no big secret men are convinced blondes know how to enjoy life.”
“It sounds just about right to me.” He smiled, and it was like the proverbial ray of sunshine spreading radiance across his dark, daunting face.
“Didn’t you have a wild girlfriend at one time?” she countered, trying to fight the punch his smile delivered.
“I doubt it, Toni. Wild women aren’t my style.”
“Yet I seem to remember her. Hettie? Lettie? Tall, good-looking brunette, not shy about spouting off.”
“I think you mean Charlotte Reardon.” The silver-gray eyes sharpened.
“Yes, Lottie. Everyone said she was very fast.”
“What the hell are you up to, Toni?” He raised a brow.
“I just wanted to see if I could take the mickey out of you,” she joked.
“You’d better wait until you know me a little better.”
“I’ve known you all my life.” Not in this way, she thought. Not with all the flash and challenge.
“Not up close,” he told her, eyes narrowing. “Tell me why you really came home.”
As a question it was almost aggressive. “To be with Kerry, of course. To be one of Cate’s bridesmaids. I consider it an honour.”
“What will Zoe do without you?”
“Zoe has made her decision, Byrne. She’s going to marry Patrick. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“But you’ve got a problem with it?” He glanced at her, trying to pierce her guard.
“Maybe. Zoe loves weddings. All the excitement and glamour. That wonderful feeling of magic in the air. She doesn’t give a lot of thought to after.”
“Then you can count it a miracle she stayed so long with your father.”
“I promise you she did love him,” Toni said out of her deep knowledge of her mother. “And there were the two of us.”
“A daughter thirteen. A son seventeen. Problematic ages, one would have thought.”
“Zoe wasn’t qualified to give advice.”
He glanced at her with a sympathy he couldn’t suppress. “Does she ever show regret?”
Toni rubbed a finger between her arched brows. “One can’t judge Zoe by normal standards. She doesn’t look on broken marriages as failures. More as a way of breaking out of a bad situation. I should warn you, she could bring Patrick when she arrives.”
“So long as she doesn’t bring Akbar.” Amusement showed in his light-struck eyes.
“All right, I was joking about Akbar.”
“Some joke.”
“You believed me?”
He shrugged. “It must have something to do with the fact you’re Zoe’s daughter.”
“A real flake.” That was the general impression before they came to know her.
“The sort of woman to drive men wild.”
It was difficult suddenly to breathe. “I missed out on that talent.”
“I’ve seen nothing to indicate- that so far,” he drawled. “In fact I’m wondering how we’re going to prevent you from upstaging Cate.”
Toni flushed with hurt. “That’s what I call a bit of out-and-out malice.”
“Not at all.” His silver eyes sparkled. “Some weddings I’ve been to the bridesmaid has upstaged the bride.”
“That shouldn’t happen.”
“But it is a problem. I suppose you know Cate has three little flower girls lined up, as well as her four bridesmaids?”
Toni smiled. “She always did say she wanted a large wedding. I know Sally and Tara, of course—” she referred to the Beresford cousins “—but I don’t think I’ve met Andrea.”
“Andrea Benton.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell.” She looked at him inquiringly.
“You’ve been out of the country awhile. Andrea’s father has been making the news for the past couple of years. Corporate takeovers, that kind of thing.”
“It doesn’t sound as if you like him.”
“I can promise you I like Andrea.” He let his gaze skim over her. Thinking, She doesn’t miss a thing.
“Should I read something significant into that?”
“You’re welcome to, if you like.” He smiled. “I don’t know that it means anything.”
“Just a friend of the family?” She shifted position so she could look at him. He was the most marvelous-looking man she had ever seen. Supremely self-assured, and it showed.
“Don’t press too hard, Toni,” he warned without sounding riled.
“Why, are you scared of matrimony?”
“That’s right, ma’am,” he drawled.
“Shame on you, Byrne. And you don’t like to get yourself into critical situations?”
“You’d better believe it.” He took his eyes off the control panel to stare at her. “There are no scandals in the Beresford family.”
“None whatsoever?” She couldn’t resist it. “Didn’t your granduncle have a mistress called Dolly?”
He laughed all of a sudden, and the laughter stayed in his eyes. “Lord, yes, I’d forgotten all about Dolly.”
“It’s what’s called selective memory. But I suppose if we stuck Dolly into the cupboard you’d have been a very worthy family. Maybe a bit starchy.” What the heck was she doing, being so irreverent?
“Okay, Antoinette, you’ve had your little bit of fun.”
“Only because you’re being pretty mean to me.”
He gave her a glance that spangled. “I’m sorry.”
She felt a kind of heat spread in her. “Okay, apology accepted. Anyway, I can’t talk. I have no immediate plans to get married, either. I’m a bit like you. I’m runnin’ scared.”
She hoped she might have tweaked his ego, but he laughed. “I guess I asked for that. Was it so bad moving in your mother’s circle?” he asked with surprising sympathy.
“Awkward.”
“If
