Tempting Kate Page 16

  Would not knowing the secret his bride was keeping ultimately lead to a broken heart for Derek?

  The idea of him feeling anything close to what she’d experienced with Cooper made her uneasy.

  This was his life, his gamble. She wouldn’t interfere.

  “You’re sure you want to get married?” she heard herself ask. Where had that come from?

  He looked at her with a surprised expression, then he nodded. Taking a step toward her, he touched her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kate. I’m not going to change my mind at the last minute. This is one groom you don’t have to force down the aisle.”

  * * *

  THREE HOURS LATER, Kate knocked on Liz’s door and was surprised when the bride answered, already in gown and shoes. She felt another involuntary pang in her chest.

  “You look stunning,” she said. Dressed in a mermaid-style gown that beautifully accentuated her tiny waist and curves, strappy silver heels and a simple strand of pearls around her neck, Liz would be the envy of brides everywhere. With her blond hair piled high in a tight bun and her makeup airbrushed to perfection, she could be on the cover of a bridal magazine.

  Kate couldn’t have asked for a more ideal bride for the wedding that could resuscitate her career.

  Liz beamed. “Thank you. Come in,” she said, moving back to let Kate in.

  The bridesmaids, too, were all dressed, their chrome-colored gowns picking up shades of silver and purple with the light. The color would look amazing on camera. Their hair and makeup done, they sat sipping mimosas as Isaiah took snapshots.

  Kate moved to the left, so as not to be in the photos, only partially hearing the conversations and laughter around her.

  Unexpectedly, surrounded by the sights and sounds of a wedding, she felt the hurt of her own failed day like it was new.

  She forced a breath. She had to pull it together. Two of the three bridesmaids in that room had approached her the night before at the bachelorette party with interest in her services, and she knew if things went well today, she’d be surrounded by ribbons and lace in the fall.

  Drowning in it?

  “Kate, get a picture with me,” Liz said, motioning her closer.

  “Oh, you don’t want one of me,” she said, waving a hand, but the blonde reached for her wrist and pulled her closer.

  Liz wrapped an arm around her waist and Kate reluctantly placed hers around the bride as Isaiah lined up the picture. She managed a smile, then stepped away as soon as the camera flash finished blinding her.

  Liz held on to her arm. “Today is going to be perfect,” she said, and Kate couldn’t tell whether or not it was a statement or an order.

  13

  AS THE MUSIC began and the bridesmaids and groomsmen started down the aisle, Kate felt nauseous. Everything was perfect. She’d pulled off the wedding of the century, which was currently live-streaming for all of California and beyond to see. She knew her client list would explode the moment the couple said their vows, but her heart was thundering and she couldn’t breathe.

  From her perch at the back, she saw Scott sitting next to his parents in the front row on the groom’s side.

  He looked so handsome in his charcoal suit, white dress shirt and dark gray tie. So different from the man who looked so comfortable and relaxed in jeans and a T-shirt, but gorgeous in an entirely new way. His hair was gelled in a perfect mess, and she couldn’t control the memories of running her hands through it the night before from resurfacing.

  He’d smiled at her when he’d entered the room moments before, and she’d felt her knees go weak. The way she was feeling about him was confusing her, torturing her...could she trust that the outdoorsy playboy wouldn’t break her heart?

  More importantly in that moment, could she trust him not to ruin her career? Was he going to say anything? Was he going to stop the wedding? Waiting until the couple was standing at the altar would be cruel and insensitive...not Scott.

  Still, her pulse raced.

  The wedding march started, and everyone got to their feet.

  Kate swallowed hard as she watched Liz and her father make their way to the altar where Derek stood, the love and admiration for his soon-to-be wife reflecting in his eyes.

  There was no doubt in the world that Derek loved her.

  But he didn’t know everything...

  The older man kissed his daughter’s cheek and shook Derek’s hand. Smiles and tears filled the room as the couple faced one another to say their vows.

  The room felt like it was spinning, and the floor beneath her feet felt unsteady.

  So close to it being over. She’d almost done it.

  Scott turned in his seat, and his unreadable expression made the bottom fall out of her stomach. He loved his family. He loved his brother. Yet he wasn’t stopping this.

  Nor should he. Liz loved Derek. Derek loved Liz. That was all that mattered, so why were her palms sweating?

  Her mind was frantic as Derek finished his vows.

  The man had no idea what he was getting himself into.

  The bride wiped a single tear from her cheek as she opened a folded piece of paper.

  Damn it!

  “Stop!” Kate called out.

  All heads turned to look at her.

  Her knees shook as she took a step forward, out of the shadows of the room. “I need to object to this wedding,” she said.

  Scott stood, shaking his head from across the room, but she refused to look at him. Instead she turned her attention to Derek. “Derek, I’m sorry. But before you marry Liz, there’s something you should know...” She swallowed hard.

