She ended up being first out the door of the inn, with Gillian holding fast to her hand. The little girl stopped dead in her tracks when she caught sight of the long limo. Maybe because Kate had promised her dancing at the party, she seemed to think that Kate was the keeper of all important information. She looked up at Kate, her eyes wide. “What is that big thing?”
“It’s called a limousine,” Kate said. “Special people get to ride around in it.”
“Oh, my gosh. Is Barbie in there?”
Kate managed to keep a straight face. “No, not this time.”
Gillian thought about that for a moment. “So I guess we get to be the special people!” With that she let go of Kate’s hand and marched to the door the limo driver held open. Then she turned and blew everyone a kiss before stepping inside.
It was the kind of silliness they all needed. Kim, especially, had been getting way too serious, and now she laughed. “She caught on to that pretty fast.”
“She catches on to everything fast.” Andrea hurried after her daughter. “And now I’d better get to her before she discovers the wet bar.”
Kate’s dad took charge of getting the wedding bouquets loaded into the trunk of the limo while Kate’s mom shepherded everyone inside the car. After a little jockeying and arranging of long skirts, they were all cocooned within the plush interior and began the short drive to Belcourt Castle.
“It’s just like prom, minus the dates!” Ruth said.
“Good riddance to those dates,” Bette said. “That was the worst night of my life. In case you’re forgotten, Donald Hynes spent the entire evening demonstrating how he could belch the fight song.”
“And Horace Wimpleton, my wonderful date, took his trig book along to cram for a test,” Sabrina said.
Then the race was on to see who’d had the worst prom experience, the worst date ever, the most horrible first date, the most humiliating breakup. Kate’s parents joined in the laughter and teasing because they’d been there through it all as this crowd of girls slowly became women. Kate longed to freeze the action and keep them right in this moment for a little longer. But she couldn’t, so she started snapping pictures.
First she concentrated on her parents, her mother so young and vibrant, her father basking in the role of being the only man in the midst of a bevy of finely turned-out women. Then she took pictures of Kim, a bride beautiful enough to bring fresh tears to her eyes. Finally she turned her camera toward her buddies. If only their long-suffering teachers and principals could see them now. In fact, a couple of them would be there, she remembered, thinking of the guest list.
Each of her friends, independent thinkers all, had been allowed to choose her own dress and color so long as the result was vintage and lacy. Ruth was in pale blue, Sabrina in dusty rose and Bette in pale yellow. The women all had a certain luster about them, as if they knew the importance of today. Kim was the first of the gang to get married, and after this their group of five would never be quite the same.
As long as everyone stayed in the limo, they were caught in time, full of giddy anticipation that buoyed them up and made their faces glow. Kate realized that was why she took pictures in the first place—to record moments like this, real moments, not the arranged production of glamour shots in the studio. And when this wedding was over and the dust had settled, she’d have to tell her father and Kim that she needed to take a leave of absence from Cooper Photography. Perhaps daring to do what she had the night before had given her the courage for this bold step.
The decision left her a little breathless. There was one person she could tell now, one person who would understand and support her plan. But she wouldn’t tell him, because her mental health required that she stay far away from Hugh Armstrong.
As luck would have it, Hugh was stationed at the head of the walkway leading up to the imposing mansion. Harry must have asked him to watch for them and escort them all to the proper place. Everything about this building was proper. Kate wondered if Kim was having second thoughts about canceling the rehearsal.
Kate was having second thoughts about her ability to stay away from Hugh. The sight of him in a tux was enough to rattle the composure of any woman. If he hadn’t kicked her out of his cottage early this morning, she’d be making plans to seduce him on the grounds of Belcourt Castle.
But he had kicked her out, so she’d eat dirt before she’d allow herself to chase after him. Damn, he looked good though, with his broad shoulders straining the seams of his jacket and his eyes even more blue than she remembered. Belcourt was more of an elaborate mansion than an actual castle, but Hugh still looked like the prince of her dreams standing there with the elegant structure in the background. Fortunately she didn’t look too bad, herself. She hoped he would get an eyeful of her in her mint-green vintage lace dress and regret his boorish behavior.
