Always A Bridesmaid (Left At the Altar) (20 page)

"Would you like a bite?"

His eyes twinkled with amusement, the rat. He enjoyed tormenting her with food. She lifted her chin in disdain and returned her attention to her fruit salad.

"No, thank you."

"Just one bite, Daniella. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Her gaze flew to his. His expression had softened, become more tender. He wasn't teasing her; on the contrary, she detected concern. She
was
hard on herself, but it was the only way she knew to keep the weight off.

But a person had to live a little once in a while.

"Okay, just one bite."

He brought the fork to her mouth and her lips closed around it. She closed her eyes in ecstasy as her taste buds exploded in bliss. When she reopened them, Zach was staring down at her, unsmiling, his expression unreadable. He lifted his hand to caress a strand of hair that had escaped her pony tail, before gently tucking it behind her ear.

"Did you enjoy it?"

She could barely breathe. "Yes, very much. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

His mouth quirked in a smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners. She loved when he smiled. His face transformed, making him look young and carefree and so beautiful it made her chest ache with longing. She stared at him until the sound of her father clearing his throat brought her back to the present. Frank Sr. raised his wine glass in Zach's direction.

"To new friends."

"To new friends." echoed around the room.

As they finished dessert, her family peppered Zach with even more personal questions. He answered each one honestly and with good humor. He pitched in to help clear the table and do the dishes, appearing relaxed and happy. What was more, her family appeared to accept him wholeheartedly as well. He joked with her brothers as they talked football and hockey, even daring to tease them about their favorite hockey team, the Ottawa Senators. In return, her brothers ribbed him good-naturedly about his team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. He fit in perfectly with her family.

So why did she still feel a tingle of unease?

After the dishes were done, he thanked her parents for dinner, said his goodbyes to the rest of her family, and headed to the front door to retrieve his coat. Dani followed him.

"You have a wonderful family," he said, wrapping a scarf around his neck. "I enjoyed meeting them."

"I'm pretty sure they liked you, too. I think they may try to adopt you."

He laughed and Dani savored the deep baritone of his voice. "That might not be so bad. I always wondered what it would be like to have a big family."

"Be careful what you wish for."

He smiled at her. "They adore you, Dani. They just want to make sure that anyone you're involved with is on the up and up."

Her breath caught in her throat. "Are we involved, Zach?"

His hands cupped her face, his thumbs gently caressing the delicate skin under her eyes before he lowered his face to kiss her. His kiss was sweet and brief and left her wanting more, so much more.

"I don't know about you, but I certainly am." He kissed the end of her nose. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Goodnight."

He opened the door and left. Dani pushed aside the curtain and watched him through the side window until he drove away.

She'd been down this road before, maybe not quite as far, but certainly in the general vicinity. She'd given her heart away twice to men who at first said all the right things, made all the right moves to make her think they were in it for the long haul. But in the end they'd tired of her and left.

Would that happen with Zach?

A part of her argued that he was true blue and as honorable as the day was long. But another part of her remembered the pain of rejection. She couldn't bear to go all in with her relationship to Zach only to have him cash in his chips at the first opportunity.

She shivered and closed the curtain. Maybe it was best to play her cards close to her chest, no matter how much she loved Zach.

The minute they got home from Tony's parents' house, Olivia shrugged out of her winter coat and reached for the phone.

"In a hurry?" Tony raised his eyebrows.

"I need to call Sarah with the news."

"News?"

She rolled her eyes at him as she punched in Sarah's number. "For a bright boy, you can be exceedingly dense sometimes. The news about Dani and Zach, of course."

"It's not like they announced their engagement or anything."

"No, but when was the last time you saw Dani so happy? And the great part is that when Zach looks at her, he looks just as happy." She turned her attention to the phone. "Sarah, hi. You're not going to believe this."

"What's up?"

"Dani's got a new boyfriend, and he's hot, hot, hot!"

"I heard that!" Tony shouted from the other room.

