To Have and to Hold (The Wedding Belles #1)(27)

“Don’t apologize,” Seth said curtly. “My idiot friend here is apparently under the impression that I was once closer to the altar than I actually was.”

Grant opened his mouth as though he wanted to argue but snapped it shut and picked up his drink.

“I proposed to my ex,” Seth said in the same bored monotone voice someone might use if they were announcing that it was raining. “She said no. End of story.”

Brooke tried to keep her expression blank, but poker face had never really been her thing. Her heart hurt for him, but more than that, she hurt for the way he thought he had to hold it inside.

She knew all too well what it was like to put on a brave face when your insides were in splinters.

“Stop that,” he muttered quietly.

“Stop what?”

“Feeling sorry for me.”

“Seth hates pity,” Grant explained.

“Who doesn’t?” Brooke said quietly.

For a moment, her eyes met Seth’s, and a brief spark of understanding flashed between them. Two people who’d been hurt but who would go to their grave before admitting it, even to themselves.

Then the moment was over, and he lifted his glass in a silent, mocking toast.

Grant leaned forward to grab his cocktail off the table, finishing the last sip in one swallow before slapping his palms on his knees and standing. “Well. This has sure been fun.”

“Where the hell are you going?” Seth asked.

“Got a date,” Grant said, pulling out his wallet and extracting enough bills to cover all of their drinks plus tip.

“With whom?” Seth challenged.

Grant ignored this, instead reaching down for Brooke’s hand and raising it up to his lips as he bent, kissing the back of it in a gentlemanly gesture that Brooke found oddly charming. “Ms. Baldwin, you are beyond lovely. It was a pleasure.”

Seth rolled his eyes, and Grant gave Brooke a sly wink before stepping back, clamping his friend on the shoulder in farewell, and strolling out of the hotel bar without a backward glance.

“Do you think he really has a date?” Brooke asked.

Seth shrugged. “I doubt it.”

“Why, because he’s in love with your sister?” Brooke asked sympathetically.

Seth’s face went blank in stunned confusion. “What?”

Brooke froze. Was this not common knowledge? It had taken her exactly five minutes of being in Grant Miller’s company to figure out that he had it bad for Maya, but judging from the stricken look on Seth’s face, he had no clue.

“He’s like her brother,” Seth said.

“Like her brother, but not,” Brooke said, keeping her voice gentle. “But you would know better than me. Maybe I read the whole situation wrong.”

“I’d like to think that you did.” Seth dragged a hand over his face. “But . . . Grant didn’t handle it well when I told him about Maya’s engagement. I didn’t think a thing of it, because I didn’t handle it well, either. I assumed his motives were protective. Brotherly.” His eyes widened as he registered the full implication of what Brooke was insinuating. “Holy shit.”

“Maybe they were,” Brooke rushed to interject. “Look, I shouldn’t have said anything, really. It’s the dang martini, loosening my tongue. It’s why I don’t usually drink with clients.”

Seth’s smile was slow and dangerous as he leaned forward. “Don’t drink with clients, huh? And yet here you are.”

“I’m here because Grant asked me to drinks, and Grant is not my client.”

“Huh,” he said. “But you could have told Grant you wanted to grab a drink elsewhere. And yet you came right back into the hotel where you knew I’d be.”

“Because I wanted to talk to you. About the wedding, and us working something out so your sister can actually enjoy her wedding planning,” she added quickly.

“And we’ve come to a mutually satisfactory agreement,” he pointed out.

She hesitated, feeling like it was a trick statement somehow. “Yes.”

His smile was slow and confident. “Yet, you’re still here.”

She opened her mouth to retort, but . . . he was right. She was still sitting here, and even stranger, she didn’t want to leave. A part of her didn’t want this moment to end, even though she wasn’t sure if it was actually pleasant.

He gave her a knowing smile. “Rethinking your strategy?”

She finished the rest of her drink. Sure. They could go with that. “Let’s just say that willingly putting myself in your company on a regular basis brings a whole new level of meaning to ‘taking one for the team.’ ”

His smile dropped, and for a second, Brooke could have sworn he looked almost hurt. Which made no sense, because the man didn’t even pretend to like her. He might want her, yes—Brooke wasn’t stupid—but he’d made it clear he didn’t want to want her.

And yet the expression on his face right now looked suddenly, horribly, lonely, and for the life of her, Brooke couldn’t figure out how she felt about that.

Seth gave a curt nod and finished the rest of his own drink. “So we’re done here, then.”

“Mr. Tyler.”

His eyes flicked up, cold and ice-blue as always, and yet . . . maybe they weren’t cold so much as wary. And perhaps she could understand that. Just a little.