“You’re one of their wedding guests?” She usually knew the guest list like the back of her hand, but the bride and groom had made theirs months ago and, amazingly, had stuck to it with so few changes that she hadn’t thought she needed to review it.

He grinned as he said, “You’re their wedding planner?”

She couldn’t help but smile back. And why shouldn’t she? After all, it wasn’t a crime to be friends with Adam Sullivan. It was only the sex part that she didn’t want anyone to know about.

“When I mentioned I had a wedding this afternoon, why didn’t you say anything?”

He looked a little chastened as he admitted, “I might not have exactly remembered the wedding was this weekend. But if I’d known I would get to see you here this afternoon, I definitely wouldn’t have forgotten.”

“Figures you’d almost forget about your friends’ wedding.” The only reason she held back her eye roll was because they weren’t alone. But she planned on letting it loose on him in a big way once it was just the two of them again on Thursday night. “Although I don’t know how much you’ll see m—”

The caterer said something to her through her earpiece, and she cut herself off to quickly answer another question. At the same time, the iPad she was holding was buzzing with one message after another, all of them potential fires that needed to be put out, so she quickly typed a half-dozen messages back to keep everything on track.

When she looked up again, she was surprised to realize Adam was still standing in front of her. “I forgot you were still here.”

He put his hand over his chest. “Ouch.”

For a moment she couldn’t tell if he was teasing or not, but then she realized he was working to fight back another grin. “Honestly, it’s a really nice surprise that you’re here,” she told him, and she meant it. Maybe she should have been worried that he would do his best to distract her in his far-too-charming way, but the truth was that she was too happy about seeing him again to care. “And I also want to apologize in advance for the next zillion times I can’t give you anywhere near my full attention today.”

“Don’t apologize for doing your job.” But he gave her a look she knew too well, one that promised he wasn’t even close to done having fun with her yet. “And I won’t apologize when I steal you away from it all for a dance later.”

She opened her mouth to remind him that she was there to work and not party, but before she could get a word out, he pointed to her iPad. “Looks like a dozen new messages have come in for you in the last thirty seconds, so I’ll go take my seat.”

With a soft kiss on her cheek, he was heading off into the crowd and being heartily greeted by pretty much everyone, male and female.

Kerry knew she’d already been thinking about Adam Sullivan far too much. Far too happily, too, despite the fact that they could never be more than friends with really great benefits. And yet, as she took care of a dozen last-second details before the ceremony began, she didn’t do anything to squash the extra spring in her step or the extra-fast beat of her heart.

* * *

Adam made sure to take a seat where he could see his friends standing in front of the officiant and observe Kerry at the same time. She looked so professional, and utterly in control of every detail, as she stood just to the side of the last row of guests.

After the huge number of family weddings Adam had been to during the past couple of years, he knew a thing or two about them. Enough to know that putting on one this big was a massive undertaking. Odds were she was being given a dozen different updates from her staff and contractors through her headset, but she didn’t look the least bit stressed out.

And then, as the officiant began to lead the bride and groom into their vows, he watched her reach up to her ear and take out her earpiece.

He grinned, easily guessing that she didn’t want to miss even one word of the mushy stuff.

Adam was happy for his friends, but even though they were making major vows to each other today, they took a backseat to the chance to be with Kerry for a little while outside of one of their hotel suites. Considering she’d made it perfectly clear just hours ago that their relationship needed to stop growing outside of those hotels and work on the house she wanted him to revive, today’s wedding had gone from a waste of a perfectly good sunny weekend day to a total bonus.

And yet, over the next few minutes, the vows his friends had written for each other hit him harder than any wedding vows had in recent memory. Not only because the couple clearly dug each other and planned to do whatever it took to make their love last, but also because of the look on Kerry’s face as they pledged themselves to each other.

How many times had she heard people make similar vows to each other? Hundreds, at the very least, he figured.

And yet, as he watched her eyes tear up and her beautiful mouth wobble slightly at the corners when the couple sealed their vows with a kiss, the marriage vows clearly meant as much to her today as they must have the first time she’d heard them.

What, he suddenly wondered, would it be like for Kerry to hear those vows on her own wedding day? To say them herself to the man she was vowing to love, to cherish, to remain with forever? How much more would it mean to her to know that she had finally found the love she’d been waiting for?

Adam’s chest tightened.

It was hard to picture Kerry with another guy. Impossible, actually. Even harder than it was for him to picture himself as a groom in a tux in front of friends and family saying things about sickness and health.