Katie recovered first. Under the table, she took his left hand and tapped the ring.
Trying to mask his movements, he pulled the snug-fitting ring off.
“We hope you don’t mind us crashing your party and joining you for dessert,” Carolyn said, with only the slightest hesitation before “party.”
Katie transferred both her rings to his palm. He slid all three into his pocket.”Of course not,” Ellis said. “Here, you want to sit beside Katie, so you two can talk.”
“No, no,” Carolyn protested with a hand to his shoulder.
Brad heard Katie release a breath, but he thought her relief might be premature.
Sure enough, Coach and Carolyn went around to the other side of the round table where they could look directly across at Katie and him.
Released from C.J.’s hug, Filomena forgot everything except chastising a new waiter for dropping a dessert fork. She quickly had the desserts served and bustled the unfortunate waiter out.
“Did I ever tell you guys we came here the first time Carolyn agreed to come out to a meal with me?” C.J. asked, digging into his cake.
“We went to that prime rib place first on the way to watch a game,” his wife corrected.
He grinned at her. “Ah, but you didn’t agree to go there with me. I sprung that meal on you, because I was still having to trick you into spending time with me.”
Interesting. Coach had had to spring things on Carolyn to get their relationship rolling.
“You came here for your first date?” Frank asked.
“It wasn’t a date. It was a working dinner,” Carolyn said primly. “Oh, all right. It was a date. Though we did mostly talk about you guys.”
C.J. chuckled. “Boy, have we ever corrupted her – she started referring to players as ‘individual students who happen to be involved in this peculiar pastime involving a sphere.’ Now it’s ‘you guys.’
“
“I was never that…” Carolyn let the protest die as she looked around at their grins. “Okay, Coach Draper. Shall I tell them about what you did at that dinner?”
“Me? I was a perfect gentleman.”
“He spoke to the waiter in Italian.”
They groaned. “Way too obvious, Coach,” Thomas said.
Ellis shook his head. “You’ve got to be subtle to impress a girl that you’d played in Italy.”
“Now you tell me. I might have gotten somewhere with that babe if I’d had you guys to coach me,” C.J. said dryly, tugging Carolyn close to kiss the top of her head. “Hey, speaking of foreign travel, the team’s itinerary this summer’s been expanded. Final paperwork went through today. We’re also going to Bariavak.”
Beside him, Brad felt Katie stiffen. He slid his hand under the tablecloth to take hers. He squeezed lightly, reminding her they had this covered. It would be okay.
****
Brad had told his friends they were taking the weekend. What he hadn’t said was they were taking it for manual labor in her yard.
They’d all stayed at Angelo’s, talking and laughing until after midnight. She’d been exhausted, but she couldn’t leave – Brad had driven her to the courthouse and the restaurant. The two of them leaving together would surely have started remarks that would have made C.J. and Carolyn suspicious … if they weren’t already. Plus, it would have cleared the way for C.J., Carolyn, and possibly Ellis to pump Thomas and Frank.
So she’d silently supported Brad’s choice to stay until everyone left.
Brad put their rings in a small box she gave him and left it on a kitchen shelf.
Saturday morning she heard him in the shower, but he was gone when she got up. He soon returned with supplies … and a list of tasks a mile long.
If his goal was to work them both so hard neither of them had time to get uncomfortable, he succeeded. She fell into bed so exhausted each night that she barely was aware of him sleeping in the other room. Barely.
Early Monday he left for a week on the road, scheduled to return Saturday, she knew because she’d made the arrangements.
He was right. They certainly didn’t trip over each other. Except she kept thinking about him. But she could hardly blame him for that.
There were also his usual phone calls to the office from the road. He teased. She handled business. It was almost like it had always been.
Except nothing was as it had always been.
She decided to clean Saturday morning. Because the house needed it. Not in anticipation of his return.
She was vacuuming the living room with a bandana around her head. The front door opened, Brad walked in, dropped his bag, and stood looking at her.
She couldn’t look away. He hadn’t shaved, the stubble darker than his hair. He looked tired, a strain around his eyes.
It might have been half a minute before she remembered the vacuum and turned it off.
“You’re not supposed to be here yet.”
“Caught an earlier flight. Would have knocked, but your neighbors were watching from across the street – yes, I know that wouldn’t be an issue if the trees were still there – but it seemed a good time to use my key.”
She answered his slight smile with one of her own. “Wouldn’t have mattered, I wouldn’t have heard you over the vacuum.”
“Katie—”
Her cell phone rang.
For another beat they looked at each other, then he nodded toward her phone sitting on the coffee table.
She picked it up. “It’s April.”
He frowned, but said nothing as she turned so he wouldn’t be in view, produced a bright smile, and accepted it as a video call.
“Hi, Katie, we’re both here,” came April’s voice. Hunter added a hello from beside April, though he appeared distracted by a computer screen to one side. “We wanted to see how you are and, uh, how things are going.”
“No change,” she said brightly. “Everything’s fine. Busy at work. Very busy.”
“But it should be lighter now, right? And you’re still coming to Washington next week, right?”
“Yes.”
“That reminds me,” April said, “I hope you don’t mind, we invited Brad.”
