Off Kilter (17 page)

“She doesn’t know? About any of it?”

Blaine shook his head. “I wasn’t sure until this morning.”

Roan nodded and turned to go again, but Shay asked Blaine, “What is it we’re supposed to do with them? Katie’s parents, I mean. Do you have a course of action?”

“It depends on whether they stay until she returns.”

“They’d come all this way and not stay to see her?”

“They’re coming all this way to prevent a wedding. Once that plan is thwarted, I doubt they’ll see any real reason to stick around.”

“That’s pretty cold-blooded,” Roan said.

Blaine smiled, but it wasn’t like any smile Roan had seen on
his typically amicable face thus far. In fact, it was downright chilling.

“Welcome to our world,” he said.

“I’m beginning to see why you came here.”

“If we can just get the two of them married and off to the Cotswolds, then I think the problem will resolve itself. For now, anyway.”

Roan just shook his head. “Hell of a resolution.”

Shay shook his head, too, but his tone was far more fatalistic. “I’ve seen worse.”

“And people wonder why I have no desire to leave this place,” Roan muttered as they exited the abbey, his thoughts on one person in particular.

L
ess than twenty minutes later, Roan and Shay were standing proudly beside their best mate as he awaited his bride. Graham hadn’t taken the news of the impending arrival of the senior McAuleys at all well, but Blaine had been right in guessing that when faced with disrupting Katie’s wedding day—again—the option of a weekend in the English countryside had taken on a better shine.

The helicopter had made quite a stir with everyone. He and Shay had passed the word to Eliza that it was a honeymoon surprise. As expected, she had quickly set the gossip mill into action. The news had the women in the crowd swooning at the romance of it, and the men envious of the hot ride.

Despite being distracted by the latest turn of events, Roan automatically searched out Tessa to watch her work. She was lithe, graceful, and surprisingly unobtrusive. Aye, there were several hundred folks trampling the meadow grasses—the whole of the island had turned out for the happy occasion—but Tessa’s focus was on the bride, groom, and their small wedding party.

“Katie’ll miss the reception,” Graham muttered to Roan. “Worked hard on it, she did. Wanted it just right for everyone.”

Roan noted that Graham didn’t seem too choked up by the same loss. “We’ll throw another party when you return. I’m
sure everyone will be quite happy to continue the celebration today as planned. Tessa can get it all on film.”

“That is if it’s no’ still going on when you return,” Shay murmured.

Roan smiled, then caught Tessa’s gaze as she moved behind Father Maddy to capture the crowd. She paused, too, the camera she’d been about to aim hanging still for a moment.

She’d avoided him since their interlude the day of the rehearsal. Not that she’d been all that social prior to that, but she’d been all but nonexistent in public since. Her retreat didn’t surprise him, but it hadn’t, as yet, deterred him. He wasn’t retreating from the field that easily. He knew from asking the most casual questions of Katie that Tessa had been in touch with her on last-minute ceremony discussions.

All that had done was alert Katie to the fact that there might have been another as yet untold part to his story that Kira had rejected him. It had been a half truth at best, but one he thought would put a stop to Katie’s matchmaking efforts. But there had been a notably sharper look in Kira’s eye and a slight edge to her tone when she’d stepped outside that afternoon to tell him they wouldn’t be accompanying him. He’d thought perhaps Tessa had told her about their shared moment in the courtyard … but she hadn’t alluded to it, and he certainly hadn’t. He wondered what else Tessa might have told her.

Fortunately Katie had been a little distracted by other things and hadn’t pushed the matter as she otherwise might have.

He’d intended to talk to Tessa at the reception later and at least put an end to their communication embargo, but that option appeared tentative at best. He assumed everyone would continue on with the festivities with or without the happy couple, but how much time Tessa would spend on it without the bride and groom, he couldn’t be sure.

The unexpected moment they were sharing might be his only chance. And there was nothing he could do to capitalize on it. If he smiled, she’d scowl.

Instead, he simply held her gaze. Steadily, unwavering.

She didn’t look away.

See, Tessa. I’m no’ going anywhere.

Then a murmur rose in the crowd, followed by a round of clapping and cheers. The carriage carrying Blaine and Katie had arrived.

