Her Accidental Husband (13 page)

Payton flexed her hands, tightening them into balls and releasing them. She repeated it until she was sure she could keep her voice level. “As…fascinating and completely archaic as that theory is, mother, it doesn’t change anything. First thing I’m doing when I return home is calling Brad and officially putting an end to our engagement. And whether you approve or not, if Camille can’t bring herself to call the rest of the vendors and the hotel without fear of your wrath, then I will call them myself. Because I can tell you right now, you might have been happy spending the last thirty-three years staying married to a man regardless of his numerous indiscretions, but I certainly will not. I’m not going to take second place in any man’s life.”

Her mother flinched, and in a surprise turn, instead of shouting her daughter down, as she usually did, she shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was strained. “I don’t think you realize just how lucky you are, Payton. Some girls would give anything to be where you are, loved and desired by a man who comes from such wealth and social standing. What else are you going to do?”

Instead of anger or resentment at her mother’s old-fashioned notions, Payton only felt sadness for her. Sadness that she never valued herself enough to demand more. Expect better. Payton knew nothing of her mother’s childhood, what her grandparents were like, as her mother refused to talk about it, but she could only imagine that part of Emily Vaughn’s perspective of life came from them. But Payton wouldn’t be like her mother. She wouldn’t settle for anything less than her happiness first. Not anymore.

She thought about the question she’d posed. What was she going to do if she left Brad? She smiled, as the sureness of what she was going to say took hold. “I’m going to finally do what I’ve always wanted to do, live my life on my terms. And hopefully, figure out a way to get admitted to law school again—as uncouth and unladylike as that might be to you. Now, if you don’t mind, I really need to get downstairs and take my place next to my best friend for this long anticipated day. If you’re staying, you might want to head down and get yourself another keycard for the room. I’m taking mine.”

Before her mother could brook any further argument, Payton stormed to the door, leaving her mother with her mouth open and her eyes blaring. Her exit, however, was temporarily blocked by wide shoulders and hands that reached out to stop her from running into him.

So many emotions rushed through her as she stared into that familiar gaze. Relief. Happiness. Breathy excitement. And then a tremble of anxiety as her mother cleared her throat behind her.

Waiting for an introduction.

To…her husband.

“Y
ou okay?” Cruz asked, not taking his eyes off Payton even though another woman, who he could only assume was her mother, came up behind her, peering out at him.

“Never better,” she said a tad too brightly.

Yeah. He’d bet. He looked over to the blonde, older woman whose cold blue eyes didn’t offer a sliver of warmth. She cleared her throat and turned to stare at her daughter pointedly.

Payton seemed to register the fact her mother was waiting for a formal introduction, as if she was the freaking queen of England, and stepped back. “Cruz, this is my mother, Emily Vaughn. Mother, Cruz Sorensen, Kate’s future brother-in-law and the person who made sure I arrived here in one piece.”

Emily Vaughn didn’t attempt to disguise the fact she was inspecting him from head to toe, not looking particularly impressed. When she finally met his gaze, her mouth pursed in a thin-lipped frown.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Vaughn.”
He
could at least exhibit politeness.

“Mhmm. Well, I guess I owe you my thanks, Mr. Sorensen. I know how hard it can be to keep my daughter out of trouble at times. But I’m here now and you needn’t worry yourself any longer where she’s concerned.”

Payton looked back at Cruz, forced smile still on her face, but this time her eyes danced with a little humor as she crossed them together and pulled a face.

He barely managed to tamp down the laugh that was trying to make its way out when Payton relaxed her face again and turned back to her mother, appearing the picture of innocence.

“I just wanted to see if Payton needed any assistance finding the room where the brunch is being held. Kate was concerned since she hadn’t arrived yet,” he added, even though Kate hadn’t said anything of the sort, but the old bat didn’t know that.

“That’s awful sweet of you, Cruz,” Payton said. “I was just heading to the front desk to get directions. But maybe you can escort me yourself.”

