Mr. Maybe

by M. Kate Quinn

  “You did such a wonderful job on the gown,” her mother whispered. She reached across Hop, placed a hand over Kit’s, and gave it a squeeze.

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  The ceremony went on, and Kit fought to pay attention against the whirlwind in her mind. All the things that had happened leading up to this wedding spun around and around so fast that one moment bled into another as the details ramped up the velocity. Air was thin in such a vortex.

  A touch to her shoulder startled her. She turned toward Shane.

  “You okay?”

  “Of course.”

  He offered a reassuring smile.

  Go away.

  The friend scheduled to do a reading made her way up to the pulpit, and Kit forced herself to concentrate. The woman spoke all the things that love was and what it was not. Kit sat up straighter, pressing her back against the cool wood of the pew. She let the words bathe her with their talk of love’s patience and its honor, how love was not a scorekeeper and had nothing to do with envy or holding on to anger. Love, she continued, rejoiced with truth, and the words cemented in her head and in her heart. They evaporated the whirlwind in her mind, leaving her with a calmness she hadn’t felt in days. She felt Shane’s eyes on her, but she would not turn toward him.

  ****

  After the ceremony Kit and her mother waited for the valet to deliver her car. Shane came up to stand beside her.

  “I’ll meet you over there,” he said to the two of them. When she did not respond, he came in close. “Please let me talk with you for a minute. Please.”

  She plastered on a fake smile. “No, thank you.”

  Gripping her elbow, he leaned closer to Mom and told her they’d be right back. Then he steered her toward the door.

  She shot a hot whisper. “What are you doing? My car’s coming.”

  “One minute. Just give me one minute.”

  “No.”

  They stopped, and he pulled her hands into his. For the sake of those coming and going around them, she did not yank free.

  “Kit, what you saw at Jabberwocky’s was me and Dana saying goodbye. She came back for just a couple of days to finalize some things with her condo and took the time to come see me.”

  “To say goodbye.”

  “Not at first. At first she tried to convince me that she and I might be able to make a go of it.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “But…” He touched her face. “Look at me, Kit. But I was truthful with her. It’s been over for a long time, and we agreed to wish each other well. That’s what you saw.”

  His eyes, the green so bright now in the sunlight, looked true and honest. She almost told him she believed him. But there were too many lies swirling in her head from all the ones they’d been telling that she couldn’t think.

  “Kit, honey, the car is here.”

  Her mother stood at the sidewalk next to her lease, the front doors open, awaiting them.

  “I have to go.”

  And she walked away.

  ****

  On the way over to the restaurant with her mother, she tried to sort out the things Shane had just said. Her head spun.

  Hop had wanted to take his own truck to the reception and had given Regina a smirky look before he left them on the sidewalk outside the chapel. “Don’t get into any trouble while I’m gone.”

  Mom’s response was a playful push to his chest. “You’re the only trouble I’m dealing with right now, you old coot.”

  Mom adjusted herself on the faux-leather seat. “Why is your Shane driving by himself to the reception, honey?”

  “Um…” She could tell her mother right now. They were all alone in the car, no one else to hear her awful truth. But if she told Mom now that Shane and she were never a couple in the first place, she’d have to face the aftermath during the entire reception. She was reminded of the words quoted in the reading at the chapel—how truth was the way, truly the only way. Yet it would be just as easy to say he was on call with the fire department, how handy. But that would be just one more blasted lie.

  A new tack bought her time. “Mom, first you want to tell me what Hop’s doing here as your date?”

  Her mother waved a dismissive hand. “I must have rocks in my head. That’s why.”

  “I don’t understand. I thought you detested the man.”

  “I probably still do. Who knows?” Mom laughed and touched a gentle hand to her hair. “But, boy, does that man make me laugh. And he just loves my new color, and I get a charge out of him calling me Red. To think a little, lost kitten turned us into friends, or what’s that they call it? Oh yes, frenemies.”

  Kit stared through the windshield as she processed her mother’s newfound connection to Hop. It was a confession of sorts. Now it was her turn.

  “So, Mom, there’s something I need to say.”

  Her mother turned to her, her mouth set. “Is this about your grandmother’s wedding gown, Kitrina?”

  “What?”

  “Gram’s dress. I know you wanted it for your own wedding someday. But…”

  “No, Mom. It’s not about the dress.”

  “Are you sure? Because if it is, there’s something I’d like to tell you about that. The gown wasn’t Gram’s first wedding dress.”

  She gripped the steering wheel. “Not her first dress. What are you talking about?”

  Mom waved a hand. “It’s a big family secret because back in the day anything out of the so-called norm was taboo. It’s time somebody told the truth.”

  Kit turned into the banquet hall’s lot and pulled up to the valet stand. An attendant helped her mother from the vehicle, and as Kit exited, she handed the car key to a driver. Her heart pounded. What was the truth her mother was about to reveal? Here she’d thought she was the only one with a secret today.

  Inside the plush lobby she and her mom stepped over to the side while guests continued to arrive. A server came by with a tray of champagne flutes where whole strawberries bobbed in the fizzy liquid. She and her mom each reached for a glass at the same time.

