by Maria Geraci
She swallowed hard. He sounded so sincere. So loving. She should feel reassured. But for some reason, she felt the exact opposite.
#
The Harbor House was Whispering Bay’s fanciest restaurant. Located directly on the gulf, it boasted a superb view from nearly every table. That, and the elegant (aka, expensive) seafood and extensive wine list, put it on nearly every restaurant magazine’s best places to eat in the Florida panhandle.
Kitty plastered a huge smile on her face as Steve escorted her into the packed dining room. The hostess guided them toward the back of the restaurant. She spotted her father first, but he didn’t notice her. He was too busy laughing at something his companion was saying.
She could do this. She could smile and make nice with her father’s latest conquest. No matter how young or silly or inappropriate she might be. She would do it because he was her father and she loved him. Simple as that.
“So here you are,” the hostess chirped as she handed them their menus. “Enjoy your dinner!”
Dad stood and enveloped her in a hug. He wore a suit and tie and smelled like expensive cologne. Even at sixty-five, Alan Burke could still be considered handsome, with a full head of salt-and-pepper-colored hair and smiling brown eyes. He pulled back to inspect her. “Sweetheart! You look fabulous!”
“So do you, Daddy.”
He stretched his hand across the table toward his date. Kitty turned to greet her and for a moment… No. She blinked. Then she blinked again.
The woman holding her father’s hand and smiling back at her shyly was old enough to be Kitty’s mother!
“Sweetheart, this is Sharon Ackerman,” her father said. “Sharon, this is my little Kitten. Well, not so little anymore, I suppose.” His smile had enough wattage behind it to light up a stadium.
Steve shook hands with her father and Sharon. Kitty, on the other hand, must have seemed like a deaf mute because after a few seconds, Steve put his hand on the small of her back and exerted just enough pressure to snap her out of her stupor.
“Um, hello! Sharon, so nice to meet you!” Kitty managed to say.
Sharon reached out and hugged her. It was similar to being in some sort of weird dream where she saw herself hug Sharon back, only it didn’t seem to be really happening.
“Sorry! I’m a hugger,” Sharon said in a warm southern accent. She was medium height with blonde hair cut into a sophisticated chin-length bob. Her blue eyes (with the crow’s feet around them!) glowed with happiness. Her red linen dress with a simple scarf and pearl earrings showcased her toned figure, but the skin on her neck and arms revealed the normal loss of elasticity for a woman of about sixty. Kitty would bet her last dollar this lady had never seen the inside of a plastic surgeon’s office.
“Well!” Dad slapped his hands together, rubbing them briskly. “I think this calls for some champagne!”
No. This called for vodka!
What was her father doing with this woman? Yes, she was close to his age and attractive, and she certainly seemed nice enough, but this wasn’t his usual style at all. What was going on here?
“I love champagne!” Sharon smiled and patted the seat next to her. “Kitty, sit here so we can talk better. I’m so excited to finally meet Alan’s daughter! He’s told me so much about you.”
“He has?” she asked weakly.
Her father ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon and they all laughed at something Steve said. Kitty glanced over to see Steve looking at her with concern in his eyes. “Are you all right?” he whispered.
She nodded. Yes. Of course she was all right! She was just in shock, that’s all.
The waiter made a big show of uncorking the champagne and her father raised his glass in a toast. Something about being happy to have everyone here for this most special night, yada, yada…
“How did you two meet?” Steve asked.
Sharon and her father exchanged a secret smile. “Your father tried to buy some drugs off me,” she said.
Kitty nearly choked on her champagne. Her dad slapped her on the back. “You okay?”
“I’m good,” she croaked.
“Now, Sharon, honey, you can’t say it like that. The truth is, I was nearly on my deathbed with one of the worst sinus headaches of my life, so I dragged myself down to the drugstore and tried to buy a couple packages of that stuff they use to make crystal meth with…what’s it called again?”
