“It’s air-conditioned in here,” Katie reminded her before walking away in disgust. They were up to something. She knew it.
Even so, she was ready promptly at six. Luke joined her a moment later, wearing the same suit he’d worn for their wedding. Before Katie could catch her breath and comment on how handsome he looked, Ginger bounded down the stairs in a dress Katie had never seen before and slinky high heels. Mrs. Jeffers, wearing a grey silk suit and an abundance of perfume, followed on the arm of Mr. O’Reilly, who was dressed fit to kill, as well.
Obviously she and Luke were not going out for a romantic dinner, Katie decided with some disappointment just as Peg turned up wearing her best dress, the one she usually saved for holidays and weddings.
“Everybody ready?” Luke asked cheerfully.
Katie planted her feet and regarded him warily. “What’s this all about? And where is Robby?”
“Robby is with Lucy and Max. Now stop asking so many questions or you’ll spoil the surprise.”
“I really hate surprises,” she muttered.
“Since when?” Peg asked, urging her toward the door. “From the time you were a little, bitty thing, you loved surprises.”
“Not anymore,” she declared right before her mouth went slack with shock.
Outside, a long, sleek limousine was parked at the curb. Half the neighborhood was standing around gawking at it. Her boarders strolled down the sidewalk as regally as any royalty on earth. Even Ginger managed to act as if this were an everyday occurrence. Katie had no choice but to go along or spoil everyone else’s good time, but her suspicious instincts were working overtime.
An hour later as they headed north along the coast, she began to get an inkling of where they were headed at least. There were some wonderful seafood restaurants between Clover and Myrtle Beach. Unfortunately the limo sped past most of them.
Just as she was about to demand answers to all the questions reeling in her head, the limo pulled off the road. Katie peered around at the large, unfamiliar, indistinctive parking lot, then glanced up at the marquee. A smile broke across her face as she read, Appearing Tonight Only, Country Singer Tom Cassidy.
She threw her arms around Luke’s neck and kissed him. “You did it! You helped him get a job singing.”
Luke shook his head. “As much as I’d like to take the credit, I can’t. He did it himself. I just made a couple of calls. The club’s owners wouldn’t have brought him in if he hadn’t performed well at the audition.”
“Have you heard him sing?” She thought of the night in her backyard, “I mean really sing, not just fooling around.”
“A little at the office one day,” he admitted, reminding her of the time she’d called and overheard Tommy’s guitar in the background. “It sounded good to me, but I’m tone deaf.”
“That’s true enough,” Katie agreed, but she couldn’t seem to stop grinning at him. The fact that he had taken a chance on Tommy, had offered him this shot, it had to mean that the two of them were finally making their peace.
The management of the small restaurant had clearly been expecting them. A special table had been set up near the stage, and they were ushered there with a maximum of fuss. Katie could see that Luke had gone out of his way to see that the others all felt as if they were as special tonight as Tommy. He was as attentive to Mrs. Jeffers as he was to Peg. He teased Ginger and joked with Mr. O’Reilly.
He treated them all like family, Katie thought with a sense of astonishment. A warm feeling of contentment stole through her at the realization.
And when Tommy finally came out to sing, there was no mistaking the pride shining in Luke’s eyes. He reached for Katie’s hand and clung to it. His foot tapped to the faster rhythms and his eyes shimmered with unshed tears, when Tommy’s voice caressed the notes of the more emotional love-gone-wrong songs.
When the mellow tones and words of heartache ended, applause erupted with an enthusiasm that would have rivaled any Garth Brooks concert, albeit the crowd was much smaller. Luke stared around him at the rest of the audience with an unmistakable mix of amazement and delight.
“He was good, wasn’t he?” he asked Katie, a grin spreading across his face.
“Fantastic,” she confirmed. “Offhand, I’d say your brother has what it takes to make it.”
