She stooped down to Lily’s level. “I appreciate you voting for me, Lily, I really do. But I think your daddy wants to spend some fun time with you and your Grandma.” She’d come along today to see Lily’s reaction when she found out about the tickets and to soak in a little more of the warmth that was part of Luke’s family. But now, she told herself, it was time to retreat. “I’ll be going now,” she said, making her way to the door.
“I drove you here,” he reminded her.
Caught up in the moment, Kayley had forgotten that. “I can call a cab or an Uber,” she told him.
“Now you’re just trying to hurt my feelings,” he replied, circling around Lily and coming up to her.
“Your feelings?” she echoed. She had no idea what he was talking about.
“Yes. You’re leaving before I had a chance to vote,” he said. After pausing for a moment to let his words sink in, he went on to say, “I vote yes.”
Lily immediately began to jump up and down, clapping her hands together. “That means it’s uni-muss,” she exclaimed.
If Kayley’s smile had been any larger, it’d have been in danger of cracking her face, Luke thought, totally captivated. He was also trying not to laugh at his daughter.
“You mean unanimous,” he said to her.
“Yeah, that word,” Lily agreed without missing a beat. She swung around to look up at Kayley. “You have to come, Kayley. Say you’ll come,” she insisted, taking her hand and holding it the same way she had done with her father.
Kayley gave it one more try. “And there’s no little friend you’d want to go with you instead of me?” she asked.
“You’re not so little,” Lily agreed, “but you’re my best friend and there’s nobody else I want to go with us to that happy place. Please?” she said again.
“I guess then it’s settled,” Kayley said. In case there was any doubt of what she was saying, she told Lily, “Yes, I’d love to go with you.”
Again, Lily cheered, this time with such zeal Kayley knew there was no backtracking from the agreement, even if she’d wanted to. Which she didn’t.
“By the way,” Luke told his daughter and his mother-in-law, “it was Kayley who got the family pack for us. So technically, we are her guests, not the other way around.”
Lily threw her arms around Kayley, managing only to get up as high as Kayley’s hips. She hugged the woman for all she was worth.
And then, abruptly, Lily spoke up. “You need to marry Kayley, Daddy, so we can keep her forever and ever and she won’t go away.” She turned to look at her father to see how he received her suggestion. She didn’t notice that her suggestion had caused her idol to turn a really bright shade of red.
“It certainly is something to think about,” Luke told his daughter in a bemused voice.
“We can vote on it,” Lily responded, excited and fresh off her victory.
It was Luke’s mother-in-law who stepped in this time. “This isn’t something we can vote on, Lily,” she told the little girl gently. “This is something for your daddy and Kayley to decide.”
Resigned, Lily nodded, and then glanced hopefully over toward her father. “Can I tell you how I’d vote if I could vote?” she asked.
He laughed, kissing the top of Lily’s head. “I think I know how you’d vote,” he told his daughter.
Lily looked at him wide eyed. “You kissed the top of my head, Daddy. You never kiss the top of my head. Kayley does that.”
His eyes locked with Kayley’s. “Maybe I’m picking up her habits,” he said.
“How about some brunch?” Barbara suggested, tactfully intruding on the moment. “I’m in the mood to do some cooking. Anyone up for doing some eating?”
“Me!” Lily cried, raising her hand and waving it.
“Looks like the ‘mes’ carry it,” Luke said fondly, taking his daughter’s hand.
Smiling up at him, Lily reached for Kayley’s hand, as well, before they all headed to the kitchen.
It wasn’t lost on Luke, not the way he felt, not the way his daughter reacted. All of this was made possible because of Kayley. She’d opened his eyes, making him realize the way he’d held back from connecting with his daughter, as well as the way he had withdrawn from life.
There was no doubt about it. With her sometimes-annoying optimism and irritating ways of doing things, she’d made him a better father, a better doctor and, in general, a better man.
A man who was taking small, halting steps back to rejoining life.
* * *
He kept it to himself for a while, but with each passing day, Luke was more and more certain that he was right. He was a changed man, a happier man, because of Kayley.
And he needed to tell her so.
He chose his moment when they were alone.
“You’re staring at me,” Kayley said one evening as they lay in her bed after they had made love—something that was happening with more and more frequency, much to her happiness. Because it was so special to her, she was afraid that it was going to end, but until it did, she planned to enjoy every single second of it. “Are you trying to find a way to tell me something?”
He was toying with the ends of her hair, just as he’d done before. “Yes.”
The second he’d answered her, Kayley’s heart shot into her throat and not in a good way. She could feel it throbbing there.
“I take it it’s not that you’ve decided to postpone that amusement-park trip. Lily is really looking forward to it,” she added, wanting to focus his attention on that.
“No, the trip is still on for next Friday,” Luke said.
“Would you like me to give up my ticket to someone else?” she guessed. Maybe he was trying to find a way to ask her because he wanted to bring along someone else in her place.
“No.”
