The furnishings were incomplete, although most of the basics were in place—a sofa, some chairs, the kitchen table. The living room opened onto a deck, where several couples were talking, looking out at the lake beyond.
She had just asked for a glass of white wine from the bartender when she glanced up and spotted Ian in the kitchen. Standing next to him: Rachel. Colby’s heart dropped somewhere within the vicinity of the floor.
The bartender handed her the wine with a smile. She took it, tried to smile back and failed miserably. She couldn’t pull her gaze off the two of them. How right they looked together. So right it hurt. It shouldn’t have, but it did. Colby thought of the things she’d shared with this man in the past few months and realized that he had become a part of her life. There was no taking any of it back, pretending it never happened. And because of her own stupidity, she had to stand here and watch him with his fiancée.
Ian and Rachel left the kitchen, moving in her direction. Rather than turn and run, as she would have liked to, Colby stayed where she was, fixing a smile on her face when Rachel said, “Oh, hello. You’re the pie lady, aren’t you?”
Colby stuck out her hand. “You have a good memory. Hello, Miss Montgomery.”
“Rachel, please. After all, it won’t be Montgomery much longer.”
The dart, intended or not, stabbed hard. She glanced at Ian. He looked every bit as uncomfortable as she felt. Optimist that she was, she might have even called it miserable had she not been aware of her own bias. “I don’t suppose you have any idea why Frank’s having a surprise party for Phoebe in a house no one’s ever seen before?” she asked, desperate to fill the silence.
He shook his head, his gaze holding hers with pained intensity. “Not a clue.”
“Shhh!” Mary Simmons, Phoebe’s sister, stood by the window, peering around the edge of the curtain. “I think they’re here,” she said.
Everyone hustled for a place to stand where Phoebe wouldn’t see them immediately. Colby stayed where she was. Unfortunately, so did Ian and Rachel. The guests were pin-drop quiet. The car engine outside cut off, then two doors slammed. Phoebe’s voice rang out, “Frank Walker, what on earth is this all about?”
“Be patient, honey,” he said.
The doorknob turned, and Phoebe stepped inside the hallway, Frank behind her.
“Surprise!!!” The room erupted in a roar. Phoebe let out a startled scream, one hand going to her chest. She looked at the roomful of people in front of her, then back at Frank, grinning ear to ear, and promptly burst into tears.
Frank put a hand on her shoulder. “Now, Phoebe, that’s not exactly the reaction I was hoping for.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd. Frank held up a hand, then leaned forward and kissed Phoebe on the mouth. “Happy fifteenth anniversary, honey,” he said, one hand sweeping the expanse of the room. “You’re standing in your present.”
Phoebe looked down at the floor, then up again, realization dawning. “This house is my present?”
Frank nodded, looking so proud Colby thought he might actually split at the seams. “You always wanted a summer house. I’m a little late for this year, but now you know where I was all those nights when you were wondering.”
Phoebe stared at him for a moment before her tears started again. She took off down the hall to their right, leaving Frank at a loss. Knowing what lay behind the tears, Colby went after her. The bathroom door off the master bedroom was closed, and she heard Phoebe’s sobs interspersed with hiccups. She knocked. “May I come in, Phoebe?”
She turned the knob, and the door swung inward. Phoebe sat on the side of an enormous tub, a wad of tissue in her hand. She looked up. “How could I have been such an idiot, Colby? I thought he was having an affair, and he was building me a house.”
Colby sat down on the tub and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You made an honest mistake.”
“But I should have trusted him.”
“I guess that’s the lesson to be learned here.”
“How am I ever going to go out there?” she wailed.
“How can you not? Your husband, who happens to adore you, has just gone to an awful lot of trouble to throw you a surprise anniversary party. I think the least you can do is go back out and give him a big kiss.”
Phoebe got up and turned on the water faucet. She rinsed her hands and dabbed at the mascara smudges beneath her eyes. “What will I say to him? To everyone out there? I can’t believe I thought he was having an affair!”
“Just go back and tell them you were overwhelmed by what he did. It’s certainly understandable. No one has to know the other part. Not even Frank.”
“I’ve been so awful to him.”
“Then I suggest you make it up to him here in your new house after everyone else goes home.”
Phoebe caught Colby’s gaze in the mirror and smiled. “That sounds like something Dr. Green would say.”
“So maybe I should have been a radio psychiatrist.” Colby managed to smile back at her.
“I take it that’s Rachel with Ian,” Phoebe said, her disappointment obvious.
“Yes. His fiancée. The one you didn’t believe existed.”
“Oh, her.”
“Yes, her.”
“I might have been blind to my own situation, Colby Williams, but I can see as plain as the nose on my face that you’re crazy about that man. When are you going to admit it to yourself?”
Colby moved to the other mirror and feigned intense concentration as she finger-combed her hair. Frank had been unjustly accused. But Ian turned out to be just like Doug, after all. Nothing he’d ever said or done meant a thing. There was another woman in his life. Colby was the intruder, a role she had no desire to play. “Phoebe, think of how you’ve felt these past few months, thinking Frank had someone else. I don’t want to be the other woman. If I ever find the right person, I want to be the only one for him. I want what you and Frank have, or I don’t want anything at all.”
