“I don’t expect you to change your mind about me marrying Kurt,” Susan said anxiously, rushing the words together in her eagerness to have them said. “But it would mean the world to me if you’d attend the ceremony. There won’t be a lot of people there. Just a few friends and Kurt’s immediate family. That’s all we can afford. Savannah’s been wonderful, showing us how to get the most out of our limited budget. Will you come to my wedding, Nash?”
Nash knew when he was involved in a losing battle. Susan would marry Kurt with or without his approval. His kid sister was determined to do this her way. He’d done his best to talk some sense into her, but to no avail. He’d made the mistake of threatening her, and she’d called his bluff. The past weeks had been miserable for them both.
“I’ll come.”
“Oh, Nash, thank you.” Tears brimmed and spilled over her lashes. She grabbed her paper napkin, holding it beneath each eye in turn. “I can’t begin to tell you how much this means to me.”
“I know.” He felt like crying himself, but for none of the same reasons. He didn’t want to see his sister hurt and that was inevitable once she was married. “I still don’t approve of your marrying so young, but I can’t stop you.”
“Nash, you keep forgetting, I’m an adult, over twentyone. You make me sound like a little kid.”
He sighed expressively. That was the way he saw her, as his kid sister. It was difficult to think of her married, with a family of her own, when it only seemed a few years back that she was in diapers.
“You’ll love Kurt once you get to know him better,” she said excitedly, wiping the moisture from her cheek. “Look at what you’ve done to me,” she muttered. Her mascara streaked her face in inky rows.
His hand reached for hers and he squeezed her fingers. “We’ll get through this yet, kid,” he joked.
Nash suspected, in the days that followed, that it was natural to feel good about making his sister so happy. All he’d agreed to do was attend the ceremony. He hadn’t figured out what was going to keep him in his seat when the minister asked anyone who opposed the union to speak now or forever hold their peace. Attending the ceremony itself, regardless of his personal feelings toward marriage, was the least he could do for causing the rift between them.
The card from Savannah that arrived at his office took him by surprise. He stared at the return address on the envelope for a moment before turning it over and opening it with eager fingers. Her message was straightforward: “Thank you.” Her elegant signature appeared below.
Nash gazed at the card for several minutes before slapping it down on his desk. The woman was driving him crazy.
He left the office almost immediately, shocking his assistant, who rushed after him, needing to know what she was supposed to do about his next appointment. Nash suggested she entertain him with some law journals and coffee. He promised to be back in half an hour.
Luckily he found a parking spot on the street. Climbing out of his car, he walked purposely toward the bridal shop. Savannah was sitting at her desk intent on her task. When she glanced up and saw him, she froze.
“I got your card,” he said stiffly.
“I…It made Susan so happy to know you’d attend her wedding. I wanted to thank you,” she said, her eyes following his every move.
He marched to her desk, not understanding even now what force had driven him to her. “How many guests is she inviting?”
“I…believe the number’s around sixty.”
“Change that,” he instructed harshly. “We’re going to be inviting three hundred or more. I’ll have the list to you in the morning.”
“Susan and Kurt can’t afford—”
“They won’t be paying for it. I will. I want the best for my sister, understand? We’ll have a sit-down dinner, a dance with a ten-piece orchestra, real flowers and a designer wedding dress. We’ll order invitations because there’ll be too many for Susan to make herself. Have you got that?” He motioned toward her pen, thinking she should write it all down.
Savannah looked as if she hadn’t heard him. “Does Susan know about all this?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t you think you should clear it with her first?”
“It might be too soon, because a good deal of this hinges on one thing.”
Savannah frowned. “What’s that?”
“If you’ll agree to attend the wedding as my date.”
Five
“Your date?” Savannah repeated as she leapt to her feet. No easy task when one leg was as unsteady as hers. She didn’t often forget that, but she did now in her incredulity. “That’s emotional blackmail,” she cried, before slumping back in her chair.
“You’re right, it is,” Nash agreed, leaning forward and pressing his hands against the edge of her oak desk. His face was scant inches from her own, and his eyes cut straight through her defenses. “It’s what you expect of me, isn’t it?” he demanded. “Since I’m so despicable.”
“I never said that!”
“Maybe not, but you thought it.”
“No, I didn’t!” she snapped, then decided she probably had. She’d been shaken by his kiss, and then he’d apologized as if he’d never meant it to happen. And, perhaps worse, maybe he wished it hadn’t.
A slow, leisurely smile replaced Nash’s dark scowl. “That’s what I thought,” he said as he raised his hand and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. His fingertips lingered at her face. “I wish I knew what’s happening to us.”
“Nothing’s happening,” Savannah insisted, but her voice lacked conviction even to her own ears. She was fighting the powerful attraction she felt for him for all she was worth, which at the moment wasn’t much. “You aren’t really going to blackmail me, are you?”
He gently traced the outline of her face, pausing at her chin and tilting it upward. “Do you agree to attend the wedding with me?”
“Yes, only—”
“Then you should know I had no intention of following through with my threat. Susan can have the wedding of her dreams.”
Savannah stood, awkwardly placing her weight on her injured leg. “I’m sure there are far more suitable dates for you,” she said crisply.
“I want you.”
He made this so difficult. “Why me?” she asked. By his own admission, there were any number of other women who’d jump at the chance to date him. Why had he insisted on singling her out? It made no sense.
Nash frowned as if he wasn’t sure himself, which lent credence to Savannah’s doubts. “I don’t know. As for this wedding, it seemed to me I could be wrong. It doesn’t happen often, but I have been known to make an error in judgment now and again.” He gave her a quick, self-deprecating grin. “Susan’s my only sister—the only family I’ve got. I don’t want there to be any regrets between us. Your card helped, too, and the way I see it, if I’m going to sit through a wedding, I’m not going to suffer alone. I want you there with me.”
“Then I suggest you ask someone who’d appreciate the invitation,” she said defiantly, straightening her shoulders.
“I want to be with you,” he insisted softly, his eyes revealing his confusion. “Darned if I know why. You’re stubborn, defensive and argumentative.”
“One would think you’d rather…oh, wrestle