“Better now,” he said. “He’s been pining.” But then, who hadn’t been doing that?
“So…” She tilted her head expectantly. “Did you…like it?”
He frowned, having absolutely no idea what she could be talking about. “Like what?”
“Oh shoot, man!” Alex snapped his fingers like he’d just remembered something. “I never took it out to Waterford Farm. Nick brought it in yesterday, and I completely forgot. It’s still in the catering truck, if you want to get it.”
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“A surprise,” Katie responded. “But I’ll have to figure out some other way to get it out and installed.” Then she gave a mother’s look to Alex. “I can’t believe you forgot.”
“Mom, I’m up to my ass opening a new restaurant.”
“It’s fine,” Daniel said, dying to know what the surprise was. Nothing could be much better than the one he was experiencing now. “Whatever it is, I can get it now. My Tahoe’s right over there. I can drive it to the restaurant and get…whatever it is.”
“No, the van’s right there,” Katie said. “Alex parked there to go…” She frowned. “Why did you park over here again?”
“So I could…” He glanced down the street. “Stop at the hardware store,” he finished as if he’d just remembered. He added a laugh. “Honestly, my brain is scrambled eggs this week. Come on, let’s get it, and the two of us can carry it to your car.”
“Two of us?” Daniel asked.
“It’s kind of heavy,” Katie said. “And it will take at least two people to install.”
Daniel put a hand on her shoulder, mostly because he had to, but also to ask a very serious question. “What is it, Katie?”
“Just something I promised you.”
He searched her face, thinking of all the promises she’d made and so many that he never got, but still wanted. “I’m sure curious.”
While he and Katie got the dogs, Alex walked a few feet ahead. Just as Daniel clipped a leash on Rusty, he noticed Alex looking up at the windows above the bakery and could have sworn he nodded. But when Daniel followed his gaze, he didn’t see anyone.
“It’s good to see you,” Katie said softly as they started to walk.
“It went pretty far past good the minute Rusty barked,” he joked. “I might have howled a little myself.”
She laughed at that, looking up with a gleam in her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Same.”
With that one word, Daniel felt more hope than he’d known in weeks.
Alex was already at the back of the white Santorini’s van, opening the back door to reveal a massive brown box about five feet long and three feet wide. He stepped aside and pulled out his phone, while Daniel peered at the box, mind whirring.
“My pictures?” Daniel guessed.
“What?” Alex’s exclamation interrupted Katie’s chance to respond. “Cassie, you’ve got to be kidding me. Now? Okay, okay. Do not let them leave. I’ll be there in five minutes.” He tapped the phone and shoved it into his pocket. “How far’s your Tahoe, Daniel?”
“Right there.” He pointed to the small lot where he always parked, no more than twenty feet away.
“Let’s roll. Our first major catering client just arrived at Santorini’s, and I totally forgot I was supposed to be there.”
“Oh, you didn’t mention a meeting, Alex,” Katie said.
“Told you.” He tapped his temple. “Scrambled eggs. Let’s move, please.”
“But I can’t dump this on Daniel to get home and—”
“Come with me,” Daniel said as he helped Alex pull the box from the back. “Whatever it is, we can install it together.”
He noticed Alex’s gaze intent on his mother, as if he was waiting with the same bated breath that had caught in Daniel’s chest.
She hesitated a nanosecond before nodding. “I’d like that,” she said. “And I’m sure Goldie would, too.”
By the time they reached Waterford a little while later, Goldie and Rusty had settled down. And so had Daniel. As if by silent agreement, Daniel and Katie avoided the tough subjects on the drive there, slipping back into the easy conversation and frequent laughs that he’d missed so damn much.
As they pulled in, Garrett and Shane came over from the pen, even though they were in the middle of a training session, greeting Katie as if they weren’t that surprised to see her. That helped alleviate any awkward explanation, and before Daniel even finished asking for help with the box, they were headed to the back of the Tahoe to offer an assist.
