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“Excuse me,” she whispered to the ghoulish figure—because that’s how jumbled her thoughts were—and then she climbed past him. There had to be an exit back here somewhere.
Outside, the music continued, so that was a good sign. Maybe her pretend-this-never-happened plan would work after all, she thought, gingerly picking her way around a rack of stage swords. She could get Noah to convince Ryder he’d been imagining things. That it couldn’t possibly have been her.
* * *
“That was her,” Noah whispered to him.
“That was definitely her.”
Still standing, facing his approaching bride, Ryder’s brother slid his eyes to the side to study him.
“You want to follow her.”
Of course, he wanted to follow her. He had only stayed away because that’s what he thought she wanted. He’d been doing the right thing, he thought. Giving her the space to do what she wanted. She hadn’t come to him, even after she’d sent Davis King packing. She was, by all reports, doing great on her own. She would have told him if she wanted more.
Wouldn’t she?
He shook his head. “She’s just here for your wedding.”
The groom now turned to him. He smirked. “If she was just here for the wedding, why did she feel the need to sneak in incognito?”
He made a fair point.
She hadn’t wanted to be seen. She hadn’t wanted people to know she was there. Hadn’t, he realized suddenly, wanted him to know she was there.
But the way she had looked at him . . .
And then he remembered how unsure she’d been of herself. For all her conviction and talent and skill, she hadn’t been sure she could stand on her own. Hadn’t been sure she could face Noah’s engagement alone. Hadn’t felt like she could just let the press write what it would and simply not care what people thought.
She lacked confidence. It was inexplicable, considering she was so ridiculously competent. And she had come a long way in the past few months from what he could see. But she was still, fundamentally, insecure.
She was scared. Was she scared of him?
No, not of him. Of . . .
Of whatever had been growing between them.
“Have you told her how you feel?” Noah broke into Ryder’s thoughts.
He blinked.
Offstage, in the direction Vicky had disappeared, there was a loud crashing sound.
Halfway down the stairs, Sabrina and Mr. Hopewell exchanged a confused look. They paused for a second, but when no further sounds were heard, Sabrina smiled wide and nodded to her dad. They resumed their progress toward the stage.
Ryder turned to look at the exit Vic had disappeared through. A dim blue light glowed partway down the dark hall. And damn it all, he wanted to follow her before she disappeared into the night. Before he lost his nerve. Before she moved on to someone clean-cut and worthy who didn’t land her in the gossip pages again and again.
But there was the small matter of his brother’s wedding currently in progress. And causing a huge, embarrassing spectacle by doing something like walking out to chase after a woman seemed like exactly the sort of thing he’d decided to stop implicating his family in.
Besides, what if he was wrong and she didn’t want him anyway?
“Ryder,” Noah breathed. “Go.”
He really wanted to.
But he looked back at his little brother—whose big day it was—and for the first time in a long time, he actually didn’t want to mess things up for him.
“Noah. It’s your wedding.”