Maybe after watching her for a little while tonight, he’d beg for another chance to continue their affair. She wouldn’t agree to anything, of course. He was bad for her, and she needed to remember that.
Still, it would be sweet to listen to him beg.
HUGH SUSPECTED HARRY of making him the limo reception guy on purpose. Harry would be trying to throw him in Kate’s path whenever possible. He couldn’t refuse to escort the bridal party into the chambers reserved for them without seeming like a grouch, and he didn’t want to put a damper on Stuart’s wedding. So he’d agreed.
But the minute Kate stepped out of the limo looking like a princess in her mint-green outfit, he felt a sharp pain in the region of his heart. She had no business looking so gorgeous. She wasn’t supposed to outshine the bride.
Stuart wouldn’t agree with him that Kate was the more beautiful, of course, but Hugh was entitled to his opinion. Kim was a knockout, though, he had to admit as she climbed carefully out of the car.
Because she was Kate’s twin, he had no trouble imagining how Kate would look in a wedding dress, and that caused him another sharp pain of regret. Kate would marry someone eventually, maybe even one of the single guys attending this wedding. She’d grown up in Providence, so she had plenty of old friends, even old flames.
The thought gave him heartburn. “If everyone will follow me, I’ll show you where you’re supposed to hang out until the procession begins,” he said as the bridesmaids were handed one by one out of the car by the limo driver.
“I’m Gillian. I’m the flower girl.” A dark-haired little cherub skipped over to him and grabbed his hand as the women stood around smoothing their outfits and straightening the flowers in their hair.
“So I heard.” God, she was cute. And according to Stuart, she had a personality to match Kate’s. Looking at her he could imagine what Kate was like as a kid, only with carrot-red hair instead of glossy black.
But he couldn’t get too wrapped up in this little sweetie. As the person in charge of meeting the limo, he had duties. He glanced back to where Kate’s dad and the limo driver were taking colorful bouquets out of the trunk. “You guys need any help with that?”
“Thanks, but we’ve got it.” John’s tone was pleasant enough, but he still seemed suspicious of Hugh. “Lead the way, and we’ll be behind you.”
“Let’s lead the way!” Gillian cried, swinging his hand back and forth. “I like that.”
“Okay.” He glanced around at the assembled women. “Everybody all set?”
“All set,” Kim said.
“Then, let’s—”
“Mister Man, can I ride on your shoulders?”
“Gillian,” said a dark-haired woman who was obviously the little girl’s mother. “I don’t—”
“We’ll be real careful of my pretty clothes, won’t we?” She gazed up at Hugh with her china-doll eyes.
He melted. Not many people knew he was a sucker for kids, especially little girls. He glanced over at Gillian’s mom. “Might not be a bad idea for her to be up off the sidewalk to protect that white dress. And I will be careful.”
“Thank you. We haven’t
met.” The woman stepped closer and offered her hand. “I’m Andrea Jacobs, Gillian’s mother.”
“I’m Hugh Armstrong, the best man’s brother.”
“The stuntman.” Andrea smiled as she clasped his hand.
“A stuntman?” Gillian asked. “What’s that?”
“I do tricks.” The warmth of Andrea’s smile and her handshake warned him to take a quick look at her left hand. No wedding ring. Probably no husband around. He’d better be careful. His natural fondness for kids could get him in trouble, as he’d discovered several times with single mothers.
Besides, he felt Kate’s eyes burning a hole in his back. She was the type to notice, and he didn’t plan to rub salt in her wounds by seeming to be interested in another woman.
“I wanna see some tricks,” Gillian said.
“Okay, I’ll show you how I can be an elevator.” He released Andrea’s hand quickly and crouched down to Gillian’s level. “Elevator going up.”
