“You may kiss the bride,” said Reverend Applegate.
Stuart lifted Kim’s lace veil and kissed her so ardently that Kate was shocked. Maybe there was more drama in that relationship than she’d thought. She took a chance and looked in Hugh’s direction. He was gazing right back at her, his jaw set, his blue eyes intense.
Talk about chemistry. She could feel it pulsing between them all the way across the room. Her heartbeat quickened. He still wanted her, even though he’d obviously tried to put her out of his mind. With luck, memories of her would haunt him for a while after he went back to California.
Yeah, maybe for all of two weeks. Men like Hugh didn’t stay lonely for long.
The guests broke into applause as Reverend Applegate presented the newly married couple, and once again Kate found herself with a lump in her throat that was part happiness and part envy. Kim and Stuart walked down the long aisle accompanied by deep-throated organ music. Kate couldn’t ask for anything more dramatic and thrilling, except for Hugh to be the one who offered his arm to her instead of Harry.
“Are you okay?” Harry murmured as they followed Stuart and Kim toward the door at the back of the room.
Kate swallowed. “Uh-huh. This is an emotional moment, that’s all.”
“I’m sure it is. But…let me know if there’s anything…anything I can do.”
She wondered how much Harry knew. He and Hugh were twins, after all, and Kate had firsthand knowledge of the psychic link that often existed between twins. “Thanks,” she said. “I will.” When they were almost out the door, she thought of a way he could help her. “There is something I’d like to ask,” she said softly.
“What?”
“Who’s Joe?”
The muscles in Harry’s arm stiffened. “He was our brother.”
“Was?”
“He died in a car accident when Hugh and I were seventeen.”
HUGH DIDN’T KNOW IF HE was supposed to be with the wedding party as they gathered in the mansion’s inner courtyard for pictures. Most likely he was expected to join the other guests assembling for dinner in the Italian Banquet Hall. But he couldn’t help himself. He was drawn to Kate as if she’d attached a leash to his starched collar and was pulling him along with her wherever she went.
He was fascinated with her graceful movements in the green lace dress, an outfit so different from the type she usually wore, yet so perfect for her, too. Her skinny tops and tight capris expressed the rebel in her, but this dress revealed her more traditional side. That normally hidden part of her personality had kept her in Providence working in her dad’s photo studio, even though she was becoming bored. And tradition had played a part in her wanting a heroic man to marry.
She deserved that, and he wanted her to be happy. Even if it killed him.
The courtyard, open to the sky but surrounded on all sides by wings of the huge mansion, was a flurry of activity. Gillian ran happily in and out of the shrubbery, obviously thrilled to be released from quiet time. Andrea tried to keep her corralled so she’d look decent for the pictures, but Hugh could see that would be a losing effort. The little girl had made it through the ceremony, but that was going to be the extent of her good behavior. Even Hugh ran out of ideas for keeping her entertained while the adults wrangled about the arrangement of the shots.
As Hugh had predicted, the photograph-savvy Coopers had the poor wedding photographer wringing his hands as they insisted on directing the action. Emily tried to make peace, but Kim, Kate, John and Nick all had opinions about how the poses should be set up. They disagreed with the photographer and they disagreed with each other.
“Didn’t you and Nick work this all out today?” an exasperated looking Emily said to her husband.
“Yeah, but the light’s different. Plus we’re losing our light by the minute!” John said. “Then we’ll have to start filling in with flash, and I don’t like having to—”
“Flash is the only way to go,” Nick said.
“No, we definitely need umbrella lights, and I don’t know why we didn’t just do that in the first place.” Kim leaned against her new groom. “And in about five minutes I’m going to take off my shoes, so we’ll have to skip the full-length shots after that.”
Kate had her own little camera in motion again, capturing the brouhaha on film. “Why won’t anybody listen to my idea of having Kim and Stuart pose in the branches of that tree?” she asked. “And barefoot would be awesome. We really should have gone down to Gooseberry Beach. It’s not that far.”
