And probably, in the future, for Riley. Dan’s gaze darted around the crowd. He should find his brother—try to have that conversation they needed to have. Hopefully while Melissa was distracted with something—anything—else.
Except... Laurel looked harried. Not that she’d admit it, but there was a tiny line between her eyebrows that he only remembered seeing before when she was talking to Melissa.
Dan was learning that Melissa wasn’t so hard to read, or to understand. Making sure Riley understood what he was getting into might be another matter, but it was one that could wait until the stag do tonight, he decided. Dan stopped looking for Riley and stepped forward to see what he could do to make Laurel’s day better. After all, wasn’t that what fake boyfriends were for?
‘I’m sure that can be arranged,’ she was saying to a discontented wedding guest, ignoring the phone buzzing in her hand.
She kept a permanent smile on her face, nodding politely as the guest launched into another diatribe—something about the brand of bottled water in the mini-bar, from what Dan could overhear.
Definitely not something that mattered.
‘You’ll excuse me.’ He flashed his most charming smile at the complaining guest, then yanked Laurel towards him by her elbow. ‘But I’m afraid I have to borrow my girlfriend for a moment. Wedding emergency.’
The guest looked displeased, but didn’t argue, so Dan took advantage and dragged Laurel out of view, behind an apple cider stall.
‘Was he seriously complaining about water?’ he asked as Laurel’s phone started to ring again.
‘Yes.’ She lifted the phone, but paused before pressing answer. ‘Wait—what’s the emergency?’
Dan shrugged. ‘I need a tour guide for this Frost Fair of yours.’
Raising one eyebrow, Laurel pressed ‘answer’, but the phone stopped ringing seconds before her finger connected with the screen. ‘Sorry. I’d better—’
Dan reached out and took the phone from her. ‘What about my emergency?’
‘That’s not an emergency. That was Eloise calling. She might have an actual wedding emergency that really needs my help.’
‘Like?’
‘Like...I don’t know. They were having final dress fittings this morning. Maybe something went wrong. Maybe the maid of honour’s dress can’t be refitted for Eloise and she’s going to make me do it. Maybe Melissa now hates her dress. Maybe—’
Her face was turning red, and Dan wasn’t sure they could blame the cold for it. Plus, that line between her eyebrows had returned and brought a friend.
He handed her back the phone. ‘Fine. Call. But only because I’m scared you might hyperventilate with all those “maybes” otherwise.’
Laurel redialled quickly, and Dan waited as the phone rang. And rang. And rang.
‘Obviously not that much of an emergency, then,’ he said as it clicked through to voicemail. ‘Looks like you have time to show me around this place after all.’
Laurel glared at him, and he laughed. ‘Oh, come on! Won’t it be more fun than listening to people complain about water?’
‘I suppose...’
‘I’ll buy you an apple cider,’ he offered.
‘All the drinks are free,’ Laurel pointed out.
Dan shrugged. ‘Then you can have two.’
She rolled her eyes, but put her phone away in her pocket, her forehead clear and uncreased again. He had her now—he knew it. ‘Come on, then. Let’s go.’
CHAPTER SIX
IT FELT STRANGE, wandering around the Frost Fair with Dan, pointing out the different stalls, introducing him to the various local craftspeople she’d researched and persuaded to come along for the day and showcase their work. Strange because it didn’t feel like work, but also because she wasn’t used to having someone so interested in what she was doing. Even Melissa had routinely zoned out when it had come to talking about the parts of the Wedding Extravaganza that didn’t exclusively star the bride.
It should have felt odder still when, somewhere between the hog roast and the dreamcatcher stall, Dan reached out and took her hand, holding it warm and tight within his own. Benjamin had never really been one for public displays of affection, unless he was trying to prove a point—usually to keep her in line.
Really, she should have got a clue that he didn’t think she was good enough for him long before she’d caught him with Coral.
When she glanced up at Dan he shrugged. ‘People might be watching,’ he said, his eyes already on the next food stand.
But he didn’t let go of her fingers.
