Barbara Hannay - One Winter Wedding

“What did you do?”

“Jumped out of my car and pulled him off.”

“And Todd actually grabbed this kid in front of Emily?”

Connor snorted. “No. She’d left her sweater in the restaurant and had gone back for it. By the time she came out, Todd was wearing a crocodile grin and the valet had pocketed a tip the size of his monthly paycheck.”

Something else Dunworthy had in common with the Wilsons—thinking money could make anything or anyone disappear. Not that he blamed the kid for taking the cash. How could he when he’d done the same thing ten years ago?

“You don’t think Todd would hurt Emily, do you?” Kelsey asked, disbelief and worry mingling in her expression.

“I don’t know,” he said. “All I know is that he thinks he can do whatever he damn well wants as long as he pays for the privilege.”

“Kelsey! Where have you been all day?” Emily rose from the table in the middle of the Italian restaurant. “I’ve been calling you since first thing this morning.”

Kelsey braced herself against Emily’s exuberant greeting, hesitantly patting her cousin’s slender shoulder blades. First thing this morning, Emily had been with Connor. Kelsey seriously doubted she’d been on her cousin’s mind. “I’ve, um, been busy.”

“What have you been doing?” Emily demanded as Kelsey slipped into a seat next to her and across from Aileen and her husband.

“I was—” Kelsey’s mind blanked as she met her cousin’s curious gaze, and she couldn’t think of a single excuse.

I was with Connor. We spent the day spying on your fiancé, which was possibly the craziest thing I’ve ever done, right up to the time I thought Connor might kiss me.

“Kelsey!”

She jumped at the sound of her aunt’s voice, terrified for a split second that she’d said the unbelievable words out loud. “What?”

Charlene frowned with a question in her eyes. “You paid the florist, didn’t you?”

“Yes! Yes, I did.” As if the forty-minute errand explained her absence during most of the day.

“Good. I hope it wasn’t a mistake going with such a small shop. As worried as that woman sounded, you’d think she was down to her last dollar.”

Irritation buzzed like a rash under Kelsey’s skin. “Her name is Lisa Remming, and she’s an amazing florist. A deposit is standard policy. We signed a contract stating she could cancel the order if it wasn’t paid on time,” she added, knowing her friend would never have considered canceling such an important order.

“All right, Kelsey. You’ve made your point,” Charlene said. Kelsey thought she might have caught a hint of respect in her aunt’s expression.

But Emily’s eyes widened, and she grabbed Kelsey’s hand. “Lisa wouldn’t do that, would she?”

“No, of course not,” she reassured her cousin, feeling like a jerk for worrying her cousin just to make a point with Charlene. “The flowers are going to be beautiful.”

Emily smiled, relieved someone else had solved the problem. “Thank goodness. I can’t imagine getting married without the right bouquet.”

Kelsey, personally, couldn’t imagine getting married without the right groom. She wanted to believe Todd was that man for her cousin, but ever since Connor had rolled into town, doubts had swirled through her mind like a desert dust devil.

“Emily, darling!” a masculine voice called out. Dressed in designer slacks and a slate-blue silk shirt, Todd Dunworthy approached, his perfectly groomed blond hair glinting, and his teeth flashing in a blinding smile.

Sheep’s clothing, Kelsey thought suddenly. Expensive, designer-crafted sheep’s clothing…if she believed Connor. But that was the question. Did she believe him?

“Sorry I’m late,” Todd apologized without looking away from his fiancée. “My meeting ran late.”

“Your meeting?” Kelsey didn’t realize she’d spoken the words out loud until all eyes turned her way. Tempted to blurt out that he’d spent less than five minutes at the office, she choked back the words. She couldn’t say that without revealing her own presence. And, as she’d told Connor, Todd’s meeting could have changed locations. Hoping Todd would reveal that was the case, she pressed, “I mean, what meeting, Todd?”

He waved his hand carelessly, and his sleeve pulled back to show a hint of the gold watch he wore. “Just business. You wouldn’t be interested,” he said, flashing a wink that was more condescending than charming.

“Oh, but I am,” Kelsey interjected, when Todd would have changed the subject. He shot her a look clearly meant to back her down —to put her in her place —but Kelsey stood her ground. She could almost feel Connor at her back, giving her the strength to do the right thing. “You’ll be family soon, and I hardly know anything about what you do.”

“Honestly, Kelsey, enough about work,” Emily interrupted, despite the fact that Todd had remained completely—suspiciously?—silent. “We have more important things to discuss.”

Ever the peacemaker, Emily turned the conversation to the wedding and her honeymoon. She smoothed over the tension like a pro until, on the outside at least, everything looked perfect.

But as the conversation moved on to drinks and appetizers and who wanted to try the chef’s special, Kelsey couldn’t help noticing how her cousin’s gaze would occasionally drift off in the distance. And she wondered if maybe, just maybe, Emily was waiting for Connor—or anyone —to rescue her again.

Connor drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, his gaze locked on the Italian restaurant. Candlelight flickered in the antique sconces, illuminating the rustic red brick, aged pergola, and carved wooden doors.

After taking Kelsey back to the hotel and her car, Connor called Jake Cameron, eager to hear what the man had found. But the conversation hadn’t gone as he’d hoped.

“I told you this would take some time,” Jake had said, sounding more frustrated and less confident than during the last call.

“Yeah, I know. You also told me you had a date with Sophia Pirelli. You had to have found something.”

Silence filled the line, and Connor might have thought the call was disconnected, except he could still sense his friend’s tension coming across loud and clear. “Jake—”

“Look, I’m seeing her again. I’ll call you later.”

He’d hung up after that, leaving Connor to battle his own tension and frustration. Unwilling to sit in his hotel room and go over the same information on Dunworthy again, he’d headed for Todd’s condo, planning to talk with some of the man’s neighbors, when he spotted the familiar SUV leaving the parking garage.

As Connor followed Dunworthy from his Scottsdale loft, careful to stay two car lengths behind, he had plenty of time to make some calls, and discovered the studio-sized units cost well over two million dollars. Knowing the man would pay such an outrageous price for an exclusive address to call home, Connor should have expected what was to come.

He’d already trailed Emily’s fiancé from one expensive store to another, growing more and more disgusted as Dunworthy racked up a small fortune in purchases. Wine shops, jewelers, tailors. Connor had held back far enough to keep Dunworthy from spotting him, but not so far that he couldn’t see the dollar signs in the salespeople’s eyes.

The afternoon had proved a dud just like the meeting that morning, and Connor wished Kelsey had come along. He missed her company—an odd admission for a man who worked alone. He missed her wry comments and witty comebacks, not to mention the tempting thought of kissing her. It was no longer a question of if, but when…