Hugh had to smile at that one. Typical of her to want the wedding party to start climbing trees and playing in the waves for a little drama.
Finally they assembled the group against a background that John and Nick could both agree on. The photographer had completely lost control of the situation and was simply following orders.
“We don’t have our flower girl,” Kate said. “Where’s Gillian?”
“She’s over here, but I can’t guarantee how clean she’ll be,” Andrea said. “We may have to airbrush out some dirt stains. Gillian, come out from behind that bush, right now.”
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Kate called.
Everyone waited, but Gillian didn’t appear.
Hugh walked over to the hedge and pushed aside the thick branches, expecting to see Gillian hiding behind them. She wasn’t there. “She must have gone somewhere else.”
Frowning, Andrea hurried toward the bush. “I could have sworn that’s where she went.”
“Well, she’s not there now.” Hugh started searching behind all the bushes and before long so did everyone else. The courtyard echoed with the sound of the little girl’s name being called over and over.
“Okay, Gillian,” Andrea said. “This isn’t funny. Come on out.”
“I don’t dance with girls who hide and scare people,” Hugh said.
Kate walked over to them, alarm in her green eyes. “I don’t think she’s here.”
“Of course she is,” Andrea said. “She was just—”
“Kate’s right,” Hugh said, putting himself in Gillian’s place. “She got bored with the delay and she’s gone off on some adventure.”
“Exactly,” Kate said, meeting his gaze.
“Just like you would,” he said.
“And you.”
“So where do you think?” Hugh asked. But even as he asked the question, he knew. The girl was a climber, and they’d passed some beauties on the way into the castle. Gillian had even commented on the tall trees. Very tall trees. His stomach pitched. “Out in front,” he said.
“Let’s go.” Kate headed toward the nearest doorway.
“Faster,” Hugh said, coming up behind her. “Maybe we can catch her before she gets too high.”
“Right.” Kate pulled open the door, lifted her skirts and ran across the hallway to the majestic front door of the mansion.
Hugh followed, with Andrea close behind and the rest of the wedding party hot on her heels.
“She can’t be out there,” Andrea protested. “That door’s too heavy for her to open.”
“She just waited until somebody else opened it and then she slipped out,” Kate called over her shoulder. “I used to do it all the time.”
“Oh, God,” Andrea wailed. “You think she climbed one of those trees, don’t you?”
Hugh didn’t take time to answer. He barreled out the front door. Calling Gillian’s name wasn’t necessary. She was already yelling her head off as she clung to one of the top branches of a giant oak. She looked so tiny up there, like someone’s doll stuck in the branches. And she would break like one if she fell from that height. He estimated she was at least thirty feet off the ground.
“I can’t get down!” she cried. “Somebody help! Please help!” Then she began to cry.
“We’re coming,” Kate said. “It’s okay, Gillian. You’ll be fine!”
“Oh, dear Lord!” Andrea started toward the tree, fancy dress and all, as if she mean
t to climb right up to where her child was stranded.
“Hold on, Andrea. I’ll get her.” Hugh whipped off his tux jacket. “Kate, keep talking to her.” He’d been in movies where someone was in danger of falling from a ledge, or a character had to jump from a burning building. What the hell had the script called for in that situation? Then he remembered. “Somebody go find a blanket, the biggest one you can come up with.”
“I will!” Kim said, and ran off towards the mansion, her skirts and veil flying.
“Harry, you and Stuart organize the men to hold the blanket like a net under the tree.” He hoped the net wouldn’t be tested. If it was, he hoped it worked like it did in the movies.
Kate started coaxing Gillian to sing. “Let’s do ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat,”’ she said.
“I don’t wanna!”
“Come on. I’ll start.” Kate started belting out the tune, and soon everybody joined in except Andrea and Gillian.
Hugh took a moment to put a hand on Andrea’s arm and give it a reassuring squeeze. “Listen, don’t worry. I’ve been in hundreds of situations like this. Gillian will be fine.”
