Slaying the Dragon (Deception Duet #2) (39 page)

“You know what?” Jenna exclaimed excitedly. “I think a drink is exactly what we all need.”

“You two go ahead without me,” I mumbled, not looking up from the book I was barely reading. I had spent the past few months of our summer break moping around the apartment, having just lost my mother and finding out that my boyfriend wasn’t the man I thought he was. “I’m not in the mood.”

Huffing dramatically, Jenna grabbed the book out of my hand and threw it on the coffee table. “You’re never in the mood. I’ve put up with your excuses all summer, but I’m not going to do it anymore, Mack. It’s our sophomore year and it’s time to bring back the old Mack. That includes going out and meeting some hotties with our fake IDs. I can’t make you have a good time, but I
can
try my damnedest to at least get you out of this apartment. Especially now that we have a tall, strong man as a roommate who can probably carry you out of here.” She looked over her shoulder and winked at Brayden.

“Damn straight I can,” he replied jovially. “Just look at these guns!” He pushed back the sleeves of his t-shirt and began to flex. “Feel ‘em,” he said, coming up to me. “I know you want to.”

“Nope. No desire.”

“Feel ‘em,” he repeated, shoving his arms directly in front of my line of sight.

I tried to pretend I was irritated, but it was useless. A small smile cracked my lips and I reached out to squeeze his toned bicep.

“See,” he said, heading down the narrow hallway toward his bedroom. “Told you I’d be able to get you to smile.”

“Thank god you came into our lives, Brayden. I’ve been trying to get a smile out of her for months.”

“You were just looking for your missing piece, that’s all. Now that I’m here, there’s nothing else to worry about.” He winked and disappeared into his room. “We’re leaving in forty-five minutes, so you both better get a move on!”

That was the first night I finally began to feel normal again after all the loss and heartache I had suffered months earlier. From that moment on, I knew Brayden was my soul mate, the only man I had ever met who knew exactly what I needed, even if I didn’t. We spent that night bar hopping around campus, all of us checking out the same guys, although what we were attracted to in the opposite sex, or the same sex for Brayden, vastly differed. Still, on that Friday night over eight years ago, we had our first girls’ night, and barely a Friday night had passed since then that we didn’t have our girls’ night.

“I’ve known Mackenzie for nearly a decade.” Hearing his familiar voice broke me away from my memories. “And, during that time, I’ve seen many men come and go in her hunt for Mr. Right, but she was convinced they were all Mr. Wrong, mainly because she said it wasn’t the right time for her to date. Mackenzie’s always had a plan for how her life should go. She’s always been driven, and it’s been this drive that has helped her achieve the professional success she has. But that drive inhibited any long-term relationships. Maybe that’s because she was waiting for the right person to come along…her turtledove, as she always called him…and that’s exactly what she’s found in Tyler Burnham.” He gestured to Tyler as he sat beside me, clutching my hand.

“You two are all wrong for each other. You barely know each other but, like I’ve always said, the heart wants what it wants. You have given each other a piece of your heart. That’s a magical, beautiful thing.
Love
is a magical, beautiful thing. Listen to each other. Love each other with everything you’ve got to give because, without love, we are nothing. Without each other’s love,
you
are nothing. Mackenzie, Tyler, I wish you years of happiness. To Mackenzie and Tyler!” He raised his champagne glass, everyone at the table joining in and toasting.

“I’m nothing without you,” I murmured into Tyler’s ear, kissing his neck.

“Now that’s over, let’s kick this party up a notch,” Brayden exclaimed as he grabbed his smart phone, pressed a few buttons, and music began to blare from the speakers he had set up. Leading the way, as always, Brayden grabbed his beau, James, and dragged him toward the makeshift dance floor. His enthusiasm was contagious and, in seconds, everyone else had followed his lead and migrated away from the table.

The hours passed while everyone danced, my friends mingling with Tyler’s family as if they had known each other most of their lives. It particularly made me laugh to watch Brayden swing dance with Colleen. I think even he was surprised at how easily she kept up with him. It left no doubt in my mind where Tyler had learned to dance. He had his mother’s ease and grace.

