Had To Be You (16 page)

“Right. Um, I think I’m going to head on over to the bar now,” she said, lifting her empty champagne glass. “Can I get anyone anything?”

“All set.”

“No, thank you.”

Rory was aware of the possibility that the comment wasn’t meant to slight her in any way, but that theory was merely speculative. For the moment, she preferred to stick with her baseless suspicions that Amanda was actually an evil and calculating succubus sent here for the sole purpose of destroying her life.

She wandered over to the bar, waiting for the bartender to finish serving those in front of her.

“Having fun yet?”

Rory glanced back to notice a fairly attractive stranger waiting as well. His handsome grin dipped into a slight frown when he saw her face.

“Or maybe not?”

She caught herself, shaking her head with an uncertain laugh. “I’m sorry. I, ah—I’m sort of somewhere in the middle, I guess.”

At that moment, the bartender noticed her and, without having to ask, refilled her champagne. Maybe Rory should just marry him.

“Not really having fun, but not having a bad time, either?” the stranger offered as he got his own drink.

She took a delicate sip. “Something like that.”

“Well, my name is Todd. If you think of anything I can do to sway you in either direction, just let me know. I’ll be right over here.” He inclined his head towards a small group of well-dressed guests congregating on the lawn a few yards away.

“I’ll do that.”

Her smile faded just as soon as he walked away, and she ran a hand through her long hair, wishing for an easy way to just disappear.

It was then, however, that she heard a familiar voice in her ear, washing over her with its warmth yet sending shivers down her spine at the same time. Like being tossed about in the waves, her stomach flipped, and she was left briefly struggling to regain breath and balance.

“Can I ask why Amanda’s friends are suddenly staring at me right now and whispering to each other?”

“Well, you did dress yourself this morning.” She maintained her cool, and took another sip of champagne.

Matt chuckled rather ruefully, moving around to face her. “So, it has nothing to do with the fact you were just over there with them?”

“And what are you insinuating?”

He only shrugged a shoulder in response. Rory glanced away, feeling it was safer to avoid direct eye contact at all costs. Her new friend Todd looked over from his group at the same time, giving her another charming smile. She returned it with a slight nod.

Matt paused in lifting his beer to his mouth, his gaze traveling between them.

“Well, well, well…look at you with the flirting.”

“That’s not
flirting
,” she replied haughtily. “That was simply a common gesture of acknowledgement.”

“For some, yes, perhaps,” he agreed with a tilt his head and a low chuckle of laughter. “But for you? That’s flirting.”

She only responded with a slight roll of her eyes and started walking.

He followed—like she secretly, foolishly hoped he would.

While shopping downtown earlier that morning, she’d bumped into several people she hadn’t seen in years, including Mrs. Mitchell, a particularly unpleasant former nosy neighbor she failed to avoid (despite her best attempts). After a couple of brief comments about how much she had grown and changed, Rory was forced to hear all about that O’Shea boy she used to always be running around with—how handsome he grew up to be, how well he was doing for himself at such a young age, how he used to ‘
look at you like you hung the moon’
and that she must be ‘
kicking herself for letting that one go
’.

She could assure Mrs. Mitchell she felt every bruise.

“Hey, it’s not like I don’t know what I’m talking about,” Matt continued.

“That’s good. Because it’s not like anyone else does.”

“All I’m saying is that it’s not like some of that hasn’t been thrown my way in the past.” He arched his brow to emphasize his meaning.

“If anything was ever thrown your way?” she murmured sarcastically. “It was obviously very large, very heavy and struck you directly upon the head.”

He was in the middle of a swig of beer and almost choked a little on his laugh. Recovering, he regarded her with a teasing grin. “And what does your boyfriend think of you spending your summer vacation brazenly coming on to other men? Doesn’t he know not to let you and all your wanton ways out of his sight?”

Rory almost laughed at this, because they both knew how comically inaccurate that description of her would be, but didn’t.

“Well, for one, he’s not exactly my boyfriend,” she corrected him before narrowing her eyes. “But what does your fiancée think of the fact that you’ve obviously developed such an alarming drug problem?”

