“Honey, whenever you and Keith are in the same room, it’s always a show.” Her sister carefully folded the dress in front of her. “And I never said I wasn’t going to do alterations while I was watching.”
Cara let it go, mostly because she wasn’t sure why she’d protested in the first place. It wasn’t as if she’d wanted to be alone with Keith. The opposite was a much saner idea anyway. The buffer of Meredith would be a blessing in disguise.
When the two women reached the beach, it was teeming with people. Had she missed a memo? She could have sworn Keith had said he was short staffed and needed her help.
The wind picked up and blew Cara’s hair into her mouth as she zeroed in on the tallest man present. And she’d deny to her grave that she’d noticed him the moment she’d hit the edge of the beach.
“What’s all this?” she asked.
“We need to run through the ceremony.” Keith waved at the crowd without glancing in Cara’s direction and barked out an order to a passing member of the catering staff. “These are all the participants.”
All righty then. She squared her shoulders.
“Let’s get to work. You.” Cara put a hand on the shoulder of a baby-faced guy walking by. “We need white wooden chairs set up in two parallel sections on each side of the walkway leading to the gazebo. Find them. Set them up in about ten rows. Come tell me when you’re done.”
That got Keith’s attention. His gaze swung around to zero in on her as the errand boy snapped off a “Yes, ma’am.”
Keith grinned and it swirled up a hot jumble in her midsection.
“That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard uttered in a large crowd,” he drawled and crossed his arms. “Do it again.”
Coolly, she smiled back so he didn’t guess that his appreciation affected her far more greatly than it should have. “You. Go find Mary and ask her for the preselected flowers she’s so fond of. Be nice or she’ll pinch the heads off just to spite me. She can get them to the beach herself or assign someone, I don’t care. I just need them pronto.”
“Here’s where you get to be impressed with how efficient I am.” With a wink, Keith sent a quick text message and pocketed his phone. “Next?”
Cara’s smile grew into something a little more genuine, even though she’d devised the task with the strict intent of making Keith disappear for a minute or two while she got herself under control. “Are you actually letting me tell you what to do?”
“Until it stops being sexy.” He shrugged good-naturedly. “I expect that’ll take a while. Plus, I asked you to help. I have no problem if that translates into you being in charge. Feel free to order me around at will.”
Keith raked her with a once-over that easily conveyed his willingness to continue that philosophy in whatever venue she chose. Heat flushed her skin and sparked at her core, where nothing should be sparking.
“Music,” she murmured, calling on all her debutante blood to get the word out. If she’d learned anything from Mama, it was how to put on a crowd face when you were anything but settled inside. “Recorded or live?”
“Recorded for now.” His gaze was riveted to her lips and she felt a rush as if he’d actually bent his head, aiming his mouth toward hers.
That was the cause of her sleepless night. She’d dreamed of Keith closing that gap and kissing her as he used to, with masterful skill and mind-altering power.
Neither of them had moved but the sand beneath her feet seemed to shift, falling away at an alarming rate. It was useless to pretend she wasn’t interested when both of them knew it was a lie.
“Mr. Mitchell.”
They jolted and turned in unison to the speaker. One of the many groundskeepers launched into a question. Keith rattled off the answer and then turned to survey the beach, where a mock wedding was now spontaneously forming around them. But not before she caught a flash of guilt on his face.
God above, what was she doing letting such a moment draw out here in front of everyone? They both had a job to do. As if the job was the biggest issue to why that charged, simmering moment was a not-good-very-bad idea.
“You,” she muttered under her breath to herself. “Get your mind out of Keith’s boxer briefs and focus.”
Keith must have given himself the same stern lecture because he didn’t meet her eyes for the next two hours as they worked seamlessly side by side to put wedding props in place around the stationary gazebo anchored to the sand by four concrete pylons. Slowly the area took shape, but the wind kept carrying away the rose petals Mary had strewn down the aisle between the white chairs.
