“A lot?”
She sighed again. “Yeah.”
“You know what I think?”
“I expect you’ll tell me.” Her tone held a faint smile.
“I think your mother would be proud of everything you’ve done, but that she wouldn’t expect you to fill her shoes. So maybe instead of trying to be all things for everyone, remember you just have to be Pru, and she’s pretty amazing all on her own.”
She lifted her head to look up at him. “And you would know that how?”
“I’ve got eyes.”
In another time, in another place, he might have kissed her then. God knew, he wanted to. But that wasn’t what she needed.
“You’re really good at this whole shoulder, thing.” Her vague look of suspicion as she said it told him he’d made the right call.
“I’ve known my share of strong women who need one from time to time.”
“Nice to know you’re more than a pretty face and blarney.”
Flynn batted his eyelashes and put on his best coquettish expression. “You think I’m pretty?”
Laughter cleared the last of the shadows from her eyes, and she stepped back just as the door opened and someone came out.
Xander eyed them both with that cool-eyed cop stare. “You okay, Pru?”
“Fine. Just needed some air.” She turned to go back inside, but shot a look over her shoulder. “Thanks, Flynn.”
“Anytime, mo stór.”
She smiled and went back to the party.
Xander stayed where he was, studying Flynn. “Watch your step, pal. Pru isn’t for playing with.”
The warning made Flynn like him more. “You’d be the brother figure, then.” He nodded. “Good. She needs someone looking out for her.” After this week, that someone wouldn’t be him. The idea of that gave him an odd little twinge.
“Kennedy’s told me about your reputation with women.”
“I’m not looking to make a conquest. You’ve nothing to worry about. Besides, your focus should be on your bride. Because if you don’t make her happy, I’ll break you in two.” He slapped Xander on the shoulder and went back into the tavern.
Chapter Three
PRU CRIED AT THE wedding. At least she was wearing waterproof mascara tonight. In her defense, she always cried at weddings, but this time she simply couldn’t contain her joy that Kennedy and Xander had finally made it to where they were meant to be years ago. It gave her hope that the forever kind of love did exist.
As she watched them exchange rings beneath a gorgeous, hand-carved arbor, twined in flowers, envy lanced through her for the briefest of moments. She wanted that for herself, wanted a man to look at her with those star-struck eyes and promises on his lips. That probably wasn’t in the cards for her. Her life was taking a different track because of Ari, and she was okay with that. But Pru couldn’t shake the sense of a door closing on this chapter of her life. The child had to come first. Ari needed to know she was the priority after years of uncertainty from her family of origin. Pru didn’t balk at that. She understood that need from deep, personal experience. But thinking back to her conversation with Flynn the other night, she wondered when she’d next have an opportunity to think about herself first.
She looked past the bride and groom to find him watching her and felt a long, liquid pull in her belly. What if now was her last chance? Shouldn’t she seize it with both hands?
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Pru tore her attention back to the happy couple just as Xander dipped his wife low, taking her mouth with his. Everybody cheered. Her eyes found Flynn’s again, as he lifted his fiddle to play the recessional. Those bold blue eyes followed her, along with his cheerful music, as she took Porter’s arm and trailed the newlyweds out of the barn. She felt the weight of his gaze, as she suffered through pictures in the boots she couldn’t wait to shed. And she thought of him while she made a quick trip through the kitchen and got run out by Athena, as she snapped orders to the crew she’d brought in from her own restaurant for the day. Pru mingled, moving from guest to guest, to make certain everyone had what they needed, playing perfect hostess. All the while, awareness hummed along her skin, and she wrestled with what to do about it, considering consequences and benefits, as she’d done all her life. It distracted her through most of the speeches, until she heard her own name mentioned.
“As the only one with sense among us, Pru managed to spirit the mascot out of school before we got caught and sentenced to God knows what by Principal Lloyd.” Porter glanced her way. “How did you get that thing back to Pineville High? All these years, and you’ve never said.”
“I drove to Johnson City and mailed it back with no return address.” Which any of them should’ve thought of, if they hadn’t been so intent on causing mischief.
The crowd laughed and Porter lifted his glass. “Thank God for Pru.”