“Kate, I don’t think you’re going to be able to put everything behind you until you talk to him.”
Kate saw red and it threatened to engulf her. “Just because we’re married, it does not give you the right to decide what is best for me. We are late. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ll pretend like this never happened as long as you agree not to overstep bounds like this again.”
Before Aidan had a chance to respond, she started the car and headed toward the Forsyth Galloway Inn. She saw him tuck the envelope beneath the sun visor on the passenger side of the car.
Okay, fine.
She grabbed the envelope and shoved it into her purse. When she got home, she would throw it away the without opening it. The last thing she wanted was to talk to the man who broke her heart and did his best to ruin her family’s life.
Even though they shared the same blood, it didn’t mean she had to call him family. He had certainly forfeited the privilege of being called Dad. As far as she was concerned, he was a sperm donor. Nothing more.
They rode to the inn in silence. The entire way, she tried to calm down by telling herself that Aidan only had good intentions. But how would he feel if she insisted that he contact his ex-wife, Veronica?
Okay, that would be a dumb idea.
That was for Chloe to decide when she got older. Veronica had rejected her own daughter once, before Chloe knew that she was being rejected. No need to give Veronica the opportunity to hurt the little girl.
Kate’s cheeks burned with the realization of how parallel Chloe’s situation was to her own. A swell of conflicting emotions bubbled up, stinging the back of her throat, making her eyes water. Kate bit the inside of her cheeks to keep the tears from multiplying. She cared so much for Chloe—okay, she loved her. She didn’t want her to go through what Kate had gone through, knowing that one of the people whose love you were supposed to take for granted hadn’t loved you enough to stay. If she could, she would protect that sweet little girl so that Chloe could grow up without the pain and anxiety of wondering who the next person would be to abandon you—Aidan was such a stable force in her life that she might not have the same trust issues with men that Kate had developed.
Aidan was steadfast and good and reliable...and he obviously loved his daughter. A father’s love for his daughter was different than a man’s love for a woman. He would never leave Chloe. But—Kate blinked as realization dawned. Aidan had never said he loved her. He had told her he cared and that he wanted them to work and that they believed they were good together, but he had never professed his love for her.
She stole a glance at him. He was tapping out something on his phone.
Her mouth opened, ready to ask him point-blank, but she couldn’t make the words come out. She felt like she was being needy and vulnerable, which she hated. On the rare occasion that happened, she removed herself from the situation that dredged up the feelings and went inside herself. Self-reliance. That was the key. She knew she would not let herself down. Other people...they were a gamble. That was why she tried to not pin her hopes on others. If you didn’t have expectations, you would not be disappointed.
“Are you all right?” Aidan’s voice was clipped and level, and that irritated her, too. He didn’t even have to say it—Just leave Kate alone and eventually she’ll come out of her snit soon enough, as long as you don’t poke the bear. She had lived with that her whole life. Maybe it was sound advice on how to best deal with her, but... She inhaled a long, deep breath.
“I’m fine.” She gave herself an inward shake. Get yourself together. This is a big night for Mom. You don’t need to ruin it with your own baggage.
“I’m fine,” she repeated as she parked the car in an empty space on the street that ran along the side of the inn.
“Good.” Aidan leaned over and dusted a featherlight kiss on her lips. Even the brief brush of his lips on hers made something shift inside her. It lifted the weight of the earlier irritation. It made the better part of her remember that he was a good guy if he could put up with her moods. She couldn’t take him for granted because surely that generous forbearance had its limits.
Aidan was a good man. She didn’t need to rip open the scars left by her father to realize that.
“Let’s have a good evening, okay?” he said.
She sighed. “Of course. Aidan, I’m sorry. I’m not upset anymore, but I just need you to not push me when it comes to certain things.” She shrugged. “Namely, my dad.”
Aidan nodded.
“I don’t need to see him again to get on with my life. In fact, I worry that if I do reopen this closed door, he will think it is an invitation to be part of our life. Our life. Not his life. Not my life. Our life. That’s what I want to protect.”
God, she hadn’t even fully realized that until the words had presented themselves. But they weren’t just words. It was the truth.
She, her mother and her sisters were all finally getting on with their lives after living through the hell Fred had put them through. Fred Clark had no place here.
Aidan was smiling that lopsided smile of his. It was just for her. He reached out and touched her face, ran his hand around to the back of her neck and pulled her closer. This time, he kissed her soundly and thoroughly and her lady parts sang. She wished there was a way she could sneak him up the back steps to her old room and....
A quiet little moan escaped at the thought. But there was probably someone staying in her old room because she had been on her own since graduating from beauty school. And tonight was about her mother and her new beau. Not about reliving her teenage years with Aidan.
“Come on,” she said. “We need to go inside before I have my way with you right here in the car like a couple of teenagers making out.”
“And why would that be wrong?” His hand had found the hem of her skirt and was inching its way up her thigh, sending spirals of longing that intensified the closer he got to her center. Out of the corner of her eye, she happened to catch movement in the sideview mirror. It was Liam and Jane, and their presence snapped her back to reality.
