The push-pull emotions raged inside her. But when it came down to the bottom line, she loved him. Nothing had changed that.
And there was something he’d intended to show her. If she didn’t talk to him, she would always wonder what it had been. Would it have made a difference?
Oh, what would it hurt to let him know that thanks to his help, Molly was having her surgery? And she would thank him for bringing her father back into her life. She owed him that much.
“I’m going to step out into the hall.” Kate got to her feet. “Can you let me know if there’s any news?”
“Sure. Go ahead. I’ll be right here.”
“You don’t know how many years I’ve waited to hear those words.” She started to lean down to kiss his weathered cheek but hesitated. They had a long way to go before they’d be that close. “Thanks.”
“Things will be different from here on out. I promise.” His voice cracked with emotion. “Now go patch things up with Lucas.”
“I’ll try.” But she wasn’t getting her hopes up too high. She already missed Lucas terribly. To set herself up for another fall would be devastating.
* * *
Lucas waited as the hospital elevator stopped at each floor, allowing people to get on and off. Every muscle in his body was tense. Logic said he shouldn’t be here. He didn’t want to do anything to upset Kate on such an intense day. But he had something important to give her. He stared down at Lucky Ducky in his hand. He ran his thumb over the toy and prayed some of that luck would rub off on him.
His cell phone vibrated and he retrieved it from his pocket. He was surprised to see Kate’s name flash across the screen. “Hello.”
“Lucas, it’s Kate. I...I needed to talk to you.”
“Where are you?”
“At the hospital. Today’s Molly’s surgery.”
“Hang on a sec.” He worked his way through the throng of people and stepped off the elevator into the hallway. “Any word on how she’s doing?”
“Nothing yet. We should hear something soon.”
He heard the echo of Kate’s voice. He took a few steps and peered down the hallway, finding her leaning against the wall with her back to him. He hesitated, not knowing what sort of greeting to expect. He reconciled himself to the fact that he deserved whatever she dished up.
He continued down the hallway. “Kate, turn around.”
When she did, surprise lit up her eyes. She looked bone-tired and he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her. But he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be what she wanted after the way things had played out with her father. If only he’d thought it through and realized how easy it’d be for the man to track them down via the party announcement on his MyFriends account.
But it all came down to the fact that he shouldn’t have been meddling. He’d totally messed things up. And the only thing he could think to do was apologize and hope she’d forgive him.
They stared at each other, but he was unable to read her thoughts. Her face was devoid of emotion.
“I’m sorry,” they said in unison.
“You are?” Again they spoke over each other.
Kate laughed. Her sweet tones washed over him, easing the tension in his neck and shoulders. Maybe there was a chance she didn’t hate him. Maybe it wasn’t too late to fix things. But he knew he was getting ahead of himself. First things first.
“Kate, I’m sorry about contacting your father. I just thought... Oh, heck, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He ran a hand over his tense neck. “Maybe I thought if I could show you that your father was a better man than you thought that I’d have a better chance with you.”
“You were that serious about me that you thought you had to go to such lengths to win me over?”
He nodded, fighting back the urge to pull her close and do away with the talking. But something still needed to be said. “Remember how I wanted to show you something at the party?”
She nodded.
“I was wondering how you feel about yellow gingham? At least I think that’s what the woman at the store called them—”
“Called what?” Kate’s brows drew together as she stared up at him.
“The new curtains I put in the nursery. Well, it isn’t a nursery anymore. It’s a little girl’s room.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “What are you saying?”
He cleared his throat. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have realized that even though I was working so hard to shield Carrie from seeing her parents fight, she might just be as hurt by the knowledge that I didn’t go the extra mile for her. I had a very interesting conversation with my ex-wife’s new husband. It seems he’s a lot more reasonable since he has kids and an ex-wife. Anyway, he’s going to talk to Elaina, and I have my attorney working on a formal visitation schedule. It will be a gradual process until Carrie knows me, but someday I plan to bring her to New York.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you and your daughter.”
“And you? Will you be happy, too?”
“That’s one of the reasons I was calling you. I wanted to tell you, or I mean, I wanted to thank you for bridging the gap with Floyd. You were right, too. He did have a reason for what he did. As for why he never contacted me later, well, we’re working on it.”
“Still, I’m sorry I overstepped.”
“Is that why you’re here? To apologize?”
Then he recalled the trinket in his hand. “Actually, I came to drop off Lucky Ducky. I found him on the floor next to the dresser in your room. I figured today of all days you wouldn’t want to be without him.”
Kate immediately reached for the keychain and held it close. “Thank you. I was searching for this earlier and I was really upset when I thought I’d lost it. I know it’s silly to be so emotional over a cheap toy, but Molly gave it to me and that makes it very special.”
