wedding in New York,” Luke mumbled.
“Because the people in this town are as much his family as we are.” Sam walked past and into the banquet room.
Luke followed him in and actually did a double take. If he hadn’t just driven up to the concrete building, he would believe that he’d been dropped into a grand ballroom inside a five-star hotel. The stage had had a face-lift since the last time Luke had been here, which had to have been almost five years ago. One of his high school friends had his wedding reception here, but it had been a potluck with lots of balloons, not an elegant buffet with waiters bringing guests drinks and appetizers. The room was decorated to rival the most elegant of ballrooms, down to the artful arrangements of wildflowers on every table.
“Kind of blows your mind, doesn’t it?” Penny appeared at his side.
“Definitely.” Just as she did. His pulse quickened. Penny hadn’t been at that wedding years ago, and they’d managed to avoid each other the few times he’d been back since their breakup. This was the first time they’d seen each other in nine years.
“Brady arranged most of it, but Maggie had the final say.” Penny was every bit as attractive as he remembered, from her coppery-red hair to her brown eyes to a body with curves in all the right places to her full lips that begged for his kiss. “Come on. I’ll show you the table and give you a quick walk-through of what you missed last night.”
Her fingers threaded through his as she pulled him forward into the crowd. The heat of her worked its way from their entwined fingers to the center of him. Her gold dress seemed like more of a long negligee made of slightly thicker material. His fingers itched to run over her silk-covered flesh.
“The DJ is one of the best in the industry.”
Luke followed her gaze to the DJ table. “Wyatt Graham?” Wyatt had graduated high school a few years after them.
Penny smiled and winked. “The local industry isn’t that diverse. He’ll be playing a mix of modern and oldies. We’ll be required to dance together at the end of the bridal dance and for the next few dances after that.”
As Luke glanced around, he noticed more familiar faces—from the waitstaff to the cooks in the opening to the kitchen. All local people, from either Tawnee Valley or the neighboring city of Owen.
“Brady could have flown the whole town to New York for what this cost.”
“That wasn’t the point.” Penny pulled him behind a large curtain thing that gave the room its illusion of class, and leaned against the old paneled walls of the hall. The scent of musty wood overwhelmed the small space. The lighting barely filtered through the curtain. It even deadened the low roar of the crowd and the soft music playing in the background. Everyone disappeared. It was just the two of them. His imagination went wild with possibilities, but he reined them all in.
He opened his mouth.
Penny put her fingers over his lips. “Just because you are a hotshot doc from the city doesn’t mean that everything should happen in the city. Brady wanted to give the people around here a chance to be part of the wedding. It was important to both of them, so not another word about anywhere else but here.”
The dim light caught and danced devilishly in her brown eyes. Her fingers were warm against his lips. They stood close together. It would take only a second to pull her into his arms and claim a kiss. He let out a breath across her fingers. Her breathing hitched, but she didn’t pull away.
“Now.” She sounded breathless, and his body reacted. “Do I have your promise to behave?”
The wicked glint in her eyes made her request comical.
“Do you want me to behave?” His words caressed her fingers.
He felt the tremor ripple through her. Her lips curled up in an invitation.
The music in the room suddenly changed and Penny’s eyes widened. “Oh, crap, it’s the entrance music.”
She grabbed his hand once again and pulled him out into the open. It had been so easy to forget about the whole wedding reception happening beyond the curtain. He was half tempted to pull her back and forget about the party altogether.
Maggie and Brady walked into the hall and the crowd burst into applause.
“Brady looks happy.” Luke couldn’t contain that little bit of skepticism from his voice. Luke’s memories of Brady were tainted with the death of his parents and the iron rule of his brother. Brady had been one of the reasons he’d finally calmed down enough to graduate high school. Penny had been the other reason.
“He should be.” She leaned against his arm. “She’s happy.”
A wistfulness he could have imagined had entered her voice.
Luke became aware that Penny was still holding his hand while they stood watching the couple work their way through the crowd. “Are you happy?”
She gave him a mischievous smile and squeezed his hand. “I could be happier.”
The suggestion was far from discreet. If it were any other time and any other woman, he might have walked away from her right then. He didn’t play games. His career was his primary focus and it didn’t leave time for anything else.
But tonight was his brother’s wedding in his hometown, and he was standing next to the girl who had rocked his world as a teenager before she ripped his heart out and threw it back in his face. Tomorrow he’d be on a flight to St. Louis to continue his residency and Penny would return to his past, where she belonged.
“I could always tell when you were overthinking something.” Penny’s finger reached up and traced a line between his eyebrows. “You know that’s going to form a wrinkle if you keep doing it, right?”
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t think?” Luke tried to read her facial expressions, but Penny had always been careful to mask what she was really feeling. He’d thought he had been behind her wall once, but he knew better now.
“Thinking is highly overrated.” Penny winked at him. “We need to go to the table now. Do you think you can turn off that mega-powered brain of yours for the evening and just enjoy?”
Did she mean that he should enjoy her again? Or was it just wishful thinking on his part? One thing was certain—he wouldn’t make himself a fool for Penny this time. “I’ll try.”
* * *
Penny sat between Maggie and Amber, and Luke sat on the other side of Brady next to Sam at the hour-long gourmet dinner. Penny wanted to continue flirting with Luke during the meal, but it was fun talking with Amber and teasing Maggie. Her wineglass never seemed to empty and she lost track of how much she’d actually had. She felt a bit tipsy but not drunk. With her family history, she tried to be careful with alcohol.
When Maggie, Amber and Brady got up to go visit guests at their tables, Penny scooted over into Maggie’s chair and leaned across Brady’s.
“Having fun yet?” She batted her eyelashes at Luke in mock flirtation.
“I can say the view definitely just got better.” Luke’s gaze rested on her cleavage and her gaping neckline.
She
