lightly on his back. “She loves me for myself, hard as that may be for you to believe, considering that it’s you, with your black Irish good looks, the ladies always drool over.”
“Dammit, hear me out.”
“No.” Bill threw an arm around Liam’s shoulders. “No, for once, Malone, you hear me out. This is love. The real thing, and don’t judge it by your need to bed every good-looking female in sight, or by figuring a man with a bank account is always a hostage to his money.”
Liam looked at his old friend. He thought of telling him he’d changed that attitude when he’d finally decided there were better ways to indulge a love of risk than on the fall of the cards, but then he’d have to explain more than that, and this wasn’t the time to do it. Not on Bill’s wedding day, and it looked as if this really was going to be his wedding day.
Hell. Maybe Bill was right. Maybe the marriage would work. The bottom line was that there was nothing more he could do, except hope he was around to help pick up the pieces if, and when, the time came.
“Liam?”
Liam looked up.
“You could, at least, try and look happy for me.”
“Sure.” Liam sighed. “I hope it works out. You know that.”
“It will,” Bill said solemnly. “Jess is the best thing that ever happened to me. Once you get to know her, you’ll think so, too. Come on, get that sour look off your face and admit the truth. You’re just jealous ‘cause I’ve found the perfect woman.”
Bill smiled. Liam tried to, and wondered if he’d succeeded. “I hope you’re right.”
“I know I am. Now, drink up, wish me luck and then get out there and do your duty. I fielded half a dozen phone calls after the rehearsal dinner last night, every last one from a lady aching to know more about my best man.”
Liam grinned. “Only half a dozen?”
“All right, a dozen.” Bill grinned, too, and touched his glass to Liam’s. The men finished their brandy, put down the snifters and walked to the door together. “You know how come you’re such a cynic, my man? It’s because the ladies let you get away with murder.”
“The Malone charm,” Liam said lazily. “Love ’em and leave ’em, that’s me.”
“Yeah, well, sooner or later, you’ll meet a woman like my Jessica and you’ll change your tune.”
“Sure,” Liam answered, because an intelligent man always knew when it was time to admit defeat. “Maybe in the next century.”
Bill laughed. “Go on out and charm the ladies.”
Liam strolled through the house to the music room, where the ceremony would take place. Pink and white roses filled the air with their perfume, and strains of Vivaldi drifted from the library. A pair of bridesmaids, ethereally lovely in gowns of palest pink, flashed him welcoming smiles.
Welcoming smiles to what he knew was going to end in disaster.
Liam turned on his heel and made his way through the house and out a side door to a garden with narrow, hedge-lined paths winding through it. He’d done what he could to convince Bill he was making a mistake. He was his friend’s best man, not his conscience.
From this moment on, everything was up to fate.
UPSTAIRS, in one of the guest suites of her fiancé’s home—the home that would soon be hers—Jessica paced restlessly from one wall to the other.
She’d longed for a perfect wedding day, and she had one. Blue skies, bright sun, not a single cloud to obscure the silhouette of Mount Rainier on the horizon…rare things in Seattle, but then, this was a special day. She was marrying the man she loved.
“Fate has really smiled on you, Jess,” her maid of honor had said just a little while ago.
It was true. Jessie had never put much stock in fate, but how else could she explain all the wonderful things that had happened in the past few months? She and William had gotten to know each other. Their mutual respect had become friendship, and friendship had become love.
Jessica looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled. How could the day be anything less than perfect? Not just the weather but everything. The music she and William had selected. The menu they’d planned. The vows they’d written together.
I, Jessica, do solemnly vow that I will love you, William, for the rest of my life, that I will always be at your side…
Her stomach did a slow, dangerous roll.
She was nervous, that was all. And that was normal. Everybody said so, from the seamstress who’d put a couple of quick darts into her ivory satin gown to the stylist who’d plaited tiny pink tea roses into her hair. Even Carrie, her maid of honor, had said the same thing when she saw Jessie’s hands trembling.
“Butterflies,” Carrie had assured her. “All brides have them.”
Where was Carrie, anyway? How long could it take to look for a bridal bouquet? Jessica glanced at the platinum-and-diamond watch William had given to her last night at the rehearsal dinner. “Something new,” he’d said softly. The “something old” was the emerald-and-diamond engagement ring on her finger, which had belonged to his mother and grandmother.
The watch had caught her completely by surprise.
“Oh, it’s too much,” she’d blurted when she opened the long blue box and saw the wink of diamonds. William had laughed, kissed her gently and said that nothing was too much where she was concerned.
“I love you, Jess,” he’d said softly.
Jessica swallowed dryly. She loved him, too. Her fiancé was a kind, generous, wonderful man and she was the luckiest woman in the world, and yes, the day really was going to be perfect…if she could just stop trembling.
“Butterflies,” Jessie whispered to her image in the mirror. “All brides have them.”
Was that true? She didn’t know much about brides, perhaps because she’d never thought she’d be one, not after watching her mother endure a marriage to a man who’d made a mockery of the word. Jessie’s father had been a handsome rogue. He couldn’t stay in one place for very long or, as it turned out, be faithful to one woman, but her mother had adored him anyway.
Jessie grew up knowing she’d never be that kind of fool. Why would a woman have to be blinded by passion to fall in love? Love could be something that happened slowly and gently. That was the best way, the way that would last.
She smiled.
That was the way she’d fallen in love with William.
She’d worked for him for almost a year before he’d asked her out and even then, she’d turned him down. She knew that dating your boss was never a good idea, but he’d been gently persistent and, at last, after a late night at the office, she’d agreed to dinner. Saying no under those circumstances would have been silly. Soon they’d begun spending all their time together. When he’d proposed, saying yes had