Roan glanced in that direction, and when he looked back again, Tessa was gone. Showtime for her.

As stunning and ethereal as Katie was with the dandified Blaine helping her down from her carriage, Roan found his attention fixed on the photographer capturing the moment—every bit as captivated by her as the crowd was with the bride.

“You’ve really got it bad, haven’t ye?” Shay leaned over to murmur in his ear.

“Don’t let Graham hear you say that,” Roan said, going for the obvious joke. “He’ll have my head. Though I doubt he’ll start with that bit.”

Shay straightened as the procession moved toward them. “I wasnae talking about the bride.”

Roan shot him a quick look. “Then you’re seeing things.”

The tiniest bit of amusement laced Shay’s deadpan expression. “Oh, aye. I see things.”

Roan couldn’t do much more than glance at him, because Katie was stepping up in front of Graham. To look at her, Roan would never have guessed her world had just been rocked by the news of her parents’ impending arrival.

Roan glanced beyond Katie to Blaine, who had just handed her into Graham’s care. Blaine gave him a brief nod. All was okay.

Good.

Roan turned to face Father Madaig as he began the ceremony. The crowd hushed. Roan had expected his thoughts would drift to Tessa, or the yacht heading toward their shores, or what to do about both of those situations. Instead he found himself truly listening to the sermon, to what Father Maddy was saying. When Graham and Katie turned to one another to
recite the vows they’d written, he actually felt his heart constrict a little, and his throat went a wee bit dry.

Aye, he wanted that for himself, he did. He’d witnessed many, many weddings over the years. Granted, not as best man, and not when it was one of his best mates saying the vows. But never had he felt the way he did in that moment. As he handed the ring to Graham, he saw no fear or trepidation on his face, just the absolute joy of a man who knew he’d come into possession of the most precious gift he could receive. The smile on Katie’s face, the brightest of sparks in her eyes, as Graham slid the ring onto her finger, left Roan feeling all but gutted.

He wanted what they had for his own, and had never more keenly felt the lack of it. As Katie spoke her vows in hushed but happy tones, Roan’s gaze drifted of its own volition to Tessa. She was staring through the viewfinder of her camera, not paying the slightest attention to him.

Why you?
he thought for the thousandth time. Why not someone like Kira? Why not any one of the dozens of other lasses that had crossed his path over the years? Why had he never, not once, felt the tug that he felt now … when it was directed toward a woman who wasn’t simple or easy. No. Leave it to his heart to latch on to the most difficult, challenging, inconvenient woman he’d ever met.

Then briefly, she lowered the camera, and he could have sworn, even from the distance where she stood, that she looked directly at him.

But Father Maddy was announcing Graham and Katie to be man and wife, and Tessa whipped the camera back up while Roan turned to watch the two kiss as if it were the first and finest they’d ever shared. He felt a burning behind his eyes as Graham turned and embraced his best friend. Roan moved to kiss Katie’s glowing cheek as Graham clapped Shay’s back, then Roan and Shay stood side by side, cheering uproariously as bride and groom turned to face the likewise cheering assemblage for the first time as man and wife.

“You’re a lucky, lucky bastard,” Roan murmured, as he watched the two head into the crowd. Blaine got Roan’s attention then and turned his finger in a circle, meaning they had to speed things up. Roan looked out past the crowd toward the shore. Sure enough, at some point during the ceremony, a very large, very sleek sailing vessel had come to anchor inside the small, calm sound just off the northern shore.

Roan moved into the crowd behind Graham and cupped his elbow. “Your company has arrived,” he leaned in to say quietly. “Say your thank-yous, then let us get you to your whirlybird.”

“I’ve got it,” Shay said to Roan. “Stay here and glad hand the crowd a bit. You’re better at that. We’ll leave Blaine to handle the parents.”

“Aye, right then.” Roan clapped Graham on the back and gave another quick hug to Katie. “Dinnae worry,” he whispered in her ear. “We’ll take care of everything.”

She pulled back, and her gaze was nothing but pure joy. “Nothing can ruin this moment,” she assured him. “Thank you for your help. We both really appreciate it.”

