A Winter Wedding(95)

“Am I invited?”

“Of course. Riley and Phoenix were planning to ask you to sing at the reception while they danced. Brandon texted me about it last night.”

“Did you tell them I’d be gone?” She seemed disappointed that she couldn’t do it.

He nodded. Only when the subject of her leaving came up was there any strain between them. But he knew, now that Derrick had devised a surefire way to put her back on top, she wouldn’t be happy in Whiskey Creek even if he managed to convince her to stay. And, to him, that would be worse than letting her go.

Lowering her hand, she glanced away as if she felt guilty for being the one who would eventually tear them apart. “Sure, I’ll come to the rehearsal.”

Kyle did what he could to banish their inevitable parting from his mind. “Good. Then I won’t have to handcuff you to the bed while I’m gone.”

She laughed. “That was my alternative?”

“Sounds reasonable to me. If you weren’t going with me, the only way I’d be able to tolerate being away from you would be to know you were home waiting for me, naked in my bed.”

“I’m pretty sure that would just encourage you to leave early.”

He kissed her neck, breathing in the scent of the soap they’d used in the shower as he did so. “Or maybe I wouldn’t make it over there at all.”

“I can’t say I’d blame you. After three years of celibacy, you’re making up for lost time.”

“What’s happening here has nothing to do with that,” he said.

“And how do you know?”

He smoothed her hair off her face. She was being playful, but what he had to say was completely serious. “Because I’m in love with you, Lourdes.”

She sobered instantly. “We just met, Kyle.”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

“What about Olivia?”

“I think I got over her the second you stepped out of your rental car at the farmhouse. Until then...I just hadn’t met the right woman.”

“You don’t love her anymore?”

“I love her the way I should—as a sister-in-law.” How he could so easily give Lourdes what Noelle had always wanted, he couldn’t fathom. But there it was.

Her expression was troubled as she stared up at him. “Kyle, I...I had no idea this would go so fast.”

He tucked the covers around them. “Neither one of us saw it coming.”

“Will you hate me when I’m gone?”

“For breaking my heart?” He frowned. “Maybe for a while,” he teased.





26

Lourdes loved Kyle’s friends. They welcomed her warmly and seemed so natural and comfortable around her—even joked with her as much as they joked among themselves.

Of course, they were probably ecstatic that Kyle was finally showing interest in someone besides Olivia. Lourdes could see them nudging each other when he wasn’t looking. No one was saying anything about him—or her—out loud, but she could tell they were all excited that he seemed to be moving on.

They loved him...

Which meant she was about to break every heart in the room.

But she had no choice. She had to go back to Nashville. What else could she do? Her career was there.

She knew, as soon as she returned, Derrick would start pushing her to forgive him for Crystal so they could go ahead and get married, as they’d originally planned. But his indiscretion with Crystal wasn’t the biggest obstacle standing in their way. She no longer loved Derrick enough to marry him.

The conflict she felt made her stomach churn. She didn’t want to end her relationship with Kyle. But what choice did she have? She knew what her career demanded; she also knew it wasn’t what would make him the happiest. How could she even focus on him in the next six to twelve months?

While the others noshed on chips and salsa, shrimp and dip, cucumber sandwiches and other appetizers, she declined all offers of food and sipped at the water she’d requested instead of the champagne everyone else was drinking. She certainly didn’t feel like celebrating, she thought as she watched Kyle laughing with his stepbrother across the room. She and Kyle had mentioned that she’d be returning to Nashville to record a very special song, but they hadn’t added that she wouldn’t be coming back. These were their three days, before everything changed, and they weren’t about to ruin or waste them by taking others into their confidence.

“Are you bored yet?” Baxter asked, stopping by the refreshment table for another glass of champagne.

“No, I’m fine,” Lourdes said with a laugh.

“Too bad you won’t be here for the wedding,” he said. Then Riley called him over and he left Lourdes alone, enabling her to study Kyle some more.

He was handsome, the kind of handsome she’d close her eyes and dream about when she was back home. She couldn’t keep from staring at him tonight, or acknowledging that he looked even better in the nude...

Kyle glanced over, caught her watching him and smiled.

How was it that instead of living with the heartbreak of losing Derrick, she was feeling that rare but giddy sensation of falling in love?

“Your face brightens every time you look at him.”

Lourdes turned to see Olivia and felt the heat of a blush. Of all people to notice how Kyle affected her...