion in moments of love and in moments of pain. We can live without everything else. But what’s a life without love? To the beautiful couple...”

My mouth is agape when he glances up.

“Well?”

“You wrote that?”

He looks worried again. “Is it too much? Too sappy?”

“No! It’s...um good. Really good actually.” Has me rethinking my Aristotle quotes.

Warren studies me, unconvinced. “You’re not just saying that to be nice?”

“When am I ever nice...to you?”

We stare at one another, share a moment. Chemistry sizzles between us along with a lot of unsaid words. But now’s not the time...

“You look amazing, by the way,” he says, his voice deep and gruff.

Or maybe it is...

I swallow hard as his gaze takes me in. “Are you just saying that to be nice?”

“When am I ever nice...to you?”

We move closer together, our eyes locked on one another. There’s a moment when he looks at me and his expression changes. I’ve started to live for that moment.

Warren reaches for me and I immediately step into his arms. We kiss. Soft, uncertain, hesitant at first, then more passionate. I cling to his suit jacket as he backs me up against a wall and kisses me senseless.

His hands grip my waist, fingers digging into the silky fabric of the dress as his mouth searches mine for answers neither of us are willing to verbalize. Challenging me to either back away or go all in.

I know what I want to do, but I still don’t know if this is just a physical thing for Warren. I don’t want to be just another conquest to him and I’m not even sure I’m capable of going all in, so keeping the guardrail around my heart is safe...

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