It was as if they knew what he wanted before he did.
They took the box in the front door at Katie’s request, making him even more certain it contained his family pictures, although she teasingly had refused to answer.
And then his sons were gone as fast as they’d shown up. In fact, the entire house seemed deserted, he realized as he went to the mud room to get a knife and the toolbox Katie had said he’d need. The kitchen was empty, with no sign of Crystal or his mother or the family and staff that marched through there during the workday at Waterford.
But none of that mattered as he knelt down and slid a knife along the side of the box that Goldie and Rusty sniffed with vague interest before they curled up next to each other by the living room hearth.
“I feel like a kid at Christmas,” Daniel said. “Can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a present.”
She put her hand over his before he lifted the lid. “I almost didn’t do it,” she said. “I almost sent the bins back with all your pictures because…”
“Because I hurt you.”
She looked at him. “Life hurt us.”
“No, no.” He dropped the knife and took her face in his hands. “I could recite a litany of excuses for my behavior that day. But none of them would be good enough.”
“No, no—”
“Shh. Let me tell you something else,” he insisted. “Let me tell you that for twenty-two nights, I have paced the floor of my newly decorated room and second-guessed every single moment of that day. I know what I did, why I did it, and how much it disappointed you.”
“You didn’t want me to have to make a choice.”
“I didn’t let you make a choice,” he said, his voice rough against his throat. “Because I was too damn scared that you wouldn’t choose me. Yes, yes, I believed I was doing the right thing by taking the decision away from you, by protecting you, by letting you have Nick and not me. But deep inside, I thought that if I fought for you, I would lose.”
She stared at him. “You could never lose me, Daniel.”
He huffed out a breath that felt like he’d been holding it for damn near a month. “Thank God.”
“But the fact is, I don’t have to make a choice,” she said softly. “Nick has accepted the truth, and we’ve talked and cried it out together.”
He inched back. “Then where have you been?”
“In the same place as you.”
“Really? ’Cause I haven’t seen you on those miserable nights, except in my imagination.”
She smiled. “The same mental place,” she said. “I was scared to fight for you because I’ll never be…” She swallowed noisily as her eyes filled. “That great love of your life.”
“Oh, Katie.” He pulled her into him. “I’m not scared of anything anymore except waking up without you.”
She leaned back, holding his gaze and gesturing to the box. “You better open your present before you make any pronouncements.”
He hesitated a moment, then finished with the lid, opening it slowly, then lifting packing tissue to reveal…a large, metal puzzle piece.
“It’s a puzzle?”
“A jigsaw puzzle,” she said. “Of your life.”
For a moment, he couldn’t breathe, taking in the bronze frames of all different shapes and sizes, each somehow perfectly fitting with the next one. Some framed one or two or three different images, but altogether there were about fifteen pu
zzle-piece-shaped frames, each meant to be hung next to the one they fit with.
“I’m speechless.”
She laughed. “At the amount of hammering you’re about to do?”
“At the creativity and meaning and perfection of this.” He turned to her. “All the pictures are here?”
“Every one, from your wedding day to Molly’s sleigh ride in a bridal gown in January. It was quite an undertaking. But Nick helped me. We did a few every day, talking the whole time, and working things out.”
He looked at her, then back to the frames. “He did this with you?”
“It helped him,” she whispered. “It helped him to understand who you are and how we got to this place.”
He lifted each individual frame and started laying the shapes on the floor, seeing how perfectly they fit next to each other, still unable to put his emotions into words as the jigsaw puzzle of his life took shape.
“I still can’t believe this,” he said as he lifted one that held pictures of Fiona and Liam, both as babies in the same christening gown. There were kids of all ages, dogs of all sizes, and at least ten of Annie at various stages of her life.
He eventually came to the bottom of the carefully wrapped piles. “No one has ever given me a gift like this.”
