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Kamryn spun Elia in a circle before she dragged her close and started to move to the beat of the music. All the tension from before lifted, and she focused solely on the woman in her arms.

“Remind me we should do this more often,” Kamryn said.

“Let’s do it tomorrow.”

“Yes!”

thirty

“I needed last night. Thank you for that.” Elia had pulled Kamryn to the side at the wedding as they waited for the day’s festivities to begin. They were there early so that Kamryn could make sure Andra didn’t need anything, but that didn’t mean Elia was ready to wait around either.

“I needed it too.” Kamryn wrapped her arm around Elia’s back. They’d already checked on Andra. They’d gotten the last few things that she’d forgotten, and they’d run interference with the groom when he very nearly walked in on the bride and bridesmaids. “I’ve never been so happy to just be a friend and not in the wedding party.”

“Not your style?” Elia could barely contain the smile and laugh. “I can totally see you in blush pink with your hair twirled up on top of your head.”

Kamryn laughed wholeheartedly. “I’d need you to help me out with that.”

“With your hair or getting dressed?”

“Probably both.”

Elia could see that happening. She’d watched Kamryn get dressed enough times to want to be there right in the moment, touching her. The sexual energy between them wasn’t lost oneither one of them. That wasn’t the issue they had to contend with. It was everything else.

“Elia?”

Elia jerked sharply. Her heart in her throat. She spun around, instantly putting space between her and Kamryn and wiping the smile off her face. She put that mask into place and pretended she was the most aloof person on the face of the planet. “Simone.”

Kamryn spun around instantly, and Elia winced. Kamryn wouldn’t be as good at holding her own on this one. Elia braced herself, trying to figure out what exactly Simone was doing here, at a wedding that had nothing to do with the school.

“What are you doing here?” Simone asked, frowning.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Kamryn said. “Andra’s my best friend.”

“That… doesn’t explain why Elia is here.” Simone looked over Elia’s shoulder to Kamryn.

“She came as my guest.” Kamryn stepped in closer, lowering her voice. “My ex-girlfriend is an absolute bear, and I needed someone who was cool, calm, and collected and who could verbally beat the crap out of her if I needed it.”

Simone’s lips twitched upward at that. “Oh, I understand exes like that.” She looked around, her gaze skimming the room before she leaned in and lowered her voice even more. “And some current spouses.”

“Right,” Elia said, trying to stay present in the moment, but her brain was spinning. How could Simone Parks be here? Another teacher at Windermere was somehow connected to this wedding? Kamryn had promised no one was connected.

“So who are you here for?” Kamryn butted in.

Elia’s fingers itched to reach for Kamryn’s, needing that touch to bring her brain back to this earth and her heart rateback into a normal range of beats, but with Simone standing right in front of them she couldn’t do that.

“Andra’s my soon to be daughter-in-law…well, step-daughter-in-law, but that’s a mouthful.” Simone gave them a sweet smile before she frowned. “I married Garrett’s dad right after he graduated college, so I haven’t been that involved in the wedding planning. It’s a bit out of my responsibilities.”

“You didn’t mention anything,” Elia said, finally coming back to herself.

“It’s not that big a deal to me anyway. I’m sure it is to Garrett and Andra. All they’ve done lately is talk about the wedding.” Simone smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She wasn’t someone who ever talked about her personal life, but Elia remembered when she’d gotten married and then when she’d gotten the job at Windermere shortly after. And that was about the extent of what Elia knew about her.

Not that she’d tried to get to know her better. Elia pretty much kept to herself.

Panic seeped its way into Elia’s body, eating its way up her legs and into her stomach before reaching her chest. She tried everything she knew to tamp it back down. But if she and Kamryn were caught out like this, and with all of Kamryn’s friends thinking they were in a relationship, she was screwed.

They were screwed.

Elia had to put a stop to this, not just for her own self-preservation but also for Kamryn’s.