him…
One of her finely arched eyebrows lifted. “If you’re trying to be funny, Gri…Gr…” She gave a slight shake of her head, making the veil caress her bare shoulders. “Uh…Mr. Stevens, it’s not working.”
“Grant.”
“What?”
“My name. It’s Grant.”
“Where is Griff?”
“I can’t say.” That didn’t sound right so he tried again. “I don’t know.”
Her shoulders relaxed and she reached for him. “I don’t like this practical joke, Griff.”
“I’m Grant.”
She withdrew as if he’d slapped her.
He gestured toward a nearby blue velveteen chair. “Why don’t you have a seat?”
“I don’t believe you…any of this.” She crossed her arms over her middle, pushing her breasts higher, straining the edges of her lacy bra.
He averted his gaze and tried to remain a gentleman when he’d already failed. “Do you have a…a…”
He spotted a robe flung across the back of a suitcase and retrieved it. He held it out for her to take but she simply stared at him, as if she’d lost all sense.
“Griffin has—” He broke off. The stark pain in her vivid blue eyes reached right into his chest and twisted his heart in a cinch knot. Damn his brother. “Ah, hell, he’s backed out of the wedding, Annie. I’m sorry. Sorry he didn’t tell you himself.” Sorry he’s my lousy brother.
He watched her carefully, ready to wrap his arms around her if she needed support and just as ready to duck if she threw something at him. Her silence divided his loyalties like a stock split. He searched for something, anything, to say. How could he help her understand? How could he make it easier? Drawing on what she’d told him earlier, he said, “Griffin decided it was too soon…that…uh, you didn’t know what you were getting into…marrying him.” Yeah, that’s it! “He was trying to protect you.”
Her features contorted and she bent forward.
Damn, she was going to faint. He stepped forward. “Annie?”
Her shoulders started to shake.
Wanting to take away the pain she must be feeling, he reached for her, but the sound of her sobs suddenly became clear. She wasn’t crying or wailing with anger or grief. She was laughing! Doubled over with laughter!
He jerked his hand back. “What the hell?”
She laughed until her face turned red. At least his tux wouldn’t end up damp from a teary bride. Maybe this time he wouldn’t land in the emergency room with a broken nose. Or maybe he should call for reinforcements. Maybe she’d gone off the deep end. Feeling as awkward as Jed Clampett visiting Tiffany’s he let out a confused chuckle, then gave in to relief.
“So you’re not upset?” He sat on the velveteen chair, tension having zapped his strength. “I can’t tell you what a relief—”
She took a deep breath then started to choke. Once she had control of herself, she wasn’t laughing anymore. “Oh, God. I can’t believe this is happening again!”
2
ANGUISH SWELLED inside Annie, but it couldn’t get past the sense of hysteria she was feeling. She swallowed the pain and locked it away with the rest she’d endured over the past few years. “This really takes the cake.”
Still laughing, not sensing her precarious state of mind, Griffin’s brother slapped his knee. “That’s a good one. Takes the cake. The wedding cake, right? You’ve got the right attitude, and a good sense of humor.”
Boy, she wished she had the cake with her at the moment. She’d show Griffin. And his twin! She’d dump it first on her fiancé’s—ex-fiancé’s—head, then she’d…she’d…What?
She wouldn’t give in to the tirade that threatened to erupt inside her. She clenched her fists. Not again. She’d made a fool of herself twice before over two men she’d thought she loved. Not this time. Nor would she allow tears to fall. She’d cried enough buckets of tears in the past few years to end the drought here in west Texas. It was time to shut down her emotions and figure out what she would do now.
She grabbed her robe from Grant and with jerky motions shoved her numb arms into the silk sleeves. Somehow with her trembling fingers she managed to tie a knot at her waist.
“I’m glad you’re taking this so well,” Grant said. “I confess I was worried. Especially the way you kissed me…” This man, this stranger who looked too much like her fiancé for her own comfort and peace of mind, cleared his throat. “The way you kissed me…” He coughed. “I mean…Griffin, uh, earlier. I thought you were really in love.”
A heated blush suddenly engulfed her from her toes clear up to her hairline. A rush of blood blocked out his words. Oh, God! What have I done?
She wished she could collapse inside her voluminous bridal dress hanging in the corner and disappear. She’d kissed this man, thinking it was her fiancé! And worse, she’d felt her toes curl in a way she’d never experienced before. Not with Griffin, and certainly not with any of her previous fiancés.
She pushed away that nightmare and faced a new one—one that frightened and horrified her more than facing the crowd of expectant family and friends in the chapel. Shouldn’t she have realized with that kiss that Grant wasn’t her fiancé? Looking back, she realized Grant had made her feel things she’d only wished for with Griff. She bit her lip and refused to contemplate it.
Her head started to pound. She looked at this man claiming to be Griff’s brother and searched for some clue she must have missed. He had the same dark brown, almost black, hair that had tiny waves running through it and made her fingers itch to comb it back and tame it…tame him. His eyes did seem similar, yet different. Griffin’s had been wild with mischief. This man’s were somber, steady, penetrating. Come to think of it, remembering the feel of his body against hers, he had a hard, unrelenting frame, one that could have been an advertisement for any health club, whereas her fiancé’s—her ex-fiancé’s—had been slender and not as well honed.
The backs of her eyes burned as realization settled inside her. She felt her knees go weak. The fact that this man’s kiss had made her feel wobbly, more so than any she’d shared with her runaway fiancé, annoyed the heck out of her. “I need to sit down.”
Immediately Grant jumped to his feet. “Here.”
He helped her into the chair he’d vacated. With one hand on her arm and the other around her waist, she felt a fissure of awareness ripple through her, but it quickly turned to anger. She gazed into her fiancé’s face. No, not Griffin. This is Grant, Griffin’s twin.
Strange how she had the urge to slap his sudden concern right out the door. But she’d save that much effort for when she saw Griff again. If she ever saw her ex-fiancé again.
She didn’t want Grant’s
