Unable to maintain eye contact with the lawyer, Ellie dropped her gaze to the cat, who didn’t look extremely pleased with this new living arrangement.
“Viola loves that cat. She wouldn’t hand him over to just anyone,” Georgia said. “You should count yourself lucky.”
“I do,” Ellie said, then groaned inwardly. Those were the words that had put her in this position in the first place.
To Ellie’s surprise, the lawyer smiled. “Good. I’ll see myself out. Let Connor know I need his signature.”
Before Ellie could respond, Georgia picked up her brown bag and disappeared through the door, leaving her alone with the cat. In the sudden silence, Ellie bent down. “Welcome to Grayson House.” She reached out, her palm cupped and low, toward the animal in a gesture of friendship.
The cat shifted away from her.
Not friends yet.
Ellie straightened. “Okay, have it your way.” She picked up the cat food, taking it with her to the kitchen. “Maybe a little lunch might soften your mood.” Over her shoulder, she could see Zanzibar reluctantly following.
CHAPTER SIX
At five o’clock, Ellie stopped work for the day. After she’d showered and changed into a comfortable pair of leggings, a long cream-colored sweater, and her favorite brown boots, she headed for the kitchen.
On the table was a bouquet of yellow-and-orange flowers that hadn’t been there before, with a handwritten note that read:
Meeting you again was the best thing that’s happened to me all year. —C
She looked around the kitchen. Had Connor come home? Ellie moved to the back door and tried the knob. It remained locked, so she opened the door and looked outside as though expecting to see Connor waiting there. With a shake of her head, she moved back inside and closed the door, leaving it unlocked. She listened to the silence. There was no one home besides her, yet somehow flowers had magically appeared. Maybe Connor had come home during the day and had left them for her as a surprise?
A thrill moved through her that she couldn’t hold back at his thoughtful gesture. Grinning, she returned to the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea.
Sitting at the table, she admired her cleaning work, trying not to think about the fact she would have to do the very same cleaning to the second and third floors tomorrow.
Right now every surface before her glistened, even if the ugly wallpaper curled halfway down the wall, and the paint was faded and dull in each and every room. At her feet sat the cat. Zanzibar still hadn’t deigned to let her touch him, but he hadn’t left her side since arriving at the house.
They’d be friends from a distance.
The back door flew open, and Ellie whipped around to see Connor stride into the house. His presence filled the kitchen, and she suddenly realized how empty the home had been while he was gone. She’d been alone before Connor had come into her life. So why was she suddenly looking for company?
“How’d you know I’d be in the kitchen?” she asked, setting her cup down on the table.
“I didn’t.” He stepped inside and shut the door against the wind. “The front door was locked, and I forgot to bring the key with me. The doorbell is obviously broken. When I knocked, no one answered, so I thought I’d try the kitchen door.” He didn’t remove his coat. “You’ve been busy,” he said, looking around the kitchen. “Did you clean the whole house?”
“Just the first floor.”
He frowned. “Why didn’t you wait for a cleaning crew?”
She shrugged. “I’m used to being busy. I needed something to take my mind off—”
“Me?” Suddenly all his focus was on her.
“Believe it or not, I have lots of things to think about that don’t involve you, Grayson.”
“Darn,” he replied. “Because I thought about you all day.”
She was startled by his admission. “Am I supposed to be charmed?”
“I suppose that was too much to hope for.” His rueful laugh filled the kitchen as he set his messenger bag on the table. From the front pocket, a piece of sheet music slid out.
Ellie picked it up. “What’s this?”
He plucked it from her grasp before she could get a good look at the title. “You should know.” He gave her a smile that was both sexy and shy.
She frowned, not understanding.
His gaze dropped to her feet. “When did we get a cat?”
“Your grandmother’s lawyer brought him by.”
Connor bent down and ruffled the cat’s fur. “Now I recognize you. Hello, Zanzibar.”
Ellie didn’t know whether to be offended that he could pet the cat, or grateful someone could.
“Get your coat. I want to show you something.” He stood. His gaze moved from her hair to her breasts, which were barely outlined beneath her thick sweater, to her hips. There was something warm and inviting in his look.
Heat flooded Ellie’s cheeks as she stood. Hiding her face from further inspection, she hurried down the hallway to retrieve her coat. The entire way, she could feel Connor’s gaze on her back. She opened the front closet and retrieved one of the coats she’d moved there earlier today. “Where are we going?”
He offered her his arm. “I wanted to take you for a ride in the prototype of my self-driving car.”
She took his arm and walked with him out the front door. After locking the door, she allowed him to lead her down the front stairs. “They let you take the car home?”
“It’s my car. So far all the funding has been mine, until Viola stepped up. Then today another amazing thing happened.” He stopped before the small white car and opened the door.
“What happened?” she asked as she slipped into the passenger side, slightly uncomfortable that there was no steering wheel or any other visible electronics that would give the occupant control over the car.
He joined her on what would have been the driver’s side. “The CEO of Microtech came to the lab today. He congratulated us on our marriage.”
