One Night with the Best Man

He slid off her underwear. Her dress remained bunched up around her waist. His bare skin brushed against hers. Rough against soft. She heard him open a condom packet.

After a moment, his hands returned to her hips and his mouth returned to hers. He lifted her against the door and she wrapped her legs around his waist. In the darkness all she could do was feel. The real world was far away. The fact that they were in a closet at a wedding didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was with her now.

“Say my name,” he whispered against her ear. The darkness engulfed them. They could only feel and hear. But she knew it meant more to him. It was his way of claiming her, of making sure she knew it was him and not any number of guys.

She wanted to please him, needed him to know that it was only him. That it had always been only him.

“Luke.” Her world came unhinged as he entered her slowly. His hands held her hips. The tears she’d been holding back pressed forward. She repeated his name and muttered words she couldn’t be held accountable for as he moved within her, the only thing she could allow herself from him.

The tears edged over her eyes and trailed down her cheeks as her body rejoiced. It felt like coming home and like nothing she’d ever felt before. Dangerous and tempting. Something she never should have messed with. He lifted her higher and higher until she fell over the edge into bliss. He joined her with her name on his lips.

She choked back a sob and held him tighter, never wanting to let go.

Chapter Four

Luke fought to steady his breathing in the dark room. Penny fit against his body perfectly. He wanted to continue to hold her, but the noise of the party beyond the door told him that they needed to get back. Her breath shuddered in and out. Lowering her gently to the floor, he stepped back. In the dark he couldn’t see her, but it sounded as if she was crying. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

Suddenly the dark that had wrapped them in an intimate fog pissed him off. He could tell she was lying but couldn’t prove it.

“Something’s wrong.” Luke felt the wall next to the door for a light switch.

“Nothing’s wrong.” She reached past him and the light blinked on. For a moment he was blind as his eyes adjusted to the brightness.

Penny had bent down and retrieved her underwear. “We need to get back out there.”

“Nothing’s wrong, my ass.” Luke pulled up his boxers and pants.

“What do you want me to say?” She turned her back to him as she fixed her clothing. “It was fantastic, wonderful, the best thing ever.”

“What’s gotten into you?” The lightness in his chest grew heavy. Trying to recapture the mood, he dropped a kiss on the nape of her neck.

Her shoulders tensed but then relaxed. When she turned around, the plastic smile was in place. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Whatever had made her upset, she wasn’t going to tell him.

“I’m fine. Really. We just need to get back.” Her flirtatious smile returned. “I had a really good time.”

She moved to open the door, but he grabbed the knob to hold it closed.

“Fine? You are far from fine. You can act all you want for the revolving door of men you have, but I know you.” The anger raging within was tempered by the orgasm he’d just had. After he’d left all those years ago, he’d heard about her escapades from classmates and folks around town. They had acted as if he should step in and do something. He didn’t tell them that he’d heard the rumors of her with other guys the entire time they’d dated.

She didn’t even bristle. She reached up to fix his collar as if they were discussing the weather. “Is that what you are worried about? That I’m comparing you to other lovers?”

“What I’m worried about is the fact that you don’t seem to feel anything anymore.” Luke brushed her hair away from her face. “Does anything matter to you?”

Her smile didn’t show even a hint of anger, which just made him more determined to break through that wall. To what end? He didn’t know.

“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Her brown eyes lifted to his.

He nodded, not really wanting to be reminded of that at this moment.

“Let’s go out to the party and afterward...” She held on to his shoulders as she slipped her feet into her shoes.

His imagination could do a lot of things with afterward.

She kissed his jaw. “Afterward.”

The background noise changed. It had been so subtle he hadn’t even noticed the music and laughing beyond the door, but the sudden lack of it gained his attention. He thought he heard someone call his name.

“Something’s happening.” Luke opened the door and found his way out from behind the curtain. The overhead lights were on and everyone was hovering near the dance floor.

Luke’s heart pounded against his chest as he saw someone lying on the floor beyond the crowd. His training kicked in as he rushed forward.

Breaking through the crowd, he froze when he saw Sam unconscious on the ground, his face ashen. Luke’s world lurched. “What happened?”

