Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Logan

I wasn’t prepared for this. It was the last thing I thought would happen, but it did. And now I can’t stop smiling when I look at Danielle. She’s standing up for her sister, holding a bouquet of brightly colored flowers. Her hair is pulled back in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, and she looks absolutely beautiful.

This is the longest I’ve seen her since she left this morning to get her hair done. Things ran over at the salon, and she had to run back to the room, change, and then head down to the beach with the rest of the bridal party for photos. I’m sitting in the back, and I don’t know a single person around me. Though even if I did, it wouldn’t matter.

My eyes are on Danielle and Danielle alone, as they will be the rest of the night.

Things are fucking perfect right now, and as soon as we get time together at the reception, I’m going to pull her aside and tell her everything.

This wasn’t some vacation hookup.

I don’t want to be fuck buddies, even though we’re really good at fucking.

I am in love with her, and I want to tell her how I feel just as much as I want to make love to her again. The sun is beating down on us, but the breeze makes sitting outside in dress clothes manageable. Danielle catches my eye and smiles. My cock jumps, thinking about her last night.

And this morning.

And then again this morning.

She’s so fucking hot, and my mind starts to drift to her body on mine, to the way her pert nipples feel against my tongue. To her tight, wet pussy.

I look away, shifting my eyes to the ocean behind Danielle. The ceremony cannot end fast enough. Time seems to drag on, and I’m sweating by the time we finally stand to receive the bride and groom.

Everyone heads inside for a cocktail hour before the actual reception starts, and I find Danielle in the hall waiting for me. She’s still holding her flowers and wraps her arms around my neck as soon as we’re close.

Why the hell did I wait so fucking long to make a move? Nothing has ever felt more natural than having Danielle in my arms like this.

“Want to get a drink?” she asks, standing on her toes to kiss me.

“I take it you do?” My hands settle on her waist, and I bring her hips in against mine.

“Yes, it was hot standing there, and I think my shoulders got sunburned. I didn’t think about putting sunscreen on.” She wrinkles her nose.

“Your shoulders do look a little red.”

“Dammit. Maybe you can be super sexy later and rub aloe on it for me.”

“I like when you talk dirty to me.” I push one hand over her hip and to her ass, giving it a squeeze. She brings one hand up and runs her fingers through my hair. My eyes shut in a long blink, and I tip my head down, resting my forehead against hers.

“What are you thinking about?” she asks as she continues to bring her hand down until her fingers hover over the zipper on my pants. She knows what I’m thinking about. She can feel it.

“I’m thinking about,” I start, and bring my lips to her ear, “taking you upstairs and unzipping your dress. Watching it fall and then laying you down on the bed. I’m going to take my time with you, Danielle, licking and sucking, and kissing your pussy until you’re begging me to let you come.”

“Fuuuck,” she groans and curls her fingers under the waist of my pants.

“Are you getting wet?”

“Mm-hm,” she whimpers. “I want you to stick your hand inside my panties and feel how wet you’re making me.”

“You’re killing me, Danielle.”

“Don’t die yet.” She inhales, breasts rising and falling beneath her dress. “I need you to slay me again later.” Biting her lip, she looks up, cheeks starting to grow red. “Even though you already did. I could feel you between my legs hours after we made love. Every step reminding me of your big cock inside of me.”

I bring my head up and look into Danielle’s eyes. “Is there a coat closet we can sneak off to now?”

Danielle’s lips curve into a smile. “We do have a hotel room a few floors up. I think we can sneak away and no one would notice.”

A waiter comes around, handing out glasses of champagne. Danielle takes her hands off me, sets the flowers down on a table near us, and gets two glasses of champagne. She gets on small sip in before she’s called away to be in more photos back outside on the beach. She downs her drink before going outside, and I grab a few appetizers, walking around to kill the time.

Right as Danielle comes back, everyone is ushered into the reception hall, and Danielle stays back with the bridal party so they can be introduced as they walk in. Danielle’s a bridesmaid, but we’re sitting together thankfully. There are way too many people in the bridal party for them all to fit at one head table.

There are more people here than I expected. At least double the number who were at Quinn and Archer’s wedding, and that wasn’t across an ocean. I entertain myself by people watching until Danielle comes in, looking uncomfortable as she walks over the dance floor. The guy she’s walking with is Peter’s brother, and he does some sort of dance move that’s supposed to be funny but leaves me cringing just as much as Danielle.

She hefts into her seat when we get to the table, sinking down low.

“Cute,” I tease, and she responds with a glare. The rest of the bridal party is introduced, and then we all stand and clap for the bride and groom. Danielle and I get another round of drinks before the food comes, which we thankfully don’t have to wait long for.

“So I should probably introduce you to my grandma,” Danielle tells me as she cuts into her food. “My dad’s mom. She’s kind of awful, and we were never really close. She said she already raised two kids and didn’t want to be involved when Diana and I were young. Though meeting her does help you understand why my dad is the way he is. You might even feel like you should give him credit for not growing up a homicidal maniac.”

“She can’t be that bad.”

Danielle nods her head. “Oh, she is. You know how your nana has no filter and just blurts things out all the time?”

“Yeah. It’s always fun when Archer’s around.” I shake my head. Nana always hits on Archer, and it’s hilarious and awkward at the same time.

“My grandma is like that, but she’s one hundred percent with it. She just says the mean things she’s thinking. But…”

“But she’s family.”

