Page 9 of Sweet Surrender
4
JUDAH
Ihad no idea what made me do what I did other than that I had been staring at her lips all evening. There were no regrets, and I wasn’t about to apologize for a damn thing.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Uhm, I . . . yeah.”
“Good, then I did my job.”
“Your job? Someone sent you to dance with me and kiss me?”
I frowned because, what the fuck? “Alex, I’m forty-four. The last thing that I do is take orders from someone else when it comes to a woman. I danced with you because I wanted you to get out there and have some fun. You’d been working hard all day, and you hadn’t relaxed at all.
“I kissed you because I’ve been staring at your lips for so damn long, it was impossible for me to ignore them any longer. Seeing those tears in your eyes fucked with me. Nobody should be crying at a wedding unless they’re happy tears. Those weren’t happy tears you were crying. I know that my brother is the cause of it, and I want to beat his ass.”
She laughed and wiped another errant tear. “No, it’s not just that. We truly weren’t meant to be, and I’m okay with that. I was just wondering if I’ll ever find my person. I’ve spent the last eightyears planning other people’s weddings, not including the two years I spent being an apprentice, and I just can’t help but feel that my time will never come.”
I reached out and wiped another tear from underneath her eye with my thumb. “Your time will come when the man God has prepared for you is a complete masterpiece.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. He can send nothing short of that for you, beautiful.”
She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. “I need to go check on things and make sure they’re all wrapped up.”
“No, you don’t. Your associates did a wonderful job of clearing out the venue. The cleaning crew is in there now, and they are overseeing them. Serena told me to tell you that everyone’s been paid and that, if you wanted to, you could head back to your suite for the night.”
Her shoulders dropped, and it looked as if she had peace. “She’s a godsend. I need to give that woman a bonus for how she’s come through for me today.”
“And you need to do something very special for yourself.”
“Like?”
“Uhm, . . . I make a mean brownie a la mode.”
She giggled. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. If you care to head to my suite, I’ll hook you up.”
“If it wasn’t bad enough that I’ve danced and drank champagne at an event, you want me to go to your suite too?”
“You’ve been friends with our family forever, Alex. Drop those reservations and relax, okay? Nobody will be around to see you go to my suite, and if they did, they probably wouldn’t think anything of it. Besides, everyone’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“They all headed back up to the villa. Only I remained behind because I was looking for the missing wedding planner.”
“Oh no! Was everyone looking for me? That’s not good for my reputation or my business.”
I grabbed her hands and squeezed them in mine. “Girl, chill out. Let’s get you some of my brownie a la mode.”
“Seriously, where have you been all these years, Judah? I’ve seen all your brothers, but not you.”
She licked the back of her spoon, clearing off the whipped cream and homemade caramel sauce that I whipped up for the brownie. I watched as she dipped her spoon back into the French vanilla ice cream and scooped some up along with the brownie concoction.
“I’ve been around.”