And now he had one more important thing to ask her. His gut churned. “I was thinking maybe of starting over and selling the mansion. I’d like to have my new family start in a new home and make new memories.” He could see the surprise light up her eyes, but he kept going. He had one chance at getting this right. “Kate, would you consider staying with me and being part of that new future?”
* * *
Had she heard Lucas correctly? He wanted a future with her?
Before her brain had a chance to formulate an answer, her father’s voice called out to her. She turned and saw Dr. Hawthorne enter the surgical waiting room. Her heart raced. Please let it be good news.
“It’s the surgeon. Come on,” she called over her shoulder to Lucas.
They rushed down the hallway and joined her father. The surgeon sat down and pulled off his scrub cap. “The surgery was a success.”
Tears of joy sprang to Kate’s eyes. Her baby had made it. She swiped at her cheeks while Lucas gave her a reassuring smile that made her insides flutter.
The doctor continued going over the results of the surgery. “Lastly you should know that there is no guarantee the tumor won’t come back. She’ll need to be monitored on a regular basis.”
His words rang loud and clear in Kate’s mind. A guarantee. That’s what she’d been looking for with Lucas. She’d been hoping for the impossible—a man who wouldn’t ever fail her. And that was asking the impossible.
Life didn’t come with guarantees. You simply had to make the best of the good...and the bad times. A step-by-step process. And she couldn’t think of anyone that she wanted to be by her side during that journey more than Lucas.
She reached out to Lucas and slipped her hand in his. His touch was warm and strong. Her heart surged with love.
When her father walked with the surgeon into the hallway, she turned to Lucas and wrapped her arms over his broad shoulders and held on tight. She never wa
nted to let go.
At last, she’d found what she’d been searching for...her home. It wasn’t a building with marble stairs and spacious rooms—it was right here in Lucas’s arms...in his heart.
She pulled back just enough to gaze up at him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She swiped away more tears of joy. “This has been a day of miracles.”
“Does this mean that you’d be willing to face the future together?”
She nodded. “And I think the perfect place to start a whole new life is the Carrington mansion.”
“You do? You’re not just saying that?”
With her fingertip, she crossed her heart. “I love it and I love you.”
EPILOGUE
One year later...
“IT’S GORGEOUS. I don’t think there’s a single cloud in the sky.”
Lucas’s gaze never left Kate’s face. “Definitely gorgeous.”
She glanced over at him and rolled her eyes. “I was talking about this spring day. It’s so warm and sunny. Makes me feel like I could conquer anything I set my mind to.”
The hum of happy voices filled the air as they stood side by side in Central Park. Lucas smiled. He just couldn’t help it. Life was good and he was doing his best to savor every moment.
He wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders, pulling her close. “You know when I brought you here for the first time, I never dreamed this was possible.”
“Well, you better believe it, because those are our daughters over there petting that horse. Looks like they’ll be wanting a carriage ride next.”
His mind tripped back in time. “I remember a certain carriage ride and how it earned me a kiss—”
“And a photo in the paper of us in quite a steamy lip-lock.”
“I couldn’t help myself. I had to see if your kisses were as sweet as I remembered. But they ended up being even sweeter. Want to give it a try now?”
She smiled and shook her head. “Do you have spring fever or something?”
“Just a guy in love with the prettiest girl around.”
The past year hadn’t been the easiest, not by a long shot. But thanks to Kate, he had opened his eyes and realized that caving in to his ex-wife wasn’t in the best interest of their daughter. Carrie was very much a part of him and he felt whole with his family around him. And though it’d been tough at first, he hadn’t given up. This was Carrie’s first visit to New York and she couldn’t have been happier having a sister and another family.
“You seem awfully chipper for a workaholic who has been away from the office all week. Admit it, this staycation isn’t so bad.”
“Maybe you have a thing or two to teach me after all.” He still loved his work, but he’d learned to delegate things when his workload became too heavy. Because he’d found something he loved even more than Carrington Gems—his family.
* * *
Kate glanced lovingly up at her husband. How was it possible for him to grow more handsome with each passing day? A smile pulled at her lips.
This past Christmas, they’d had a small ceremony with Molly standing tall by her side. The event had taken place at the Carrington mansion with just a few friends and family invited, including his aunt and her father, who hit it off quite well. It was great having people in their lives to create such precious memories.
Kate’s gaze moved from her husband to Molly’s glowing face as she ran a hand down the horse’s side while her grandfather talked with the horse’s owner. “It’s hard to believe a year ago Molly was in the hospital. Now, she’s a smiling, healthy little girl. I know there’s still a possibility that the tumor will return, but with lots of hope and prayers, it’s gone for good.”
Lucas drew her closer to his side and kissed the top of her head. “Molly is going to have a long, happy life.”
