Page 26 of Loving Her

“Huh?”

“I’m not with her,” she whispered, leaning to get right in his ear. With her free hand, she grabbed his wrist and squeezed until he let out a tiny yelp of pain. “We’re not really together. It’s fake,she’s helping me out. I couldn’t come to the wedding without a date! I’d never hear the end of it.”

“Oh, what the fu—Rubes! You gotta be kidding!” Danny glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to them. “And here I thought you’d finally woken up! I was so happy for you. We all were! What the hell?”

“I mean, I don’t, I just…” She set her glass down and took a deep breath. “Look, I’m not going to have this huge long conversation in whispers, because itisa huge long conversation. Let me cut out the filler: we’re not really together. But now I am thinking maybe I could explore the notion.”

“Explore the—Ruby, do not make me strangle you on my wedding day,” Daniel hissed.

“Well, offer me some constructive advice, then!” She was a little too loud, catching Angela’s attention.

The bride leaned in. “What’s going on?”

Danny kissed her. “Baby, my sister is real goddamn dumb, but I’ll have to explain when we’re alone later, trust me.” He turned back to Ruby, rummaging in his pockets. “I was going to suggest you grab Sasha and use my car to go back to the house and talk, but you have been putting away the vino, sis. What I’m doing instead is getting you an Uber. This party’s gonna go all night, the house is empty, get your girl and gotalk,for Christ’s sake.” He began swiping and poking at his phone. “There. You have got ten minutes, your driver is Lillian and she’s in a blue Nissan. You remember how to sneak out of here?”

“Yes, little brother, I do.” Ruby rolled her eyes. “But hey, I wanted to dance! It’s your wedding, don’t send me away.”

“You have to go away so I can dance atyourwedding, Ruby. Now go!”

“She seems to be trying to send signals,” Rose observed, watching as Ruby, at the head table, was twitching her head to the right.

Sasha was a good half bottle into the bar’s Ketel One stash, and it was hard to focus. “You think?”

Rose was propping her chin in her hand and squinting at her little sister. “Yeah. Definitely signals. I think there’s a…” She sat up. “Yeah, there’s a door over on that far wall. Does she want you to sneak out? Ridiculous. That’s the worst way to get out of here.”

“Sneak out?” Sasha’s brain felt like pudding.

“I got you. Don’t worry.” Rose’s hands moved in what looked like a complicated array of gestures, then she grabbed Sasha and stood up. “Follow me.”

“Are we sneaking out now?”

“No. Ruby is, because I pointed out there’s another door right behind her table. You and I are officially going to the powder room. No sneaking.” Rose expertly steered the two of them through the halls of the Grand Colony, rose petals fluttering out of her updo and a cloud of Givenchy Organza floating in her wake.

“I don’t really understand why we’re sneaking anywhere.” Having drowned most of her confusion and sorrow in the vodka before even touching the penne carbonara with chicken, Sasha was finding life to be very difficult to cope with indeed.

“I have no idea. But she clearly wants to leave, and Danny was sitting next to her nodding, so it’s my duty as the oldest sibling to help execute any kind of sneaky plan. This ain’t my first rodeo.” She winked, blue eyes twinkling. “I don’t thinkeither of you are fit to drive, so I am assuming someone has arranged transportation to wherever it is you’re supposed to go. Let’s go see if Ruby’s made it out to the front steps.”

Ruby was indeed pacing in her satin and velvet confection, her fire-engine red updo looking a bit wispy and droopy and her eyes hazy with the wine Sasha had been watching her drink. “Rosie, thank you.”

“No problem. It’s my job.” Kissing both of them on the cheek, Rose gathered up the hem of her deep pink gown and sailed back inside. “Oh, look, this must be your ride pulling up now. Have fun, you two.”

“Have fun? What did she mean by that, I wonder?” Sasha mused as Ruby dragged her into a little Nissan driven by a cheerful looking elderly woman.

“What she said,” Ruby chirped out, about two seconds before she lunged across the back seat, grabbed Sasha by the lapels, and hauled her in for a deep, steamy kiss.

Sasha’s mind seemed to splinter and scatter like a dropped glass under the heat of Ruby’s lips and tongue.Hungerwas all she could think as her fingers curled into the slippery satin at Ruby’s waist, as her back arched away from the car door. She wanted nothing in this moment more than to be as close to Ruby as possible. Today, this time, the thought of stopping to talk didn’t even cross her mind. She onlywanted, and a tiny growl slipped out as Ruby bit her bottom lip gently and tugged.

“Ahem.” In the driver’s seat, the little old lady was clearing her throat. “I don’t mind if you two strip down and go right at it, but I don’t want the cops pulling us over, so wouldja mind buckling yourselves in?”

No matter what Danny had said, ‘talking’ was not Ruby’s priority at the moment.

She kicked her bedroom door behind the two of them, the sound echoing through the completely empty house. With one hand she deftly twisted the doorknob lock. Her other hand had a firm grip around Sasha’s necktie, and she used it to drag her over to the bed.

After Lillian’s seatbelt safety moment in the Uber, they’d spent the ride back to the Fierelli house in a state of quietly giggly, almost-but-not-quite-touching tension, hands close enough to feel each other’s warmth and the electric crackle of nerves between them. She hadn’t dared touch or kiss Sasha again. She wouldn’t have been able to stop and despite Lillian’s racy suggestion, she wasn’t inclined to ravish anyone in the back seat of a Nissan. Especially not with a woman who might have played canasta with her grandma watching.

But now, they were free. There was no conversation, they just needed to touch.

Ruby took Sasha’s face in her hands as they tumbled into her bed and let herself indulge in another of those toe-curling kisses that had been replaying in the movie theater of her imagination since the night of the joint bachelor party. She managed to ease Sasha’s suit jacket off and toss it to the floor.

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