Of course, he wasn’t accustomed to having to clear his plans with anyone and it hadn’t occurred to him, until just now, that maybe he should have conferred with her before he’d booked his flight.
Because Kenna knew what his job entailed, she immediately recognized that this was an unusual situation. “Don’t they have people who can do that in Kentucky?”
“You would think,” he agreed. “But Archie did suggest that we might discuss the sponsorship, as well.”
“Then it’s definitely worth the trip.”
“So you’re okay with this?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because we just got married.”
“Before I moved in here—yesterday—I’d been living on my own for three years,” she reminded him. “I think I can manage a few days without you.”
“It won’t be that long. No later than Thursday, for sure.” He got up from the table and carried his plate to the sink. “But my flight leaves early, so I should pack.”
She pushed back her chair, blocking his path. “After you do dishes.”
“But—”
“Your deal,” she reminded him.
And because it was, he did the cleanup.
* * *
Kenna requested a substitute to cover her last two classes on Thursday so she could see Becca before her sister went in for surgery. Sue Ellen was there, too, tears streaming down her face as she waited for her youngest daughter to be taken to the O.R. Thankfully Becca was so accustomed to her mother’s drama that the wrenching sobs didn’t faze her.
Determined to be strong for her sister, Kenna kept her chin up and her gaze steady. “I’ll be here when you wake up,” she promised.
“Okay.”
Kenna stepped back, but as the attendants started to wheel her bed out of the room, Becca reached for her hand.
“Thank you.”
“I love you, Becca.”
Her sister’s smile wobbled at the corners. “Back atcha.”
She settled into the waiting room with a stack of test papers that needed to be marked before the end of term. Though she didn’t expect she’d be able to concentrate enough to get much work done, she needed something to help pass the time.
Sue Ellen had nothing to occupy her hands or her mind, so she paced. And she didn’t pace quietly. Her high heels clicked on the linoleum floor, the bracelets on her wrist jangled and she let out frequent and heavy sighs.
Kenna endured twenty minutes of this before she finally said, “Why don’t you sit down? You’re going to wear out the floor before Becca’s out of surgery.”
“Sit?” Sue Ellen protested. “How can I sit while some doctor’s cutting into my baby girl?”
“You focus on the fact that the doctor is a specialist and accept that stomping around isn’t helping anyone.”
Her mother’s pretty blue eyes filled with shimmery tears. “It’s easy for you, isn’t it?” She sniffed. “You don’t have to worry about anything anymore.”
“I’m as worried about Becca as you are,” Kenna told her.
“But you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay the bills because you had to give up a shift at work to be here.” Sue Ellen sniffed again. “Belinda was happy enough to take my hours at the diner, but she wouldn’t give me any of hers.”
Kenna had no idea who Belinda was, and she didn’t care. “How many shifts did you give up when you were with Charles last weekend?”
“That isn’t any of your business.”
“You’re right—except when you abandon your ‘baby girl’ for three days.”
“I did no such thing,” her mother denied indignantly. “And where were you last weekend? Oh, that’s right—getting married. Not that you bothered to tell your mother about your plans.”
She sighed. “Can we not do this right now?”
A single tear tracked slowly down Sue Ellen’s cheek. “I never had a wedding of my own—and you didn’t even let me be part of yours.”
Kenna was tempted to point out that her mother had never had a wedding because she preferred to sleep with other women’s husbands rather than finding her own, but she bit down firmly on her tongue. While Sue Ellen was obviously in a mood to rant and rave, Kenna preferred to focus on her sister.
“You’re not even sorry, are you?” Sue Ellen demanded.
“What am I supposed to be sorry about?”
“Not inviting me to your wedding.”
“No one was invited,” she told her mother. “Daniel and I wanted a quiet, private ceremony.”
Sue Ellen wasn’t mollified by the explanation. “Don’t think people won’t be counting on their fingers anyway.”
“What?”
“The number of months that pass until the baby is born.”
“I’m not pregnant,” Kenna said.
“Of course that’s what I’ve been telling people, too,” her mother said in a conspiratorial tone.
“No, Mom. I’m really not pregnant.”
“Then why...” She let the question trail off, a genuine look of puzzlement in her eyes.
“Why did Daniel marry me?” Kenna suggested.
“Well...yes.”
She was tempted to tell her mother that there were 6.5 million reasons, not one of which was a baby. Instead, she went with the response they’d manufactured to answer that exact question. “We got married because neither of us could imagine a life without the other one in it.”
“You really do love him?”
She nodded, because while she wasn’t in love with him, she really did love him.
Of course her mother, ever the pragmatist, said, “Then you shouldn’t waste any time getting pregnant. That way if he leaves you, at least you’ll get child support.”
