by Lowe, Fiona
His hands raked through his hair, raising it into blond spikes. “You said you wanted a summer by the lake to relax but you’re so tense you’re about to explode, and you’re jamming my inbox with emails about the color of cake boxes.”
He sighed and sadness ringed him. “We used to talk about everything from French literature to the manufacture of paper, but for weeks it’s been like living with an event planner who doesn’t have a life. You do realize if you keep going this way you’re going to get labeled Bridezilla.”
The word whipped her, cutting deeply and she ground out, “One of us has to care enough to plan our wedding. Our future.”
His kind eyes flared with anger. “You’re saying I don’t care?”
Yes. “What am I supposed to say? Every time I want to talk about the wedding you brush me aside or you say, ‘you decide’ or worse still, you question me in front of our parents. I’m starting to think you don’t want to get married at all.” Her worst fears clung to the words which had shot out without warning. A tremble started in her toes, quickly spreading to her entire body.
“Not if it’s going to be like this for the next twelve months, I don’t,” he muttered.
His words broke over her, sucking the breath from her lungs. “I knew it.”
He pushed his glasses up his nose and when he spoke his voice was tired. “Bridey, come on. Don’t be ridiculous.”
She rolled her shoulders back and clenched her hands into tight fists by her side, finally asking the question that had been plaguing her for weeks. “Hank, have you ever loved me?”
His eyes darkened as black discs of shock absorbed the honey warmth of his eyes. “What the hell sort of a question is that?”
Her heart hammered hard and her head spun dizzily from all the hurt which poured out of her. “A very real one. I proposed to you, Hank. Me. I had to ask you to marry me and now I’m not getting any signs from you that you care about me or the wedding at all.” Her voice started to crack. “And you can’t deny it. I mean, you program your phone so you don’t forget to call me at night. What does that say about us?”
Her legs shook so much she had to lock her knees. “You’re not upset that our vacation’s been lost and last weekend you did everything possible to avoid spending time with me. I’ve done the math, Hank, so sue me if those aren’t enough reasons for me to ask the question.”
“You want me to apologize for spending last weekend with your family?” Disbelief scored his face and he slowly put the glass down. When he spoke, his voice was eerily quiet. “You seem to have it all worked out, Bridey, so tell me your theory on why I accepted your proposal?”
She spun her engagement ring around until the diamond cut into her palm but the pain didn’t hurt as much as what she said. “For AKP.”
He stared at her for a long moment and she watched his eyes fill with pain—pain she’d just put there. It tore back through her, searing her and shattering her heart. Oh, God, what had she just gone and done? But she knew exactly. She’d got everything horribly, horribly wrong. She’d let all her insecurities and fears come between them and now she’d driven Hank away.
He turned from her and gripped the mantelpiece, his shoulders rising and falling as if he’d just run a marathon and was left gasping for breath. Her own lungs cramped so hard they refused to move air and she stared at his back, feeling powerless and unable to speak. She didn’t know how to fix this. “Sorry” didn’t sound like nearly enough.
When he finally spoke, he still didn’t look at her. “Do you really believe that I chose you because of work?”
She wrung her hands and emotional fatigue threatened to drag her into a heap on the floor. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. All I know is that I was the one who pushed for us to get married and with each passing day you seem to move further away from me.”
He raised his head and turned back to face her. His eyes, which had always been so warm, were clouded with the swirl of ragged emotions. “Do you still love me, Bridey?”
She didn’t have to think. “Yes. Of course I do.”
“Thank God.” He strode over to her and pulled her in close. “Bridey, I love you. Please know that I love you.”
She sagged against him in relief and his arms tightened around her.
He gazed into her eyes. “I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you walk onto the floor with your father in those shoes that belonged on a catwalk rather than a factory floor.”
His emotion spun around her and she stared at him, stunned. “Then why did I have to do all the running? Why didn’t you ever ask me out?”
He stroked her cheek. “It’s not easy being the chief engineer in a billion-dollar company and in love with the boss’s only daughter when even she has occasional thoughts that I only want her for the power and prestige.”
Her head fell onto his shoulder and her battered heart tried to beat more steadily. “Oh, Hank. I’m so sorry. I just wanted everything to be perfect. Insurance. But all I’ve done is make a mess of it all. No one would believe I’m an academic when I’ve been behaving like such a silly fool.”
His hand trailed up and down her back. “To me you’re the quintessential modern woman. You’re smart, intelligent and you know what you want, which is why I thought it was wonderful that you proposed to me.” He stroked her hair. “Had I realized it had you so worried, I would have told you this story earlier. Do you remember the celebratory dinner we had the night after you proposed?”
“At Le Luna? Of course I do, it was amazing. I could never work out how you got us a table at such short notice.” Suddenly things fell into place and she gasped.
