Thankfully, she was good with faces and names—it was sort of a necessity in her line of work—otherwise, she suspected it would have all been very confusing.
At a signal from the kitchen staff, she started strolling through the room, asking everyone to please make their way to the table, where dinner was about to be served. Normally, once that was done, she would quietly slip into the background again, keeping an eye on the party, but also coordinating with the kitchen to make sure everything was running smoothly.
Tonight, however, she was pulling double duty as both hostess and guest. At Erica’s insistence that she join them, and Trevor’s reassurance that her presence was more than welcome, there was a place set for her near the end of the long, cloth-draped table, directly on Trevor’s left. This would allow her to be involved in the dinner party, but also to jump up and make a quick escape if she was needed elsewhere.
For the first time all evening, Haylie let herself take a deep breath and relax as napkins were placed on laps and the waitstaff began to serve the salad course. So far, the party had gone off without a hitch. Everyone seemed happy, and everything was going exactly as planned.
To her right, Trevor was dressed in a stylish, dark blue suit with a lighter blue tie that made him once again look as if he should be posing for the covers of magazines. Of course, that was true no matter what he wore—a business suit, jeans and sweater or worn flannel pajama bottoms.
Not when he was nak*d, though. When he was nak*d, she thought he could grace the cover of a much sexier, much more adult women’s magazine. Just thinking about that—and accidentally letting herself picture him as she’d last seen him gloriously nak*d—made her breath catch in her lungs.
Since the night one of his model ex-girlfriends had decided to play Goldilocks by climbing into his bed uninvited, Haylie had done a much better job of compartmentalizing her responsibilities and her feelings. She’d let him take her to dinner at Chagall’s, taken pleasure in the evening as though it were a real date, and put thoughts of all his other women out of her head.
Not the smartest choice, perhaps, but it was the one she’d made and the one she’d come to terms with. Despite the Goldilocks incident, Trevor had done nothing, said nothing, to make her think he was seeing another woman—or women—while she was sharing his bed and his home.
She had no illusions that she and Trevor had a future together, but she’d given herself permission to pretend, just for a little while, that the future didn’t exist. To enjoy the short time she did have with him and push everything else away.
Call it denial. Call it delusional. She preferred to think of it as walking on the wild side for once in her otherwise very prim and proper life.
Heather had always been the carefree one in their family. The happy-go-lucky risk taker, while Haylie was the careful, staid sister. Heather had gone through men like cold sufferers go through tissues. Haylie had dated maybe ten different men in her entire adult life…and some of those had been one-time encounters over nothing more than coffee.
Trevor was like her get-out-of-jail free card. Letting herself get involved with him wasn’t smart, it wasn’t practical…but it was going to be a memory she pulled out on all of those cold, lonely, dateless winter nights to come.
So she was going to enjoy him, dammit. Without feeling guilty, without second-guessing herself. And hopefully, when the fantasy came to a screeching halt, she wouldn’t end up too damaged, either physically or emotionally.
Beside her, Trevor smiled and reached beneath the table to pat her knee. Which would have been fine, except he left his hand there, his thumb gently rubbing her stocking-clad thigh.
So much for relaxing. His touch made her the very opposite of relaxed, causing all of her nerve endings to buzz like live wires.
If they weren’t careful, someone was going to notice that something was going on between them. Or more to the point, if she wasn’t careful. Trevor was completely calm, completely unruffled, looking no different than at any other time, while she felt as though her face was a kaleidoscope of emotions for the whole world to see.
She was so wrapped up in the uneven beat of her heart and the pounding of her pulse in her veins that she missed the first several minutes of conversation at the table. It wasn’t until she heard the word wedding that her brain kicked in and began functioning properly, reminding her that she was on the clock and needed to be awake and alert to her clients every whim.
Whoever had mentioned the wedding, though, wasn’t talking about Christian and Erica’s upcoming nuptials. They were grilling Trevor’s brother Guy and his fiancée, Avery, about their plans. From what Haylie gathered, the two of them had been involved for quite some time, and the family was beginning to wonder why they hadn’t tied the knot yet. Or perhaps pressuring them to get the show on the road already.
Across from her, Haylie noticed a rosy flush climbing toward Avery’s hairline.
“Actually, we haven’t gotten around to making any wedding plans yet,” Guy responded in a low tone, pointedly taking Avery’s hand and twining his fingers with hers on the table between them. “And…well, we’ve been keeping it under wraps, but now that we’ve discovered we’re expecting, we may have to put it off a while longer.”
It took a brief second for Guy’s words to sink in, a moment in which the entire lounge was eerily silent, given the number of people occupying the room. But a second after that, chaos erupted. Cheers and high-pitched feminine shrieks of joy mixed together as several family members rose from their chairs and circled the table to surround the happy couple, offering hugs and hearty handshakes.
