him leaving me a second time, but I suppose there’s only so long you can beat back the inevitable.
Sometimes fate is sick of being ignored.
I tip forward and steal another quick kiss. It’s not enough. Derek grips my waist tighter, communicating his annoyance when I pull away. His eyes are heated with yearning. We could reignite so easily. Another kiss…longer…
Our float jostles as it pulls back into the warehouse, and Thomas has his megaphone aimed right at us.
“Derek, can I have a word?”
Derek and I glance at each other, and I have to bite my lip to hold back a giddy laugh.
“We’re in trouble,” I whisper like we’re delinquent teens.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take the fall, tell him I was the one who initiated it. I took advantage of you.”
“That won’t work. I was kissing you right back—nearly climbed on top of you. I would have, had my dress allowed it.”
His eyebrows arch at the idea. “All right then we’ll have to Bonnie-and-Clyde it. We’ll escape and go on the lam.”
“I can have a bag packed in five.”
He grins.
“Derek,” Thomas says again, and this time the severity in his voice makes us finally step away from each other and try unsuccessfully to wipe the smiles off our faces. Apparently, we should be taking this much more seriously.
Derek helps me down the ladder and I deflate as he drops his hands from my waist and walks over to join Thomas. We have a lot to talk about. You don’t just share a kiss like that and go back to life as you knew it before. Everything has changed. It has to.
Carrie rushes past them with a giddy pep in her step. Her smile is contagious, and the moment she has passed Derek and is out of his line of sight, she throws her hands in the air in triumph.
“Is it true? What everyone’s saying? I thought maybe he’d just kiss you on the cheek but apparently you guys were really going at it! Scaring the children! Tell me everything!”
“Oh, god.” My face floods with color.
I fill her in, skipping breaths and talking fast as she leads me back into the dressing room. She unpins my veil and starts on the buttons of my dress. An assistant knocks, asking if Carrie wants help, but she shoos her away so we can keep talking.
By the time I’m tugging on my jeans and sweater, there’s another knock on the door. Carrie’s working on hanging the wedding dress back up, so I answer it and stand back, surprised to find Thomas standing there. His brows are furrowed, eyes unreadable. No, not true. He looks…worried. Upset, even. Are we really in that much trouble? It was just a kiss. We didn’t hurt anyone.
He tugs his hand through his hair and asks if he can come in.
“Of course. Wait, is this about—”
I don’t get the full sentence out before he cuts me off. “Cal is in the hospital.”
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
“Cal, lay back so the nurse can see your arm,” Derek says, sounding put out.
“Why? They’ve been running tests all day. I don’t need my blood pressure taken for the hundredth time, I assure you.”
Derek reminds him that the tests are necessary. They need to be absolutely sure they can rule out a heart attack.
“A heart attack? That’s what they think? No.” Cal sounds incredulous. “This was just a little heartburn, really.”
I stand outside Cal’s hospital room, leaning against the wall. Derek is in there now, along with a nurse. It’s probably a small room, so I stay out here, not wanting to get in the way. Or so I’ve told myself.
After the parade, I rushed straight to the hospital with Carrie and Thomas. They helped me navigate the maze of hallways, leading me past vending machines and empty waiting rooms, around corners, under official-looking signs and through stainless steel doors. It felt like miles between the parking garage and the hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit.
Once we walked in, a nurse stopped us right away, asking to see our visitor badges.
We had no badges.
She withheld a groan. “Who are you here to see?” I told her and she shook her head. “Family only.”
Carrie stepped forward, pointing to me. “She is family. Take her. We’ll wait out here.”
I fibbed and told the nurse my last name was Knightley. When she asked to see an ID, I told her I didn’t have it on me. With everything going on, I didn’t think to grab anything