by Cat Schield
“You seem rather taken with it.”
“I love it.” She lifted her eyebrows at him. “But we’re not engaged to be married, and I hope you see now why—”
Her lecture was interrupted by the arrival of Hannah and Sarah. Frustration welled. She’d missed another opportunity to drive home the importance of telling his parents the truth about their relationship.
“Did you see the murals in the hall?” Sarah inquired. “They are beautiful.”
“So, Simon, what do you think?” Hannah sat down on the bed and bounced on the mattress. “A couple million?”
He set his hand on his hip and raked his fingers into his blond hair. “Two point one would be my guess.”
“See,” she jeered. “I told you that you were Mom’s favorite.”
Simon glared at her. “We’re not accepting a two million dollar house as an engagement slash wedding present.” He blew out a breath. “Besides, I’m perfectly capable of buying my bride to be a house in this neighborhood if that’s what she wants. But we are not moving to Savannah.”
Caroline stared at him and wondered if anything she said got through his thick skull. His bride to be? They weren’t engaged, and he needed to tell his family that before things got any worse.
“Whether you accept the house or not, Simon,” Hannah continued, “that’s not the point I was trying to make. Mom and Dad bought this house for you.”
“She’d buy you one too if she thought it would convince you to move five blocks away.” Simon noticed Caroline frowning at him and pointed a finger at her. “This is all your fault. If you hadn’t told my mother how much you loved this damn city, she wouldn’t have run out and bought this house.”
How dare he turn this whole thing on her. She would have been furious if it wasn’t so ludicrous. “They didn’t buy the house,” she reminded him coolly. “They only put a contingent offer on it. And of course, we don’t have to take it. We’re not going to take it.”
“You’re not even going to talk about it?” Sarah looked from them to Hannah. “Then can we have it?”
“No!”
“No!”
Simon and Caroline locked gazes after they erupted with the same emphatic negative. Caroline wasn’t sure when she’d become so possessive of the house—probably the instant she’d turned the key in the lock and opened the door—but she had no right to deny Simon’s sister the home. Yet she felt something tear inside her at the thought of not living here. That wrenching told her she had ventured too far over the line. It was time to go home and the sooner, the better.
“We’re all adults here,” Caroline soothed. “We can buy our own houses. Come on, let’s go downstairs and tell Elizabeth and Charles the bad news.”
Simon’s mother took one look at the subdued group returning to the first floor and sighed. “I thought for certain you’d love it.”
“It’s amazing,” Caroline told her, wrapping Elizabeth in a tight embrace. Tears burned her eyes as the older woman hugged her back. “But as wonderful as the gesture is, you can’t buy us a house. Simon and I have lots to discuss about our future. If we can’t pick a wedding date, how are we going to decide where our first home will be?”
Caroline had meant to use the word house, but home slipped out instead. She had very little trouble visualizing living here with Simon. She had no doubt that making a home with him would come to her as naturally as making love with him had been.
“Then you’ll at least discuss the house?”
Simon piped up from behind them, his voice ringing in the towering two-story foyer. “Oh, we’ll discuss it at length.”
Chapter Thirteen
Simon hated the way his statement snuffed out the glow in Caroline’s eyes. He considered her apartment in Atlanta and understood why she was so attracted to this house. He’d grown up in a big house with a pool out back. He might have worked his butt off to get through college and start up his business, but he could have taken the easy road and let his parents foot the bill.
Caroline hadn’t been given the luxury of choices. She’d come from a modest background. She’d worked herself to near exhaustion to finish law school while making ends meet. Then he’d swooped in and dressed her in expensive clothes, paraded her in front of his family as the woman he loved and in a week’s time he would return her to her tiny apartment and her day-to-day scramble to survive.
His heart reverberated like a struck gong. Is that really what he intended to do? What he wanted to do? Dump her back in her life and go on with his? Without her in it?
Granted, bringing Caroline home was the most fun he’d had in years, and he couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt this happy. His chest hurt at the idea of never making love to her again, and he couldn’t shake free of the images of his children in that house, children he and Caroline made together in that big master bedroom. But did he want his life to change?
Simon stared at her, unable to imagine not seeing her every day, not holding her in his arms every night. But what did that mean? Did he see her in his future?
Yes. As simple as that, he realized he loved her.
“I’m glad you’re being such a jerk about the house,” Hannah told him as the rest of the family filed out the door. “It means that you’re not going to be Mom and Dad’s favorite anymore. I for one wouldn’t have rejected this incredible house.”
“I’m not their favorite,” he responded, gripping her arms to give her a little shake. “You’re the one giving birth to their first grandchild. And you wouldn’t reject the house because it would mean you’d have a built-in babysitter living five blocks away.”
She pulled a face at him, but her huge grin ruined the effect. “Not to mention I don’t make a zillion dollars a year and can’t afford to be choosy.”
“Be nicer to Caroline,” Sarah added, getting in the final dig. “It’s not her fault that your parents wanted to do something huge for you two.”