She almost said she knew, but with Brad listening, she substituted, “How could I possibly mind anyone you choose to invite to your wedding.”
“She was afraid you might not bring him as your plus-one.”
“Hunter,” April scolded. Then she grinned. “Though that is the truth.” Before Katie recovered, April’s grin changed to a frown. “Please don’t tell me you were going to bring someone else.”
“I’m not bringing anyone.”
April’s smile returned. “Great. Somehow I forgot to include the plus-one option on Brad’s invitation, so no worries there about needing to change table arrangements.”
“Again,” Hunter muttered.
“April, I think you might have the wrong idea.” She’d really have the wrong idea if she knew they were married.
“Don’t worry, we like Brad, and we want someone here who’ll have your back just in case.”
Hunter said, “I think Katie’s more worried about you butting into her private life, April.”
“I would never do that,” April said. With that peculiar feeling she was looking at a slightly distorted image of herself, Katie wondered if she was as bad a liar as April was. “I was checking because if we change the guest list again Bette would have our heads.”
“Your head,” Hunter said. “I haven’t changed my list since the beginning.”
“He’s so disciplined,” April said admiringly.
“And too smart to get on the wrong side of Bette.”
****
Katie brought them ice water then Brad got her to sit on the couch, beside him but not too close. No, he had little hope of her sitting too close.
He’d worked them both hard last weekend to avoid awkwardness. But that, combined with his trip, meant they’d had no chance to get comfortable with the situation, either.
It had been a long week. The snippets of conversations with Katie had not been nearly enough. The thoughts about her had been too much.
They were married.
Married.
You may kiss the bride…
She was a princess.
Abruptly, he said, “You know you’ll be around King Jozef next week in D.C., spending time with him.”
“I suppose.”
“You know they want you to have that DNA test. And now you can.”
“I … I don’t know if I want to.”
That was progress, wasn’t it? “You don’t owe the people who raised you a damned thing, Katie. When I think about what they stole from you—”
“I was lucky. Truly. Since I found those things in the attic, I’ve read about kids taken from their families and the things they endure… I was fed and clothed, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, sent to school. And after…” She straightened. “It sounds awful, but after he died things improved. My mother supported my going to college.”
“Financially,” he said. “Did she ever say she was proud of you? Or that you’d done well? Or that she loved you?”
“She wasn’t that kind of woman. But she worked very hard to support me. I can’t forget that.”
“You said once you had no family stories, Katie, but there were family stories. At least implicit ones. That they were your parents. That you were born in Portland. Your birthdate. Your age. That they moved to Ashton for opportunities. Those stories were lies. They stole your birthright, your family, your future.”
She looked down.
He swore sharply. That brought her head up, her eyes wide with surprise.
“What burns me,” he said, “is how they closed you off, kept you hidden – Worse, they taught you to keep yourself hidden. You’re wrapped in that gray shroud even when you’re not wearing it. You’re still living behind those damned trees even though they’re gone.”
He reached to her, stroking the back of his fingers down her cheek.
“Don’t hide, Katie. Don’t…”
You may kiss the bride.
He had. Just enough to taste her. To know there was fire between them.
Her breath hitched.
His mouth was on hers.
Her lips parted. His tongue slid between them.
Their teeth clashed. He couldn’t remember the last time that happened to him.
He changed the angle, one hand pushing off the scarf she wore so he could slide his fingers into her hair, cupping her skull. His hand wanted to shake, but it couldn’t now, not when it was needed to support her head as he kissed her deeper and harder.
She adjusted with him, her tongue meeting his. Her fingers slid into his hair. Her other hand gripped his wrist.
He drew her closer. His hand on her thigh. Was he imagining the faintest vibration under his palm? He’d felt it, too, when he’d put a palm on her leg under the table that day at Andy’s.
A frequency of what stretched between them?
Or could that be a tremor? Was he rushing her, not leaving her time to show reluctance?
Was she holding onto him because he’d rattled her?
He released her mouth. Pulled away, even as he brought her upright with him. Then he needed to shift to the side to put some space between them. Because she was too close.
Temptation. So close.
The next county might be too close.
Her fingertips went to her lips. He saw the rub of his beard against her skin, the swelling of her lips from the pressure of his.
He had to look away. Had to. Before he did even more.
“That … that isn’t friendship.” She paused, then added, staring straight ahead, not focused, “Is it?”
Her flat voice carried little or no accusation, but it didn’t need to. He could supply plenty of accusation himself. He’d broken his own rules.
“Sorry. Sorry, Katie.”
He grabbed his bag on the way and closed the door behind him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
She remained on the couch, trying to sort out what had happened.
That kiss hadn’t been friendship. She’d been sure of it. And for an instant, the flare of hope had seared her, tightening her throat, immobilizing her muscles.
Then he’d apologized and left.
He’d regretted kissing her. That was the only thing that made sense. He’d regretted kissing her the way a man kissed a woman. The way a husband kissed a wife.
He regretted it, this man who had put himself and his career on the line for her. She owed him so much. The only thing she could do to repay him was to accept his regret and protect him from it.
