The Paid Bridesmaid(5)

I threw out the paper schedule and grabbed my laminated copy from my purse. Sadie had given it to me two weeks ago and I’d laminated it immediately, as every good outline should be.

Then I reached for my cell phone. I texted Sadie to see if she needed anything. She responded quickly, saying she was happily spending time with her future husband. I dropped the phone on my bed. Some jobs I was busy every minute of every day during the festivities and then there were other ones like this, where I was obviously going to have a lot of downtime to do what I wanted.

Letting myself out onto my balcony, which overlooked the ocean, I figured there were worse places to be stuck with my own thoughts.

After appreciating the view for a few minutes, I went back in and decided to take a shower. It might have been paradise, but this island had a humidity level I was unaccustomed to. The cool water helped.

Wrapped up in my fluffy white robe, I went back out to the balcony with my laptop. It had occurred to me while showering that I needed a bit more information on Camden. Knowledge was power, right?

I sent texts to Krista and to our IT manager, Taimani. I asked them to find out what they could about him. Krista sent me several suggestive emojis, but I replied that it was work-related.

Within a few minutes I had links to articles about him. Things I already knew. He was the CEO of the company he and Dan had started. He’d grown up in California, like me. I was an LA girl, and he had lived in a little town north of San Francisco.

But nothing else. He had no social media at all, which seemed strange.

I didn’t, either, but I had a good reason for it.

There were several images of him at charity events with Dan that I may or may not have examined very thoroughly.

For professional reasons.

And as I sat there and thought of him, I wondered if he was thinking about me. The idea that he might be made my skin inexplicably goose-bumpy.

Why had he asked so many questions about how I knew Sadie? Maybe he was just a curious person, as she’d suggested. Or maybe he was trying to look out for Dan and Sadie. Thinking I might be someone from her past wanting to take advantage of her, as so many of her family members seemed intent on doing.

That made some sense, but as far as he knew I was one of her best friends and wanted only good things for her. So why the third degree?

I supposed it didn’t matter. I had no intention of talking to him again, just nodding at him politely across the aisle as Dan and Sadie said their “I dos.”

Glancing at my laptop’s clock, I realized it was time to get ready. I pinned up my dark hair and headed over to the closet to grab my sparkly burgundy cocktail dress. Over the years I’d amassed quite a collection of dresses—everything from informal to ball gowns. I’d packed several cocktail dresses for this trip, along with some sundresses. It was funny, but as a little girl I’d loathed being put in a dress. I had wanted jeans or nothing. But as I’d grown older, I’d come to love the way dresses made me feel, like the femininity of a skirt swirling around my legs.

I put on some matching lipstick, a little bit of mascara, and grabbed my purse. I double-checked to see that the keycard was in my purse pocket before heading to the door. I’d locked myself out of my own room more than once and didn’t want to repeat that particular experience. I went into the hallway and tugged on my door, making sure it was shut.

The door right next to mine swung open, and I jumped slightly when Camden walked out.

And despite the fact that I’d just spent a good amount of time drooling over pictures of him, seeing him in person again sent little jolts of awareness through me.

He grinned at me and the sight of his smile nearly bowled me off my feet. His hair was slightly damp, as if he’d just gotten out of the shower. He smelled amazing, all clean and yummy.

“Looks like we’re neighbors,” he said.

“Yep.” Well, that was just perfect and what I absolutely needed. To go to sleep at night knowing that a man who I’d marked as off limits was right next door.

I tried holding my breath so that I wouldn’t draw any more of his scent into my rebellious nose.

It didn’t work.

He took a step toward me and my treacherous body leaned toward him in response. “Are you headed to the party?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said again. He was going to think I was so brilliant and witty with my inability to form complete sentences and the way I kept repeating the same one-syllable sound.

None of this seemed to be a deterrent to him and he flashed that should-be-illegal grin at me again. “Should we go down together?”

“Oh. No. I can’t. I have to go, um . . .” Where was I heading and what was I going to do when I got there? His eyes were like grass fields in spring in Ireland. How was I supposed to think? “Upstairs. I’ve got to go check on . . . someone first.” I’d nearly told him I was going to see how Brandy was doing. Sadie’s mother’s drunkenness was something Sadie wanted to keep quiet and I’d nearly hinted to him that something was amiss.

I expected him to pounce all over it and ask me a bunch of follow-up questions. Instead he leaned against the wall in this . . . lounge-y way and for some inexplicable reason I found it extremely attractive.

His voice had gone soft and low. “Then I guess I’ll have to catch up with you later.”

Without waiting for an answer, he reached out to take a piece of lint from my sleeve. Even though he didn’t make any skin-to-skin contact, my skeleton nearly jumped out of my body.