She spoke through colorless lips. “But…it was pretend.”
“It was real enough for me.” Then he headed for the tree. As he climbed, Kate lead the group below in “I’m a Little Teapot.” But Gillian was too scared to sing. She just kept on crying. Hugh talked to her, too, trying to be reassuring. He sure hoped Kate would stay away from “Rock-a-bye Baby.”
The singing was a good idea, but it wasn’t working. Hugh was afraid if Gillian got much more hysterical she wouldn’t be willing to let go of the branch long enough to grab on to him. A breeze rustled the leaves and swayed the branch Gillian was clutching so desperately. She screamed.
“It’s okay, Gillian,” he said. “I’m almost there.”
She continued to sob. He could see her tear-stained face through the leaves, and she was one miserable little wood sprite. She was also holding on to that branch for dear life. If he couldn’t get her to lighten up he’d have a hell of a time prying her loose.
Then a scene from another movie flashed into his mind. He didn’t remember the details, except the distraught character had been calmed by having her picture taken by a roving photographer. It was a thought.
“Kate?” he called down.
“I’m a Little Teapot” came to a halt.
“What?” she asked.
“Do you still have your camera?”
“Um, yeah. Why?”
“Take some pictures of Gillian so she can be famous, okay?”
Gillian stopped crying for the first time since he’d started up the tree. “F-famous?” she said, sniffing.
“You bet! Everybody will want a picture of the girl who climbed up in this tree.”
“Famous like B-barbie?”
“Absolutely!”
“Hey, Gillian!” Kate said. “I’ve got you in my sights, girl, and you look mahvelous!” Kate’s flash went off. “Now I’ll try it from another angle. You are going to be so famous!”
“I am?”
“Of course! How many kids have a picture of themselves in a big tree?”
“Nobody,” came the trembling little voice. “Can you take some more pictures?”
“Watch me. I’ll take the whole roll.”
The knot of tension eased in Hugh’s stomach. He started out on the branch toward Gillian, inching carefully and listening for any crackling sound that would mean too much stress. If the branch gave way…
But it held. He reached out and wrapped his hand around her tiny arm.
“Time to go back, kiddo,” he said.
Gillian stared down at Kate snapping pictures below her. “Can’t.”
Uh-oh. She was frozen with fear, after all. “Sure, you can,” he coaxed. “Just grab hold of me. Simple.”
“No, I mean I can’t because Kate’s still taking pictures.”
He almost laughed. “Oh.” He was pretty sure Kate had finished the roll by now and was using the flash to simulate taking more shots. “Kate? You about done?”
“Uh, yeah! One more.”
Her camera flashed, and he looked away so it wouldn’t affect his vision.
“That’s it,” Kate said. “You can come on down now, Gillian.”
“Okay.”
Hugh couldn’t believe how easy it was after that. Carrying a little kid like Gillian down from a tree was about ten times more comfortable than hauling adults through heavy waves. When he neared the bottom, the men rushed forward and helped him the rest of the way. Eager hands lifted Gillian from his arms and transferred her to Andrea.
Then everyone crowded around him, clapping him on the back and offering congratulations, which surprised the hell out of him.
“No big deal,” he said, meaning it. In the life of a stuntman, this was puppy chow. They wanted to make him out as some sort of hero, but they didn’t understand how easy it was. They gave him all the credit for the picture-taking idea, too. He tried to tell them it wasn’t his brainstorm, that it had come from a movie. Nobody seemed to care.
The lavish praise threw him for a loop. In his world, the stars got all the attention. Throughout the dinner and the dancing afterward, everyone treated him like a star, everyone except the one person he wanted to fawn over him. For some strange reason, although this appeared to be his moment of glory, Kate kept her distance.
THE MOMENT HUGH HAD started up the tree, Kate had finally admitted the truth. He was the hero she’d been looking for, and she was desperately in love with him. After her brief talk with Harry right after the ceremony, she also knew her love was hopeless. Harry had explained how the death of their brother had scarred them both. Rationally they knew that loving someone didn’t mean that person would die, but emotionally…that was a different story.