He nodded. “The night you proposed, you beat me out by twenty-four hours. I’d booked the restaurant a month prior because I’d planned to ask you to marry me.” He gave a wry smile. “Mom and Dad are right. I don’t make decisions in a hurry, but when I finally make them, I make them for keeps.”
“Oh, Hank. I’m so sorry I ruined your plans.”
“No, don’t be sorry for that.” He shook his head emphatically. “I saw it as a sign of us being in sync and ready to move forward with our lives. You gave me what I wanted most in the world.”
He led her to the couch and sat her down. “Bridey, I love you with all my heart, but how did we get to this place tonight? Things have slowly been building to this since we got engaged and I don’t ever want to come here again, so let’s talk.”
“You’re right—we need to talk. Where do we start?”
“With your hurt. You said you think I set my phone so I remember to call you. That’s not the reason at all. Usually, I’ve wanted to call you at least four other times in the day but work’s been frantic. I set my phone for seven because if I’m still at work and the day’s gone to hell in a handbasket, everyone on the floor knows that from 7:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., I’m completely unavailable to everyone except you.”
Her heart lurched. How could she have been so stupid to think he didn’t love her? Just like a light being shone into a dark corner, she could now see her recent behavior clearly. “You’re right, Hank. I’ve been obsessed and I almost let it ruin everything.”
She took in a steadying breath as she realized how close she’d come to losing him and tried to explain. “I was scared. Mom and Dad had a shotgun wedding and it ended, well, you know how it ended.” She sighed. “I got this idea in my head that if our engagement and wedding were perfect then it would be like insurance and we’d be together forever. Just saying the
words out loud makes me realize how dumb it was and how crazy I’ve been.”
He slid his hand along her cheek. “I’m sorry I’ve been distracted with work and I know I’m not very good at telling you I love you, but I do. From this moment onward, I’m going to be telling you every day and every night, but, Bridey, there’s more to love than words.”
“I know, but my filter’s been out of focus and it fuzzed up everything.”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Last weekend, all I wanted was to be with you, but you’ve been telling me for two months now how important this family vacation is to you, so I made sure I spent time with your family. I was trying to bond outside of work.” He gave her an ironic smile. “Granted, I probably overdid it some, and I’m never drinking a mint julep again.”
She laughed. “Overdoing things is a Callahan trait.”
“Very true. The reason I spent so much time with your dad, Logan, Finn and your mom was because I wanted to get to know them. For you.”
Her heart expanded so much she thought it would burst and she hugged him hard. “I don’t deserve you.”
He teased her with dancing eyes. “Probably not.” Then his face sobered. “Bridey, we have to keep talking. The way we always did before we got engaged. If you’re happy, sad, worried, scared, I need to know.”
She nodded, absolutely secure in his love. “You’re right. I’ve missed us.”
“Me too.” He ran his thumb over the diamond on her engagement ring. “You and I are not your parents, Bridey. We’re us, and we do things our way. I want you to be happy because the last two years with you have been the best of my life. The next fifty will be too.”
She couldn’t stop the flood of tears that poured down her face and she buried her face in his shoulder. “Oh, Hank, I love you so much. We don’t have to get married. Let’s just live together.”
He shook his head and pulled back so he could see her face. “No, we’re getting married.”
“But you’ve hated all the wedding stuff.”
“No, I’ve been worried that you thought we needed the biggest wedding of the year. We don’t need that but I want to stand up in front of the people we love and publically declare my love for you. I want to see you in a beautiful white dress. I want to watch you glide down the aisle toward me on Sean’s arm, knowing that you’re pledging your love to mine. But do we really need it to happen in front of four hundred people with eight attendants on either side?”
She shook her head. “No. All I need is you.”
He brought his mouth down on hers and as his tongue made pledges to be honored later, ribbons of pleasure ran along her veins and then burrowed down deep, stroking memories and demanding new ones. His hands deftly pulled her thin shoulder straps down and she sighed as her breasts spilled into his hands, soaking up his touch that she missed so much.
She lay back on the leather couch and pulled him down with her. This time he didn’t pull back or worry that they were in her father’s house. This time he slid his hands under her skirt and his fingers worked their magic as his mouth branded her as his.
She was panting and wet with need, and her hands fumbled with his trousers before she guided him into her. It felt like coming home. He filled her with himself, with his strength and with his love. With each stroke, she rose with him until she tightened around him and gathered him up. Taking him with her they flew off the precipice together and out into the future.
When he finally raised his head, his eyes glowed with the color of polished oak. “The library’s soundproofed, right?”
She laughed. “Actually, it does have thicker walls because Grandpa wanted to block the noise from the house so I guess it works both ways.”
He grinned. “In that case, I think we’re going to be doing a lot of reading this weekend.” He cuddled her close. “Do we have to wait until next July to get married?”
