The Fireside Inn by Lily Everett Page A

parents and the boring society functions they’d dragged him to since he was a child; without that early training in feigning polite interest, there was no way he could have stood through thirty more minutes of vows, music, and wedding blessings—all while knowing that Serena was separated from him only by a dozen rows of chairs and sixty-odd wedding guests.
    Schooling his features to show nothing but the genuine happiness he felt for his friend, Miles, and his sweet-faced, open-hearted bride, Leo gritted his teeth and smiled until his cheeks ached.
    After the first kiss, the final triumphant music started playing the bridal party back down the aisle. From his position in the middle of the groom’s side, Leo was third to walk, and because of the uneven number of men and women, he had no one to squire down the aisle. They’d planned that he and Zane would pair up and walk behind the bride’s brothers. Instead, after a whisper in Zane’s ear, Leo waited until Zane and the Hackley boys met in the middle and the wedding guests all started getting to their feet. Taking advantage of the jubilant chaos at the end of the ceremony, and the distraction caused by the Hackley brothers’ well-timed hijinks as the two pranksters hammed it up for the crowd, Leo winked at a shell-shocked Cooper and slipped past him.
    Circling around to the back row of chairs, searching the crowd for Serena’s bright dress and vibrant blonde curls, Leo cursed under his breath while the rest of the guests broke into cheers as the new husband and wife paraded down the aisle.
    The last seat in the last row was empty. Serena was gone.

Chapter 9
    A charmingly hand-lettered signpost stood in the sand at the foot of the porch stairs leading down from the yacht club, one driftwood arm pointing up toward the ceremony, the other pointing left, toward the reception. Heart in his throat, Leo jogged in the direction of the large glass-topped, clear-sided structure that had been erected on the flat sand farther back from the waterline.
    He wanted to believe she’d be waiting for him on the dance floor, but it was deserted.
    Desperately scanning the horizon, Leo’s gaze landed on the getaway vehicle. Miles’s beautiful, sleek, custom-built helicopter perched on a bluff overlooking the ocean, waiting for the bride and groom to climb aboard and fly away to the honeymoon Cooper had planned for them.
    A hand landed on Leo’s shoulder and he whirled, hoping it was Serena—but it was the groom himself, instead.
    Dredging up a grin, Leo clasped Miles’s hand in a strong grip and shook it. “Congratulations, my friend! It was a gorgeous ceremony.”
    “And now for the party! Greta always imagined getting married on the beach. And even though it’s a little too cold out for a true beach wedding, I couldn’t disappoint my bride.”
    “This place looks amazing—and I see you even managed to order up a spectacular sunset for us to enjoy during cocktail hour. Not even God Himself would dare to disappoint you.”
    “Can’t take credit.” Miles shrugged. “Zane and the wedding planner, Felicity, did all the heavy lifting with the planning. Including timing things perfectly and coming up with a way to keep us all warm while still giving us this amazing view.”
    Leo stuck his hands in his pockets, feeling strangely awkward. “Anyway. Thank you again for allowing me to be a part of your wedding. It meant a lot to me.”
    Miles radiated love and joy as he glanced over to where his new wife was hugging her mother and shedding a tear or two. “Thank you for what you said. I knew you’d choose the perfect reading—but I never dreamed you’d be the one who wrote it.”
    A glow of pride warmed Leo’s chest. “I’m glad you liked it. I wasn’t sure—it’s not the kind of thing anyone in my family has ever gone in for.”
    “You aren’t your family.” Miles’s keen gaze, as always, saw more than Leo liked. Tongue in cheek, Miles clapped him on the back.