by Lori Ryan
“Not the whole day. He’s taking a few hours off, that’s all.”
Nora creased her brow, which in turned creased the rest of her face. “Is everything alright? Jack’s not sick, is he?”
Andrew laughed. “We do take time off on occasion.”
She waved her hand at him. “Not true.”
He shrugged a shoulder and tilted his head at her book. “What’s today’s novel?”
His grandmother read about a book every day or two in between luncheons and garden parties. Most were mysteries. Sometimes she read romance novels.
He tried not to roll his eyes too much at those.
She held it up and showed him a cover that clearly said it was a mystery. One of those small-town ones that always seemed to involve a cat and a bunch of ladies who were equally adept at knitting and solving crimes. Oh and the town was flush with murders even though it was a tiny town by a picturesque lake somewhere.
But to Andrew, those ones were more realistic than the romance novels where a man and a woman who had nothing in common met and fell in love in the course of a weekend at a resort or a week on the run from a killer.
“Good?” he asked.
“Very. I’m three quarters of the way through and I’m not entirely sure I have the murderer right.”
He grinned. “I feel confident in your abilities.”
His phone buzzed and he looked down to see a message from Jack.
Done.
Andrew shook his head. Leave it to Jack Sutton to have a single word to say about the fact he’d just married a virtual stranger.
Nora and Lydia looked up as he stood.
“I’ve got to head back,” he said shoving his phone in his back pocket and leaning down to kiss first Nora and then Lydia on the cheek.
As he left, he thought to himself that he really needed to hire more help for the women. His grandmother would fight him on it, but he would feel a hell of a lot better knowing they had someone else in the house to do any heavy lifting and help with chores.
It was an enormous house. There was no way they didn’t need more than the weekly cleaning service and yard guy that came biweekly.
Chapter 18
Kelly’s apartment had been packed up and sublet, her belongings moved over to Jack’s house on the water in Fairfield. She and Jack headed there right after the ceremony. She followed his car for the thirty-minute trip, and was relieved to have that time to herself.
When she was around Jack, Kelly felt as though she couldn’t breathe. Her whole body tingled when he looked at her, and she was mortified by the thought that he might realize exactly what she was thinking whenever they were together.
She wasn’t used to trying to hide what she was thinking and feeling, but it seemed like she shouldn’t let him catch on to how insanely over her head she was.
Kelly gasped when they turned into the driveway of what would be her home for the next year.
“Wow,” she said to herself as she pulled to a stop. “Just…wow.”
‘Sprawling’ was all that came to mind. His home looked like a beach house on steroids with its cedar siding, rooflines that sloped and met at varying angles, and what Kelly thought might be called gables. She pulled into the circular drive behind his car and laughed. Her little Honda Civic seemed wildly out of place behind Jack’s Jag.
“This is it,” he said, as he stepped out of his car and looked up toward the house.
Kelly stared at the building. “It’s amazing,” she all but whispered.
“Come on,” said Jack, handing her a key, his warm fingers brushing the palm of her hand. “I’ll show you inside.”
She looked down at the key. She was amazed how quickly Jack had thought of everything they needed. He had pulled this charade together in a matter of days. Her head hadn’t stopped spinning since she walked into his office.
She took a deep breath and vowed to have fun with this. After all, she’d had the guts to walk in his office and pull off this little deal…so why not live up to that new image that had bubbled up to the surface that day?
“I’ll need to get you a garage door opener and show you how to work the alarm codes. Mrs. Poole lives in an in-law suite over the garage and takes care of all the cooking and cleaning. You can leave her a list of the food you like and what you want her to stock in the house, and she’ll see that it’s taken care of,” Jack explained as they walked in through the front entry.
“Oh, that’s really not necessary,” she said hurriedly. “I honestly don’t want her to have to do things for me. I mean, I don’t want you to have to change things for me. And you don’t need to buy my food. Maybe I can just have a shelf in the fridge?”
