Beauty's Kiss(17)

“Hello, Taylor,” he said under his breath as the meeting resumed.

Her mouth went dry. “Hi,” she whispered.

“Get your car situation sorted out?”

She nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

“Good.”

The meeting resumed, but Taylor could barely focus on what Paige was saying.

Troy was seriously distracting.

And not just because he was Jane’s ex. The man had quite a few attributes.

Like his size. He was a big man... you couldn’t ignore him. He filled his chair and all the space around him with shoulders and a big back and hard carved quads.

And a fit man. He had a body. And muscles. Lots of them. The jaw-dropping, eye-candy sort of body, and now that his heavy coat was off, his snug fitting Henley seemed to stretch over and wrap every sinewy line in his chest and arms, the soft cotton delighting in his dense pecs, flat hard abs, and thick biceps.

Then there was his scent. Which was a lovely, subtle masculine cologne that hinted at spice and something rich and mellow and smooth... vanilla, maybe?

But these attributes were quickly turning into negatives. His scent and warmth and the sheer physicality of the man was proving most distracting.

Taylor fidgeted unhappily, tugging on her notepad, drawing it more firmly in front of her. She’d been fine until he arrived. Now she couldn’t follow the thread of the discussion, the voices around her a whir of sound, the committee members a blur.

Why had he come tonight?

He hadn’t been involved in any of the planning for the Ball or the Giveaway, so why come to this last meeting now?

The only other person who seemed troubled by Troy’s appearance was McKenna. Taylor caught sight of McKenna’s face. McKenna was still pale, her expression now guarded. Shuttered.

McKenna was no longer animated and bubbly, but someone else.

Interesting.

Meanwhile, various committee members continued updating Troy and all, on where things stood for Friday’s Ball.





Risa talked about the floral centerpieces, and how there would be flowers everywhere--tulips, roses, lilies, freesias--the most romantic, lush flower arrangements one could imagine.

Jenny Thorpe, Tricia’s new sister-in-law, brought everyone up to date on the band and DJ entertaining the guests. The band would play during the dinner hour and the DJ was to get everyone on their feet after.

Sage Carrigan shared about the chocolates she’d made for the elaborate dessert buffet, and Paige was working on the chocolate fondue fountain with the Graff hotel banquet staff.

Tricia mentioned that the lighting specialist Jane had recommended, would be arriving Thursday from San Francisco to bathe the white and gold ceiling and walls with pink light.

McKenna said nothing, lips curved in a stiff, artificial smile.

And Taylor glanced from McKenna to Troy to the different women on the committee, feeling inexplicably torn.

It was going to be an incredible Ball. Beyond beautiful, really.

And Taylor wasn’t going.





Troy sat in the library listening to the committee update its members with the Ball details. Everyone was so enthusiastic. The committee had worked very hard. The Ball would be lovely, and successful, he was sure of that. Of course it would have been nice if a few more tickets had been sold, but it was the first time Marietta had thrown such an extravagant party and if ticket sales were the only issue, then he couldn’t be critical. Ticket sales were difficult for even professional event organizers.

As he listened to the updates, he tried to avoid looking directly at McKenna, aware that it would just make her more uncomfortable. McKenna was most definitely not good with him here. It hadn’t always been the case. They’d once been very close. She was the sister he’d never had. Trey and McKenna had been together off and on since high school, and everyone knew that one day Trey and McKenna would get married. But life kept throwing them curveballs, and it seemed as if McKenna had finally had enough.

He didn’t blame her. He couldn’t.

How could he blame her for wanting to move on and settle down? She’d been a rock in the face of such chaos and adversity. She deserved a happy-ever-after and she wasn’t going to get that with Trey serving time in prison for involuntary manslaughter. True, it was a bar fight he didn’t start, and he was fighting to protect a woman. But that punch he threw killed a man and Trey had been in trouble before, so the judge came down hard on him, adding some extra time to the mandatory minimum sentence.

Troy sighed. Dad had taken it so hard when Trey was sentenced to five years.

It was then that Dad just seemed to give up. Trey was the one who lived at the ranch, managed the ranch. Trey and Dad had been pretty tight, too.

Now, with Dad dying, no one knew what would happen to the one hundred and five year old Sheenan Ranch. Trey might have been the one to run it, but Trey was going to be locked up for another two years at least, and Dillon couldn’t remain here in Marietta until then.