“Why don’t I grab my purse and I can join—” Payton’s mother started.

“Mother, I know you’re tired from your long trip and weren’t you just telling me you wanted to rest before joining everyone this evening for the ceremony? As you can see, I’ll be in good hands. You don’t need to tag along.”

Mrs. Vaughn looked like she wanted to argue for a moment but instead pursed her lips together in disapproval. Probably realizing that she’d make more of a scene if she insisted.

“Very well. I’ll just do a little unpacking, maybe order up a light lunch. But for heaven’s sake, Payton, please take a hat with you. The bright Mexican sun is destroying your complexion.”

Payton sighed and walked to the bedroom, returning after a minute with a wide-brimmed hat.

“We’d better go. I’ll see you later,” she said to her mother.

He opened the door and turned one last time to say good-bye but the woman had already left the room. In the hallway, Payton groaned. “Sorry about that. Please don’t take offense. She’s like that with most people.”

“Really? And here I was thinking she might actually like me.”

Payton snorted in a very unlady-like way and led the way down the hall. Leaving him to admire the way her hair fell soft and shining over her shoulders, how her ankle-skimming dress—a soft blue—clung to her curves in a tantalizing way, reminding him of the way her body fit against his, perfect and lovely.

He imagined for a moment what it would be like to actually call her his wife. To announce to everyone the commitment they made to each other and intended on honoring…all the days of their lives. Or, at least until she woke up and realized he wasn’t enough for her. That she needed more. More of what Brad Eastman and the millions of dollars at his fingertips could offer her.

No. Best not to let his imagination get away from him. Payton would never be happy with someone like him.

They reached the elevator and pushed the call button. “I reached my assistant earlier,” he said, hoping to ease her mind. “She’s looking into finding an attorney for us to speak to. But with it being the weekend, it might have to wait until we get home on Monday. What time is your flight home?”

She didn’t look at him, keeping her eyes on the doors that were still shut. “I’m actually leaving tomorrow. My mother booked us both return tickets home. Something I would have argued with if I hadn’t realized that if I didn’t go along with it, I’d be stuck with her as my roommate another night.”

She was leaving tomorrow. He didn’t know why, but the thought of her getting on a plane, leaving him behind, filled him with an unsettling feeling in his chest. “I’m sure news that your mother will be gone by tomorrow will give the hotel staff some relief.”

“I’ll bet.” But she was smiling. The elevator opened, empty and waiting, and they stepped inside. “Um, I should probably warn you. Kate and I had a little bit of a heart to heart. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her about us being married, but I did mention something about the high volume of tequila we consumed and how we managed to…uh, get Biblical last night.”

He grinned. “Biblical? Honey, I don’t think any of those moves we did last night were sanctioned by the good book.”

She raised those green impish eyes to his, smiling back. Neither of them looked away as the eight floors passed above them as the elevator slowly descended. Then they weren’t smiling, and Payton’s mouth had dropped the barest amount. Just as it had last night when he’d been about to kiss her. Her face was flushed, and from the way her chest was rising and falling, she was having as hard of a time finding her breath as he was.

The lurching of the elevator as they came to a stop broke their eye contact. He glanced up to see they were only on the second floor. An older couple, in matching yellow floral shirts got on. “Looks like you might have room for two more?” the older man asked.

One damn floor. They couldn’t take the stairs for one floor? Cruz had been that close to…

He glanced again at Payton. She was biting her lip, as if trying to stop herself from laughing. The old couple turned and looked at them with suspicion, knowing they’d interrupted something more scintillating than just a kiss, before turning back around.

A few seconds later, the doors opened and they all got off, but he wasn’t in a hurry to join the rest, and slowed his pace as they crossed the lobby. Payton didn’t seem to mind, either, her hand at her side. Close enough for him to reach over and place in his. The urge was almost overwhelming.

But before he could actually act on that foolish notion, they reached the Garden Room and dozens of interested eyes settled on them when they stepped out onto the patio.

