Page 57 of Never Marry the Best Man (Whatever It Takes #4)

Ranney followed his gaze, and the corners of her mouth tugged upward before she could stop them. “If Mame is leading the charge, you should be afraid. Very afraid.” She gave a little giggle, light and girlish in a way that startled her, then pressed her lips together to rein it in.

Tom turned to look at her, eyes soft with surprise, then heat. “That sound,” he said quietly. “I could bathe in it.”

Her cheeks flushed, and she ducked her head, fingers tightening around the stem of her champagne glass. The warmth of him, the way he leaned closer, the sparkle in his eyes—it pulled at her, melting the reserve she’d wrapped around herself.

“I can’t believe this is real,” she whispered, shaking her head. “You, here. My mother… laughing with your mother. My colleagues behaving—well, behaving as much as they ever do. And Nessa likes you now.”

“Call the papers. World peace has been achieved.”

“Tom,” she said, laughing.

He angled toward her, his voice low, intimate. “Believe it. Because this is only the beginning.”

Something in his tone—promise, certainty, hunger—curled heat through her, loosening the last of her composure. She laughed again, softer, tilting her face toward his. Her shoulder brushed his chest, her body remembering the way his had felt pressed against hers in that Idaho hallway.

She wanted to tease him, to lean into the playful spark instead of pushing it away. And when his hand brushed hers, slow and deliberate, she didn’t pull back.

Tom’s fingers threaded through hers, and when she looked up at him, she found his loving eyes intent on her, no teasing now—just heat and devotion. The noise of the terrace faded. For a moment, it was only them.

“Tom—” she began, but the word broke off as his mouth found hers.

The kiss stole her breath, not gentle, not polite, but intense and certain, as if he’d been waiting all evening for her to crack open and let him in.

She leaned into him, her champagne glass forgotten at her side, her free hand curling into the lapel of his jacket.

His lips moved over hers with a familiarity that made her dizzy, coaxing her open, making her forget where they were, who was watching, everything except the taste of him, the solidity of his body pressed close.

Ranney let out a muffled laugh against his mouth—half protest, half surrender—and Tom deepened the kiss in answer.

And then?—

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The sharp ring of metal on crystal shattered the spell.

Ranney wrenched back, lips tingling, cheeks flushed, as Mame stood at the head of the terrace, champagne flute in one hand and a spoon in the other, raised high like a conductor summoning an orchestra.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Mame’s voice carried over the garden, sly amusement curling in every syllable. “If you are quite finished with your extracurricular activities, we have something far more respectable on the program tonight.”

The crowd laughed, a ripple of knowing glances, while Ranney fought the urge to bury her face in her hands. Tom, of course, only grinned, still holding her hand as though nothing had interrupted them at all.

Applause rippled across the terrace, and as it quieted, Tom moved. He crossed to Mame with the easy confidence of a man who’d always belonged here, slipped an arm around her shoulders, and kissed her cheek.

Mame arched an eyebrow but smiled, raising her glass in surrender. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, voice lilting with mock grandeur, “I yield the floor to my son-in-law. Do behave, darling.”

Tom chuckled, then turned to the crowd, reaching for Ranney to come to him. His smile softened, his voice carrying easily in the garden’s hush as they held hands and faced their loved ones.

“When Ranney proposed to me—” he paused, waiting for the laughter to crest and subside, “—it was to solve a problem.” He glanced down at her, green eyes dancing. “A logistical nightmare, really. She was doing her job.”

Kari let out a low laugh.

“A marriage of convenience. Or so she thought.”

Ranney’s cheeks burned, but the warmth in his gaze pinned her in place.

“What she didn’t realize,” Tom went on, his voice steady now, threaded with something deeper, “was that she solved a different problem entirely. She fixed my heart. I hadn’t even realized how broken it was until she walked into my life and set it right again.”

A lump rose in Ranney’s throat. She heard someone sniff nearby—probably Ani—and saw Claire dab at her eyes in the corner of her vision.

Tom gave a crooked smile. “I may not have won the Saltzman Prize?—”

“You should have!” Ranney called out before she could stop herself. The crowd erupted with laughter, and Tom’s grin widened, his whole face lighting up.

“But I won something infinitely better,” he finished, his gaze never leaving hers. “I won Ranney.”

The terrace burst into applause and cheers.

“Allow me to get quite personal,” he went on.

“Ranney took a tremendous amount of persuasion. We married first, then fell in love second. I had to convince her that - what was the word you used, my darling? Abnormal, yes. That it wasn’t ‘normal’ for a woman as sophisticated and intelligent as you to be with a brute like me. ”

“Brute!” She exclaimed as everyone chuckled. “I was worried about our - that you prefer tea!”

The laughter increased.

“Nevertheless, I prevailed and won her over. And I have to thank my absent step-sister, Thea, for that. She dragged me into a little shop on Newbury Street and while she is absent today, off on a spiritual retreat in Bali - “

Tom’s mother rolled her eyes audibly.

“I am grateful to her for enabling me to meet Ranney in a store called Meet Cute. We bonded over Peter Beard, and the rest is history. Our ‘meet cute’ made it possible for us to live the rest of our lives in love, and who can say that? I’m a lucky, lucky man.”

Mame fairly swooned.

"I love you," he said to Ranney, sincere and real. As their eyes met, surrounded by every single person in the world she loved, she felt a completeness. A warmth. A sense of everything at once, all of it good and joyful and loving and real.

"I love you, too, Tom." And as they kissed, friends and family cheering, Ranney thanked herself for taking a risk. For believing anything could happen. For trying new love.

Whatever it takes.