“Something with cooking?” she asked doubtfully. She felt safer on this side of the island.
He grinned again. “I might ask you to stir this. But first, how about setting the table. There are mats and napkins in that drawer.” He tipped his head toward the buffet on the far side of the dining table. Then he jerked his chin down near his hip. “Silverware’s around here. And if you want to wash your hands, the bathroom’s down the hall.” This time he tipped his head backward.
Down a short hallway the first door was to the bathroom. An open door next to it showed his bed. The comforter was pulled up and pillows in coordinating shams stacked at the top.
She returned and gathered silverware, mats, cloth napkins. “You have a very nice place.”
“It’s the clean towels in the bathroom that get the girls,” he said wisely. “Direct quote from Coach. You know how he always says being a guy doesn’t mean you’re automatically a slob. He hammered that in to us.”
“Did he also hammer at you being able to cook?”
“Nah, Coach is a strong believer in restaurants. Cooking was Andy.”
She considered her handiwork, remembering Carolyn and C.J.’s festive table whenever they had people over for dinner. “Should there be something else on the table?”
“Salt? Pepper?”
“Something decorative.”
She turned, watching him. He moved quickly, easily. Hands so sure and powerful handling a basketball now deftly whisked ingredients in a bowl held at a dangerous angle.”Good idea. Look for a vase on the bookcase, but I don’t have anything to put in it.”
She eyed the columnar dark blue vase currently separating two stacks of books. “Too tall. Nobody could see over it. How about that plant?”
“Sure, though the pot’s not much.”
“I have an idea. Do you have a rubber band?” He pointed to another drawer in the kitchen. She collected the rubber band, the pot, a cloth napkin and got to work. “What kind of plant is this?”
“Shamrock. Got it for St. Patrick’s Day two years ago.”
“So you can also grow plants, not only order them to be cut down?”
“Hey, you admitted the house looks a lot better without—”
“I never said ‘a lot.’ “
“—those behemoths. Besides, I added plants last weekend— Looks good, Katie.”
The rubber band secured the napkin around the pot. The excess fabric flopped down to cover it. He stepped to the end of the counter to stand beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders.
The squeeze seemed to urge her to turn toward him, and then it was so natural to look up. Was he…?
No.
He kissed the top of her head.
He released her quickly and returned to the cooktop. “Got to stir this so nothing sticks on the bottom.”
The doorbell sounded.
Amid greetings and introductions, Andy pulled Brad’s face down to kiss him on the cheek. Katie shook hands with Andy’s friend, Viola. Releasing Brad, Andy opened her arms and engulfed Katie before she could think or hesitate. She returned the embrace, smiling.
Stepping back from the hug, Andy’s eyes sharpened. She turned and squinted up at Brad as he hugged Viola, who said, “It smells heavenly.”
“It should,” Andy said, moving to the pan and peering at it. “It’s my recipe.”
“With a twist.” Brad edged into the kitchen between the two older women, reaching over Viola to give the pan a stir, then checking the rice. “We’ll see if you can figure out what’s been done to it.”
“Oh, I have a pretty good idea what you’ve done,” his grandmother said dryly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Even as they enjoyed the meal and chatted easily, Brad could see his grandmother plotting to get Katie to herself for a dose of Andy cross-examination.
He was torn between throwing himself in front of the truck with no brakes that was his grandmother when she was on a mission and letting events play out.
The important thing was he and Katie appeared to be mostly back on an even keel.
If hashing out what had happened this morning would have helped, he’d have hashed as long as it took.
But it wouldn’t have. It would have made her more uncomfortable. Far better to demonstrate that things could be light and easy between them again. And it appeared to have worked.
As long as he kept his hands off her.
His grandmother interrupted his thoughts.
“Viola heard a noise in her car driving here. Will you take a look at it for her, Brad?” Andy asked – if a general giving an order ‘asks.’ “Katie and I will do the dishes.”