“He just fell over,” an old man who looked familiar said.

“Everyone back up and give him some space,” Luke ordered. “Has anyone called 911?”

“Yes. The ambulance is on the way.”

Luke checked Sam’s pulse. He was still breathing, but his pulse was faint. “Bring over a chair.”

Luke pulled Sam’s bow tie off and unbuttoned his collar. When Amber dragged over a chair, Luke lifted Sam’s feet up onto the seat.

“Where are Brady and Maggie?” Luke asked the nearest woman.

“They just left.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Tears ran freely down Amber’s cheeks. Penny kneeled next to Amber and held out her arms. Amber collapsed against her but kept her big blue eyes on Luke and Sam.

“We need to get him checked at the hospital.” Luke met Penny’s eyes and saw the worry there.

He tried not to think about it as he worked on evaluating Sam’s condition.

“The ambulance is here,” someone said.

The paramedics came in and Luke gave them a rundown of what he knew, which wasn’t much. Sam had fainted and hadn’t regained consciousness.

“Should I call Brady and Maggie?” Penny asked as Luke stepped out of the way to let the paramedics work.

“Not yet.” Luke ran a hand over his face. “They just left for their wedding night, and we have nothing to tell them. They’d just worry or, worse, spend their wedding night in the hospital waiting room.”

She nodded, still holding on to Amber. “Maybe I should take Amber home.”

“No.” Amber shook her head. “I’m going with Uncle Sam.”

“It’s late. We can go wait at my house with Flicker, and your uncle Luke will call with any news.” Penny’s gaze met Luke’s, looking for his support.

He nodded, but that wasn’t enough for Amber.

“I’m supposed to stay with Uncle Sam tonight,” Amber said. If Luke knew anything about his family, it was that stubbornness definitely ran in it. But he had only just met his niece.

“What if—” Penny looked up at Luke “—we go to the hospital and see that Uncle Sam is taken care of, then you and I will go get Flicker and drive out to check on the farm?”

Luke nodded in agreement. What else could he do until he knew what was going on with Sam?

“I wanna ride in the ambulance.” Amber turned her stubborn little chin up at Luke.

“No,” Penny said, her voice more firm than he’d ever heard it before. “You ride with me or the deal is off, kiddo.”

“Okay.” Amber pouted but went to grab her flowers and sweater from their table.

“Did you want to ride with us or with the ambulance?” Penny’s presence actually calmed his racing heart for a moment.

“I’ll drive Sam’s truck and meet you there.” Luke watched as the paramedics wheeled Sam out the door. He felt lost, as if he could have prevented whatever was happening.

Penny wrapped her arms around him in a hug that had nothing to do with sex. “He’ll be all right.”

He returned her hug and breathed in her floral scent. The knot in his stomach loosened slightly.

She released him before he wanted to let go, but things had to get done. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. I’m going to talk to the wedding coordinator and make sure everything is taken care of before we head to the hospital.”

Amber came back over with tears in her big blue eyes. “Can I ride with Uncle Luke? Please?”

Penny gave him a questioning look, leaving it up to him. He looked around at the people waiting and the chaos beyond. It might take Penny a half hour or more to finish up here and Amber would be left sitting alone. He remembered how that felt when his father had been rushed to the hospital. No one had taken the time to tell him what was happening. He was just left waiting.

Luke held out his hand to Amber. “Sure. Let’s go.”

* * *

An hour later, Luke sat in the waiting room of the hospital in Owen with his niece fast asleep against his side. Sam had woken during the ambulance ride and had been cranky as ever. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctor ordered several tests to make sure he hadn’t had a heart attack or wasn’t on the verge of having one. The doctor had insisted Luke go to the waiting area since Sam didn’t look to be in any eminent danger.

A flicker of gold caught Luke’s attention. He lifted his head in the direction of the hallway. Penny sauntered toward him with her heels in one hand and a soft smile on her lips. It had been only an hour or so since he’d held her in his arms, but it felt as if an eternity had passed.

Careful not to wake Amber, she sat gently on his other side and whispered, “How’s Sam?”

