The last time Kaelin Daume had seen Tyler Wirth and Nick Kernsted, they’d been naked, and they’d had a naked girl tied to a chair.

The memory of that had been seared into Kaelin’s brain, haunting her more times than she wanted to admit. In fact, every time she had sex she thought about it. Which could be one reason her sex life wasn’t all that great.

She swallowed hard as she tugged the plastic garment bag down over the bridesmaid dress in her bedroom. Now that she was about to see Tyler and Nick again, nerves jumped in her stomach. She took a breath. She had no choice. She had to do this. She picked up the dress and her purse, slid her feet into a pair of sandals and headed for her back door.

She passed the living room where Taz lay on the couch, nose between his palms, giving her the sad puppy dog eyes he did every time she went out. “I won’t be late,” she said to him as if he understood. “You’ll be fine.”

He didn’t lift his nose, but when she backed her car out of the short driveway, his little black-and-white face appeared in the window from his perch on the back of the couch, his favorite place to sit and watch the world go by. The way he watched her leave, head tilted sadly to one side, tugged at her heart, as always. She was way too softhearted about him. “I wish I was staying home with you,” she muttered, even though she was in the car and this time there was no hope of Taz hearing, let alone understanding.

Margot Wirth sat in front of the computer in her office. Or what they called her office. Not that she’d ever had any business to conduct there, other than household business such as paying bills and online shopping. She rolled her chair in closer and clicked on her email program. Yes. There was a message from him.

Warmth spread through her as she read his email, chatty and warm and funny, and she smiled as she started tapping in her reply. Then her husband spoke from behind her.

“What are you doing? People are going to be here any minute.”

She started and quickly minimized the program, then turned to smile at Ken. At sixty he was still attractive, his dark hair now mostly gray and receding just slightly, but still thick. His athletic body had softened a little, but he was still in good shape even though he did little to stay that way. Unlike she, who worked out every other day, played tennis and golf in the summer and ran on the indoor track at the gym in the winter. And she was ten years younger than he.

“I know,” she said. “Just had one more little thing to do for the dinner tomorrow night.” Their daughter’s wedding had been a welcome diversion in her mind-numbing life of shopping, decorating, golf and gossip at the Mapleglen Country Club.

“I thought Tyler would be here by now.”

“Should be any time now. They’re driving down from Chicago.”

Nerves fluttered in her stomach. They hadn’t seen their son for nearly ten years, after that horrific incident with the Brown family. But Avery had insisted that her little brother be there for her wedding and had somehow convinced him to come home. And had also convinced her father Tyler should be there.

Margot longed to see both her children with a deep, aching yearning, especially Tyler. She’d never been able to get over losing him like that, had never told her husband about her efforts to keep track of him, to make sure he was okay, to know how he was doing. She knew her hopes for this wedding were silly and unreasonable, but god, would they ever have another chance to rebuild their family? For her to see her two children together, as adults, to see her daughter begin her married life, to see the man Tyler had become. In some ways she was nervous, terrified that he was not going to live up to her husband’s impossible expectations. Because she’d come to realize that her own impossible expectations were just that…impossible. On the other hand, she knew enough about Tyler that she was also filled with excited anticipation and maternal pride.

“God, I’ll be glad when this wedding is over,” Ken said.

She pressed her lips together. When this was over… She closed her eyes. When this was over her life would go back to normal. And she wasn’t sure if she could stand it.

Kaelin paused at the front door of the Wirth home, the location of that erotic, disturbing scene she’d accidentally witnessed ten years earlier, and forced herself to ring the doorbell, palms sweating. Then the door opened and Mrs. Wirth stood there. “Hello, Kaelin! Come in.”

Kaelin smiled at her best friend’s mom, so pretty with her shoulder-length blonde hair and slender figure. As usual she looked impeccable in a sleeveless flowered silk dress but Kaelin, despite being so nervous herself, didn’t miss the tightness at the corners of Mrs. Wirth’s eyes or the tension in her smile.

This family wedding might kill them all before it was done.

As she stepped into the foyer, Tyler was the next person she saw through the open French doors into the living room, and the sight of him made her stomach drop and her pulse leap.

“Kaelin!” Her best friend Avery Wirth hurtled from the living room of the big old two-story Victorian house belonging to her parents. “You’re here!”

Kaelin dragged her eyes away from Tyler, stunningly gorgeous, still magnetically attractive, who’d turned to look at her when his sister Avery called her name. She focused on her best friend who she hadn’t seen in months, excruciatingly aware of Tyler in her peripheral vision.

“I’m here.” She smiled and lifted her arms. “With the dress.”

Avery took the dress and hung it on a coat tree then they hugged in a long, tight embrace. “So good to see you,” Avery murmured.

“You too,” Kaelin said and they drew back to smile at each other.

Avery took her arm and led her into the living room. “Come say hi,” she said. “Tyler and Nick are here, and my mom and dad, and you can meet Scott’s parents too.”

The Wirth family was gathering for Avery’s wedding the coming weekend, reunited in Mapleglen, Illinois, where Kaelin and Avery had grown up together, best friends since middle school.

Kaelin hugged Scott, Avery’s fiancé, who she’d met a handful of times. Avery had met Scott in Los Angeles, where she now lived. Kaelin approved of him as a husband for her best friend. Tall and lean, with a slightly receding hairline that did nothing to diminish his good looks, he handled Avery’s energetic personality perfectly. Kaelin shook hands with Scott’s parents when he introduced her, hugged Avery’s father, Dr. Wirth, and then she was face-to-face with Tyler.

Her cheeks heated and her stomach tightened, but she smiled politely as she greeted him. God, she’d never thought the next time she saw him would be in a room full of people, but maybe that was better. A rush of emotions flooded her–remembered shock, heartbreak, disappointment and…arousal.

“Hey, Kaelin.” He took her hand in his, big and warm. Lord, Avery’s little brother had grown up, way up, a good eight inches taller than her five foot six, and he’d grown out too, sporting a pair of shoulders that would do a football player proud, though he was still long and lean. “Long time no see.”