“How did he know we were married? Nobody in Washington knows but your father, Viola, and Jordan.”
Connor twisted toward her. “He said he read about it in the Seattle Gazette.”
Ellie’s heart dropped to her toes. How did that happen so quickly? They’d been married for only two days. “Somebody leaked the news to the press?” Did her parents see it? Oh heavens, she’d catch so much guff from them.
“Looks like they did,” he replied with a pleased smile. “Whoever it was had to have high-level connections in order to get the announcement in so quickly.”
“I don’t know anyone with connections like that. Do you?”
“No.”
Ellie brought her fingers to her temples, trying to hold back the headache that threatened. “What did the CEO want?”
Connor’s eyes brightened. “He said he likes to work with family men. Not only did he offer me financial support, but he also wants to partner with my University of Washington development team, using his company’s proprietary software for the onboard computer. With Microtech’s support, we’ll be further into development than any of the other designs out there. If we’re first to market, it will mean billions in sales. And I hold the majority of the patents.”
“I’m really happy that everything you’ve worked so hard for is paying off. What an incredible feat to build the first successful self-driving car.” The words were sincere, yet at the moment fear blinded her to all else. Her parents would be upset to learn about her marriage in the newspaper. And when she told them she would be divorced soon, they would be disappointed in her—again. She’d been living under a veil of disappointment for so long, she wondered why she even tried to please them anymore. They’d wanted a son. They’d even had a name picked out: Edward. How many times had she heard the tales? They’d planned to have a second child, but her mother’s pregnancies never held after Ellie was born. After five miscarriages, her parents had finally given up. And they’d resigned themselves to having only a daughter.
Even though she knew they wouldn’t be pleased that she’d disappointed them once again, she had to see them to explain. “How do you drive this thing?”
“You don’t.” He gave her a cocky smile. “It’s a self-driving car.”
She sighed, her irritation growing. “How do you make it go where you want?”
He pointed to a speaker on the dashboard. “You talk to the onboard computer. Where do you want to go?”
She gave him the address but didn’t tell him exactly where they were headed. Maybe he’d remember her old address from so long ago. He’d met her parents before. Initially they’d liked him, until he’d broken their only daughter’s heart.
The car started forward, merging with traffic. A shiver of apprehension worked its way across her neck. How strange to let a machine have total control over your safety. Although, as they moved down Aloha Avenue, she was almost certain she could walk faster than the car was driving. “Why is it going so slow?”
“We’re working on accuracy, not speed at the moment,” he explained. “I’ve received a few tickets in this prototype for driving too slow.”
“I can believe that.” Thank goodness her parents didn’t live too far away or it might take hours to get to their destination. A lifetime later, they arrived at the address Ellie had given Connor. The car parallel-parked on the street across from Volunteer Park’s north side and in front of her parents’ house.
“Are we going to the park?” Connor asked as his brows knit in confusion.
“No,” she said, opening the car door and getting out. “You’re meeting my parents. Again.”
His face paled. “You could have warned me.”
“And let you talk your way out of it? Not a chance.” She grabbed his hand and almost pulled him up the driveway. Porch lights illuminated their way, revealing a crisply cut lawn and tidy flower beds. Fall color dappled the leaves on the trees while rambling rosebushes offered late blooms and a sweet scent to the early evening air.
They made their way up the stairway to the redbrick house. The house had been built in the 1920s in the Tudor style. Her parents had purchased the home thirty years ago. They’d remodeled once, updating the electrical and plumbing, and expanded the kitchen and family room at the back of the house.
Instead of walking in, as she would have usually done, she rang the doorbell. It seemed as if she should, given that she was bringing not just her boyfriend but her husband to the house.
“In all the time we were together our senior year, you only brought me over here a few times. Will your parents even remember me?” She could hear the fear in his voice.
“I doubt you have anything to worry about. They will be so focused on me and how much I’ve disappointed them by not telling them about our marriage that they’ll probably not even notice you.”
“What are your parents doing now?” Connor asked with a hint of anxiousness as they waited.
“Dad is still an engineer, building planes. Mom changed jobs a few years ago and now works as an accountant with a firm downtown.” They were not wealthy by any means, but they were comfortable.
“Why will your parents be disappointed?” Connor asked as they heard footsteps approaching the door.
“I’ve never felt like I was enough,” Ellie said, leaving her explanation at that. Connor would learn the truth soon enough.
The door opened, revealing her mother. Julie Hawthorne looked at the two of them in surprise at first; then her sharp, hazel-brown eyes shifted from Ellie to Connor and back again. “Ellie, sweetie, so good to see you.” Her mother came forward to greet her with a kiss on the cheek. “And Connor Grayson.” She turned to him. “You’ve definitely changed for the better over the years.”
“Mom,” Ellie groaned.
Her mother relaxed. “I must say this is a surprise, even though we already read about your marriage in this morning’s newspaper.”
Ellie felt the blood rush from her face. They were too late. “I can explain.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” her mother asked, stepping aside for the two of them to enter. Surprisingly, there was no judgment in her voice.
