Even though she and her sisters were as different as their respective hair colors—blond, brown and red—they completed each other, as evidenced by the way they had come together to pull off this party for their beloved Gigi.
Kate glanced at her watch. The guests would begin arriving in the next few minutes. She needed to get out of her head and into party mode, and help with the finishing touches of the surprise.
Kate walked through the butler’s pantry that connected the dining room to the kitchen. She pushed through the swinging kitchen door and into another world where Jane’s husband, Liam, was barking orders at a skeleton staff that he had brought in for the night from Wila, the restaurant he and Jane now co-owned with Charles. It was fortuitous that the restaurant was closed on Mondays and the sous-chefs, who were eager to make a little money of the side, were available to help take some of the burden off Liam.
Jane was a pastry chef and had baked an elegant two-tiered wedding cake that looked like a work of art you would see in a Parisian bakery. She truly was an artist, and the masterpiece she had created for the occasion was a rosewater-champagne confection with an arrangement of white roses and flecks of edible gold leaf cascading off the top tier. Jane had already mandated that when they served dessert, they would set aside the top tier for Gigi and Charles to freeze until their first anniversary. The gorgeous cake was sitting safely off to the side, well out of the way of the maelstrom swirling around in the kitchen.
Kate’s heart melted a little when she thought about how Jane and Liam were putting heart and soul into this post-wedding feast.
She couldn’t remember what she and Aidan had done after Elvis had pronounced them husband and wife. Her cheeks heated at the thought. They hadn’t even fed each other cake.
It seemed like there was something a little shameful about that. About not remembering, and about the absence of cake.
Every bride and groom deserved a wedding cake.
Just as fast as the thought popped into her head, she blinked it away. Dwelling on it would not solve anything tonight.
“Would you grab the caviar out of the fridge?” Jane asked as she came up behind Kate. “There’s a dish with crushed ice in it over there.” She pointed with her elbow because her hands were full with a pot of something else. “The caviar sits on top of the ice. Is this the cheese fondue?”
“I don’t know—” Kate said, but Jane wasn’t talking to her, she was addressing one of the sous-chefs.
“It needs to go in the fondue pot over there. The stand is on the buffet table. Don’t forget to light the Sterno. We don’t want the cheese to cool and set.”
The sous-chef took the pot from Jane and whisked it away.
“I love it when you’re bossy,” Liam said, pulling Jane into his arms and kissing her soundly in the midst of the kitchen chaos.
That. That right there was what she wanted, Kate thought wistfully. That passion. That fire. She wanted what Jane and Liam had. She wanted what Gigi and Charles had. She wanted what Elle had with Daniel and her mother seemed to have with her mystery admirer.
There wasn’t a thing in the world wrong with Aidan. He would make someone a fabulous husband.
Just not for her.
Well, not for very much longer.
Chapter Four
“Aidan, it is so nice of you to help us tonight,” Zelda said as he watched Kate disappear into the kitchen. Kate’s mother was taking a stack of cocktail napkins out of the packaging.
“Of course,” Aidan said. “I’m glad I could be a part of it. I’m always happy to help you all with anything you need.”
“Anything?” Zelda’s eyes flashed, and he had a feeling he had taken her bait and was about to be reeled in.
“Within reason,” he qualified, with a smile.
“How about some professional advice about the inn?” she asked.
“What can I do for you?” he asked. Because, of course, he would do anything he could to help Kate’s mother.
“Elle’s art classes and tours are bringing in revenue and business is booming at the tearoom. I think we are finally in a good place to start planning the spa.”
Daniel was the general contractor on the remodel of the Forsyth Galloway Inn. Aidan had served as the architect, drawing up plans for the first two of the three additions Zelda and Gigi had wanted: a classroom area for lectures, also serving as an open art studio, and the tearoom.
It sounded like they were ready to get started on the third phase—a spa, which would be built in the inn’s backyard on a piece of ground that they currently used as a garden plot.
“What does Kate think about moving forward with the plan?” Aidan asked.
Zelda frowned and crossed her arms. “You know the world doesn’t revolve around my Kathryn. Even if she would like to believe it does.”
He smiled, but he wasn’t about to touch that comment with a ten-foot pole. Everyone knew Kate was opinionated and stubborn. She knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t easily swayed.
Kate’s strong sense of self was one of the many things Aidan found so utterly attractive about her. Her physical beauty was obvious: her long, curly copper-colored hair, her flawless ivory skin. Her heart-shaped face and those stunning sea green eyes. And those lips. Oh, those lips.
She could move mountains and break hearts with those eyes and that mouth. He should know. One moment she would be looking at him adoringly and the next minute her words would be cutting him to the core.
“Are you saying you want to get the ball rolling and start designing the spa?” he asked.
Zelda nodded.
“Does that mean you want to meet with or without Kate? Will she be involved in these plans?”
Zelda pursed her lips together for a moment. She looked as if she was weighing her words.
“Aidan, I believe Kate wants this more than she realizes,” she finally said.