  When the server walked away, she turned to her mother. “Okay, you want to explain what you meant by what you just said, Mother?”

  “Okay, but if you tell anybody about this, I’ll have to kill you, which would be such a shame because I’m so fond of you.”

  She smiled. “Pinky swear.”

  “Okay.” Her mother leaned in. “Do you remember when you told me that your cousin was going to wear your grandmother’s gown and you were feeling upset about it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, do you remember what I said to you then?”

  Kit wracked her brain. She remembered the day. They had been at Aunt Dee Dee’s house for the family meet-and-greet. She and Mom had stolen away into the library down the hallway. It was when Mom told her she never thought she and Brian were good for each other. But what had she said about the dress?

  Mom clucked her tongue. “I told you that it was just fabric sewn into a dress.”

  She did remember that but had chalked it up to more of her mother attempting to keep the peace within the family.

  “Okay, yes, I remember.”

  “It wasn’t the dress that blessed my mother and father’s marriage. It was the two people that they were. Remember my saying that?”

  “Yes, but what’s that got to do with that not being her first wedding gown?”

  “My parents eloped when my mother was just eighteen.”

  “What?”

  “Lower your voice, would you? This is top secret.”

  “Seriously? Top secret? That’s seems a bit dramatic.”

  “Are you kidding?” Her mother put a hand to her chest. “To the rules of this family back in the forties, what my parents did was so unrefined they may as well have run down Main Street naked.”

  Kit couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Does Aunt Dee Dee know?”

  “Of course she knows, but no one else.”

  “Mom, that’
s crazy. They eloped. They didn’t kill someone.”

  “Your grandmother’s family on my father’s side was a bunch of starched shirts, and I know I’ve been the same way in some respects. But the times they are a-changing.” Mom’s eyes warmed. “How silly now to think it was scandalous for a young girl to elope with a soldier. My father was getting shipped out to Okinawa, and they wanted to be married before he left, so they sneaked off to town hall. My grandparents forbade their daughter to marry in that manner, but my mother did it anyway.”

  “Go, Gram.”

  “Yes, I understand that now. Go, Gram. And ever since this whole thing with Brian and Co-Co, I fell into that hush-hush, shove-it-under-the-carpet nonsense. But hell, it’s a new day, and you’re the one who’s so much like my mother. Your cousin got the gown, but you’ve got the woman alive in your soul.”

  She choked back a tear. “Mom, where’s this coming from?”

  Mom lifted one coy shoulder. “I’m seeing things a bit differently these days, that’s all.”

  “So Gram kept a lie going.”

  “Gram didn’t tell her parents the truth until my father made it home safe and sound. They insisted she have a quote, unquote real wedding, a full-blown marriage in their church officiated by their longtime pastor, the whole shebang. I’d call it self-preservation rather than a lie.”

  Kit swallowed hard. Oh, Gram. We had more in common than I knew.

  Mom smiled as she winked. “So she got married her way first. That’s what counts.”

  “Wow, Mom. That’s something.”

  Her mother flashed a sly look, and a teasing light came into her eyes. “And I’m in possession of Gram’s dress from that visit to the justice of the peace.”

  Suddenly she knew, and her heart did a whirl. “The pearly-pink dress with the rhinestone buckle.”

  Mom nodded. “And no one’s getting their paws on that one but you, my love. That one’s for you.”

  A tear tumbled down her cheek. “I’ll cherish it.”

  “Now go find your man.”

  “About that, Mom. I have a confession.”

  “Okay.”

  “He and I were never really a couple. He’s a friend of Hop’s, a new recruit to the fire department. He needed a room to rent temporarily, and I needed money because that old tree demolished my Honda. So Shane moved into my loft and paid me up front so I could lease a car.”

  “But I don’t understand, honey. Why’d you tell everybody he was your beau?”

  “It’s a long story, but Co-Co was in Rosie’s with Gram’s gown, Shane came in to discuss the idea of renting the loft, and Co-Co and Aunt Dee Dee assumed he was my new man. Overhearing the moving-in discussion, they thought we were moving in together.”

  “And you let them believe it.”

  “Because it was easier.”

  Her mother nodded. “Self-preservation, my love.”

  “Yes.”

  “So when did things change then, honey? When did your heart get involved?”

  “How’d you know?”

  “A mother knows. You love each other.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Life is complicated.”

  “I think it may be over, Mom. I thought he could still have feelings for his former girlfriend.”

  “What makes you say so?”

  “I saw them in an embrace. He swears it was just a goodbye, but I shut down on him and won’t let him explain. Mom, I can’t go through something like that again.”

  “First off, give yourself a break. It’s like if you ever got caught in a house fire, you can’t help but think you smell smoke where there’s none. But you can’t let one man’s behavior scare you away from another. At least hear the boy out.”

  Maybe. She looked around for him.

  “Go find him, Kit, but first let’s toast.” Her mother lifted her glass, and so did Kit.

  “To the one you can’t live without and doing it your own way.”

  Kit sipped her champagne.