Haylie stayed in her seat, part of the dinner party, but not really part of the family revelry. Once everyone had returned to their spots, she offered her congratulations and said, “If there’s anything I can do to help with the wedding plans—when you are ready to plan something, that is—I hope you’ll let me know.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful.” Avery breathed in what could only be described as acute relief, lifting her free hand to her chest. “I have to admit, I really would like to be married before this pregnancy becomes too obvious, but the whole idea is so overwhelming, I don’t even know where to begin.”
“I felt the same way,” Erica put in from her place beside Christian at the head of the table. “But Haylie is amazing. She thought of everything, and then took care of it all before I even had a chance to get stressed. It’s been so nice to be able to sit back and relax, letting someone else do the work and the worrying for me.”
With a chuckle, she added, “Sorry, Haylie, but it’s true. You’ve been a lifesaver.”
Haylie offered the bride-to-be a genuine smile. “My pleasure. That’s what I’m here for, after all.”
Well, that and determining Bradley’s paternity, but sometimes the less said in front of two dozen witnesses, the better.
“Do you think…” Avery paused, biting her lower lip nervously. “Maybe after Erica and Christian’s big day, and you’ve had a chance to take a bit of a breather, could we sit down and chat? You’ve done so much for them on short notice, if you’re not too worn out by then, maybe we could discuss another small, private ceremony for just after the New Year.”
Avery looked to her fiancé for his opinion on the matter, and Guy nodded in agreement. Haylie had a feeling Avery could suggest a speedy elopement and he would have them halfway to Las Vegas before she finished her sentence.
“We won’t rain on your parade, though,” Avery added, leaning forward to glance down the full length of the table at Melissa and Shane, who were also expecting and scheduled to tie the knot on New Year’s Eve.
Haylie wasn’t even sure she would be around after the New Year, but since she’d gotten involved in Erica’s wedding mainly to build her portfolio and hopefully garner even more wealthy clients in the future, it seemed silly not to agree to Avery’s request.
Besides, Haylie was enjoying working with the staff at Jarrod Ridge, and would be happy to do so for a second event. She would even help Trevor’s sister Melissa with her upcoming wedding, if she needed any assistance, but Haylie suspected the plans were pretty well ironed out by now.
“I’d love to,” Haylie said. Then, belatedly realizing she probably should have checked with Trevor before offering her services to yet another member of his immediate family, she added, “If that’s all right with you.”
After all, regardless of what they shared in the wee hours of night, in the privacy of his bedroom, he might not want her around once the DNA tests came back and he knew whether or not he was Bradley’s father.
If he was, he might even want her gone—as in, give me my child and never darken my doorstep again. And if he wasn’t…well, he might feel the same either way.
But his response was quick enough and sure enough that she thought he must be sincere.
“Of course,” Trevor murmured a moment before swinging his attention to his brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. “Just be sure you’re not stingy when it comes to her fee. I’ve been telling her all month how generous we Jarrods are, and I’d hate to have you ruin our reputation in her eyes by getting married on the cheap.”
The statement was made in a jesting tone, but she suspected there was a note of seriousness underscoring the words as well. She didn’t know whether to be flattered that he was watching out for her…or embarrassed by the attention he was drawing. To her, to him—to them.
“If she makes my Avery happy and does as impressive a job for us as she has for those two,” Guy said, tipping his head in Christian and Erica’s direction, “she can have a blank check. Hell, she can have the whole checkbook.”
Trevor nodded in approval at his brother’s quick, magnanimous response. Leaning toward Haylie, he murmured, “See, I told you we’d make it worth your while to stick around.”
Then he winked and squeezed her knee under the table, making her feel as though a neon sign was hanging over her head flashing the words Sleeping with Trevor Jarrod for the whole world to see. Surely everyone in the room must be thinking that very thing about her.
But before she could burst into flames of mortification, to Haylie’s immense relief, conversation picked up and moved in an entirely different direction. The main course was served, followed by a truly decadent chocolate-caramel-mocha dessert created by Guy himself, and then coffee.
Before she knew it—possibly because she was used to staying behind the scenes rather than being smack in the middle of them—Erica and Christian were standing, thanking everyone for coming and for being a part of their very special day, and then the guests began to leave.
Trevor collected their coats and waited patiently while she ran around making sure everything was cleared away properly and that nothing was left undone. She’d told him he could go home without her, or down to his office to catch up on some of the work she knew he’d fallen behind on ever since she’d shown up and thrown his life into turmoil. But he’d refused, telling her not to be silly, and then promptly seated himself at the bar to finish the glass of scotch he’d nursed all through dinner.