Lead Me On. Crystal Green

the food rugged and, as it turned out, disgusting.

      But the moment Dani had strolled in with Riley tonight, greeted by the thud of hip-hop and the sight of undergrads doing everything but the two-step on the small dance floor, it was obvious things had changed.

      “So it’s come to this,” Dani said as she and Riley left the main room and made their way through the slim lantern-lit corridor toward the back, where the auction was scheduled to start in an hour. “Desperado’s is now pure evil.”

      “Evil?” Riley rested a hand on the back of her neck, cupping it. “Strong word, Dan.”

      “Okay, maybe not evil, then. It’s just...” She motioned toward the dance floor and almost flinched at the loud music, which was making them raise their voices. “I miss how it used to be.”

      He guided her to the side of the corridor. No one else was there right now—they were early. And when he leaned back against the wall, putting his hands on her jeaned hips, pulling her to him, her heart jittered. But it was always that way when she looked into Riley’s deep blue eyes.

      “I don’t like it, either,” he said. “But things never stay the same. Not anywhere.”

      “I guess I’m just getting old and cranky.” She’d also felt that way before the game, while walking around campus. Dressed in her old Cal-U sweatshirt against the fall chill in the air, she’d felt like a grandma next to all the students running around, their lives ahead of them as they dreamed of success. “Everything just seems so...corporate. Cal-U used to be small, homier. Now it’s—”

      “Trendier than hell. I noticed.”

      He bent forward, kissing her forehead, and they stayed like that for a few seconds, his breath stirring her hair, infiltrating her, just as it had ever since she’d glanced up one day on a sorority/fraternity reunion cruise five years ago that neither Leigh nor Margot had signed up for. That’s when she’d seen Riley giving her that look—one she’d never noticed before. It was the look of a friend who had apparently been thinking some extremely more-than-buddies thoughts without her even knowing it until that moment.

      It had changed her world, changed her mind.

      But it hadn’t changed either of them.

      Or so she’d believed. It hadn’t occurred to her that change was everywhere except in her until last night, when Margot and Leigh had sprung this auction on her.

      She held on to Riley, her hands wrapped in the bottom of his long, untucked shirt, cocooned there. After last night, she’d started wondering just how people perceived her—had always perceived her.

      Was she someone in need of rescuing? A pitiful dreamy princess who’d been defined all her life by one goal and one goal only?

      To be the ultimate bridezilla?

      Just...wow. And, the thing was, Dani feared that her friends were right. What had she done with herself all these years besides get a job as lead caterer for someone else’s company? What true ambitions had she possessed?

      She’d always looked up to Margot—and who hadn’t? Margot led the pack, getting them into trouble while watching over them at the same time. Dani loved her friend’s independence, her go-get-’em approach to life. And the same went for Leigh, who had overcome a tragic childhood filled with sadness after the accidental drowning of her sister. Leigh had also struggled with her weight when she was younger, but now she was as svelte as Margot and just as successful a businesswoman. And what was Dani?

      Down the corridor, she heard a door close, and she caught a peek of Margot, dressed as stunningly as ever in what looked to be an Ann Taylor leather jacket, a pencil skirt and high boots as she made a beeline for the back room. She was carrying an iPad, probably to keep track of the baskets that had already been dropped off, and she didn’t see Dani and Riley as she disappeared.

      Riley’s voice rumbled through his chest as he spoke. Dani could feel it while she pressed against him.

      “Do you think Margot’s pissed after what you told her at the game?” he asked.

      “Not pissed. Disappointed, I’d say.” After Dani and Riley had talked this whole auction thing over last night, they’d decided that Margot and Leigh could still hold the event—it just wouldn’t be for their wedding. Instead, he had suggested a charity that fed the homeless in Avila Grande.

      “She’ll get over it,” Riley said.

      “I’m sure she’s already knee-deep in the excitement of tonight.” But, still, Dani had seen disappointment in both Margot’s and Leigh’s eyes this afternoon. They clearly hadn’t believed her when she’d told them that it didn’t matter how she and Riley got married—a small ceremony, an elopement. Whatever. She and Riley had been together for long enough that marriage was only a piece of paper to them.

      Or maybe Dani had just been saying this so often that she believed it. And Riley, being Riley, hadn’t pushed her on the subject too hard. He’d heard enough stories about the curveball her parents had thrown her just before she and Riley had gotten together. Married thirty-seven years, obviously just pretending to be happy, then boom.

      Divorce. Because of a cheating dad.

      As if knowing what had entered her thoughts again, Riley stroked her curls away from her face. Patient, wonderful Riley, who’d waited around long enough for her to finally start planning a wedding after the fallout from her mom and dad.

      “Is Margot excited because she thinks Brad is going to bid on her basket?” he asked, knowing just how to change a subject.

      Dani smiled up at him. “No doubt. It’s strange, though, because never in a million years would I think that a woman of experience like Margot would be in to a garden-variety type like Brad these days.”