Page 76 of One Night With You

“So smooth,” Holland said, shoving at her husband playfully.

“What? I wanted to say that I loved her without being weird about it. And of course it got weird.”

It was like a kick in the shin to hear Kingston’s father being so open with his feelings. But then again, finding love and friendship and admiration was a different kind of emotion. And it had a different weight to it. I knew that. I had never been in love.

I put on a brave face and pushed back those thoughts. No need to bring Kingston and the weirdness into this conversation. “If all it takes is for you to love cheese to be adopted into the Montgomery family, it’s a little telling. And explains so much.”

Holland smiled, everyone else laughing as she studied my face. “Are you okay, Claire? I know you’ve been working double time for all of your events. Did we ask too much? We’re forever grateful. But if you need to go home and get some sleep, or just sit down and relax, please do. In fact, I’m going to make it mandatory that you go relax.”

She hugged me tightly, as Aria skipped over to me, literally skipped. “You are remarkable. I’m so happy you were available to help out. Mostly because your help meant I didn’t have to. I suck at this.” She turned to Holland and Ethan. “Do you mind if I steal her?”

“Go. Make sure she has fun and relaxes. Where is Kingston?” Holland asked, and my heart raced.

“Oh, he just got here.” Aria squeezed my hand, and now I had to wonder if she knew. Did everyone know?

No, people were just arriving, and the event was just beginning. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for us to arrive separately because I was helping set up. But why did I feel like everybody knew that something was awkward between us?

“I’ll talk to you soon,” I said to the others, and let Aria drag me over to where Livvy and a couple of Aria’s other cousins were.

They said their names, and I knew I was never going to remember everybody. As it was a family event, no one wore name tags, and really, they should by now. Or maybe they should literally just get their names tattooed on them so that way we would always know who was who.

“You look wonderful,” Livvy said with a soft smile.

I looked down at my sparkly gray dress and blushed. “It had to be something I could move around in, and this is one of my normal wedding outfits actually.”

“It looks great,andI saw the cheese table,” Aria put in, wiggling her eyebrows. “You do know us.”

I waved her off. “That was all Kingston’s mom. You guys already had that set up.”

Livvy laughed. “That’s pretty much on standby.”

“Did you know a few of us are actually lactose intolerant?” Aria asked, and I blinked.

“Is that even allowed?”

Aria snorted. “It is. And a couple of us don’t particularly love cheese, but we don’t say that out loud.”

“Because you get bullied? That doesn’t sound like you guys.”

“No, because you get teased, and then we buy you your favorite thing. It’s what we do.” Livvy sipped her drink and looked over my head. “And it looks like we’re about to lose you.”

I turned quickly, my stomach doing somersaults as Kingston came forward. He had on black suit pants and a gray button-up shirt. He had rolled the sleeves up to show his forearms, as well as his ink, and I nearly groaned. There was just something about that man.

“I think she was lost to us long before this,” Aria muttered under her breath, but I ignored her.

“Hey,” I whispered.

“Hey.” He reached out and slid a strand of my hair behind my ear, as both Aria and Livvy sighed behind me. “You did a great job. Sorry I couldn’t help.”

“You’ve been a little preoccupied. I can’t believe you went back to work today.”

“Just for a little thing. And I was sitting down for most of it. I’m feeling better. Hardly a twinge.”

My teeth bit into my lip as I reached out and slid one finger in his belt loop, ignoring everyone around us. “Well, if you need to sit down, you should.”

“You’re the one in high heels after running around all day trying to help my family. You amaze me.”

I swallowed hard, my pulse racing. “Any news?” I asked, my mind going a thousand different directions and landing on Buckley.

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