by Maria Geraci
“Isn’t that too close to what Sharon might wear? I mean, it’s almost ivory.”
“I have no idea what Sharon’s wearing.” His brown eyes suddenly looked worried. “Should I know that?”
“You have absolutely no idea?”
He shook his head.
“So she might be going down the aisle in full regalia? Veil and all?”
“I doubt it, but you never know.”
The salesgirl brought out four dresses, all in different colors.
“I’ll just go try these on,” Kitty said. She took a second to sneak a look at her cell phone but there were no messages. She hadn’t seen Steve since Sunday afternoon when he’d left for the Mexico Beach house. They’d talked on the phone, but it wasn’t the same thing. Tomorrow night, she’d go out there to help him say good-bye to the house “in style.” She could hardly wait. It had been nice sharing a house with Dad and Sharon, but she was ready for her life to get back to normal. Hopefully, Steve had missed her as much as she’d missed him.
She came out of the dressing room wearing a baby blue halter dress with a slightly flared skirt. “What do you think?” she asked, twirling around so that both her dad and the salesgirl could give their opinions
“It’s perfect,” Dad said.
“For real? Or are you just saying that so we can finish up and get a drink?”
“Both?”
The salesgirl chimed in. “I think it looks great on you.”
The dress fit well and it was nice enough for the event. Plus, the price wasn’t outrageous, although her father had offered to pay for it and she was going to let him.
“Okay, I’m sold. Just make sure Sharon isn’t wearing blue,” Kitty told her dad.
Dad punched some numbers into his cell. “Hey, hon, are you wearing blue to the wedding?” he blurted without bothering to say hello.
Kitty rolled her eyes. Men.
“Great.” He gave Kitty a big thumbs-up. “Will do.” Then he lowered his voice but Kitty was still able to make out what he was saying. “I was going to take her out for a drink. Yes, I plan to do just that.” He put his cell phone back in his pocket. “Sharon says you can wear blue.”
“So I gathered.” Kitty refrained from asking him why he’d felt the need to whisper to Sharon when they were on the phone. She figured she’d find out soon enough.
Twenty minutes later, they were seated at a little Italian grill where happy hour was in full force. Dad ordered Scotch on the rocks and Kitty had a martini.
“To your upcoming birthday!” Dad said, raising his drink in a toast.
“And to your upcoming wedding!” Kitty shot back. She picked up the menu. Now that she didn’t have to worry about sucking herself into a too tight dress for the wedding, maybe she’d order some fried calamari to celebrate.
“You know, Kitten,” Dad began. “I’ve become a totally different man since I met Sharon.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“You have?” He began fidgeting with the edge of the napkin beneath his drink as if he was suddenly nervous.
“Can I ask you something?”
His gaze shot to hers. “Anything.”
“What made you change? I mean, the other women you’ve dated haven’t exactly been—”
“Appropriate?” He shook his head sadly. “Ah, I believe Freud would have probably had a field day with me.”
She reached out to squeeze his hand. “It doesn’t matter. That’s in the past. And I know I keep saying it but I’m really happy for you. Over the moon, actually, but I was kind of…hurt that I seemed to be last person to find out about you and Sharon.”
“I know, Kitten, and I’m sorry about that. My only excuse is that I didn’t want to introduce her to you until I knew for sure that she was the one. Once we decided to get married, it just didn’t seem like news that I could break to you over the phone. I knew once you met her that you’d love her… You do love her, right? I mean, how could you not?”
“Of course I do! She’s the best. Really, Dad. You picked well.”
He looked relieved but then he noticed the hesitation in her expression. “But?”
She thought about the best way to word what she’d wanted to ask him for the past five days. Maybe she should just keep it simple and use the direct approach. “So what made you change? What made you go from this guy who, and sorry if I offend you here, but this guy who ran around chasing supermodels to a guy who wants to settle down and watch Jeopardy with the missus in front of the fire?”
He didn’t look offended at all. “It’s simple, Kitten. Love is what made me change. Once upon a time, I loved your mother and we had a good run, but in the end, we were all wrong as a couple. But Sharon and me, it’s like we were always meant to find each other. I know it seems scary, getting married after only three months, but nothing has ever felt so right.”
If her dad stayed in town much longer, she’d have to get her tear ducts refilled. She swiped away the dampness on her cheek. “Oh, Daddy, that’s so beautiful.”
He smiled, then almost instantly became more serious.
“I’ll be honest; I’m worried about you, Kitten. Steve seems like a really nice fellow. Shoot, he’s even hosting the rehearsal dinner and he’s been practically a one-man army when it comes to pulling this wedding together, but I want you to know that I don’t plan to leave town until I’ve had a long talk with him.”
Kitty froze. “About what?”
“About his intentions, of course.”
Oh my God. “Daddy, please tell me you’re joking. In two days, I’m going to be thirty-six years old. I don’t need my father talking to my boyfriend. My live-in boyfriend.”
“I’m sorry, but I think you do. You’re my little girl and I don’t want to see you hurt by someone who might not share the same depth of feelings for you that you do for them.”
This was crazy! First her mother, now her…
“Have you been talking to Mom about me?”
