My hair fanned out as I let my neck fall back into the movement, a delighted laugh I’d never heard my body make spilling from my lips. When he guided me back up, I finally got the question past my lips.
“How?”
He wrapped his arms around me and abandoned the steps.
“Grams loved to dance,” he whispered, “And I might’ve asked Delly for a refresher.”
A piece of his styled hair fell over his brow when he looked down at me, and his breaths stuttered as I pushed it back into place, then stroked my fingertips down the side of his face.
“I love you, Ireland.”
I stared at his mouth as the world tilted and slowed.
“I was going to wait to say it, but….” He grasped my face and tilted my head back as he repeated the words. “I love you.”
My heart. I wasn’t sure if it was screaming or soaring. Not even from hearing those words from him, the best man I knew, but hearing them at all.
The song ended, and I vaguely registered Director Links’s voice coming through the speakers, instructing everyone to head for the cafeteria.
The dancing was over, but Adair kept me close as neither of us moved.
As he looked at me, his hazel eyes were so full of adoration, ofunderstanding, and I sucked in a shuddering breath as questions piled up inside me, one after the other.
He probably read each one better than I did.
Before he could doubt me, or I could doubt myself, Irose onto the tips of my toes and kissed him. Center stage, and in front of the people who were friends, co-workers, and family, I kissed Adair Jacks with everything I felt for him.
With love.
Because I did love him. Desperately. Horribly.
Probably since the moment he’d given me that hug that’d held me together when nothing else was.
I loved him so much that saying it, confronting it without at least some answers, terrified me to the point of blind panic.
His voice was breathless when we broke apart. “I’ll go get the guys.” He stroked his hands down my arm, then back up again, settling that fear enough for me to open my eyes. “There she is,” he whispered. “I’ll text you to let you know if they’re staying here or going back to the apartment, and then I’ll find you. You’ll get your phone?”
I nodded.
Hope filled his eyes before he kissed me one more time.
48
ADAIR
The cafeteria was thick with chatter, the air warm from the steaming buffet platters of food and the influx of bodies. Pops and Beck had both wanted to come here instead of going back up to the apartment, which had surprised me, but I’d gotten them situated as quickly as possible at a table with Jillie and Rachel.
Which wasn’t very quickly with this crowd.
Jillie raised her brows at me knowingly, but I just grimaced as I pulled out my phone and checked it again. It’d been twenty minutes since I told Ireland we were in here.
Sweat beaded on my spine, and I yanked off my suit jacket to drape it on the chair before unbuttoning a couple of my shirt buttons and pushing my hair off my face.
Lordy.
Cole sauntered up and put his and Delly’s plates down with a clatter. He might’ve said something to me, but I didn’t catch it, as I spotted Liem and Cody walk past the cafeteria doors.
They might know where she went.