“I guess not.” In the languid post-sex haze, an idea exploded in her head. “What about at the end of the month?” She wriggled under him. “Annika’s friend asked me if we’d like to get married in Whitetail. Of course I was obsessing at the time so I said no but, why not? My family’s here and your parents are home for the rest of the summer. We can fly in our closest friends and the people our parents want to have and cap it at two hundred. Given the short notice, they probably won’t all come. We can give Nicole some broad guidelines and color schemes and then let her arrange everything. All we have to do is turn up.”
“Okay, but when you’re organizing your dress don’t go casual on me because I’m wearing a tux to our wedding.”
Her hand snuck under his shirt. “You know I always go weak at the knees for a man in black tie.”
His hand trailed along her inner thigh. “Darling, I can make your knees weak right now.”
And he did.
Chapter Sixteen
Annika leaned over to turn off her office computer and knocked a stack of folders off the desk. “Damn it.” She’d been clumsy all morning and after spilling coffee on two shirts, she’d resorted to wearing one of Esther’s aprons. With a sigh, she slid off her chair and started pulling the papers back into the correct folders.
Finn, having ended his phone call, bent down to help her. When all the folders were back in a neat pile, he hauled her to her feet. Gently holding her by her upper arms, he hooked her gaze. “Breathe, Legs.”
She bit her lip. “Everything hinges on my meeting with Ty Dennison going well. I lost Ellery’s guy to Superior-Duluth because of the port and I need this industry. Without it, Whitetail will die.”
Finn frowned the way he always did when she talked about Whitetail. “You didn’t lose Kugals. They did their sums and the port won because it offered them exactly what they needed. That’s business. You’ve done your preparation for Long River. You’ve put in the long hours and that’s all you can do because you can’t control Ty Dennison’s decision.”
“I wish I could.” She stepped into him, wrapping her arms around him, and needing to feel his heartbeat against hers. Loving him way too much.
He stroked her back. “Life doesn’t work that way, Annika.”
I wish it did. She looked up into those fathomless dark eyes and tried to read them, but once again he’d carefully hidden away all his emotions like he always did. Almost always did. The memory of his meltdown after the campout stayed strong.
He traced his thumb along her cheek. “Do you want me to come with?”
She shook her head, even though part of her wanted him there by her side. “Thanks anyway, but Whitetail has to do this on its own. We organized who’s doing what at the town meeting and Ellery’s representing your interests.”
“That he is.”
“I’m meeting Ty at the airport, giving him a tour of the town, calling into a few stores where everyone will make a huge fuss of him, and they’ll showcase true Whitetail spirit. Afterward, we’ll meet Ellery at the warehouses.”
“Sounds like a plan.” His phone rang and he gave her arm a squeeze, released it and then took the call. “Finn Callahan.”
She heard the pause and saw the moment he became the CEO he was destined to be. “There’s a flaw in that plan, Henrico. Let’s talk it through so it’s visible to you.”
Annika watched him stare out the window as he listened intently and knew that even though he was standing looking at one of the country’s prettiest lakes, he wasn’t seeing it. He was in another world where he belonged an
d she was firmly in Whitetail. Her town. Her place. A town that after today would hopefully have a new industry and new jobs.
She was acting mayor and she must look the part so instead of arriving windblown from the motorboat, she’d brought the truck back yesterday. She picked up the keys.
Finn turned at the jangle and mouthed, Good luck.
His support made her heart roll idiotically in her chest. It doesn’t mean what you want it to mean. All it meant was that Finn was a caring man. A caring man who didn’t love her. She forced a smile onto her face, gave him the thumbs-up sign and carefully made her way down the stairs.
An hour later she turned the truck onto Main Street with Mr. Dennison sitting next to her. She was looking forward to seeing his reaction to the banner she’d organized—the one that said Welcome Long River Electronics. But the banner strung between the post office and Peterson’s Market read Whitetail Welcomes the Callahan-Neiquest Wedding.
What? Every instinct had her foot slamming down hard on the brake, but somehow she managed to hold back, which was just as well because giving a potential town investor whiplash wasn’t a good idea. Bridey and Hank are getting married in Whitetail? She couldn’t believe it. Why didn’t she know this? After all, she was the one designing invitations for a Chicago wedding which was a year away. She racked her brains for clues or snippets she might have heard to indicate their change of plan, but she came up blank. The last time she’d seen Bridey and Hank was at the party. The bulk of her weekend had been spent on the island with Finn, pretending the real world wasn’t just across the lake. The only time they’d had any real contact with his family was when Logan had come to visit after his and Finn’s kayaking adventure.
The brothers had lit a fire and then she and Logan had enjoyed a great time teasing Finn about getting sticky marshmallows everywhere except between the graham crackers when he was making s’mores. It had been Annika who’d taken Logan home when Finn had suddenly needed to make a vital phone call—one she was certain wasn’t very vital at all, but got him out of having to see Sean. When she’d arrived at Kylemore it was Esther who’d received Logan with a hug and had told her that everyone was in Whitetail. Annika assumed they’d gone berry picking as Marion had been talking about it on Friday night.
