She finished her shower, slathered moisturizer on her face and skin, and blew her hair dry—a process that seemed to go about ten times faster in Colorado than in Illinois. Then she put on panties and a strapless bra, slipped into her bathrobe, and dashed around the suite, straightening it to make room for the others.
By the time she heard Lexi and Britta giggling on the stairs, Vic felt awake and in control of her emotions. She ran to the door, threw it open.
“Good morning!” Lexi’s face glowed.
Vic hugged her tight. “My God, Lexi, you’re getting married today.”
Britta breezed past them. “The stylist just texted to say she’s on the way, and Kendra is on her way up with breakfast and coffee. She says someone ate the fruit she had Sandrine set aside for this morning. I told her it was probably Vic and Eric.”
Lexi and Britta laughed, as if this suggestion were funny.
Vic shut the door behind them, grateful they couldn’t see her face.
* * *
Eric stoodat the floor-to-ceiling windows in Austin and Lexi’s living room, looking out over Scarlet, tension a knot in his chest. He hadn’t meant to hurt Victoria, hadn’t meant to make her believe that she was just some woman he’d fucked for fun and would soon forget. Well, he had fucked her for fun, but notjustfor fun.
Upstairs, the bedroom door opened, and Taylor stepped out, all tuxed out apart from the jacket itself—trousers, white shirt, gray vest, sage-colored silk tie. He walked down the stairs, fighting with his cufflinks. “Can you figure these out?”
“Sure.” Eric took the cufflinks from him and put them on one at a time, then took Taylor’s jacket from him and held it up while he slipped it on. “Hey, you look great, man. You’re going to make Lexi proud.”
“You, on the other hand, look like a man with a lot on his mind.”
Eric shook his head, irritated with himself. “Sorry.”
Taylor laughed. “Hey, we’ve known each other for too long to fool each other about anything.”
That was true.
Taylor went on. “I’m betting that your problem is about five-foot-four and has a sweet face and gorgeous brown eyes. Am I right?”
Yep, he’d nailed it.
So Eric explained, knowing they had only a few minutes before Moretti and Belcourt came back inside from cleaning the trash out of Taylor’s SUV. “She more or less asked me whether I thought of her as just another hookup.”
“And you said something really stupid.”
“I tried to fix it before I left, but, yeah, I did. Her question took me by surprise, and I just couldn’t think straight. She asked me to leave. She wasn’t angry about it. She didn’t throw a fit. She just asked me to go.” He almost wished she’d shouted at him. Maybe then he’d be pissed off and wouldn’t feel so desolate.
“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
“What? No!” Eric turned toward the windows again. “Yes. Hell, I don’t know. I’ve never really been in love before. Besides, how can two people fall in love in a week? That’s ridiculous, man. It just doesn’t happen that way.”
“Well, you’ve spent more time together this week than some people who’ve been dating for a couple of months.”
Eric supposed that was true. “That doesn’t change the fact that it’s only been seven days.”
“When I asked Lexi out the first time, it was after school. I walked her home, carried her backpack. We spent maybe fifteen minutes together, but my life changed in those fifteen minutes. I fell in love with her then and there. We were only teenagers, but that was it for me.”
“Sure it was—if you don’t count the twelve years that the two of you spent apart and the other people you were with in between.”
“That was my fault. I was young and stupid. If I had trusted in our relationship, if I had trusted that things would work out in the end, I would have saved us both a lot of time and heartache.”
Eric had been there. He knew it hadn’t been quite that simple, but he wouldn’t argue with Taylor on his wedding day. “So what are you saying? Trust Victoria?”
“Yeah. Trust her with your feelings.”
“What do you mean?”