“Aislinn.”
She shook her head in response to Ethan’s murmur, blinking back a fresh film of tears when she added, “She named me as her heir. Apparently there’s a will on file with the management here to make it all official. So you don’t have to worry about breaking patient confidentially after all, Mark. I’m fully entitled to be here, to knowing all the facts about her.”
“She knew she was going to die?” Mark asked, still frowning in bewilderment.
“Yes. She said she lived life on her own terms and she left the same way.”
“Now that sounds like Cassandra,” he murmured, his voice thick.
Her own unsteady, Aislinn said, “Maybe you can tell me about her sometime.”
He nodded as Ethan pulled Aislinn up and into his arms. Burying her face in his shoulder, she allowed herself to shed a few tears for the mother she would never know.
Because Mark’s spare bedrooms were unfurnished, Aislinn and Ethan checked into a hotel not far from his house, telling him they would see him the next day. He seemed relieved to be left to himself for the remainder of the night, and Aislinn didn’t blame him. He needed time and privacy in which to adjust to everything that had been dumped on him that day.
He and Ethan had parted rather awkwardly, but both of them had seemed willing to spend time getting to know each other. Whatever relationship developed between them after that remained to be seen, but Aislinn thought they would become good friends, at least in time.
They didn’t even bother getting two rooms this time. Carrying their bags inside, Ethan dumped them unceremoniously on the floor. “Are you hungry?” he asked her. “I could order room service.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t eat. But order something for yourself, if you want.”
“No. I’m not hungry, either.” He took her hands in his, drawing her to sit beside him on the bed. “I’m so sorry, Aislinn.”
She nodded. “This was the way she wanted it. She said in the letter that she wouldn’t have been a good mother now, any more than she had been before. She didn’t want me to look at her, knowing the things she had done, the person she had been. She didn’t consider herself to be Mary Alice Flaherty anymore. She was Cassandra Jamison, wealthy widow and kindly older woman. She wanted that to be her final identity.”
“What are the odds that we all came together like this? That Joel married your friend and that your mother was the one who helped Carmen all those years ago? Hell, it makes my head hurt to think about it.”
She tried to smile, though it was a weak attempt. “Mine, too. Especially since my mother left some images in there that I’m going to have to spend a while deciphering.”
“What kind of images?” he asked warily.
“Just little details about her past. Flashes, I guess you would call them. Maybe she wanted me to know her a little after all.”
Still holding her hand, Ethan said, “I think it’s going to take all of us a while to get used to this.”
“Yes. We’ll have to tell your family, of course. How do you think they’ll react?”
“The same way I have. With disbelief and then stunned acceptance. My parents will be shocked but overjoyed to have Kyle back, although I guess he’ll be Mark to them now. It’s the only name he remembers.”
“Will they blame me, you think? For my mother’s part in his disappearance?”
“Why would they blame you?” he asked roughly. “You had nothing to do with it. It happened before you were born. Besides, she might have helped take him away, but you helped bring him back. They won’t forget that. I won’t let them.”
Biting her lip, she looked up at him through her lashes. “Does that mean—”
“You were right, you know. It’s been a long time since I’ve really trusted anyone. I’ve been burned a few times and I let myself get bitter. Withdrawn. Then I met you, and you asked me to trust in things that didn’t even make sense. Things that went against everything I’d ever believed before.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“And somehow I did,” he went on wonderingly. “Whether it was magic or hypnotism or plain old love at first sight, it hit me the first night we met, and I went down hard. Which didn’t mean I didn’t go down fighting.”
She smiled through tears at that. “You fought pretty hard.”
“We’ve known each other for a month,” he reminded her. “I didn’t hold out all that long.”
“I didn’t think I would ever meet anyone who could accept me just for who I am,” she said unsteadily. “And I thought you were completely wrong for me because you were so determined not to trust me from the very start. But I went down hard that first night, also—and, trust me, I fought it, too.”
“So did we both lose?”
She chuckled faintly. “I’d like to think we both won.”
He kissed her lingeringly. “I love you, Aislinn.”
“I love you, too.”
And then he straightened, frowning. “Um, about Heather—”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does. I want to put this behind us. And keep it forever just between us, okay?”
“Of course.” She already sort of knew what he was going to tell her, but maybe he needed to put it into words.
“Joel was really busy with his residency. Didn’t have a lot of time to spend with his family—or with his fiancée, Heather. She and I ended up spending some time together during the summer before they were married, just hanging around, you know. Family-type stuff. They had been together a long time, since high school, and I knew her pretty well. She was pretty amazing—beautiful, brilliant, popular. I always thought Joel was a lucky guy and hoped I would meet someone like her, since my own relationships tended to end badly.”
“What happened?” she encouraged when he paused, knowing he needed to get it off his chest.
“One thing led to another—and there were some kisses,” he admitted reluctantly, self-recrimination heavy in his voice. “Though I never asked her to, she told me she had considered dumping Joel for me. And then she said she changed her mind because she wanted to be a doctor’s wife. I wasn’t ambitious enough to be a suitable match for her.”
Aislinn must have made a sound, because he spoke quickly, shaking his head. “Heather was a good person. And she loved Joel, despite her understandable last-minute doubts. She was ambitious, sure, but so was he back then. She and I agreed that nothing had really happened between us, so there was no need for Joel to ever know anything about it. We put it behind us and we never let it affect our friendship.”
“Not outwardly at least,” Aislinn murmured.
He sighed. “Okay, so I thought I was in love with her. After all, she died just six months after they married, and I still hadn’t really had time to get over her yet, which I would have done eventually.”
“But she hurt you. In a way, she betrayed both you and Joel with her flirtation. And because you felt guilty and defeated, you told yourself you weren’t going to let anyone hurt you like that again.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But I know now it wasn’t really love. Affection, maybe. Attraction, of course. But nothing I ever felt for her—or for anyone else—ever came close to being as powerful as what I feel for you now. For always.”
“It won’t be easy,” she whispered, leaning into his arms. “I come with some pretty daunting complications.”
“So I’m in love with a sort-of psychic. Might take some getting used to, but I’ve come a long way in that direction already. I’ll just have to stay honest, since you would know in a heartbeat if I were trying to get away with anything.”
She looked up at him with a smile. “I trust you, Ethan.”
“And I trust you,” he murmured, lifting her hand to his lips. “With all my heart.”
It was all she had ever wanted, she thought as they sank onto the bed and into a kiss that warmed all the cold, formerly lonely places inside her. Love that came without reservations. Love th
at trusted. That was the greatest gift of them all.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1767-6
THE BRIDESMAID’S GIFTS
Copyright © 2007 by Gina Wilkins
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† Family Found: Sons & Daughters
** Hot Off The Press
* The McClouds of Mississippi
‡ Family Found
The Bridesmaid's Gifts Page 19