Luke took a deep breath and released it. “No word yet. Apparently a few months ago, he had an X-ray that showed an enlarged heart, but he skipped his follow-up with the cardiologist. The fainting could mean a number of things, from cardiomyopathy to hypothyroidism to hemo—”

Penny took his hand between hers. “Lots of doctor mumbo jumbo. Is he going to be okay?”

“I hope so.” He ran his other hand through his hair. Their family history of heart disease was the reason Luke had gone to med school and why he’d specialized in cardiology. If Luke had known at fourteen what he knew now, maybe he could have prevented the heart attack that killed his father. The warning signs had all been there. No one had pushed Dad to get checked out. Not that his father could have been pushed. A trait Sam inherited.

“I guess I should take Amber home and get her into bed.” Penny didn’t move and he felt her eyes on him. “Unless you want me to stay.”

Luke didn’t know what he wanted. Earlier it had been easy to just pull Penny into his arms and forget the past and future. He would definitely prefer to argue more with Penny instead of sitting in a waiting room with months-old magazines and a news channel on a muted TV. If his niece weren’t here, he might even flirt, if only for the distraction.

As if sensing his hesitation, Penny leaned forward to look around him at Amber. “If I wake Amber now, she’ll be a bear to get back to sleep. Why don’t I just keep you company while we wait to hear about Sam?”

“Why are you being like this?” Luke stared at the television in the corner. There was no reason for Penny to be here for him now. Not even after what happened in the closet. They weren’t anything more than exes thrown together at a wedding. She didn’t have to be nice to him.

She settled next to him, pulling her feet up under her and leaning her head against his shoulder. “Being like what?”

He looked down at the top of her auburn head. “It doesn’t matter.”

She shrugged. “When should we call Maggie and Brady?” A yawn followed as she squirmed herself into a more comfortable spot.

“It’s late. We’ll wait until morning and give them a call. No reason to disrupt their wedding night. As long as Sam remains stable, there’s nothing they could do but worry anyway.” Sam was only thirty and relatively healthy, but fainting was serious...especially with an unknown heart condition. Luke needed to get up and do something, but he couldn’t without disturbing Amber. His leg started to bounce.

Penny kept hold of his hand in her lap. He should ask to look over Sam’s chart and figure out if they were doing all the necessary testing. EKG, echocardiogram, CBC. Maybe he should talk to the doctor about a transfer to the nearest medical school hospital. He wondered if they could Life Flight him to his hospital in St. Louis.

“I hear you got into one of the better programs for med school,” Penny said.

“What?” He pulled his gaze from the doors the doctor had vanished behind recently.

“Med school. Good program?” Penny repeated and looked up at him.

“Yeah. It took a lot of cramming, but I got the grades to get in.” If he could figure out a way to slide out from under Amber without waking her, he would go through those doors that said “Authorized Personnel Only.” Surely they missed something on the chart. Most hospitals generally had rules against working on family. But they probably didn’t have a cardiologist on staff.

“I was glad to graduate high school with a C average,” Penny scoffed. “You always were the smarter of the two of us.”

“That’s not true. You were just a misguided youth.” He smiled at the memory.

“Remember when we were studying for my final in Geometry? If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t still have the useless phrase SOH CAH TOA in my head.”

Luke chuckled. “Do you even remember what it means?”

Penny screwed up her nose. “Of course not. If it had been useful, then I definitely would have remembered it. I bet I haven’t used half of what they forced us to learn in high school.”

“You probably use more than you think.” Luke sank farther into his chair. His legs relaxed out in front of him. “If we’d been together longer, I bet you would have received straight As.”

“You definitely made studying fun.” She rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand. “Do you remember that one night we walked all the way to Owen to The Morning Rooster to have breakfast at 2:00 a.m.?”

“I remember heading back and having to carry you piggyback half the way.”

“I didn’t know we were going to walk eight miles each way when I decided on my shoe choice for the evening. Most nights I didn’t even need my shoes.”

“I remember talking about everything that night. Philosophy, love, family, sex, shoes.” He squeezed her hand. “We were quite the rebels.”

