He looked in no way regretful or apologetic. On the contrary, Kerry thought he looked more cocky than ever--now that he knew for sure he could screw around on her sister as much as he wanted and Colleen would wait for him whenever he decided to come back to her for a little while.
Kerry's fists curled beneath the tablecloth, and she had to work to shove down the fierce urge to punch him as he said, "Kerry, it's good to see you again."
Even though she knew how badly her sister wanted her to accept Payton back into their lives, Kerry simply couldn't lie and tell him anything about this situation was good. She wanted to drag him outside and tell him what a mess her sister's life had been for the past several months. She wanted to show him all the nasty bars Colleen had gotten drunk in. She wanted to introduce him to all of the creeps who could have hurt her sister. She wished she could show him just how deep the destruction he'd wrought had been.
Kerry was glad for her heels so that she was eye to eye with the jerk, and he wouldn't get to feel that he was towering over her. She had to forcefully unclench her teeth as she said, "Payton."
Thankfully, he was smart enough not to try to hug her, or even to shake her hand. But Colleen was so high up in the clouds that she didn't seem to notice any of the tension between her boyfriend--oh God, he was her fiance now--and her sister.
"I was just telling Kerry how incredibly happy we are," Colleen told him. "So happy that we've decided to head to Vegas to make it official."
Payton smiled at Colleen. "You ready to go now, baby? I can't wait another second to make you mine."
"I'm more than ready." Colleen kissed him passionately in full view of everyone at the cafe.
"I'll pick us up a couple of coffees for the road while you say good-bye to your sister."
Kerry tried to smile back at her beaming sister. "I hope he's good to you, Colleen. I hope you'll be happy. That's all I want for you, too."
"I know." Her sister's smile suddenly fell away as her expression grew serious. In a soft voice that only Kerry could hear, Colleen said, "Thanks for all those nights you came to get me. Without you, I might have gotten into some really bad scrapes."
More than anything in the world, Kerry wanted to save her sister from another bad scrape. Quite possibly one of the worst of all--marrying someone who would never treat her right. Only, Kerry knew she couldn't save her sister this time. Just as Adam had said, Colleen would have to decide to save herself.
Which meant that there was nothing left for Kerry to say, except for the one thing that would never change no matter how much friction there was between her and her sister. "I love you," she whispered.
"I love you, too, little sis."
And as they hugged, Kerry hoped her sister could hear everything she was forcing herself not to say aloud: No matter what, no matter when, anytime you need me, all you have to do is call, and I'll be there.
*
Kerry paid the bill for the coffee and cake, then went to the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. It didn't help, unfortunately, and she still looked pale and shell-shocked by everything that had just happened. But she would have to find a way to put it all out of her head for a few hours, because she had some really important afternoon meetings.
A part of her wanted nothing more than to go to Adam's office and ask him to get in the car with her and speed to Las Vegas after her sister, to see if together they could figure out a way to stop the wedding.
But at the same time, the other part of her couldn't get Colleen's words out of her head. "You're so in love with Adam. Anyone can see it in the dreamy expression on your face when you're talking about him. Anyone can hear it in the way you say his name, like it's the most beautiful word in the world. Why won't you just admit it?"
Kerry's brain--and heart--were whirling around and around, faster and faster, as she stepped out of the cafe. Three and a half weeks ago, everything had seemed so clear. Until Adam Sullivan had come into her life and everything had started changing from one smile, one kiss, one night in his arms to the next.
Just then, her phone rang with her mother's ring tone. Kerry already had a splitting headache, probably from gritting her teeth so hard while trying not to punch out Payton. But that was no excuse not to pick up her mother's call. Especially when Kerry knew exactly why she was calling.
"Have you talked to your sister?" her mother said without preamble.
"Yes, we just spoke."
"I'm beside myself," her mother said. "Absolutely beside myself."