“Why in the world did you plan this expo in September?” Cara groused to Keith after one of the torchères lining the aisle blew over. Fortunately, it wasn’t lit yet. Otherwise they’d be facing an out-of-control fire.
“September is the slowest time of year. Because of the weather,” Keith said without batting an eye. “And I need the resort opened by October. So we’ll deal with our friend Tropical Storm Mark and pray it veers away.”
As he’d claimed very clearly last night, even Mitchell the Missile couldn’t control nature.
The concern in his voice was so evident, it gave her a strange desire to make things easier for him in whatever capacity she could. “There’s enough set up to run through a ceremony. Who volunteered to be the bride and groom?”
A wolfish gleam in his eyes set her spine tingling. He held out his hand. “We did. Will you do me the honor of being my stand-in bride?”
Cara fought the urge to laugh hysterically. “Might as well keep up the trend.”
Always the bride, but never married. Story of her life.
* * *
When Cara took Keith’s hand as if she actually intended to play Holy Matrimony with him, he barely caught the shock before it spilled into his expression.
He’d expected her to stick her nose in the air and tell him to find another bride. Because he’d been kidding.
“Are you giving the deal a thumbs-up?” he asked.
She should say no, especially considering the point of this exercise was to practice for the mock wedding scheduled for the expo later in the week. It would be hard to evaluate the process while in the middle of it.
Actually, she should say no simply because he’d already burned her once in the wedding department. And because the sensual heat sizzling the atmosphere was starting to make him sweat.
“Sure, why not?” Cara jerked her head toward the metal gazebo wrapped with blooms that had taken her and Mary forty-five minutes to arrange. “It’s about time I see what all the fuss is about.”
It was a not-so-subtle reminder that she hadn’t gotten to participate in her own wedding, and remorse over his role in the fiasco took on a new low. But if she was making a joke, she must really be over it.
He risked a joke of his own. “Looks like you’re going to get me down the aisle after all.”
She smirked. “Looks like I got you to help plan the ceremony after all.”
Touché. They exchanged grins, and the weight Keith had been carrying since the elevator lessened all at once. Why wedding jokes had accomplished that above anything else, he couldn’t say. What had he done to deserve both her help and absolution?
They were still holding hands, not that Keith would point it out and lose the tenuous connection with a woman he definitely didn’t know as well as he wanted to.
“Shall we get all our guests in order?” Keith suggested.
“You take the guests. I’ll handle the music and the officiant.” She let her hands slide from his and his palm grew cool.
He watched Cara corral Meredith and the pool boy attached to her sister’s hip into handling the portable music system. Cara’s face glowed with purpose, and the silk sleeveless blouse she wore V-ed over her chest so nicely, it was hard to tear his gaze away. With regret, he turned to handle his appointed task, also sorry he hadn’t suggested testing out the honeymoon suite afterward.
But that was for the best. Probably. She’d just shut him down again and his ego was still a little bruised from last night.
In a matter of minutes, fifty or so of his employees had taken their seats and the stand-in officiant stood under the gazebo. After opening day, Regent would utilize a handful of freelance wedding officials who worked with the local resorts on a couple-by-couple basis, but for now, Cara had solicited the help of what appeared to be one of the chefs.
Cara waited for Keith at the head of the aisle, clutching a spray of flowers Mary thrust into her hands. Meredith hit Play on the recorded music and something string-laden and weepy filled the air. The wind died down a bit in apparent reverence for the occasion—and checking this particular task off his ever-growing list definitely constituted an occasion in Keith’s book.
He walked down the aisle and ignored all the grinning faces aimed in his direction. No doubt they loved the opportunity to see their boss in a starring role. The price of an ill-timed and ill-conceived joke.
Cara’s smile, on the other hand, hit him hard. Framed by the flowered gazebo and breathtaking ocean, she had never been more stunning. Out of nowhere, the image of her in her wedding dress popped into his head and superimposed itself over the woman several yards away.