Graham sent the crowd into a complete tizzy by scooping his bride up into his arms. “You’ll excuse us,” he said, a grin as wide as the brilliant blue sky splitting his rugged face, “but I believe we have a honeymoon to get on with.” He turned and caught Katie’s gaze, and his expression was completely swamped by his obvious adoration for his new wife.

Roan realized right then that things would be different. Yes, the two had been inseparable since Katie’s arrival on the island. But the mates he’d grown up with, the bond they’d always had … was forever altered. He wasn’t sad about it so much as bemused. What would come next?

He sought out Shay, thinking to share the philosophical moment—Shay being so overly serious he was generally stellar at those—but he was already herding the newlyweds toward a waiting car that would get them back to the abbey and the helicopter. The crowd was almost deafening, cheering and shouting,
so Roan hung back and clapped and cheered along with them.

He felt a bump at his elbow, and turned to find Tessa standing next to him. “I’m torn,” she said.

He was so caught off guard that he just said the first thing that came to mind. “About?”

“Whether to follow the happy couple and get their dramatic departure …”

“Or?”

Her gaze drifted out toward the harbor. “Or stay for what might be the better fireworks.”

“You’re not here as a journalist,” he reminded her.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “But which pictures would you rather see?”

He couldn’t help it, he smiled back. “I’m still trying to understand what kind of family treats their only daughter this way.” From the corner of his eye, he caught a bit of flinch on Tessa’s face. It was barely more than a tic or tightening of her jaw, but he’d seen it nonetheless. He faced forward again, watching as Graham tucked Katie safely into the car, while Shay climbed in to drive them.

A movement off to his left caught his attention. It was Blaine, who’d taken one of the horses from its carriage tack and was presently and quite adeptly leveraging himself onto the beast’s back. “What in the—”

Roan watched as Blaine nudged the animal and surged forward, looking quite comfortable astride. Roan supposed he’d played polo or something, given his upbringing—but what was more surprising was that he didn’t appear as idiotic riding bareback in his formal wear as anyone else likely would have. “Where in the devil is he going?”

“My guess is there.” Tessa directed his attention back to the sound, where a small inflatable speed boat was heading toward shore. “Rather surreal, isn’t it?”

“Which part?” Roan asked.

“Which part isn’t? Seriously. From what I gather, Graham
sailed off across the ocean to Annapolis and snatched a woman he’d never so much as laid eyes on from her wedding—to Blaine. Graham brought her back here for a business-only marital merger—didn’t she just escape one of those?—because you all live and die by some four-hundred-year-old marriage pact law. By the time they got here, that had all changed and before you know it, they’re marrying for real. You and she hook up like long lost litter mates, then Blaine shows up, but he’s not trying to win back his bride. Oh no, he just wants to be her BFF and hang out.” She glanced at Roan. “Unless you are all blind, you have to realize the man is as gay as the grass is green, so what was that wedding all about anyway? And now, supposedly, Mummy and Daddy dearest have arrived—too late—like some horrifyingly misguided dysfunctional cavalry, to snatch their only daughter back into the maw, but not because they’re concerned about her welfare, oh no, but because her absence makes them look bad and they can’t have a tarnished social reputation bring down the number of new yacht orders. Now the bride and groom are being forced to flee by helicopter to avoid that confrontation, and their gay almost-son-in-law has just taken off to confront them. On horseback.”

“Well,” Roan said at length, “when you put it like that …”

He heard a small, dramatic sigh. “So, you can see my dilemma.”

“Aye.” They stood for another moment as the crowd slowly dispersed after sending off the happy couple. People began to make their way toward the village, where the reception was still very much on the agenda. “Have you ever been married?”

“What?” She looked at him. “Where did that come from?”

Roan looked at her. “We’re at a wedding. Not so big a leap.”

“Oh. Right.” Suddenly she didn’t sound quite so dryly amused. “No. I haven’t.”

“Close calls?”

“No.” She fiddled with her camera for a moment. “You?”

“No to both. No siblings?”

She looked at him as if he was being deliberately annoying.
And maybe he was. The last time he’d provoked her, they’d ended up kissing each other’s brains out. So he didn’t think it was entirely a bad idea to kick things off that way again.