Once Upon a Bride

He came around the lounger, hands thrust into his pockets. “You’re sure about that?”

Lauren glared at him. “Positive,” she snapped, mortified. She wanted to flee, but quickly realized she’d have to squeeze herself in between him and the sun lounger if she wanted to make a getaway. “I think I’ll return to the ballroom now, if you don’t mind.”

His mouth curled at the edges. “You know, just because someone knows your vulnerabilities, it doesn’t necessarily make him your enemy.”

Lauren’s skin heated. “Vulnerabilities?” She sucked in a sharp breath. “I don’t quite know what you mean by that, but if you’re insinuating that I’m vulnerable because I haven’t... Because I... Well, because it’s been a while since I was...you know...” Her words trailed off as mortification clung to every pore. Then she got annoyed as a quick cover-up. “Let’s get this straight. I’m not the least bit vulnerable. Not to you or to anyone like you.”

He grinned. “Whoa. Are you always so prickly?”

Prickly? She wasn’t prickly. She was even tempered and friendly and downright nice.

She glared at him. “Do you always eavesdrop on private conversations?”

“I was simply relaxing on a pool lounger,” he replied smoothly, his accent so delicious, it wound up her spine like liquid silk. “And I was here before you, remember? The fact you spoke about your sex life so openly is really no one’s fault but your own.” One brow rose. “And although it was entertaining, there’s no need to take your frustration out on—”

“I am not frustrated,” she snapped, figuring he was probably referring to her being sexually starved in some misguided, macho way. Broad shoulders, blue eyes and nice voice aside, he was a jerk. “I just don’t want to talk about it anymore. What I’d like is to forget this conversation ever happened.”

“I’m sure you would.”

Lauren wanted a big hole to open up and suck her in. When one didn’t appear, she took a deep breath. “So we have a deal. I’ll ignore you, and you can ignore me. That way we never have to speak to each other again.”

“Since this is the first time we have actually spoken,” he said, his gaze deep enough to get lost in. “I don’t think it will be a hardship.”

He was right. They’d never spoken. She’d made sure of it. Whenever he was close, she’d always managed to make a quick getaway. Lauren sniffed her dislike, determined to ignore the fact that the most gorgeous man she’d ever met probably thought she was stark raving mad. And she would have done exactly that. Except she turned her heel too quickly, got caught between the tiles, and seconds later, she was tumbling in a cartwheel of arms and legs and landed into the pool, bouquet flying, humiliation complete.

The shock of hitting the water was quickly interrupted when a pair of strong hands grasped one arm, then another. In seconds, she was lifted up and over the edge of the pool and set right on her feet.

He still held her, and had his hands intimately positioned on her shoulders.

She should have been cold through to her bones. But she wasn’t. She was hot. All over. Her saturated dress clung to every dip and curve, her once carefully styled hair was now draping down her neck and her blood burned through her veins like a grass fire.

“Steady,” he said softly, holding her so close she could see the tiny pulse in his jaw.

Lauren tried to speak, tried to move, tried to do something, anything, other than shake in his arms and stare up into his handsome face. But she failed. Spectacularly. It was he who eventually stepped back. When he finally released her, Lauren’s knees wobbled and she sucked in a long breath to regain her composure. Of which she suddenly had none. He looked at her, over her, slowly and provocatively and with just enough male admiration to make her cheeks flame. She glanced down and shuddered. The sheer, wet fabric hugged her body like a second skin and left nothing to the imagination.

She moved her lips. “I should...I think I should...”

“Yes,” he said quietly when her words trailed. “You probably should.”

Lauren shifted her feet and managed one step backward, then another. Water dripped down her arms and legs, and she glanced around for a towel or something else to cover herself. When she couldn’t find anything suitable, she looked back at him and noticed he still watched her. Something passed between them, a kind of heady, intense awareness that rang off warning bells in her head and should have galvanized her wobbly knees into action. But she couldn’t move.

Seconds later, he shrugged out of his jacket and quickly draped it around her shoulders. The warmth from the coat and his nearness enveloped her like a protective cloak, and Lauren expelled a long sigh. She didn’t want to feel that. Didn’t want to think that. She only wanted to escape.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I appreciate—”

“Forget it,” he said, cutting her off. “You should get out of those wet clothes before you catch a cold,” he said, and then stepped back.

Lauren nodded, turned carefully and rushed from the pool area, water and humiliation snapping at her heels.

* * *

One week later Gabe pulled the for-sale peg from the ground, stuck the sign in the crook of his arm and headed across the front yard. The low-set, open-plan brick-and-tile home was big and required a much-needed renovation. But he’d bought the house for a reasonable price, and it seemed as good a place as any to settle down.