“It happened so quickly—”
“Not the marriage, dear. Why didn’t you tell us you were dating Connor?”
Ellie was momentarily taken aback; her mother seemed less disturbed about the marriage than the details of her dating life.
Connor stepped forward and took Julie’s hands in his. “We didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up in case things didn’t work out between us again,” he said with his most charming smile. “My grandmother felt the same way—a little surprised but ultimately happy Ellie and I found each other again after all these years.”
Her mother blushed. “Ellie always said you were a charmer.”
“Mother!” Ellie groaned again. She didn’t need to tell him that detail from the past.
“Don’t ‘Mother’ me. It’s true, and you know it.” Her mother hooked her arm through Connor’s and led him farther into the house, toward the family room, where they would no doubt find her dad. “James, look who stopped by,” she called as they walked.
Ellie followed along. At least her mother wasn’t angry with her about their secret wedding. Instead, she seemed enchanted by her charming son-in-law. He was charming when he wanted to be, Ellie conceded, but her parents also knew he was the boy who’d broken her heart.
They entered the family room, and her father was just where she suspected he’d be—sitting at his hobby table, tying flies along a mechanical arm for his next fishing trip. He stopped and regarded Connor with a great deal of interest.
“Dad, do you remember Connor Grayson?”
He left his hobby table to come around and shake Connor’s hand. “Nice to see you again, son. It’s been a long time.”
“That was entirely my fault, I’m afraid,” Connor said without looking at Ellie. “You know teenage boys. They get their priorities all wrong.”
Her father’s laugh grated over her as she stood frozen, unable to dredge up a coherent thought. Had Connor just apologized for abandoning her? Or was he making excuses? If only he would look at her. And then he did.
In his eyes she saw the truth. He was sorry for leaving her alone.
Pain snagged her heart and tears stung her eyes, but she forced them back, refusing to let her emotions get the best of her in front of him, in front of her parents. She focused on her mother, who scooped up the morning’s newspaper from the coffee table. It was open to the announcements page. She’d circled the news about Ellie and Connor in red pen.
“Oh, Ellie. This is the best news we’ve had in a long time.” Her mother thrust the paper into Ellie’s hands. “We couldn’t be happier.”
Ellie clutched the paper, scanning the announcement. Her parents’ reaction wasn’t what she’d imagined at all. “I don’t understand. I thought you’d be angry I got married without telling you, without you even being there.”
Her dad patted her arm. “Sweetheart, don’t take this the wrong way, but ever since you started that event-planning business of yours, where you’ve planned such extravagant weddings for others, I’ve lived in terror of how your mother and I would ever afford any wedding you wanted to have. You did want something on a grand scale, right?”
He didn’t wait for her answer as he plowed right on. “By getting married in Las Vegas, you just saved us thousands of dollars. We were so excited to read your announcement in this morning’s paper that we booked a cruise with the money we’d saved. We’re finally going to one of the places on our bucket list.”
On wooden legs, Ellie moved to the couch to sink into the plush cushions. She took a deep breath, then another, with an exaggerated calm she didn’t feel. What was happening? Who had swapped her parents with aliens?
The realization hit as she watched her dad not only lead Connor over to his hobby table but sit him down in front of his latest creation and encourage him to try his hand at tying a fly. Her father now h
ad the son he’d always wanted.
“I’m calling this one a pinkie,” James said. “It’s a combination of bucktail and pink ostrich feathers. The fish will love it.” Her dad bent over and showed his new son-in-law how to wrap the ostrich feathers around the hook shank. “Do you fish, son?”
“No,” Connor replied with a laugh. “I’ve been in laboratories most of my life. There are no rivers or lakes there.”
James clapped Connor on the back in a friendly, fatherly way. “Well, you’ll have to go fishing with me this coming weekend. The season is winding down. Clear your schedule for Sunday. I’ll pick you up at four a.m. We’ll try this little baby out.”
“That early?”
Her dad studied Connor with increasing contentment. “That’s when the fish are biting, son.”
Ellie scowled. Her parents knew her history with Connor, yet none of that seemed to matter. In fact, having her parents like Connor so intensely would only make their eventual divorce that much worse. They would blame her for the failure, for not giving the marriage her all.
Coming here was a big mistake.
“Ellie,” her mother said, coming to stand before her, “do you have a minute for a walk in the garden?”
This was the mother she was more used to—the one who would speak to her in private about her mistakes. Even though she’d expected such a response, Ellie’s stomach fluttered with nerves as she stood and followed her from the room.
Her mom stopped beside a back doorway and handed Ellie one of her old sweaters that still hung on a rack. “You’ll need this.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Slipping the sweater over her shoulders, Ellie followed her mother out into the cool evening air. Shades of pink and lavender and blue blurred the edges of the day as it turned into night.
They walked in companionable silence as they made their way across the huge expanse of green grass that made up the backyard. With every step, Ellie’s nerves coiled tighter and tighter. What did her mom want to talk about that they had to discuss alone?
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