Katie had stared at her blankly. “Leave? Who said anything about your leaving?” Understanding dawned. “Oh my heavens, is that why I’ve seen Mrs. Jeffers with the classifieds every evening this week? She’s been going through them for the rest of you?”
“She’s been looking for rooms to let, but there aren’t any,” Ginger had said, suddenly tearful. “We wondered how long you’d give us before we have to go?”
“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Katie had replied grimly, taking both the soup bowl and dish towel from the teenager’s hands. “Have all of the others in the living room tonight at seven.”
Looking hopeful, Ginger had rushed from the room, yelling at the top of her lungs.
Now all of the residents were sitting quietly, watching Katie. She could see the anxiety etched on their faces.
There was Mrs. Jeffers, of course. She’d been the first to move in, a month after her husband had died. She had a starchy, prim demeanor that covered the fact that she feared no one would accept her now that she was no longer part of a couple. Once someone breached that reserve, though, the sixty-five-year-old widow had a wicked sense of humor and endless compassion and energy.
Ginger had followed. She’d been fifteen, a runaway who’d never said one single word about the past she’d left behind. For a while she had shared a room with Ron Mathews’s sister, Janie. The two of them had formed a bond that had been wonderful to witness. And both of them had come to adore Mrs. Jeffers, who’d quickly become a surrogate grandmother to both teens. Janie still stayed with them whenever she came home from college.
John O’Reilly, with his round, jovial face, rimless spectacles and fringe of white hair, reminded them all of Santa Claus. A retired fireman, he’d volunteered to do the grocery shopping for Katie. She suspected he’d done it so he could stock the kitchen with his favorite snacks. Hardly a night passed that he wasn’t in there at midnight with a bowl of ice cream, popcorn or, in the summertime, a peach cobbler he’d made himself and shared with the others at dinner.
When Sophie Reynolds and her daughter had moved out after Sophie’s wedding, her room had been quickly let to dark-haired, energetic Teresa Parks, a young woman in her early thirties who’d just taken a secretarial job at the bank. She’d come home to Clover after a bitter divorce she never discussed. She’d told Katie only that she needed time to get back on her feet before finding a house of her own.
The remaining tenant at the moment was a salesman, in town for just a few days. Katie noticed that Dennis Brown had gone straight to his room after dinner and hadn’t come back down for this meeting. It was hardly surprising since he’d be moving on first thing in the morning, right before the wedding that had thrown everyone into such a tizzy.
Just as Katie was about to start the meeting, the front door opened. Luke strolled in with Robby bounding ahead of him. An immediate silence greeted their arrival.
“Luke, what a surprise!” Katie said. She hadn’t realized, in fact, that he’d brought Robby over from Atlanta where he’d been finishing up kindergarten. She’d assumed he would remain there with Luke’s housekeeper until after the wedding. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you were having a meeting with the tenants tonight. Since I’ll be moving in any day now, I thought I should sit in, too. And I thought it was about time everyone got to meet my son.”
“Who told you about...?” Katie began, but stopped when she saw the guilty flush in Ginger’s cheeks. “Well, it doesn’t matter.”
She gave everyone a reassuring look as Luke found a vacant seat and pulled Robby onto his lap. “I called this meeting tonight because I wanted to reassure you that my marriage won’t change anything around here.”
Unfortunately her words appeared to have little effect. In fact, every blasted person at the room was staring not at her, but at Luke, whose expression suddenly seemed excessively dark and forbidding.
“Isn’t that right, Luke?” she prodded pointedly, praying that he wouldn’t launch into some list of changes he intended to make.
She knew he’d been making notes for the past month, hunching over her books, hovering over her as she worked, examining every nook and cranny of the place and jotting down needed repairs. So far he’d kept silent about his thoughts on the boarding house operation, but Katie knew it was only a matter of time before he would feel compelled to seize control of the place. To a man like Luke, taking charge was as natural as breathing.
“Luke, no one has a thing to worry about,” she stated emphatically. “Isn’t that right?”
“For now,” he said.
It was hardly the enthusiastic endorsement Katie had hoped for. For some reason, though, it seemed to do what her own promise had not. Everyone nodded happily.
“It’s going to be real nice to have a handsome young man in the house,” Mrs. Jeffers said. Katie glanced at Luke. Before he could respond to the compliment he clearly assumed had been meant for him, the widow held out her arms to Robby, who deserted his father and bounded over to her without a hint of reservation. “I declare you are about the handsomest boy I have ever seen.”
Robby grinned, his smile so exactly like Luke’s that Katie’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t tell from Luke’s expression if he was laughing at his own mistake or was simply pleased to see Robby being welcomed so warmly.
“Will you be my grandma?” Robby asked Mrs. Jeffers. “My real grandmas died.”
“I would be honored to be your grandma,” Mrs. Jeffers said, looking pleased as punch.
“You smell nice, like flowers,” Robby announced.
Mrs. Jeffers, whose own grandchildren lived on the West Coast, beamed at Katie. “Dear, I do believe this is going to work out rather well.”
The others nodded in agreement. Katie wished she were half so certain.