“Actually, we have. It’s been good communicating with your mother directly after all these years.”
“Well, hurray for you two! Just please tell me you haven’t decided to make her the flower girl.”
Dad frowned. “Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Kitten.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “Sorry, but really, Dad, I’ve got my personal life under control.”
“Not according to your friends, or those Gray Pelicans I met at The Bistro this morning.”
“They’re Flamingos, not pelicans. And…what do you mean not according to them? What friends are you talking about?”
“You know, Shea and Pilar and all those lovely Bunco gals. By the way, I’m so glad that they’ll be at the wedding. The more the merrier, I say! I want as many people as possible to witness the beginning of my new life with Sharon.”
“Yeah, well, as many people as possible won’t be able to fit in my house for the reception. Plus, we only ordered twenty pounds of shrimp.” The waiter showed up with a hot order of the calamari but Kitty had lost her appetite. “So, what? Have you been having some kind of secret meetings with my friends behind my back?” she halfway joked. When he didn’t say anything, she gasped. “Oh, God. You have been having secret meetings!”
“Not so secret, and it was only one meeting. The whole town is worried about you, hon. I have to say, I never thought much about this sleepy little backwater town before, but I’m impressed by the way everyone seems to take care of one another. Everyone in Whispering Bay loves you, Kitty.”
Everyone except Steve, apparently.
She placed her head between her hands and let what he’d just said sink in. “Do you know how embarrassing this is?”
“Now, Kitten, there’s no reason to be embarrassed. I’m a man and I know how other men think. I just want to make sure this guy isn’t going to hurt you.”
Her birthday might be in two days, but she suddenly felt ten years older. “Daddy, please let me take care of this, okay?”
; He sighed. “I don’t know—”
“Promise me you aren’t going to talk to Steve,” she insisted. She wanted to be angry. She was angry! But a part of her was also touched. Wasn’t this what fathers were supposed to do? Look out for their daughters? Even though this daughter didn’t want to be looked out for. Plus, this was his special day. The day they were bonding as father and daughter, groom and best man. No, she couldn’t be totally angry with him.
He looked at her sadly. “All right, I won’t say anything to him, but I want you to know that Sharon and I will always be here for you. No matter what happens.”
#
Kitty drove up to the McMansion with the fabulous view of the beach. Sometimes, she forgot just how stinking rich Steve was, but looking at this house was a reminder that the man she lived with was loaded. Not that he acted like it. Steve lived like a regular guy. He drove a pickup truck (albeit a nice one), cooked his own dinners, and even did his own laundry (along with hers, thank God).
Yes, he was good looking, too, but that wasn’t the reason she’d fallen in love with him. It was all the little things about him. Like the way he pretended to dislike Viola’s cat when she knew he secretly left treats for him in their backyard (the real reason Armand hung around their driveway!), or how he’d go bowling with his uncle Gus’s team when they needed another player, even though he hated the game.
But most especially, it was the way he made her feel. Like she was the only woman in the room. On the planet. In the universe.
He had to love her.
No matter what anyone else thought of him and his supposed intentions. Not Shea and Pilar and the rest of the Bunco Babes or Betty Jean Collins or even her own mother or father. She’d let her friends and family get to her. But no one else was in a relationship with Steve Pappas, except her.
She’d thought about tonight all day long and she’d come to a decision. She was going to tell Steve she loved him. It was what she should have done last Thursday night after she’d come home from Bunco. So what if she was the first one to say it? A part of her was nervous, and yes, even a little afraid. But deep down in the very core of her marrow, she was positive that he loved her, too.
She parked her car in the driveway and mentally prepared herself for the other part of tonight’s conversation. After what her father had told her yesterday, she had no choice but to tell Steve that the entire town was talking about them. It simply wasn’t fair that he didn’t know.
He must have heard her car drive up because he met her at the door. “What took you so long to get here?” He grabbed her in a long hug and kissed her, making her bones melt in relief. He had to love her. He just had to. “Have we ever been apart this long?” he asked, ushering her into the oversized foyer.
Kitty took a quick look around the house. She’d only been here a handful of times but the place looked completely different. Steve hadn’t liked it, but Terrie had had the house staged when it first went on the market with a Versailles-type gaudiness that had made Kitty giggle when she’d first seen it. But gone was the leopard print rug in the living room and the big golden mirror with the cherubs. In their places were a simple leather sectional and a few coastal-style pieces that suited the interior nicely.
“You’ve been busy.”
He raised a brow. “You haven’t seen anything. Half the fixtures in the kitchen have been replaced.”
Speaking of the kitchen… The smell of onions and garlic hit her empty stomach. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast so she should be starved. But she was too nervous to think about food.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked anyway.
“You.” He grabbed her by the hand and started dragging her toward the first-floor guest bedroom, a room Kitty was all too familiar with.
“Hold on, tiger,” she said, laughing, but it sounded strained to her.
“For what?” He reached beneath her edge of her skirt and ran his palm up the back of her thigh then gave her ass a thorough squeeze. “Do you know it’s been over a week since we’ve had sex? I don’t know about you but I don’t think I can wait until after dinner.”