“Because my sister and her husband are walking up.” She pulled her skirt back into place in the nick of time.
“Rain check?” Aidan asked.
“You bet.”
As they greeted Jane and Liam, Kate noticed that Aidan was carrying his briefcase. “You can put that in the trunk, if you want,” she offered. Savannah was a safe place, but given as many tourists and other people that came and went through the historic district, everyone knew it was smart to not leave anything that might tempt someone to break in. His case should be safe in the trunk.
“No, I’d rather take it inside,” he said. “I’ll stick it out of the way in a closet.”
That seemed reasonable.
Soon enough, they were shaking hands with Zelda’s special friend Stephen Windsor, a handsome businessman from Lexington, South Carolina. They had met when he visited Savannah on business. Stephen looked to be about six foot four. He had dark hair graying at the temples. He could have been Pierce Brosnan’s stand-in, if he was looking for that kind of work. According to Zelda, he was a self-made man.
“It was love at first sight,” Stephen said, placing a kiss on Zelda’s temple. Her mother blushed a pretty shade of pink. She was absolutely glowing tonight, like Kate had never seen her before.
“Elle and Kate,” Jane said. “Can you please come help me in the kitchen?”
Jane’s eyes sparkled as she gave a quick jerk of her head, indicating that it was time for a sisterly summit. No one except the three of them would have noticed. It was that secret language of sisters that allowed the three of them to decode the subtext when others weren’t the wiser.
“What do you think?” Jane asked, once they had made it through the butler’s pantry and were safely tucked behind the kitchen doors, where something smelled delici
ous. Apparently, coq au vin was on the menu tonight. Jane had mentioned that she and Liam had prepared it earlier today. She went to a large pot on the stove and stirred it.
“I love him,” Elle said.
“I want to love him, but—” Kate said.
Elle made a face and waved away Kate’s words as if they smelled. “I had a chance to spend some time with him this afternoon and he is a fantastic guy. He really is. I just love him and there’s no disputing that Mom is so happy.”
“I just hope he doesn’t hurt her,” Kate said.
“Okay, Eeyore.” Jane rolled her eyes. “This is a happy night. Please check your negativity at the door.”
Kate’s thoughts skittered back to the envelope that Aidan had tucked beneath the visor. Then she remembered how happy her mother had looked. The way she and Stephen looked at each other.
Jane was right. If their mother was happy, she needed to be happy for her.
“Kate, are you in here?” Gigi’s voice preceded her into the kitchen. “Oh, there you are. Girls, please come out to the dining room. Your mother has an announcement.”
The sisters looked at each other.
Surely it wasn’t what they were thinking? Could it be? Stephen and Zelda had only known each other a couple of months. If they were announcing their engagement, things were moving a little fast.
“I hope this won’t take too long, because I need to prep the potatoes and green beans.”
“That can wait a moment,” Gigi said. “We need you.”
“What’s going on, Gigi?” Kate asked.
Gigi smiled a knowing smile before she sashayed out of the kitchen, calling over her shoulder, “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”
Kate looked at Elle. If anyone would have a hint about what was going on, it would be Elle. Because of the art classes she taught at the inn, she was around their mother more than Kate and Jane.
Jane must’ve been on the same wavelength. “What do you know?” She directed the question to Elle, who shrugged. “I have no idea what’s going on. Let’s go find out.”
The sisters made their way out of the kitchen, through the butler’s pantry and back to the dining room where everyone had gathered. Aidan, Daniel and Liam were filling glasses with champagne and handing them out.
Aidan walked over with two flutes—one with sparkling white grape juice, the other with champagne—and handed the grape juice to Kate, standing next to her.
Uh-oh. Champagne meant news and it was usually of the relationship variety.
She hoped her mother wasn’t making a colossal mistake by rushing things before she really got to know Stephen. Anyone could be on their best behavior, present their best self over eight weeks...especially when it was a long-distance relationship.
“May I have everyone’s attention, please?” Zelda said. Everyone in the room quieted down and turned their gazes to her. “Thank you so much for making time to come tonight and meet Stephen. You’re definitely going to be seeing more of him as he explores business ventures in this area.” Zelda rose up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Stephen’s cheek.
Oookay, here we go.
“But right now, we have something else to celebrate.” Zelda’s gaze fell on Kate and Aidan. “Aidan doesn’t know I’m doing this, and I hope it is okay. But even if it isn’t, I’m just too excited to keep this to myself much longer.”
“Zelda?” Aidan shook his head. “Is now the best time?”
Zelda didn’t answer. She turned around and picked up the cardboard tube that looked suspiciously like the one Aidan had carried in his briefcase tonight. Kate had been so busy meeting Stephen and saying hello to everyone else that she hadn’t noticed him give it to Zelda—or where he had put his briefcase for that matter.
Kate shot Aidan an inquisitive look and whispered, “What’s going on?”
Zelda brandished the tube like a scepter. “Kate and Aidan, everything has been so crazy since we returned from Vegas, I haven’t had a chance to give you a wedding gift.”