“You mean Sudafed?” Kitty asked.
“That’s the stuff!” Dad said.
Sharon’s blue eyes twinkled with mirth. And something else that Kitty found a little disconcerting. Sharon was looking at her father as if…as if… She crossed that thought immediately out of her brain.
“Dad, I think you’ve watched one too many Breaking Bad reruns.”
Her father laughed. “So, back to my story. I tried to the buy the stuff and out from behind the counter comes this gorgeous angel of mercy.” He winked at Sharon, who blushed furiously.
Kitty reached out and refilled her own champagne glass.
“I’m a pharmacist, and we have to make sure we’re not selling those kinds of products to any minors,” Sharon explained.
“Minors,” Kitty muttered. “Nope, I think Dad is definitely of age.”
“We hit it off immediately. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I asked her out, and it must have been my lucky day because she said yes,” Dad said.
Steve grinned. “Nice story.”
“Isn’t it?” Sharon said. “My daughters absolutely adore Alan.”
“Hey! Let me show Kitty the new baby.” Her father pulled out his cell phone. A pretty young woman with blonde hair and a big smile, holding a newborn in her arms, graced the small screen. “This is Ginny, Sharon’s youngest daughter, and Madison, the newest grandchild!” her father exclaimed proudly.
Grandchild? Her father was doing the nasty with a grandmother! Not that Kitty wasn’t relieved that her father had finally found someone his own age, but for as long as she could remember her dad had been living like some Hugh Heffner wannabe. What had happened to change him?
Dad went on to talk about the rest of Sharon’s family and what a great bunch they were. Apparently, they’d all gone on some kind of mini-vacation just a few weeks ago. He regaled them with a funny story about a golf game gone bad. And remember that time they got lost driving to Atlanta for the weekend?
The whole thing sounded incredibly cozy, as well as completely foreign. She’d spoken to her father just a couple of weeks ago and he’d never once mentioned Sharon.
“Exactly how long have the two of you been…um, dating?” Kitty asked.
“It will be three months tomorrow,” her father said, his voice thickening with emotion. “Sweetheart, I know this will come as somewhat of a shock to you, but I wanted to tell you my big news in person.” He paused for what must have been just a couple of seconds, but long enough for Kitty to see her life flash before her eyes. “Sharon has made me the happiest man on earth by agreeing to be my wife. We want to get married as soon as possible. Just a small ceremony. Sharon’s family and you. And, Kitten, I want you to be my best man.”
“Me?”
“I know it’s a rather untraditional role for a woman, but there’s no one I’d rather have standing next to me on the most important day of my life than my own daughter.”
Steve shook her father’s hand. “Congratulations,” he said. “Just last night Kitty was telling me how she hoped you’d find a nice woman and settle down one day. Isn’t that right, babe?”
“Of…course! Yes, um, this is fantastic!” Because, well, it was, right? She leaned over and gave her father a hug. And then, because it seemed like the thing to do, she gave Sharon another hug as well.
“I know this must seem fast to you,” Sharon said softly, “but I hope you’ll be happy for us.” She reached out and took Daddy’s hand in hers. “My husband died of cancer eight years ago when I was fifty-three. We’d been married for almost thirty years. I though
t after Phillip’s death…well, I’d just lost the love of my life. What did I have to look forward to?”
Kitty nodded, still dazed, and took another big swig of her champagne.
“Eventually, I realized my life was pretty good. I got to see my two beautiful girls get married, got to witness the birth of my grandchildren, and I still had my career as a pharmacist. After a few years, the girls even talked me into trying that Internet dating thing, and I went out with some very nice gentlemen, but no one came close to shaking things up until that day your father walked into my drugstore and rocked my world. It was like…the sun had been hiding for a very long time and finally decided to come out again. I knew on our first date that I was in trouble. Because if this beautiful man didn’t return my feelings, I was going to get my heart broken. Luckily for me, I was wrong. You can find the love of your life a second time around.”
