She gathered up the vegetables she had been chopping and returned them to the refrigerator. She had no appetite. The best thing she could do for herself was draw a hot bath and take a long soak, then put herself to bed early.
Tomorrow was another day. She would have a clearer head that would allow her to start thinking about possible new directions she could explore. The first task was accepting the offer to manage the spa at the inn. In this storm of uncertainty, returning to the Forsyth Galloway Inn felt like entering a safe harbor. She would wait a few days for her mother to come back down to earth after the engagement before she broached serious talks about logistics and moving her clientele to the spa.
Of course, she’d want to be involved in outfitting the place. She had no idea what sort of timeframe they were looking at for opening the spa. She would have to figure out where she could service her clients in the meantime.
Putting a positive spin on it felt like a fresh start. She’d like to think it took the edge off the pain of her broken heart, but only time could do that. As she picked up a dishrag to wipe off the countertop, someone knocked on her front door.
She glanced at her phone to see if her mother or one of her sisters had texted to say they were coming over, but there were no new messages.
When she answered the door, Aidan was standing there with a bouquet of roses in his hands. A nervous smile curved his lips, making his eyes sparkle.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m sorry to come over without calling, but I just saw that I missed your call and what I have to say to you, I have to say in person, because I love you, Kate. We have to find a way to make this work because I don’t want to spend another night without you.”
“Aidan!” Kate threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, too,” she whispered. “I’m so happy you’re here. Can I come home?”
He nodded as tears made his eyes glisten even brighter.
“But first, there’s something I need to do.” Aidan handed Kate the roses. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small red box. As he lowered himself down on one knee, he took Kate’s hand.
“Kate Clark, I love you with all my heart. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me again—this time in a more traditional setting—and spend the rest of your life with me?”
With happy tears streaming down her cheeks, Kate nodded and watched as Aidan slid a gorgeous emerald cut diamond on the ring finger of her left hand. It struck her that even though her father might have lived in her head and affected all of her past relationships, he hadn’t hijacked her subconscious. Suddenly she realized that maybe part of the reason she had blocked their Vegas wedding was because that part of her knew it was the right thing to do.
If she and Aidan hadn’t eloped in Vegas, maybe they would not be standing here like this now, with him on one knee and her heart overflowing with love for her...her husband.
“It is beautiful, Aidan. When did you get the ring?”
“I bought it right after you moved in with Chloe and me. I was waiting for the right time to propose, because I wanted to give you the proposal you deserve. I know how important it is to you. Maybe it could have been grander—”
“No. It is perfect.”
“And we can start over and plan a traditional wedding,” he said.
“You really do know me, don’t you? Better than my own mother. Oh my gosh! Speaking of, my mother and Stephen got engaged tonight. I’ll have to ask her, but what would you think of us having a double wedding? Chloe could be our flower girl.”
“I think it would be a perfect wedding. I’m up for anything as long it makes you happy and we get to spend the rest of our lives together. I love you, Mrs. Quindlin.”
Epilogue
One month later
On a perfect day in April at the Forsyth Galloway Inn, Kate and Aidan and Zelda and Stephen prepared to stand in front of Gigi, who had become an ordained minister for the occasion, and exchange wedding vows.
Zelda had been thrilled with the idea of a double, because she would finally get her wish of seeing her third daughter get married.
“Thank you for wanting to share this special day with Aidan and me.”
“For Stephen and me, having a double wedding is the best of both worlds. We get to share our special day with you and Aidan,” she said as she straightened Kate’s veil. She smiled, blinking back tears, then she kissed her daughter on the cheek.
“Oh, Mom, you’re making me tear up, too. We’re going to ruin our makeup.”
They laughed, holding on to each other’s forearms.
Zelda looked gorgeous in a sleek, sleeveless, blush satin A-line gown. It skimmed her slender body, showcasing her toned figure and all her best features. Instead of a veil, she had opted to wear a spray of orange blossoms tucked into her classic chignon.
Kate, on the other hand, had chosen to go traditional, with a beaded champagne-colored strapless fit-and-flare gown. Her baby bump was just starting to show, and Kate accentuated it like a badge of honor. Kerrigan Karol had done Kate’s hair, taming her long red curls into a sophisticated updo fashioned around the chapel-length veil, which sat on the back of her head.
Jane and Elle entered the bridal room looking beautiful in silk tea-length dresses that were a shade darker than Zelda’s gown. Each of them held one of Chloe’s hands. The little girl wore a champagne silk shantung dress with a wide pink sash that tied into a large bow in the back. Elle had Zelda’s puppy, Bear, on a crystal-studded pale pink leash.
They handed Kate and Zelda beautiful bouquets of white and blush pink roses, hydrangeas, peonies and freesia. The long green stems were cut blunt at the end and tied with a satin ribbon. Zelda bent down and loved on Bear before taking the leash so the puppy could accompany her down the aisle.
“Mommy and Grandma Zelda, you look so pretty,” Chloe said, holding her little basket.
