Page 65 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

“Where did you get that?” she whispered, finally glancing back up at me with wide eyes. “It looks exactly like I…”

“Like you described,” I finished for her a second after she’d trailed off, handing over the dress and sliding my hands into my pockets. “That’s why I bought it. I saw it hanging in a thrift store when I went to order the cake.”

“You remembered?” she asked, her voice still hushed with awe. “I mentioned this to you one time.”

“Yeah, I know, but I have a pretty decent memory and just one beer isn’t enough to change that.”

“I can’t believe you remembered.” Her gaze dropped back to the dress and she dragged her fingertips across the silk slowly, like she was revering it. “Ryan…”

“Don’t make it weird,” I said when she trailed off again. “It’s nothing. I literally saw it in the window when I was walking back to my car and I thought you might like it. That’s all.”

The look she gave me made my brain rearrange itself, a smile spreading on her lips so soft and full of wonder that for a second, I almost made it weird.

“We’re not engaged,” she blurted quietly, thankfully saving me from myself. “Daniel and I. We’re not engaged anymore.”

I frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She toyed with the neckline of the dress, averting her gaze from mine as a pink flush climbed up the sides of her cheeks. “I’m giving my parents a wedding and Daniel said he’ll show up if I’m actually going through with it, but he doesn’t consider us engaged, so I honestly don’t know if I’m getting married or if I’m just wasting everyone’s time.”

Just as my eyes started narrowing, she looked up at me again and my annoyance instantly crashed and burned. “Then you remembered this.”

“Of course, I remembered it. It was the only normal part of your dream wedding.”

“A vintage yellow dress is normal?”

I shrugged. “It’s more normal than a carnival, a haunted church, and a graveyard.”

She let out a quiet laugh. “Still. You remembered one little thing I said.”

“Seriously, Maggie. It’s not a big deal. I remember a lot of things you say.”

As soon as the words were out, I realized I probably shouldn’t have admitted that, but in the moment, I hadn’t thought anything of it. I hadn’t thought at all, actually, but as her wedding planner, I supposed remembering what she said wasn’t a bad thing.

On the other hand, the way she was suddenly looking at me confirmed that she knew it went deeper than that. She knew I didn’t just remember everything she’d said because I was making mental notes for her wedding.

Daniel had told me weeks ago he didn’t think of them as engaged. I’d known since then where he stood on the whole thing, but I’d never been sure what Maggie thought. Little comments she’d made here and there and even some of our arguments had made it pretty clear that she didn’t exactly see him as her fiancé either, but that’d been before we’d started planning another wedding.

I’d known she’d had to talk to him about it again and I’d even known they’d met up before I’d made the appointment for us to view the venue, but ever since, I’d just sort of figured they were back on. She still wasn’t wearing the ring again, but we were here to plan their wedding, for fuck’s sake.

Obviously, I’d thought they were engaged. Or re-engaged. Or whatever the appropriate terminology was, but now?

My thoughts spun out as I stared into those hazel eyes that’d been haunting my dreams, the tension I’d been pretending not to feel suddenly snapping clean in half. Maggie dropped the dress and crossed the space between us, her arms winding around my neck at the same time I grabbed her hips.

I tugged her to me, every sensible thought I’d had about staying away from her vanishing the second her mouth met mine. We kissed like we’d been trying not to for weeks, which, in my case at least, was a little too true.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured when she started pulling away.

“Yeah, me too.”

But before either of us let go, we were kissing again, though I had no idea how it’d happened. All I knew was that right now, she didn’t belong to anyone else, but it sure as shit felt like she belonged to me.

CHAPTER 28

MAGGIE

Ishould not be kissing Ryan Thayer, one part of my brain screamed when I stroked my fingers into the hair at the back of his head. Unfortunately, the other part of my brain and the rest of my body vehemently disagreed with that tiny voice of reason trying to break through. Why not? We’re both single and we’re obviously attracted to one another.

Surprisingly, all three of those things were true. I shouldn’t have been kissing him. It would make things even more complicated from here on out, and yet, we were both single, and from the feel of things right now, we were also very obviously attracted to one another.