Page 2 of Just One More Affair
He returned his focus to Charlie. “To meeting again.” He touched his tumbler to her Champagne flute.
She smiled, warmed by the sentiment. “To meeting again.”
A couple came up behind them and Jared grasped Charlie’s elbow, leading her to a quiet space near a table that had emptied out, its occupants on the dance floor.
“So, how are you enjoying the wedding, Charlotte?” he asked, standing close.
She didn’t mind. “Didn’t I tell you my friends call me Charlie?”
“You did. I just happen to think Charlotte is a beautiful name and suits you.” She caught the compliment, pleased he thought so. “But to be clear,” he said, “I still consider you a friend.”
“I’m very glad to hear it.” Looking at this sexy, masculine specimen reminded her how long her dry spell had been. No sex since before she’d left for the dig almost two years ago. And maybe another six months before that. She definitely wouldn’t mind being more than friends with Jared Sterling, at least for the night. “To answer your question, yes, I’m enjoying myself. Are you?” she asked.
His gaze raked her over, taking in her fitted lavender dress and stopping at the dip at her cleavage. “I am now,” he said in a husky voice that sent a shiver of awareness tricking through her veins.
“Mommy! All the single ladies are lining up to catch the bouquet,” her daughter, Dylan, said, her sister Dakota right alongside her.
The girls were dressed in pale pink dresses, their hair done in a thin mermaid braid holding back one side, looking adorable. They were growing up too fast. Not for the first time, Charlie wanted this dig to be over with so she didn’t miss so much of their lives.
“Let’s go try and catch it! We’re all single!” Dakota raised her voice and tugged on Charlie’s free hand.
Charlie met Jared’s gaze and gave a little shake of her head. “I’m going to pass on this one, honey. Why don’t you go stand with everyone and have fun?”
With a little luck, Fallon would toss high and a lucky single woman would catch the bouquet, not one of her ten-year-old girls.
“Let’s go!” Dakota pulled her sister toward the dance floor, leaving Charlie alone with Jared once more.
“They’re sweethearts,” he said, a fondness in his voice she found truthful and not something someone said just to be nice.
She smiled. “Oh, don’t let the dresses fool you. They can be trouble when they want to be.”
He nodded. “But trouble can be good. Noah and Fallon wouldn’t have met if they didn’t think Fallon was you from behind.”
His steady stare never left her face. His attention was all-consuming and she liked that about him. It left no doubt he was interested, too.
“Although… you must have cut your hair last year because Fallon’s has always been much longer,” he mused, telling her he was also observant.
“I cut it last time I came home from Egypt.” She fluffed her shoulder-length bob. “It’s easier to let air-dry in the desert.”
“Well, I like the style. Frames your pretty face.”
Her body heated even more, responding to the compliment. “Thank you.”
She took a sip of the liquid, enjoying the bubbles as they went down. Charlie didn’t drink often and especially not while on a dig, and this second glass had already gone to her head. She was nicely buzzed and happy talking to Jared.
“So, you aren’t interested in the bouquet toss,” he said. “I can’t say I blame you. I have no intention of catching the garter. They’re just silly superstitions.”
“Traditions,” Charlie said at the same time, and they grinned at the overlap.
“It’s a wedding. All the lovey-dovey shit makes people think about having the same.” He followed that proclamation by indulging in a large swallow of whiskey.
She nodded at the truth in his statement. “What about you? Are you looking for the same future Noah and Fallon have?”
He placed his drink on the table. “I’ve had no time to think about myself, to be honest. I work with my dad in Sterling Investments and he had a heart attack last year. We’ve all been on him to cut back on work, which leaves me carrying the bulk of the responsibility.”
A family man, she mused, if not in the way she’d asked him. “I’m sorry about your father. But he seems healthy now.”
He shrugged. “We hope. He’s been caught with bad-for-him food and cigars.” He paused in thought. “But enough about me and my family. What about you? You have the twins and your career, but is settling down in your future?”