  “Oh, look.” Mom smiled. “There’s Shane.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  In a flurry of arrivals, Kit’s mother slipped away and headed to the ladies’ room with Aunt Dee Dee, and Kit seized the chance to talk with Shane. She’d been so angry earlier, but now after her talk with her mother, the anger had morphed into sadness. She studied his face and realized she loved him despite what she’d seen in the restaurant when Dana had come back from Milan. Maybe she had been too quick to judge what she’d seen. Maybe it was too close to the scene she’d lived through with Brian and Co-Co. Her mind was a jumble; her heart quickened in her chest. Maybe it was the champagne on an empty stomach.

  His eyes were on her as she closed the distance between them. “Shane, look—”

  “Please just listen, Kit.”

  “But—”

  “Please.”

  She closed her mouth and waited.

  “I know how it had to have looked, but when I came home to explain, you had locked me out. That’s how things get more messed up.”

  The way he said home made her heart fall. She missed him being up in the loft, missed seeing him in the morning over a cup of coffee and discussing the day ahead.

  “Tell me you believe me.”

  “Kit!”

  She turned to Co-Co’s signature high-pitched tone. She clutched her oversized bouquet and trotted over to them. She grabbed Kit’s arm. “Come on. We’re taking a picture with our mothers.” She turned her attention to Shane. “Hi, you. Don’t you look delicious.”

  “Congratulations, Co-Co.”

  “Come on, Kit. They’re waiting.”

  She left Shane there in the lobby while she allowed the bride to whisk her up the grand staircase where their mothers waited with a photographer. The man positioned the four of them on the top step and then repositioned them until he finally decided he had the right angle.

  While he fussed, Aunt Dee Dee leaned in around her daughter to speak to Kit. “Thank you one more time for what you’ve done with my mother’s wedding gown.”

  Her mother gave Kit’s back a squeeze as she stood close.

  “All right, ladies, stand tall and smile.”

  Kit felt her lips curve into a smile, but her eyes cast beyond the photographer in search of Shane. Maybe he was a man of honor, as he vowed, as her heart now dared to hope. Her heart fluttered in a series of clicks to the sound of the photographer’s rapid finger on his camera taking shot after shot. Hope bloomed fuller with each second and dared to pound a message of the truth she believed to her soul—there was nothing “maybe” about Shane Dugan.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Kit dashed to the reception room, passing through the slow-moving throng of those finding their seats. She consulted her seat card, table four. No one was there yet, chairs empty, place settings sparkling and untouched.

  She surveyed the room. No Shane. She hoped he hadn’t given up and left.

  She backtracked to the bar and peered through the doorway where guests were gathered. She elbowed her way through the clusters of people.

  “Looking for someone?”

  She turned to the voice. Brian.

  “Oh, hi. Um, congratulations, Brian.”

  “Thank you. You look great, Kit, by the way.”

  “Thank you.”

  A heavy pause hung in the air between them.

  “Are you happy, Kit?”

  I hope so. I hope it’s not too late to convince Shane I believe him.

  “I don’t think it should take that long to answer the question.” Brian’s eyes danced with that superiority he liked to flaunt. He chugged whatever brown liquid was in his short square glass. “I’ve got to go in there and try to remember my dance steps.” He made a face. “The things we do for love.”

  Yes! Love made you do crazy things.

  She tilted her head and offered him a smile. “Be happy, Brian. Take care of my cousin. Now I need to find Shane.”

  Her cell phone
vibrated in her small purse, and she withdrew the device and connected the call.

  “Hey, kid.”

  “Hi, Hop. You okay?”

  “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You could be having another crisis. Like maybe you found another kitten or something.” His chuckle in her ear made her grin. She loved the old guy.

  “Are you always a wise guy?”

  “Not always. Just with you.”

  “Ha ha. Listen, where’s your mother? I looked everywhere but the ladies’ room. She hiding on me?”

  “We were just taking pictures on the stairs. Everyone’s going in for dinner.”

  “Oh, okay. Did Shane find you?”

  “He did, but our conversation got interrupted. I was just about to go find him.”

  “I warned him, you know. From day one I warned him.”

  “Warned him about what?”

  Hop blew out a whoosh of air. “About you. I told him not to fall for you because you were trouble with a capital T.”

  “I am not.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “Is that all, old man?”

  “No. I called to tell you that boy’s one good kid. He’s honest and smart. Tomorrow when he accepts his certificate at the fire academy, I’m going to be there to hand it to him. The new regime said Irish requested me. That’s what kind of man he is. Loyal.”

  “That’s wonderful, Hop.”

  “You’re going to be there, aren’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  He chuckled. “Red’s coming, too. How about that.”

  “How about that.” She smiled against the device she held to her ear. Mom and Hop. Who knew?

  “Oh yeah,” he said. “Wait till you see my new toy, kid.”

  “What’d you get?”

  “A camper. A honey of a camper. Going to do it, Kit. Going to have an adventure.”

  “Good for you, Hop.” A tear stung her eye. “I’m so glad for you.”

  “And if I play my cards right, that pain-in-the-ass mother of yours might be coming along with me.”

  Mom in a camper? Her brain couldn’t wrap around that idea, but it made her chuckle.