Brad didn’t miss Viola’s surprise at hearing her car needed looking at. But he didn’t fight. Better to get it over with.
****
“How are you and Brad progressing, dear?”
Katie sucked in a breath at the direct question. “Mrs. Spencer – Andy – I’m afraid you misunderstood about me coming with Brad back in March—”
“No. I didn’t misunderstand. Brad had spoken of you many times before he brought you to meet me and for me to meet you. He’s done that with very few women.”
“We work together, that’s all. Truly—”
“No.” She tipped her head. “At least not on his part. I don’t know you well, Katie, so I can’t be sure of your feelings. Brad’s are a different manner.”
“He can’t have said—”
“He doesn’t need to say. Not to me.” She smiled. “You know he was once engaged.”
Brad engaged. Planning to marry someone. Was this the “until” Carolyn had mentioned? Had he backed out? Had she broken his heart, this phantom woman? How did he feel now—
“No,” she said, as much to her rampaging thoughts as an answer to Andrea.
“His senior year at Ashton. She broke it off right after he wasn’t drafted to the NBA. Could she have been any more obvious? But I knew she wasn’t right for him the first time he brought her to see me.”
“You shouldn’t be telling—”
“He was helping her off with her coat by the front closet – you know how tight that can be – and she practically knocked me over in her rush to get away. Brad didn’t follow her. He stayed back there hanging that coat up like it was a military operation. So I knew. And I could have told him, but no man will listen to such things.” She snorted. “So I kept my mouth shut. Then watched while Brad realized what was what. At least he knew it before she broke off. Sure wasn’t disappointed when it ended.”
****
Katie waved from the front window as Brad walked Andy and Viola to the car – which was working perfectly – for their hour’s drive to Madison. Then she resumed the cleanup.
“Whatever Andy said to you when she wrangled time alone, forget it,” Brad said as soon as he walked in the door. “Hey, you don’t have to do that.”
She gently scrubbed at a spot on a pan that had been soaking in the sink. The glasses, dishes, and silverware were already in the dishwasher. “This is something I know how to do in the kitchen.”
“I’ve had your spaghetti and stew and cake – you know how to do plenty in the kitchen.”
“Staples. Nothing fancy, like you made. In fact, I know almost nothing about fancy food or fancy anything.”
“Just a different recipe to follow. Hand me those covers, they go in the dishwasher. Find a recipe and dive in. Nothing to be scared of.”
“I’ve been scared of so many things.” She kept her eyes on the pan. “Clinging to the ledge of what I’d always known. You’re trying to push me off the ledge.”
“So you’ll soar. Even more.” The smile she heard in his voice was gone with his next words. “You’re a princess. An honest to God princess. You have a future ahead of you that’s nothing like your past.”
“Did I mention scared?” she asked wryly. “Heck, I’m not even sure about this trip to Washington for the wedding. I hardly know these people, even April—”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
April had instructed Katie to call her cell when her plane landed at Washington’s Reagan National Airport. She’d barely exited the terminal when she heard a beep and spotted April waving from the back of a town car.
A driver took Katie’s luggage with professional courtesy that didn’t quite mask his curiosity.
After giving Katie a quick hug, April announced, “This is Rupert, Katie. He drives for the embassy. Rupert, this is my friend, Katie Davis.”
“Ms. Davis,” the man said with a slight accent she couldn’t place.
She said hello and even smiled.
A driver. For an embassy. What do I know about this kind of life? Nothing.
She’d told Brad that Saturday night. He’d passed it off as nothing to worry about. Then he’d distracted her with ice cream. Then kept her busy Sunday with yard work until it was time to change and go to dinner at Carolyn and C.J.’s, who had wanted to know all about this trip.
Early this morning had been jam-packed with details for work … and now she was here. With no idea what to expect.
“I wanted to drive, but Hunter got all protective,” April said. “I haven’t taken evasive and defensive driving classes, so he thinks I can’t drive.”
“Miss April is an enthusiastic driver,” Rupert said neutrally.