Together, the brides and their attendants moved from the bridal room into the dining room, which looked out into the garden where the ceremony would take place.
Since they had been able to make the plans for the double wedding come together so quickly, they had delayed construction on the spa. It would start as soon as the couples returned from their respective honeymoons, which they were taking separately.
Kate had agreed to assume ownership and move her clients over. In the meantime, she was going to put the chairs she had purchased from Kerrigan in an empty guest room. She and a handful of the colleagues she had worked with at Kerrigan Karol’s would be able to operate until the spa was fully operational and open for business.
Elle, Jane, Chloe, Kate and Zelda stood at the French doors in the dining room, hugging and blinking back tears and remarking about how beautiful the garden looked. The camellias in white, peach and pink were splendid, and the azaleas, which were usually at the height of their glory in March, were still flourishing. It was as if they had stayed just to bless the wedding with their brilliant tones of red and fuchsia, which popped against the green vines spilling over the wrought iron fence surrounding the Forsyth Galloway Inn’s garden. Delicate white dogwood blossoms dotted the trees and stood out resplendently against the brilliant blue sky.
The most creative florist in all of Savannah could not have offered wedding flowers that were more beautiful.
Through the sheers on the French doors, Kate could see Aidan standing by the fountain at the other end of the garden. Her gaze homed in on him like a light guiding her home. Could there be any greater honor than to be Aidan’s wife and a mother to Chloe and their unborn child?
Remarkably, she wasn’t nervous—at least, not in the negative sense of the word. A calm excitement had her heart beating at the same rate as Pachelbel’s “Canon,” the processional song for the bridal party, which had just begun. Jane and Elle had started their walk down the cobblestone path to the fountain.
Rows of gold
chiavari chairs lined both sides of the aisle. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house, but Kate couldn’t take her eyes off Aidan. Seeing him looking gorgeous in his tux, a serene smile on his handsome face, made Kate feel cocooned in the most delicious love and warmth. She knew down to her bones that this was right.
That this was the moment she had been waiting for all her life.
Anna Nolan, Aidan’s and Daniel’s office manager, was serving as wedding coordinator for the day. When Elle and Jane had almost arrived at the fountain, she put her hand on Chloe’s shoulder, indicating it was time for her to begin her trip down the aisle.
“Remember to walk slowly and take your time scattering the flower petals,” she whispered to the girl.
Chloe nodded, then turned to Kate and threw her arms around Kate’s middle, spilling a handful of rose petals out of the basket.
“I love you, Mommy.” She put her hand on Kate’s stomach. “And I love my baby sister, too.”
It was too early to tell if the baby would be a boy or a girl, but since telling Chloe she was going to be a big sister, the little girl had made up her mind that the baby was a girl. Kate and Aidan hadn’t had the heart to correct her and say it might be a boy, because Chloe had such a capacity to love, and they knew she would love her sibling no matter what.
“I love you, too, Chloe.” Kate kissed the top of the girl’s head. “Grandma and I will be right behind you.”
Zelda blew a kiss to Chloe and the little girl set out down the aisle.
Zelda and Kate had decided to walk down the aisle together to the traditional wedding march. On her walk down the aisle, all Kate could see was Aidan and the promise of their future together. What once had felt so uncertain, a life out of her reach, was finally theirs. It had taken a long journey, complete with years of moving closer to each other, gangly Vegas Elvis and a baby to bring them together, but that was fine. It was their journey, their love story, and Kate couldn’t love it any better if she had written it herself.
After they exchanged their vows and Gigi pronounced them husband and wife, Aidan took Kate into his arms and they danced to “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.” Kate smiled up at him. “No one can accuse us of rushing into anything.”
“No, they can’t.” Aidan chuckled, then pulled her closer. “It may have taken a decade and a practice wedding for us to get this right, but Kate Clark Quindlin, you were worth the wait.”
* * *
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The Secret Between Them
by Helen Lacey
Chapter One
Sean O’Sullivan knew exactly who owned the big yellow dog that had decided to lay directly in front of his door.
Leah Culhane-Petrovic.
The most annoying woman he’d never met.
Her father, Ivan, lived next door, and she’d moved in with old man two days ago. He’d seen her high school graduation picture sitting proudly on the mantel above Ivan’s fireplace.
She’d moved in to help care for her father, who’d had a stroke five weeks earlier. The news was obviously good for Ivan, but bad for him. Because since six o’clock the previous morning, there had been three moving vans barreling down their shared driveway, kicking up clouds of dust and gravel in their wake. The fact her two dogs had already found their way into his yard and dug holes all over the place was bad enough, but the fact that one of the yellow monsters had decided to sleep on his porch and chew the leg off a cane chair was the last straw.
He checked his watch, saw it was eleven o’clock and decided to walk over and give her a piece of his mind. It wasn’t that he cared about sharing the driveway with his neighbors—he liked Ivan well enough—but Sean had moved to the house by the river for solitude, and that was all about to change. Leah was an artist and would be setting up a studio in the large shed at the rear of Ivan’s yard...right near the hedge that separated the two properties. Which was where the moving vans had unloaded pallets of gear and equipment the previous day.
