Finally a Bride

by Sherryl Woods

  “You lived here six years. Surely you know all the most fascinating local sights. I want to see them.”

  “Actually, about the only thing I ever saw was the downtown skyscraper where my office was located.”

  His revelation was hardly surprising. Luke’s single-mindedness was exactly the trait that had made him a success. Katie remained undaunted. “We’ll buy a guidebook.” She paused thoughtfully. “And a map.”

  “I can get around. We don’t need a map.”

  “Luke, you used to get lost in Clover.”

  He frowned at the teasing comment. “I did not.”

  “What about the time we were supposed to go to Mindy Prescott’s birthday party and we got there an hour late because you refused to stop and ask directions?”

  “She didn’t live in Clover,” he said defensively. “And those country roads weren’t marked. That map she drew was a joke. Whoever heard of telling someone that a house is just past the first big curve in the highway, a half mile beyond the big oak on the left and right after a dilapidated red barn?”

  “Just because you couldn’t tell an oak from a maple if your life depended on it, don’t go blaming Mindy Prescott,” Katie retorted. “We were halfway to Charleston before you finally gave in and let me call to ask where we’d gone wrong. Wandering around lost must be some macho, male thing.”

  He gave her a rueful grin. “Okay, we’ll buy a map. Satisfied?”

  About the map, definitely, Katie thought. Her body, however, was protesting vehemently. She wanted food and she wanted Luke, not necessarily in that order. Her gaze met his and something of her longing must have been in her eyes, because he suddenly went perfectly still. Electricity arced between them. The air practically crackled with it. Katie’s defenses wobbled dangerously.

  “Katie,” he said softly, the lure in his voice almost irresistible.

  “Luke,” she whispered, suddenly trembling with all of the sensual anticipation she’d been fighting to keep at bay.

  Their gazes locked. But before either of them could take the first, fateful step to close the space between them, the suite’s doorbell chimed loudly. The sound echoed through the room, breaking the fragile moment.

  As if that weren’t enough disruption, the phone started ringing.

  Katie viewed Luke with some regret—and admittedly a certain amount of relief. It was far too soon to allow all of those protective barriers she’d erected to be torn down, and there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that they’d been about to topple. This was just further proof that she had about as much natural resistance to Luke as a badly constructed roof did to a hurricane.

  “You get the phone. I’ll get the door,” she suggested briskly.

  “Let’s ignore them both,” he countered, his gaze never leaving her face.

  She searched his expression for evidence of sincerity. “If I agreed, would you really be able to stand not knowing who’s on the phone?”

  He sighed. “Unfortunately I have a very good idea who it is. My secretary. I spoke to her earlier.”

  “When? Before dawn on a Sunday morning?” she inquired, glancing at her watch.

  “She makes herself available whenever I need her.”

  “I’ll bet,” Katie muttered.

  Luke regarded her with amusement. “Jealous?”

  “Hardly.”

  “Then you won’t mind if I grab this. She’s supposed to be rescheduling my business meetings for another time.”

  “Then by all means, talk to her,” Katie said as she went to the door to admit the waiter with their breakfast order.

  As she chatted with the waiter—or tried to—she heard snatches of Luke’s terse phone conversation. His previously lighthearted mood had given way to an unmistakable anger that was evident not just in his tone of voice, but in his tense shoulders and sudden pacing.

  “No, absolutely not,” he snapped, then lowered his voice to say something that Katie couldn’t hear.

  The waiter, to his credit, never even looked away from the service cart, which he had pushed into a nook overlooking the gardens. He finished removing the silver tops from the serving dishes, then discreetly left them alone without any hint that he’d overheard Luke’s display of temper or that he’d noticed the pile of blankets on the honeymoon suite sofa.

  At first, after the waiter had gone, Katie was too caught up in sampling the strawberries and the light, fluffy pancakes to notice Luke’s increasingly murderous expression or to pay much attention to his tersely-worded conversation. She assumed it had something to do with a business deal gone awry. When his sharply raised voice suddenly caught her attention, she paused with her fork halfway to her mouth.