“There are a few extra puzzle pieces that are empty, so you can add more,” she said. “And be sure to look at the last one. Nick made it for you.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, then reached for the frame that held a collage of four pictures, all of Nick. One as a very little boy, one as a teenager holding a basketball, one in a cap and gown, and one in scrubs, laughing.
“Katie.” The word came out thick with emotion. “I have to thank him for this.”
“I think he’ll let you do that,” she said, putting her hand over his. “I think he’s just about ready.”
“What’s this one?” he asked when he moved Nick’s puzzle piece.
“No, that’s all.”
“There’s one more.” He lifted a frame that held only one five-by-seven photo, with space for more. A photo of…
“That’s us,” Katie said, kneeling to come closer. “That’s you and me on Saint Patrick’s Day.”
He recognized it immediately—it was the shot Molly had taken when Katie had first arrived that fateful day. “How did you get this?”
“I didn’t get it.” She dropped back to the floor. “But somehow someone did. Nick or Alex or…”
“Molly or Liam or Shane…”
“Or all of them.”
For a moment, neither said a word, but stared at the picture that fit perfectly with the puzzle piece next to it.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “I didn’t have that picture, and only Nick knew what was in the box.”
“And I went to Linda May’s late today, but Andi could see from her window…”
“And Alex insisted on parking on that side of the square, even though…”
Daniel turned to look at the two dogs nestled together by the hearth as a knowing smile pulled at his mouth. “We’ve been Dogfathered,” he murmured, fighting a laugh. “By our own kids.”
They both sat there and laughed until the only thing they could do was slide into each other’s arms and kiss all the hurt away.
A few hours, about twenty nails, and several dozen more kisses later, the puzzle wall was finished, and it was an absolute work of art. By then, after a text from Gramma Finnie and hours of silence in the rest of the house, Daniel was pretty sure they were strategically and certainly alone for the night.
“Let’s celebrate,” he said, heading to the Jameson’s decanter and glasses that now sat on a brand-new floating shelf that was decades more modern than the bar cart. He poured two glasses and brought one to Katie on the sofa, where she admired their work.
“To jigsaw puzzles?” she guessed.
He sat next to her and held out his glass. “To the pictures we haven’t taken yet, the years we haven’t lived yet, the matches we’re going to make together, the grandchildren we can’t even imagine yet, and the great, great love we haven’t even begun to enjoy together.”
“Oh, Daniel.” She closed her eyes and put the glass down as if she didn’t trust herself not to drop it.
So he did the same, taking her face in his hands. “I love you, Katie Rogers Santorini. And you are the only woman I want to love for the rest of my life.”
“I love you, too.” She pressed her hands over his. “Thank you for giving me Nick. For taking me to Nico and for letting me back into your life.”
“Where you are going to stay.”
“Yes,” she whispered as he closed the space and kissed her.
Epilogue
Bushrod’s was packed…with Kilcannons, Mahoneys, and Santorinis.
On the sidelines of the party that had started as Nick’s going-away dinner at Santorini’s in Bitter Bark and then turned into a family-wide bar hop to the biggest dance floor in Bitter Bark, Katie could actually feel her face hurting from laughing. Watching Cassie, Alex, John, and Nick try to teach a dozen Irishmen and women how to dance the sirtaki was flat-out hilarious.
It was late enough on a weeknight that most, but not all, of Bitter Bark’s locals had left the place, though some stuck around to witness the impromptu dance lessons.
“One, two, sweep, extend.” Cassie rolled her eyes, making the circle of family around the dance floor laugh as she teased Braden. “It’s not that difficult, Einstein.”
But Braden shook his head and held out his hands. “I am not Zorba the Greek.”
“No kidding.” Cassie gave Braden’s strong shoulder a squeeze. “But we’ll make a Greek dancer out of you yet.”