A wedding gift?
“Aidan helped me with this,” Zelda said. “So it will be a surprise for you, but not so much for him, though he will benefit from it as much as you will, because it will bring goodwill and prosperity to your marriage and allow you more time to stay home with that baby.”
Kate laughed. “What in the world are you talking about, Mama?”
Zelda looked like the cat who ate the cream as she handed the cardboard tube to Kate. “See for yourself.”
Kate removed the plastic cap and turned the tube on its end. A roll of papers fell out. They were blueprints.
“Unroll them and look.” Zelda appeared barely able to contain her happiness. “Isn’t it a beautiful design? Now, of course, we want your input. Don’t we, Aidan? After all, you’re the one who will be running the spa at the Forsyth Galloway Inn. We want to sit down with you before we start building it.”
The spa at the Forsyth Galloway Inn? What?
Kate felt all the blood drain from her face. She rolled the papers up and took a deep breath trying to diffuse the fury that was rattling her nerves. “I can’t run your spa, mom. I have my own business. My own clientele.” She slanted a look at Aidan. “Aidan knows how important it is for me to keep that business. We’ve talked about it.”
“Aidan and I thought that with the baby on the way, you would not want to be on your feet so much,” Zelda said. “And, of course, you’ll need to take time off when the baby comes. This way you can have a staff who can help take the load off you and free up your time.”
So this was what it was like to be ambushed. Obviously, Aidan hadn’t listened to a single word she’d said.
* * *
If not for Chloe, Kate would’ve left the dinner party and let Aidan find his way home alone. But she didn’t leave. She simply did her best to avoid talking to him at the party and was mostly silent as they walked to the car.
What she realized was that she could’ve left without him and picked up Chloe early, but something made her stay.
Wasn’t that what marriage was all about? You could be seething on the inside, but to the rest of the world, everything was fine. It was all fine. One big facade. Of course, she wasn’t going to get into it at the party with her mother about how disappointed she was that Zelda and Aidan were trying to railroad her into giving up what little freedom she had with her business. She had made it clear that she did not want to take on the responsibility at the inn.
Aidan steered the car into a space along Forsyth Park.
“What are you doing?” Kate asked.
“We need to talk about this before we pick up Chloe.”
Dori’s house was just around the corner. “I don’t know if we should get into this right now. We can’t be too late picking her up. And really, what’s there to say, Aidan? Except that I don’t know what part of ‘I want to keep my job’ you didn’t understand. If it wasn’t clear, I meant I don’t want to work at the spa. I don’t want to own my own salon. I want to keep my client base and keep at least one part of my life normal. I feel like you and my mother are trying to railroad me into something that you want.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. It wasn’t what I intended.”
“You’re kidding, right? Then why did that even happen tonight?”
“Why? Because your mother is a client. She asked me to draw up plans for the final phase. She did not ask me to kidnap you and force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
He sounded irritated. The barbed words hung in the air between them.
“Kate, I can’t shake the feeling that this—what we’re doing right now—isn’t solely about the spa, is it?” he said. “Because you know it is your call whether or not you want to work there. I’m not railroading you into anything. Especially not into a life with Chloe and me. But I do have to say that I c
an’t take these mercurial ups and downs. I cannot walk on eggshells wondering if the next thing I do is going to make you feel fenced in or railroaded or otherwise forced into a situation you don’t want. What do you want, Kate?”
“I don’t know what I want.” Her words were barely a whisper. “I know I don’t want to hurt you or Chloe. I don’t want to feel like I’m being fenced in or ambushed or forced into something that should be so good. It shouldn’t be this difficult. I know that. But I can’t seem to get my head together and that’s not fair to you. I know that’s not fair to you. But I don’t know what to do about it.”
Aidan stared straight ahead, weighing his words, silently testing out what he would say before he said it. Because once the words were out, he couldn’t take them back. But really there was no other way.
“You need to take some time and figure out what you want,” Aidan said. “You need to figure out if you’re staying or going because if you want us to be a family, things can’t always be about you.”
She inhaled sharply. “You’re right. It can’t be that way and I’ve made it that way and I’m sorry. I wish I could make myself feel differently. But it isn’t fair to you. I’ll do my best to sort out my head and get myself together.”
The glow from one of the streetlights perfectly illuminated Kate’s face. He saw something flash in her eyes. “How do you feel about our arrangement, Aidan? We’ve been so focused on how I feel, that you haven’t said much about how this is affecting you.”
“I told you. I want this marriage to work.”
“I know. You’ve said that several times. But why, Aidan? Why do you want this marriage? Because it certainly isn’t the easiest path you could have chosen. I’m not the easiest person to live with and sometimes I think you deserve...more.”
Her voice broke on the last word.
“As far as I’m concerned, divorce isn’t an option. Unless you want out. I won’t keep you in a marriage you don’t want to be in. I said ’til death do us part and I’d like to keep that promise.”
Her Savannah Surprise Page 15
