There could be more women walking around topless. That would beat it.”
Shannon rolled her eyes and leaned back. “Men.”
They were quiet for a few seconds.
“I owe you fifty bucks.”
Shannon waved him off. “Keep it.”
“No, no . . . I won’t welch on a bet. But tell me, did you say anything to Corrie?”
Shannon kept her eyes on two kids playing at the water’s edge. “If by anything you mean did I tell Corrie to leave, the answer is no.”
“So she did say something to you.”
Shannon paused, unsure of what she should reveal. “She was beside herself the night of the rehearsal dinner. Between the rain and Victor taking a later flight, Corrie didn’t see the silver lining. She was having second thoughts.”
Justin kicked his feet up and leaned back. “At least one of them was smart enough to call it off.”
She considered him from the corner of her eye. “Was Victor questioning his decision?”
“He called it nerves. I called bullshit.”
She settled her sunglasses more comfortably on the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. “Well, at least he can make his Tuesday meeting without skipping out on his honeymoon.”
“His what?”
“Every passenger in first class had the pleasure of hearing Victor tell someone that he’d be at his meeting on Tuesday. And no, before you ask . . . I didn’t tell Corrie about the meeting. Although I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall when he explained his need to leave his honeymoon early. Betting the marriage wouldn’t last the week was a little like insider trading. Hence why you don’t need to pay up.”
“In that case . . .”
Shannon smiled.
A few minutes later, after she thought the conversation had dried up, Justin’s sigh grabbed her attention. She looked over, found him staring at her.
“I’ve recently started seeing someone,” he told her.
Where had that come from? “That’s nice.”
“What I meant to say was, I’m seeing someone, but if I wasn’t, I would have asked you out. Learned what kind of idiot let you slip away.”
The weight of his stare met with a hint of her insecurity. “Well, thank you. I’m flattered. I’m in a strange place right now and probably would have said no.” Because starting a relationship while attempting to get pregnant might kill both deals.
“Probably?”
She attempted a smile. “Sorry.”
“No, no . . . it’s okay.”
Shannon returned to the study of the underside of her eyelids.
When Justin remained quiet, she glanced his way. His eyes were closed, his frame stretched out. Team Victor won on the attractive scale, but the man needed a neurorectologist to remove his head from his butt . . . where Team Justin, while still attractive, skipped out on a certain something that she couldn’t put a finger to.
Not that it mattered. She’d likely never see either one of them again by morning.
Chapter Eight
Victor noticed Shannon sitting in the open dining area of the hotel the next morning, drinking coffee and reading on her e-reader. He’d spent most of the previous day licking his metaphorical wounds and nursing a headache. Kurt and Arwin flew out the day before, and Justin was an hour away from jumping into a taxi to the airport.
It was Monday, and most, if not all, of the wedding guests had already left the country.
Dressed in cotton pants that went midcalf and a light shirt, she looked like she was dressed for a long plane ride home. As much a pain in the ass as the woman had been, he felt compelled to say goodbye. After all, he was the reason she was there.
He walked up quietly behind her. “If it isn’t the woman who fed me mezcal.”
The sound of his voice made her jump.
Too bad she wasn’t holding her coffee.
“You have got to stop doing that.”
Without an invitation, he sat and smiled. She took a deep breath and looked away, came painfully close to rolling her eyes. For some reason, he appreciated the fact she held back and wondered just how much it would take for her to disregard him with such a gesture.
“Please, sit down,” she said.
He glanced at his chair. “Thank you.”
She set her e-reader aside. “I thought for sure you’d be back at the office by now.”
So did he. “I couldn’t fly yesterday even if I’d found a flight.”
“Oh?”
He didn’t miss the tiny shine in the corner of her eye.
“No. I had one too many the other night. Inflicting that on whoever had the misfortune of sitting next to me on the flight home was