Page 2 of Theo (Stone Brothers #6)

TWO

LACEY

I 'd found refuge from the growing guest crowd in a small room off the butler's pantry.

Compared to the rest of the mansion, it was a rather plain space with a desk and computer and a hard settee that looked French and old.

I sat down on it with a plunk and could have sworn years of old expensive cigar smoke popped up from the upholstered seat.

I leaned against the shiny silver pillow, one of the few decorative items in the room.

I assumed the room was used by staff and not family.

Joan Plunkett, my future mother-in-law, tended to overdecorate.

The house was more than twenty-thousand square feet, yet she'd managed to cover every wall with art and each room with furnishings or anything else she found that would convey to visitors just how fabulously wealthy they were.

I was a good distance from the main room where guests were gathering for the four-day-long celebration, which would culminate with a wedding and reception, my wedding and reception, only I had very little say in any of it.

I'd badly wanted a simple ceremony and small reception somewhere cool, like down at the beach, but Joan wouldn't hear of it.

"The wedding must take place at the country house" and yes, she used that phrase for the massive, overly embellished mausoleum they owned.

I supposed it was in the country, but this wasn't farm country.

There were no fields dotted with cows and sheep.

That wouldn't do at all for people like the Plunketts.

After all, cows and sheep were loud and smelly and dirty.

Their "country" house was just miles from a massive golf course, and the neighboring houses, each with their own massive parcel of land, looked nothing like the quaint farmhouses that came to mind when someone dreamt of living in the country.

I much preferred a white porch with rocking chairs and a big dog sleeping on a woven rug than stone verandas and ornate fountains.

The voices and laughter grew louder, which made me hide longer.

I couldn't stomach any more small talk with people I didn't know.

My parents had arrived two hours earlier, and they were both so overwhelmed by the house and grounds that they looked like two startled tourists who'd accidentally gotten off the bus at the wrong stop.

They'd been so thrilled with my engagement that Mom had talked of nothing else for months.

She wasn't too happy about being mostly left out of the wedding plans, but she knew Joan was putting together a spectacle that would rival a royal wedding, so she forgot all about her initial disappointment.

I had too. I had little interest in the planning, Joan had grown aggravated with me.

The feeling was mutual. George had taken a position at a prestigious hospital in the city, so we wouldn't see his parents often after the wedding.

I ignored the chatter outside the room and pretended I was back in my tiny apartment overlooking the cute park where kids played on swings and squirrels raced for fallen goodies.

George hated my apartment, calling it cramped and sad, but it had been my first place after college, and I adored everything about it, cracked plaster, noisy upstairs neighbor and all.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the hundreds of posts I'd missed since we'd arrived at the house.

Joan had been dragging me around to various social events to meet her friends and relatives, people I would probably never see again after the wedding and, accordingly, I made no attempt to learn names.

There was a clever woman named Jill though, a second cousin to Joan, who leaned in during one long, tiresome tea party to tell me to "run and never look back.

" I snickered at the advice, but when I looked at Jill, she seemed entirely serious.

Pictures rolled past in a blur but then my thumb tapped one to keep it from scrolling away.

I stared at the picture. Theo Stone was still as hot as ever.

He was holding a helmet and standing between his dad, Slade Stone, and his younger brother, Cormac.

There was no denying that the Stone family genes were strong, and they were amazing.

Theo's cousin Jules had made the post. Theo had won a regional downhill mountain biking race, and he looked deliriously happy.

Theo and I had known each other since elementary school, and we were high school sweethearts.

For me, there was no one else but Theo Stone.

Just being near him made me tremble with excitement.

Hearing his voice on the telephone used to turn my knees to jelly.

I'd been accepted to an East Coast college, the one I'd dreamt of, and the look of hurt on Theo's face when I told him I'd be moving across the country nearly made me change my plans.

Then he did something careless and heartless, and I packed up and left for college carrying the remnants of a shattered heart.

The door creaked open, and it seemed my moment of peaceful solitude was coming to an end.

The door opened wider. George stepped into view.

George was the whole package, smart, rich, good-looking.

That was something I'd been telling myself a lot lately as I talked myself into going through with this whole damn thing.

I didn't know what was giving me second thoughts.

Mindy, my best friend and my maid of honor, assured me it was pre-wedding jitters.

But was that really a thing or was that the nice phrase they came up with for people who were seriously questioning their decision?

"There you are, Lacey. The chef's assistant mentioned you walked this direction."

I peered up at him. "Chef's assistant? Her name is Rory, and she's been working for your mom for six years. She has two little boys that she's raising all on her own."

He ignored my comment. I'd discovered early on that his family considered the staff to just be entities that moved around the house, mostly unseen, and kept everything in order without making a fuss about it. "You seem to forget you're the guest of honor this weekend."

George walked over and sat down on the settee. I moved to lean my head against his shoulder, but he pulled it away. "You'll get your makeup on my shirt."

I slouched back. "Right," I muttered. I could have used that shoulder right then but George was terrible at knowing my needs unless I spelled them out for him. He was a gifted surgeon, but he'd somehow missed the classes on bedside manner.

"Why are you sitting in this weird little room?" He glanced around as if he'd never been on this side of the door, which assured me it was just an office space for staff.

"You know I'm not great with big crowds. I just needed some time to myself." I patted his leg like a grandmother might pat the leg of her grandchild. "I'll be out soon. Just needed a breather, that's all."

George nodded. "Hurry up. Everyone is starting to notice you're not there." He turned and looked down at me. "It's only four days. I'm sure you can push aside your introversion. It's important. My mom put a lot of work into this event."

I peered up at him. "Wouldn't want to disappoint Joan," I said with plenty of sarcasm, but he chose to ignore it. He could turn on wooded and cold with the flip of a switch. Like his mom. Sometimes I saw way more of her in him than I wanted.

George walked out with a stiff posture. He wasn't happy with me, but that was all right. My phone buzzed. It was a text from Mindy. "Where the hell are you?"

I texted back. "Walk toward the kitchen, make a sharp left, last door at the end of the hall."

A few minutes later, footsteps rained down the hallway. There was a tentative knock on the door.

"Come in, Min. I'm in here."

Mindy's heart-shaped face popped inside. "Is the coast clear?" By that, she meant was Joan in the room.

"Just me, trying to relax on the world's most uncomfortable piece of furniture."

Mindy came inside. She was wearing the pale pink dress that I'd helped her pick for the party.

She'd been terrified about standing around in a forest of designer dresses, but I thought she looked gorgeous.

Her cheeks were pink from standing out on the veranda, and her thick red hair was clipped back with rhinestone barrettes.

She scurried over and dropped hard on the settee.

"Ouch, gosh, you weren't kidding. Like sitting on a rock." She leaned back like me and rolled her face toward me without lifting her head from the settee. "Are you hiding?"

"Bingo. Just needed a few minutes to myself."

Mindy patted her shoulder. "Then rest your head here, girl, and tell me your troubles."

I thought about George's literal cold shoulder minutes before.

People always said that your husband would be your best friend, but mine was sitting there next to me.

We met on the first day of college and quickly became best friends.

No one knew me better than Mindy—with the exception of Theo Stone, but our friendship ended long ago.

I lowered my head to her shoulder. "No troubles just a lot of uncomfortable doubting and hesitation. Shit, Min, am I doing the right thing?"

"Well, let's see." Mindy tapped her chin. "George is handsome, rich, tall, and he's a doctor. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but those are all good things, right?"

I elbowed her, and we both laughed.