Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (Summer Lake #2)(5)

“With the wedding, I wasn’t monitoring the front desk,” she continued, her welcoming smile still in place. “Can I help you with something? Are you visiting a guest at the inn, perhaps?”

Finally, he told her, “I’m Liam Kane.”

In an instant, her smile disappeared. Her mouth opened slightly and her cheeks grew flushed. She took a quick step backward and bumped into one of the covered folding chairs.

He waited for her gaze to drop to his scar and hold there, certain that must be the reason for her sudden, too-strong reaction. But her eyes never left his, never once raked over the mark that bisected the lower half of his left cheek from earlobe to chin.

“Oh my gosh. Of course you’re Liam.” She bit her lip, drawing his attention to its full, soft shape. Despite the conservative nature of her dress and shoes and jewelry, her lush mouth and the deep green of her eyes seemed to show a deeper truth about her. A sensuality she couldn’t hide. Sensuality that wrapped around him from nothing more than his name on her lips. “I knew something about you looked familiar. I should have realized it earlier, but the wedding must have scrambled my brain. Sarah was wondering why you didn’t respond to her invitation, but you ended up making it after all!”

As she spoke, her big green eyes were stealing away his brain cells one at a time. It felt like a hammer was pounding inside his head. How did she know exactly who he was when he couldn’t for the life of him think who she was?

“I’ve been on the road for the past month,” he explained, “and I’m guessing that their wedding invitation must have been misplaced in my pile of unopened mail. I actually had no idea they were even getting married. I’m here for my brother Wesley’s wedding.”

Her eyes grew even bigger. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, more than a little horrified. “You don’t know what happened?”

The hammer pounded harder, joined by a warning bell inside his brain that told him something was definitely wrong. Hadn’t he known it from the minute he’d walked into the inn and realized there was another wedding taking place?

Something bad must have happened to his younger brother, whom he’d always looked after when they were kids but hadn’t been around to check on much over the past few years. “Like I said, I’ve been on the road continuously and my cell phone doesn’t always work reliably in some of the countries I’ve been in. If Wesley tried to get hold of me through my staff, I certainly didn’t hear about it.” Concern for his brother had him putting his hands on her shoulders to make sure he had her full attention. “What happened? Where’s Wesley?”

Her eyes were wide enough now that he couldn’t help but memorize their exact color of green, like fresh growth on bare trees in spring. “I don’t know where he is.”

Suddenly, he could feel her tremble beneath his hands. What the hell was he doing manhandling her? “I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that.” He was lifting his hands off her when he finally realized why she looked familiar. He blamed the red-eye for it taking him this long to put two and two together. “You’re Wesley’s fiancée.”

Wesley had sent a picture of her back when they’d announced their engagement, and Liam’s secretary had laid it out on top of the rest of his business correspondence. He’d been late to a meeting and barely had time to look at the picture before it was filed away—and then he’d been in Asia when they’d had their engagement party, so he hadn’t had a chance to meet his brother’s fiancée before now. But from what he recalled, while she had seemed pretty in the picture, nothing about her had drawn any special notice.

He could hardly believe this woman before him was the one beside Wesley in the staged photo. Same hair, same eyes, same face, same features—but totally different. As if she’d somehow come into focus since that photo had been taken.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m Christie. I was his fiancée.”

He couldn’t miss the was. She hadn’t intended he should. “You’re supposed to be getting married tomorrow.”

“Yes,” she said again, but she was shaking her head even as she agreed with him. “We were, but—”

A door was flung open and Liam heard his mother’s voice. “Christie, have you seen my wrap? I think I left it at my sea—” The words fell away as she realized her oldest son was standing there.

Christie jumped out of his grasp so fast he swore he felt a blast of cold air in the spot she’d been standing.

“Liam?” His mother moved toward him, her gaze immediately going to his scar and holding there for several seconds. “Oh, honey, I’m so glad you’re finally home. It’s all been such a mess. For all of us. Your father and I kept trying to reach you, but your secretary always said you were in a meeting or on a plane somewhere.” She lowered her voice. “I didn’t want to leave such a personal message with a stranger.”

“So there’s no wedding?” He directed the question to Christie rather than his mother.

“No,” she said softly, “I’m afraid not.”

“Why?” Again, he directed the question to Christie, but before she could reply, his mother reached for his hand to get his attention.

“Wesley left me and your father a note saying he needed to go away for a while to think about things, even though he didn’t say what those things were. Isn’t that right, Christie?”