She pulled the door open.
“Rand.”
It came out as a whisper. He was wearing a suit. A gray one, with a blue tie that nearly matched his eyes. She’d never seen him that dressed up. She’d always thought him beautiful, but now, for the first time, she saw him as others must see him, and it made her wonder if she was crazy, that maybe he hadn’t meant what he’d said at all.
“Glad you didn’t forget me already,” he said.
She sighed. “I guess I had that coming.”
“No.” He echoed her sigh. “No, you didn’t. And that’s not how I meant to start.”
“I didn’t expect you to come back,” she said.
“I didn’t leave for good, you know,” he said. “I just needed to figure out what to do.”
“Rand, I—”
He held up a hand. “Let me say one thing first.” She nodded. “I can’t just walk away. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it work, Kate. Whatever it takes.”
She’d never heard such a fervent promise. The passion and certainty behind it took her breath away and she couldn’t speak. She’d thought she’d lost it all, yet here he was, handing it all back to her.
She knew now she didn’t believe what had happened between them could be faked. In fact she knew it hadn’t been, for the simple reason that he’d been so furious that she might have been in danger. It had taken her a while to realize it was her taking the risk that had set him off, and that was all the evidence she needed to prove that she was right. He did care, genuinely. And she also knew just how much she cared. Knew she’d slipped past simple caring and into love some time ago.
When she didn’t speak, Rand sucked in a breath. Then he turned, looked over his shoulder, and made a summoning gesture. Only then did she notice that not only was there a car in her driveway—one she’d never seen before, and so assumed it was a new rental—but there were two people in it. Apparently in response to Rand’s wave, they were getting out and starting to walk up the drive.
She glanced at Rand, but there was no hint of explanation in his expression. She looked back at the approaching couple. It struck her then, looking at the woman. Kate’s eyes widened. She looked from the woman to Rand, and then back again. And then back to Rand again.
“‘We kind of look alike’?” she said.
The couple reached them in time to hear her words. The woman laughed as she held out a hand. “Hello, Kate. Nice to meet you.”
“Samantha Gamble, I presume,” Kate said dryly.
The resemblance was truly remarkable. The woman was tall, slender, with hair the same rare platinum shade of blond as Rand. And even more amazing, her eyes were nearly the same bright cobalt shade of blue.
“How did you guess?” she asked, with a grin so engaging that Kate couldn’t help but smile back. Then she held a hand out to the man beside her. “This is my husband, Ian.”
Kate took the man’s outstretched hand and shook it. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you. And an honor.”
The man looked embarrassed. Ian Gamble was nobody’s image of what an inventor would look like. She knew from what Rand had told her he had to be brilliant, and she couldn’t deny the intelligence gleaming in the green eyes behind the wire-rimmed glasses. But the thick mop of sandy hair softened the image, and with his sweet, rather shy smile, she could see why a woman as gorgeous as Samantha would fall for him.
“We’re Rand’s reinforcements,” Samantha said.
“Reinforcements?” she asked, shifting her gaze back to Rand.
He nodded. “I defy you to find any couple more mismatched than these two.”
“It’s true,” Ian said. “We’re the original odd couple.”
“We have very little in common,” Samantha agreed. “But what we do have is the one thing that’s most important. We are,” she said with unmistakable conviction, “crazy about each other.”
“Completely,” Ian said. He looked at his wife and added softly, “Even though sometimes I still can’t believe she’s really with me.”
There was such love in his tone that Kate felt a fierce longing she’d never known before. And Samantha was looking back at him with the same kind of love glowing in her face. Then she looked at Kate and spoke.
“And Ian had to get over a lot of stuff. We met the same way you and Rand did. I was undercover, and had to lie to him about who I was and why I was there.”
Kate’s gaze snapped to Ian. He nodded. “It was hard to get past. I was pretty angry.”
“I wasn’t angry,” Kate said. “I just felt like a fool.”
Ian gave her a rueful smile. “I can relate to that, too.” He looked at Samantha again. “But that’s history. Now I’m the happiest and luckiest man in the world.”
“Which is good, since you’re married to the happiest and luckiest woman in the world,” Samantha said.
“So, you get my point?” Rand asked.
Kate turned to him then. “Oh, yes, I do. But I have something very difficult to tell you.”
Rand drew back. His expression became carefully neutral. Ian and Samantha glanced at each other, concern showing on both their faces.
“You’ve wasted a lot of your time,” Kate said. “All of you.”
Rand let out a long breath. “Kate—”
She held up a hand, palm out, just as he had when he’d first arrived. His words stopped. She reached behind her and pulled a piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jeans. She unfolded it and handed it to him. For a moment he didn’t switch his gaze from her face, but then looked down to the paper. She saw his eyes dart as he scanned the page. Then he looked up at her.
“I was coming to you,” she said softly. “I already knew I’d made a very, very big mistake.”
Rand looked once more at the printout of her flight reservation. And then at her.
“Well, thank goodness,” Samantha said with a laugh. “I thought I was going to have to go into my hard sell about what a great guy Rand is, and I have trouble doing that with a straight face.”
“Thanks, partner,” Rand said dryly.
“Hey, I was ready,” Samantha said. “I was going to tell her about you getting the health fair expanded and everything.”
Kate’s eyes widened, and she turned her head to stare at Rand. “You were behind that?”
Rand looked sheepish. “You weren’t supposed to find that out.”
For a moment Kate just looked at him. Then Ian tapped his arm.
“Keys,” he said.
Rand looked at him, forehead creased in puzzlement.
“Car keys,” Ian said patiently. “So we can leave you two alone. You obviously don’t need us, and you do have some…talking to do, don’t you?”
Still silent, Rand pulled a key on a ring with a plastic rental agency tag out of his pocket and dropped it in Ian’s extended hand.
Unexpectedly, Sam leaned over and gave Kate an enthusiastic hug. “Let me know when you’re ready to start planning.”
“Planning?”
Samantha grinned. “Yep. Redstone throws a mean wedding.”
“That they do,” Ian said.
The couple she already liked laughed as they walked back to the rental car. Halfway there they linked arms, and paused for a brief kiss. Kate couldn’t help smiling. Then she looked back at Rand.
“Wedding?” she asked.
“I love you, and I won’t settle for anything less than the best Redstone wedding yet.”
Kate felt her eyes begin to sting with tears. “I love you, too.”
“You know what I can’t wait for?” Rand asked.
Kate could think of several things she herself couldn’t wait for, a lot of them involving him being naked.
“Besides what you just thought of,” he said, making her blush at what must have shown in her face, “and spending the rest of my life with you.”
Her voice was husky when she asked, “What?”
“To have my new grandparents-in-law.”
Kate felt a
wave of love for this man well up inside her. “Then I suppose I’d better say yes.”
He held up her airline reservation. “Katy, my love, I think you already did.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6790-3
IN HIS SIGHTS
Copyright © 2004 by Janice Davis Smith
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
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*Trinity Street West
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†Redstone, Incorporated
†Redstone, Incorporated
†Redstone, Incorporated
*Trinity Street West
In His Sights Page 21