As the meeting at the Clover Street Boarding House ended with one of Mr. O’Reilly’s fresh fruit cobblers being dished up and served to everyone, Luke gave Ginger a suspicious wink that had Katie crossing the room in a flash.
“Thanks for letting me know,” he said as Katie joined them.
She was just in time to overhear him and guess that he was referring to tonight’s meeting. If that hadn’t confirmed her earlier suspicion, Ginger’s blushing cheeks would have.
“It was no big deal. I just figured if you were going to be living here, you should be a part of it,” Ginger said, evading Katie’s gaze. “See you. I’ve got studying to do.”
“My, my, another conquest,” Katie observed, unable to curb her irritation with Luke’s intrusion into her meeting. “What did you do to win her over? Offer to buy her a new car? Maybe pay her way through college?”
Luke, blast him, refused to rise to the taunt. He grinned at her indignant tone. “You’re the only one around here I’m buying off, Katie. Swear to God.”
Swear to God. Those were the words Luke had always used to convince her that he was being totally honest. He tended to use them loosely, which somewhat dimmed their ability to reassure.
“Buying off?” she repeated lightly. “I made a legitimate business deal. That’s all.”
His grin remained unrepentant. “Then you must be afraid you’re losing your grip around here. Is that what’s made you so cranky and suspicious all of a sudden?” he inquired in that lazy, amused tone that set Katie’s teeth on edge.
Before she could reply, he gestured to Mrs. Jeffers. “Hey, darlin’, would you mind keeping an eye on Robby for a bit? I’d like to take Katie for a walk. She needs to cool off.”
Given the fact that it was still ninety degrees outside, Katie assumed the remark had to do with her temper, not the temperature.
Mrs. Jeffers, who’d apparently missed Luke’s true meaning or assumed it was some lover’s ruse to get Katie alone, beamed. “You two young people go right ahead. Robby and I will play a game of checkers until you get back. He tells me he’s world-champion caliber.”
Luke brushed a kiss on the woman’s weathered cheek, then
whispered, “I hear you’re the champ of the boarding house. Go easy on him.”
Katie watched the teasing exchange with her irritation mounting by unreasonable leaps and bounds. “Trying to rub salt in the wound?” she inquired when he’d propelled her outside.
“What wound would that be?”
“That you can take over here anytime you want. You’re obviously trying to win over Mrs. Jeffers. And you already have Ginger reporting every move I make to you.” She paused on the front steps and frowned at him. “How did you get her to spill the beans about tonight’s meeting, anyway?”
“I ran into her at the library. We got to talking. She mentioned the meeting. It was hardly a sinister, premeditated act of treason.”
Katie sniffed. “That depends on your point of view, I suppose. Just in case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you that we made a deal. You’re not supposed to interfere with my tenants.”
He regarded her with amusement. “What interference? I’m just being friendly. If we’re all going to be living together, we need to get along, isn’t that right?”
Thoroughly exasperated, Katie couldn’t think of a single way to fault that logic. “I suppose,” she said grudgingly. “I just want it on the record that I don’t like what you did tonight.”
“Showing up?”
“Taking over.”
“Katie, I did not take over,” he said reasonably. “Come on. Let’s walk.”
She followed him without argument, still seething over what had happened earlier, even though she suspected she might be overreacting just the teensiest bit. She blamed it on nerves over the wedding that was less than twenty-four hours away.
The truth was, though, if she didn’t take a firm stand now, the next thing she knew Luke would be running her boarding house and she would be doing...what? She had no idea what she would do if she lost control of the boarding house.
Starting up that business, buying the old McAllister place and making a go of it had been the only thing that had saved her sanity after Luke had left town.
“You did, you know,” she accused.
He regarded her as if he’d forgotten the argument. “Did what?”
“Take over.”
“Katie, I barely said two words.”
“But those were the only words they listened to,” she grumbled.
“Sweetheart...”
The endearment grated. “I am not your sweetheart. I’m your business partner.”
“Okay, partner. It was only natural that they want to know where I stand. I’m marrying you. I’m moving in. I’m an unknown quantity, someone who could disrupt their lives. They wanted to hear straight from me what my role is going to be. What did you expect me to do?”
“You could have deferred to me,” she said. “Maybe reminded them that it’s still my boarding house, that you’re only a silent partner, that you have other, more important fish to fry.” Struck by an unexpected thought, she regarded him worriedly. “You do, don’t you? You haven’t retired or something?”
“Worried I’ll be underfoot all the time tempting you to do wild, irresponsible things?”
Katie’s pulse skipped a beat at the deliberate innuendo and its matching glint in Luke’s eyes. “Hardly,” she said.
Luke laughed, probably at her dead-giveaway, breathless tone. “Katie, stop worrying. Give them a week or two to get used to my presence and they’ll be right back to relying on you for everything.” He stopped under a streetlight and grinned at her.
“What?” she demanded.
“I just never noticed before how much you hate change. You’re a control freak.”
This from a man who’d manipulated her into marrying him, Katie thought. “I am not.”
“You are. You’re even more scared about tomorrow than I am, because you can’t predict what will happen next.”
His observation about her fears barely registered. She was too intrigued by the revelation he’d made about himself. “You’re scared?” she asked doubtfully.
