Kyle’s expression was rueful. “Nothing more than I deserve,” he allowed. “Still, if you change your mind, you’ll know where to find me.” Then he dipped his head and kissed her on the lips.
“What in the hell are you kissing him for?”
Edie spun around. Nick?
Yes, Nick! Stone-faced and furious, Nick was standing in the living room glaring at her. Behind him by the open front door, a nervous Malee was wringing her hands.
Edie stared, stunned, her mind reeling. What was he doing here? Her pulses started to pound. More to the point, why did he care who she kissed? He didn’t want her—except in his bed.
Now she bristled. “I’ll kiss whoever I want!” She drew herself up and glared right back at him. “And for that matter, what the hell are you doing here?”
His jaw worked. He was still holding a duffel bag, which he dumped on the floor. “I need to talk to you.” His gaze was glittering, his chest heaving.
“About what?” Edie asked, afraid to hope. She’d already done that. Couldn’t do it again.
“You don’t have to talk to him,” Kyle said quietly.
“She damned well does,” Nick bit out.
“You don’t,” Kyle insisted, stepping between her and Nick. She thought Nick might pick him up and throw him into the pond.
“Do you want to talk to him?” Kyle asked her. “Or should I beat him to a pulp?”
“Like to see you try,” Nick ground out.
Kyle didn’t back down. Nick took a step forward. Malee, the twins and Jake all sucked in a collective breath.
“Let him talk,” Edie said unsteadily. “What’s so important that you came halfway around the world?”
His eyes were fixed on her, still glittering. “Rhiannon needed you,” he told her. “You weren’t there.”
His words crushed any hope she had left. She felt numb. “And you came all the way to Thailand to tell me that?” It didn’t make any sense.
Nick shook his head. “No, but it got me here.”
“I don’t understand.” Had something happened to her sister? There had been messages from Rhiannon. Lots of them. But Edie had taken a page out of Mona’s book. She’d made up her mind to stop trying to fix Rhiannon’s love life. Now, all of a sudden Edie felt dread.
“What happened to Rhiannon?” she demanded.
“I’ll tell you,” Nick answered evenly, “but I’d prefer it without an audience.”
“You don’t have to listen to him, Edie,” Kyle reminded her.
Nick opened his mouth, but Edie cut him off. “It’s all right. Come on,” she said to Nick. “We’ll go in the office.”
She led the way, aware of him right behind her. But she didn’t look back until he’d shut the door behind them.
Then she turned and demanded, “Tell me! What about Rhiannon? What’s happened?”
Nick grinned faintly. “She’s fine. All patched up with Andrew. Married to him, as a matter of fact.”
Edie’s legs felt suddenly like jelly. “What?!”
Nick shrugged. “I wasn’t quite expecting that, either. But she came home three days ago. No, maybe four—what day is it?”
“Friday,” Edie said absently. “Tell me.” She had to be hearing things.
“Right.” He dragged a hand through his hair. He looked terrible. Sleepless, pale, with dark circles under his eyes, hair rumpled and at least a couple of days stubble on his jaw. And beautiful, too. She wanted to reach out to him, to touch him. She didn’t dare. So she balled her fingers into fists.
“She came looking for you,” Nick said. “Crying. The world had ended. Andrew was finished with her. It was all her fault. She loved him so.” Nick looked harassed at the memory.
Edie nodded. Yes, that sounded pretty much like Rhiannon.
“Wanted to know what she should do,” Nick went on. “I mean, how the hell should I know?” Now he looked beyond harassed. He began pacing around the small office, rubbing his hand through his hair, kneading the muscles at the back of his neck.
“You who don’t do relationships, you mean?”
He shot her a glance and then hunched his shoulders. “Pretty much. So I thought, what would you do?”
“And what would I do?” Edie asked curiously.
He shrugged. “I made her a cup of tea.”
Edie swallowed a smile. She didn’t feel like smiling. She felt like crying. “I’m sure that helped,” she said gravely, past the lump in her throat.
“It did,” Nick said shortly. “And then I told her to go talk to him. Told her he still loved her.”
“How would you know a thing like that?”
“Because, damn it, she said he’d told her he wasn’t going to. Like it was a choice!”
“I thought it was a choice,” Edie reminded him quietly.
“That’s rubbish,” Nick said flatly. “You can’t stop it. It’s destiny.” He was looking square at her. “Like I love you.”