Phoebe started to say something, then stopped. She put her arms around Colby and hugged her. “I’d like to argue with that, but I can’t. I want that for you, too. He could have been the one, though. I just know it.”
“He could have been,” Colby admitted. She tried for a bright smile.
Phoebe sighed. “Back into the fire?”
“Let’s go.”
For the next couple of hours, Colby stayed inside and mingled. Finally, she made her way out to the deck and breathed in the crisp night air, grateful to be alone to wilt for a moment without anyone noticing.
Maybe seeing Ian with Rachel was the cold dose of reality she needed. Facts were facts, and when they were staring you in the face, they were awfully hard to deny.
And the fact was, that as easy as it had been to pretend otherwise these past few months, Rachel Montgomery would soon become Mrs. Ian McKinley.
“Colby?”
She swung around, startled. “Ian! What are you doing out here?”
“Looking for you.”
“I don’t think that’s wise.”
“Colby, I wanted to explain—”
“There’s nothing to explain.”
“This isn’t what you—”
“If you remember, I’m the one who told you I didn’t want to see you anymore,” she said, the two glasses of champagne she’d hastily swallowed earlier boosting her courage. “You really didn’t need to draw me a picture tonight. I was quite clear on how things are.”
She moved to step around him and go back inside.
He reached for her arm. Colby—”
“Ian?” Rachel stood at the patio doors, looking at them with a question in her eyes. “I think they’re getting ready to cut the cake.”
Colby pulled free of Ian’s grasp, ignoring the look of frustration on his face. “I’d better go lend a hand,” she said, and left them alone.
47
As soon as Lena had seen Luke come through the front door, she’d found a place in the back of t
he room where she hoped he couldn’t see her. She stayed inside until Phoebe arrived, then slipped out to the backyard when no one was looking.
How would she ever face him? She’d been avoiding him in school for days now. If she had known he’d be here, she would have pretended to be sick and stayed home.
It was cold outside. Lena shivered and pulled her coat closer around her, shoving her bare hands in her pockets. Some fifty yards from the house sat a gazebo of sorts. She hurried across the yard and let herself inside. A shaft of light shone on the benches that circled the gazebo walls. Lena went to the back of the building and sat down in the shadows.
She’d been out there for no more than a minute when she heard footsteps outside the door. Great. Who could that be? She tucked herself into the shadows and stayed quiet.
“Lena?”
Oh, no. Luke’s voice. What was he doing out here?
The door opened, and he stuck his head inside. “Lena, I know you’re in here. I saw you from the deck at the house.”
“Go away, Luke.”
He closed the door behind him, cutting off the only light. “I’m not going away. Why have you been avoiding me?”
She made a sound of half laughter, half disbelief. “I haven’t been avoiding you.”
Even in the dimness she saw that he didn’t believe her. “My dad said your mom found birth control pills in your backpack. Since I was accused of being the reason why you had them, I’d say I’m not out of line in asking about it.”
Lena’s whole body went warm with embarrassment. She was thankful for the darkness. How had she ever gotten herself into this? “I decided it was time for me to have sex. Everybody else does. And obviously, you aren’t interested in girls who don’t.”
“Why do you say that?”
She tilted her head to the side and gave him a look.
“You mean because of Melanie?”
Again, she said nothing.
“I never would have taken her to the dance if you hadn’t broken your word to me.”
She looked up in astonishment. “Broken my word? About what?”
“I trusted you not to tell anybody about my past. Then all of a sudden I’m getting tracked down by the school dope heads looking for a connection.”
Lena had no idea what he was talking about. She hadn’t told anyone. “But I didn’t. . .” And then she remembered. “Oh, Luke. I’m sorry. I did tell Millie. She’s my best friend. And she swore on her life that she wouldn’t. . .I’m sorry.”
He studied her for several long seconds, a torn expression on his face. He’d trusted her, and she had let him down. She felt about two inches tall. She deserved his anger and more.
“I wanted to ask you to the homecoming dance,” he finally said, “but I was mad at you when I thought you’d told everybody.”
“I don’t blame you. I’d be mad at me, too.”
“Why’d you tell your mom we were having sex?”
“I didn’t exactly. She just assumed it.”
“You must have said something to make her think—”
She dropped her gaze to the floor. To her horror, tears welled up in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. She wiped them away with her hand, hating herself for not being able to hold them back. “I figured that’s why you took Melanie to the dance.”
He looked at her in astonishment. “Well, it wasn’t. We didn’t.”
Immense relief flooded through her. She glanced up. “You didn’t?”
He shook his head. “And if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that part of your reason for getting those pills had something to do with your mom.”
Lena didn’t say anything for a few moments. He was right. “I guess I wanted her to know I would never let what happened to her happen to me.”
Still holding on to her arm, he pulled her against his chest and hugged her. He smoothed his hand across the back of her hair and held her while tears slid down her cheeks. “Your mom’s a nice woman. My dad sure is different since he met her.”