“More like trendsetters. Apparently it’s a new dare among the kids in Tawnee Valley. How far are you willing to walk to breakfast?”

Luke laughed. “Not like there was much else to do on Saturday nights. Especially when Sam would take away my car privileges.”

“And my car was in the shop. You know, I kept that old beater until it finally coughed its final gas fumes into the air about five years ago.”

“I’m surprised it made it that long.” This was the part of Penny he’d missed the most. The quiet times when it was just the two of them talking. That piece of her that only he got to see.

The doors swung open. Dr. Sanchez came into the waiting area and walked their way. “Don’t get up.”

Luke had automatically started to rise without thinking about Amber and Penny leaning on him. She smiled down at the three of them. Penny released his hand and he missed her warmth.

“So far the test results have been promising. It doesn’t look like he suffered from cardiac arrest, but we can’t rule out a future one. We’d like to keep him overnight for observation.”

Luke breathed out as if he’d been holding his breath for days. No cardiac arrest was good, but Sam wasn’t out of the woods yet. “What’s the plan once he’s released?”

“Until we have a few more test results, we won’t know for sure the type and extent of damage. I can’t give you any more information until tomorrow.”

“But he’s going to be okay?” Penny asked, straightening in the chair.

“We’ll know more tomorrow.” Dr. Sanchez smiled that doctor smile Luke was all too familiar with. The one that said we don’t know all that much and all we can do is hope for the best. “For tonight, I suggest you go home and get a good night’s sleep. We’ve already given Mr. Ward something to help him sleep.”

“Thank you,” Luke said. Because of privacy laws, the doctor wouldn’t tell Luke much more, so he didn’t push. Besides, until the tests were completed, the doctor wouldn’t know any more than he did.

Dr. Sanchez disappeared behind the doors again.

“Why don’t I drive us all out to the farm?” Penny stretched like a cat. “It’s closer to the hospital and Amber won’t pitch a fit if she wakes up there. I asked Bitsy to look in on my dog when she left the reception.”

Luke hesitated. It felt odd to invite Penny back to Sam’s house. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer—”

“I wasn’t doing it just for you.” She stood and looked down her nose at him. “Maggie is family to me. That makes Brady family and Sam by extension. I need to take care of Amber and make sure things go smoothly so those two can take their daughter to Disney World on their honeymoon and make me more babies to take care of. I’m tired and I just want to crash and be there when Amber and Maggie need me in the morning.”

Luke stood and picked up Amber. Thinking of Penny with babies did something strange to his heart. “I just didn’t want you to think that I needed you—”

“Trust me. I know you don’t need me.” He saw a flash of hurt in Penny’s eyes. “Maggie and Amber need me.”

“I’m sorry, Penny. I didn’t mean...” Oh, hell, what did he mean? If it meant avoiding a fight and not disappointing Amber, who was he to care whether they stayed here or went to the farm? They could work out the details when they arrived. Right now, he just wanted to look at something besides these four walls. “Look, we’re both tired. Why don’t I drive us out to the farm and we’ll work on it from there? It doesn’t look like I’ll be flying out tomorrow.”

“If you are talking about staying for Sam, maybe I can help.”

Help? She was the reason he hadn’t been out there to help Sam in the first place. His brother might have been showing signs that he could have picked up on if he hadn’t been too busy making eyes at the pretty woman in front of him. “He’s my family. For now, let’s go home.”

“He’ll be okay.” Penny rested her hand above his heart.

Penny’s touch comforted him in a way he’d almost forgotten. For a long moment, he searched her eyes. With Sam’s condition unknown, Luke couldn’t just leave. Depending on what was wrong, he might need surgery or just bed rest. His mind shuffled through all the possible diagnoses, but he didn’t have the chart to see what they’d uncovered when they’d examined him today. He trusted the doctor to make the right call regarding Sam’s treatment.

Regardless, his brother might be here longer than a night. What happened after tonight with Penny? They hadn’t promised more than tonight because that wasn’t an option. Maybe it still wasn’t an option. He didn’t know Penny that well anymore, but from what he heard she rarely made a habit of any man.