The world stopped. Sound stopped. Well, maybe not sound. Edie could hear the twins and Jake yelling in the garden. But all the rest of the sounds in the world.
And her heart. Her heart stopped, too.
She stared at him. Mute. Disbelieving.
“I love you,” Nick repeated, his voice ragged. He looked miserable.
“And that’s what you came to tell me?” Edie ventured, unsure, though her heart was singing, whether this was a good thing or not. Nick certainly didn’t look as if he were thrilled by the discovery.
He looked as uncertain as she felt. And then he demanded, voice cracking, “Whatever happened to ‘I love you, too’?”
And then Edie understood. She saw his pain for what it was—fear. But he had vanquished it. He had said the words. He’d believed them!
And that was what mattered. She flew to him then, and threw her arms around him. “I love you, too!” And she kissed his rough chin, his stubbled jaw, his warm, hungry mouth.
Nick caught her to him, kissing her, wrapping her in an embrace so tight she could barely breathe. It didn’t matter. What breath she had was for him. She kissed him back, hungry for him, desperate for him. She wanted him here and now, but there was one office chair in this room—and one small desk.
He looked around at the same time she did, saw what she saw and came to the same conclusion, saying ruefully, “Bad planning.”
She laughed unsteadily. “Later,” she promised. Then, “There will be later, won’t there?”
“Please, God,” Nick said fervently.
“There will,” Edie vowed. “There will,” she said again, knowing he needed to hear it. “It won’t be like Amy.”
“You don’t know that,” Nick said roughly.
“You’re right, of course. I don’t. I don’t know what happened.”
“She had an aneurysm,” Nick said. “No one knew she had anything wrong. Then, two days before the wedding, she just—” He stopped, couldn’t go on.
Edie kissed him again, then rested her cheek against his. “I’m sorry. So very sorry.”
“So am I. It was my fault.”
“Aneurysms aren’t anyone’s fault,” Edie protested.
“Not that. Putting off the wedding. She didn’t care about the house being done. I shouldn’t have made her wait.”
“You can’t second guess that,” Edie told him.
“I know. And yet—” he shook his head wearily “—I couldn’t help it. I wanted to die, too. I never wanted to go through it again. I chose not to.” He raised his head and met her gaze now. “At least I tried to.”
“I’m glad it doesn’t work like that,” Edie said softly. She still had his fingers wrapped in hers. They lay against his chest, and beneath them she could feel the steady solid beat of his heart.
“I am, too.” Nick turned his head and his lips touched her forehead. He kissed her. He kissed her hair. “Will you marry me?”
As much as she wanted to hear the words, when she did, they were unexpected. “Is that what you want?” she
asked, needing to be sure.
Nick nodded. “It is.” A corner of his mouth quirked. “I asked Rhiannon if she was going to fight for Andrew, if she dared to take the risk. She did. And I knew that if she had enough guts to go after what she wanted, I should damned well take the risk for you.” He bent his head and touched his lips to hers. “I love you, Edie.”
And Edie believed then. Trusted. And put her heart in his keeping. “I love you, too. And yes, please, I’ll marry you.”
His wedding day scared the hell out of him.
Not that Nick let on.
He figured Edie knew. She seemed to know what he was thinking even before he thought it. But everyone else was focusing on the bride. So was he. He wasn’t superstitious. He didn’t think lightning struck in the same place twice. But he couldn’t stop worrying. He didn’t want to lose her.
If Amy had been his first love, Edie was his forever love. She was his heart and his soul. She gave the meaning to every breath he took.
And as he waited for her to come down the stairs of her mother’s house and walk out onto the ramada in her bridal gown to marry him, he knew that his heart was hammering, his collar was strangling him, his fingers shook.
Next to him, his cousin Yiannis, the best man, murmured, “You’re not going to faint, are you?”
And the terrible thing was, Nick couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t say anything at all. He could only wait.
And then, there she was—his beautiful dark-haired bride, his Edie—coming to meet him, her eyes alight with joy, her smile just for him.
He breathed again.
“Thank God,” Yiannis murmured.
“Have you got the ring?” Nick asked under his breath.
“Ring?” Yiannis looked blank. Then at Nick’s look of pure terror, he grinned. “I’ve got it right here.” He patted his pocket. “No getting out of it now.”
