John’s head whipped up from the calculator, and Alex leaned forward. “A history?” they said in perfect unison, like the identical twins they were.
“Ancient history,” Katie said quickly, but the blood surged to her face, warming her cheeks, making her look like a liar…since she kind of was. But she sure as heck couldn’t blurt out the truth. Not yet. Not until she knew for sure. And even then, Nick would have a right to know first.
“Wait. Wait.” Alex’s dark brows pulled in a frown. “Are you like…is this guy… Don’t tell me you’re dating, Mom.”
“I’m not—”
“Oh, no wonder we’re getting a deal.” Alex puffed a quick breath. “No, thanks. I’m not selling my mother for some lecherous old—”
“Alex! He’s not lecherous or old, and you’re not selling me.” She choked on the word, not sure if she should laugh or cry.
“You should have told us you have a vested interest.” John’s cool monotone was the opposite of his brother’s, but Katie knew that meant he was just as hot on the subject. “And that he’s more than a friend.”
“He is not more than a friend.” Katie sat up straighter to make her point, glancing at Cassie for support, but her daughter nibbled on her lower lip and pretended to concentrate on pulling a thread from the man-made hole in her ripped jeans.
The truth was, Daniel was more than a friend, but certainly not in the way they were presuming. Clarifying that now wasn’t an option, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to start laying the groundwork for the real fireworks.
“We dated during those few months I went to Vestal Valley College.”
“Dated…how?” John asked. “Briefly? Casually? Meaningless or serious?”
She stared at him, trying to decide how to answer. Briefly, yes. Casually, kind of. Neither meaningless nor serious, but a child might have been the result. Oh Lord.
She pushed up to leave, the need to run from the problem pressing hard. “This has nothing to do with your business decision,” she said. “I didn’t mean to barge in—”
“No, Mom, wait.” John was up as soon as she was.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said. “I was out of line.”
“Don’t go.” Cassie reached for her, too, her gaze softer now. “Nobody meant to make you take off.”
She looked from one to the other, the genuine love in their eyes easy for a mother to see. For anyone to see. “You’re just being protective,” she said quickly. “But it’s not necessary. I’ve never loved anyone but your father and never will.”
Alex’s dark gaze relaxed, and John actually sighed with relief.
“So, our picking this Bitter Bark location wouldn’t be a conflict for you?” John asked.
“A conflict?” Katie smiled. They had no idea what was about to hit them. She rooted around for the right answer, but didn’t know what to say.
Cassie stood and came next to her. “I think John means if anything were to happen with Daniel Kilcannon, anything at all, and it didn’t go, you know, well…no one would want you to have to go to Bitter Bark on a regular basis, or even for us to be there, if it would be awkward.”
Katie searched her daughter’s face, grateful for the save and clearly understanding the subtext of Cassie’s words.
“I don’t have to frequent any of the satellite locations,” she finally said, sliding her bag onto her shoulder. “But you should all make the best decision for the business and leave me out of it.”
“Well, could you tell us what you think that decision would be?” John asked. “Maybe what you think Dad would have thought of this town full of dogs?”
“And this ex…beau?” Alex added, throwing a look at Cassie. “Didn’t they call them that back then?”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, if Mom was in college in the 1870s, not the 1970s.”
The boys laughed, but Katie was still thinking about John’s question. What would Nico want from this awful situation? “I think…” She considered her answer for a long moment, looking from one face to the next.
But suddenly, the one she saw in her mind’s eye was different, older, and still familiar.
Keep them close.
Nico had made the request a thousand times in those last few months. He didn’t want his children to drift apart as adults, or lose the great Greek family bond they shared. He asked for very few things on his deathbed, but he wanted that, and he wanted the business to always be owned and run by a Santorini.
And he wanted her to find love again.
“Your father would want you to make the decision that you all agree on, so there’s no internal battles, and he’d want you to work together to make it succeed.”
“Non-answer,” Alex accused, but he added a smile to let her know it was a partial tease.
“Well, I don’t know how to help you, then,” she admitted. “And I’d really like to. I wish I had more to offer for this business decision.”
“I have an idea.” Cassie stood next to her. “Why don’t you help by spending a little more time over there, since you’re doing some work for him anyway? Eat at Hoagies & Heroes, do a little snooping around about how their business is doing, see if there are any catering opportunities, and report back?”
Katie searched her face, trying to psych out Cassie’s motive for the suggestion, but she saw only love, concern, and honesty on her daughter’s face. Cassie knew how Daniel had taken the news, since they’d talked about it at length on Saturday when they’d had lunch together.
“That’s a good plan,” John said.
“Just don’t spend too much time with the guy,” Alex added with a teasing smile.
She angled her head in question. “Why not, Alex?”
“Because…” He stood and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’d have to kill him if he hurt you.”
She laughed. “You are your father all over again.”
“Thank you,” he said. “There is no higher compliment.” He pulled her in for a quick hug. “We all love you, Mom. You deserve to be happy after what you went through with Dad being sick. You never gave up. You never ran away. You stuck with him through the worst times, and we all know that. You should be happy.”
“Happy, but not…with anyone else?”
