Longing for Eagle Cove

Chapter 1-2

What the hell was up with weddings?

Cal wanted to ask Harry, but he was all busy with responses, vows, and the biggest s**t-eating grin ever worn by man. Of course, marrying Becky Billings, it was hard to blame the guy. She was damned cute. Wedding white did absolutely nothing to hide how hot the woman was. It also didn’t hurt that her smile was just as ridiculously oversized as Harry’s.

After a bit of debate, Harry had chosen Greg to do the actual best man dance, carrying the ring and all that. It was fine with Cal; nice to see the two brothers getting along for a change. He’d have bet that to last mere minutes after Harry had moved back into town, but whenever they started getting out of hand one of their women stepped in and shut it down before it descended into one of the wrestling matches that had been their standard form of communicating. They got along better, so he’d have to admit that was one benefit of marriage. Just an unexpected one.

With nothing much else to do, other than make sure Harry wasn’t dumb enough to nerve out at the last moment, Cal had set himself to surveying the crowd.

Not a soul from New Orleans for the groom’s side. Man had been a hot-s**t lawyer down there for a decade and he didn’t even have the decency to invite a cute Creole “hot mama” paralegal for Cal.

As for the townies who’d shown up, Cal knew every one of them and had dated more than a few. He knew Dawn—who’d been a total babe since fifth grade—would give him a dance, but her husband would hog her most of the time—lucky bastard. And the way Greg was looking at Jessica, there wouldn’t be much cutting in there either.

But even pretending he didn’t already know, there was no question where he was going for the first dance. Which took him back to his original question: What the hell was up with weddings?

He’d known Natalya Lamont since before they’d done the old: if you show me yours, I’ll show you mine. They’d been six and they’d both chickened. When they were old enough for that question to take on a whole different meaning it had never come up again. She’d blended into the scenery of Eagle Cove until he’d no longer really seen her.

Oh, his hormones had tracked her whenever she’d crossed a room, her and every other girl of their thirty-four person high school class—a field of just eighteen women. Yet for reasons beyond him, he’d never so much as touched Natalya.

Then today she’d come walking through the brewery crowd with her hair the color of dark chocolate and shiny as a new penny, swept down over her shoulders. And those deep eyes catching the Christmas lights Becky had strung everywhere. If he could ever find someone to explain what it was that happened at weddings, he’d also ask them what was up with grown women and “twinkle lights.”

As the bride and groom were doing the “Until death do us part” thing, he had to glance over Greg’s head to check out what Natalya had been wearing. Somehow that hadn’t even registered as she’d come up the aisle. Just that hair and face and those deep eyes that stared straight back without even blinking. It was unnatural how long that woman could go without blinking; like she was casting a spell or something.

Jessica and Natalya wore long black straight dresses complete with black, paper flower corsages.

He got the joke right away. The death of another life of singlehood. Cute. Damned cute. No, that had described Becky Billings. It even described the sleek and shining blond Jessica. It so didn’t cover the long shapely woman with smoke-dark eyes.

Natalya had never looked so…

“You can kiss the bride now, Son,” Judge Slater told his eldest and Cal had missed his chance to mess with the ceremony just to tease his best friend by protesting when the call for it was made. But he wasn’t low enough to screw with “the moment” for his buddy. That didn’t mean he was above trying to tap in on the first dance.

Though, if he could arrange to slide onto the floor with Natalya Lamont for the first dance, maybe he’d leave Becky Billings and Harry Slater to themselves.