Needing a break while Tyler danced with little Melanie, I looked around the crowd and noticed Richard off in the corner. I hated that he seemed to appear left out at a celebration of what should have been two families becoming one…and Richard was family to me. Excusing myself from my conversation with Eli, I made my way across the large deck toward where Richard stood next to the bar, a glass of scotch in his hand.

“Hey, Richard,” I said, sidling up next to him, savoring the cool ocean breeze. After dancing for hours, it felt refreshing.

“Hey, Kenzie,” he replied, his speech slurred. “Got married just in the nick of time.” He raised his eyebrows as he glanced to my stomach, a smile bordering between playful and snide crossing his lips. I didn’t read too much into it, though. Jenna had mentioned how stressed he had been with work. One of his newer hotels wasn’t doing nearly as well as he had expected and was in the red by close to a billion dollars. That would cause me to be somewhat irritable, as well.

“I guess so.” I placed my hand over my stomach, feeling the baby move around as he tried to get comfortable. “How’s everything going?” I asked, breaking the awkward silence that settled between us.
 

“As good as can be expected, I suppose,” he responded, his gaze and attention elsewhere…on my father. I was certain he had a thousand questions about how, almost overnight, I had a father when, from the beginning, I had told Richard he was dead. I was waiting for him to ask me what the story was, but I didn’t know if I was ready to tell him everything just yet. I had spent the last several weeks living in a state of blissful ignorance, able to momentarily forget about my past and the questionable future that lay ahead of me. I didn’t want my wedding night to be tainted by anything but happy memories.

The music changed to a slower number, Ella Fitzgerald’s sultry voice crooning the opening lines of “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” filling the air. “Come on, Richard. Let’s dance, like old times.” I winked and held my hand out to him.

For the first time all night, a genuine smile crossed his face and I saw the Richard I knew all those months ago before his job began to take control of his life. Jenna didn’t talk much about how their relationship was doing, but I couldn’t help but feel for her a little. No wonder she had been practically ignoring him most of the night, preferring to spend time with Brayden and James instead.

He escorted me out to the dance floor, other bodies swaying to the tune, and grabbed my hand in his, leading me with ease.

“It’s funny how things work out, isn’t it?” he commented after we had moved in silence to the classic tune for a while. Things felt awkward around him when, just months ago, I had been incredibly comfortable in his presence. Now he was aloof, standoffish, unreadable.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, really. Just how sometimes when you lose all hope of things going your way, of finally getting everything you’ve dreamed of and wanted for so long, something happens to bring the light back into your life, giving you that renewed drive.”

“Jenna told you about why I left Tyler, didn’t she?”

“Not the details, just that he wasn’t the man you thought he was, yet you learned to look past all that. It must have been difficult.”

“Actually,” I began, “it wasn’t. I realized that, despite the lies he told me, his love was still true.” I paused for a moment, trying to find a way to put into words how I felt. My eyes met Tyler’s from several feet away, a hammering starting in my chest from that one look. It told me everything I ever needed. How he loved me, craved me, cherished me, worshiped me. That he would walk through fire to keep me at his side, just as I would for him.

A warmth filled me as I tore my eyes from Tyler’s and back to Richard’s. “Have you ever loved someone so much that, even though you knew the two of you didn’t make sense together, you couldn’t stay away? Even when those around you said it would never work out, you couldn’t help but hold on to that small kernel of hope that it would?”

I looked up to see Richard staring off into the distance, his face relaxed, as if recalling some rather pleasant memories. Swallowing hard, he said, “Yes, I have.” His eyes glimmered from the reflection of the moon on the water and I could almost see the forming of unshed tears.

“Richard, is everything–”

“Jenna…” He cleared his throat, returning his attention to me. “Hell, look at the two of us. We’re not exactly your traditional couple, are we? I’m twice her age.”

I eyed him skeptically, trying to figure out if I caught him in a lie or whether he was really thinking about Jenna. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right about Richard. Maybe Jenna was on to something when she thought he had been cheating on her.
 

“Richard, are you–”

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” my father’s voice cut through as the music changed to a Spanish-influenced tune, the sound of drums and a guitar filling the air.