It seemed Matt was no longer interested in playing along. In fact, he almost seemed on the verge of irritation.

“Why do you do that? Why do you keep trying to claim he’s not your boyfriend, when the guy obviously is?”

“What’s it to you?” she countered.

He gave her a heavy-eyed look in response. “I think we can safely say we’ve reached the place where you can tell me the truth about the guys you date.”

“You want the truth?” Rory sighed, knowing he definitely couldn’t handle it. So she just gave him a version of it. “I’m ending things with Jonathan, okay? It’s pretty much over. I just sort of need to tell him that, however, so that’s why I haven’t said it. And I’d appreciate it if that stayed between us until I do.”

Matt blinked once, and looked like he needed a minute to absorb this information.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, really. It was never anything serious to begin with.”

“Well, it was serious enough for you to go away with him for Christmas instead of coming home to see your family,” he said, frowning in distraction. “I guess I just assumed that you…”

“That I
what
?” She glanced at him with a curious scowl. “Because now you’re starting to sound like my mother.”

Matt only averted his eyes. He looked a little pale all of a sudden.

“Hey—here you guys are!”

Kevin suddenly appeared with Joshua. He clasped a hand on his brother’s shoulder and, though he spoke with his usual gentle humor, Rory detected a mild note of warning.

“Lots of people are looking for you. You coming back to join the party or what?”

It wasn’t until then she realized they had wandered rather far off from the main festivities. She supposed it wouldn’t look very good, and knew all about keeping up appearances.

“Oh, right,” Matt mumbled, glancing at her. “I probably should, um—”

“Go,” Rory finished for him, but softened it with a faint smile.

As she watched him walk away, Kevin grinned over at her.

“Rory, you remember Joshua?”

She forced up the edges of her smile. “Hi, Joshua.

“Hi, Rory.”

“Can we buy you a drink?” Kevin offered.

She lifted the champagne to her mouth and tilted her head back to finish off the entire glass before passing it over to him without a word.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, lightly resting his hand on her back to guide her. “Come on.”

They hadn’t gotten too far when he hesitated.

“Wait. Slight detour. There’s someone over here we should say hello to.”

An elderly woman with powder white hair sat alone at a table placed in the shade of a tree, close to the paned glass doors that led into the house.

“Well, hello there. Enjoying yourself?” Kevin lifted his voice in the way people tend to do with the elderly.

“Oh, hello.” The woman smiled up at him. “You’re one of the brothers, is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m Kevin,” he nodded. “This is Joshua, and this is Rory Finn.” He glanced towards them. “Mrs. Benson is Amanda’s grandmother.”

“Hello,” Joshua greeted her with a gracious little bow.

“Nice to meet you.” Rory echoed, briefly wondering what the ratio was between how many times she’d said that today and how many times she actually meant it.

“I was just on my way to the bar. Can I get you anything? A refill on your punch, maybe?” Kevin offered kindly, noticing the empty glass on the table.

“Oh, that would be lovely. Thank you.” She lifted a shaky hand to pass it to him.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Let me help you with those,” Joshua offered, going with him.

Rory glanced after them, her polite smile instantly fading to notice Matt was only a few feet away. He was talking with another assorted group of Amanda’s relatives, but his attention seemed focused her way. It was almost as if he’d followed them.

Didn’t he have better things to do at his engagement party than stalk her?

“Such a nice boy. So considerate,” Mrs. Benson was saying. “Have you been together long?”

“Me?” Rory touched her hand to her chest, and then smiled patiently to explain. “Oh, Kevin and I are not together.”

“Oh, really? You make such a nice looking young couple.”

“Well, thanks.” Her voice dipped into some wry humor. “But unfortunately I can’t quite compete with Joshua.”

“What was that?” The elderly woman leaned forward a little in her chair.

“I was saying that Joshua is—”

“So sorry to interrupt,” Matt cut in, suddenly right there, “but could I speak with you for just one second?”

He took Rory’s elbow in his hand to lead her away, his voice tight with strained civility, guiding her right inside the house to close the door behind them.

