Regardless, she needed to downplay—she couldn’t trust him.
Rosalyn fought the urge to retreat and lifted her chin. “Performing? Come on, this hardly counts.” She waved one hand at the striped tent behind him. “It’s a silly fundraiser I agreed to when I got here. I felt bad for them.”
She couldn’t read his gaze, but he seemed to be buying it. She added the final touch. “Besides, it gave me a way to test my knee before I got back to my real shows.”
“Ah.” Understanding lit his eyes. “I gotcha.”
Rosalyn’s shoulders relaxed.
Was he coming in for a hug? She instinctively moved back, right onto someone’s shoe in the crowd.
“I’m sorry—” Rosalyn’s distracted apology died as she looked over her shoulder, into the face of her old classmate. “Amber?”
This was a night of surprises and none of them good. The only surprise she wanted was the one Cade had yet to tell her.
“Rosalyn!” Amber grabbed her arm, her chin-length bob swinging across her sharp jaw. “Wow, look at you. It’s been years.” She pulled a brunette woman closer. “Gabby, can you believe our girl here?”
Rosalyn’s old friend from school turned, carrying a cone of pink cotton candy. “Totallycan’t.” Gabby shook her head, hair flowing over the shoulders of her sundress. “You were fabulous tonight, Rosalyn. But I’m not surprised at all.”
“Um, thanks.” Worlds colliding. This was too much. And what did Blaine want? He hovered nearby, near her elbow, impossible to ignore. “What are you two doing here?”
Gabby grinned. “We realized on social media we were both going to be home visiting family, so we planned to meet up for the festival.”
Half listening, Rosalyn cast a look over their heads at the throng of college-aged kids attempting to win goldfish, at the huddles of middle-aged parents eating foot-long corndogs and children downing lemonade slushes.
No Cade.
“So what else is new? Are you still single?” Gabby asked as she pinched off another bite of pink fluff.
Rosalyn hesitated. How to answer that? Technically married, but crushing hard on Cade, yet not officially in a relationship…nope. Couldn’t explain, especially in front of Blaine.
“Of course she’s single.” Amber crossed her arms over her black T-shirt and smirked. “See what happens when women go for their dreams without being distracted by men? They becomesuccessful. I told you for years it’s the superior way. We’re far more evolved, so we can accomplish more without?—”
“But what about him?” Gabby pointed her cone at Blaine.
He stepped closer, wrapped his arm around Rosalyn’s shoulders. She stiffened.
“Who is this?” Amber’s steely gaze registered on the bouquet in Blaine’s hands, and her brow furrowed into anarch. “Who are you?”
“Me?” Blaine pointed to his chest before grinning at both women. “I’m her husband, of course.”
“Husband?” Amber’s brows arched into her hairline.
Her tone sounded as shocked as Rosalyn felt. “Blaine, what are?—”
Cade’s face suddenly registered in Rosalyn’s peripheral vision.Finally. Her heart surged and she tried to duck out from under Blaine’s grip. Cade was so close but seemed to be stuck in the crowd behind two kids and a slow-moving man on crutches. Was Cade carrying a rose?Aww. Joy pulsed.
Wait.
He was frowning.
Her joy stuttered.Ugh, Blaine.He wasn’t taking the hint to release her. Rosalyn turned her face up, forcing another smile to temper her curt whisper. “Let mego?—”
Then Blaine kissed her.
Full on the lips.
Her pulse roared in her ears. Gabby’s delighted cheer collided with Amber’s snort of disgust.