Kerry could already hear that her usually unflappable mother did indeed seem to be coming unglued. "Mom," she began, even though she wasn't sure what to say to make everything better, "I know how worried you are, but--"
"But nothing! After all he did to her, now she's going back to him? I tried to talk some sense into her, but she refused to listen to me. She's always listened to you, Kerry. You need to talk to her, tell her not to walk back into the arms of a man who has already proved that he can never be faithful."
Kerry knew better than to take sides, especially if Payton was going to be in Colleen's life for a while. She wouldn't lose her sister over him. But she couldn't upset her mother, either. For so many months she'd been teetering on a tightrope by covering for Colleen's dangerously wild Friday nights. Knowing the tightrope had just become even higher and thinner made her head throb so hard she felt sick.
"From the conversation we just had," Kerry said as gently as she could, "it sounds like she's made up her mind. But she knows we're here for her if she ever needs us."
"You're right. She's a lost cause. His hold over her is too big. Too strong. But, please, Kerry," her mother said in a desperate voice, "please promise me you'll never make the mistake your sister's making. I knew the first time I met Payton that he was trouble. He's had too many women. Had too much of a reputation. Just like your father." Her mother didn't say, Just like Adam Sullivan, but Kerry swore she could hear the words anyway. "Heartbreak is all men like that have to give. Promise me you'll keep being smart and sensible and wait for a nice man to come along. Promise me!"
Kerry's head was pounding so hard, and her chest was so tightly constricted that she was having trouble taking a full breath. Her mother's plea to promise me you'll never make the mistake your sister's making was getting all tangled up in her head with Colleen's admission that I know my relationship with Payton isn't perfect, but I still love him, so I have to go back.
In their family, so much pain had come from--and would likely continue to come--in the name of love. Before Adam, Kerry wouldn't have understood how her sister could go back to her ex the way she had. But now that Adam had shown her such joy and pleasure, she could see all too clearly just how easy it would be to fall into the trap Colleen was in.
The easiest thing in the world if it meant you could have a few extra precious days or weeks of pure happiness--even when you could see that a horrible fall was up ahead.
Kerry hadn't wanted to look too closely at any of her recent meet-ups with Adam. But she could no longer deny the awful truth that she'd been burying her head in the sand for far too long. She'd just wanted to let herself enjoy and appreciate it. Now, she finally forced herself to take out the microscope and face what had actually happened.
Things had probably started going off track on their very first night together, when he'd effortlessly made her feel so good. But it was the night they'd spent on her couch having pizza and watching a movie, rather than keeping to hot sex in hotels, that had truly started to knock away at the clear-cut boundaries they'd set up. At which point she'd doubled down on her mistakes by going to his house to be together--and then tripled down by staying the night curled up against him. Even when she'd tried to be smart and pull back, she'd simply been unable to resist dancing with him at the wedding, forgetting about everything but him for those few precious minutes in his arms.
So many times she'd had a chance to stop herself from going too deep and taking things too far, and each time she'd
completely blown it. But none more so than the night she'd waited for him to come "home" from his late night on the job, as if they were a real couple. Just because their temporary home for the night had been a hotel didn't make it any different. Because when he'd finally come to their suite and found her asleep at the table, then carried her to the bed and made the sweetest love imaginable to her? Well, there were no words to describe their connection that night other than making love.
Kerry's stomach twisted as she finally accepted that, somewhere along the way, she'd let Adam become far more to her than just a friend with benefits.
So much more.
"Kerry, are you still there?" her mother asked.
Kerry opened her mouth, but no words came out at first. Only something that sounded more like a choked sob. "Yes, I'm still here."
"I know you can't control what Colleen does, and I can't either," her mother said. "But I just can't stand the thought of both of my daughters being hurt the way I was. I can't stand to see you go through what I went through, honey."
Kerry's tongue felt like crumbling cardboard in her mouth, and her vocal cords felt as though they were being strangled shut. But she knew she had to get out the words that her mother needed to hear.