This really wasn’t what she had in mind when she thought up this insane plan. Truth be told, she hadn’t even thought it through this far, or thought about what their lives would be like for the next year.
Jack stopped and turned to her, his gaze incredulous. “A shelf in the fridge?”
Kelly cringed. Okay, yeah, so that sounded like they were college roomies or something.
A slow smile split his face and he shook his head. “It’s all right, Kelly. Let Mrs. Poole take care of you. She does things for me, so there’s no reason not to do them for you, too.”
Kelly glanced to the house and then back at him, teeth worrying her bottom lip.
“Come on,” he said as he headed up, taking the stairs two at a time on his long, lean legs. “I’ll show you the house.”
Jack showed Kelly the house and went back to the office to work. Her furniture had been put in storage, but all of her clothes, books, and personal items had been put in the largest of the guest rooms.
Kelly climbed the stairs to her new room and looked out the window to the view of Long Island Sound. She did have to admit, it was stunning here. She was going to be spoiled this year in Jack’s fairy tale house.
Walking to the bed with its flowered coverlet and throw pillows, she ran her hand over the blanket and sat. It was plush and luxurious.
Kelly stood to unpack her belongings when a plump woman in her late fifties, with short graying hair that once was brown, and kind smiling eyes appeared in the doorway.
“Oh!” Kelly jumped up. “You startled me.”
“I’m sorry.” The woman smiled and came into the room.
“I’m Mrs. Poole. I saw Jack leave and thought I’d come get you settled in. Did he show you where everything is?” She had a singsong voice that Kelly found soothing and comforting as she immediately started to make herself useful.
Kelly responded to the woman’s genuine and warm smile with one of her own. “Thank you, yes. I’m Kelly.”
Mrs. Poole opened the curtains and blinds, pulled towels out of the linen closet and brought them into the adjoining bath. She even started to help Kelly unpack.
“Jack showed me around, although I think it will take me a while to get used to it all. With one sister and two brothers, I grew up in a fairly large home, but it was nothing like this.”
Mrs. Poole laughed. “It takes a bit of getting used to. You holler if you get lost, and I’ll come find you and get you to where you need to go.”
The woman whirled around busily, putting clothes away as she chatted about the room. “I’ve always loved this room. Jack brought in a designer to do everything when he bought the house. I wouldn’t have thought of putting yellow with Wedgewood blue, but it turned out beautifully. So light and airy with the white wicker furniture and trim.”
“Oh, you don’t need to help me unpack,” Kelly said, embarrassed to be waited on. “I really don’t want to be a burden. I mean… I don’t mean… that is I don’t ….” Kelly stumbled nervously over the words, not knowing how to explain the situation to Mrs. Poole. She didn’t know if Jack had told Mrs. Poole about their arrangement yet or not, but he must have if Mrs. Poole didn’t think it was odd that Kelly was staying in a separate room.
Mrs. Poole smiled kindly at her as she crossed to hang several dresses in the
walk-in closet. “It’s all right, dear. Jack explained what’s going on. He thought it would be best for me to know about the arrangement. I have to say, it’s one of the funnier pickles he’s gotten himself into, and I do find it entertaining that the whole thing was your idea. I’ll bet that caught him off guard. Jack is used to being in charge of things. I bet he damn near jumped out of his skin when his ‘fiancée’ walked into his office.” She laughed a full belly laugh as her eyes sparkled with amusement.
Kelly let out her breath and smiled at Mrs. Poole. The older woman’s blunt manner put her at ease, and she had a feeling she would like getting to know this woman.
“Besides, it’ll be nice to have someone else around this big place. All of my kids are long grown, and it’s too empty here when it’s just me and Jack. I like having people around the house to spoil.”
Kelly started to relax and felt better about the whole bizarre situation.
But Mrs. Poole’s next comment caught her off guard again, and she realized she’d need to stay on her toes.