“Yay!” Gillian clapped her hands and started to scramble onto his back.
“Easy!” He grasped her gently around the waist, marveling at how small and light she was. “Let me carry you on one shoulder, so we don’t muss up your dress.” Without waiting for her agreement, he settled her on his left shoulder and rose partway. “First floor!”
“Ding, ding!” Gillian pushed on his nose.
He stood erect and could have sworn he heard the click of a camera and the soft whir of an automatic rewind. “Second floor!” But when he looked over at Kate, she had no camera in her hands. She did have a little beaded bag, however, and it was big enough to hold her tiny thirty-five millimeter. He’d bet he’d guessed right.
He was a little confused about why she’d want to waste film on him, though. Maybe she was only interested in Gillian, and he happened to be in the way. That was okay. He could understand why Kate would want about a thousand pictures of the little girl. He wouldn’t mind having a few, himself.
“Now I’ll show you how I can be a train,” Hugh said to Gillian. As he started forward, he made chugging noises and blew through his free hand to make a sound like a train whistle.
“Look at these big trees!” Gillian said.
“Don’t even think about it, girl,” Andrea said. She glanced over at Hugh. “Did you hear about the tree-climbing incident yesterday?”
“I did, as a matter of fact.”
Andrea lowered her voice. “She’s a handful. Thank you for helping.”
“My pleasure.” He knew about kids like this. He used to be one. He still was, in a way.
“Toot, toot!” Gillian yelled, pulling on Hugh’s ear.
This time he caught Kate taking a picture. “Fill up that portfolio,” he called to her.
Her mother turned to Kate. “What portfolio?”
Hugh could have kicked himself. She wasn’t announcing her intentions to her family, and he knew that. “A wedding portfolio for Kim and Stuart is what I meant,” Hugh said.
“Oh! Well, that’s very nice,” Emily said.
“I wanted to bring my camera,” John said from the rear of the procession. “But I couldn’t figure out where to put it. The father of the bride doesn’t carry a purse.”
“That’s okay, Dad.” Kate was shooting pictures openly now, lifting the hem of her skirt with one hand and snapping shots of the procession with the other. “Once the wedding’s over, you can borrow mine.”
“When the wedding’s over, we’re gonna party!” Gillian said. Then she pulled on Hugh’s ear again. “Will you dance with me?”
“You bet.”
“Little girls have an advantage,” Andrea said quietly. “They don’t think to be shy.”
Hugh’s heart squeezed. Andrea wanted to be promised a dance, too. “I’m going to dance with as many beautiful women as I can tonight,” Hugh said. And that would probably convince Kate he was a total jerk. Maybe that was for the best. But he’d be damned if he’d lead Andrea on and risk hurting someone else. “Then tomorrow it’s straight back to California for me.”
“Oh.” Andrea’s voice betrayed her disappointment. “That’s too bad.”
“It’s my life. I’m constantly on the go, and that’s the way I like it—free as a bird.” The words tasted bitter on his tongue. His type of freedom meant he’d never carry his own child on his shoulder or stand at the end of the aisle and watch a redheaded beauty come toward him in a white dress. He didn’t want that kind of freedom anymore, but he, the daredevil who leaped from burning buildings and swam through rapids, was afraid to reach out for what he wanted.
He escorted the bridal party into the elegant ante-chamber adjacent to the French Gothic ballroom where guests were gathering. Reluctantly he lowered Gillian to the carpet and promised her as many dances as she wanted during the party. The thought came to mind that Gillian might be the only female in the vicinity he could relate to without danger. She was a creature of the moment, not worried about next week or next year, when he would be gone.
He used to be like that. He’d love to blame the transformation on Kate and her cozy family and the trappings of this warm and wonderful wedding. He’d love to, but he couldn’t. Life as he knew it hadn’t been working for quite a while, and it had taken someone as vibrant and non-Hollywood as Kate to make him realize that he needed to make a change.