He didn’t look frightened. He looked like a man with the confidence to take over the whole damned town of Clover if he had a mind to. For all she knew that was his devious intention. Maybe he’d just started with the boarding house, because he knew she’d be an easy mark.
Before she could work herself into a frenzy over what Luke might or might not be truly up to, he caught her off guard again by admitting to his fears straight out.
“Sure, I’m scared,” he said. “It’s not like I go around making deals like this all the time. It’s a first for me, too.”
Katie regarded him thoughtfully. “I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.” She lifted her gaze to his and studied him intently, trying to assure herself that he was being totally truthful.
As if he’d guessed her intention, he smiled. “Swear to God, Katie.”
Finally convinced, she grinned back at him. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For knowing the right thing to say...again.”
“I hope I always will.”
He suddenly looked so sad, so filled with his own doubts that Katie very nearly stood on tiptoe to kiss him. She knew, though, that a quick, consoling brush of her lips across his would never satisfy her. It would be like playing with matches. And she had vowed that she would not risk the pain that was sure to follow.
“We’d better be getting back,” she said instead, starting away from him.
“Katie?”
She turned back.
“There’s something we should talk about,” he began.
His tone sounded so ominous that Katie promptly decided she didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say. “Can’t it wait?”
Luke looked torn. Clearly the idea of putting off whatever he’d been about to say was a relief, yet he seemed to be struggling with his conscience.
“It really shouldn’t.”
Now she knew for certain she didn’t want to hear it. “Please, Luke. Can’t we just enjoy the night, pretend we’re any other couple about to get married in the morning, and put off all the problems until after the ceremony? Please?”
“I suppose that’s not too much to ask,” he agreed, that same mix of relief and reluctance in his voice.
He held out a hand and Katie slipped hers into it, letting his warmth and strength wash through her. They walked back to the boarding house hand in hand and for those few minutes, anyway, Katie forced away all of the doubts. If she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that tomorrow was going to be the happiest day of her life.
* * *
“It’s not going to work, big brother!”
Luke’s fingers tightened around the phone. Just the sound of his brother’s voice these days was enough to make his blood run cold. Tommy was the last person he’d wanted to hear from on his wedding day.
“What’s not going to work?” he asked, even though he knew he wasn’t going to like the answer.
“This farce of a marriage. You’re only doing it to keep me from getting custody of Robby, aren’t you? It’s just another one of your cold-blooded plots to have everything your own way.”
Despite Luke’s automatic inclination to dismiss anything Tommy had to say, he couldn’t deny that the accusation hurt. When had he become so cold-blooded and calculating? Luke had a feeling it went back to the day he had made his bargain with Robby’s mother six years ago. From that moment on, knowing that he’d have to give up Katie to do what was right, his own soul had been in jeopardy. He would never give Tommy the satisfaction of admitting that, though.
“Whether I’m married or not, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting custody of my son,” Luke said icily. “Why don’t you save yourself the cost of this suit?”
“Because Robby’s mine, dammit.”
“You abandoned him,” Luke reminded him. “The minute Betty Sue Wilder told you she was pregnant, you took off. You never accepted responsibility for her or your baby. I did. I married Betty Sue so that R
obby would have the Cassidy name, for whatever the hell it’s worth.”
“Noble Saint Luke,” Tommy said derisively. “Always ready to jump in and clean up my messes, isn’t that right? The truth was you were glad to marry Betty Sue. She was a hell of a lot hotter than any of the girls in your life.”
Luke thought of the one night he’d had with Katie, the night he’d never been able to put from his mind no matter how hard he’d tried. That night had overshadowed any experience he and Betty Sue had ever shared. Even now the memory made his blood turn hot. “Shut up, Tommy.”
“You know it’s true. That’s why she left you, isn’t it? Because you couldn’t keep up with her.”
Luke kept a tight rein on his temper, but it was a costly effort. He could feel his pulse throbbing dully. “Why don’t you repeat some of your ugly opinions in court?” he suggested. “Let the judge see for himself exactly the kind of man you’ve turned out to be. The bottom line here isn’t Robby. Not where you’re concerned. You don’t give a hoot about your son or what’s best for him. If you did, you would never have filed this suit.”
“A boy should know his real daddy, don’t you think so, big brother?”
“In most instances I’d agree with you. In this case I think your motives are highly suspect. You want me to pay you off to stay out of his life, don’t you? That’s what this is really about.”
“Is that what you think, big brother? That money can make up for losing a kid?”
“Tommy, I believe that you’re the kind of man who’d sell his own mother for the right price. This interest in Robby was awfully sudden. You didn’t seem to give a damn until you happened to catch that news report on my net worth.”
“Since we’re into motives and honesty here,” Tommy retorted, “how does old Katie feel about being used? Does she know she’s supposed to do the mom-and-apple-pie thing when you walk into court?”
Luke winced at that. He’d told Katie nothing at all about the circumstances of Robby’s birth. Nor had he told her that Tommy was trying to take the boy away from him in what promised to be an ugly court case. And because of his international reputation, that case was likely to make news around the world.
Finally a Bride Page 4