“What good? You just said it yourself. What possible use could she have for that property?” Except as a bribe to manipulate her own son? “Whatever she bought it for, I can probably make her see that we need it more than she does. I’m hoping I can get her to sell it to us for a reasonable price.” A price like, say, nothing. “So just tell Kelly to hold off until we have more time to think about it.”
Paige templed her fingers and swiveled in her chair. “Why not? It’s certainly worth a shot.”
Chapter Eleven
Carter went straight to his own office off the shop and called the mansion. Estrella told him that Willow wasn’t due home until the afternoon.
“Have her call me the minute she gets in?”
“Of course.”
He tried Willow’s cell. Straight to voice mail. He left a message for her to call him immediately.
And then he waited.
She never called back.
He tried the mansion again at two that afternoon. Estrella said Willow had called to say she’d run into an old friend in Denver and wouldn’t be home until the next morning.
“Did you ask her to call me?”
“Of course. She hasn’t called you yet?” Estrella sounded apprehensive. “I really did make it clear to her that you wanted to hear from her right away.”
He soothed the housekeeper and told her not to worry. “We both know my mother. She does what she wants to do.” And to hell with the rest of us.
“I’ll be glad to call her again and remind her that you’re waiting to speak with her.”
“No, don’t do that. It’s not your problem. Thank you, Estrella. I’ll take it from here.”
He called Willow’s cell again. This time he left her a detailed message explaining everything, that Paige knew Willow had bought the property but she didn’t know why. And Carter had decided she didn’t need to know. His mother was to keep her mouth shut about what she’d been up to. He ended with “And when you get this, call me back right away.”
Willow never called.
That evening, Dawn and Molly had their Christmas concert at the high school auditorium. Both girls had solos. Carter and Paige sat close to the stage, and Carter tried to focus on the music, on both Dawn’s and Molly’s accomplishments. They were talented girls, each headed for great things, he was certain. He tried to forget about his damn mother and her games. He thought he did a pretty good job of that.
But later, when he and Paige were alone in her bedroom, she asked him why he seemed so jumpy. He lied and said he was nervous about the engagement party. She kissed him and promised him it was going to be fun, that they would have a great time.
He hardly slept all night. He kept his cell by the bed with the sound on, so desperate to make things clear to Willow that he didn’t care that Paige would hear it when it rang.
He had his lies all lined up. If Paige asked him who was calling at such a late hour, he planned to groan and gripe that it was Willow, who couldn’t be disturbed until ten in the morning, but felt perfectly justified calling other people at any damn time of the day or night. Then he would take it in the other room. And once he’d dealt with his mother, he would get back in bed with Paige and pull her into his arms. If she was still awake and wanted to know what the call was about, he’d tell her the good news: Willow was giving them a killer of a wedding present.
But the phone never rang.
By morning, he felt as if he had ants under his skin, all jumpy and freaked. He did his best to hide it from Paige.
But she saw through him, knew him to his core. She knew that something was really bugging him. She just guessed wrong as to what. She caught his face between her hands and kissed him, slow and sweet, and then promised him that the party was going to be beautiful.
She tried to convince him to stay home from BCC. But he told her he needed to go in, even though he didn’t. That was in order that he could take off at lunchtime without Paige knowing he’d gone.
He drove to the mansion, planning a stakeout. He would refuse to leave until he’d talked to Willow and she was on board with the plan.
Estrella answered the door in a chef’s apron. Wonderful cooking smells drifted out around her. She said she was very sorry. Willow had called to check in at ten and explained that she wanted to have lunch with her “old friend.” She wouldn’t be home until five that evening.
“But I have it all under control, I promise you, Carter. Everything will be just right for tonight.”
He reassured her, “I know it’s going to be great, Estrella, because you’re in charge and you are the best.”
She beamed. “How nice of you to say—and while you’re here, why don’t you come in for a minute? Let me show you the table. You can have a look at the menu, take a quick tour through the public rooms. I’ve rearranged the furniture a bit to make it more comfortable for mingling. Plus, the house does look beautiful all done up for the holidays. And on your mother’s instruction, I’ve stocked the wet bar with several bottles of Veuve Clicquot, which will be on ice when the guests arrive. There’s nothing like good champagne to get the guests smiling. Especially when you’re celebrating something as important as your engagement to that one special woman you want to spend your whole life with.”
He could not have cared less about the menu—which Paige had approved after sharing it with him—or the table or even the fancy champagne. But Estrella was a total sweetheart, stuck on her own getting ready for his party. He couldn’t refuse her. “I would love to see...everything.”
She stepped back and ushered him in. He followed her through the rooms, oohing and aahing over the showy Christmas decorations and the table set with Sondra Bravo’s gold candlesticks, monogrammed gold flatware and gold-rimmed dishes. He told Estrella it was all gorgeous. And it was. That table would have passed muster at the Prince’s Palace in Montedoro, where his cousin Rory had grown up. And the food? Estrella’s meals were always excellent. But she’d outdone herself, with a full-out prime rib feast. She had five large standing rib roasts all trussed up and rubbed with spices, ready to go into the mansion’s three large ovens when the time was right.
