Page 27 of On Her Terms

“Yeah. Me too.” He scans the crowd, and I follow his gaze as Summer’s maid of honor, Cara, and Brianna and Amber all rehearse their entrance. Tate’s two college buddies, Jared and Carter, are his groomsmen. With Cara leading the way, they walk the other two down the aisle, and when Jared puts his arm on Brianna and says something to make her laugh, a surge of jealously rises up inside me.

“You and Bri made Granddad a very happy man. He seems to have his energy back.”

I nod, but my stomach tightens. Soon enough this pretending will be over, and I hate the thought of hurting James—of walking away from Brianna.

“You okay?” Tate asks.

“I just don’t want to see James hurt by all of this.”

“What are you going to do when we go back?”

I scrub my face and think about that. “I’m not sure how Brianna will want this to play out. I’m letting her take the lead on this.” It was foolish to agree to this plan when I’m returning to Italy soon. We can’t fool James much longer, even if we wanted to. But how could I have said no to Brianna when she asked?

“You’ve been good for her,” Tate says, taking me by surprise. “I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time.”

“She works too much.”

Tate laughs. “You’re one to talk. I’m going to have to hire a new associate, just to get you out of the office once in a while.”

Shit. I need to tell him.

“About work,” I begin, kicking my ass for not doing it sooner. “Now that you’re up and running, I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying.”

Tate’s head rears back with a start. “Are you serious?”

I grip the back of my neck. “I’m needed at home,” I say and avoid the details of why I’m needed. “Family.”

“Damn, I had no idea.” Tate puts his hand on my shoulder. “Of course family comes first.”

“I’ll stay long enough for you to find a replacement, though.”

His blue eyes narrow in on me. “Does Bri know you’re leaving?”

“No. Why?”

His brow furrows. “You might want to tell her sooner, rather than later.”

I glance past Tate’s shoulders and my breath stalls when Brianna walks toward the altar, toward me, in a dress I can’t wait to peel from her body. She’s so damn gorgeous. I?

?m not sure how I’m going to walk away. I only know that I have to, and in the end, hopefully she realizes she can count on a man for more than a one-night stand.

For the next fifteen minutes, we all learn where to stand and what to expect from the ceremony. Once we’re done, we’re led outside to a waiting horse-drawn carriage. I help Brianna up and take a seat beside her. James is watching us carefully, but that’s not why I put my arm around her and draw her to me. She glances up at me, a warm, loving smile on her face—no doubt for show. Still, it does something weird to my insides.

The wagon shakes and bumps as the horses lead us through a trail, a mixture of pink and purple bruising the sky as day bleeds into night.

“So pretty,” Brianna says and then exhales slowly.

Lights strung along the many ski hills pop to life as darkness falls, and St. Moritz comes to life like a Christmas tree. The air changes as we follow a trail along the mountain, and I pull Brianna in closer as she shivers. Conversation picks up around us as everyone participates in idle chitchat, but right now I’m only interested in talking to Brianna, learning more about her.

“What other fun things did you used to do here when you were a teen?” I ask her.

“I did a lot of things. In the winter I skied, of course, but in the summers I swam, did stand-up paddle and went boating. Once Granddad even took us on a helicopter tour. That was fun.”

“I bet.”

She crinkles her nose. “Mostly though, I read.”

“Really.”

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