A moment later Tommy emerged from the shadows and walked hesitantly toward them, stopping along the way to accept congratulations from others in the audience. His gaze, though, never left his big brother. When he was only a few feet away, Luke rose and went to meet him.
Katie couldn’t hear what was said, but she had no trouble at all guessing what it meant when Luke opened his arms and embraced his brother. Tears clung to her lashes and spilled down her cheeks as she watched them.
Suddenly she felt a slight tug on her arm and turned to look into Ginger’s awestruck eyes. “Would you introduce me?” she pleaded. “He is totally awesome!”
Tommy? Awesome? Katie barely hid her grin. Then she took another look at her brother-in-law and realized that she’d been right when she’d told Luke that Tommy’s brooding good looks would appeal to women. He’d dressed in black, from his cowboy hat down to his boots. The attire did wicked things to his blue eyes, which seemed brighter and more alive tonight than at any other time Katie could recall.
Katie slid over to the chair Luke had vacated and gestured to Tommy to sit in hers. When she introduced him to Ginger, the teenager’s face turned bright red for a second before she gathered her composure. To Katie’s astonishment, Tommy seemed equally dumbstruck. She thanked heaven that Ginger’s eighteenth birthday was less than a week away. She got the distinct impression that Tommy would be coming to call.
Before she could start worrying about what kind of influence Tommy might be on Ginger or how Luke would feel about him hanging around the boarding house, Luke reached out and tugged her onto the tiny dance floor. His arms came around her and she nestled against his chest.
“Happy?” he asked.
“Very.” She looked up at him. “You must be very proud.”
“Stunned is more like it. If only I’d listened to him years ago, things might have been different.”
“He told you he wanted to sing years ago?”
“Once or twice. I told him it was impractical and dismissed it.” He sighed. “I think that was really behind his running off, maybe even more so than Betty Sue’s pregnancy. If only I hadn’t been so bull-headed, so certain I knew what was right for him, maybe you and I...”
Katie reached up and silenced him with a touch. “There’s no point in looking back.”
“What about forward, Katie?” he asked, searching her face. “Is there a reason to look forward?”
Katie had no ready answer for that. The future seemed so uncertain. “Let’s just concentrate on the present,” she said, moving even more tightly into his embrace.
“You can’t just live for the moment,” Luke protested. “You have to plan ahead, be responsible.”
“You’re backsliding,” she teased him gently. “This very moment is the only one we can control and I, for one, don’t want to waste it on a silly argument.”
She could feel Luke’s grin against her cheek.
“You have better things in mind?” he asked with a hopeful note in his voice.
“Much better,” she said, looping her arms around his neck so that she could snuggle closer still.
“Ah, yes,” Luke murmured with a sigh. “That is definitely much better.”
One song ended and another began. They barely noticed.
“Um, Katie, do you suppose we could plan ahead just a little? Say, maybe for an hour or two from now?”
She laughed. “You can dream, Cassidy, but you can’t plan.”
“Okay, but just so you know, I am having one very erotic dream.”
“Me, too, Cassidy. Me, too.”
* * *
Unfortunately the dream got waylaid. Just about the time they’d gotten everyone settl
ed after the drive back to Clover, there was a tap on the front door. Luke looked as if he’d like to ignore it, but Katie knew that no one would turn up at that late hour unless it was important.
“If you don’t answer it, I will,” she said.
“Entertaining visitors was not what I had in mind,” he said, his gaze roaming over her provocatively one last time just as he opened the door. “Tommy! What are you doing here?”
“I thought we should talk.”
“Tonight? Can’t it wait until morning? Besides, I thought you’d be up until dawn celebrating.”
“The only people I want to celebrate with are here,” Tommy said, sounding wistful.
“Well, get in here, then,” Katie said. She studied Tommy’s somber expression and decided celebrating was actually the last thing on his mind. She stood and headed for the stairs. “Why don’t I leave the two of you alone?”