She didn’t want to wait till after dinner, either, but she couldn’t just jump in bed with him right now. “We need to talk first.”
He groaned. “What? Did the napkins for the reception not come in?” he joked. He wore faded jeans and a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers T-shirt. He was also barefoot and hadn’t bothered to shave this morning because his five o’clock shadow was heavier than usual. He looked so sexy right now she could almost cry.
She thought about the best way to start what was probably the most important conversation of their lives. I love you. Do you love me? Sure, it sounded simple. In theory. Maybe she’d scribble it down in a note like grade school. She could even draw him a box. Please check off one of the following: YES or NO.
“Did you know my father has invited half the town to the wedding?” she blurted. Okay, maybe it was best to ease into the conversation with something a little less threatening. “Well, not half the town, but the Babes and some of the Gray Flamingos. Betty Jean included. Speaking of which, she said something to me about a card she’d given you. How she was sorry but a woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do. Do you have any idea what she was talking about?”
“Maybe,” he said cryptically. “Although the hell if I understand it.” After a few seconds, he shrugged. “It was a business card for a hair salon that belongs to her niece. But I tossed it.”
“Betty Jean wants her niece to cut your hair?”
“Betty Jean wants her niece to do a whole lot more to me than just cut my hair.”
“What?”
“That was my reaction, too. Do you know what she meant by it? Hell, she knows we’re together. Right?”
Kitty felt her cheeks go pink. That skunk! Betty Jean thought she and Steve were breaking up and she was already trying to introduce him to her niece. And to think, Kitty had helped her fill out the paperwork to refinance her house. There was gratitude for you!
“Of course Betty Jean knows we’re together, it’s just… Okay, so remember last week after I came home from Bunco and you asked how the night went and I told you, kind of jokingly, that we’d talked about you?”
He looked at her funny. “Yeah.”
“Well, it wasn’t a joke. We did talk about you. Nothing terrible. It’s just…the girls wanted to know more about our relationship.”
“I hope you told them it was none of their business.”
“Kind of.”
“Kind of?” He sounded angry. Which startled her. She’d expected surprise, annoyance, even amusement, maybe. But not anger. Not when she hadn’t told him the bad parts yet. This was going to be a lot harder than she’d envisioned on the drive over.
“Is that why Frida was acting so weird the next morning when I went in The Bistro to get coffee?”
Kitty nodded.
He didn’t say anything. He walked into the kitchen, so she followed him. He took a pan off the stove and set it aside on the counter. “We should eat before this gets cold.”
He wanted to eat?
“Steve, did you hear what I just said out there?”
“Sure, I heard you. It’s okay. I understand.” Gone was the flash of anger she’d witnessed out in the living room. It had been replaced with a wooden expression that she’d never seen on him before.
“What’s wrong, baby? How are you feeling right now?” she asked.
“Why the hell does everyone want to know how I feel?”
Kitty blinked. Where was this coming from? “What’s wrong with you? I’m only trying to make things better between us.”
“Why do you think things need to be better?” he shot back. “I think things are pretty fucking fantastic the way they are. Don’t you?”
“Considering you’re living here and I’m living with my father and soon-to-be stepmother and that we haven’t really talked in almost a week, I’d say no, things aren’t so fucking fantastic.”
“Maybe if we actually fucked, it would be.”
It was as if someone had taken a giant scooper and hollowed her out, taking all her organs with it. Breathe, Kitty, you have lungs in there somewhere.
He looked shocked by his own words. “God, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Maybe dinner isn’t such a good idea,” she whispered. “I’m not really hungry anymore.”
“Neither am I,” he said wearily.
What was happening to them? A week ago, they’d been perfectly happy. But maybe it had all been an illusion.
He had to love her.
But then, he didn’t really have to, did he?
CHAPTER SEVEN
The scene at The Harbor House’s private dining room made Steve’s palms grow damp. And not just because it was July. Today he was officially hosting the rehearsal dinner for Kitty’s father and his soon-to-be wife.
Sharon’s family had come into town this morning for tomorrow’s wedding. This included her two daughters: Ginny and her husband Greg, and Mallory and her husband Frank. Or was it the other way around? Whatever. They were a busy bunch. Between them, they had five kids, ranging from a month-old baby to a four-year-old. There was also a sister, a brother-in-law and a couple of assorted cousins. Kitty had arranged for a couple of her friends to stay at the house and watch the kids, which had earned her major points with Sharon.
Today was also Kitty’s thirty-sixth birthday and the anniversary of their first night together. He’d wanted to make today special. He’d made it special all right. The two of them had barely said three words to one another throughout dinner.
He glanced over to see her sipping a glass of wine, talking to Sharon’s sister. She looked incredibly beautiful tonight in the little black dress she’d worn just last month when they’d been here for a spontaneous romantic evening.
Everything had been going so well between them this past year. How had he managed to fuck it all up despite his best attempts to avoid just that?
Last night, he’d come close to telling her just how messed up he was. Instead, he’d clammed up and let her walk out the door. He could hear Joanna’s voice in his head telling him that unless he faced his greatest fears, he was doomed to repeat history. At the time, it had sounded like something out of a bad fortune cookie.