“And you look gorgeous,” he returned.
“Rix,” a deep voice said.
He looked up.
Dru moved out of the way as he one hundred percent hand gripped, chest bumped and back pounded Judge’s dad, Jamie Oakley.
“Jamie, man, hey,” he greeted.
Jamie held on through his, “Good to see you,” and then held on longer before they let go and stepped back.
“Of course, you’re all friends.” Helena smoothed her way in there.
Jamie and Dru gave polite salutations to all and congratulations to Blake and Chad and then Rix shouldered in, pulling Alex back to him.
“Jamie, Dru, this is my woman, Alex.”
“Hey,” Dru said, moving in for a quick but genuine hug. “So cool to meet you. Chloe loves you.”
“Good to meet you too,” Alex replied, returning the hug, also genuinely.
“Alex, we met when you were a little girl,” Jamie came in for a genuine cheek kiss and moved back. “You probably don’t remember.”
“Sorry, I don’t,” she said quietly.
“You were usually off in England or at a park whenever I was at your dad’s,” Jamie noted. “Always busy.”
Alex ducked into Rix’s pit.
There was his shy girl.
He slid his arm around her.
“That’s my Alexandra. Never once complained she was bored or had nothing to do,” Edward announced proudly. “If she wasn’t daydreaming by the lake in Central Park, she was reading about the Loch Ness monster in the library.”
“She has more wellingtons at Norton than the queen has in Sandringham,” Helena crowed.
Blake had a look like she could spit rocks.
Right.
Maybe there was a dynamic here that Alex hadn’t cottoned on to.
“You were getting me champagne, Rix,” Blake prompted snottily.
“He’s not a servant,” Edward hissed. “Chad, get your fiancée a drink, for Chrissakes.”
Blake’s eyes did the slit thing her mother’s had done.
Chad took off, and honest as fuck, Rix would swear he was escaping.
Yup.
Definitely a dynamic Alex hadn’t cottoned on to.
“Dad and I want you two to come over while you’re in town,” Dru said to Rix and Alex. “I know there are a lot of wedding things happening, but I talked to Chloe, and she told me when you’re free. Maybe dinner tomorrow?”
“We’re having a family dinner tomorrow,” Blake put in.
“Like we had a family cocktail hour today?” Rix muttered for only Alex to hear.
She bumped him with her hip.
Edward turned on Blake.
“I think your sister, who took time away from a job that means something and flew five hours to be here for your wedding, only to arrive and find that the assistant I’m paying for didn’t arrange for a transfer from the airport to her family home so she and her fiancé had to go out and find pizza for dinner, for God’s sake, can perhaps take a little bit of her time, which is actually worth something, because someone, that someone being Hale Wheeler, pays her for it, in order to visit with friends while she’s home. Don’t you?” Edward asked irately.
Jamie cleared his throat.
“Ned. We’re in company,” Helena scolded under her breath.
“Of course, Daddy,” Blake whispered.
Edward looked to Rix. “She’s thirty, and she calls me Daddy.”
Rix said nothing, because he didn’t like any of these people, but the dude was harsh.
He also thought of Kinsley, and that he hoped, if he had girls, they called him whatever they wanted to call him, just as long as they did it with love, until the day he died.
“We’re hogging you. You have guests.” Alex turned pointedly to her dad. “All of you. Mingle. We’ll catch up with you later.”
“Darling, I want some father-daughter time with you,” Edward declared. “Before you go back. And you,” he turned to Rix. “We’ll need a discussion.”
Alex tensed.
“I’m here for it,” Rix said.
“Good,” Edward replied.
“Dear, you’ll be at the brunch tomorrow?” Helena was pushing in to do the sway thing again with Alex, so he had to let her go.
She came right back to him. “Of course, Mum.”
“Do you have a hat?” Helena asked.
“Lord God, with the damned hats,” Edward complained.
“Chloe Pierce went shopping with me,” Alex said fast, in order to cut her mom and dad off from resuming their act.
Helen’s arched brows arched further at the mention of Chloe.
“You’ll like what we picked,” Alex finished.
“That is a pretty dress,” she muttered, doing it only because she knew who Chloe was, who Chloe’s parents were, who Chloe’s godfather was, and who Chloe was going to be marrying.
Not that Alex was wearing it.
Yeah.
The mom was a wash.
With a cold smile to Rix that he took zero offense to, because he reckoned it was the only kind she had, she flitted away.
Edward was already gone.
Blake had disappeared.
Chad came up, holding two glasses of champagne and looking confused. “Where’s Blake?”
“Don’t know, man. Mingling,” Rix told him.
He continued to look confused before he grinned, sipped from one glass, then the other, turned and wandered off like he was at a frat party.
Once Chad was gone, Rix looked down at his woman. “You don’t look like any of them. Are you sure you’re theirs?”
Her lips went up.
Dru giggled.
“If it’s going to be trouble for you, Alex,” Jamie chimed in, “we can do a lunch. Breakfast. We’d really just like to spend some time with Rix before he goes.”
“Dinner tomorrow would be amazing,” Alex said with relief.
“Excellent,” Jamie replied. “Nothing fancy. Completely casual. Just family.”
“I’ll make my spaghetti,” Dru decided.
Jamie hugged his daughter to his side. “Her spaghetti is delicious.”
“So what are you wearing to the brunch?” Dru asked. With a visible return hug to her father, she separated from him, moving to form a two-person girl huddle with Alex. “I was invited, but I can’t go. I have something on.”
Rix didn’t let Alex go and watched this carefully.
Alex gave him an I’m all right squeeze and shifted away.
So he released her.
He continued to watch until he saw Alex was all good.
He then turned to Jamie.
Jamie didn’t miss this and raised his brows.
Rix gave a short shake of his head.
They made small talk until Dru suddenly said, “Incoming, so we’re outgoing,” and then, hooked to Alex, they took off, Dru muttering dramatically, “Blake’s bridesmaids. No bueno.”
And before Rix could react, they were lost in the crowd.
He sensed them, like if there were birds anywhere near this place, they’d all immediately take flight, and locked eyes on a trio of three gorgeous women dressed to show bodies they were very proud of, staring off toward where Dru and Alex disappeared.
Though one of them was drinking up Rix.