Page 35 of A Way Out
Oz shook his head like he was trying to shake himself out of a stupor. “You, uh, look amazing.”
“Thanks.” She smoothed her hand over the front of the dress. Oz’s gaze tracked the motion.
“My sister agreed to be my maid of honor,” Holly announced, clearly oblivious to the eye-fucking Oz was currently giving Maria.
Holy crap, did the term eye-fucking really just go through her head?
“That’s great,” he said, his voice a croak. He cleared his throat. “I, uh, was going to offer to take Riley down with me. Figured you two would want a minute to catch up.”
This man.
“She needs to change out of her dress first,” Maria managed to get out. “So we’ll keep her here with us. Thank you, though.”
Oz seemed to notice Riley for the first time. His eyes went comically wide again, only this time it was obviously deliberate. “Are you getting married?” he asked.
Riley giggled. “I’m a flower girl!”
“You are the most beautiful flower girl I’ve ever seen,” Oz said solemnly.
Riley clutched her skirt and twirled. “Aunt Holly says I get to throw flowers at people.”
All three adults laughed. “You’re going to toss them onto the ground while you walk up the aisle,” Holly explained.
“I want to toss them at people,” Riley said.
“You can toss some at me,” Oz said. “And then toss the rest on the aisle. How does that sound?”
Riley glanced at the ceiling, like she was contemplating his question, and then nodded succinctly. “Okay.”
He strode over and thrust out his hand, and Riley shook it. “It’s a deal.” He moved back to the door. “I’ll see you all downstairs then.”
His hot gaze licked over Maria one more time before he finally closed the door behind him.
“Holy shi—wow, I am flushed.” Holly flapped her hand in front of her face.
“What are you talking about?” Maria said, unzipping Riley’s dress.
“I’m talking about the way that man looked at you. Is there something going on between you two?”
“No, of course not.” Maria’s denial sounded way too fast and way too guilty to her own ears.
“Do you want something to be going on?” Holly pressed.
Maria helped her daughter back into her clothes. “I don’t know. I mean, it doesn’t matter. I don’t think he’s interested like that.”
“Oh, he is definitely interested like that. He might as well have said it out loud, the way he was looking at you. I mean, I’m all hot and bothered right now and that searing look wasn’t even for me.”
“Okay, can we stop talking about this in front of my child? And can you unzip me so I can get out of this dress?”
“Fine.” Holly unzipped her. “But we’re discussing this in more depth after Riley goes to bed.”
Luckily, courtesy of the time zone difference, it would be at least another hour before that would happen, and hopefully, Holly will have forgotten about this conversation by then.
Because Maria wasn’t ready to admit to her sister that yes, she’d love to hook up with Oz.
Chapter Thirteen
Oz left Maria’s room and went straight to the kitchen, where there were enough bottles of liquor set up on the counter to open a bar for the evening. He was tempted by the hard stuff but went for a beer instead. He wanted to take the edge off, but he didn’t need to get sloppy.