And he thought facing Emily Vaughn had been a challenge.

She had nothing on the wide and mischievous smiles of his aunts when they saw them, undoubtedly ready to sharpen their matchmaking skills on the two of them.

He would have warned Payton about them, but he didn’t have time before she was enveloped in the generous bosom of his Aunt Essie.

Chapter Thirteen

P
ayton had never been as mauled by so many women in her life as when Cruz introduced her to his family, their names and faces becoming a blur. And even though physical contact wasn’t something she was used to from her own family, let alone strangers, she was oddly comfortable.

Fifteen minutes later, she finally snuck away from two particularly nosy but well meaning aunts and sank into an empty chair next to one of his two sisters. Over the rim of the glass of iced water, she tried not to sneak peeks at Cruz, who had left her side to check a message he’d received and, even now, was sitting two tables over, his face still buried in his phone.

She knew why he did it, worked himself to death in the name of business. Cruz, as much as he tried to pretend he was a cold and levelheaded businessman first, did everything for his family. To secure their future as much as his own. And here, sitting in the loud but loving grasp of his family, who were teasing each other, cursing at each other, and all connected by this bond called family, no matter how tenuous the connection, she could see why the success of their business might be so important to him. And she could see why Kate thrived under the affection, since she’d never had that kind of thing herself, which made Payton beyond ecstatic for her friend. Even if a little sad.

She thought about the fancy engagement party her mother had forced on her last December. A stuffy affair with people who she barely knew and who didn’t care about her even half as much as these people cared for Kate. Heck, to be honest, her own family of aunts and uncles and cousins were prickly and cold, more inclined to a careful peck on the cheek than the full-bosomed hugs and embraces that Payton had already received today from a dozen strangers.

For a moment she thought about what her mother would do if Cruz’s Aunt Essie, with the wide smile and generous bosom, had tried to pull her into a hug and she almost giggled at the prospect. Her mother’s head would probably explode, or she’d bust off one of her ridiculously expensive veneers while gritting her teeth.

“What has you so amused?” Kate asked, taking a seat across from her. She burst into laughter when Payton explained, catching Benny’s attention.

The youngest of the siblings, Benny was also the one giving her the most discomforting glances. Like she knew something was up and was going to wrestle someone to the ground to get the information. And although she was a smaller-framed woman, close to Payton’s size, Payton wouldn’t put it past the woman to be able to pin Cruz down based on her guts and cunning alone.

“Wait until later tonight,” Benny said. “After the wedding, the real celebration begins. You might want to warn your mother that alcohol and dancing always sends this family into planet crazy-pants.”

Payton froze, the piece of melon she was about to bite still on the fork prong. Was that a hint that Benny knew that had happened last night?

“Stop, Benny,” Kate said still laughing. “She just might believe you.”

Payton pushed her suspicion aside and smiled into the woman’s wide blue eyes. Damn. She would kill to have those long lashes. “Should we expect you to table dance later on tonight?”

“Only if you’re joining me,” she said and they all laughed. Benny studied Payton another minute, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine being stuck in a car with my older brother for two long days. He’s such a backseat driver. When I was sixteen, he took me out once for a lesson but after twenty minutes of telling me I wasn’t holding the steering wheel correctly or that I should have put my turn signal on four seconds before I did, I was ready to push him out of the moving car. Dominic, thank God, was way more laidback.”

“Cruz must have mellowed over the years,” Payton said. “He mostly just gripped the dash if he thought I was going too fast or distracted himself by staring at his computer screen.”

Benny sighed. “Seriously? You should have tossed that thing out the window in Laredo. He’s on freaking vacation.” They all took that moment to look over to the other table where Cruz was studying something on his cell phone. “I love him and know that he’s working really hard all to make dad and everyone proud, but I wish he’d learn to have a little fun too. Since as long as I can remember he’s always been working toward something and keeping his nose to the grind, not permitting any distractions.”