But his discovery was too new and untried for him to act on it. Before trying to find a woman to share his life with, he had to decide what kind of life that would be. Maybe it was time to stop risking his safety in front of the camera and see what he could do behind it. After making hundreds of movies, he had a pretty good idea of what constituted a good one.
And after fifteen years in Hollywood he’d made the right connections to get financial backing, especially if he found a decent script. He knew who would work cheap and who liked the idea of taking a chance on an independent venture. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.
That was a huge switch for him to make, though, and he needed to make it alone so that if it went sour he didn’t take anyone down with him. Especially someone like Kate. Before he left the chamber to go check on Stuart and Harry, he took one last look at Kate flitting around with her camera constantly clicking.
She reminded him of an exotic butterfly, and the overwhelming emotions he felt every time he saw her or even thought about her boiled down to one inescapable realization. He’d fallen in love with her. The timing for such an emotion to grab him was terrible. And as he knew from years in the movie business, timing was everything.
14
KATE COULDN’T IMAGINE a more perfect wedding. Late afternoon sun filtered through the stained glass windows of the French Gothic ballroom and cast jeweled light on two hundred and twenty guests seated beneath the room’s vaulted ceilings. Candlelight flickering at the altar and the sparkling light of four massive chandeliers turned the room into a fairyland.
Despite skipping the rehearsal, the wedding party had moved through the processional without incident. Even little Gillian seemed subdued by the wonder of it all. After strewing her basket of rose petals and waving at the guests like a homecoming queen on a float, she’d returned to her mother’s lap and stayed there, much to Kate’s amazement. Kate had followed Gillian’s lead and decided to be circumspect, herself. She’d tucked her camera away until after the recessional.
At the focal point of all this majesty stood Kim and Stuart, proudly repeating the time-honored vows of marriage. As they pledged to love each other forever in voices firm with conviction, Kate sent up a prayer of gratitude for whoever had invented waterproof mascara.
She was so happy for Kim. So unbelievably happy. But now she knew that she wanted this, too, wanted the handsome prince and the adorable children and the promise of a love everlasting. She wanted it so much that her whole body ached.
Her mother might say it was the twin syndrome kicking in. The sisters had passed through the stages of life so closely bonded that Kim’s marriage would natural
ly signal Kate’s readiness to do likewise. Kate thought it might also have something to do with her near-miss this weekend. If Hugh had turned out to be the person she’d thought on Friday night, they might already be planning their wedding.
But Hugh wasn’t the man she’d thought he was. He couldn’t even be her faux hero for a weekend without chickening out when a nightmare threatened his masculine pride. Therefore she needed to forget about Hugh and open herself to the possibility of another man, maybe even some man in this room.
Unfortunately she knew just about every single guy within these massive walls, and only one made her heart beat faster—the one she’d vowed to forget. She knew exactly where he was sitting on the groom’s side of the aisle. From the corner of her eye she could see him, his dark hair gleaming in the light from the chandelier over his head.
Andrea wanted him, too. And then there was Temple, Stuart’s sister, who had maneuvered things so that she was sitting next to him. From what Kate had seen of Temple’s tactics, she was probably pressing her thigh against Hugh’s by now. The reception would turn into a free-for-all as women flocked to dance with the handsome stranger from California, a man who’d been the stand-in for Antonio Banderas, for God’s sake.
Kate figured she’d let them all find out for themselves that Hugh was beautiful to look at and impossible to hold. All except Andrea, who’d already been hurt once and didn’t deserve another slap in the face. Kate planned to have a talk with Andrea and steer her toward Harry. The more she thought about it, the more she thought Andrea and Harry would be perfect for each other.
Logically, even Kate should be interested in Harry, who was a quieter, gentler version of Hugh. But that’s how it was with chemistry. Either it was there or it wasn’t, and Harry didn’t do a thing for her. Too bad Mister Hollywood did.
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