It was time to return the favor.
“It’s good to see I can still read your mind at a hundred paces, Liam, my man.”
Liam swung toward the door. Bill, resplendent in his morning coat and striped trousers, grinned at him.
“Can you?” Liam said, and managed a smile.
“Sure.” Bill walked to where Liam stood, reached past him for the decanter and poured himself some brandy. “’What’s Malone doing now?’ I asked myself a minute ago.” Smiling, Bill lifted his glass to Liam’s. “’He’s stalking around my study,’ myself replied, ‘fortifying himself with brandy while he works up to telling me I’m on the verge of making the biggest mistake of my life.’” Bill laughed at the look on Liam’s face. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Absolutely, as long as you’ve asked.”
“I knew it. What else would a confirmed bachelor like you think on my wedding day?” Bill downed half his drink and grimaced. “I needed that. My stomach’s been going up and down like an elevator all morning.”
“Bill.” Liam put down his snifter. “Look, I know you think you’re in love with this girl…”
“Woman,” Bill said, and grinned. “Jessica has very definite opinions on the male-female thing.”
“Yes,” Liam said coolly, “I’m sure she does.”
“Wouldn’t go out with me at all, even though we’d been working together almost a year. Said it wasn’t right for a woman to date her boss.”
“But you managed to change her mind.”
Bill didn’t seem to hear the sarcasm in Liam’s tone. “I did,” he said, and gave a lopsided grin. “Bet you didn’t think I could talk a woman who looks like that into dating a guy like me, huh?”
Liam’s brows lifted. “This isn’t your first brandy today, is it?”
“It’s my first in this room,” Bill said, and chuckled. “Hey, you’d be edgy, too, if you were about to take a wife.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Liam said bluntly, and felt better for finally having spoken the truth.
Bill sighed, sank into his favorite leather armchair and sipped his brandy. “I wondered how long it would take you to get around to that.”
“Well, dammit, what choice do I have? You’re about to make the biggest mistake of your life—”
“See? I even got the wording right.”
“Bill, I’m serious.”
“So am I, Liam. I love Jessica and she loves me.”
“You know nothing about her.”
“I know everything about her. I told you, she’s had to make her own way in life. Her father never managed to hold on to a dime. He died when Jess was eighteen and she lost her mother only a year later. She’s never been married, she has a degree in business studies—”
“You know nothing about her,” Liam insisted. “You’ve only been dating her for, what, four months?”
“Only because she wouldn’t go out with me sooner.”
“Are you sleeping with her?” Liam said brusquely.
Bill blushed. “Direct, as always, Malone. Why do you want to know?”
A good question, Liam thought, and came up with what wasn’t quite an answer. “It’s normal for a man and woman who love each other to share a bed.”
“So?”
“So, if you haven’t slept with her, maybe you should consider why.”
“Liam, I know you’ve been with a lot of women but Jessica is—”
“Different. Yes, I figured you’d say that. Look, you have to know that there are women who use sex to snare a man.”
“Well, Jessica hasn’t. Not that it’s any of your business, but she hasn’t slept with me yet. I haven’t asked her to. She’s not that kind.”
Liam snorted.
“She isn’t, dammit!”
“There are all kinds of ways to use sex, Bill. Withholding it is only one of them.”
“Oh, for…” Bill shot to his feet. “Listen to me, Liam. Jessica is about to become my wife. Keep that in mind when you talk about her.”
“Dammit, Thornton, haven’t you grown up at all? You’re as naive as you were when you needed me to save your skinny tail from the weird babe with the purple hair. You were certain she was the love of your life, too, remember?”
“Oh, give me a break! I was eighteen, not thirty.”
“And not much smarter, from what I can see.”
Bill’s mouth thinned. “Back off, okay? I love Jessica, and she loves me.”
“What if it’s your money she loves? Your name? The step up you’ll give her by marrying her?”
“It isn’t.” Bill walked to Liam’s side, smiled and clapped a hand lightly on his back. “She loves me for myself, hard as that may be for you to believe, considering that it’s you, with your black Irish good looks, the ladies always drool over.”
“Dammit, hear me out.”
“No.” Bill threw an arm around Liam’s shoulders. “No, for once, Malone, you hear me out. This is love. The real thing, and don’t judge it by your need to bed every good-looking female in sight, or by figuring a man with a bank account is always a hostage to his money.”
Liam looked at his old friend. He thought of telling him he’d changed that attitude when he’d finally decided there were better ways to indulge a love of risk than on the fall of the cards, but then he’d have to explain more than that, and this wasn’t the time to do it. Not on Bill’s wedding day, and it looked as if this really was going to be his wedding day.
Hell. Maybe Bill was right. Maybe the marriage would work. The bottom line was that there was nothing more he could do, except hope he was around to help pick up the pieces if, and when, the time came.
“Liam?”
Liam looked up.
“You could, at least, try and look happy for me.”
“Sure.” Liam sighed. “I hope it works out. You know that.”
“It will,” Bill said solemnly. “Jess is the best thing that ever happened to me. Once you get to know her, you’ll think so, too. Come on, get that sour look off your face and admit the truth. You’re just jealous ‘cause I’ve found the perfect woman.”
Bill smiled. Liam tried to, and wondered if he’d succeeded. “I hope you’re right.”
“I know I am. Now, drink up, wish me luck and then get out there and do your duty. I fielded half a dozen phone calls after the rehearsal dinner last night, every last one from a lady aching to know more about my best man.”
Liam grinned. “Only half a dozen?”
“All right, a dozen.” Bill grinned, too, and touched his glass to Liam’s. The men finished their brandy, put down the snifters and walked to the door together. “You know how come you’re such a cynic, my man? It’s because the ladies let you get away with murder.”
“The Malone charm,” Liam said lazily. “Love ’em and leave ’em, that’s me.”
“Yeah,