Liv put her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. "I still think you're cuter, honey!"

"You better!"

Sarah chuckled. "Sounds like Tony's a little jealous. What's this about a hot new boyfriend?"

Liv filled her in on all the details. "He really likes her, Sarah. He told me he was in love with her."

"That is such wonderful news. She deserves someone who's crazy about her. I'm so happy for her."

"Don't start planning the wedding just yet. There's a problem. Dani is holding back. Zach let her down once. I think she's scared he'll do it again."

"Do you think he'll let her down?"

"My gut feeling? No. He's in it for keeps and he's trying to convince Dani."

"So let's help him," Sarah said.

"How?"

"We can make sure they spend some time together. How about we all get together for dinner on Saturday night? I'll cook."

"Sounds good, but what if Dani decides she doesn't want to play nice in our sandbox? She may decide she doesn't want to come if Zach is there."

Sarah laughed. "Then I guess we use an alternative method to get her to come to our little soiree. I've always found guilt an effective method with Dani."

"Has anyone ever told you you're very sneaky?"

"Only my husband."

* * * *

Dani crossed the days off her calendar. Only seven more days to go until she reached BBNM Day--Big Boobs No More Day as she'd renamed February 14, when she'd have her surgery. How ironic that it should take place on Valentine's Day, the day for lovers. Perhaps it was the universe's idea of a funny joke.

She took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. As the day of her surgery loomed ever nearer, she grew more nervous. She'd thought she'd worked through all aspects of the procedure, but now crazy thoughts were flying through her head. What if she hated the results of the surgery? What if her boobs looked worse after it was all over?

What if her mother never forgave her for going through with the surgery without telling her?

She couldn't bear if her mother was angry with her, or worse, disappointed in her. But she couldn't stand being the butt of jokes any longer either. She was tired of male colleagues talking to her chest instead of her face. Even the women at her work didn't always take her seriously. Somehow they believed if she had big breasts she couldn't also have a big brain.

No, she had to go through with the surgery, but she was scared. Terrified actually.

She wished she had someone to talk to about it.

Her phone rang. Sarah's name popped up on the call display. Dani hit the talk button, glad her gloomy thoughts had been interrupted. "Hi Sarah, what's up?" she said, trying to sound cheerful.

"I'm just checking to see if you're available to come to a dinner party tomorrow night at my house. I'm making your favorite, chicken in wine sauce. Delicious and low-cal."

She considered declining the invitation, since she wasn't in a party mood. But when she thought about sitting around at home brooding, she decided being with her friends would be better.

"Sure, sounds good. What can I bring?"

"Just your lovely self, sweetie." She heard Sarah clear her throat. "Full disclosure, Dani. I've also invited Olivia and Tony, and Zach."

"You invited Zach?"

"Yes. Liv told me what a great guy he is, so I decided I wanted to meet him for myself. He's already accepted. Do you have a problem with that?"

"I...I don't know." If he accepted, did that mean he wanted to see her, spend time with her? Was this part of the "getting to know you" they'd talked about at Fiona's wedding?

"He seemed very keen to come, especially when I told him you'd be here."

"You told him I'd be there before you checked with me?"

"Just hedging my bets, sweetie. Will you make a pregnant lady happy and come to my dinner party?"

Dani laughed. "Really, Sarah? Playing the pregnant card? Have you always been so manipulative?"

"Funny, I've been hearing that a lot lately. Must be the hormones. So will you come?"

If she were honest with herself, she really did want to see Zach. Sarah's dinner party would be a safe place to be with him. "Oh, what the hell. I'll come."

"Great! Dinner's at seven. Come about six for cocktails."

They rang off and she headed to her room to find something fabulous to wear to the party, feeling a lightness in her step.
Tomorrow I'll see Zach again.

* * * *

Sarah's dinner was delicious, as promised. Laughter floated around the table. Dani was happy she'd decided to come, especially when Zach smiled at her. The look in his eyes told her he was glad he'd accepted Sarah's invitation as well.