He searched her face for a long time. “Would that make you happy?”
She suddenly realized how much she wanted them to like—to really care about—Daniel. Wouldn’t that make this whole situation easier when the truth came out? But it wasn’t something she could force.
“Right now, seeing you kids working together, thriving, making the business grow is all I need to be happy.” From the side of her handbag, a noisy melody announced a call, and she couldn’t help how quickly she grabbed her phone. And tried not to show a flicker of disappointment when the caller ID read the name of a furniture store.
“Oh, and a call that tells me the sectional I want is in stock makes me happy. Gotta take this.” She blew a kiss to all of them. “Get back to work, kids. I’ll see you soon.”
She slipped out and was halfway down the stairs and ready to tap the phone to take the call when Cassie caught up with her.
“Mom. Wait. Please.”
On a sigh, she let the call go to voice mail and turned to her daughter. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything, judging by the look on your face. Is he still taking the test? Being cool about it? What’s the status? I haven’t heard much from you since we had lunch.”
“I haven’t heard anything. In fact, not a word from him since I left his house on Friday evening.”
Cassie frowned, her ink-black eyes scanning Katie’s face for a tell. “And you’re disappointed about that?” she guessed.
Oh yes, she was terrible at hiding her feelings, especially from someone who knew her as well as Cassie did. “I suppose I really liked the idea of not being alone in this whole thing.”
“You have me.”
“You’re not quite as invested in the outcome as Daniel and I are,” she
said. “And frankly, you’re right. We do have a history. We share a timeline, of sorts. I didn’t hate the idea of going through this with him, not as distant acquaintances, but as friends. I really like the idea. Don’t take this the wrong way like your brothers did, but I really like him. As a friend,” she emphasized again. “So I’m a little sad I haven’t heard a word from him.”
The moment the admission was out, she felt better. At least, she felt like she’d nailed the cause of her restlessness and the ache in her chest.
“Then call him.”
Katie widened her eyes. “I don’t really have a legit business reason to yet. That sectional is worth a look, but I really should wait until—”
“Call him, Mom. Pick up the phone and tell him what you just told me. Not about the sectional, about being friends through this.”
She let out a sigh and shook her head. “I’m from a different generation.”
Cassie let out a soft hoot. “The girls-don’t-call-boys generation? Yeah, long dead. But you’re still alive and kicking, Katie Santorini. And if you need him to be your pal during this time, then call him and tell him that.” Cassie reached into Katie’s bag and grabbed the phone. “Want me to dial?”
“What would I say?”
She shrugged. “Hello? How are you? Did you spit in the tube yet, and do you want to see the sectional, and can we go hang out at Hoagies & Heroes, so I can check it out for my kids?”
Laughing, she took the phone and gave her daughter a nudge back upstairs. “You make it sound so easy.”
“It can be easy,” Cassie assured her, leaning in to give a kiss, but as she did, Katie took her shoulders so she could look right into Cassie’s bottomless black eyes.
“I love you,” Katie said softly. “And I would be lost without you.”
“I love you, too, Mom. We all do. We want you to be happy. And if that means this guy is your friend through all this, then you need to call him.”
“Okay.”
With one more kiss, Cassie took off upstairs, leaving Katie in the stairwell. After a moment, she walked outside, stared at her phone, and hovered her finger over her contacts list.
Of course she could call Daniel and not feel like a teenage girl chasing a boy. Of course he’d be warm and receptive to her call.
But if she was entirely honest with herself, she was scared that friends wouldn’t be enough for her with Daniel Kilcannon. And it had to be.
As long as she remembered that, she should be fine. Taking a breath, she tapped his name and made the call, not surprised when he answered almost immediately.
“Hi, Katie.” Of course his greeting was warm and genuine. They were friends. “I’ve been thinking about you.”
And just the way he said it, her stomach got a little fluttery. Come on, Katie.
“Same,” she replied. “In fact, I wondered if you were ever going to call me again.”
He hesitated a few seconds, long enough for her to know the answer wasn’t going to be completely casual and off the cuff. “Of course I was. I needed a few days to gather my wits.”
Her heart bounced around in her chest a little. “And did you?”
“Yes,” he said simply. “What are you doing this afternoon?”
Oh boy. “Nothing urgent. Why?”
“You’re in Chestnut Creek?”
“Smack dab in the middle of downtown, as a matter of fact.”
“I’m home. Are you familiar with Elk Knob State Park?”
She laughed at the question, already walking to her car with a bounce in her step that had definitely not been there on the way in. “I think I’ve taken my kids on at least ten hiking field trips there, so the answer is yes.”
“It’s halfway between us. Meet me at the western entrance near the Beech Tree Trail. Is it too cold for you to hike and eat outside?”
She squinted up at the sunshine, bathed in the warmth of a rare sixty-degree day and rays of hope she couldn’t deny. “I love that idea,” she said.
“I’ll bring lunch and see you in about an hour?”
“That sounds wonderful.” She tried to keep the happiness toned down, but might not have been too successful. “Can you bring Goldie?”
He laughed. “I have to if I’m bringing Rusty. They hate to separate.”