“What do you mean?”
Luke shrugged, rubbing the center of her back. “He makes time for stuff. He didn’t used to do that. And things are a lot better between us.”
“I’m glad, Luke. I wish things with my mom were the way they used to be.”
“Can’t they be if you want them to be?”
“I don’t know.”
“My dad wasn’t around as much as I would have liked when I was growing up. He worked a lot. Rather than talk to him about it, I just bottled up all my anger. When I got into trouble, I guess I figured that was one way to get him to notice me. I know now that it wasn’t the right way.”
Lena pressed her face to his chest. She knew what he was trying to say to her. That it was up to her to fix things with her mom. She wanted to. She really did. She just didn’t know where to begin.
48
During the drive to Oak Hill, Ian and Luke said very little. Rachel did all the talking.
“I bet you two will be glad to get back to the city. The people here are as nice as they can be, but things are certainly different. You can’t tell me you haven’t been getting bored,” she said, looking over her shoulder at Luke in the back seat.
When Luke didn’t respond, Ian said, “Actually, we haven’t. There’s plenty to do around here.”
“Like what?” she asked with a laugh. “Once you’ve rented every movie at the local video store, I’d imagine you’re in trouble.”
Logically, Ian knew Rachel was half joking, but her comments irritated him. She’d written Keeling Creek off as a backward hick town. Maybe a few months ago, he would have, too. But he had changed. The realization made him more sure than ever that what he was about to do tonight was the right thing.
He’d been on edge all week, having decided not to see Colby until he talked to Rachel. He’d tried to get in touch with her earlier in the week with no success. Her secretary had said she would be in California with a client for a few days. He’d left numerous messages at her hotel, and the two times she returned his call, he had been out. This afternoon, she had shown up at Oak Hill to surprise him. And she had.
At the house, Luke went straight upstairs, leaving them alone. They walked into the kitchen, where Ian put on some coffee. “Would you like a cup?” he asked.
“You know I don’t have caffeine after six.”
“Sorry. I forgot.”
She studied him for a moment. “You’ve been forgetting a lot of things lately. Like remembering to call me.”
He met her gaze. “We have to talk, Rachel.”
“So you said in your email. That’s why I came straight here when I got it. Something is wrong, isn’t it?”
“Rachel, I don’t think there’s any easy way to say this—”
“You didn’t want to take me with you tonight,” she interrupted. “I have the distinct feeling you wouldn’t have if you hadn’t promised to be there early and open the house for your friend. After I showed up at the last minute, you could hardly leave me here.”
“Rachel—”
“It’s that woman, isn’t it?” she said. “Your little country vet.”
“Her name is Colby,” he said in a quiet voice. “And in every way that counts, this has nothing to do with her.”
“Then what does it have to do with?”
“Me. Changes.”
“If you’re talking about your life here, that’s not going to be forever. You’ll come back to New York and things will be like they always were.”
“No, they won’t. I’m different. In ways I never imagined. I arrived here a workaholic, Rachel. For too many years, I haven’t spent ten seconds thinking about anyone but myself and my work. And for that, I almost ruined my relationship with my son. Since I’ve been here, I’ve realized how much I missed out on. With Luke. . .and, well, just living.”
“Then we’ll change things when you get back,” she said quickly. “You won’t work as much. We’ll go away more.”
&nb
sp; “But that’s just it. I don’t want to keep leading a life I have to escape from.”
Rachel drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “And I’m part of that life.”
“You deserve someone who wants the same life that you want. I’m not that man anymore.”
“Stop,” she said, looking away and pressing the back of her hand to her lips. “You can deny it all you want, Ian McKinley, but you’re in love with that woman. And unfortunately, I can’t fight her, because I don’t know what her weapons are. Apparently, she has something I don’t.”
“Rachel—”
She held up a hand. “I guess I knew this was coming when I flew down here this afternoon. I just didn’t want to let myself admit it. I’ll sleep in the guest room.”
Ian stood in the dimly lit kitchen, listening to the sound of her footsteps on the stairs. He heard the bedroom door open, then click closed. He felt a wave of sadness for the hurt he’d caused her. He waited for a surge of regret to swamp him, but it never came.
49
Colby had just gotten out of the shower Saturday afternoon when the phone rang. Lena and Millie were at a track club meeting, so she grabbed a towel and ran for the bedroom.
It was Phoebe. “You sound winded,” she said.
“I just got in from the clinic a little while ago. I was in the shower. So how was your anniversary?”
“Wonderful. Better than wonderful. Oh, Colby, I’m such an idiot. All those things Frank did, the new suits, the working out, they were all for me. He thought he’d started to let himself go, and he didn’t want me to lose interest in him.”
“So much for Dr. Green’s theories, huh?”
“Yeah. Things aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes people do things for one another just because they love them, right?”
“Right,” Colby said, truly happy for her friend despite her own misery.
“I have a big favor to ask of you,” Phoebe said.
“What’s that?”
“Frank had to run to town for something at work. He’d planned to come back out to the lake, but he’s stuck there and I don’t have a ride. Could you come get me?”
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