Page 14

“Duncan was supposed to bring his son, Jeremy, but then he changed his mind. Thought it was too much excitement.”
“Wow. So wait, Duncan is married?”
“No, he's a single father.”
I pressed my lips together. Okay, clearly this was a sensitive topic. I didn't want to butt in, just simply make conversation.
“How old is Jeremy?”
“He's ten. Duncan changed his mind at the last minute about bringing him. My mom is watching him this weekend.”
“He often stays at your parents’ house?”
“He alternates, but he's staying with Mom more than with Dad.” He probably must have realized I was confused, because he added, “They divorced a long time ago.”
“Sorry about that.”
He shrugged. “Marriage isn’t a guarantee of anything.”
I was starting to understand more and more why he was a marriage skeptic.
We had two more tables left. As we moved on to the next one, I told Chase, “Give me some of those name tags. We’ll be faster like this.”
I came up next to him, reaching out. When he handed me a stack of cards, our fingers brushed. I loved the feeling of his bare skin on mine.
I licked my lips, and Chase exhaled sharply. He looked from the stack of name tags to me. Could he feel this current between us too? Or was I making this out to be more than it was? I couldn't believe I was so susceptible to him. What the hell had happened?
He was much taller than me, and he tilted slightly forward, towering over me. He had to be more than six feet tall.
“Oh, Hannah. Here you are,” Blair said, coming to us. She’d been busy the whole day, too, even though I tried to take as much work off her hands as possible. “Come on, we have to go change.”
I checked the time. “Damn it, you're right. We’ve got one table left. Everything done on your side?”
She nodded. “Yeah, just finished the collage for Josh too. Knox said he'll talk to the DJ about it so he can decide what the best time would be to play it.”
“What collage?” Chase asked.
Blair turned to him. “It’s a surprise. A collage of pictures in a slideshow about how we met and stuff, but I also reached out to some of his childhood friends and got some pics. It’s the least I could do considering he's giving me the wedding of my dreams.”
Chase looked intently at my sister and then smiled. Right then and there, I realized he was starting to warm up to her.
“That's a great idea," he said. "Josh always had a bit of a nostalgic streak.”
“I know,” Blair said, “and that's what I love about him. It's very romantic.”
She sent me an air kiss and said, “Come on. I need to start dressing, and the photographer wants you there for the whole process. I’ll talk to the caterer about the entrées while you finish up here.”
“Perfect.”
After she left, Chase and I went to the last table. “Your sister really knows Josh.” He was so close behind me that I felt the heat of his body.
“Well, they are getting married, so I would hope she does,” I teased.
“You'd be surprised.”
“What do you mean?”
As we finished putting the name tags on the table, he looked straight at me. “His ex played him. She got him to buy her an apartment in London and then dumped him.”