Resentment built at her scolding. “You and Hannah are pretty settled in Charleston. Would you accept the house if it meant moving?”
“Hannah would never badger me to move, and Caroline won’t either. But yes, I’d have accepted the house if it made her eyes shine the way Caroline’s were. I wouldn’t want to be the one to take that happiness away.”
Inwardly Simon flinched. “I’ll be sure my mother keeps her eyes open for another home in the neighborhood.” He meant for his grin to be gently spiteful, but it felt sad instead.
Caroline barely waited until his family closed the front door behind them, leaving her and Simon alone in the Charlton Street house, before she pointed her finger at him and started making demands. “You have to tell your parents the truth about us.”
“Look, if you’re worried about the house, don’t be.”
“Are you listening to yourself? Your parents bought us a house.”
“They only put money down to take it off the market for a few days.”
“You just aren’t getting it, are you?” She raised her left hand and showed him the diamond engagement ring. “They think we’re getting married.”
“Don’t worry about it. Everything will work out fine.” Simon wished he felt as confident as he sounded.
Caroline dropped her hands into her pockets and shook her head. “I don’t believe that’s true. That’s why I’m going back to Atlanta tomorrow.”
Of all the things that he expected they would argue about today, her leaving had not been on the agenda. “You can’t leave.”
“I can and I will. I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to give you back the money you gave me for my tuition. You need to tell your family the truth. Today.”
What was she saying? She was leaving? She couldn’t do that. He had fallen in love with her. He needed to figure out what that meant for him, for them. “You were supposed to stay until after New Year’s.”
“I was supposed to pretend to be your fiancée too, and you can see how well that turned out.”
Now Simon’
s own temper flared. Damn it. He loved her and she intended to leave him. Until that moment, it never occurred to him that she might not feel the same way he did. “It turned out great. You were so convincing that my parents bought us a house.”
“I thought you said they only put down money to take it off the market,” she shot back. “And I’d like to point out that I wasn’t convincing, Simon. We were convincing.”
He caught her meaning and stalked toward her. “Yes, I think we both found it easy to pretend we were engaged. Why do you suppose that was?”
She shook her head and threw out one hand to ward him off. “Do you really need me to say that I find you attractive? I would have thought that throwing myself at you would have spoken loud and clear.”
Her admission should have flooded him with relief, but instead, he focused on what she hadn’t said. Did she feel the same way he did? Could she be in love with him?
Simon advanced until her palm met his chest, and continued forward, forcing her to either back up or let him into her space. Her elbow bent and he caught her by the hips. Her body trembled beneath his fingers.
“Then why are you leaving? We could spend the rest of the week together, ring in the New Year and head back to Atlanta with my family none the wiser.” Giving him another week to convince her to give him a chance. To ply her with kisses and demonstrate that they were meant to be together.
“That’s not fair to your family.” She ducked her chin. “And it’s not fair to me. This has gone too far.”
He slipped one hand into her silky hair and fanned his fingers on her lower back to draw her tighter against him. “Please just stay until New Year’s.”
She stopped staring at his chest and lifted her gaze to his. Any trace of green had fled from her eyes. All he could see was rain-soaked gray.
“Please don’t ask me to do this.”
“Stay.” He whispered, grazing her lips with his. “It will be okay, I promise.”
She turned her head aside. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
They walked hand in hand back to his parents’ house, the silence between them a deep, wide ravine he had no idea how to cross. A part of him recognized that he should honor her request and let her return to Atlanta tomorrow, but he wasn’t ready to let her go. He liked existing in this fantasy where they were getting married. He wasn’t ready for that to end.
He imagined himself living five blocks from his parents, escorting his wife to the galas and charity events his mother loved to attend, chasing his kids around the park on the weekends while his dad complained about the local politics. That sort of thing had once filled him with dread. Before Caroline had come along, he had savored his independence from his family. Oh, he loved his Christmas visits, but living four hours away and being able to pick and choose when he saw them had been the ideal solution.
Yet for the first time, he couldn’t figure out why it had seemed like such a good idea. It had taken seeing their overbearing kindness and emotional generosity from Caroline’s perspective to make him appreciate what he’d been running from.
Moments after they returned to his parents’ house, he was cornered by his father. “I don’t know what happened between you two after we left, but Caroline doesn’t look happy. If this is about the house, I’m sorry we interfered.”
“It’s not about the house. If she’s unhappy, it’s all my fault.”
Saying the words out loud made him realize just how true that was. He had made a huge mess of the situation and it was up to him to fix everything. As his mother organized them in front of the Christmas tree in the foyer for the traditional Holcroft family photo, he decided Caroline was right. It was long past time to come clean.
“Hannah, I want you here next to your father. Dane, I need you on the other side of Sarah. We won’t have Francine in the picture this year, but she’s been in quite a few so I guess missing one should be okay.”
As his mother positioned him, Simon searched for Caroline. He spotted her near the hallway leading to the kitchen. She looked like a cornered wild animal.