Oh my. Kitty could feel tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Sweetheart!” Dad looked alarmed. “Are you all right?”
“That’s…that’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard in my life!” Kitty said. Then Sharon burst into tears as well and the two of them hugged for a third time.
Steve and Dad grinned at one another the way guys do when they see women acting weepy.
“This calls for more champagne!” Dad said jovially, waving the waiter over to the table. He turned to Kitty. “So what do you say, sweetheart? Will you do me the honor of being my best man?”
“Of course!” Kitty’s head began to swim. Her father was getting married. To the lovely and totally age-appropriate Sharon, who had two daughters and an indeterminate number of grandchildren. The whole thing seemed so normal.
“So what are your plans?” Steve asked.
“We’re hoping to get married next weekend,” Sharon said.
“Next weekend?” Kitty squeaked. “As in, next weekend?”
“I know it doesn’t give us much time, but like Alan said, all we want is a quiet, intimate family wedding.”
Dad’s voice got husky with emotion. “We’ve waited all our lives to find one another and we don’t want to waste another second.”
Kitty blinked. The whole thing was so…romantic. “Where will the wedding take place?”
“That’s the best part!” Dad said. “We want to do it right here in Whispering Bay. That way Sharon’s family can make a beach vacation out of it. There’s nothing like the beautiful blue waters of the gulf, is there, Kitten?”
“Uh, no. Good idea, Dad,” she said weakly. Her father was getting married next weekend. Here. In Whispering Bay. And she was the best man! She was thrilled, of course. But she was still trying to figure out how the whole thing had happened.
“Kitty and I would be honored to host a dinner the night before the wedding,” Steve announced.
They would?
“Oh, that’s so nice, but not necessary,” Sharon said.
Steve took Kitty’s hand and laced it through his. “We insist, don’t we, hon?”
“Yes! Um, yes, we insist. Please, we’d love to host a dinner for you and the whole…family.” It occurred to her that not only would Sharon be her new stepmother, but she’d have stepsisters, as well. And stepnieces and nephews? Was that a thing? Her head started spinning again and she hadn’t even had that much to drink. Had she?
“Fantastic!” said Dad. Then he poured her some more champagne and the last thing Kitty remembered was Steve shaking his head and laughing as he helped her climb into bed later that night.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kitty opened one eye to see a bright, angry light streaming in through the blinds in her bedroom window. Her head spun and her mouth felt as if it were stuffed full of sand. “Why is the sun mad at me?” someone croaked. Oh God. She was that someone.
“Good morning, beautiful.” Steve placed a tray next to her on the bed. “Or should I say, good afternoon?”
She sat up and blinked. Afternoon? How long had she slept? The smell of something fattening and delicious hit her nostrils. Maybe life was worth living after all. “Is that bacon?”
“And coffee and eggs and toast. As well as a couple of Tylenol.” He grinned. “How are we feeling this morning?”
“We feel like crap.” He, on the other hand, looked completely unaffected by last night’s shenanigans. He wore a red, short-sleeved polo shirt and beige shorts with docksiders. Casual, yet neatly masculine at the same time. She downed the Tylenol then reached out for a strip of bacon. It was perfectly crisp, exactly the way she liked it. Still, she wasn’t letting him off the hook that easy. “Why did you let me drink so much last night?”
Steve sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know. You’re kind of cute when you’re drunk. Plus, then I can have my way with you.”
She glanced down to find herself wearing nothing but an old T-shirt of his. “Did we have sex and I just don’t remember?”
He pretended to look wounded. “Are you telling me you can’t remember what happened last night? The, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating here when I quote you, ‘greatest night of your life’?”
She gulped down a big swig of the coffee. “Did I really say that?”
“Yep. You did.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re in an awful good mood. And I know it’s not because we had sex last night, because believe me, I might not remember everything, but I would have remembered that.”