Tommy shook his head. “No, stay, please. This involves you, too.” He glanced toward the stairs. “Is Robby here?”
Luke shook his head. “He’s spending the night with Lucy and Max.”
“Good. Then there’s no chance he’ll overhear.”
Luke tensed at once. “Overhear what? Dammit, Tommy, tonight’s not the time to get into a custody discussion.”
Tommy faced him squarely. “I think it is.”
Katie heard the determination in his voice with a sense of amazement. Tommy had changed since his return to Clover. She could see it. It went beyond the new Western clothes, the neatly trimmed hair, his more mature face. There was a quiet resolve about him that she was forced to admire. She had a feeling that when the time came, the judge’s decision wouldn’t be an easy one. It would have been far more clear-cut if Tommy had remained the rebellious, irresponsible person who’d first run out on his pregnant lover.
Katie clenched her hands nervously and worried that Luke had seriously underestimated his brother’s determination to become a part of Robby’s life.
“I know you think I just wanted your money,” Tommy began. “You’ve said it often enough.” He met Luke’s gaze evenly. “But that was never it. I suppose a part of it was that I wanted to hurt you.”
“And you were willing to use Robby to do it,” Luke said flatly.
“I wasn’t thinking about him, not really,” Tommy said. “It was a purely selfish decision. In some sort of twisted way, I think I was jealous of him.”
Luke regarded him incredulously. “Jealous? Of a baby?”
Tommy shrugged. “Sounds ridiculous when I say it. But he had you in his life, and he came between you and me. I know I used to mess up, and you bailed me out over and over. Seemed like that was just the nature of our relationship. Then Betty Sue got pregnant and you chose her and the baby over me.”
“I chose them because of you,” Luke said, looking faintly bewildered by Tommy’s anger and hurt. “You left me no choice. One of us had to do the right thing.”
Tommy’s smile was rueful. “You never gave me time to figure that out. Just wham-bang, you took care of it. You sacrificed your feelings for Katie.” He shot her an apologetic look. “When I saw that, do you know the kind of guilt I felt? I had to stay away. There was no place for me here knowing how many lives I’d wrecked.”
“If you felt so much guilt, then how could you fight me for custody of Robby?” Luke asked, looking shaken by everything Tommy had revealed so far.
“Because I knew in my gut it would send you running back here. I hoped Katie would take you back.” He sucked in a deep breath, then admitted, “I owed you and I wanted my brother back.”
Luke stood and began to pace. He raked his fingers through his hair, before he finally turned to stare down at his brother. “You were willing to go into court and ask for Robby, to try to take him from me and you thought that would get me back?”
“No,” Tommy said quietly. “I thought it would get your attention.”
“Well, it sure as hell did that!” Luke exploded. “Of all the idiotic, selfish, harebrained schemes.” He stopped in front of Tommy. “So now what? Why the hell are you here tonight?”
Tommy flinched at his brother’s anger, but his own voice didn’t waver. “To tell you that I’ve withdrawn the suit. Whether you believe it or not, I don’t think I could have gone through with it, no matter how things had turned out between us.”
He looked from Luke to Katie, then back to his big brother. Katie waited for Luke to speak, but he remained silent.
Finally, looking dejected, Tommy sighed and stood up. “I’ll be going now.” At the door he paused. Without turning around, he whispered, “I love you, Luke.”
And then he was gone.
“Luke?”
“Not now, Katie,” he said in a tight tone of dismissal.
Katie felt as if she’d been slapped, rejected. They should have been celebrating the end of the custody battle, but there was so much more at stake. Her heart aching for her husband, Katie headed for the stairs. She paused beside him and put her hand on his cheek. It was damp with tears she doubted he was even aware he’d shed. “Are you coming up?”
“Maybe in a while,” he said, his expression bleak.
“I’ll be waiting,” she promised.
But hours later, when sunlight began to spill through the curtains, Katie was still wide-awake and alone. And when she left the house to go to work at the diner, there was no sign of Luke at all.
