Ten
Afull week later, Finn, knowing Beah had arrived at Logan International earlier in the day, arrived at Mounton House an hour before Keely and Dare’s wedding, It wasn’t, he knew, the best time or place but he was done waiting...
When he’d come around in the hospital, his brothers and their partners were around his bed but he didn’t see the one face he most wanted to see. His welcome-back-from-the-dead party hadn’t included a curly-haired redhead.
Oh, he now knew she’d come to the hospital, heard she’d been an absolute basket case. His brothers told him that while he was asleep, Beah wept over his cold body and then grilled his doctors about his injuries, possible brain damage and his expected recovery time.
When she was satisfied he’d make a full recovery, she’d left the facility without seeing him again, without giving him a chance to speak to her.
Finn ran his hand over his beard, wishing Beah had stuck around instead of flying straight back to London. He’d spent the past week leaving voice mail messages, and not receiving any responses to his call-me-dammits, he’d sent her a barrage of text messages asking her to get in touch.
Her only reply was a brief two sentences...
Glad you’re okay. Then again, God does protect the stupid.
Beah was pissed and he couldn’t blame her. He had been stupid, but not in the way she thought. His accident had been a fluke and he planned to be back on skis as soon as he could. He wasn’t going to let being caught in an avalanche kill his love for his favorite sport.
But when he went back, he wanted to go with his brothers, with his lover, hopefully with his wife.
Because in his heart, she was still his wife, still the beat of his heart.
No, he’d been stupid to let her go, then and now. That he’d admit to, on any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Finn ran up the stone steps to the front door of Mounton House and hit the doorbell. After a minute, Dare Seymour opened the door, his untied black bow tie hanging down the front of his snow-white shirt.
“Good to see you, Finn. Glad that avalanche didn’t kill you.”
Yeah, so was he.
“Are you supposed to be here?” Finn asked him, shaking his hand. “You know, seeing the bride before the wedding and all that crap.”
Dare grinned. “I’ve been told I can hang out down here but Keely will kill me if I go up to the first floor,” Dare told him. He nodded to the wide, imposing stairs. “I presume you are looking for Beah?”
Finn nodded.
“She’s with Keely, up the stairs and second door on the right.”
Finn nodded his thanks and ran up the steps, for once not seeing the art or the massive portrait of Isabel Mounton at the top of the landing. There was only one face he wanted to look into.
He hurried down the hallway and stood in front of the door, smoothing down the lapels to his tuxedo. This was do-or-die time, the rest of his life. He had to get the words right, tell her what she needed to hear...
Do not mess it up, Murphy.
Finn knocked on the door and without bothering to wait to be told to enter, walked inside. Four sets of eyes—makeup artist, Keely, hairdresser, her sister Joa—turned to look at him but none of them were whom he most wanted to see.
Keely jerked her head and he spun around to see Beah standing beside the wall, next to what looked to be a complicated and expensive wedding gown. She wore a soft silver-gray wraparound dress with a long skirt and a plunging neckline. Her hair was piled in a messy, natural bun and her makeup didn’t, for once, cover her freckles.
She looked wonderful, gorgeous enough to take his breath away, but her eyes reflected her sadness. That had to change...immediately.
Beah looked away from Finn to Keely and back before biting down on her bottom lip. “Finn? Why are you here?”
“I’ve been trying to talk to you for days but you’re not taking my calls,” Finn said, his eyes not leaving her face.
“If you wanted to talk to me, you could’ve jumped on a plane, or used the Murphy jet. I hear those planes can fly both ways.”
Ouch. “My doctors, and my brothers, wouldn’t release me from the hospital or I would’ve done exactly that.”
Beah narrowed her eyes at him, as if trying to decide whether he was telling the truth or not. He was. He’d only been released from hospital the previous night, after telling the doctors he had a wedding he needed to attend, and he still felt bruised and battered and a bit wiped.