  Liz’s blazing glare burned a hole through her forehead as she continued. “The day of the plane crash two years ago...” She paused. What the hell was she doing? This wasn’t her family. This wasn’t her problem. But she was already in too deep now. Her feelings for Scott had weakened her succeed-at-all-cost resolve. She couldn’t allow this wedding to happen if it would mean hurting him, forcing him to continue living with a secret that put a silent wedge between him and his brother.

  “Liz and Scott had sex,” Derek finished before she could find her voice to continue.

  Hers wasn’t the only wide-eyed, openmouthed expression in the room.

  Liz looked speechless as she stared at him. “You know?”

  He nodded. “I’ve known for a while.”

  Every head spun to look at Scott. Liz pointed an accusatory finger at him, but he shook his head.

  “I’ve never said anything,” he told her, then, turning to his brother, he said, “but I should have. I’m sorry, bro...it happened and then you two fell in love...” His voice trailed off.

  “I should have told you, too, but I was so terrified that you would end things... I couldn’t lose you,” Liz said, her voice breaking as new tears fell.

  Kate was going to throw up. Derek had known the truth all along and still wanted to marry Liz. Floor, open up now. She’d just ruined the couple’s wedding day. Cruel and insensitive—that was her. Her hands shook and tears burned the back of her eyes. What had she done?

  “It’s okay,” Derek said with a deep sigh. “Look, that day was a nightmare for both of you. I knew it meant nothing, and in the last two years I watched you both struggle with this. I just wanted everyone to put the past behind us. That’s why I never mentioned it.”

  Liz let out a surprised laugh. “You were trying to protect us?” She walked into his arms and held on tight. “I don’t deserve someone as wonderful as you,” she said, barely a whisper, but loud enough for Kate to hear.

  God, she’d messed up. Big.

  “How did you know?” Scott asked.

  Kate wanted to yell at him that now wasn’t the time for that insignificant detail, but who was she to open her mouth anymore?
>
  Derek turned to face him, still holding Liz. “The news footage. I saw you two huddled together on the beach. Then when we spoke, I heard the guilt in your voice.”

  Scott hung his head. “I’m sorry.”

  Derek looked at his bride. “It doesn’t matter.” He forced Liz to look at him. “I love you. I want to marry you. And unless anyone else has anything to add that ultimately won’t matter in the least little bit, I believe there was something you wanted to say to me?” he asked her, brushing away her tears.

  The sight of true love standing at the altar was too much.

  The look on Scott’s face when she dared to look at him broke Kate completely. The sympathy and concern destroyed her.

  She needed to get out of there.

  Rushing to the doors, she escaped the ballroom as the ceremony restarted, praying that her knees would hold up long enough to get her to her room. Then she was packing her things and getting the hell out of Big Bear with as much of her heart left intact as possible. There was no saving even a single shred of her career.

  * * *

  PUSHING THROUGH THE ballroom doors as the bride and groom kissed at the altar, Scott went in search of Kate. He scanned the lobby, the dining room and glanced outside, thinking she might have needed air after the train wreck she’d created in the ballroom.

  He did. And he hadn’t been the one to interrupt the ceremony.

  He took a deep breath of fresh, mountain air, then went back inside. Going to the elevators, he hit the button for the third floor.

  He still couldn’t believe she’d done that. Everything had gone so perfectly for her. The wedding had been a success until she’d brought it to a crashing halt. He ran a hand through his hair, then loosened the tie at his neck.

  Derek had known all along. The relief of the secret being out in the open made him feel free, eased a tension in him he’d always struggled against...but now all of that rested on Kate.

  A minute later he knocked on her room door.

  No answer.

  “Kate, let me in.” He could hear her in the room. It sounded like a tornado of slamming dresser drawers and undecipherable muttering. “Kate!”

  “Go away, Scott,” she shouted.

  “I’ll get a key from the front desk.”

  “That’s illegal.”

  “It’s my hotel. Open the door.”

  She swung it open and immediately returned to throwing her things into an open suitcase on the bed.

  “What was that?” he asked, the urge to grab her and hold her so strong. But he resisted, knowing she’d push him away.

  “Career suicide. Live-streamed.” She picked up the heels she’d been wearing and tossed them into the case, then headed toward the bathroom.

  “But why? I’d decided not to say anything. I should have told you, but I assumed you’d realize when I sat still with my lips shut for so long. What on earth would have possessed you to do that?” He couldn’t believe she’d just destroyed her career like that. At least if he’d done it, he’d look like the bad guy.

  “You.” Coming from the bathroom, her arms filled with hair products and makeup, she stabbed a finger at his chest. “You got into my head. Made me wonder if Derek marrying Liz was a mistake...then the Cooper thing last night made me second-guess whether anyone could truly know someone else. I just couldn’t let him do it,” she said, looking so defeated, it broke his heart. “For the last ten months, I’ve been so focused on getting my business back, my life back, that I didn’t care what it took. I lost sight of why I started this business in the first place—because I believed in love. True love. Then after Cooper ripped that rug out from under me, the job became a mission to make sure others avoided a similar fate.”

  He understood that. Hadn’t his own motivation been to prevent Derek from feeling the same pain, the same disappointment he’d experienced with Amy?

