Must be out on the patio, which explained why so many people had gathered there. Steeling herself, she turned to continue her search among the gaggle of finely dressed strangers—and nearly ran into a broad chest covered with a Hawaiian print shirt. She stumbled a little, more from dismay that Cam had found her than from surprise. His big hand caught her arm to keep her upright, and she felt none of those strange vibes from him this time. Thank God. Whatever had happened between them on the beach must have been a fluke.
“Whoa,” he said. “Easy.”
“Shit.” She straightened and shoved his shoulder as relief and a strange sense of disappointment threaded through her. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, you jerk.”
“I didn’t sneak. I called your name, but you didn’t hear me. Cam’s looking for you.”
“Cam? Wait, is it refer-to-yourself-in-the-third-person-day? ’Cause Eva missed that memo.” The moment the words left her mouth, she felt like a complete idiot and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. “Dammit, you’re Vaughn.”
He grinned, and it was eerie how close that smile resembled his twin’s, except his had an edge of meanness to it that Cam’s didn’t. “People have been doing that all day.”
She eyed him. She’d always used the twins’ hair lengths to tell them apart when they were together, since Vaughn tended to let his grow long and Cam kept his shorter, but now Vaughn’s was just as short and even styled the same way.
“It’s because you look somewhat civilized now,” she told him.
He ran his hand through his dark hair, mussing the gelled locks on top so that they fell into his blue-gray eyes instead of continuing to lay flat. If she didn’t know him any better, she’d think he was embarrassed about the haircut.
“It’s just for the wedding,” he said. “Libby said I looked like a thug and didn’t want me scaring off her bridesmaids.”
“She’s a smart woman. Now, excuse me, but I need a drink.” She stepped aside to go around Vaughn, but his hand still held her arm and he wasn’t letting go. She looked down at his tanned fingers, then back up at him and quirked a brow.
“I kinda need my arm back.”
“Yeah, in a minute.”
“Got something on your mind you wanna share, big guy?”
“I don’t share.”
“And I’m not surprised by that. Still, I do need my arm back.”
He said nothing more. She gave him her best bad cop stare and tried to wait him out, but the damn man had been a SEAL, and he had the patience to out-wait an apocalypse. There was no way she’d win this battle, so she finally gave up trying.
“All right. I’m over this pissing contest we got going on. Either let me go or you’re going to be singing soprano for a while. How about that?”
He released his hold and had the grace to look a little ashamed at the red marks he’d left on her skin. “Just…be good to him or we’ll have problems, got me?”
No. No, she didn’t get him at all. Eva watched him stride away and shook her head, feeling as if he’d just hauled off and socked her in the jaw.
What the hell did he mean by that?
She trailed after him to the patio and watched him clap the back of a handsome dark-haired guy carrying a cane. The two bullshitted until a blond man joined them and handed the guy with the cane a bottle of beer. There was some more BS-ing, followed by another back slap for each of the two men, then Vaughn broke away from them and found his twin. Eva winced when he nodded and pointed in her direction—Cam had obviously asked if Vaughn had seen her. For all of a half second, she thought about ducking back into the crowd, but that was ridiculous. Cam was her best friend and, technically, her date for the night. She wasn’t going to be able to avoid him forever.
Big girl panties, she reminded herself and plastered on a smile as Cam started toward her. He also got waylaid by the two men, but he easily excused himself from them and finally made it across the patio.
“There you are,” he said and handed her one of the two bottles of beer he held. “Loser buys first round, right?”
“Right.” She clinked the neck of her bottle against his. “You’ve gotten slow since quitting the force.”
“Yeah, that’s what riding a desk all day does for a guy.”
And cue the awkward silence.
Minutes ticked by, and they stood side-by-side without saying a word, studying the crowd. Cam seemed to want to say something, but stopped himself and took a slug of his beer instead.
Desperate to break the silence, Eva nodded to the blond guy and the one with the cane. “Who are they? I didn’t see them at the wedding.”
“The one with the cane is Gabe Bristow, and the other guy’s Quinn. They were in the area, so Vaughn told them to stop by the reception if they got a chance. They were on the teams with him.”
That piqued her curiosity and she studied the two with renewed interest. “SEALs?”
“Used to be. Now they run a private group that specializes in hostage rescue. And the woman coming up to them?” He motioned his beer toward a woman with long, golden brown hair. Her yellow dress flowed behind her as she hurried through the crowd. “That’s Gabe’s wife, Audrey.”