There goes my privacy.
The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became. Enough to grab his jacket, shove his feet into boots, pick up the house keys and head through the front door. The dog followed him down the path and through the hedge and over the worn track. The mutt started barking the moment they reached Ivan’s yard and its cohort, a bigger and shaggier version, began doing the same thing, and then started racing around Sean as he made his way toward Ivan’s house.
It wasn’t that Sean didn’t like dogs—he’d had one or two as a kid—he just didn’t like the idea of someone else’s lounging on his porch. Because it smacked of a familiarity he was trying to avoid. And Sean had returned to his hometown of Cedar River, South Dakota, to be left alone.
If only he could get that through to his family.
It was bad enough he had to endure their well-meaning attempts to butt into in his life every few days or so, but disruptive neighbors he could do without. True, Sean had become friendly with Ivan since he’d moved into the house, and he genuinely liked the older man. Ivan was quiet, studious and didn’t say much, which suited Sean just fine. The sixty-nine-year-old had no major side effects other than his slightly uneven gait, and he often used a cane to support himself. Sean sensed the former high school history teacher liked his life quiet and uncomplicated, surrounded by his books and the watercolors he painted. And Sean was happy with the mostly silent chess games—it meant he didn’t have to offer any explanations for his own behavioral tics.
He climbed the steps and tapped on the door, flicking a glance sideways to the table and chairs on the wide veranda. The chess game they’d left two days ago was sitting untouched on the table. The truth was, Sean wasn’t much of a chess player, but he liked that he could sit without having to talk. He could just simply concentrate on the game and purge everything else in life right out of his mind.
He waited, then tapped again. And again.
Sean heard something. He wasn’t sure what. Which wasn’t unusual because he was becoming increasingly used to mishearing, or simply not hearing things. Since the diagnosis twelve months ago, his whole life had changed. Thinking about it invoked a familiar helplessness and resentment, and he quickly pushed the feelings aside.
With no answer, he turned around to leave and then stumbled back on his heels.
A woman stood at the bottom of the steps. Recognition flickered for a moment in his mind, then quickly faded. She wore jeans and a checked shirt, a long sheepskin vest that came to her knees, mid-heeled cowboy boots and a bright orange hat. She had long, ink-black, wavy hair that hung down her back and deep green eyes. He stared at her, oddly fascinated by her riveting colors. She wasn’t like the women he was usually attracted to—but somehow, she was impossible to ignore. For one, she had the most incredible hair he’d ever seen, and the more he looked the more he noticed that there were colors of pink and purple subtly threaded throughout the long waves cascading down her back. And her emerald eyes were glaring at him, filled with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. A strange sensation hit him in his gut, one he didn’t want to acknowledge. Because feeling anything was out of the question.
Sean quickly pulled himself together and spoke.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
She propped her hands on her hips and tilted her head a littl
e. “I was about to ask you the same question.”
“I was looking for Ivan.”
“He’s resting,” she said, head still at an angle. “You must the neighbor I’ve heard so much about.”
Again, recognition wavered inside his head, but Sean was certain he’d never met her. “You have?”
“Dad says you suck at chess.”
Dad?
Sean stared at her. This was Ivan’s daughter? Impossible. The girl in the photograph on the mantel had glasses, braces and a shy, awkward smile—definitely not the confidence of this...woman. He took a few steps toward the edge of the porch. “You’re not his daughter... Leah.”
Her shoulders tightened. “I’m not?”
Heat crawled up his neck, and he hated the fact she was making him uncomfortable. Sean didn’t do uncomfortable. Women didn’t make him tongue-tied. Women flirted with him and then usually, if things went well, fell into his bed. “You’re...the picture...the one on the mantel...”
She threw her head back and laughed, exposing a long throat that hitched his awareness of her up a couple of notches. He quickly pushed the notion aside.
“Dad’s favorite,” she said, her green eyes wide with amusement. “He still likes to think of me as his little girl.”
Sean did his best to ignore the way his heart was beating faster than usual. Perhaps because he hadn’t been close to an attractive woman in months. Not that he thought she was attractive. He didn’t go for artsy types. In the past he’d dated models and actresses who were uncomplicated and self-centered and no more interested in anything long-term or serious than he was. At the moment he didn’t date anyone. Hell, he tried not to even see anyone. Just like he wanted.
He uncharacteristically tugged at his collar and hated the way her gaze followed his every move. It felt like she was watching him—examining him. And he didn’t like it. All he wanted to do was bail and head home. But a good dose of ego made him stay exactly where he was and stare at her in return. Which, he realized, wasn’t exactly a hardship. Sure, she wasn’t his type, but he had to admit she was attractive in her own way. And he had time to kill. Since returning to Cedar River he had plenty of time.
Her Savannah Surprise (The Savannah Sisters Book 3) Page 19
