The Best Man's Plan. GINA WILKINS

my actions to you. So, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.”

      She moved slowly out of his way as he approached. “I simply…”

      He didn’t want to hear any more lecturing from her at the moment. “See you around, Grace,” he said.

      On an impulse, he stopped in front of her and reached out to thread his fingers into her hair. He covered her mouth with his before she could guess his intentions. “Report that to the media,” he murmured after he released her, then turned and made a hasty exit.

       Chapter Four

       G race wished she could spend Thursday evening scrubbing floors. Or paying bills. Even cleaning bathrooms seemed preferable to yet another evening socializing with the rich and semifamous.

      This time it was a political fund-raiser at an exclusive Little Rock country club. The governor would be there, along with a gaggle of other politicians, several notable business leaders, a few sports heroes and Arkansas-born celebrities, and a military dignitary or two. Grace figured she would be as out of place there as a cat at a dog show, but she had made a commitment and she wouldn’t back out—no matter how badly she might want to.

      Dressed in a sleeveless black silk dress—her limited wardrobe was going to force her to go shopping soon if she had to keep attending these glitzy events—she entered the ballroom at Bryan’s side. It had been somewhat awkward between them so far. Bryan was in one of his annoying, teasing-and-flirting moods, and she was still sulking over that parting kiss Tuesday in her office. He’d left her sputtering for a snappy comeback and mentally kicking herself for not physically kicking him. And he’d probably guessed everything she was thinking, the jerk.

      Conversations in the ballroom were discreetly muted, with only an occasional burst of laughter here and there. An orchestra played elevator-suitable show tunes, and unrecognizable, but probably very expensive, hors d’oeuvres were artfully arranged on tables decorated with candles and ice sculptures—a potentially unfortunate combination, in Grace’s opinion.

      Everyone in the room seemed to be on a first-name basis with Bryan—including the governor. They spent what seemed like a few days circling the room, swapping greetings and meaningless pleasantries and incredibly lame jokes.

      “You can stop smiling now,” Bryan murmured when they had paused in a dim corner after making the obligatory rounds. “No one’s looking.”

      “No,” she snapped back, “I can’t. My face is permanently stuck in this stupid expression. It’s going to be like this for the rest of my life, and then I’m going to die and lie in my coffin grinning inanely at all the mourners who pass by.”

      He laughed and looped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, darling. I’m sure I’ll do something to wipe the smile from your face soon.”

      “Watch that roving hand,” she growled.

      He laughed again and moved his hand to a more innocuous position. “What did I tell you?”

      “Can we leave yet?”

      “Darling, we just got here.”

      “It feels as if we’ve been here for a week. And do you have to call me darling every ten seconds or so?”

      “Of course not. Sweetheart.”

      Because punching one’s escort in the stomach was considered impolite, and because she had made a vow to herself to be on her best behavior that evening, Grace decided to let that one pass.

      She happened to be looking at Bryan when his smile suddenly froze, then slowly faded. “Well, hell.”

      Her left eyebrow rose. “What’s wrong?”

      “My parents just walked in.”

      Turning to follow the direction of his gaze, she tried to spot a likely looking couple among the well-dressed crowd. She’d never met Bryan’s parents, and he rarely spoke of them, at least to her. “I take it you weren’t expecting them?”

      “I thought Dad was on a fishing trip in Belize.”

      He didn’t seem particularly pleased to find out otherwise. Grace turned to study his expression, which was difficult to read. “You don’t get along with your parents?”

      With a slight shrug, he replied, “We get along fine. Dad’s still a little annoyed with me for leaving the family business to go off on my own, but he rather enjoys the bragging rights that go along with my success. My mother has always had a fascination with celebrities, so she’s always nagging me to introduce her to movie stars and supermodels—even the ones I’ve never met. She knows everyone in the local social community, of course, but she’s always fantasized about mingling with the Hollywood elite—something my father couldn’t care less about.”

      “Maybe you should have brought one of your starlet girlfriends tonight—for your mother’s sake.”

      He responded to her flippant quip with a scowl. “I don’t happen to have any ‘starlet girlfriends’ at the moment.”

      “I doubt that would have proven much of a handicap to you. I’m sure there are numbers you could call…”

      Something glittered in his eyes that might have been a warning, but his smile didn’t waver when he said, “Why would I want to be here with anyone else but you, darling?”

      Before she could answer, a woman’s voice crooned, “There you are, Bryan. I wasn’t sure we’d see you here this evening.”

      Grace looked around curiously, studying the couple who had approached them. She knew their names— Richard and Judith Falcon. They were an attractive couple, as she might have expected, considering Bryan’s extraordinary good looks. She assumed they were in their mid-sixties, but both were in excellent condition. Richard was tall and straight, his silvered hair swept back from a tanned and strong-planed face. Bryan had inherited his bone structure and his piercing blue eyes from his father, Grace decided, but his charming smile had come straight from his mother.