Harry said he’d become a doctor in an attempt to face down the specter of death, while Hugh had become a stuntman so he could take death-defying risks all the time. Neither of them had ever sustained a relationship with a woman for longer than a few weeks.
Although Harry had urged Kate to pursue his brother, he couldn’t know how completely Hugh had rejected her after waking from his nightmare of Joe. Hugh didn’t want her, didn’t want the possible pain that coming out of his shell would cause. Loving him, she would respect that. She wasn’t about to try and change him for his own good. He was a grown man, and he knew how he wanted to live by now. So…she’d let him go.
In the beginning of the evening she found it easy to avoid him. He was the man of the hour and surrounded by a crowd of people all the time. Andrea obviously worshipped him, and she’d given him a heart-felt hug before taking Gillian home after dinner. Kate had felt no jealousy watching the embrace. She couldn’t be jealous of anyone, knowing that no woman would ever hold Hugh for long. It didn’t matter who he spent time with during the reception.
She just didn’t want him to spend time with her. It would hurt too much. Consequently, whenever she saw him coming in her direction, she found an excuse to slip away.
If this were a movie, she would win the bridal bouquet toss and Hugh would snag the garter, and that would bring them together in spite of themselves. Hugh would have a sudden change of heart, and they would live happily ever after. But this wasn’t a movie, Kate reminded herself, and she didn’t even try very hard for the bouquet. Temple, Stuart’s sister, caught it instead.
Hugh didn’t get the garter, either. It went to Harry. Kate wondered if Harry would break the pattern he and Hugh had established and eventually find a woman to love. She thought he might, because at least he was focusing on the problem. Hugh didn’t want to think about it, much less take a chance on loving someone.
The evening became an endurance test. Much as she wanted Kim and Stuart to enjoy themselves at their wedding reception, she hoped they’d take their leave soon. The guests were having a wonderful time and nobody would go home until the bride and groom made their exit. Finally, that moment came.
Armed with tiny containers of bubbles, the guests poured out through the same heavy doorway Gillian had used to make her escape hours earlier. As Kate looked up at the tree looming in the darkness, she thought of how she’d misjudged Hugh’s hero potential. After today, she had no doubt he’d leap on a live grenade in a foxhole.
She’d found her hero, but she hadn’t been specific enough when she’d made her wish. She’d forgotten to add that the man of her dreams had to be free to give her his heart. Hugh was chained by tragic memories.
Kim and Stuart came through the door and ran a gauntlet of bubbles that sparkled in the moonlight. Hopping into Stuart’s car, they drove away to a chorus of goodbyes and well-wishes. The wedding was over.
As the guests returned to the ballroom, Kate lingered a moment, gazing up at the almost full moon. She felt an arm around her waist and turned to find her mother standing next to her.
“It was beautiful, wasn’t it?” her mother said, wiping at her eyes.
Kate slipped an arm around her mother’s waist and hugged her back. “Yes, it was, Mom. Beautiful.”
Her mother smiled. “Not every wedding has a rescue as part of the program.”
“Nope.” Kate managed a smile of her own. So far her parents had been too busy to quiz her about Hugh.
“I haven’t seen you with him tonight. Is something wrong?”
So the wedding was over and Emily could turn her attention to her other daughter. Kate didn’t feel up to dodging questions. “Nothing’s wrong,” she said. “You know how it is. After that first infatuation, you find out you’re all wrong for each other.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute. I already told your father that this man is the first one I’ve seen who wouldn’t bore you to tears.”
Kate sighed. “Mom, he’s going back to California tomorrow, and that’s the end of that.”
Kate’s mother leveled a direct gaze at her and said, “Go with him.”
15
KATE STARED AT HER MOTHER.
“You heard me. Go with him. Try out the lifestyle. Look into becoming a freelance photographer. And don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking about it. You’ve stuck with the studio longer than I ever thought you would.”
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