“That man needs this, though. You’ll be very good for Jack, even if it is only for a year,” Mrs. Poole said with a wink and walked out of the room.
Chapter 19
Jack and Kelly drove to Hamden for her parents’ weekly Sunday dinner. They were in his Jaguar, and she couldn’t help but appreciate the buttery softness of the leather as she melted down into the seat. It was nothing like her little civic.
“Are you close to your family, Kelly?” Jack asked as he turned off the highway at the sign for Hamden.
“I am. I don’t make it for dinner every Sunday, but I try to get there two or three times a month. My mom is a great cook so it’s not a hardship,” she said, with a small smile.
Jack made a left turn onto a tree-lined residential street. “Tell me again how many of you there are?” She had told Jack about her brothers and sisters before, and she suspected that in his line of work, he remembered names and details with very little effort. Kelly had a feeling he wanted to keep her talking to calm her nerves and she was thankful to him.
“There are four of us. My sister Jessica who’s two years older than I am, and our older brothers Liam and David. My sister and my mom and I are really close, so I know they’ll be hurt I didn’t tell them about you.” Kelly chewed on her bottom lip and looked out the window as he pulled over to the side of the street in front of the house where she grew up.
“You ready?” Jack asked her when she made no move to open the car door.
“Better get it over with, huh?” she said, but she looked far from convinced of that idea as she stepped out.
Jack ran around to meet her, and took her hand in his as they stepped along the walkway. Kelly was surprised by how supportive and nice he was about meeting her family. She hadn’t expected this big business mogul to be so accommodating. So genuine and sweet. But he kept proving her wrong.
“It’ll be all right, Kel.” He squeezed her hand, and for a moment Kelly felt as though they had been friends forever with the easy way he had fallen into calling her ‘Kel’ and the way he was able to calm her whenever she began to feel as if she had fallen down a rabbit hole—which was a lot lately.
She opened the front door and pulled Jack in behind her, still holding his hand. “Mom, Dad,” Kelly called out, “we’re here.”
Kelly’s mother came walking in from the kitchen wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “Who’s here, Kelly? Did you bring a friend?” Her mom stopped when she saw Jack. “Oh, you brought a friend,” she said, all smiles and beaming. Kelly knew her mother was thrilled that she had brought home a man. Just wait until she found out he was a married man. Her married man! How would she react then?
“Jim!” her mother called out over her shoulder. “Come meet Kelly’s friend.”
“Mom, this is Jack. Jack, my mom, Betty Bradley.”
Just then her mom spotted the diamonds on her left hand and gasped. Taking Kelly’s hand in hers she stared, gaping. Watching the pained look on her face, Kelly tried to get out the words.
“Um, Mom. Jack and I…. We, um….” Kelly couldn’t figure out the right way to tell her mother she had missed her daughter’s wedding.
“Ma’am….” Jack put his arm around Kelly. “Your daughter gave me the honor of becoming my wife,” he said in a somewhat old-fashioned way that was probably very out of character for him, but was absolutely the perfect way to explain things to her mom. Kelly felt a surge of gratitude for Jack and sank further into the curve of his body.
Kelly watched as her mother absorbed the news, but the shock on her mother’s face was all she could see. She didn’t know if her mother was happy or mad or what.
“Jim!” Her mother really bellowed now. “Come meet Kelly’s new husband.” Her mother’s voice raised in pitch with each word so that she was practically squeaking at the end.
Kelly felt nervous laughter bubbling up as the front hall was quickly filled with her father’s large frame, her two older brothers, who both stood as tall as Jack and were both glowering at him, and her older sister—all talking at once.
Jack kept his arm around her, and Kelly grabbed onto his hand as it wrapped around her waist, clinging to him as if he were an anchor.
Her anchor. She didn’t know what to say. Jack’s calm voice broke through the madness once again.
“Sir,” he said, extending his hand to shake hands with Kelly’s father, “I’m sorry we didn’t come to see you all first. It’s just that this took us a bit by surprise.”