  “No, dammit! I don’t want you anywhere near Clover and that’s final,” he said and slammed down the phone with a force that shook the delicate mahogany table on which it was sitting.

  Katie regarded him worriedly. She was certain she had never seen Luke so furious. No matter how far he’d ever been pushed—by circumstances or by Tommy or by her, for that matter—he’d never exploded like this. She watched as he visibly tried to compose himself before turning and walking toward her.

  “Luke, what on earth was that about?”

  “It’s nothing for you to worry about,” he said. “How’s the food?”

  Katie frowned at the dismissal. “The food is fine. You’re obviously not. Was that your secretary? Did some business deal fall apart?”

  “Not everything in my life has to do with business,” he snapped.

  “Okay, then,” she said, clinging to her patience by a thread. She recalled his mentioning Clover and tried to guess what that had to do with anything. “Has something happened at home? Is Robby okay?”

  “I’m sure Robby’s fine,” he said, his voice suspiciously tight. “Everything’s fine.”

  She didn’t believe him for a minute. “If business is fine and Robby is fine, then what’s wrong?” she prodded, determined to make him open up. “It’s obvious you’re still seething about something.”

  “It was nothing,” he contradicted heatedly. “I’ll deal with it.”

  Katie flinched at his determination to shut her out. That fragile thread on her patience snapped. “Well, pardon me for wanting to help. I guess I don’t have this marriage business down quite yet. Our deal must not have included common courtesy.”

  Luke’s reaction to her sarcasm was immediate and apologetic. “I’m sorry, Katie.”

  She regarded him doubtfully.

  “I am,” he insisted. “I guess I don’t have it down just yet either.”

  Because he looked so miserable and distraught, Katie waited until her own temper had cooled before she spoke. “Luke, this is new to both of us. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know one thing. It won’t work if we don’t learn to share what’s going on in our lives. If there’s some business crisis or something, I may not be able to help you solve it, but I can always listen. You know that. You used to talk to me about everything.”

  For an instant he seemed to be wavering. She thought for sure he was going to open up, to tell her what had ruined his mood so thoroughly, but then his jaw tightened and he shook his head. “This isn’t the time to get into it.”

  “It? What is it?” she asked in exasperation.

  He threw down his napkin and got up from the table. “Not now, Katie.” He grabbed a shirt from the back of the chair and tugged it on. He was still buttoning it as he headed for the door. “I’ll be back.”

  With a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, she watched him open the door. She sensed that if he walked out now, it would establish a pattern from which they might never recover. “Luke, don’t go. Please.”

  He turned then and gave her a halfhearted ghost of a smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t be gone long.”

  He shut the door before she could protest that running out, when they should be talking, might well have worse consequences than whatever problem he had on his mind.

  * * *
<
br />   Damn Tommy for ruining the morning for him, Luke thought as he walked the hotel grounds in a futile attempt to calm down. Tommy’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Luke had sensed that he and Katie were finally getting closer just before the phone had rung. Now that he’d clearly withheld information from her, they were further apart than ever. He couldn’t blame her for being furious.

  At the moment, though, she was no more furious than he was, albeit for far different reasons. How typical of Tommy to wait until he was off on his honeymoon before calling and making more threats. When Tommy had said he was going to Clover to visit Robby while Luke was away, a fierce tide of anger had rolled through him. It was yet more proof that Tommy didn’t give a damn about his son’s feelings. He was only using the boy to taunt Luke, hoping for a big cash settlement, no doubt, in return for backing off.

  Luke couldn’t help wondering if his vehement protest would be enough to keep his brother away. He doubted it. Tommy had never listened to a damn thing he had to say. There was no reason to believe that that had changed. The only difference now was that the stakes were higher than they had been when they were kids.