“You’re going to say something more serious, then,” Kayley guessed, doing her best not to panic or lose her grip on her emotions.
“Yes.”
This was bad, Kayley thought. Luke was responding in monosyllables, the way he used to when they first began working together. And then it hit her. He was trying to find a way to tell her that it was over between them. That whatever they’d had had run its course but Lily was getting too attached to her and he just couldn’t stand by any longer and allow that to happen.
Kayley’s hands turned icy. She didn’t want to force this discussion. If she was being honest with herself, all she wanted to do was run from it. But if she did, it was going to hang over her head the entire time until they had it out.
She might as well face up to what she knew was about to happen.
“I’ll make it easy for you,” she told Luke.
“That’s a first,” he couldn’t help commenting. No matter how he looked at it, there was nothing “easy” about the woman he’d found himself in love with.
Kayley took a deep breath and then said, “I’ll resign at the end of the week.”
Her announcement caught him completely off guard. “Wait, what?” Luke cried, stunned. He stared at her in disbelief. “You’re quitting?”
“That’s what resign usually means.” Each word felt as if it were burning on her tongue as she uttered it.
Had he missed something? He tried to make sense of what she’d just told him. “Aren’t you happy at the office?”
How could he even ask that? She’d done nothing but grin since she’d entered the place. “I’m supremely happy there.”
He went through reasons why she would leave. “Did you get a better offer?”
Kayley smiled at him sadly. It took everything she had not to just curl up against him, seeking shelter. But that would only prolong the inevitable. “There is no better offer.”
Okay, he gave up. “Then why are you leaving?”
&n
bsp; Why was he making her spell it out for him? “Because you want me to.”
He stared at her, as close to dumbfounded as he’d ever been.
“Unless we’ve slipped into an alternate universe, no. Where did you get such a ridiculous idea?” Luke asked.
“I just thought—I mean, I felt—” Kayley was absolutely tongue-tied. Words were simply not coming out the way she wanted them to. “Then you don’t want me to leave?”
“Hell, no,” he declared, then told her with a straight face, “You’re the best physician’s assistant I’ve ever had.”
She assumed he was being serious as well as honest. “But you want me to keep out of your private life,” she guessed.
“You really are batting zero tonight, aren’t you?” he laughed. And then he pulled her closer to him, taking comfort from the way the heat of their bodies blended. “Look, I might have wanted you to stay away at one point, but if you did that now, I’d feel as if my life was caving in.” He gently caressed her cheek. “I went through that once. I barely made it out alive. I don’t think I’m up to handling that again. In fact, I know I’m not.”
Kayley felt a tiny spark of hope begin to flutter its wings within her chest. “Then you don’t want me to leave?”
“No,” he told her emphatically, “I don’t.”
Relief flooded through her veins so quickly it almost made her dizzy. She wanted to throw her arms around him and hug and kiss him until the end of time, but she held back until she could get him to answer one question. “But when I turned toward you, you looked like you wanted to say something to me.”
“I did. I do.” Why was this so hard? “Something serious.”
Kayley braced herself, though now that she knew he wasn’t going to ask her to leave, she thought she could weather anything. “What was it?”
“I want to ask you if you would consider—not now, but someday when you’re ready,” he qualified nervously “—if you would consider marrying me.”
Maybe her heart was hammering too hard and she’d misheard him. “What?” she cried.
He tried again, but he felt his nerve ebbing. He’d faced down armed militants in Afghanistan, but a slip of a thing, naked to boot, made him break out in a cold nervous sweat.
“Like I said, not now, but someday when you’re ready,” he qualified again. “It’s just that you’ve made me want to live again, Kayley. With that cheery commando approach of yours, you’ve made me happy and, quite honestly, I can’t imagine life without you. And neither, I know, can Lily. So if—”
Kayley stopped him by putting her fingers against his lips. He looked at her, confused.
“I never thought I’d say this to you,” Kayley told him, “but you talk too much.” Withdrawing her fingers, she said, “Yes.”
“Yes?” he asked uncertainly.
She laughed. He was adorable when he looked so confused. “Yes, I’ll consider marrying you.”
“When?” he asked, as close to speechless as he’d ever been.
“Anytime you want,” she answered. “In the amusement park, if that works for you.”
He laughed, envisioning that. “Lily would be thrilled.”
“So would I—as long as you’re the man on the other side of I do.”
“Count on it,” he told her just before he sealed their verbal agreement with an extremely long, extremely passionate kiss.
Epilogue
Maizie beamed at the young woman sitting on the other side of her desk. Kayley had all but floated into her real estate office less than a minute ago. Before she had even taken a seat, Kayley had asked if she would be willing to give her away at her wedding, adding that she and Luke were getting married.
Thrilled, Maizie had hugged her.
“This is wonderful news, Kayley, and I am absolutely overjoyed for you,” Maizie said with enthusiasm. “I am also very touched and honored by your request, but I must confess, I’m also a little confused as to why you would ask me to give you away at the ceremony.”