"I promise." Kerry's voice didn't sound like her own. "I promise I won't make a mistake with a man like him."
And there was only one way to make sure she didn't. Tonight, when she and Adam met at another hotel, she was going to have to do the one thing she'd been trying to convince herself didn't need to happen: She was going to end their arrangement.
She'd be brave enough to do it face-to-face, and she would also make sure he knew that they'd absolutely continue to be friends and work on the wedding and the house, just as they'd previously discussed. But they wouldn't meet to have sex again.
And she wouldn't keep falling harder and harder for him with every kiss, every touch, every moment she spent lying in his arms, wishing she could stay right there with him forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Adam figured he should have been nervous about seeing Kerry tonight, considering he was about to declare his love for her. Instead, he couldn't stop grinning, nerves the furthest thing from his mind.
Everything that had happened between the two of them since the day they'd met--even the fact that Rafe and Brooke had picked her as their wedding planner out of all the wedding planners in Seattle--all of it now made sense.
He and Kerry had been meant to meet and fall in love. He had never even come close to falling for any of the other women he'd been with, because he'd been waiting for her.
And she'd been waiting for him, too. He was absolutely sure of it.
After all, when two people had as strong a connection as they'd had from the first moment they'd so much as looked at each other, there was no way in hell that they were supposed to be with anyone else.
Adam had always been fully supportive of his cousins and siblings who'd fallen in love, but he'd never truly understood how strong that love could be. It took you over, body, mind, and soul, but you weren't just totally okay with it, you were downright psyched to have found such powerful, real love.
Not to mention the fact that in-love sex was so freaking hot.
Who would have thought?
Adam was still grinning as he walked into the lobby of the hotel, mulling over the only remaining big decision for the night: Should he tell Kerry he was in love with her before or after they went upstairs and ripped off each other's clothes? Although, since telling her he loved her before, during, and after all sounded good, he figured there was really no point in trying to decide now, was there?
Turning to look out the big front windows to the sidewalk, his heartbeat immediately kicked up as he saw a flash of long dark hair and legs that went on forever beneath a soft pink dress. His grin widened as she stepped inside the building.
"Kerry." Damn, he loved her name. Loved saying it in public--and when they were making love and he couldn't get enough of her. Loved knowing that as long as he didn't screw everything up, one day there'd be Sullivan after it.
As soon as she heard her name and their eyes met, she stopped short. A couple behind her would have run her down if Adam hadn't pulled her out of their path and into his arms.
"Adam." She swallowed hard as she blinked up at him. Her eyes were huge in her face, and she looked pale.
"What's wrong?" But it wasn't hard for him to guess. "Is it Colleen?"
Her face crumpled. "Her ex came back, the one who cheated on her and drove her nearly crazy for the past few months. They're getting married in Las Vegas tonight. At some Elvis-themed chapel. She sprang it on me today at a cafe just down the street."
"Jesus." He stroked her hair as he brought her closer. He wished she'd called him instead of bottling it up until now, but he understood that sometimes you needed some time to process things before you called in the support team. It was the same reason he'd waited until yesterday to speak with his father about Kerry--because he'd needed to turn the situation around and around inside his own head until he figured out how to frame it with words. "You've had a hell of a day, haven't you?"
She took a step back so that she wasn't quite in the circle of his arms anymore. "I suppose it's better than the chances she was taking every Friday night at those awful bars. But he hurt her so badly when he left before that all I can do is worry about how hard she's going to be hit when he does it again."
Not if Colleen's ex screwed her around again. When.
Adam knew better than to try to stand up for the guy, especially considering he'd never met him. But he also hated knowing that Kerry was so torn up over her sister's decision. "You've always been there for her. If something does happen, you've got to trust that she knows you'll be there for her again." And so will I, he added silently.
Kerry's eyes rose to meet his, and for a moment he was glad to see her relax slightly. "That's what I told her."