As John started up the familiar mandolin music on the sound system, nice and slow for the non-Greeks, Cassie called out the steps for the line dance. Taking it all in, Katie leaned back into the man who stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist. Next to them, Goldie and Rusty were tucked under a table, both sound asleep despite the noise.
“You sure you don’t want to try?” she asked.
Daniel’s chuckle rumbled from his chest into her back. “I want them to get good and involved, so no one will notice we’ve slipped out.” He planted a kiss on her head. “I have plans for tonight, sweet Kate.”
She turned to look up at him. “You have to say goodbye to Nick.”
“I will.” He looked over her head, his gaze landing on the man at the end of the line who might not be Greek by blood, but had obviously danced to this music a thousand times in his life. “We’ve come so far these past few weeks.”
Katie sighed in happy agreement. They’d started slow, with no big confrontation and no massive breakthroughs. The times that Katie and Daniel had spent with Nick had been more quiet than anything, with simple conversations about work, Africa, life, dogs, and family. The only time it got serious was when Daniel offered a copy of his results from Bloodline.com, and Nick had perused them, nodding.
The truth was out, the shock had subsided, and now they all had to figure out how to move ahead. The going-away party had been Cassie’s idea, and they’d closed the restaurant for a private dinner Alex cooked for all the families. When it was over, Garrett had driven Gramma Finnie home to babysit the youngest kids, and the rest of them—including Pru—had moved to everyone’s favorite bar to take Cassie’s bet that they couldn’t learn the sirtaki.
They stumbled through one more time, and a few of the dancers peeled off to grab drinks and let the ones who were getting the hang of it try it at a faster speed. Nick said something to Cassie, who nodded, reached up, and hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Then he headed toward Katie and Daniel, shaking back his long hair as he strode across the dance floor.
“Time for old people to go home,” he said as he reached them.
“I hate to think what we are if you’re calling yourself old, Nick,” Daniel joked.
“You are…” He looked from one to the other. “Very happy.
”
Katie let out a sigh. “Yes we are.”
“I guess you’re going to Waterford tonight?” Nick asked Katie.
She nodded. “I am, but Cassie and John and Alex are staying in town at their apartment.” The three-bedroom unit in Ambrose Acres had been a godsend in a building owned by Josh, Darcy’s fiancé. They got the apartment for a song, and it meant that they could easily work at the new restaurant without driving back and forth to Chestnut Creek. “You could stay there,” Katie suggested.
“And sleep on a couch?” He shook his head. “I haven’t had anything to drink, and I’m good to go home. I have a lot of flights and connections to make to get back to CAR. If it’s all the same to you, I’ve said my goodbyes. I’m ready to hit the road.”
“You’ll be missed,” Daniel said simply.
Nick met his gaze and gave a slight nod to acknowledge the words. Then he looked over his shoulder at the dancing, laughing crowd. “It’s good to be around family.”
“Bitter Bark could always use a top-notch doctor,” Daniel added, lifting his brows with the suggestion.
Nick regarded him for a moment, no smile, but the anger and hate had evaporated. Yes, it would be a long time before Katie could hope Nick would feel anything like love for Daniel, but they’d reached mutual respect, and for the moment, that satisfied her.
“Don’t tempt me with regular hours and a lack of bloody skirmishes.”
Katie winced. “When you and Lucienne are ready to settle down, honey, you know where your family is. Safe and sound.”
A shadow crossed his face, one that Daniel might have missed, but Katie saw it. “Is everything okay?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Let’s just say I need to get back.”
She searched his face for clues, but he wasn’t giving any. Instead, he reached out a hand to Daniel, but before they could shake, a woman Katie didn’t know sidled up to them. No, she did recognize her, Katie realized. The cat lady.
“So these are all yours?” the woman asked Daniel with a flirtatious grin and a sideways glance to Nick.
“Some are mine, some are Katie’s, some are…” He and Nick shared a look, the closest thing to a connection she could remember the two men having. “Bella Peterson, you know Katie Santorini.”
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