Stand-In Saturday (Love For Days #2) - Kirsty Moseley Page 0,63
hug him. Knowing how he feels about Amy, that must have been hard for him, but he didn’t show a single hint of jealousy or malice in his speech. It was perfect.
He sits down next to me, smugly slipping his arm across the back of my chair, seeming incredibly happy with himself.
I grin and lean in conspiratorially, my side pressing against his chest as I set my hand on his thigh. “That was brilliant.”
He smiles and turns his head to face me, his eyebrows suddenly shooting up. “Aww, Luce, are you crying … again?” His expression is teasing as he reaches out and cups the side of my neck, the pad of his thumb wiping the tear that slid out without my permission.
I chuckle and blink a couple of times to try and clear my blurry vision. “So, I like weddings. So what?”
His thumb moves down to trace the line of my jaw, eyes twinkling. “You’re a secret, soppy romantic, aren’t you? I’ve found your weakness.”
I place my hand over his and shrug unashamedly. “It wasn’t a secret.”
“You’re utterly adorable.” Grinning, he leans in and plants a kiss on the tip of my nose.
My eyelids flutter closed, and I desperately want to tilt my head up, so our lips connect, but I resist the urge. As he pulls away a fraction, our eyes meet, and I get trapped in the depths of those whiskey-coloured pools. This close, I can see there are flecks of green and gold around the pupil. They’re beautiful. His breath blows across my lips; I can almost taste the sweetness of the fruit and the Pimm’s he was drinking earlier. My lips tingle, and I see his eyes flick down to my mouth. He’s debating on kissing me, the same as I am him. That knowledge sends my hormones spiking.
I know he’s using me right now. Making himself feel better about the fact that Amy just married his brother by hitting on me, burying the pain with something nicer. I’m simply a butterfly stitch, something to stop the bleeding and momentarily attempt to heal his wounded heart. To be honest, I don’t mind that at all. Because I want the same from him. Both of us are bruised; we both have battle scars. This is merely a little stage make-up to cover them for a while … and I’m okay with that. Like Aubrey keeps telling me, we’re both adults, and if we go into it with our eyes wide open, where’s the harm?
Before Theo has the chance to kiss me, Jared stands, his voice resonating through the microphone as he starts his speech. I gulp and pull back, realising how totally inappropriate our little moment was. Theo blinks a couple of times, his lips pressing into a thin line before he leans back, too, looking over to his brother with a fond smile on his face. His arm stays across the back of my chair.
Jared makes a beautiful speech, gushing about how wonderful Amy is before he hands out presents to the bridesmaids—much to Carys’s delight—and then Anne makes a speech in lieu of the father of the bride. I struggle to concentrate on them all though because the whole time they’re doing their thing, ninety-nine percent of my brain is zeroed in on Theo’s fingers, which are absentmindedly tickling a line across my upper arm, moving rhythmically back and forth, melting what’s left of my brain and incinerating my underwear.
When Anne finishes her speech, Amy’s nanna, Peggy, tries to take the microphone, but Anne looks horrified and refuses to let go of it. Amy and Jared are watching with wide, terrified eyes as Amy shakes her head at her mum, doing the hand slashing across the throat gesture, universally recognised as no fucking way, shut that shit down immediately.
I can’t stop giggling, just imagining the things that would come out of the old bird’s mouth. She is as savage as she is hilarious. After Theo, I think she might be my favourite person in the room.
sixteen
Lucie
After speeches, dinner is served. The food is delicious, top-notch, and Theo tells me halfway through the starter of tomato and mozzarella tart that these are his mother’s recipes and her sous chef is in the kitchen, preparing the food. It turns out, his mother is a head chef at a high-end restaurant. It also turns out, Lucas and I ate at her restaurant in Ely once when we were on a business trip. Small world.