Page 21 of Beautiful Rush
We all laughed at that one. Even I knew that Killian had met his match with Eden.
When she finished telling her story, I prompted Ava to do the same. Her story was longer and sadder, and Connor had told me parts of it, but I’d never heard the whole thing and never from Ava’s perspective. Once again, my father played a prominent role, but Ava put a different spin on it.
“When you came to Brooklyn, it changed our lives for the better. At first, it didn’t seem that way. Connor was freaked out because he’d kept everything that had happened in Miami a big secret.”
I remembered the look on his face when I showed up at Forever Ink, his tattoo shop. To say he wasn’t overjoyed to see me was an understatement. I barged into his life, uninvited, and announced to Ava that I was Connor’s sister. What a bonehead.
“Connor was forced to tell the truth and come clean. He thought he was trying to protect Killian from the truth.” Ava side-eyed me. I knew which truth he hadn’t wanted to divulge. That our mother didn’t give a crap about her sons and didn’t want them back in her life. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” It wasn’t. But I didn’t want to think about my mother. She knew her oldest son was getting married tomorrow. I’d been there when Eden had invited her to the wedding. Eden had told her it would mean a lot to her and Killian, that she’d lost her own mother to cancer when she was only twelve. Eden had gone out of her way to be kind to my mother, to try and see the best in her, but even she had failed.
“Connor was afraid that nobody would believe his story,” Ava continued for my benefit. “He thought he’d be called out as a junkie and a liar. But Killian surprised him. He was totally supportive. After their falling out, they were finally on the same team again and that meant the world to Connor. For a while, we didn’t even think Connor would get to be the best man.”
Eden smiled. “I knew Killian would come around. Eventually.”
Ava raised a skeptical eyebrow but kept her mouth shut. We both knew that Eden was the biggest optimist of our trio. No matter what life threw at her, her glass was always half-full.
“So yeah, we both got our men and we’re working on our happily-ever-afters,” Eden said.
“Why do our stories sound so tragic?” Ava asked.
“Every fairy tale has tragedy, treachery, and villains,” I said, a subject I was well-versed in.
“Fairy tales are dark,” Ava said. “Why does everyone think they’re so sweet? Who really wants to live a fairy tale life? If someone forced me to live in a cottage with those creepy seven dwarves, I’d be freaked out.”
“How would you like to be locked in a castle with a beast?” Eden asked.
“You tell us,” Ava said. “You’re marrying him tomorrow.”
Eden tossed a throw pillow at Ava and we all laughed.
* * *
They saythat every bride is beautiful, but I couldn’t imagine a bride more beautiful than Eden. She was glowing. The whole day had been picture-perfect. For Eden and Killian’s special day, I’d expected nothing less. The sun shone on people who loved each other the way they did. The ceremony had been beautiful, short and sweet, vows and rings exchanged in a small church that held all their family and friends. When Eden had walked down the aisle on her dad’s arm, looking radiant in a simple, elegant strapless gown of ivory silk, Killian had looked at her like she had put the moon and stars in the sky. His face had reflected his awe and his love and his joy and for a few seconds, it looked like he was fighting back tears. I felt like a voyeur intruding on what should have been an intimate moment. Then Connor had whispered something in Killian’s ear and they both laughed, those dimples in their cheeks making an appearance.
Killian’s jacket and tie were long gone now, the white sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to expose his inked arms wrapped around Eden, her face pressed against his neck for their first dance, Sleeping At Last’s cover of ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).’ The song was beautiful and haunting, and the lyrics were perfect for them. Would any man ever love me the way Killian loves Eden? The way Connor loves Ava? Did I even want that? No.
I watched from my spot in the doorway that opened onto a private courtyard, as they slow-danced under the crystal chandeliers that hung from the soaring wood-beamed ceiling in the renovated warehouse. The lighting was soft and golden, blurring the edges, and I was buzzed on champagne and high on life.
“Hey gorgeous.”
I turned to look at Eden’s brother, Sawyer.
I smiled. “Hey you.”
He was a Marine, tall and proud, and looked like the male version of Eden except that his hair was a darker shade of blond. He hid the haunted look in his eyes behind an easy grin which he bestowed on me now. “Dance with me.”
“Thought you’d never ask,” I teased.
We danced and drank, and he cracked jokes that had me laughing so hard I doubled over. My champagne glass was relegated to a table and he was spinning and dipping me around the dancefloor. I didn’t know if we were exceptionally good dancers or if I was just drunk enough to think we were. I must have voiced the question because he reeled me back into his arms and answered me.
“We’re exceptionally good dancers.” He winked, and I laughed, looking over his shoulder at Ava who caught my eye and gave me a thumbs-up.
“He’s hot,” she mouthed. Or maybe she screamed it. She slapped her hand over her mouth and Connor scowled, his gaze swinging to us. Then he rolled his eyes and pulled her into his arms, whispering something in her ear that made her blush and forget all about the other people in the room. Two seconds later they disappeared.
Sawyer was hot, but he didn’t make my pulse race. His touch didn’t set my skin on fire. His scent didn’t make me want to burrow my face in his neck and breathe him in. So, we were safe on all counts, not to mention that he was an active-duty Marine on leave and was more of a one-night-stand kind of guy. I knew that because we’d already had the conversation and he told me his sister would kill him if he messed with me.
At some point in the evening, I lost my shoes and Sawyer and I were crawling under tables looking for them. Eventually, he found them in the potted ficus in the courtyard. Ava found my clutch bag in the ladies’ room and Eden’s dad was guarding my bouquet of blush pink peonies. A quick look in the mirror confirmed that I was a hot mess, my eyeliner smudged and my hair disheveled, but I was too happy to care.