“And this is coming from someone who easily works sixty to eighty hours a week doing her pediatric residency up at the U,” Kate added.

Payton looked at Cruz’s sister in surprise. Make-up free, her hair thrown in a simple ponytail and a large shapeless dress that did nothing to show her figure underneath, Benny looked more like an undergrad in herbology than someone who’d graduated medical school and was doing a residency at a premier hospital. In comparison to Daisy’s more trendy and pretty outfit of a flowing skirt and tank, Payton couldn’t help but wonder if the uninspiring look was on purpose, or because Benny really had no clue how gorgeous she was. The way the woman shifted and pulled the dress away from her body, clearly uncomfortable in the dress, she’d bet on the latter.

Payton felt self-conscious. Sitting there with two women, similar in age to herself, one a doctor and one a lawyer, she didn’t know if she’d ever felt more inadequate. If Benny were to ask her what she did, what would she say? That she was on the board of a number of charities, planning various events, phone drives—
or in plainer terms, planning parties and what kind of wine goes best with cocktail wieners.

Payton knew one thing, however. She wouldn’t be gopher to her mother and her dozens of charity events, not anymore. She meant what she’d said to her mother. She was going to do something with more purpose. Whether she had her approval or not.

“How’s your big wedding coming?” Benny asked, taking a pull from a beer. “And how come your fiancé didn’t come down with you?”

Payton set her glass down. With surprising calm and relief, she said, “The wedding’s off.” The more she said it, the more real it finally seemed. She really was doing this. Or not doing this, rather.

“You’re kidding.” Benny’s eyes rounded like saucers. “What happened?”

The sting of Brad’s betrayal was lessening and Payton imparted the worst of it to Benny who added appropriate epitaphs and groans as the occasion warranted. She was funny and open and, surprisingly, even more sarcastic than Kate.

As Payton finished, she cautioned a glance over at Cruz and realized he was watching them, a strange look on his face. She wondered if he could hear their conversation from there and if, for all she knew, he’d been following it all along. It gave her a certain level of embarrassment and excitement to think so. Meeting her gaze and realizing she’d caught him, he dropped his own back to his phone.

“Well, you’re holding up pretty well, which I’d say is a good sign that you made the right decision,” Benny said.

“Yes, well, don’t tell that to my mother or she’ll murder you on the spot. She’s…having a harder time with it.”

Benny grinned. “I’ll bet.”

“Which means she’s going to be an even bigger pill later when she watches my best friend get married, thinking about everything she’s going to miss. Speaking of which…” Payton said and turned to Kate, looking so bright and happy and relaxed, “…you should probably be getting upstairs if we’re going to get you and Dominic married before the sun sets. Just like you always dreamed.”

Kate smiled over at Dominic, all the love she had for him shining in her eyes.

Payton’s own heart tightened in happiness and joy and, admittedly, a little envy.

How would it be to be able to express that love for someone you cared deeply about, without worry, without restraint? Kate had asked her how she felt about Cruz, and she’d managed to sidestep the question then.

Then there’d been the moment on the elevator, when their eyes met and she’d seen such yearning, such naked desire on his face, she’d been stunned. It seemed to echo what surely was reflected on her own face. He’d been about to kiss her, she was almost certain, and had anticipated the touch of his lips, the rush of blood flushing through her body, and her belly had fluttered—or perhaps it had been the motion from the elevator dropping. But then the moment was over and she was left breathless and frustrated.

She couldn’t deny that somehow, in the past few days, she’d dropped whatever defenses she’d put up where Cruz Sorensen was concerned and begun to possibly, just possibly, fall in love with the big brute. Just a little.

A man who hours before had said the moment that had culminated in their saying I do before God and the church full of people had all been a mistake.

“H
ow you feeling?” Cruz asked, hazarding a look to his right, where the man of the hour was standing.

“Never better,” Dominic said with a surprising amount of calmness.

