A Winter Wedding(83)
Planning to slip into the bathroom to clean up before presenting herself, she got out of bed and put on the jeans and sweater she’d been wearing when she went to the fire last night. But her makeup and hair products weren’t in the master suite, and there was a man coming down the hallway, probably on his way to the bathroom, who saw her the instant she emerged from Kyle’s room.
He grinned. “You must be Lourdes.”
*
Kyle was surprised when Lourdes appeared. He hadn’t expected her to brave the crowd, especially since she hadn’t had a chance to shower or change. He could tell she was more than a little self-conscious and could understand why, seeing that she’d just come from his bed. Not only was her hair tangled, she was wearing the same clothes she’d had on last night. And when Brandon nudged him, Kyle knew his brother had noticed.
“It’s getting serious between you two, huh?” Brandon whispered.
Kyle didn’t have a chance to respond. She’d walked out with Noah, who said, “Look who I found.”
“Lourdes!” Eve exclaimed. “You really are in town. I was beginning to wonder if Kyle was having delusions of grandeur.”
She chuckled at Eve’s joke. “I’m sorry I haven’t been friendlier. I’ve been...busy. But if you’ll just give me a minute to wash my face and brush my teeth, I’ll be right out.”
When she ducked into the bathroom, all of his friends turned to gape at him. “Wow, this is for real, dude!” Riley murmured. “You’re with Lourdes Bennett.”
“That was Lourdes Bennett?” Baxter said. “The Lourdes Bennett?”
Brandon looked confused. “We told you at Black Gold that Kyle’s been seeing her.”
“I figured Kyle would call me with the news.” He folded his arms. “And I haven’t heard from him.”
“It’s not serious,” Kyle said. “She’s going back to Nashville as soon as she finishes writing her new album.”
“But it was the fact that you two are together that set Noelle off?” Cheyenne asked.
Olivia immediately took umbrage. “Whoa, we don’t know that Noelle started the fire at the plant.”
Cheyenne reared back, shock on her face. “Is that even a possibility? I was referring to the fight she got into the other night at Sexy Sadie’s. Yesterday I heard Genevieve Salter telling the checker at Nature’s Way all about how Noelle attacked her.”
Olivia turned beet red. “Oh. No. Never mind.”
They all looked to Kyle to explain. But he didn’t want to accuse Olivia’s sister without some sort of proof, other than having spotted her at the fire. She drove past his house all the time. Now that he had a fresh perspective and a cooler head, he could agree that she might just have been doing more of her stalking bullshit. In the light of day, it sounded like a stretch that she—or anyone else he knew—would purposely set fire to his plant. “We don’t know what happened,” he said. “Not yet.”
Lourdes came out of the bathroom before they could press him for details. She hadn’t bothered to shower or put on any makeup, but she’d twisted her hair into a messy bun. Kyle thought she looked breathtaking, as always, and wanted to kick himself for the way he’d treated her last night. Clearly, she understood how difficult the situation was for him; if she’d been offended by his behavior, maybe she would’ve given him the breathing room he needed to overcome what he was feeling.
Kyle cleared his throat to alert them that she was ready and began the introductions. But all his friends had spouses, except Baxter, which meant he was probably presenting her with more names than she’d ever be able to remember. “This is Dylan and Cheyenne and their boy, Kellan,” he said. “And this is Baxter, our friend who just moved home from San Francisco.” She knew Brandon and Olivia, but Noah and Addy, Callie and Levi, Sophia and Ted—whose hot tub they’d secretly used—Eve and Lincoln and their two-month-old and Phoenix and Riley were also there.
Lourdes was polite to everyone, but she seemed to be most taken with Callie’s newborn, since Eve’s was asleep in his carrier. “Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful son,” she said to Callie.
“Thank you.” Callie gave her a proud smile. “Would you like to hold him?”
Lourdes’s eyes widened. “Um, actually, that might not be the best thing. I mean, he’s so tiny and...and fragile.”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Callie said. “Just hold him in the crook of your elbow, like this.”
Although Lourdes allowed Callie to put the sleeping child in her arms, she gazed down at Aiden as if he terrified her. Kyle was planning to rescue her by taking the baby, but she seemed to grow more comfortable as the minutes ticked by. After they talked about her music and her career and Angel’s Camp, where she grew up, she faded into the background. Kyle saw her sit on the couch, put the baby on her lap and stare at him as if she’d never seen such a miracle—as if she was thoroughly...enchanted.
The sight didn’t do much to help him, however. He’d convinced himself that he was going to embrace his bachelorhood, but spending another five years alone didn’t sound quite so exciting right now. Maybe it’d be easier if he lived in a big city, where there were more things to do. But he’d been raised in a small town, where daily life was all about friends and family—and he wanted to have a family, too.