It was early afternoon before she resumed cleaning. Even later when she got in the shower. And then, with the afternoon nearly gone, her cell rang. She answered before the first ring ended. Not because she’d been looking at her phone, considering calling him. Not at all.
“I need your help.”
“Brad?” Of course it was Brad. Caller ID said so. Her ears said so. Her heartbeat said so.
“Yes. I need your help. At my place. Right now. You know where it is?”
“I have the address.” She had addresses for all of the staff.
“Good. Get here now. It’s an emergency.”
Emergency. The word had her out of her chair, grabbing her purse, making sure she had her keys. “Are you okay?
“I am now, but I won’t be.”
****
The address was close to the center of town, a block off the main street. It belonged to a large, two-story stone house with stacked bay windows on each side and a double door in the center that must have been built around the same time as the courthouse.
The front door had four buttons. She pressed 2A – Spencer — and was immediately buzzed in.
The big door opened into a two-story hallway with a wide staircase. Upstairs, she turned left and saw 2A next to a door already opening.
“Damn. You’re here already.” Brad showed no sign of injury. He’d shaved, but wore the jeans and shirt he’d had on when he left her house, now with a green and blue striped kitchen towel decorating his shoulder. “I was about to call to ask you to pick something up at the store on your way.”
“The store?” The small entry way opened to a living room to the left and a dining room to the right, with the kitchen further to the right, and tucked back. “But—you said it was an emergency.”
Even with the sun nearly set, the front bay window and another good-sized window at right angles to it provided lots of natural light. Beside the second window a bookcase system covered most of the wall. The large center area held a generous but not outrageous TV screen, with other electronics below it. Narrow sections held CDs and DVDs. Other than that, there were books.
A leather couch sat across from the TV. An upholstered chair and a floor lamp occupied the bay.
“It is. Doesn’t matter how great the recipe is if you don’t have the ingredients.”
She’d been to bachelor pads. This wasn’t one. He even had art on the walls. In frames – and not a basketball picture among them. A framed photo of Brad’s grandmother, mother, stepfather, and two half-sisters had a prime spot on the shelves.”Ingredients? You called me for a cooking emergency?”
“C’mon back to the kitchen. I’ve got something on the stove.” The dining room was divided from the compact kitchen by an island with stools on the dining room side and a cooktop on the kitchen side. He went to the working side. “Speaking of which, remember we can’t say anything when they get here.”
“Who gets here? Say anything about what?” Her head hurt.
“About being married.”
“We’re not saying anything about that to anybody.”
“I know. But it’ll be harder with Andy. She has a way of sucking words out of people that they had no intention of saying.”
“Andy?” But he was halfway inside the fridge, moving jars and containers around like beads on an
abacus. “What are you doing?”
“Hoping against hope I have heavy whipping cream stashed in the back of a shelf where I’d forgotten about it.”
“If you’ve forgotten about it, it would be moldy and gross.”
“Not in my refrigerator.” That was the most arrogant she’d ever heard him. “Damn. None.”
She retrieved her purse from a stool. “Okay, I’ll go to the store for whipping cream.”
“Heavy whipping cream. That’s what I need for this killer shrimp and garlic dish. But there’s no time. They’ll be here before you could get back. And you do not want to deal with Andy when she’s hungry, which she will be, since they’re getting here at seven and she usually eats at six-fifteen on the dot. At least I don’t want to deal with her. I need to figure out something else.”
He closed the fridge and faced her. “Think. What can take the place of heavy whipping cream?”
“Uh, yogurt?”
“Of course, why didn’t I—?” He pulled a container out of the fridge, but his shoulders slumped. “Strawberry.”
“Shrimp, garlic, and strawberry yogurt.”
“If you keep laughing, I’ll tell Andy you’re the reason for this and leave you to your fate. Think, Katie, think.”
“Okay, okay.” White. Soupy … “What about vanilla ice cream?”
His head came around to her but his gaze was unfocused. “Vanilla ice cream. Too sweet for … but… Leave out the sugar and … Yeah, that’ll work.” He took ice cream from the freezer, put away a couple spices, pulled out others, adding them to a skillet on the stove.
“So you were worried about Andy knowing you didn’t have heavy whipping cream?”
He grinned.
Bradford Alan Spencer’s grin should be banned in forty states and against the rules in the rest of them. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t ethical. It was dangerous.
She turned away, devoting great attention to the dining room. It had a second bay window out the back. A door replaced one angled window, leading to a deck. It was a great apartment.”Nah. Worried she’ll know I haven’t been here and then she’ll want to know why. She’d left a message on my landline. She knows my cell’s the way to get me with my traveling and she uses it all the time. But once in a while she’ll leave a message like this on the landline. It’s like she’s giving me a pop quiz, only I don’t know what the subject is. Or, maybe … Well, anyway she left this message saying her neighbor is driving her up to some gardening thing they’re going to tomorrow in Madison. They’d stop in and have dinner with me here unless I objected. And then she says, ‘So if I don’t hear from you by tomorrow, we’ll plan on Saturday night.’ I don’t even know when ‘tomorrow’ was. Could you do something else for me?”
The Surprise Princess Page 14
