“I’ll bet.” But she was smiling. The elevator opened, empty and waiting, and they stepped inside. “Um, I should probably warn you. Kate and I had a little bit of a heart to heart. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her about us being married, but I did mention something about the high volume of tequila we consumed and how we managed to…uh, get Biblical last night.”

He grinned. “Biblical? Honey, I don’t think any of those moves we did last night were sanctioned by the good book.”

She raised those green impish eyes to his, smiling back. Neither of them looked away as the eight floors passed above them as the elevator slowly descended. Then they weren’t smiling, and Payton’s mouth had dropped the barest amount. Just as it had last night when he’d been about to kiss her. Her face was flushed, and from the way her chest was rising and falling, she was having as hard of a time finding her breath as he was.

The lurching of the elevator as they came to a stop broke their eye contact. He glanced up to see they were only on the second floor. An older couple, in matching yellow floral shirts got on. “Looks like you might have room for two more?” the older man asked.

One damn floor. They couldn’t take the stairs for one floor? Cruz had been that close to…

He glanced again at Payton. She was biting her lip, as if trying to stop herself from laughing. The old couple turned and looked at them with suspicion, knowing they’d interrupted something more scintillating than just a kiss, before turning back around.

A few seconds later, the doors opened and they all got off, but he wasn’t in a hurry to join the rest, and slowed his pace as they crossed the lobby. Payton didn’t seem to mind, either, her hand at her side. Close enough for him to reach over and place in his. The urge was almost overwhelming.

But before he could actually act on that foolish notion, they reached the Garden Room and dozens of interested eyes settled on them when they stepped out onto the patio.

And he thought facing Emily Vaughn had been a challenge.

She had nothing on the wide and mischievous smiles of his aunts when they saw them, undoubtedly ready to sharpen their matchmaking skills on the two of them.

He would have warned Payton about them, but he didn’t have time before she was enveloped in the generous bosom of his Aunt Essie.

Chapter Thirteen

Payton had never been as mauled by so many women in her life as when Cruz introduced her to his family, their names and faces becoming a blur. And even though physical contact wasn’t something she was used to from her own family, let alone strangers, she was oddly comfortable.

Fifteen minutes later, she finally snuck away from two particularly nosy but well meaning aunts and sank into an empty chair next to one of his two sisters. Over the rim of the glass of iced water, she tried not to sneak peeks at Cruz, who had left her side to check a message he’d received and, even now, was sitting two tables over, his face still buried in his phone.

She knew why he did it, worked himself to death in the name of business. Cruz, as much as he tried to pretend he was a cold and levelheaded businessman first, did everything for his family. To secure their future as much as his own. And here, sitting in the loud but loving grasp of his family, who were teasing each other, cursing at each other, and all connected by this bond called family, no matter how tenuous the connection, she could see why the success of their business might be so important to him. And she could see why Kate thrived under the affection, since she’d never had that kind of thing herself, which made Payton beyond ecstatic for her friend. Even if a little sad.

She thought about the fancy engagement party her mother had forced on her last December. A stuffy affair with people who she barely knew and who didn’t care about her even half as much as these people cared for Kate. Heck, to be honest, her own family of aunts and uncles and cousins were prickly and cold, more inclined to a careful peck on the cheek than the full-bosomed hugs and embraces that Payton had already received today from a dozen strangers.

For a moment she thought about what her mother would do if Cruz’s Aunt Essie, with the wide smile and generous bosom, had tried to pull her into a hug and she almost giggled at the prospect. Her mother’s head would probably explode, or she’d bust off one of her ridiculously expensive veneers while gritting her teeth.

“What has you so amused?” Kate asked, taking a seat across from her. She burst into laughter when Payton explained, catching Benny’s attention.

The youngest of the siblings, Benny was also the one giving her the most discomforting glances. Like she knew something was up and was going to wrestle someone to the ground to get the information. And although she was a smaller-framed woman, close to Payton’s size, Payton wouldn’t put it past the woman to be able to pin Cruz down based on her guts and cunning alone.

“Wait until later tonight,” Benny said. “After the wedding, the real celebration begins. You might want to warn your mother that alcohol and dancing always sends this family into planet crazy-pants.”

Payton froze, the piece of melon she was about to bite still on the fork prong. Was that a hint that Benny knew that had happened last night?

“Stop, Benny,” Kate said still laughing. “She just might believe you.”

Payton pushed her suspicion aside and smiled into the woman’s wide blue eyes. Damn. She would kill to have those long lashes. “Should we expect you to table dance later on tonight?”

“Only if you’re joining me,” she said and they all laughed. Benny studied Payton another minute, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine being stuck in a car with my older brother for two long days. He’s such a backseat driver. When I was sixteen, he took me out once for a lesson but after twenty minutes of telling me I wasn’t holding the steering wheel correctly or that I should have put my turn signal on four seconds before I did, I was ready to push him out of the moving car. Dominic, thank God, was way more laidback.”

“Cruz must have mellowed over the years,” Payton said. “He mostly just gripped the dash if he thought I was going too fast or distracted himself by staring at his computer screen.”

Benny sighed. “Seriously? You should have tossed that thing out the window in Laredo. He’s on freaking vacation.” They all took that moment to look over to the other table where Cruz was studying something on his cell phone. “I love him and know that he’s working really hard all to make dad and everyone proud, but I wish he’d learn to have a little fun too. Since as long as I can remember he’s always been working toward something and keeping his nose to the grind, not permitting any distractions.”

“And this is coming from someone who easily works sixty to eighty hours a week doing her pediatric residency up at the U,” Kate added.

Payton looked at Cruz’s sister in surprise. Make-up free, her hair thrown in a simple ponytail and a large shapeless dress that did nothing to show her figure underneath, Benny looked more like an undergrad in herbology than someone who’d graduated medical school and was doing a residency at a premier hospital. In comparison to Daisy’s more trendy and pretty outfit of a flowing skirt and tank, Payton couldn’t help but wonder if the uninspiring look was on purpose, or because Benny really had no clue how gorgeous she was. The way the woman shifted and pulled the dress away from her body, clearly uncomfortable in the dress, she’d bet on the latter.

Payton felt self-conscious. Sitting there with two women, similar in age to herself, one a doctor and one a lawyer, she didn’t know if she’d ever felt more inadequate. If Benny were to ask her what she did, what would she say? That she was on the board of a number of charities, planning various events, phone drives—or in plainer terms, planning parties and what kind of wine goes best with cocktail wieners.