He leaned over and pecked her on the cheek. “Good to hear I’m still memorable in the sack.”
Her mind rewound its way back to last night’s events. Oh no. Please. Let this be some kind of drunken hallucination. “Did I…did I tell my father I was going to give him a bachelor party?”
“Yeah, but you called it a stag party.”
“Oh my God.”
Steve laughed. “Don’t worry, he said it was unnecessary.”
“And…the wedding is a week from today and we’re really hosting a party for them the night before? I mean, all that did happen. Sharon isn’t just a figment of my imagination?”
“It all happened. As a matter of fact, they’re right next door.”
“Who? Sharon and my dad? What are they doing at Viola’s?”
“Wow. Remind me never to feed you champagne. They’re next door, as in, the bedroom next door.”
Kitty sat all the way up. “My dad and Sharon are in this house? Right this very minute?”
He frowned. “You didn’t want them to go to a hotel in Panama City or Destin, did you? I mean, I just assumed you’d want them here so I invited them.”
“Of course, yes. Good thinking.” She shoved another piece of bacon in her mouth.
“Are you all right? Just the other night you said how much you wanted your dad to find a nice woman to settle down with. I would think you’d be ecstatic.”
“Of course I’m ecstatic! It’s just…all happening so fast.”
“Finish your bacon and go back to bed,” he said. “I got this.”
“What exactly do you got?”
“The wedding. We only have a week to go so we had to work quick. I already booked a private room at The Harbor House for the family dinner. The events manager is emailing me a menu, but I thought I’d leave the food details up to you and Sharon. As for the flowers and the music, that’s gonna be a tough one on such short notice, but I’ve got Stacey making calls.” He glanced at his watch. “Your dad and Sharon have a meeting with the Reverend Donalan this afternoon and then later your dad has a fitting for a new suit, so we need to scram.”
He was arranging for flowers and music? “But…how—”
“Don’t look so shocked, Rip Van Winkle. While you’ve been sleeping the day away, everyone else has been busy. Apparently, Sharon and your dad are big members of the Methodist church where they live, so they’ve already gotten the green light from their minister back home.”
Kitty shook her head, trying to clear it. His Rip Van Winkle joke wasn’t far off the mark. It was as if she’d woken up
in an entirely different universe in which Steve had become the Martha Stewart of wedding planners. An image of him going over wedding cake samples almost made her giggle. Except…it really wasn’t funny.
A tiny voice in her head said that something wasn’t right here. When it came to business, Steve was an action guy, no doubt about it. But helping her father plan his wedding? It was as if he couldn’t sit still. Like there was something else going on beneath the surface and he was covering it up with this uncharacteristic flurry of activity. Or was she just being paranoid again? He’d spent the entire day helping her father plan his wedding while she’d snoozed away a major hangover. Maybe guilt was making her see something that wasn’t there.
“You’re taking my dad to get fitted for a suit?”
“You’re a little slow on the uptake today, huh? We have exactly six days to pull this wedding together. So yeah, I hooked him up with a guy in Destin who owns a men’s shop. Then afterward, we’re playing a round of golf.” He walked over to the closet and pulled out a small suitcase. “I’m going to move into the Mexico Beach house for a few days. I need to go through the house before the inspection and take out the fixtures that aren’t in the contract. You know, the stuff I bought in Italy. That’ll take a while and it seemed dumb to keep going back and forth from the house to here.”
He was moving into the Mexico Beach house?
“I’ll go with you,” she blurted.
“And leave your dad and Sharon here all alone? I thought you could use some alone time with them before the wedding. To get to know Sharon better.”
His explanation about wanting to go to the Mexico Beach house seemed completely reasonable, thoughtful even, but in the almost year they’d been together, they’d never slept apart. The idea of him not being here when she got home from work… She missed him already. Which was ridiculous. He hadn’t even left yet.
“How long will you be at the beach house?” she asked, gingerly making her way out of bed. She needed to shower and get with the program.