Aidan shrugged. “Kate knows her own mind. She’s not going to be swayed or talked into doing something she doesn’t want to do. We both know that.”
Zelda shrugged, like she wasn’t convinced. Her phone buzzed with an incoming text and she set down the stack of cocktail napkins she had been fanning and checked her messages, smiling as she dashed off a quick return text before she answered Aidan.
“Kate is a complicated woman, Aidan. That girl of mine is so headstrong, sometimes she’s her own worst enemy.” Zelda shook her head. “I love all my girls equally, but she’s the one I worry about the most. I know she’s perfectly capable and smart as she can be, and she thinks she doesn’t need anyone, but I feel that she’s too darn independent for her own good. She pushes people away.”
Hear, hear, to that.
“And that’s why she’s her own worst enemy,” Zelda continued. “Elle is my intuitive, empathetic child. Jane is the strongest of the three girls—she’s one hundred percent no-nonsense. Then there’s Kate. A lot of people think she’s the strong one because she puts up such a front, but they don’t know her the way I do. Kate likes to believe she’s an island. It is all because of her daddy. Has she told you about Fred and what his antics did to her?”
Zelda’s eyes darkened, and she gave her head another quick shake and held up her hands before Aidan could answer.
“Oh, would you listen to me being inappropriate? This is not the place or the time to dredge up bad memories of good ol’ Fred. He’s done enough damage to this family. I am not going to allow thoughts of him to cast a shadow over what should otherwise be a wonderful evening. But, Aidan, hon, I do want to thank you. Thank you for loving my girl. Thank you for loving her quirks and looking past her...her difficulties and seeing the best in her.”
Zelda’s words made Aidan ache inside. He was trying with all his might to love Kate, but there was only so much one person could do—he could only be shoved away like this for so long before he couldn’t take it
any longer.
If Kate didn’t want him, he wasn’t going to beg her to let him stay.
And he wasn’t going to coast along in this limbo land in which they had been existing for so long.
On a normal day, he was a man of few words. Right now, when he should offer some sort of reassurance to Zelda, he was completely at a loss. He had no idea what to say because he didn’t know where his relationship with Kate stood or where it was going. They were married, but she wanted an annulment. She wanted to erase their union like it had been a bad mistake.
Kate had mentioned her father in passing. She had said it wasn’t a happy relationship. He hadn’t been part of their life since he had left the family when she and her sisters were in elementary school. She had not offered many details, and Aidan hadn’t asked her to relive something that had obviously hurt her. Maybe he should have, but Kate had put up her walls, as she so often did when things got complicated and uncomfortable. Just like she had done after Vegas.
Despite everything, Aidan still believed they were good together. If Kate could just give him some indication that she hadn’t completely closed her mind—even if she couldn’t see where they would ultimately end up—he would not give up on her. As long as they were headed in the right direction, they were staying together.
Even if it meant he had to keep caring about her in spite of herself, in spite of the way she was pushing him away right now.
The bottom line was that even Zelda could see how much he cared for Kate. Right now, he would remember that when he started giving up. He would be the glue that held them together right now, when Kate was doing her best to tear them apart.
* * *
When Gigi and Charles arrived and the dining room doors opened, and everyone yelled, “Surprise!” in unison, Kate’s heart melted a little as she observed the astonishment on her eighty-five-year-old grandmother’s pretty face. Hand on her pearls, Gigi gasped at the scene unfolding in front of her.
“Oh, my heavens,” she said, before turning to Charles. “Did you know about this?”
“Who, me?” Eyes wide, Charles shook his gray head. “What makes you think I had something to do with this wonderful surprise? Which is just fantastic. Thank you, everyone for the wonderful welcome home for my bride and me.”
With that, Gigi seemed to snap back into her normal gracious-Southern-lady mode. “Yes, what a wonderful thing for y’all to do for us. Thank you, each and every one of you.”
Zelda and Elle were the first to move forward and hug Gigi. Charles stood next to his wife with his hand on the small of her back, looking like a magician who had pulled off a particularly amazing sleight of hand, even though he’d had no idea about the surprise, either.
When Kate stepped up to take her turn at welcoming home the newlyweds, Gigi hugged her tight. “Darling girl. How are you? This party has your name written all over it. Thank you, sugar. Where’s that handsome boyfriend of yours?”
Kate gritted her teeth. “Do you mean Aidan?”
Gigi nodded. “Of course, I mean Aidan. Who else would I be talking about?”
“He’s around here somewhere.” Kate had to hand it to him—he had been giving her plenty of space tonight.
Gigi gave Kate another squeeze and asked the question Kate knew was inevitable. “How long until we will have the opportunity to celebrate your engagement, sweetheart? I hope it is soon. I’m not going to live forever, you know.”
“Oh, Gigi, don’t say that. Especially not on such a happy night. And this night isn’t about me. It is about you and Charles.”
“Well, you’re next, honey, and I can’t wait to throw you a party that’s just as magnificent as this one. When the last of my granddaughters gets married, I plan on throwing the wedding that will put all other weddings to shame.”