And he was happy in Crystal Point. The oceanfront town was small and friendly, and the beaches and surf reminded him of home. He missed California, but he enjoyed the peacefulness of the small Australian town he now called home instead. He’d rented a place in the nearby city of Bellandale for the past few months, but he liked the seaside town much better. Bellandale, with its sixty thousand residents, was not as populated as Huntington Beach, Orange County, where he’d lived most of his life. But it was busy enough to make him crave the solitude and quiet of Crystal Point. Plus, he was close to the beach and his new job.

He liked the job, too. Managing the Crystal Point Surf Club & Community Center kept him occupied, and on the weekends, he volunteered as a lifeguard. The beach was busy and well maintained, and so far he’d only had to administer first aid for dehydration and a couple of jellyfish stings. Nothing life threatening. Nothing he couldn’t handle. Nothing that made him dwell on all he’d given up.

Gabe fished the keys from his pocket, dropped the sign into the overgrown garden bed and climbed the four steps to the porch. His household items had arrived that morning, and he’d spent most of the day emptying boxes and wishing he’d culled more crap when he’d put the stuff into storage six months ago. His cousin, Scott, had offered to come and give him a hand unpacking, but Gabe wasn’t in the mood for a lecture about his career, his personal life or anything else.

All his energy would go into his job and renovating the house, which he figured would keep him busy for six months, at least. After that, he’d tackle the yard, get the place in shape and put the house on the market again. How hard could it be? His brother Aaron did the same thing regularly. True, he wasn’t much of a carpenter, and Aaron was a successful builder in Los Angeles, but he’d give it a shot.

He headed inside and flicked on some lights. Some of the walls were painted black, no doubt a legacy from the previous tenants—a group of twenty-something heavy-metal enthusiasts who were evicted for cultivating some suspicious indoor plants—so painting was one of the first things on the agenda. The kitchen was neat and the bathrooms bearable. And although the furniture he’d bought a few months ago looked a little out of place in the shabby rooms, once the walls and floors were done, he was confident it would all look okay.

Gabe tossed the keys in a bowl on the kitchen table and pulled his cell from his pocket. He noticed there were a couple of missed calls. One from Aaron and another from his mother. It would be around midnight in California, and he made a mental note to call them back in the morning. Most days he was glad the time difference let him off the hook when it came to dealing with his family. At least his younger brother, Luca, and baby sister, Bianca, didn’t stick their nose into his life or moan about his decision to move to Crystal Point. As the eldest, Aaron always thought he knew best, and his mom was just...Mom. He knew she worried, knew his mom and Aaron were waiting for him to relapse and go running back to California.

He’d come to Crystal Point to start over, and the house and job were a part of that new life. Gabe liked that his family wasn’t constantly around to dish out advice. Bad enough he got lectures on tap from Scott. Hell, he understood their motives...he might even have done the same thing had the situation been reversed. But things had changed. He’d changed. And Gabe was determined to live his life, even if it wasn’t the one he’d planned on.

The private cul-de-sac in Crystal Point was an ideal place to start. It was peaceful, quiet and uncomplicated. Just what he wanted. A native bird squawked from somewhere overhead and he stared out the kitchen window and across the hedge to the next house along just as his cell rang. He looked at the screen. It was an overseas number and not one he recognized.

Uncomplicated?

Gabe glanced briefly out the window again as he answered the call. It was Cameron Jakowski, and the conversation lasted a couple of minutes. Sure, uncomplicated. Except for his beautiful, blonde, brown-eyed neighbor.

* * *

The thing about being a go-to, agreeable kind of person...sometimes it turned around to bite you on the behind. And this, Lauren thought as she drove up the driveway and then pulled up under the carport, was probably going to turn out to be one of those occasions.

Of course, she could have refused. But that wasn’t really her style. She knew her brother wouldn’t have called if there was any other option. He’d asked for her help, and she would always rally her resolve when it came to her family.

What she didn’t want to do—what she was determined to avoid doing—was start up any kind of conversation with her new next-door neighbor. Bad enough he’d bought the house and moved in just days after the never-to-be-spoken-about and humiliating event at the wedding. The last thing she wanted to do was knock on his door.

Ever.

Lauren had hoped to never see him again. But it seemed fate had other ideas.

She took a breath, grabbed her bag and jacket and stepped out of the car. She struggled to open the timber gate that she’d been meaning to get repaired for the past three months and winced when the jagged edge caught her palm. Once inside her house, she dumped her handbag and laptop in the hall and took a few well-needed breaths.

I don’t want to do this....

But she’d promised Cameron.

And a promise is a promise....

Then she headed next door.

Once she’d rounded the tall hedge, Lauren walked up the gravel path toward the house. There was a brand-new Jeep Cherokee parked in the driveway. The small porch illuminated with a sensor light once she took the three steps. The light flickered and then faded. She tapped on the door and waited. She heard footsteps before the door swung back on its hinges, and she came face-to-face with him.

And then butterflies bombarded her stomach in spectacular fashion.