When he’d seen it all, she walked him back to the door and he thanked her again for everything. He returned to BCC and worked for another couple of hours.
And then he went home—well, actually, to Paige’s house, which had been more a home to him than his own place for a long time now. He greeted the dogs and found Dawn and Molly in the living room, laughing it up, playing the Wii version of “DanceDanceRevolution.” He stuck his head in and waved at them. They giggled, returned his wave and went right on dancing.
He made a circuit of the main floor in search of Paige. When he didn’t find her, he climbed the stairs. No sign of her up there, either.
So he texted her. Where u @?
She answered right away. Hair & nails. Party, remember?
He wanted her there with him, didn’t want to miss a minute he might have with her. Which was paranoid and he knew it. They had the rest of their lives together. I’m home. Miss u.
She sent back a heart smiley and B there in 1 hr.
He took a shower and then stretched out on the bed to wait for her. But his recent sleepless nights caught up with him. He must have dozed off.
When he woke, it was after five. Paige should’ve been home two hours ago. Mildly freaked, he groped for his phone. But then he realized that someone had settled the spare blanket over him: Paige.
He pushed back the blanket and swung his feet to the floor.
The sound of feminine voices led him to the shut door of Dawn’s room. He knocked. “Dawn?”
“Don’t come in here! No men allowed!” Dawn yelled back.
“Where’s Paige?”
The door opened a crack and Paige stuck her head out. “Right h
ere.” Her silky hair was piled up loosely in pretty, soft curls. “Did you sleep well?”
“Great.” He bent close and brushed her lips with his. She smelled like roses and some sexy spice, and he wanted her out from behind that door and into his empty arms.
She said, “I’ll be out in ten minutes.”
He leaned on the doorframe. “Why not now?”
Dawn called, “Eye makeup, Carter! We need Paige for that.”
Paige explained, “It seems I have a talent for the gradient effect.”
Which told him nothing. “Huh?”
“It’ll be more like half an hour,” Dawn called. “And the sooner you let her get back in here, the sooner she’ll be done!”
So he left them alone and went downstairs, where he ate a handful of peanuts to hold him over until the prime rib and hoped that Paige would hurry. They could maybe slip in a quickie before they finished getting ready.
But when she met him in the bedroom twenty minutes later and he tried to kiss her, she wasn’t going for it. “I just spent half the day getting my hair like this. Now you want to me to roll around on the bed with you?”
“Your hair looks beautiful.” He eased her robe off her shoulders. “I’ll be careful.”
“Liar.” She pushed his hand away.
He pouted. Even though men don’t pout. Unless they have no shame...
“Poor baby.” She relented then, and kissed him. And then she stepped back and shook a finger at him. “Don’t you even touch my hair.”
“I wouldn’t. I swear it...”
And then, slowly, she sank to her knees.
Damn, she was amazing. Too many years they’d wasted. He would do anything to keep her, now that he finally had her in the fullest way.
He clasped his hands behind his back to keep them from going where they ached to go—which was directly into all those soft, silky curls. He made himself not touch her and watched her use her hands and mouth on him. It was so beautiful. He never wanted it to end.
But it did. Spectacularly. When he pulled her to her feet again, he tried to return the favor. But she only pressed her soft hand to his cheek and said, “We’re out of time. I need to get ready.”
Out of time. It sounded so...ominous.
Would Ma be back at the mansion now? Maybe he could sneak in a quick call to her.
“Carter?”
“Huh?”
Paige gazed up at him, her smooth brow crinkled in a frown. “You seem distracted. Are you all right?”
“Are you kidding? You just went down on me and I’m getting prime rib for dinner. What could possibly be wrong?”
* * *
He did try to reach Willow again on her cell while Paige was busy in the bathroom. Straight to voice mail. He didn’t even bother to leave a message. And there was no point in calling the mansion again just to listen to poor, overworked Estrella make excuses for his mother.
Fine. If possible, he’d get Ma alone during the party. If not, well, he just hoped to hell he’d get lucky and she wouldn’t tell Paige the real reason she’d bought the property right out from under their noses.
What a mess. His mother was a piece of work—popping up out of nowhere when you didn’t want her around, never available when you needed her.
His hair was kind of scrambled after his nap, so he grabbed another quick shower and put on a good suit. Paige looked terrific in a black dress with one of those tops that tied behind her neck and left her pretty shoulders bare. It fit like a glove on top and flared out from the waist to just above her knees. Dawn and Molly were looking excellent, too, in party dresses and high heels. Most of the snow had melted from the week before, so he drove them in the ’54 Cadillac sedan he’d restored years ago and had Jake bring over from storage at BCC that afternoon.