Kayley’s eyes crinkled as she smiled at her. “I think you know why.”
Maizie took her best guess. “It’s because I told you that Lucas was looking for a physician’s assistant, isn’t it?”
“Well, that’s partially it,” Kayley replied, but it was obvious that wasn’t the real reason.
Maizie thought for a moment. “And it’s because I’m your godmother,” she concluded.
Kayley inclined her head. “There’s that, too,” she allowed.
Maizie looked at her goddaughter, puzzled. “There’s more?”
Instead of answering, Kayley opened her purse, took something out and placed it on Maizie’s desk. She pushed it toward her godmother with the tip of her finger. “There’s this.”
Maizie looked at what Kayley was referring to. She raised her eyes to meet her goddaughter’s. “A penny?” she asked innocently.
Kayley smiled broadly. “One of many, all of which would mysteriously turn up right in my path at the most unexpected moments.” She continued watching her godmother.
“I don’t think I understand,” Maizie confessed. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Oh, Aunt Maizie, you are the only other person who knew my mother’s penchant for believing that finding a penny was good luck. You also knew that she promised to always watch over me and that she’d drop a penny in my path to tell me that she was there, doing just that. Watching over me.”
Maizie looked at her, wide eyed. “You mean you kept finding pennies on the ground?”
“On my driveway, by my car, in front of Luke’s building. It seemed like every time something of importance was happening, there was a penny right in front of my feet.”
“My goodness, imagine that,” Maizie marveled.
Kayley laughed as she leaned forward and put her hand over Maizie’s. “I love you, Aunt Maizie, but you would have never made it as an actress.”
“Well, lucky for me, I don’t have to,” Maizie replied with a wink. “And, if the offer’s still on the table, I would love to give you away.”
A wave of emotion came over her. “Mother would have liked that,” Kayley told her.
* * *
“Now, remember,” Barbara told her granddaughter moments before the wedding march was about to begin, “don’t dump all the rose petals all at once. You need to slowly scatter them all the way to the altar.”
Lily raised her chin with a touch of indignation. “I know that,” she answered. “I’m not a little kid, Grandma.”
“Yes, I know,” Barbara replied, doing her best to keep a straight face. And then she drew in her breath as she saw Kayley and her godmother come up behind the little girl. “Oh my Lord, you look beautiful,” she told Kayley in a whisper, afraid that her voice would crack if she spoke any louder. Memories of how her own daughter had looked on this special day vied with what was right before her eyes now.
Barbara blinked back tears.
Lily glanced over her shoulder to see what her grandmother was looking at and smiled.
Just then, the first strains of the wedding march were heard.
“That’s us!” Lily declared, and began to walk toward the altar, carefully strewing the rose petals before her as she went.
Maizie glanced over to where Theresa and Cilia were sitting toward the back of the church. Both women gave her the high sign. They’d done it again. They’d managed to successfully bring together another couple. Their record continued undefeated.
“Nervous, dear?” Maizie whispered, looking at the vision that was her goddaughter.
Kayley shook her head. “Oddly enough, no, not at all.”
“I wish your mother was here to see this,” Maizie told her wistfully.
“I do, too,” Kayley said. At that moment, aft
er taking a total of three steps, Lily stopped moving forward. “What’s the matter, Lily?” she asked, wondering if the little girl had suddenly come down with a case of stage fright. It had been known to happen.
Stooping down, Lily picked something up and turned around to show it to the woman who was going to be her new mother. “Somebody dropped a penny right where I have to scatter the rose petals.”
“Let me have it, dear,” Kayley said, taking it from the girl.
“Looks like your mother’s here after all,” Maizie whispered to her.
“You didn’t plant this?” Kayley asked.
“How could I? I was back here with you the whole time,” Maizie pointed out.
“Oh.” Kayley blinked back tears as they continued making their way to the altar. Maizie was right. Her mother was here.
Kayley kept her eyes focused on the man standing at the front of the altar, waiting for her.
Thank you, Mom. He’s perfect, Kayley thought as she came to stand beside Luke.
Watching her every move, he’d seen Kayley stop and seen his daughter hand something to his bride. “Everything all right?” he whispered.
“Couldn’t be more perfect,” Kayley answered as they turned to face the priest.
Luke’s eyes caressed her face as he said, “My thoughts exactly.”
The priest began to recite the vows that would bind them to one another forever.
* * * * *
Don’t miss Marie Ferrarella’s next book for Harlequin Special Edition, THE MAVERICK’S RETURN, the fourth book of the MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE GREAT FAMILY ROUNDUP continuity, available October 2017!
And while you wait, check out some of the other MATCHMAKING MAMAS books:
MEANT TO BE MINE
TWICE A HERO, ALWAYS HER MAN
DR. FORGET-ME-NOT
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Keep reading for an excerpt from SERENITY HARBOR by RaeAnne Thayne.
A Second Chance for the Single Dad Page 17
