Winter's Kiss - Beth Andrews

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weekend.”

      “Oh,” she said, wondering why she hadn’t known the date of his brother’s wedding. Probably because she wasn’t invited to it and Zach had never mentioned it was taking place on Christmas Eve.

      The depth of her disappointment surprised her. It wasn’t as if she’d never see the man again. But her spontaneous plan had been so perfect. She’d take Oakes as her date to the wedding, saving face with Ricky and spend a lovely evening with Oakes as nonfriends. The romance of the wedding, she was sure, would help loosen Oakes’s inhibitions where she was concerned.

      Oakes patted her arm as he passed by, his other hand carrying his dirty plate. “I’m sure you’ll find someone else to go with you.”

      She made a noncommittal sound. It wasn’t as if she had low self-esteem—Zach often accused her of having too much. Finding a date wasn’t the problem. Both men from last night had given her their numbers, telling her to call if she changed her mind. But she couldn’t imagine asking a man she barely knew to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding with her.

      That screamed of desperation and by God, she wasn’t there yet.

      Besides, if she asked them to do this favor for her, she had no idea what they’d want in return. With Oakes, she didn’t have to worry about how much payback would cost her.

      Plus, and this was a biggie, she didn’t want to be with any other guy—not any more. Not even for an evening. She wanted Oakes.

      And suddenly a new plan, an even better one, started to take shape in her mind, and she realized that she could still have him.

      “Eureka!”

      At the sink, he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Did you just discover gold?”

      “Pretty darn close.” She gathered her plate and cup and carried them to the sink. Standing at his elbow, she leaned against the counter. “I just had the best idea ever. It’ll take some planning, but then, what brilliant idea doesn’t?”

      He ran the water, began rinsing dishes and setting them in the dishwasher. “Planning is good. But not exactly your strong suit.”

      Oh, if he only knew. “I plan for the important things.” She pushed away from the counter and paced the length of the room, brushing his back as she passed. “We’ll need to check flights, which I’m sure won’t be cheap, especially for a holiday weekend. Plus I’ll have to find accommodations. And I’ll need to buy a few things,” she muttered, making a mental checklist. “A winter coat and maybe boots.” She stopped to find him staring at her curiously. “I’m assuming there’s going to be snow? So, yeah, boots for sure.”

      He shook his head, totally confused. “What are you talking about?”

      “Snow. In Pennsylvania, where Kane lives.”

      “It snows there in the winter,” he said slowly, reaching to shut off the running water. “Why?”

      He didn’t have to look so suspicious. Or so worried.

      She smiled. “Because I’ve changed my mind. The favor I want from you isn’t for you to go with me to Ricky’s wedding. It’s for you to take me with you to Kane’s.”

       CHAPTER FOUR

      OAKES LOOKED SHOCKED, as if she had indeed not only requested a kidney, but also insisted he lay back so she could dig it out of him right now. “Excuse me?” he asked.

      “I could go with you to Kane’s wedding. It’s a great idea.” The more she thought about it, the more she began to believe it. Knowing body language was an important part of any conversation, she leaned forward, hoping to convey her need and earnestness, and ticked off all the ways her plan was brilliant. “It’s the same weekend as Ricky’s, which means I’d have a legitimate excuse not to attend his nuptials and, if I go with you as your plus one, no one in Houston can say I’m heartbroken or missing Ricky’s wedding because I’m still in love with him or spiteful. It’s the perfect solution.”

      “Perfect.” The word said he agreed but his muttered tone suggested otherwise. “Except for the fact that Kane’s wedding is in Pennsylvania.”

      “Even better.”

      A change of scenery would do them good. It might be easier for Oakes to stop seeing her as only Zach’s little sister, as only a friend, if they were away from Houston. Unfortunately, they couldn’t escape the Bartasavich family entirely as most of the family would be at the wedding in Shady Grove, but she and Oakes would have plenty of time and opportunity to be alone.

      She’d make sure of it.

      “Weren’t you invited to the wedding yourself?” Oakes asked as they both sat back down.

      “Nope. Why would I be?”

      She barely knew Kane or C.J., Oakes’s older brothers. Oh, they’d spent some time together at the hospital when Zach was first brought back to the States after he’d been injured. But it wasn’t as if she had anything in common with C.J.—Clinton Bartasavich, Jr.—the current CEO of Bartasavich Enterprises, who was so far out of her tax bracket, social sphere and peer group, they might as well be on different planets. And the same was true with the long-haired, tattooed Kane, who preferred biker boots over power suits and owned and operated a bar in Shady Grove, Pennsylvania.

      Oakes shifted. Cleared his throat. “I thought you and Charlotte had become friends.”

      “We did. Sort of. Just not the type of friends you feel the need to invite the other to an out-of-state wedding that’s taking place on Christmas Eve.”

      Daphne liked Charlotte Ellison, Kane’s fiancée. She was smart and funny and it had been great having an RN with them in the hospital to cut through all the medical terms. She’d been extremely patient about explaining things to Daphne and her mother. But it wasn’t like they’d become BFFs after spending a few days together—even though those were important days in Daphne’s life.

      Realizing Oakes was grasping at straws, looking for any reason not to take her with him to Shady Grove, she frowned. He wasn’t doing much for her ego, that was for sure. “Do you...do you already have a plus one for the wedding?”

      A distinct possibility given that he was seeing Sylvie. But Daphne couldn’t imagine Oakes bringing some woman he was casually dating halfway across the country to his brother’s wedding.

      Talk about a commitment.

      “No,” he said slowly, in that way people did when they were trying to find an excuse to get out of doing something they didn’t want to do. “I hadn’t planned on bringing a date.”

      She laid her hand on his knee. “But there’s no reason you can’t bring one, right?”

      She let her hand linger on his leg. It was nice, touching him, feeling the warmth of him through his jeans. But mostly she liked how he reacted to her touch. As if it made him uncomfortable and not in a he-found-her-repulsive way, but the opposite. He must have felt the spark between them, too, and was fighting his baser instincts for all he was worth.

      A girl could dream, right?

      He brightened suddenly and she would have bet her last dollar that he gave himself a silent eureka.

      And that made her nervous.

      “You can go with Zach,” he said. Just as he’d done last night, he covered her hand with his briefly and then slid it away from his person. But she noticed his fingers hadn’t been completely steady. “I’m sure he’d be thrilled to take you.”

      “As you’re well aware, Zach is never thrilled to do anything. But you’re right. He would take me. If he was going.”

      “Zach isn’t going?” he asked. “Why not?”

      She

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