The mansion was lit up so bright you could probably see it from Denver. Holiday music flowed from inside. Family and friends were already gathering when he handed the keys to one of the parking attendants hired for the night. He ushered Paige and the girls up the wide white steps and inside where a giant tree blazed in the foyer, and his mother smiled and hugged people and said, “Welcome, welcome. So glad you could come.” She wore sparkly white silk and looked half her age.
She hugged him, too. “Darling. You are so handsome. Welcome to your party. I think you’ll agree that Estrella has outdone herself.”
“We need to talk,” he said, low, for her ears alone.
She acted as if she didn’t hear him. “Paige!” she exclaimed over his shoulder. “You look just beautiful...”
He told himself to give it up. Now wasn’t the time.
But he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from watching for his moment.
He filed into the front parlor with everyone else. The large room was decorated to holiday perfection and the Veuve Clicquot waited on ice. A pretty woman in a red gown at the grand piano sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in a sultry alto voice.
Carter accepted a flute of the champagne and made the rounds, visiting with his brothers and sisters, telling everyone how great it was that they could come, while he kept an eye on his mother, waiting for her to duck out for a minute at the same time as he kept reminding himself that he was totally losing it. If she didn’t want to talk to him, he should just let it the hell go.
About seven-thirty, he got lucky. He saw when Willow slipped out of the large parlor and into the foyer.
Paige, across the room laughing and chattering with Clara and Rory, had her back to him. He seized the moment and ducked out after Willow.
As his mother crossed the foyer, he trailed a little ways behind her. She smiled at the guests who lingered near the giant tree, and started up the stairs. He waited until she was at the top and then did the same, waving and nodding as he went by the group of friends around the tree. At the upstairs landing, he saw her ahead, strolling along the upper hallway. He rushed to catch up as she turned the corner into the master suite’s private foyer. When he rounded that corner, she’d already crossed the foyer and was entering the suite. He caught up with her just as she was about to close the door.
“Hold on a minute, Ma.”
“Carter!” She put her hand to her chest. “You startled me.”
“We need to talk and you know that we do.”
“Not right now, darling.” She tried to close the door on him. He stuck his foot in it. “Carter. Please. It has to be obvious to you that this is not the time.” She kept pushing on the door, but he didn’t move his foot.
Fine. It would only take a minute. They didn’t need a long conversation. He just wanted her agreement about what not to tell Paige. “I know you got my messages,” he whispered through the crack his foot was keeping in the door. “You know what I want. Just tell me you understand and you won’t say a word to Paige about that little bribe of yours, and I’ll leave you alone. My marrying her has zip to do with your ridiculous scheme and you know it.”
Willow sighed heavily and let the door drift open. “Darling. I think you need to step back and take a deep breath. We both know that honesty in a relationship is always preferable to secrets and lies. I think you should tell Paige the truth. I really, truly do.”
Carter saw red. It took all his willpower not to batter the damn door with his fist. Who was his crazy-ass home-wrecker mother to take the high road about anything?
And then she said, “But all right. I’ll keep your secret if that’s really how you want it. You may simply tell Paige that I’m thrilled to give you the property as a wedding gift—and leave out all mention of any bribe.”
* * *
Paige had glanced over her shoulder in time to see Carter duck out after Willow.
She’d been worried about him all day. Something was up with him. Something was wrong.
And she had a very strong feeling that whatever it was, it concerned his mother.
Maybe she should have just left him alone to chase after Willow and do...whatever it was he seemed so determined to do. She could ask him about it later, when they were alone.
But she didn’t like that he kept lying to her, telling her everything was fine when she knew in her bones that it wasn’t.
So she left Clara and Rory chatting together, and followed him as he followed Willow out into the foyer and up the grand staircase.
When he turned a corner at the end of the hallway, she hesitated. Maybe she really should leave this alone, go back downstairs and ask him later what he’d been doing up here. She turned to go—and then couldn’t quite give it up.
So much between them was so beautiful. And yet...
She loved him and she’d told him so and he had said nothing.
There were just too many games between them. She wore his ring on her finger, but she wouldn’t know if it was real until after the holidays—and a totally ridiculous pro-and-con evaluation.
Uh-uh. She needed to know what was happening here.
She squared her shoulders and kept going, hesitating again at the end of the hallway. From there, she could hear Willow talking tightly about secrets and lies, about honesty in a relationship, about how Paige should know the truth. About the property being a wedding gift.
And how she would never say anything about a bribe.
A bribe? Paige didn’t get it.
And she was eavesdropping, plain and simple. That wasn’t right.
Anxiety building, her heart suddenly racing, she stepped out from behind the shelter of the wall and directly into a foyer area. About ten feet away, Carter stood with his back to her at a half-open door.
Willow, on the other side of that door, spotted her immediately. “Paige,” she said softly, with a strange little smile.
Carter whipped around. The sudden stark misery on his face told Paige way more than she wanted to know. He whispered her name. “Paige...”
And her heart kept on beating frantically, as though it would punch through the wall of her chest. So many lies. Too many silly games. Where even to start?
Carter Bravo's Christmas Bride Page 16