“I don’t want to,” Nick said as Edie reached him and he took her hand in his. “Let’s do this.”
They did it.
Short, sweet. An absolutely perfect wedding with only family and close friends around, followed by a reception for Rhiannon and Andrew as well as for them. It had been going on for hours.
But Nick and Edie weren’t there.
They were going on their honeymoon.
“Where are we going for our honeymoon?” she asked. “Why won’t you tell me?”
“You’ll see soon enough,” he said.
“Will I like it?”
“I hope so.”
They were in her apartment getting ready to leave. They could hear the music and the dancing and the celebration across the driveway in the house. Rhiannon and Andrew were enjoying it immensely. Nick was glad they had been there. He was ready to move on.
“I don’t even know what to bring,” she said plaintively. “I don’t know what to wear.”
“I’ve packed for you. And what you’ve got on is fine for now,” he told her. She’d changed out of her wedding dress into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt just to relax.
“This?” She looked askance.
“Perfect,” he told her. He grabbed the bag he’d packed in one hand and took hers in the other. “Come on.”
He took her down the stairs, but when she would have gone toward the car in the garage, he turned the other way, toward the trees.
Suddenly Edie stopped, and Nick knew she understood. “Nick?” She had a stranglehold on his hand and was looking at him, her eyes wide, wondering.
He gave her a gentle tug. “Come on.”
She hadn’t been to the adobe since they’d come back from Thailand. She hadn’t had much time. They’d arranged the wedding in less than a week. And the few times she had suggested going to check out his progress, he’d found reasons to put it off.
Now he felt a flicker of the old familiar fear as he took her hand and led her up the hill and down the other side to where the old adobe waited.
A softly glowing porch light welcomed them in the waning twilight. It looked good. The front steps were solid, the porch wide, with low-slung wood and leather Spanish style chairs for sitting outside on a warm afternoon.
Edie looked at it, her lips parted in amazement. The outside walls had all been finished with lime plaster. All the vigas and corbels had been repaired or replaced and the roof was whole again. Lights shone from within through the deep-set windows.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “It’s far more beautiful than I remembered.” Now she grabbed his hand and, instead of going up the steps to the porch, she dragged him around the back to beam at the porch now painted and finished. She hugged him hard, her eyes shining. “It’s perfect.” Then she went up on the porch and peered through the windows.
“Furniture?” She turned back to look at him.
“Some. You didn’t think we were going to sleep on the floor, did you?”
“I didn’t think we were going to spend our honeymoon here!”
“Are you sorry?” He’d thought it would be perfect, but now he wondered if perhaps he’d been mistaken.
But Edie was smiling. “Not at all. It’s the best place.” She ran her hand down one of the support beams. “It’s how I knew you loved me.”
He stared at her. “What?”
“You would never have suggested renovating a third-rate run-down old building if you didn’t,” she told him cheerfully. “Would you?”
He thought about it, logically, analytically, sensibly—and knew that she was right. “I guess I wouldn’t.”
Now it was his turn to take her by the hand and lead her around to the front of the house, to take her up the steps onto the wide front porch. There he stopped and took down the envelope that had been tacked to the door. He handed it to Edie. “It’s for you.”
Edie’s fingers trembled as she took it. Slowly she fumbled it open. Then she bent her head and read it—at first silently, then aloud.
“My darling daughter,” she began, her voice wavering. “There was always love in this house when your dad and I lived here. I wish you and Nick a lifetime of the same sort of love. The house is yours. I know you and Nick will make it a wonderful home. I hope the memories you already have and the memories you make are as wonderful as you are. I love you, Mom.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. Sniffling, Edie tried to wipe them away.
“Here,” Nick said gently, and he bent his head and kissed them away one by one.
“Mom,” Edie said, with a quiet laugh. “Mom.” She hadn’t called her mother that in years. But it was right. Everything was right.
“Not Mona,” Nick agreed.
“Just wait until there’s someone to call her Grandma,” Edie said with sudden glee.
Nick laughed, too. “I can’t wait. I love you.” And he swept her up into his arms, kicked open the door and carried her over the threshold into the home of her past and of their future. “In fact, Mrs. Savas, I think we should get started on that someone right now.”
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2011
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Anne McAllister 2011
ISBN: 978-1-408-92613-0
Table of Contents
Cover
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Copyright
The Night that Changed Everything Page 18