  “But then last night, things snapped back into focus. I realized had I married Cooper, I’d have married a man that I didn’t really know. A man with a different side I’d never seen before. Derek deserved to walk into his future knowing the truth. Knowing the other side of Liz.”

  She’d been concerned for his brother? His family? Enough to risk so much. It hadn’t been about her career anymore, but about doing what was right. Protecting his family—for him? That had to mean something, right? “Kate...” He took a step toward her, but she shook her head.

  “No. Shut up. Get out,” she said, shoving him toward the door.

  He stood firm, reaching out to take the stuff from her arms.

  She tried to turn away, but he was able to grab the items and lay them on the bed. Then he reached for her hands.

  “Don’t touch me. This is your fault. If I hadn’t gotten to know you...if I hadn’t...” She stopped, staring at the floor at their feet.

  He watched her, tilting her chin upward to look into her eyes. “Hadn’t what?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” She pulled away and put the rest of her things in the suitcase.

  “It might matter,” he said, desperate to hear that she’d made this crazy, career-ending move for him. Because maybe she’d fallen for him. She’d put everything on the line because she’d been thinking about him and his family.

  Damn if it would make it impossible to protect his heart from her anymore, but he suspected he was too far gone anyway, so now he just needed to hear it from her.

  She turned, eyes blazing. “Of course it won’t matter, Scott.” She walked toward him. “You’re the guy women have a good time with. Not the one they marry.”

  It was a kick to the gut. It was the truth. She’d hit him at his core. But that was him before her. Now he wasn’t so sure he was that guy anymore.

  “You actually could be the poster boy for my book,” she said.

  Too far. Gripping her shoulders, he pulled her toward him. “Stop. Yes, I may have been that guy. And you know what? I was fucking happy being that guy. I was happy with my quiet, peaceful, casual sex–filled life...”

  She winced, but he wouldn’t stop. “But then a pain-in-the-ass woman turned my entire existence upside down, and despite everything she chipped away at every defense I have. Every defense I had. Kate, you’ve changed me.”

  He watched her swallow hard, tears brimming in her eyes, and he waited, hoping she’d hear what he was saying. Hoping she’d save him from the limb he’d just climbed out onto alone.

  “And you cost me everything,” she said, removing his hands from her arms. “Because of you, I’ve lost everything.”

  14

  KATE TOSSED THE last copy of her book into the trash can under the desk and resisted the urge to set it ablaze. Burning down the office she’d just gotten kicked out of wouldn’t help things. The eviction notice on the door when she’d crawled into her office that morning hadn’t hit her as hard as she’d expected. She’d known it was coming. Had desperately clung to the belief that she could get things back on track, fix the disaster her company had become, but she’d failed.

  The drive home from Big Bear had been tear-free. She suspected she’d cried her share of tears for one lifetime. She’d just been numb. Numb and conflicted and desperate to get away.

  Staring at her wedding planning books—years of collected bridesmaid dress fabrics in every color and texture, pictures of cake designs, wedding invitation samples—she wondered what to do with it all. No point in keeping it. She touched the cover of the first book she’d put together when she was only eighteen, when the dream of this business had sparked an enthusiasm and drive in her to make it a reality.

  Now it all came crashing down around her.

  That morning’s headline on the front page of the entertainment section—Wedding Planner Destroys Career in Celebrity We
dding Upset—had pretty much summed up her future. The article claimed it was her own failed wedding and the lasting emotional and psychological effects that had caused her outburst in trying to stop Liz and Derek’s wedding.

  And that article had been one of the kinder ones.

  Her laugh held no amusement. Saying she was a basket case was kinder. Fantastic.

  The other articles plastered all over online magazines that week all claimed she was a fraud...and the worst was the one that read, “The wedding wasn’t as posh and elegant as one would expect from such a high-end professional. Maybe Ms. Hartley’s talent has dried up. No loss to the wedding world.”

  That one had destroyed her.

  That wedding had been perfect. She’d never been so proud of an event in her life.

  Janet knocked on the door and entered quietly. “Hi. I’m all packed up,” she said through a sniffle.

  Her assistant hadn’t stopped crying in three days and kept apologizing for her mess-ups.

  Kate cleared her throat. “That’s great. Thank you, Janet. And as I said, please don’t worry about a new job. I’ll provide a reference for you and I’ll pay your salary until you get settled.” Despite the flower mishap and the Cooper thing, Kate couldn’t blame her assistant for this turn of events.

  “I have another job,” she blurted out.

  The blows kept on coming. Kate forced a smile. “That’s wonderful. Where?”

  “Haute Couture. They offered me a position last year...after your...after Cooper...”

  Kate held up a hand. “I get it. Well, I appreciate your loyalty in staying.”

  “Of course. You know, Kate, they might hire you, too. I know, it wouldn’t be the same as running your own business, but at least you’d be wedding planning...doing what you love.”

  Kate shook her head quickly. “It’s time for a career change for me, I think.” If recent months had taught her anything, it was that she had to learn when to let go and move on.