Kelly almost laughed at Jack’s explanation, but she also knew that he was trying to throw himself under the bus for her, and she was in awe that he would go to these lengths to take the fall with her father.
She knew not many people could ever say they’d heard such a humble apology coming from Jack Sutton. The look on her father’s face was priceless, and her brothers even seemed to relax slightly as they watched her father take Jack’s hand and shake it.
Suddenly, her mom and her sister were pulling her into the kitchen as her sister squealed with excitement and looked at the diamond on Kelly’s hand. Jack was dragged off by her brothers and father to the study for a drink. She could only hope he would survive until she managed to rescue him.
Jessica held Kelly’s hand tightly and gaped at the ring on her finger, but all Kelly could do was look at her mother’s face. There was no anger, just pain. She could see her mother was trying to hide the pain and it tore Kelly up. She had known this would be hard, but she almost wished her mother would yell and scream. Anything would be better than this silent look of hurt.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Kelly said quietly. “I know you probably wanted to be there, but we just had a private ceremony at the courthouse. It was all so fast ….” She broke off, not sure what more she could say to try to explain something that really couldn’t be explained.
“Are you pregnant?” Jessica asked in her melodramatic stage whisper.
“Oh, Jessica, don’t be ridiculous,” Kelly’s mother swatted at Jessica and turned to look at Kelly for a good long moment.
In her quiet way, her mother asked her, “Are you happy, Kelly?”
Kelly nodded, “Yes, Mom, I really am.” Not for the reasons you think, but yes, I’m happy.
Her mother gave one swift bob of the head. “Then I’m happy, sweetheart. That’s all I needed to hear.” And with that, Kelly was wrapped in her mother’s arms. She couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt, though, and somehow her mother’s quick forgiveness made it worse.
Chapter 20
Kelly was sitting next to Jack at the dinner table, but he couldn’t read her face as they passed around bowls and platters; filling plates with her mom’s homemade chicken, macaroni and cheese, salad, and green beans. It was comfort food at its finest, and he wouldn’t mind coming to more Sunday dinners if her mom’s cooking tasted as good as it looked.
“So, Kelly, Jack tells us you met at his office?” Her father’s question sent Kelly’s iced tea down
the wrong pipe so that she coughed and sputtered. Jack laughed and patted her on the back while she tried to catch her breath.
“Um, yes, Dad. We met at Jack’s office,” she finally managed to spit out.
“Oh, what do you do, Jack?” asked her mother.
“I’m in venture capital. My company identifies companies at various stages of development that we think are good risks to invest in. Sometimes they need seed money, sometimes growth or expansion. We invest, and we get a share of the company if they’re a success.”
When Kelly’s mom smiled warmly at him and said, “That’s nice, dear,” in a way that Jack knew would sound condescending from some people, he realized she meant it quite sincerely.
She almost said it as if she were proud of him, and he found himself missing his own mother. Searching for another topic of conversation, Jack turned to Kelly.
“Did you tell your parents about Yale, Kel?” Jack had been referring to the fact that Kelly now had a way to pay for Yale, but he was surprised to discover she hadn’t even told them yet that she had been accepted. The room went silent as everyone looked at Kelly.
“Oh, no, I haven’t told them. I mean, we’ve had the wedding and everything. Then moving, you know,” she said a bit weakly.
“Kelly got into Yale Law School!” Jack surprised himself with how much pride he felt as he announced her big news. He found himself taking a hold of her hand on top of the table.
Once again, the family all talked at once as they congratulated Kelly and talked over each other in their excitement. When things quieted down, though, Kelly’s mom spoke up softly.
“Kelly, dear, how much is that going to cost? I’m not sure we’ll have the money for Yale. Did you apply to any other schools, sweetheart?”
Now Kelly, Jack, and Jessica, were all sputtering in their drinks and trying to recover, while the rest of the family looked on with confused looks on their faces. Jessica recovered first and grinned at everyone.