“Right. Speaking of, I called my grandpa after the ceremony and haven’t heard back yet.”

“He’s probably playing Bingo or taking advantage of the empty house and invited more lady friends over.”

“Gross!” she playfully nudges me. “But you’re right.”

“About the lady friends? I knew it.”

“No, about him being out and about. Half the time he doesn’t remember to bring his phone anywhere. Or if he does, he keeps it on silent and can’t hear it ring.”

“I’m guilty of that too,” I remind her. The bar gets so loud I can’t hear my phone ring anyway. “Is that your grandma?” I ask, pointing to an angry-looking older woman, talking to Danielle’s dad.

“Yep. It’s amazing how much that woman can complain.”

“Some people are good at it.”

“She’s one of them, for sure.”

The cake cutting comes next, followed by the first dance. Then the dance floor opens up, and Danielle looks at me with a smile.

“Dance with me?”

“I think I can manage that.” It’ll be a good chance to get her alone so I can tell her how I really feel.

We stop at the open bar first and get the “signature drink” of the night, which is something fruity and the same color as the wedding colors. I really don’t get all the extra effort put into weddings like this. I guess it’s neat and well thought out…but doesn’t seem necessary to me.

Danielle’s a little bit tipsy right now, but if there was any night to drink, it would be tonight, celebrating the wedding and everything that has happened between us. I feel like celebrating at least.

“Danielle,” someone calls, and Danielle looks over, making a face. She’s not very good at hiding her emotions as is, and is even worse when she’s been drinking. It’s fucking adorable.

“It’s Grandma.” Danielle takes another big gulp of her drink and puts on a fake smile, turning to give her grandmother a hug.

“Hi, Grandma, how are you?”

“Still getting used to this time change,” her grandma replies, gently patting Danielle on the back. “And right when I get used to it, I’ll go home to Hartford and have to get used to that time change all over again.”

“Yeah, it’s an adjustment.”

“How’s grad school treating you?”

“Grandma, you know I’m not going anymore. It wasn’t for me,” Danielle starts, having more patience than I would have.

“You know who says that? Quitters. And the Crosses aren’t quitters.”

Danielle takes another drink. “If anything, quitting was harder than going.”

“What kind of crazy talk is that? Quitting is the easy way out.”

Danielle just smiles and nods, going back to her drink. I know exactly what she means. Quitting meant finally veering off the path that had been laid out for her. It meant telling her father she wanted to do something different with her life.

Danielle’s eyes are getting a little bloodshot. Over the years of tending and then owning a bar, it’s easy to spot people who are getting close to their limits of what they can handle. Danielle’s always cut herself off before she’s gotten to that point, but with her family around…who knows? I place my hand on the small of her back. She doesn’t have to worry about it tonight. I’ll take care of her.

“Well, at least introduce me to this handsome fellow.” Grandma Cross eyes me up and down. “At least you’re doing something right, Dani.”

“This is my friend, Logan,” Danielle introduces. “And Logan—”

“Friend? Just a friend?” Grandma cross grabs Danielle’s hand and brings it to her face. “That’s not what I heard.”

“R-right,” Danielle stammers.

“What she means,” I start, wrapping my arm around her, “is that we were friends first and then started dating. She still is my friend, and now I can’t wait for her to be my wife.”

The closer I get to Danielle, the more I hate lying. Even after finally hooking up, the lies feel wrong, like it’s cheapening what we have between us.

“Friendship is a good foundation to build a marriage on.” Grandma Cross pats Danielle’s arm. “Best of luck to the both of you, and Danielle, when you change your mind about grad school, you let me know. Some of the women in my gardening club have husbands in high places.”

Danielle tries to fake a smile but can’t hide the sour look on her face. She knows it too and covers it up by bringing her drink to her lips. She pokes herself in the face with her straw.

“Let’s dance,” I say, taking the drink out of her hand.

“You just want to put your hands on me.” Her eyebrows go up.

“I do.” I take a sip and then set the glasses down on a table, moving back to Danielle. Both hands land on her hips, and she leans up to kiss me. “I still think we should try to sneak out of here.”

She nods, and then a song comes on that she likes. Grabbing my hand, she turns and drags me to the dance floor. We drink and dance, stealing kisses and copping feels just to make each other laugh.

When Danielle steps away to use the bathroom, I go back to our table to get a drink of water. I sit down and pull my phone out of my pocket. I’m surprised to see not one, but two missed calls from Weston. I don’t remember the last time we actually spoke on the phone, and it was most likely Jackson, my nephew, calling to say hi and ask about Hawaii. The last call was from only seven minutes ago, so I call back.

“Hello?” Weston answers.

“Hey, Wes. Did Jackson call?”

“No, I did.”

“Is everything okay? Jackson—”

“He’s fine.”

“Emma?”

“Fine too.”

I lean back in the chair. “Then why are you calling?” Wes hates talking on the phone. He never calls. Hell, he rarely responds to the group text we’ve had going on for years with Owen and Dean.

“Are you with Danielle?”

“No, I came all the way to Hawaii, and we parted ways.” I swallow hard. “Why?”

“Her grandpa,” he starts. “He had a heart attack.”

“Fuck. Is he…he’s alive, right?”

“Yeah. I responded to the call, and he’s at the hospital now. I was able to get a hold of the doctor, and he couldn’t tell me much, but he said Danielle should come home. Now.”