Falling for the Best Man (Sisters of Wishing Bridge Farm, #1)(4)
“I’ve sailed down the Nile, crossed the Sahara, and been bungee jumping in New Zealand. Finding an inn in a town with a population of two thousand people is definitely in my toolbox.”
She pressed her full, pink lips together, allowing him to be reacquainted with just what nice lips they were. Sensuous, like her. He remembered the feel of her skin. Her body had been toned from work on the farm rather than from a repetitious gym program, which he found strangely arousing. Had found strangely arousing, rather. That was firmly in the past.
As far as he was concerned, anyone who was too scared to leave home wasn’t the right person for him. Regardless of how hot she looked as she pushed her long bangs away from her face.
Man, it’s going to be a long four days.
“I’m sure it is.” Emmy slammed the pickup into third gear and tightened her grip. “It’s just I was out this way, and it was no bother.”
“Really.” Christopher quirked an eyebrow. “You had a wedding emergency at the airport?”
“I—” Emmy started to speak, then broke off as frown lines gathered on her forehead. She let out a sigh. “Fine. So there’ve been a few last minute hiccups with the accommodation. It turns out you’re going to have to stay at the farm.”
“At the farm?” he said, before understanding hit him. “You mean at your farm? With you?”
“Yes, with me,” she said, her body stiff, as if daring him to argue. He opened his mouth and then closed it, noticing the pale purple smudges under her eyes. It looked like she hadn’t been getting much sleep lately. “Thanks to a plumbing disaster brought on by Lewis’s brother, the entire Rosepot Inn is out of commission.”
“Lawrence always has been a one-man demolition unit,” Christopher confirmed. His friend’s younger brother must’ve been the cause of the dark shadows under Emmy’s eyes. “Still, I could always just bunk in with him, or one of the other guys.”
“No, you can’t. Every room is already at capacity, and that’s with me pulling strings. There’s nowhere else,” she said, still refusing to look at him. “Trust me, if I knew you were the best man, I never would’ve given Melinda my word you could stay.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time you’ve broken your word,” Christopher said and was rewarded by the sight of a crimson stain creeping up her neck. He winced. Considering he strung words together for a living, he was doing a lousy job of using them right now. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just I was hoping to spend time with the wedding party, and if I’m stuck out on the farm, that will be difficult.”
“There are a couple of pre-wedding parties, plus the wedding itself. Plenty of time to see everyone,” she said, then let out a faint groan as if something else had just occurred to her. “Oh. You’re talking about nighttime activities.”
Of course he wasn’t.
Well, okay, maybe he was. But not how she thought. Not to mention the fact it was none of her business.
“Who says I don’t just want to catch up with old friends? I haven’t seen Lewis for two years. Longer for Lawrence and the other groomsmen. I do have other things on mind besides ‘nighttime activities,’ as you call them,” he said, annoyed she seemed to think so little of him.
She flushed. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. It’s just, considering how we met, can you blame me?”
“That wasn’t a wedding. It was a christening,” Christopher pointed out. And it was completely different. She had been different.
It had been in New York, and she’d worn a red dress that looked like it was straight from the nineteen fifties. It had highlighted her narrow waist and then gently flared over her hips before showing a pair of sun-browned legs. Sweet and sinful all at the same time. They’d also been the only two single people in the whole damn church, and after most of the couples had started discussing daycare and the best way to get rid of diaper rash, they’d drifted together.
Despite the dress, Emmy wasn’t normally the type of girl Christopher went for. She was fresh off the farm and had confided in him it was her first trip to New York. And while she didn’t mind it, she’d be pleased to be back in the peace and quiet, surrounded by people and things she loved. To Christopher that would normally be a warning bell, but she was also smart and open, and with the way she laughed at herself, she’d managed to turn him on more than any woman he’d ever met.
And remembering that isn’t helping matters.
“That’s hardly the point.” Emmy gave him a withering gaze, as if the weekend in question was something she wished to forget. “But I’m sorry you won’t get to see quite as much of your friends as you’d hoped to. Feel free to invite them out to the farm.”
Christopher closed his eyes and wondered how such a simple thing had become so complicated. When he opened them, Emmy was still purposefully clutching at the steering wheel.
“I was hoping to spend time with the…ladies of the wedding party. But not like that,” he said, not sure why he needed to convince her that his intentions were honorable. After all, she was the one who dumped him, not the other way around. And yet the idea of her thinking he was on the prowl made him uncomfortable. “I’m meeting with some producers in Hawaii about an upcoming TV pilot, and they’re concerned about my single status, which means I need to find a pretend girlfriend. Lewis told me that all the bridesmaids are single, so I was hoping one of them could help me.”