Kate’s heart twisted as she thought about how an annulment party was the most likely thing in her near future. And it would very well be the party that would end all parties.
At least for her.
“Gigi, I thought you prided yourself on keeping things equal. Elle and Jane aren’t going to like it very much if you say my wedding will put their weddings to shame.”
Gigi waved her comment away. “You know what I mean. As I said at my eighty-fifth birthday party, all I want is for all three of my darlin’ grandgirls to be happily married and settled in relationships that made them as happy as my Charles makes me.”
Gigi turned to her husband and smiled up at him. In that instant, she looked like a young, blushing bride.
Even though Gigi wanted all three of them to be married, it would crush her if she learned that Kate and Aidan had eloped. She wanted the chance to give each of them a wedding.
It was pretty much a given that her grandmother would never forgive her for having the marriage annulled. Not only was Aidan the best prospect for making Gigi’s trifecta birthday wish come true, but she genuinely adored Aidan.
A very short-lived marriage certainly would not tick the box on Gigi’s birthday wish list.
Kate wondered if it would help her cause to remind her grandmother that she had wanted them all settled in happy relationships. The happy part was key.
Would Gigi even care about the fact that marriage in general made Kate feel anything but happy? That it made her feel itchy and claustrophobic, like she wanted to run far away?
Thank goodness for Jane and Liam, who were holding trays of champagne and calling everyone for a toast, diverting Gigi’s attention from what they had been talking about. Kate accepted the flute of bubbly Jane handed her, but as with the red wine that Aidan had handed her earlier, the thought of even sipping the golden liquid made her stomach churn. Love Potion Number Nine had really done a number on her.
“Mama and Charles,” said Zelda. “If ever two people were meant to be together, it is you. You are an example and inspiration to everyone. You have waited so long to find your way to each other, but you are living proof that true love won’t be denied, that true love is real. It exists. Even if we have to wait sixty-five years for the timing to be right. Here’s to the two of you.”
Zelda raised her glass and everyone else did, too. Kate felt Aidan’s gaze on her. When her eyes met his, he raised his glass in a private toast to her. Did the look in his eyes telegraph that he was willing to wait as long as it took for her? Kate’s stomach flipped at the romantic thought.
But just as fast, the hopeful feeling gave way to sorrow and shame. It was so unfair to even imagine something so one-sided.
It was selfish and wrong that in the midst of planning to dissolve their marriage, she would think the two of them might one day find their way back to each other.
Why couldn’t she just let herself love him? Why couldn’t she just get herself together and realize that the perfect man for her was standing right in front of her?
He was her husband. Her mind could intellectualize it and make a solid argument for why staying married to Aidan was a good thing, but her battered heart and her self-preserving reflexes were not buying it.
Her heart had already packed its bags and moved out.
This was how it would go: she would lose him. Another woman with a whole lot more sense than she had would scoop him up and—
Kate tore her gaze away from Aidan’s.
She had to put an end to that line of thinking right now. It was what it was and she needed to stop feeling sorry for herself, because she could not have it both ways.
She set her full glass of champagne on a side table and slipped out of the dining room into the lobby, and then exited through the beveled-glass front doors and made her way to the dark edge of the wraparound front porch. Maybe some fresh air would calm her upset stomach—and given the way she was feeling, it wasn’t a bad idea to be close to a bathroom. Just in case.
No one would miss her before dinner was served. They were all busy congratulating Gig
i and Charles, listening to tales about their Paris honeymoon and filling them in on what had transpired in Savannah while they were gone.
The night air was balmy and what she could see of the sky through the moss-laden live oaks was clear and starry.
Kate had only been on the side porch for a few moments when she heard the front door open and close. For a split second, her heart raced when she worried it might be Aidan. She tried to disappear deeper into the shadows of the inn’s magnificent front porch, hoping to remain out of sight.
“Kate?” It was Elle’s voice. “Are you out here?”
So much for no one missing her.
“I’m here.” Kate stepped forward.
“What are you doing out here? Is everything oaky?”
Elle was the most intuitive of her sisters. It didn’t surprise Kate that Elle had picked up on her retreat. Kate now wished she hadn’t left the party.
“I’m fine. I just need a little fresh air. I’m still not feeling great.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, I noticed you didn’t drink your champagne. It is the good stuff. Jane and Liam brought it from the restaurant for the party tonight. Do you want me to go get you some? Maybe the bubbles will settle your stomach.”
“No, thanks. My stomach is still feeling a little off-kilter.”
“Do you think it’s the stomach flu?”
“I don’t think so. It sort of comes and goes. A stomach bug is pretty consistent until it runs its course. I just have a lot of stress right now. Some things I can’t really talk about.”
“Really? You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“Oh my gosh, no! Don’t even joke about that. A baby is the last thing I need right now.”
Kate laughed a nervous laugh, as if making light of it might ward off any bad juju that would swirl together and manifest the godforsaken possibility.
Even though their passion was strong enough to sweep them away, they’d always held on to good common sense, and made sure they used condoms. That was because Aidan had Chloe and she certainly didn’t need a baby to further complicate already complicated matters.
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