“No, it’s okay,” Maya said. “I’d actually prefer we wait for Seth anyway. I’m sure he’ll have some thoughts on this.”
Brooke barely bit back a groan, but she kept her voice casual. “Oh, is he planning on joining us today?”
“Yeah, he should be,” Maya said, glancing at her watch. “Said he was running a bit late, but I’m sure he’ll be here any minute.”
Brooke would be hard-pressed to say who was more displeased with this news, her or Neil, who despite being a grown man seemed oddly on the edge of a tantrum.
She knew why she didn’t want Seth around, but why didn’t Neil? Although she couldn’t quite blame him, given the awful way Seth had treated him at the Belles headquarters.
Then she watched his handsome features relax, the tension seeming to disappear, and Neil gave Maya a gentle smile before kissing her temple. “Of course, let’s wait for Seth. And if you want a small wedding, then I want a small wedding. You just can’t blame a guy for wanting the whole world to see his girl in that white dress, you know?”
It was the right thing to say, Brooke thought admiringly as Maya melted against her fiancé, and then averted her eyes as the two of them locked lips in a dreamy, drawn-out kiss, partly to give them privacy and partly because, frankly, the sight of a couple in love made her stomach turn a little bit these days. Not the best thing for a professional wedding planner, but that’s just the way things were for her right now.
Unfortunately, Brooke averted her eyes in the wrong direction, and her gaze landed in the doorway of the Starlight Observatory, where an angry-looking Seth Tyler stood glowering at the scene before him.
At first Brooke thought he was irritated by his sister’s public display of affection, but the goose bumps along her spine told her that, nope, Seth’s anger seemed focused on her.
Maya and Neil were still wrapped up in their kiss and hadn’t yet noticed Seth, but Brooke was noticing him.
All week she’d been clinging to the fantasy that the strange and instant awareness between them had been a fluke—that the next time they saw each other, they’d respond to the other like normal human beings.
But from the way her stomach flipped when their eyes met, she knew the hope was a futile one. Whatever this thing was—insta-lust, insta-hate, whatever—it was very much present.
Still, just because it was there didn’t mean she had to acknowledge it.
Brooke tucked her planner under her arm and walked toward him, a polite smile firmly in place. “Mr. Tyler. Glad you could join us.”
“Ms. Baldwin. Nice to see you again.” He said this without a smile, his eyes raking over her. Somehow he managed to look both annoyed and aroused. Which was perfect, since that’s very much how she was feeling at the moment. Maybe they would cancel each other out.
Their forced pleasantries caught the attention of Maya and Neil, and Maya skipped over to give her brother a warm hug. Brooke noticed the way his harsh features softened when he hugged his sister, only to re-harden into their usual scowl when Neil extended a hand.
Seth didn’t snub the other man, but from the slight hesitation before he took his future brother-in-law’s hand, Brooke got the sense that he wanted to.
“Seth, what do you think?” Maya asked, tugging him further into the bright open space.
“About?”
“About this.” Maya spread her arms to the side and spun. “For the wedding.”
Seth’s cool blue eyes flicked over the room, taking only about five seconds to assess before turning his attention back to his sister. “If you want to get married at the top of a skyscraper, we can do it on top of one of the Tyler Hotels for free.”
Maya’s smile vanished completely, and Brooke’s palm itched with the urge to slap him upside the head. Neil didn’t respond at all other than to move closer to Maya and rub a hand soothingly over her back.
Seth seemed to realize his mistake. “It’s not that I don’t want to spend money on your wedding; I just think—”
Maya glanced away, and Seth’s shoulders slumped slightly, clearly at a loss for how to get himself out of the mini-hole he’d dug.
Brooke stepped forward, a soothing smile in place. “Well, I for one think we can do better. This place is fine, it’s lovely, but none of you are over the moon about it, which tells me it’s not exactly right.”