“Stubborn woman,” Nathan muttered as he put a supporting arm around his wife and escorted her down the aisle.
“Do you want us to come with you?” Max’s mother asked, following on their heels. She reached her hand back to her husband.
“No.” Emma shook her head. “Stay and enjoy the party. The baby probably won’t come anytime soon.” But as she said it, another contraction stopped her in her tracks.
“I’m going to get the car.” Handing his wife off to Ming, Nathan raced out of the church.
Ming and Emma continued their slow progress.
“Has he always been like this?” Ming asked, amused and ever so envious.
“It all started when my father decided to make marrying me part of a business deal Nathan was doing with Montgomery Oil. Since then he’s got this crazy idea in his head that I need to be taken care of.”
“I think it’s sweet.”
Emma’s lips moved into a fond smile. “It’s absolutely wonderful.”
By the time Ming got Emma settled into Nathan’s car and returned to the church, half the guests had made it through the reception line and had spilled onto the street. Since she wasn’t the immediate family of the bride and groom, she stood off to one side and waited until the wedding party was free so she could tell them what had happened to Nathan and Emma.
“The contractions seemed fairly close together,” Ming said in answer to Susan Case’s question regarding Emma’s labor. “She said she’d started having them this morning, so I don’t know how far along she is.”
“Hopefully Nathan will call us from the hospital and let us know,” Max’s father said.
Sebastian nodded. “I’m sure he will.”
“In the meantime,” Max said, smiling down at his glowing wife, “we have a reception to get to.”
A limo awaited them at the curb to take the group to The Corinthian, a posh venue in downtown Houston’s historical district. Ming had never attended an event there, but she’d heard nothing but raves from Missy and Emma. And they were right. The space took its name from the fluted Corinthian columns that flanked the long colonnade where round tables of ten had been placed for the reception. Once the lobby for the First National Bank, the hall’s thirty-five-foot ceilings and tall windows now made it an elegant place to hold galas, wedding receptions and lavish birthday parties.
Atop burgundy damask table cloths, gold silverware flanked gilded chargers and white china rimmed with gold. Flickering votive candles in glass holders nestled amongst flowers in Rachel’s chosen palette of gold, yellow and deep orange.
Ming had never seen anything so elegant and inviting.
“Susan really outdid herself,” Missy commented as she and her husband stopped beside Ming to admire the view. “It almost makes me wish Sebastian and I hadn’t run off to Las Vegas to get married.” She grinned up at her handsome husband. “Of course, having to wait months to become his wife wouldn’t have been worth all this.”
Sebastian lifted her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. The heat that passed between them in that moment made Ming blink.
She cleared her throat. “So, you don’t regret eloping?”
Missy shook her head, her gaze still locked on her husband’s face. “Having a man as deliberate and cautious as Sebastian jump impulsively into a life-changing event as big as marriage was the most amazing, romantic, sexy thing ever.”
“He obviously knew what he wanted,” Ming murmured, her gaze straying to where Jason laughed with Max’s father.
Sebastian’s deep voice resonated with conviction as he said, “Indeed I did.”
Twelve
Keeping Ming’s green-clad form in view as she chatted with their friends, Jason dialed his brother’s cell. Evan hadn’t mentioned skipping the wedding, and it was out of character for him to just not show. When voice mail picked up, Jason left a message. Then he called his dad, but Tony hadn’t heard from Evan, either. Buzzing with concern, Jason slid the phone back into his pocket and headed for Ming.
She was standing alone, her attention on the departing Sebastian and Missy, a wistful expression on her face. Their happiness was tangible. Like a shot to his head, Jason comprehended Ming’s fascination. Despite her insistence that she wasn’t cut out for marriage, it’s what she longed for. Evan had ended their engagement and broken her heart in the process. Her decision to become a single mom was Ming’s way of coping with loneliness.
How had he not understood this before? Probably because he didn’t want it to be true. He hated to think that she’d find someone new to love and he’d lose her all over again.