  The thought of his brother being alone with Robby sent chills through him. Tommy would never physically harm the boy. Luke was certain of that. But he would start filling Robby’s head with whatever garbage suited his purposes. He wouldn’t worry a bit about whatever psychological damage he might be doing in the process. It would never cross Tommy’s selfish mind that revealing the truth to Robby might be devastating.

  Luke suddenly knew he couldn’t risk that happening. He had to call Peg at once and warn her to keep Tommy away from Robby. She would want to know why. There was no getting around that. If he expected her cooperation, he would have to tell her the truth, all of it.

  At the prospect of revealing everything to Katie’s aunt, he shuddered. Peg would have his hide for this, especially if she found out he had told Katie none of it.

  “Damn,” he muttered. It was all unraveling. He’d wanted time. Time to prepare Katie. Time for her to start thinking of Robby as her own. Time for her to become committed to being both wife and mother.

  Now it seemed that his time had run out. He had to tell Katie everything. He had to let her know the fight they were in for. She had to be prepared for the bitterness and ugly accusations that were likely to come with the custody dispute.

  But now? On their honeymoon? Surely it would be wrong to spoil these few days. He resolved to tell her the moment they returned to Clover. In the meantime, he knew he could count on Peg’s discretion. More, he knew he could count on her to protect Robby.

  The decision made, he stopped by a pay phone in the hotel lobby and called Peg’s Diner. When Peg picked up, he didn’t mince words. His voice tight, he just outlined the situation, then extracted her promise to keep Tommy away from his son.

  “Of course, I’ll see to it that he’s not alone with Robby for a minute,” she said readily. “I haven’t seen any sign of him around town. Maybe he won’t show up at all.”

  “He’ll show up,” Luke said with certainty. Knowing that, he realized what he had to do. “I think maybe Katie and I ought to get back there. We can be home by this afternoon.”

  Peg fell silent at that. He could practically feel her disapproval crackling over the phone line.

  “Peg, it’s the only way,” he insisted. “I can’t leave you to stand up to Tommy. This mess isn’t your responsibility.”

  “Luke, that brother of yours doesn’t scare me. He never did. It does worry me, though, that you and Katie are starting off your marriage by facing such a big problem. You need a few days by yourselves to build up the strength this fight is going to take. Stop fussing about the burden you’re placing on me and think about your marriage. Let these few days alone be my wedding gift to the two of you.”

  Luke sighed. “Peg, I know you mean well and there’s no one I’d trust more with my son, but—”

  “No `buts.’ You two stay and enjoy yourselves. I’ll see you on Wednesday, just the way we planned. If anything comes up I can’t handle, I’ll call you immediately. If I have to, I’ll get Ford Maguire to set Tommy straight.”

  As much as he liked Ford, Luke wasn’t sure he wanted the sheriff mixed up in this. “I’ll think about it,” he said eventually. “Is Robby there? I’d like to speak to him.”

  “He’s sitting in one of the booths with his coloring books. I’ve got an order in for his breakfast now. Hang on, I’ll get him for you.”

  Luke could hear Robby’s whoop of excitement when Peg told him who was on the phone. For the first time since Tommy’s call, he smiled.

  “Daddy, is it really you?”

  “It’s me, my man. How are you doing? Are you and Peg having fun?”

  “She rented a movie for me last night and she made pizza. Did you know you could make it at home?”

  “So I’ve heard,” Luke said, thinking of the times they’d ordered it in Atlanta. They’d had most of their dinners delivered the same way. No wonder Robby sounded so stunned by the concept of homemade pizza. He’d probably never guessed what the oven was for before. “How was it?”

  “The best. She put pepperoni on it and everything.”

  “That’s great, pal. What movie did you see?”

  “Flintstones. Remember when we saw that? Mommy hated it.”

  Actually, Betty Sue had hated most anything with a G rating, as Luke recalled. Her whole blasted life-style would have been X-rated by the movie industry. It really was too bad Tommy hadn’t stuck around. They were a perfect pair.

  But then he wouldn’t have had Robby, Luke reminded himself. “I miss you, pal,” he said softly, an unexpected catch in his voice.

