Her eyes on his, she rose from her seat with all the effortless grace of a bird. God, she was beautiful. A second later, she plunked down in the seat that Cat had just vacated and leaned across Seb to say something to Grace and Shelly that Seb didn’t even hear.

He was too busy suffocating in the nearness of her. Her bare shoulder firmly pushed into his as she leaned across him. A laugh tremored through her and shook something loose in Seb’s chest. He looked down and her fingers were in a pyramid on the seat of her chair as she held herself in a lean. He wished she’d put her hand on his leg instead.

Seb let out a long, low breath and laid his arm along the back of her chair. Good enough for now. When she leaned back, the ends of her hair danced over his arm.

She looked up at him, an expression on her face that he couldn’t quite interpret.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she replied way too quickly. She glanced at his armpit and looked away.

“Seriously.” He nudged her warm, soft side with his free hand. “What is it?”

She sighed, like she didn’t want to say what she was about to say. “You just smell really good is all.”

He grinned, smug and so damn happy. “Glad you like it.”

She grumbled something into her champagne that he didn’t quite catch, but this time, she staunchly refused to reveal it.

The reception went into full swing after that. The happy couple was announced by the DJ, and Seb grinned when Via jumped to her feet to cheer.

“Look at them!” Via teared up. “God, can you imagine being that happy?”

Uh. Yeah.

He was pretty much that happy right this very second.

Then everybody filed back to be seated for dinner. Seb’s eyebrows rose in surprise as he glanced around the table. Rachel had brought a date to the wedding, he hadn’t noticed before.

“Apparently, Geeky Greg has major game,” he whispered in Via’s ear, causing her to snort into her water.

“Good for him,” Via replied, and then her eyes went thoughtful. “And good for her, too. They’ve been looking at each other like they’re the luckiest two people on the planet.”

Via was just so sweet, always seeing the best in—

“But frankly, I wouldn’t care either way as long as it means Rachel stops jamming your biceps between her boobs.”

Now it was Seb’s turn to choke on his water. He coughed it out and turned to her with a little smile that he attempted to smother. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Sebastian, the astronauts in the Space Station noticed that. She’s not exactly subtle, is she?”

He thought about making a joke but instead erred on the side of complete and utter transparency. He didn’t want her worrying. He’d had a taste of that watching Christian the bartender fawn all over her and he wasn’t a fan. “Then you probably noticed me removing my biceps from said boobs over and over.”