Wedding Party Collection: Once A Bridesmaid...: Here Comes the Bridesmaid / Falling for the Bridesmaid

Decision made.

Sex was off the table.

And the couch. And the bed. And wherever else she’d been planning on frying his gonads.

And he would enjoy telling her. Quickly—because he’d made this decision several times throughout the day, then gone back to re-mulling the options, and enough was enough.

But when he sat down across from Sunshine, all primed to give her the news, she forestalled him by saying urgently, ‘Leo, you need to get rid of that motorbike. It’s too dangerous.’

He took a moment to switch gears because he hadn’t been expecting that. Sex, yes. Clothes, yes. Shoes, fine. But not the motorbike again.

‘Yes, well, as it’s my body on it, you can safely leave the decision about my transportation to me.’

‘There’s no “safely” about it.’

He looked at her closely, saw that there was nothing cheery-perky-breezy-ditzy in her face.

‘Whoa,’ he said. ‘Let’s take a step back. What’s really behind this?’

‘I want you to be alive for the wedding—that’s all.’

‘That’s not all, Sunshine. Tell me, or this discussion is over.’

She dashed a hand across her fringe, pushing it aside impatiently. Looked at him, hard and bright and on edge, and then, ‘My sister,’ exploded from her mouth.

Leo waited. His hands had clenched into fists. Because he wanted to touch her again. He felt a little trickle of something suspiciously like fear shiver down his spine.

‘You may think it’s none of my business—and it’s not, strictly speaking,’ she said. ‘But it’s not my way to stand aside and not say or do something when death is staring someone in the face. How could I live with myself if I didn’t interfere and then something happened to you?’

‘And you go around giving this lecture to everyone on a motorbike?’

‘No, of course not—only to people I...’ She faltered there. ‘People I...know,’ she finished lamely, putting up her chin.

Leo considered her for a long moment. Not buying it. ‘Your sister. I want the whole story. I assumed...an illness. Wrong, obviously. I should have asked.’

‘I didn’t want you to ask. I didn’t let you ask. Because to talk about that...to you, with your bike...it would have been a link. And I couldn’t... But now...’ Pause...deep breath while she gathered herself together. ‘Sorry. I’m not making sense. I’ll be clearer. Moonbeam had a motorbike. She crashed and she died. I was on the back and I survived. We were the cliché identical twins—inseparable. And then suddenly, just like...like...’ She clicked her fingers. ‘I was...’

The words just petered out. He saw her swallow, as if she had a sharp rock in her throat.

‘Alone?’ he finished for her.

‘Yes. Alone.’

He waited a heartbeat. Two. Three.

She kept her eyes on his face, but apparently she wasn’t intending to add anything.

‘Sunshine,’ he said softly, ‘death is not staring me in the face. I’m not a teenage hothead burning up the road. I’m thirty. And I’m careful.’

‘What if someone not so careful knocks you off?’

‘Is that what happened? Did someone run your sister down?’

She shook her head, looking as if she would burst from frustration. ‘No. She was going too fast. Missed the corner.’

Leo ran a hand over his head. Tried to find something to say. He was scared to open his mouth in case he promised her that, yes, he would give up the one carefree thing he allowed himself. They’d known each other for one week: she couldn’t really care—had said she wouldn’t care. And he would not be seduced into sacrificing his bike by the thought that she did.

‘Look,’ he started, and then stopped, ran a hand over his head again. ‘It’s not your job, Sunshine, to worry about me.’

‘But I do worry about you. Please, Leo.’

There was a loud crashing sound from the kitchen. ‘I have to check that.’ Leo got to his feet, but then he paused, looking down at her. ‘I shouldn’t have started this. Not here, where there are too many distractions. Go home, and we’ll pick it up another time.’

‘I’m eating here tonight,’ Sunshine said. ‘And, no, I am not turning into a stalker. I have a date. Iain.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘The hairdresser? The ex, who’s now just a friend?’

‘That’s right.’

‘As long as it is ex. Because while you and I are sleeping together—even if it is only four times—there isn’t going to be anyone else in the picture. Got it? I’m not into sharing.’ He heard the words come out of his mouth but couldn’t quite believe they had. Okay, so he’d changed his mind and sex was back on, apparently.

‘Well, of course!’ Sunshine said. ‘Actually, the main reason I asked him to come tonight was to check your head.’

‘Check my head?’ Leo repeated, not getting it.

‘To make sure it’s going to be long enough—not your head, because obviously that’s not growing any more, but your hair.’

‘He is not checking my head, Sunshine.’

That damned nose-wrinkle. ‘But I think—’

‘No,’ Leo said, and strode into the kitchen.

Where he burst out laughing and stopped half the staff in their tracks.

‘What?’ he asked.

But nobody was brave enough to answer.

* * *

Sunshine did not enjoy dinner.

Not that the food wasn’t great—because who couldn’t love a Wagyu beef burger with Stilton, and chilli salt fries on the side?

And Iain had brought sketches of the most fabulous hairstyle for the wedding. Finger waves pinned at the base of the neck and secured with a gorgeous hairclip. Her fringe would be swept aside—please let it be long enough—and similarly clipped above her ear.

But neither the food nor the sketches was enough to take her mind off that damned motorbike, and the fact that Leo, who was so sensible, didn’t seem to understand that it had to go.