She shook free from his grasp with a mild scowl. “What’s your problem?”

Matt glanced around the empty kitchen, lowering his voice to a hushed tone. “Grandma Benson doesn’t exactly know about my brother’s sexual orientation. Nor does she really need to, okay?”

Rory stared at him in disbelief.

“She doesn’t realize Kevin is
gay
?” She let out a soft, harsh laugh. “Or is it more like no one is allowed to
tell
her?”

Matt frowned as he shoved his hands into his pants’ pockets, but apparently had no reply.

She took a moment to absorb this, shaking her head slowly. All she could imagine was that this was another example of Amanda’s influence, how she was slowly but surely changing him into someone else—taking him far away from the boy Rory knew and loved. Too far away to ever get back.

“So, with everything he went through growing up, the teasing from kids, all the fights
you
yourself got into on his behalf, everything with your dad…now, after all that, he has to pretend he’s not who he is? Like it’s going to somehow interfere with your perfect little world here?”

“What’s the big deal?” he shot back. “Kevin is fine with it.”

“And does he really have a choice? He finally invites a guy to a family thing, and you know how big a deal that is for him! You were always the one person to stand up for him and I can’t believe—” Rory heard the emotion sneaking into her words. Afraid she might give herself away, she abruptly switched to a slightly more contemptuous tune. “Forget it. If you’re okay living a complete lie, then whatever!”

He scoffed lightly on his laugh, but there was little humor in the sound.

“Okay, okay…let’s just dial it back a few notches, Nancy Grace,” he said. “It’s not that big a deal. The woman is well over eighty years old, and who knows if we’ll ever see her again. You know—my sister’s pet bunny rabbit didn’t really go away to live on some big carrot farm when we were kids, either. Do you have anything to say about that?”

Rory only folded her arms across her chest and glanced away. She supposed she was probably the world’s biggest hypocrite at the moment, considering she’d built an entire career on little white lies.

There was a short stretch of loaded silence between them before he spoke again.

“Do you not like Amanda or something?”

The bitter lump swelled in her throat. “Matt, I just met her.”

“Well, are you not happy for me?”

She desperately fought to ignore the blurry sting in the corners of her eyes. She had been holding it together so well up to now.

“Forget it, I know you are,” he quickly continued, saving her from having to reply. This time his voice was softer, gentler. “And I’m sorry for maybe having a bit of an attitude when we last talked. You just, um—caught me at a bad time, I guess.”

“It’s okay.” Rory dropped her arms, assuming a less guarded stance. “I wasn’t exactly in one of my better moods, either.”

Matt only nodded absently before he paused, frowning as if he was momentarily confused. “Wait—you mean they get better than that?”

Her mouth fell open as she stared him a moment in silent indignation, then he cracked slightly. They both conceded in quiet laughter.

She shook her head in reproof, still laughing as she discreetly swiped at her eye. “Such a jerk.”

Matt chuckled in amusement. When their eyes met, he hesitated, his grin fading with a sigh of resignation.

“I should head back out there. You coming?”

“No, you go ahead.” Rory shook her head. “I need to hit the ladies’ room.”

He moved towards the door with some reluctance, turning away.

“Wait, Matt,” she quickly stopped him, noticing a spot of bright pink on his cheek. “I think you have a little bit of lipstick there.”

Stepping closer to lift up on her toes, she grazed the tips of her fingers over his close-shaven skin, smoothing her thumb over the smudge to erase it. Underneath that new expensive aftershave, she realized he smelled exactly the same, of soap and sea air and sunlight. An involuntary tremble ran through her, realizing it had been a very long time since they were in such close proximity.

“What? It’s not the right shade?” he asked, but instead of lightening the moment with humor, the husky rumble of his voice went deep, all the way to that place where she could feel it inside.

Their eyes caught and held, locked in place. Rory swallowed nervously, her heartbeat suddenly skipping and speeding erratically, chest constricting to steal breath. Under the dark fringe of his lashes, the blue heat of his gaze set off a very slow, dangerous burn inside her. She felt helpless to extinguish it.