* * *
He’d intended to be at the hospital before they took Becca down for her surgery, but a delayed flight into Kentucky meant even more of a delay for Daniel’s outward-bound flight on the same plane. He went straight to Mercy Hospital from the airport, making only a brief stop at the café on the main floor before tracking Kenna down in the surgical waiting room.
She was sitting at one end of a vinyl sofa with a stack of papers in her lap. Her head was down, her hair curtaining her face, but he could see the tension in every line of her body. She must have heard his footsteps, because she glanced up and saw him in the doorway.
She gave him a weary smile. “Hey—when did you get back?”
“My plane landed about an hour ago.” He offered her one of the cups he carried—a tall cinnamon dolce latte. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine,” she told him.
“Becca will be, too,” he promised, lowering himself into the empty seat beside her. “Dr. Rakem’s one of the best.”
She nodded. “I know. But she’s only fourteen...and she was so brave, but I know she’s scared.”
She wouldn’t appreciate false assurances or empty promises, so he only slid an arm across her shoulders. Kenna let her head fall back, against his chest.
“Thanks for being here,” she said.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier.” He sipped his coffee. “Have you been waiting by yourself the whole time?”
She shook her head. “Sue Ellen was here for a while. She had to sign all the consents and waivers, but then she said it was too stressful for her, the sitting around and waiting.”
Her tone was neutral, but he’d known her long enough to recognize the anger and frustration she kept carefully hidden.
The first time she’d ever mentioned Sue Ellen, he hadn’t realized she was talking about her mother. But the more time he spent with her, the more he realized that theirs was hardly a typical mother–daughter relationship.
He didn
’t doubt that Sue Ellen loved her daughters, but she definitely had her priorities screwed up. Even back in high school, it was often Kenna who had to remind her mother to pay the bills so their power wouldn’t be cut off or to pick up groceries so she could pack lunches for both herself and Becca.
“Do you ever think about one seemingly inconsequential event in your life and wonder ‘what if’ something had happened differently?” she asked him now.
“Anything in particular you’re wondering about?”
“Mr. Taylor’s chemistry class,” she admitted. “I don’t know if it was luck or fate that he assigned us to be lab partners, but I will always be grateful to him for that.”
“Me, too,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done nearly as well in that class without you.”
Her lips curved. “You did suck at chemistry.”
“Or maybe I pretended to suck at it so you’d help me study.”
“You did not,” she protested.
“Okay, I didn’t.”
She narrowed her gaze on him. “I never thought about it before, but it does seem strange that the only class you ever struggled in was that one.”
He shrugged.
“Even way back then, when I thought I was helping you, you were really helping me, weren’t you?”
“How did tutoring me help you?”
“It made me feel useful. It helped us become friends.” She looked up at him. “I wish Becca had a friend like you.”
“She’s got something even better—a sister who will do anything for her.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t make choices for her.”
“You’re referring to the boyfriend again,” he guessed.
Kenna nodded. “I don’t know what a seventeen-year-old would want with a girl three years his junior—aside from the obvious—and I refuse to think about that.”
“You’re not giving your sister enough credit—she’s a beautiful, smart and charming young woman.”
“When she’s not being stupid, stubborn and moody.”
He smiled. “Maybe he likes her anyway.”
“Think back to when you were seventeen. Did you waste your time with a girl who wouldn’t sleep with you?”
“There was one,” he remembered. “She was so beautiful, she actually took my breath away. But she made it very clear, very quickly, that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with her.”
“And that was the end of it,” she concluded.
“Actually, no, it was only the beginning.” He squeezed her hand. “She became my best friend.”
And over the past ten years, he’d never felt as if a single minute of the time he’d spent with her was wasted. A realization that helped him recognize that the next twelve months weren’t just the time frame of their marriage but an opportunity to see what the future might hold for both of them together.
* * *
Kenna didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep until Daniel nudged her awake. She lifted her head from his shoulder just as the doctor stepped through the doors of the surgical wing. She immediately rose to her feet, and Daniel stood with her.
She’d met Dr. Rakem before. She hadn’t been impressed by his personality—he was abrupt to the point of rudeness, painfully honest and incredibly blunt. But Kenna didn’t want to be his friend. She wanted him to fix her sister’s leg.
He gave a brief report on the surgery, most of which she didn’t understand. But when he was finished with the technical jargon, he said, “I have every confidence that the surgery was a success.”
Kenna shook his hand and thanked him. As the doctor walked away, Daniel put his arms around her and held her close while tears of relief flooded her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks.
She honestly didn’t know what she’d do without him in her life. He was her best friend, her confidant, her rock. He was the one person she trusted to always stand by her side, the person who instinctively seemed to know when she needed him, sometimes before she even knew it herself.
So if she sometimes felt stirrings of other emotions, uncomfortable licks of attraction, she could ignore them. Not for anything in the world would she risk their comfortable camaraderie.