“I believe you’re right. And now I have one more thing to tell you that will make this day even better.”
He gazed down at her. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
She pulled away from him so she could look him in the eyes. “Is that a challenge, Mr. Carrington?”
“Yes, it is, Mrs. Carrington.”
She smiled victoriously because she already knew that she’d won. “How would you feel about having a baby?”
The color drained from his face. Not quite the reaction she was expecting. Then his eyes grew round like quarters. And she couldn’t be certain, but she’d hazard a guess that he’d stopped breathing.
“Lucas, do you need to sit down?”
“A baby?”
“Yes, a baby. You are happy about this? Aren’t you?”
“Woohoo!” He scooped her up in his arms and swung her around in a circle. “We’re having a baby!”
His lips pressed to hers. Her heart swelled with love for the most amazing man she’d ever known. Their life might not come with a preordained path, but she knew as long as Lucas was by her side, they’d get through the twists and turns—together.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from AWAKENED BY HIS TOUCH by Nikki Logan.
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CHAPTER ONE
ELLIOTT GARVEY LEANED on the bleached timber boardwalk like a seasoned stalker, watching the woman frolicking with her dog where the coastal rock slid down into the aquamarine ocean.
It didn’t matter that this lookout and the long, sandy path leading to it were public, the map in his hands and the occasional sign wired to the fence lining the gravel track in this remote, picturesque spot reminded him very clearly that the property all around him was upper-case P private. So, technically, was the beach below. In fact, it barely qualified as a beach since—private or not—it was only about twenty metres long. More a cove, really, eroded out of the hard rock either side of it, protected and quiet.
Back home they’d have turned this into a boat-launching area, for sure. It was perfect for it.
Then again, back home they wouldn’t have had anything even remotely like this. Where he was from, further north up the coast, the ruling landform was sand, not the stunning limestone rock forms of the Morgan property. The lookout under his feet ‘looked out’ over the cove about twenty metres away, as it happened, but its intended view was the spectacular Australian coastline beyond it. Rugged and raw and beaten to death by pounding seas in the off season.
But today the sea was flat and gentle.
His eyes dropped again.
Judging by the very determined way the woman was not looking up at him, she was either trying very hard to pretend he wasn’t there, spoiling her serenity, or she wasn’t supposed to be there. A tourist, maybe? That would explain the long cotton dress that she’d hiked up her bare legs instead of the swimsuit a local would have turned up in. And clearly this was a tourist who liked to travel with her dog. The soggy golden retriever bounded around her, barking and celebrating life in a shower of droplets, and the size of the lead bundled in the woman’s right hand suggested her dog was a handful most of the time. But right now it just circled her excitedly as she danced.
Danced? More flowed, really. She practically ebbed in time with the soft waves washing onto t
he beach and retreating again, her feet lightly skipping in the wet sand. The wet bottom of her long summer dress wanted to cling to her legs, but she kept it hiked up, out of the way, as she splashed in and out of the water with her movements. Dipping and twisting and undulating her whole body to music he couldn’t hear.
Out of nowhere, a memory surged into his crowded mind. Of him and his mother, the only trip they’d ever taken away from the city when he was about eight. He’d hung his lean little body half out of the open window of the car she’d borrowed from a friend, overwhelmed to be doing something as exciting as leaving the city, hand-surfing on the wind that whipped past. Riding the current, rising and dipping on it with both hands. Dreaming of the places it would take him if only he were light enough to catch its updraft.
Just as that woman was dancing. There was no wind to speak of down below in the protected little cove, but that didn’t seem to cause her the slightest trouble as she moved on air currents no one else could feel. Not him. Not the still coastal wildflowers lining the tiny sandy strip. Not the barely interrupted surface of the water.
Just her, her dog and whatever the heck drugs she must be on to put her in such a sublimely happy place.
Elliott used his camera lens to get a surreptitious look at her while pretending to photograph the bigger view. Her long hair was as wet and stringy as the golden retriever’s, and not all that different in colour, and the water from it soaked anywhere it touched: the fabric of her strappy dress where it criss-crossed her breasts like a bikini top, the golden stretch of her bare shoulders, her collarbones. It whipped and snapped as she circled in the retreating water, her head tipped back to worship the sun, staring right up into it for a moment.
He adjusted the lens just slightly.
The paleness of her skin and the liberal dusting of freckles across it fitted perfectly with the strawberry blonde hair. Maybe if she did this less often out in the harsh Western Australian sun she’d have fewer marks on her skin. But then, maybe if she did this less often she wouldn’t have that smile on her face, either. Blazing and almost too wide for the pointed shape of her jaw.
Safe in the Tycoon's Arms (Harlequin Romance) Page 17