He needed to get out of his head. There was plenty to worry about tomorrow. First he had to get through tonight. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Five

Penny shut the door of the bedroom. Amber had taken very little coaxing to fall back to sleep in Brady’s old bedroom. Reassuring her that Sam would be okay and they’d see him in the morning was all it had taken. The old wooden stairs creaked under her feet as she returned to the first floor. It was past two in the morning, the lights were all still on and she didn’t feel tired at all.

The sound of a chair scraping across the linoleum in the kitchen drew her that way. She stopped in the doorway and leaned against the doorjamb. Luke sat at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. If she had stayed with him after high school, would things have turned out differently? Would he have made it through med school with her dragging him down? Where would she have been when he left her? Stuck in some city where she wouldn’t know a soul and Maggie would have been here all alone dealing with her mother’s illness and raising Amber.

She could play the what-if game, but she had decided a long time ago to live in the present. And presently, the weight of the world was on Luke’s shoulders. He’d always taken on too much. All she’d ever wanted to do was take some of that weight off him. In high school, it had been easy. Nothing takes a man’s mind off his problems like sex. Now they were adults with a complicated history. She had no idea of the problems he was facing in his day-to-day life, but Sam’s collapse was one more thing to deal with.

Even though it had been years since they’d been together as a couple, she’d known at the hospital that he needed her to be there with him. To keep him out of his head.

“Hey,” she said and shoved off the wall to join him in the kitchen.

He lifted his head and gave her a weary smile. “Hey.”

“Not exactly how I thought this night would end.” She flashed him a smile and leaned against the counter, putting one bare foot on top of the other. She’d ditched her killer high heels next to the door as soon as they’d walked in. They looked a little obscene next to the work boots and sneakers stacked there.

Her feet felt only half as weary as Luke looked. She wanted to go over and pull him into her arms and just hold him, but she needed to let him dictate what he needed. Whether it was just to talk or...

He rubbed his hand over his hair. “You want some coffee?”

“Nah, I should sleep at some point tonight, so I can wake up when Amber gets up.” A knot formed in her stomach. He probably thought she was pushing for him to invite her to sleep with him. For once she felt awkward. This was one of those situations she avoided for just this reason. She didn’t sleep over and she didn’t let anyone near her bed. She was all for sex, but cuddling wasn’t her style.

He started to rise from his chair. “I can set up the guest bed—”

“Is that really necessary?” She put on her best brazen-it-out smile. Typically she didn’t “sleep” with anyone except her puppy, but the last thing Luke needed to do tonight was worry about making her comfortable in his family home. She’d be fine whether he wanted her in his bed or on the couch. “I can crash wherever.”

When she shrugged so that he would know it wasn’t a big deal, the strap from her gown slid down her arm, drawing Luke’s gaze. She felt it like a physical caress. The air in the room was suddenly charged.

“You always liked to finish what you started.” His gaze met hers and his eyes flamed with desire.

Her body responded with all the repressed heat she’d sidelined since their closet interlude. Her body always would react to his. But she didn’t want to push him, not with everything else weighing on his mind. “You know me. I’m always game. But I leave the decision up to you. I know you have a lot on your mind right now—”

“I’d rather not think at all.” Luke crossed the kitchen floor and pulled her into his arms. Her toes brushed against the warm, soft fabric of his socks. “I’d rather forget everything outside of these walls for the rest of the night. Stop my mind from circling around what I’ll need to do to be able to stay here with Sam. Stop from worrying that he might not be getting sufficient care. Stop trying to figure out—”

“Just stop,” she whispered and drew his head down to hers. “I won’t ask you for anything.”

“I know,” he said before claiming her mouth.

* * *

The creak of the bed woke Luke from a deep sleep. He automatically reached for his phone on the nightstand but hit only air where his nightstand should be. He blinked into the darkness and squinted at the dim light coming through the window. Instead of city lights, he saw the moon lighting up the fields rolling into the distance. The crops swayed slightly in the breeze.

The night came rushing back to him. The wedding. Sam’s collapse. Inviting Penny into his bed. A shadow moved in front of the window.