Adam couldn't wait for everyone in his family to meet Kerry. They were going to love her just as much as he did, not least because she was as devoted to family as they all were.
A waiter walked by with a tray of cocktails, and Kerry said, "Do you mind if we get a drink first before going upstairs?"
He'd been planning to head straight to the suite with her the way they always had before, but she was still so tense. A few minutes sipping a drink was probably a good idea. A good prelude to the champagne he'd promised to drink from her skin, anyway.
"As long as you don't try to convince me to drink anything with the words lemon or drop in it," he teased.
The way her lips remained in a tight line instead of curving up before bantering with him the way she usually did told him just how much her sister's decision to get back together with her ex had thrown her. He put his hand on the small of her back and led them both over to the hotel's cocktail bar.
"Adam."
Adam was surprised to see his cousin Drake heading their way. "Kerry, it looks like one of my cousins from New York is here."
She turned, and when she followed his gaze, her eyes widened. "Are you talking about the guy who's even better looking than you are? He's your cousin?"
"If you're talking about the one who's almost as good-looking as I am," Adam said, "then yes, that's him."
His cousin gave him a hug, then immediately turned the charm Kerry's way as he held out his hand. "I'm Drake Sullivan, and it is a sincere pleasure to meet you."
"Kerry Dromoland."
"What are you doing in Seattle, Drake?" Adam asked. "And why didn't any of us know about your trip west?"
"My agent arranged a last-second meeting with the museum for an installation they're working on. They've been having trouble getting the details exactly right."
His cousin was clearly irritated by this fact, and Adam forced himself not to razz him over it. Heck, he was just as much a perfectionist about the buildings he worked on as Drake was about his paintings.
Adam suddenly remembered,
"This is the exhibition Will and Sebastian twisted your arm into doing, isn't it?"
When Drake nodded, with a side of snarl, this time Adam did laugh out loud. Will Franconi and Sebastian Montgomery were two of the five billionaires who ran The Maverick Group. They were not only frequent investors in various Sullivan businesses--including several of Smith Sullivan's movies--but they had also become good friends with Adam's family over the years.
Adam knew right when Kerry realized who she was talking to--the painter who had been called the "leader of a new generation" by The New York Times. "Oh. Wow. Your paintings are amazing. Truly, one of my goals is to be able to afford one someday."
Drake wasn't the kind of guy who cared much for accolades, unless they came out of the mouth of a beautiful woman, of course. "If you'll sit for me and let me paint you," he said with a grin clearly intended to make Kerry's heart beat faster, "I'm sure we can work something out."
But his cousin was three and a half weeks too late. Kerry was already Adam's, and no other Sullivan--not even one of the really good-looking ones--was going to have a prayer of winning her heart.
"She's too busy to sit for you," he growled, knowing his cousin could easily translate that to over my dead body.
"I should have connected the dots earlier," Kerry continued, as if Adam hadn't just crossed the line by speaking for her. "Especially since I'm planning Rafe and Brooke's wedding and they gave me the rundown on everyone in your family. I know it's no excuse, but it's been a crazy day and my brain is a bit frazzled. I hope you'll forgive me."
"If you'll let me buy you a drink," Adam's way-too-charming cousin said with an answering smile, "all is forgiven."
Adam always liked spending time with his cousins, but not when they were hitting on his girl. "Shouldn't you be heading off for your important meeting at the museum?"
Drake shrugged as if that meeting barely mattered anymore. "I was planning to have a drink before I headed over anyway."
"Adam and I were about to have a drink, too," Kerry said. "And I'm sure you two want to catch up, so that sounds great."
Adam again put his hand on the small of Kerry's back before his cousin could swoop in, but as they headed into the bar, it wasn't jealousy that was hitting him hardest. It was the fact that it had started to feel as though Kerry was using both the drink and time with his cousin to avoid being alone with him for as long as possible tonight.