“Caroline, I need you here next to Simon.” Elizabeth turned and beckoned.
“I can’t.”
His mother frowned at her. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I don’t belong.”
“Well, of course you do.” His mother didn’t catch the thread of panic in Caroline’s voice, but Simon heard it loud and clear. “You’re going to be part of our family very soon.”
Caroline’s gaze darted from his mother and came to rest on him. He watched, as if in slow motion, as her spine straightened and her resolve firmed. He knew in that instant what she intended to do.
“Caroline, wait,” he called, seeing already it was too late.
“Simon and I aren’t getting married. We’re not even engaged.”
* * *
The words had been bubbling and brewing in her mind for days, but she never imagined they would erupt from her like that. A mixture of confusion and surprise greeted her announcement, but it was Simon’s flat stare that caused her heart to clench.
“What is she talking about?” Elizabeth demanded, rounding on her son.
Hannah looked from Caroline to Simon. “Why would you tell us you’re engaged if you’re not?”
Simon avoided both questions and fixed his gaze on Dane. Caroline could see he wasn’t going to explain. Even now, when she’d given him the perfect opening to tell his brother exactly what was going on, something that would remove the burden Dane felt about breaking off his engagement to Francine, Simon hesitated.
But for Caroline, the floodgates had opened. “We’ve been pretending to be engaged…” Frustration became fury and something snapped. “Because Francine showed up at his condo to seduce him. I happened to be there so he told her we were engaged. Then he decided that he needed me to come here for Christmas to keep her off his back.” Oh, she was really on a roll now, plunging down a steep hill with no hope of stopping before she crashed at the bottom. “And he didn’t want to tell you before Christmas in an effort to keep things all peaceful and civilized.” She pointed at Dane. “Which is pretty silly considering that you’ve more or less decided to break off your engagement to her.”
Gasps came at her from all directions. Caroline scarcely heard them over the ocean of emotions crashing through her heart.
“Dane, is that true?” Hannah chimed in, jumping on her brother before Elizabeth could. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“That’s a great question considering the whopper you’ve been keeping quiet about,” Caroline muttered beneath her breath.
Hannah whirled around wide-eyed. “There’s—”
“Nothing wrong with you?” Caroline interrupted. “Honestly, do any of you tell each other the truth about anything? My mother died of cancer because she wouldn’t tell me something was wrong until it was too late. All those months she dealt with it alone and I never knew.” Tears sprang to her eyes. Caroline dashed at the wetness and plowed on into the void created by her words. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are to have each other to lean on? I would give anything to have a family like you to talk to when I’m scared or need advice. But you don’t appreciate what you have. You’re so busy keeping hidden the very things you should share.”
“Caroline, stop.” Simon’s warning cracked in the silence.
Her rant unraveled as she became aware of the six pairs of eyes staring at her. Oh Lord, what had she done? In an effort to make them see, she’d ruined everything. But they wouldn’t understand. They wouldn’t listen. And now she’d said too much.
She backed toward the stairs, her hands pressed to her mouth. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I had no right to tell your secrets. I had no right.”
With tears blurring her vision, she tripped on the first step, caught the banister and her balance. As the room erupted behind her, Caroline fled up the stairs, shocked and horrified by what she’d done.
Well, at least she no
longer had to worry that Simon’s family would be upset that they weren’t getting married. She’d be lucky if they didn’t tar and feather her before flinging her out of their house. Her stomach heaved and bile burned her throat as she achieved the relative safety of the bedroom and shut the door behind her.
Her idiotic outburst had just shortened her timetable for leaving. She had to get out now. She snatched up her purse. Her coat was still downstairs, but she’d happily leave it behind if it meant sneaking out without the family seeing her. She wouldn’t take anything away with her that Simon had bought. The clothes he had selected and bought for her represented a connection to him. She wouldn’t be able to wear a single article without being reminded of Simon and the love they would never share.
“Well, the cat’s certainly out of the bag now,” Simon declared, entering the room and shutting the door firmly behind him.
Caroline whirled to face him, unable to gauge his mood based on his neutral expression. “I’m sorry. What I did was unforgivable. Your family must hate me.” She didn’t add that he must hate her as well.
“How long have you known about Dane and Francine?”
That’s what he’d come to talk about? She’d expected a furious dressing-down for ruining his family’s Christmas. “Since last night.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It doesn’t feel good, does it?” If she thought she’d enjoy watching Simon get a taste of his own medicine, she’d been wrong. “When people keep things from you.” Pulling off the engagement ring, she set it on the nightstand and headed toward the door.
“No, it doesn’t. I see that now.” Simon blocked her path. “Where are you going?”
“Back to Atlanta. I’m sure your family wants me to go.”
“How about what I want?” He caught her arms just above the elbow. “Don’t go.”
“I have to. Don’t you understand? I can’t face any of them again.” She clutched her purse to keep from throwing herself against his chest and sobbing her unhappiness all over his beautiful suit. “Please don’t make this any harder than it already is.”