Except with each day that passed, it was becoming more and more difficult to believe that their friendship was a boundary. Instead, she was starting to think—to hope—that it could be the foundation of something more.
* * *
Julie Marlowe’s wedding to Lukas Garrett took place in the bride’s hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Most of the Garretts from Charisma had made the trip the day before, but Becca had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Rakem after school on Friday, so Kenna and Daniel caught a flight early Saturday morning. Unfortunately there was a delay in getting the baggage off the plane and then they’d had to wait for a cab at the airport, so they barely had time to check in at the hotel and change their attire before they were racing out the door to the church.
Usually Kenna enjoyed weddings and all of the rituals and traditions associated with them, but as she’d watched Lukas and Julie exchange vows, hearing the heartfelt emotion and sincerity in both of their voices, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy. Then came their first kiss as husband and wife, and it was a kiss filled with passion and promise for their future together. It was the type of happy beginning she’d always dreamed of when she’d thought she might someday marry for all of the right reasons.
Daniel excused himself from the table three times during the meal that followed to make or return phone calls. As they were seated at a table with both of his brothers and a couple of his cousins, it was too much to hope that no one else had noticed his disappearances.
He missed the bride and groom’s first dance and, almost twenty minutes later, still had not returned to the table. She knew he was preoccupied with finalizing some details of his agreement with Josh Slater, and if they were back home in Charisma, she wouldn’t have cared if he spent two hours on the phone. But it was undeniably awkward to be seated beside his empty chair at his cousin’s wedding because he was AWOL.
“Why is a beautiful woman like you sitting alone?”
She glanced up into the warm hazel eyes of Daniel’s cousin Ryan. “Because no one has asked me to dance.”
“Then let me rectify that,” he said, and offered his hand.
She didn’t hesitate to accept his invitation. She’d known Ryan almost as long as she’d known Daniel and had crossed paths with him frequently at various Garrett family events. He was rarely without female companionship, so the fact that he seemed to be alone tonight surprised her.
“You didn’t bring a date to the wedding?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’ve learned that inviting a woman to an event like this leads to unrealistic expectations about the relationship.”
“What do you consider unrealistic?”
“A second date.”
She laughed softly. “You’re as bad as Nate, and one of these days you’re both going to meet the right women and forget your vow to never get married.”
“I never said never,” he denied. “But I’m perfectly happy with my life the way it is right now.”
“Even with your mother lamenting the fact that she’s never going to be a grandmother?”
“Braden and Dana are working on that.”
He smoothly moved her to the side to avoid colliding with a young couple who were too wrapped up in one another to care that they weren’t alone on the dance floor.
“But if I ever did get married,” he continued, “especially to a woman as beautiful as you, you can bet I’d want to be dancing with her rather than tucked in a corner with a phone glued to my ear.”
“Daniel’s got a lot going on right now,” she said in her husband’s defense.
“That’s
no excuse for neglecting a wife of...how long have you been married?”
“Two weeks,” she admitted.
Exactly fourteen days, but she didn’t want him to know that she was marking the calendar—not because every day was wedded bliss but because she was counting toward the one-year anniversary when she and Daniel would both be free of their pretend marriage.
“And I’m not feeling neglected,” she told Ryan, though she couldn’t deny that she had been until he’d asked her to dance.
“And maybe I was wrong about my cousin’s affections,” he allowed, turning Kenna so that she could see her husband striding purposefully toward the dance floor.
Daniel stepped in front of them. “If you don’t mind,” he spoke to his cousin through gritted teeth, “I’d like to dance with my wife.”
“Of course.” Ryan agreed to the request easily, but he held on to Kenna’s hand for a moment longer and gave it a subtle squeeze before he released it.
As she moved into her husband’s arms, she felt a quick thrill run through her veins. He didn’t hold her any closer than Ryan had done, so why was her heart suddenly beating faster? Why was her blood humming?
And what was she supposed to do about this inconvenient attraction she felt to her own husband?
Chapter Six
Daniel didn’t know what to make of his own impulsive actions, how to interpret the out-of-character behavior. He’d never been possessive or jealous, and he wondered if the ring on his finger had somehow changed that. Except that explanation was just as uncomfortable as the feelings stirring inside him. Yes, Kenna was his wife, but the circumstances of their marriage didn’t warrant his instinctive Neanderthal response to finding her in Ryan’s arms any more than logic could change it.
“Are you going to tell me why you look as if you want to punch a wall?” Kenna finally asked him.
“The walls are safe—it’s my cousin who should be worried.”
“Why?” She sounded genuinely baffled.
“Because he was flirting with you.”
“He was not flirting with me.”
“Why were you dancing with him?”
“Because he asked. Because he felt sorry for me that his idiot cousin was more interested in his phone than his wife.”
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