Best Man with Benefits

Regan raised her chin and smiled. “Always.”

Sophie wasn’t so sure, but she nodded and left the restroom. Dinner was winding down when she walked back into the main room—just in time to see Logan take the microphone and call for quiet. Perfect timing. Why not be standing in the middle of the room during the best man toast?

“Hi everyone,” he said when the room quieted. “My name is Logan McCade. I want to thank everyone for coming to beautiful Beaver Creek to join Colton and Kady for their big day. I’ve…ah…I’ve known Colt for a long time. Since freshman year of college. Over the years I’ve learned a couple of things about him. First, if he ever turns to you and says, ‘Let’s go to Rosarito Beach for spring break,’ tell him ‘No.’” He paused while the audience laughed. “Seriously, unless you want to see the inside of a Mexican prison…but I digress. The second important thing I know about Colt is that, for a long time, he was kind of cynical on the notion of love.”

Some people in the audience groaned their agreement.

“And why wouldn’t he be? We live in a cynical world. Lots of intelligent, good-hearted people have tried for forever and fallen short. Too many people get together for all the wrong reasons. It can feel like everybody’s got an angle or an ulterior motive. It’s easier not to risk your heart. Not to trust.

“But there’s something else I know about Colt. He’s not one to take the easy road. When you tandem climb a rock tower with a guy, you get to know stuff like that. You realize he’s not afraid to take risks when he values the reward. You learn he’s not the type to run scared…although I think he jogged some, at first, when it came to Kady.”

The audience laughed again, and Sophie couldn’t help looking at her brother, who was grinning and blushing and shaking his head.

“The first time I met Kady, I was floored, because she wasn’t at all like I pictured her based on everything Colt had said. I mean, does this lovely woman look like a ‘ball-buster who would try the patience of a saint’?”

A contingent of Kady’s sorority sisters hooted, “Hell yeah,” and the bride gave them an affronted look. Laughter filled the room again.

“Anyway, she was completely out of his league, but when I saw them together, I knew my friend the cynic didn’t stand a chance, because sometimes two people are so right for each other, so intrinsically connected, all the doubts fade. Which isn’t to say things have always been smooth for them. They’ve had some ups and downs, and some misunderstandings, but they’ve also got this undeniable love. You can feel it if you spend any time around them.”

People murmured their agreement and Sophie found herself nodding.

“There are experts much wiser than I who would tell you love’s just the start. Love’s the easy part. In this cynical world, to stand up in front of a church full of witnesses like Colt and Kady did today, bare their souls to each other and say”—his eyes unerringly found hers—“‘I love you,’ takes courage and trust. Trust in the other person, and trust in yourself.”

The audience clapped. He went on. “I think the trust is where a lot of us fall short.” He paused to let the words resonate, but his gaze never wavered from her. Sophie felt heat rise in her cheeks. She hadn’t trusted. She’d believed the voice in her head when it insisted Logan could never really fall for her, and she’d let her lack of confidence, her lack of faith in herself, undermine her trust in him.

Logan raised his glass. “I’m proud of them, and honored to be a part of their celebration. Please join me in a toast to Colt and Kady—to their love, their courage, and their trust. May it serve as a lesson to the rest of us. Cheers.”

Chapter Fourteen

Logan tamped down his frustration and made small talk with yet another one of Kady’s well-wishing relatives. He’d been trying for ten minutes to get free of the congratulators and find Sophie. But now that he’d finally made his way to the spot where she’d been standing, she was gone. Fuck.

He turned and scanned the crowd. Behind him, someone picked up the microphone and a wave of feedback bounced off the walls.

“Sorry.” A soft, hesitant voice filled the room. A familiar voice. He turned.

Sophie stood at the front of the room, pale as a sheet as she looked out at the crowd of guests. She blinked a few times. Her lips parted, but no sound materialized. She sucked in some air and tried again.

“H-hello. I’m Colt’s little sister, Sophie. Please forgive me. I’m not much of a public speaker…but…” The words trailed off as her mic hand floated down. She swayed, almost imperceptibly, but enough to have him cutting through the crowd, hoping he could make it to her side fast enough to catch her if she passed out.

Even as he shouldered his way toward her, she gripped the edge of the table for balance and raised the microphone again. “I owe someone an apology and a demonstration of my courage and trust, so I figured coming up here and saying what I had to say in front of God and everyone might be the right place to start. I…um…I overheard something this morning, and I jumped to a very”—she made a seeking gesture with her free hand, as if searching for the right word—“unflattering conclusion about what it meant, despite the fact that the person begged me to listen and trust him. This person deserved better from me, but instead of giving him trust, or even the benefit of the doubt, I clung to my conclusion. It was easier to trust a bunch of self-protective suspicions lurking in the back of my mind than to trust my heart.”

He knew the minute she saw him making his way toward her, because her deer-in-headlights eyes locked on his. She swallowed and continued speaking, straight to him. “When you tried to talk to me, and explain, I did the cowardly thing and ran. Logan…I’m really, really sorry.”

The last bit came out in a breathless rush, but he heard every word. His heart swelled with a combination of hope and relief. Then she swayed again, this time visibly enough to cause people to gasp, and his relief gave way to alarm.

He sprinted the last few feet, stepping on a few toes and taking a few elbows in the process, but he reached her and wrapped a supporting arm around her waist.

“I’m okay,” she said, but he kept his arm around her and pulled her close.

“I’m sorry, too, Sophie. I should have told you about the favor to Colt. The thing is, as soon as I started spending time with you, it had nothing to do with Colt, or a sense of duty, or the damn favor. It was all about you—and me wanting to be with you. The fact is, there’s nowhere I want to be except with you.” He eased back and waited

for her to look up at him. “Sophie, I—”

“I love you,” she blurted, right into the microphone, and the three words echoed around the room. “I do,” she put her hand to her head, as if to try to keep it from floating off her shoulders. “I love you. And I trust you. And I’m trying to find some courage…”

A collective awww came from the audience.

“I love you, too.”

That knocked the dazed look right off her face. “Are you sure?”

He smiled at her and watched the pulse at the base of her throat flutter. His heart rate kicked up a notch in response.

“Yeah, I’m pretty damn sure.” Then he tipped her chin up and cupped her jaw. For a moment he simply stared into her eyes, watched her pupils expand so he could be sure she was all the way with him. Then he kissed her, long, and slow, and deep, until she melted into him and kissed him back. The room erupted into catcalls and applause.

He could have stood there forever, kissing her, but at some point a voice in the back of his head reminded him they were making out in the middle of a wedding reception. Reluctantly, he drew away.

“So, I’ve got this wedding to attend, and I hear there’s going to be dancing, and I kind of hoped you’d be my date.”

“Yes!” She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him again.

The DJ piped up from across the room. “Okay folks, I guess love is in the air, which means it’s time to get this party started…”

The room responded with cheers.

Epilogue

Twelve months later

The mountaintop restaurant offered dramatic views of Boulder at sunset, but Sophie barely noticed the spectacular scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling windows because she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the man sitting across the candlelit table from her. Logan wearing a dark suit and his favorite necktie proved too difficult a sight to resist.

He caught her looking and smiled. The little groove beside his mouth appeared, but despite his outward calm, she sensed an undercurrent of tension. It had been there all evening through dinner. Rare, these days, because he’d slowly but surely revamped his role at Defy Gravity over the past year, liberating himself from the day-to-day demands of running the business.