Over dinner, while Rachel and Max indulged the guests by kissing at every clinking of glassware, Jason pondered his dinner companion and where the future would take them after tonight. He’d been happier in the past couple of weeks than he’d been in years. It occurred to him just how much he’d missed the closeness that had marked their relationship through high school.
He wasn’t ready to give up anything that he’d won. He wanted Ming as the best friend whom he shared his hopes and fears with. He wanted endless steamy nights with the sexy temptress who haunted his dreams. Most of all, he wanted the family that the birth of their baby would create.
All without losing the independence he was accustomed to.
Impossible.
He wasn’t foolish enough to think Ming would happily go along with what he wanted, so it was up to Jason to figure out how much he was comfortable giving up and for her to decide what she was willing to live with.
By the time the dancing started, Jason had his proposition formed. Tonight was for romance. Tomorrow morning over breakfast he would tell her his plan and they would start hashing out a strategy.
“Hmm,” she murmured as they swayed together on the dance floor. “It’s been over a decade since we danced together. I’d forgotten how good you are at this.”
“There are things I’m even better at.” He executed a spin that left her gasping with laughter. “How soon can we get out of here?”
“It’s barely nine.” She tried to look shocked, but her eyes glowed at his impatience.
“It’s the bride and groom’s party.” In the crush on the dance floor, he doubted if anyone would notice his hand venturing over her backside. “They have to stick around. We can leave anytime.”
Her body quivered, but she grabbed his hand and repositioned it on her waist. “I don’t think Max and Rachel would appreciate us ducking out early.”
Jason glanced toward the happy newlyweds. “I don’t think they’ll even notice.”
But in the end, they stayed until midnight and saw Max and Rachel off. The newlyweds were spending the night at a downtown hotel and flying on Monday to Gulf Shores, Alabama, where Max owned a house. The location had seemed an odd choice to Jason until he heard the story of how Max and Rachel met in the beach town five years earlier.
As the guests enjoyed one last dance, Jason slid his palm into the small of Ming’s back. “Did your sister say anything about Evan’s plan to miss the wedding today?”
A line appeared between Ming’s finely drawn eyebrows. “No. Did you try calling him?”
“Yes. And I spoke with my dad, too. He hadn’t heard from him. This just isn’t like Evan.”
“Let me call Lily and see if she knows what’s going on.” Ming dialed her sister’s cell and waited for her to pick up. “Evan didn’t make the wedding. Did he tell you he was planning on skipping it?” Ming met Jason’s eyes and shook her head.
“Find out when she last spoke to him.”
“Jason wants to know when you last heard from him. I’m going to put you on speaker, okay?”
“Last night.”
It was odd for his brother to go a whole day without talking to one of them. “Is something going on with him?”
“Last night he proposed.” Lily sounded miserable.
“Wow,” Ming exclaimed, her excitement sounding genuine.
“I told him I couldn’t marry him.”
Anxiety kicked Jason in the gut. “I guess I don’t need to ask how he took that.”
Twice he’d seen Evan slip into the same self-destructiveness their father had once exhibited. The first time as a senior in high school when his girlfriend of three years decided to end things a week after graduation. Evan had spent the entire summer in a black funk. The second time was about a year before he and Ming had started dating. His girlfriend of two years had dumped him and married her ex-boyfriend. But Jason suspected neither of those events had upset Evan to the extent that losing Lily would.
“I don’t understand,” Ming said. “I thought you loved him.”
“I do.” Lily’s voice shook. “I just can’t do that to you.”
Ming looked to Jason for help. “I don’t blame either of you for finding each other.”
While the sisters talked, Jason dialed his brother again. When he heard Evan’s voice mail message, he hung up. He’d already left three messages tonight. No need to leave another.
“Do you mind if I stop by Evan’s before I head home?” Jason quizzed Ming as he escorted her to where she’d left her car. “I’ll feel better if I see that he’s all right.”