Cruz studied his brother’s face for any signs of distress or nervousness, even though both emotions weren’t anywhere near his more laidback brother’s usual MO. But the only emotion he could see was something akin to excitement, happiness, and a sort of…peace. As if he knew everything he’d ever wanted was about to be his. Which from what Cruz could tell from seeing the couple together over the past few months, was likely true. Other than his own parents, Cruz didn’t know if he’d ever seen two people more in love and right for each other. “Yeah. I can see that. You’re a lucky man.”

“Don’t I know it. I just hope that someday you’ll be standing where I am. Having found the one woman who you know will make you the happiest man on the face of the planet.”

Cruz could imagine standing in that same place. Had done it, in fact, just a few hours ago. Not that he was about to tell Dominic that, Cruz only nodded, and turned his attention back to scanning the familiar faces of the guests, seated in eight rows evenly placed on each side of the aisle. He paused when he saw Emily Vaughn’s surly expression.

Seated in the second row on the bride’s side—which technically was filled with most of Cruz’s abundant family—the woman was doing a great job of pretending that no one else sat on either side of her, keeping her gaze glued ahead in the distance. Fortunately, everyone around her was just as keen on avoiding Payton’s mother and were laughing among themselves. He heard more than a few joking references to the sour-faced woman—all in Spanish, of course, and he smothered a smile and turned away, taking in the rest of the view outside on the patio.

Normally Cruz didn’t give much thought to things like fading light and scenic views, but he had to give Kate and Dominic credit for finding such a gorgeous vista for this moment. It was glorious that fine evening, the clouds hanging over the ocean in the background that, with the waning sun reflecting off of them, had become deep shades of pinks and purples. The large private patio where the ceremony was being held offered an incomparable view of the ocean in all its blues and teals set against such a gorgeous sky.

His cellphone vibrated from his breast pocket, telling him he had an email, but he forced himself to ignore it. Having already chatted briefly with Dick earlier, confirming that Payton was safely delivered to the hotel, he was expecting a copy of their contract emailed any minute now, with Dick’s signature on the bottom line. Leaving only Cruz’s signature to finalize the document. His chest puffed slightly at the thought of the headlines reporting the massive deal and the buzz that would surround the company. He would be deemed worthy of Payton Vaughn by anyone’s standards at that point.

His finger itched to check the phone, just once. To be sure. But this was his brother’s wedding, and Dominic would kill him if he knew the phone was with him, let alone if he actually checked his messages.

Instead, he turned back to the front where the guests were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the most illustrious of attendees—the bride. As the music began to his left, announcing the beginning of the big event, there was another person Cruz was looking forward to seeing almost as much as, if not more. Enough that the lure of the message waiting on his cellphone was completely forgotten as he waited in anticipation.

But it looked like the order was his sisters, Daisy and Benny, first, smiling widely at their family as they took agonizingly slow steps to the front, pink roses grasped in their hands. Daisy’s steps looked effortless in her heels and pretty, flowing dress in a shade of turquoise almost like the ocean behind her. Benny’s were a little more precarious as his sister was more used to high tops and sneakers than heels. But she looked beautiful, and he was stunned for a moment at how well his youngest sister cleaned up when she wasn’t hiding behind baggy clothes.

His nieces came next, dropping flowers and looking adorable. His nephew threatened to steal the show, however. At six, Paul strutted down the aisle with the proudest grin bursting on his sweet little face. When he reached the end of the aisle, Dominic and Cruz each took a moment to ruffle his hair before positioning him in place.

Cruz caught his mother and father in the front row giving each other smiles, tears in his mother’s eyes before his dad pulled her in and kissed her. He wrapped his arm over her shoulder and they turned to look upon their family.

Then the familiar sound of the wedding march started and people were coming to their feet. An overwhelming sense of need to see…
her—
Payton
—
filled him, and he wondered how Dominic was bearing under the same pressure. Heads were tilting this way and that to try and get the first glimpse and in another moment, the vision Cruz was waiting for almost breathlessly turned the corner and came into view.