  “Miss you,” Robby echoed. “I gotta go. Aunt Peg just brought me pancakes. And Mrs. Jeffers said she’d take me to ride my bike as soon as I eat. And tomorrow Aunt Peg and me are going to the beach. It’s her day off.”

  “Sounds like you have a busy time planned.”

  “Hey, Daddy?”

  “Yes.”

  “I really, really like it here.”

  Luke closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. It was turning out just the way he’d envisioned. He was finally giving Robby the real home he deserved, complete with a loving extended family. “I’m glad, pal. Really, really glad.”

  When he’d hung up, Luke vowed silently that he would destroy Tommy if he did anything, anything at all to ruin Robby’s new-found happiness.

  * * *

  Katie took one look at Luke’s face when he finally came back to the suite, and all of her pent-up anger died at once. His face looked haggard and his shoulders were slumped, as if he carried the weight of the world on them.

  Instead of verbally hurling the accusations and prying questions she’d formulated in her head, she poured him a cup of coffee and said mildly, “I saved some pancakes and fruit for you. You look like you could use them.”

  He accepted the cup of coffee and ignored the rest. He walked directly to the window and stood staring down at the gardens, his expression troubled.

  Katie plunged on, trying to sound as if everything were perfectly normal. “Your secretary called. She said she was able to reschedule everything for the first week in July.”

  “That’s good,” he said with a distracted air.

  “I’m thinking of having my hair dyed purple while we’re here,” she said.

  “If that’s what you want.”

  “Luke!”

  His head snapped around. “What?”

  Katie regarded him with dismay. “Talk about it,” she ordered.

  He didn’t pretend not to know what it was. “Later.”

  “When?”

  “Just later. Let it go, Katie.”

  She sighed and gave up. Years of experience should have taught her that she couldn’t badger Luke into talking before he was ready. “So, what do you want to do today?”

  He drew in a deep, shuddering breath before finally facing her.
“I want to go home.”

  The last of her illusions that they could salvage this honeymoon dissolved. “You want to go home?” she repeated with dismay. “Today?”

  He nodded. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

  “You’ve been making a lot of promises to me recently,” Katie said, struggling to keep her voice even, trying even harder not to cry. “Any idea when you’ll start keeping a few of them?”

  Stormy blue eyes met hers. “As soon as we’re home, we’ll sit down and I’ll explain everything.”

  Judging from Luke’s bleak expression, Katie had an awful feeling that she wasn’t going to like the explanation a bit. “Why do I have this terrible hunch that it’s coming about twenty-four hours too late?”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The second call to Peg Jones to let her know that he and Katie would definitely be returning to Clover had been a terrible mistake, Luke realized as they drove toward the boarding house. A collection of cars stretched for blocks in every direction. He doubted that one of the boarders had invited half the town to drop by.

  More likely, the warning he had given Peg had allowed her just enough time to prepare the full-blown wedding reception she’d wanted for the two of them in the first place. He should have known that small gathering at her house the day before wouldn’t satisfy her. Or maybe she was just retaliating for what she considered to be his ill-advised decision to cut the honeymoon short.

  “What do you suppose...?” Katie began, then turned to Luke with a horrified expression on her face. “Oh, no, surely she didn’t.”

  “Oh, I think it’s a safe bet that we are about to be congratulated by everyone in Clover,” Luke said grimly. He glanced at Katie’s pale face and immediately took pity on her. “We could hide out at the hotel.”

  “That would be cowardly,” she said, but she turned a wistful look on the two-story building that was visible a few blocks away.

  “I prefer to think of it as a strategic retreat.”

  Katie buried her face in her hands. “What are they going to think? We’ve been married barely over a day and we cut short our honeymoon.”

  Luke honestly hadn’t considered the likelihood of embarrassing Katie when he’d made the impulsive decision to come back to Clover early. He’d been focused entirely on preventing a meeting between his brother and Robby.