Fortunately, no one but Mia seemed to have noticed Ford yet, and he instinctively pulled his hat down further as he turned toward the front of the barn. That was when he saw Marcus break away from the group up front. With long strides, he met Nicola and her father in the middle of the aisle.
After shaking Marcus’s hand, her father pressed a kiss to his daughter’s forehead. Nicola’s eyes were clearly wet as she hugged her father, but after Marcus took her hands in his and pulled her into him for a passionate kiss, she couldn’t stop smiling.
Even though the bride and groom had just broken wedding protocol, their guests went wild with applause, not to mention the loud whistles from the groomsmen. Even Mia, despite her obvious shock that Ford was behind her, couldn’t help but clap her hands and laugh as the bride and groom finally pulled apart and pretty much ran together up to the front of the barn to make things official.
With the crowd still laughing as they sat down, Ford turned to whisper to Mia, “You’re beautiful.”
With her eyes still on the bride and groom, she leaned toward him and whispered back, “And you’re a sneaky dirtbag.”
Only through sheer force of will did Ford keep himself from laughing out loud. Because just sitting next to Mia Sullivan made him feel happier than anything else could.
Chapter Eleven
“Dear friends and family, we’re so glad you could be with us here today to celebrate the love between Marcus and Nicola.”
As Mary Sullivan addressed the wedding guests, Mia worked to fight back the tears that were already starting to come. The problem was that just watching Nicola walk down the aisle had been enough to get her choked up, and when Marcus had been too impatient to stop himself from running down the aisle to steal his bride away from her father...well, could there be any more beautiful example of just how much he loved her?
Mia had never been a crier, not when she’d learned as a little girl that if she wanted her brothers to include her in their adventures, she’d better suck it up when she fell off stuff and got hurt. But she’d decided long ago that at family weddings, she was allowed to break her no-crying rule. They were always highly emotional experiences for her, and by the time the bride made her appearance and the vows were spoken, Mia was inevitably lost in emotion.
Today, it wasn’t the crying she objected to. It was letting any part of her guard down around Ford. Because being in a heightened emotional state was a terrible place to be with him sitting next to her.
She should be stone cold around him. Or she should remember to be angry so that she kept her walls up. Both of those reactions would have made sense.
Anything made sense right now but feeling like it was too much, too good, too right to be sitting this close to him.
No. She needed to stop focusing on Ford. Today was about Marcus and Nicola. If she couldn’t help but cry, c’est la vie. The important thing was that her tears wouldn’t have a single thing to do with the man who’d had the nerve to sneak into the barn and squeeze in next to her in the already crowded pew. Heck, by now, she felt like she was practically sitting on his lap...and she refused to admit to herself just how downright sexy that thought was.
Focus, Mia!
With laser precision, she trained her gaze on her cousin, knowing Marcus had never looked happier. She was so happy for him, especially considering how much of his own life he’d put on hold when her Uncle Jack had passed away and Marcus had taken over the reins of the family to help raise his seven younger brothers and sisters. Every single person in the barn could see the way he looked at his bride, like she was absolutely everything to him.
It was an expression she regularly saw on the faces of her cousins and her brother when they looked at the women they’d fallen for. But, she found herself thinking for the very first time, hadn’t she recently seen that look in a more personal way? But where?
Suddenly it hit her: It was exactly how Ford had looked when he first saw her walk into the tower on Friday morning!
Oh God...she couldn’t be right about this, had to be spinning out from one drink too many on Friday night with the girls, and not enough sleep, and a stressful work week, and all the emotion in the barn.
And yet, before she could stop herself, pure shock at the thought that it might be true had her turning to look directly at Ford for the first time since he’d slid in beside her.
Do you really feel that way about me?
As if he’d been able to read her mind, his dark eyes immediately held hers. The heat—and emotion—in them held her completely still while she could have sworn he answered back.
Always.
Somehow, Mia managed to drag her gaze away. She forced herself to keep breathing slowly and evenly until she got her heart rate back to normal. That had always been her problem with Ford: When she was this near to him, her brain went haywire, straight into crazy-town where rock stars who regularly hopped into multiple beds in a single night actually wanted to be with only one woman for the rest of their lives.
Sure, she knew her cousins Smith and Ryan were such big stars that they could have bed-hopped forever if they’d wanted to, rather than both being happily engaged to awesome women. Still, the worlds of movies and professional sports never seemed to be quite at the sinning level of rock stars. In point of fact, off the top of her head she could think of half a dozen rock-and-roll tell-alls that had been written by groupies detailing just how rampant nonexclusive sex was in the music business.
And no wonder sex fairly poured off the rock star sitting next to her, given how devastatingly sexy he was in his dark suit and tie, with the scruff he often wore on his chin freshly shaved, and a hat pulled down low over his slightly-too-long dark hair.
What woman wouldn’t throw herself at him? Once the wedding guests realized he was here, Mia wouldn’t be surprised if otherwise sane women started throwing their bras at him.
As if he knew she was cataloging each separate element of his sexiness factor, out of the corner of her eye she could see him grin. Clearly, he thought he was winning this round between them.
But Mia had already vowed not to let him win one more thing where she was concerned. Filled with renewed determination, she used every last ounce of focus to tune back in to what her Aunt Mary was saying.
Instead of speaking to the wedding guests, Mary extended one of her hands to Nicola. “As soon as I spoke with you that first night when you met my son, I knew that you were going to change his life in the most wonderful ways.” Mary then took Marcus’s hand, and the three of them held on to each other as she said, “Oh honey, I—” When she became too choked up to continue, Mary laughed softly through her tears and said, “I think it’s time for you and Nicola to say your vows now.”