“I can’t wait to see her.” And you.
“Oh, and Katie?”
“Yes?”
“Just a word of warning. My mother guessed after one look at Nick’s photo.”
She froze midstep, and all that bounce and happiness oozed out of her like air from a balloon. “What?”
“Evidently, Nick’s the spitting image of my uncle Paddy from Ireland.”
Which erased that last shred of hope that this was a big mistake. “Oh.” The single syllable came out a little strangled.
“My mother can be trusted with your life and every secret.”
“Does she hate me?”
He laughed out loud. “No. But her reaction really made me think, and that’s why I needed a few days to get my head together, as we used to say in the good ol’ 1970s.”
“What was—”
“I’ll tell you in person. See you at Elk Knob.”
“Okay. See you soon.” She tapped the phone and stood stone-still in the sunshine, but despite the warmth, she suddenly felt a little cold and scared inside.
Chapter Thirteen
The beech trees that lined Daniel’s favorite trail in Elk Knob State Park were so bare that the sun streamed right through them and onto the hard ground plastered with dead leaves. Cool, clean, mountain air, a temperature a few degrees shy of fifty, and a complete absence of any other hikers, dogs, or schoolchildren combined to give Rusty and Goldie the two-mile hike of their dreams.
They trotted along, side by side, one stopping when the other did, their matching red coats gleaming in the sunshine.
Daniel had zero complaints as well. But that might have had a lot to do with the fact that, like Rusty, he had a friend to walk with. Next to him, Katie kept the pace, her hands deep in the pockets of her parka, and her brown suede hiking boots moving at an easy clip. Since they’d met and started their hike a few minutes ago, she hadn’t pressed to continue their phone conversation. Mostly, Katie seemed to take in the beautiful setting, thanked him for the invitation, and made a fuss over Rusty.
“He’s really bounced back,” she said as they watched him trot a few feet in front of them.
“He’s himself again,” Daniel assured her. “We still haven’t found the underlying reason for him to have had a seizure, since none of the scans or tests showed anything at all.”
She looked up with a slight frown. “Is it possible it’s just because he’s a senior dog?”
“Possible, but I look for a clinical issue that might have caused it. If it doesn’t happen again, then he probably ate something that seriously disagreed with him. If it does, we’ll take him to a specialist.”
“I think he found his specialist,” she said, pointing to Goldie.
“Not sure what’s going to happen when she’s ready to be adopted,” he said.
“You’d actually let her go once she trains?” She sounded flabbergasted. “You’ll break his heart.”
He threw her a look. “Maybe you should take her.”
“I…” She shook her head. “I’ve never had a dog. Turtles, hamsters, and a snake once when Theo was going through a stage, but I don’t know a thing about dogs.”
“You’re a natural, Katie. She comes to you first.”
“Second, after Rusty.” She studied Goldie’s mahogany-colored tail as it tick-tocked with happiness. Every few steps, Goldie leaned over as though she were going to whisper in Rusty’s ear, then nudged him with her nose, or gave him a lick. “No, I don’t think I could do it.”
“You sure?”
She nodded, silent. He knew from a lifetime of experience that people had their reasons for not wanting a dog, and often they were private. He respected that.
&nb
sp; “I get it,” he said. “Anyway, we’re struggling with her.”
“How so?”
“An aggressive golden retriever is very rare. One that can’t be trained easily is also rare. She must have had a trauma with another dog at a very young age, and no one properly socialized her. So, having her at Waterford, even if she was in the house, is a problem. Among my six kids, I think there are at least nine family dogs, and they treat my home as if it’s theirs. Shane’s been working with her, but he’s a little frustrated. If that dog whisperer can’t fix her, she can’t be fixed.”
“So what will happen to her?” She sounded scared to even ask the question, and he put a reassuring hand on her back.
“Oh, Garrett will find someone, I promise. But they can’t have other dogs, and they have to be able to work with her for those times when she’s around dogs. It’s a very strange idiosyncrasy for a retriever, I have to say. But she’s been through something.”
“She watched the person she loved the most die,” Katie whispered. “That changes you.”
“No kidding.” He didn’t really want to say more on that subject, because it was sure to ruin a bone-deep happiness that had resided in his chest for days, and that’s what he really wanted to tell her today. He wasn’t sure how she’d take it, so he was waiting for the perfect moment.
“Did you come here with Annie?” she asked.
“To be honest, we didn’t, no. Only with the kids when they were little, and like you said, I think every one of them had a hiking trip with school or scouts at some point. But Rusty has plenty of trails at home to walk. I only started coming here after she died, mostly because my pre-dawn walks with him at Waterford Farm are too heavy with memories. This is a place I came to escape and…mourn.” Bawl his eyes out was more accurate. “And Rusty loves it here, so it’s become one of our favorite places to come and think.”
“Think about…”
“Things,” he said.
“Like this thing with Nick?”
He laughed. “We’re going to have to give it a better handle than ‘this thing with Nick’ or ‘this turn of events’ or ‘our little problem.’”
“I never called it ‘our little problem,’” she replied. “It’s not little.”
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