"Have you seen that new movie?" Tony said. "I can't remember the name. It's a spy thriller based on a book by the same name, and I hear it's pretty good."

"Do you mean
The Russian Affair
?" Dani said.

"Yeah, that's the one. It's got that woman in it, what's her name, used to be on a TV show a few years back."

"Wow, you're great with names, aren't you?" she said with a snicker.

"Whatever her name is, I read that she's had plastic surgery on her nose three times." Olivia shook her head. "I'd be scared there'd be nothing left of my nose after three nose jobs."

Sarah filled Will and Tony's wine glasses. "According to the gossip rags, most of the stars in Hollywood have had plastic surgery of one kind of another, even younger ones. There's enough botox being injected in foreheads to float a battleship."

"It's not just movie stars who are getting plastic surgery," Will said. "I wrote an article a while back about the number of ordinary people, especially teenagers and young people, who are having procedures. For teenage girls, one of the most popular procedures is breast augmentation."

"Wow, that's kind of disturbing," Olivia said. "I'm not sure someone so young understands the implications of a procedure like that."

"Some adults don't understand the implications of plastic surgery." Zach shook his head, a disgusted look on his face. "It's ridiculous to undergo major surgical procedures that carry a lot of risk, just for the sake of vanity."

Dani stared at him, shocked to hear so much vehemence from him on the subject. "Plastic surgery doesn't have any more risk than any other type of surgery. There's potential for complications in any surgery."

"Sure," he said. "That's true, but it's one thing to develop an infection after an appendicitis and quite another to get an infection after a boob job. The second is totally self-inflected and unnecessary."

"Don't you think people have the right to make themselves look better if they want to?"

"Don't get me wrong," Zach said, warming to his subject. "Sometimes plastic surgery is very much needed in the case of burn victims, birth defects or accidents. But when it comes to something stupid like having a bump on your nose removed for no good medical reason, I think it's ridiculous."

"That's easy for you to say!" Dani said hotly. "You're gorgeous. You don't have anything wrong with you. If you had something you wanted to change, maybe you'd think differently."

"How 'bout those Maple Leafs?" Tony said.

"Would you like wine, Dani?" Will held up the bottle. "It's really good, you should try some."

"Glass of water, Zach?" Sarah said.

"No thanks." He turned back to Dani. "Even if I did have something I didn't like about my face or my body, I hope I wouldn't be so vain as to opt for surgery. There's nothing more fake."

"How dare you? Where do you get off judging other people?"

"When someone makes a stupid decision to cut open their body for the sake of vanity, it's not hard to judge the idiocy."

"I'd like coffee," Olivia said. "Anybody else? How about you, Dani?"

"No, thanks. I don't want anything."

She pushed back her chair and rose from the table with as much dignity as she could muster. "Thanks for dinner, Sarah. It was wonderful."

"Dani, wait," Zach said, getting up as well. "This is stupid. Why are we fighting over this?"

She looked at him, her heart breaking. He'd never understand her need to change her appearance. He'd always think she was weak or vain.

"We're not fighting anymore," she said quietly. "We're done."

She kissed Sarah goodbye and hurried to the door before she started to cry.

* * * *

Dear God. What have I done?

After Dani left, Zach sank back down in his chair, trying to figure out what had just happened. Were they were finished, just at the point he believed they could work things out?

"What the hell was that all about?" Tony asked, shaking his head. "I haven't seen my sister that mad for a very long time."

"Dani doesn't get angry often, but when she does, there's a lot of fireworks," Olivia said. "I can't believe she feels so passionate about a movie star's right to have plastic surgery."

"Why do you feel so passionate about the subject, Zach?" Sarah said, turning to him. "What on earth set you off?"

He closed his eyes. "A while back someone I knew had plastic surgery. It didn't end well." Why hadn't he kept his mouth shut?

"This is my fault. I shouldn't have coerced Dani into coming for dinner," Sarah said, looking close to tears. "She obviously wasn't ready."