“Dad,” I said, tearing away from Richard’s arms. “This is Jenna’s husband, Richard. Richard, this is my father, Francis.”

Richard tentatively held his hand out to my father, studying him, lingering on the scars on the left side of his face. He probably had questions about what happened to him, and whether it had something to do with me lying about his existence. “Nice to meet you,” he said, his voice and motions guarded as he cautiously took my father’s hand in his.

“You, as well, Richard,” my father responded, returning his curious gaze, as if he had seen him somewhere before and was trying to place him. I knew exactly where he had seen him… Richard’s face was practically everywhere due to the success of his hotels. That was why he liked living in South Padre so much. No one there made a big deal about who he was. Most of the tourists were too drunk to focus on his face, and none of the locals cared.

“Well, you two enjoy your dance,” Richard said, pulling his hand away from my father’s. “Congratulations, Mackenzie.” He placed a soft kiss on my temple. “And congratulations to you, as well, sir.” He took my father’s hand once more and whispered something in his ear. A brilliant smile crossed my father’s face as he slapped Richard jovially on the back, his laughter echoing in the crisp night air. Then Richard walked toward Jenna, slinking his arm around her waist and kissing her affectionately. It helped settle my unease about his faithfulness toward her.

“Promise to take it easy on your old man?” my father asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” I countered, giving him a playful grin. “If I remember Mom’s stories correctly, she said you couldn’t dance the Flamenco to save your life.”

“And she was right, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to dance with you.”

“Okay,” I said, placing my hand in his. “You asked for it. It’s a good thing I’m pregnant and ready to pop, or I’m pretty sure I’d be wiping the dance floor with you.”

“I have no doubt about that.” He led me a few steps toward the center of the now empty dance floor, the eyes of my friends and family on us. I hadn’t done this exact dance in years, but I settled back into it as if no time had passed at all, as if it were permanently ingrained in my muscle memory.

Glancing at my father, I noticed him almost in a trance, his eyes focused straight ahead.

“You’re not
that
bad,” I joked, trying to bring his attention back to me.

Slowly returning his gaze to mine, a small smile crossed his face as he continued to go through the intricate steps with a slight limp, forgoing his cane for the first time I could recall.

“Ah,
mi bichito
. Your mother was the picture of grace when she danced, much like you. I’m just an Irish bloke lucky enough to stumble across her one day and she changed my life for the better. Much like Tyler did for you.”

“You think he changed my life for the better?” I asked as the rhythm of the drums grew more intense and frenzied.

“I think you both changed each other’s lives for the better,” he said warmly. “And that’s something worth holding on to.”

“Mind if I cut in?” Tyler’s voice sounded and I stopped my motions to see his hand held out.

“Not at all,” my father said, releasing his hold on me.

“You know how to dance the Flamenco?” I asked in surprise.

“A wise woman once said that any man who learned to dance the Flamenco for her was a man worth marrying.”

My eyes went to my dad, a look of nostalgia on his face as he recalled my mother saying those words to him.

“So I figured it was only fitting that I learned this dance to prove to you that I was a man worth marrying.”

“You’ve already proven that, and then some,” my father said, placing his hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “You take care of my little girl, okay?”
 

“Of course, sir.”

A satisfied smile crossing his face, my dad leaned down and softly kissed me on my temple. “Goodbye,
mi bichito
,” he whispered. “I’ll be seeing you.”

“Wait!” I shouted as he turned to walk away from me. “You’re leaving?”

He nodded. “You enjoy your night. We’ll see each other again.”

“When?” I asked.

“At this point, I do believe it’s out of my hands.”

My chin quivered, a lump in my throat. I knew he wasn’t expecting to see me again, not in this world anyway. I refused to consider that to be a reality. My father had survived this long and I knew he would get through whatever other challenges he was about to face.

“Shall we?” Tyler said, breaking through my thoughts. I nodded, still distant as I tried to put on a smile and pretend everything was okay. I held my hand to him and he pulled me into his body, both of us pausing for a beat before moving to the rhythm of the music that had filled my soul for years.