* * *
It was hours before Katie finally saw Luke again. He wandered into the diner right after noon and took a booth in the back. Katie was waiting on customers at the counter. Ginger was waiting on the tables. She came back to Katie within seconds of taking Luke’s order.
“He wants to see you.”
“Now?” she asked incredulously. She was still too miffed about his running out on her to risk speaking to him in a crowded diner.
“He seems really upset about something,” Ginger observed worriedly. “We could switch for a while and you could take the tables. I think everybody has their order right now, anyway. You’d have a few minutes to talk.”
Katie shook her head. “This isn’t the place,” she insisted stubbornly. She didn’t want to hear that Luke intended to end their marriage in the middle of the diner. What else could he possibly be so anxious to say that would put that grim expression on his face? “But if you wouldn’t mind watching the counter for a few minutes, I could use a break.”
“Sure, but...”
“Thanks,” she said and ducked into the ladies’ room, the one place she was certain Luke wouldn’t follow her.
She was still hiding out in the restroom fifteen minutes later, when the door opened and Lucy appeared. “You okay?”
Katie managed a wobbly smile for her best friend. “I’ve been better. Where’d you come from?”
“I stopped by to see how things were going. Luke told me you were in here. I think he was just about ready to come busting in himself.” She studied Katie from head to toe. “So how are you really?”
“I’m scared, Lucy.”
“Of losing Robby?”
“Of losing both of them. Tommy’s withdrawn his suit. But with the custody issue resolved Luke has no reason to stay married to me.”
“Hogwash! He’s in love with you. He has been forever.”
Katie didn’t believe her, but she clung to Lucy’s reassurances, anyway. It gave her the strength to emerge from the restroom and face Luke with the whole damn town looking on. There was an odd air of expectancy in the diner, as if everyone knew something was up between the two of them.
Katie would have waited until everyone left, but Luke and Ginger, with a little help from Peg, conspired to force her hand. Ginger had taken over the counter. Peg was handling the tables. They’d left her with only the one station to cover, Luke’s booth. Maybe she should have just made a dash for it, but she finally resigned herself to hearing the bad news now and getting it over with.
She marched over to her husband.
�
��Have a seat,” he invited.
“I don’t think so. Are you planning to file for divorce now that you have what you want?” she demanded, hands on hips, her chin thrust forward combatively.
Luke seemed taken aback at first. Then his expression turned even more bleak. “I suppose that could be one interpretation of our deal. It wasn’t in writing, though.”
“Just implied,” she agreed.
She drew in a deep breath and decided to go for broke. He might leave, anyway, but he wouldn’t go without getting a fight. “Then there was your side of the bargain. I took a look at the books. They’re a shambles. Now that everyone is getting ice cream and cookies in the evening, now that the rent has been lowered...” She shrugged. “Looks to me like you have a long way to go to get things straightened out around here.”
A faint spark of hope lit his eyes. “You want me to stay?”
She refused to be the only one making an admission here. “If you want to.”
“Do you want me to stay?” he repeated insistently.
Katie sighed and relented. Two stubborn people in one marriage was at least one, if not two, too many. “I’ve wanted you with me since I was twelve years old. Don’t you know yet how much I love you?”
“You love me?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” she said impatiently. “Do you think you would ever have gotten across that threshold, if I didn’t? It didn’t have a blasted thing to do with saving this boarding house. I would have managed somehow.”
Luke snagged her wrist and toppled her into his arms. Katie felt a heavy sigh shudder through him.
“When Tommy walked out last night, I should have been shouting with joy, but I couldn’t. All I could think about was that it was over with us,” he murmured against her cheek. “I don’t know what I would have done, if you’d said you wanted a divorce.”
Katie touched his shadowed cheek. “Why?”
“Because...”
“Not good enough. Why?” She kept her gaze pinned on his.
“You’re my best friend.”
Finally a Bride Page 18