The weird thing was, people really weren’t watching. Nobody cared about them. She’d expected this week to be five days of people staring and pointing, knowing that she was Melissa’s half-sister and the reason the bride hadn’t had a father for her whole childhood. But as it turned out no one much cared about the wedding planner—the sister who wasn’t even a bridesmaid. Not even when she was supposedly dating the groom’s brother.
Nobody cared. Nobody expected anything from her. Not even that she try and live up to Melissa. It was amazingly freeing.
For about thirty seconds, until Dan said, ‘So, I hear people have been talking about us. After last night.’
‘What?’ Laurel looked up, startled, from the dreamcatcher in her hand. ‘When? I haven’t heard anything.’
Dan shrugged. ‘I caught a few whispers on the wind today, that’s all. Let’s just say Melissa’s outburst at the drinks thing last night didn’t go unnoticed.’
Oh, well that made more sense. It wasn’t her and Dan they were interested in. It was only the reaction they’d provoked in Melissa.
It was all always about Melissa in the end. And Laurel found she preferred it that way.
‘Do you mind?’ Dan asked.
‘That they’re talking about us?’ Laurel shook her head. ‘They’re not really. They’re talking about Melissa, and we just happen to be nearby. That’s all.’
‘What about Eloise? Do you mind that Melissa made her maid of honour instead of you?’
For a man who looked the stoic and silent type, he certainly asked a lot of questions. And, while she expected him to ask them about Melissa, she couldn’t quite get used to him asking about her. About her feelings, her thoughts—not just how she related to her sister.
Maybe it was because he was in the same situation as her in lots of ways. How had he put it? They were the ones in the shadows. And Melissa and Riley cast very long ones.
‘What about you?’ she returned, twisting the question back on him. ‘Are you bitter that Riley chose Noah as best man rather than you?’
Dan laughed, shaking his head. Under the bright and icy winter sky his eyes looked bluer than ever. She almost wished she’d been able to see him like this when they’d talked the night before—except then maybe neither one of them would have said so much.
‘I’ve never been the best man—or even the better man—before,’ he said, but despite his denial there was just a hint of bitterness behind his words. ‘Why would I want to start now?’
She wanted to ask him what he meant, but before she could find the words a cheer went up from where a crowd was forming, just around the bend in the river.
‘Come on,’ Dan said, tugging her along behind him. ‘I want to see what’s going on over there.’
‘It’ll be the troupe of actors I hired,’ she explained as they wove their way through the crowd. ‘They’re performing some Shakespeare scenes and such.’
‘No one cheers like that for Shakespeare.’
Laurel was about to argue the point when they finally reached the front of the crowd. She blinked up at the small wooden stage she’d seen being assembled that morning. On it stood a beautiful redhead in a gorgeous green and gold gown, and a man she was more used to seeing
on the movie screen than wearing a doublet and hose a mere metre or two away.
‘Is that—?’
‘Eloise and Noah,’ Dan confirmed. ‘Guess we know what she was calling about before.’
‘And why she didn’t answer.’
As they watched, Noah and Eloise launched into a segment from Much Ado About Nothing, bickering as only Benedick and Beatrice could.
‘They’re good,’ Dan observed, clapping as the section came to an end. ‘Some of these Hollywood actors can’t act to save their lives. Would have figured Noah for one of them, but actually...he’s not half bad.’
He said it easily, as if it didn’t hurt him at all to compliment the guy his brother had chosen to be his best man over him. But his earlier words still rang in Laurel’s brain, and as Noah and Eloise started in on their next scene she couldn’t help but ask the question she’d been thinking about ever since.
‘What did you mean? When you said you weren’t ever the best man before?’ Because to her mind he’d been pretty perfect since the moment his car had picked her up in London the day before.
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Dan didn’t look down at her as he spoke, keeping his eyes focussed on the stage.
Laurel scowled with frustration. ‘It matters to me. Is it because of your parents?’
‘No.’ Dan sighed, and scrubbed a hand over his hair. ‘You’re not going to give this up, are you?’
He sounded resigned. Good.