April laughed. “Just for that, Rupert, I’m closing the privacy barrier.”
Katie could see the man’s smile in the rearview mirror as he repeated, “Yes, Miss Katie.”
“Now,” April said with a satisfied sigh as they merged into traffic on the George Washington Parkway, “we’re going to have some just-us-girls fun.”
****
Katie didn’t know which had her more off-balance – the two stops they’d made, the clogged traffic, or the street signs packed with “or,” “only,” and “but not” clauses. She didn’t want to think about April’s “enthusiastic” driving in these conditions.
The first stop had been a posh Georgetown salon. April breezed in with Katie in tow and went right to the back, where the proprietor reigned.
Feeling as if her head were still in the clouds she’d watched from the airplane, she listened to Etienne and April discuss how, despite their physical similarities, Katie needed a different hairstyle from April’s. She didn’t even try to have a say.
Etienne waved April away, ordered Katie’s hair shampooed, then circled her again with her hair wet and straight. The first cut made her gasp. She closed her eyes and kept them closed until he called April back in.
“Oh,” April breathed.
“Perfect,” Etienne proclaimed.
“Yes,” was all she got out. The almost structural lines of the cut gave her a sophistication she had never thought possible. Yet it retained enough soft naturalness to be comfortable.
She listened to his instructions for reproducing this effect but doubted she’d pull it off. “Have your stylist call me when you go for a trim,” he said in a low tone with astonishingly little accent as he tucked a business card in her pocket.
The second stop had been to an establishment with an austere exterior. Inside, April introduced her to Tonya, an elegant African-American woman who opened a hidden door, then led them down a hallway and into a dressing room ringed with mirrors.
“Your wedding dress,” Katie breathed as she spotted the dreamy, elegant flow of white hanging high in front of a mirror.
“I’m not trying it on until you’ve tried some things. What do you think, Maurice?” April added as a man nearly as tall as Brad but much more slender entered. “This is Katie, whom I told you about.”
“I think you are blackmailing her into trying on clothes. I approve.” He examined her. “Etienne?” A lazy finger indicating her hair turned into a commanding gesture for her to turn.
“Of course,” April said.
He chuckled, and a good part of Katie’s discomfort ebbed away.
It was a good thing, because April, Tonya, and Maurice did not allow her much modesty, much less time to sort through what was happening. “I’m sure I can’t afford these,” she’d said to April in an urgent whisper.
“Don’t worry. It’s all set.”
“But how—”
“Both Hunter and King Jozef insisted on paying Maurice for clothes he made for me last Christmas. And that’s on top of the State Department covering the cost as part of the operation. I couldn’t get either Hunter or the king to not pay and Maurice didn’t even try. He said we’ll work off that balance. Even with the wedding dress, it would take ages, so—”
Maurice swept back into the dressing room. “Next, a dress for April and Hunter’s wedding.”
“No.” Katie said firmly. “I have a dress for Saturday.”
Maurice looked at April, who shrugged. “Very well,” he said, “bring it when you come for fittings Wednesday morning and the adjustments will be ready before you both return Friday. Now. It is time to see how your wedding dress goes, April.”
It went stunningly in Katie’s opinion. April looked elegant, beautiful, and glowing.
“Duchess satin,” April said with a grin. “Closest I could come to a princess. I love the back, too.” She turned to show how the rounded, off-the-shoulder neckline dropped to a V in back, with a modest train. “I didn’t want anything too busy, especially with wearing the Craig family veil – all lace.”
****
The hotel was all understated luxury.
The car pulled under a portico before the impressive entry. Discomfort was rising in Katie until a man in hotel livery who opened the door winked at her. Behind her, April chuckled and the man did a double-take.
“Winking at other women behind my back, Jorge?” April teased. “This is Katie, who’s joining our group for the rest of the week.”
“Welcome, Miss Katie. It is a pleasure to have any friend of Miss April’s.”
Katie’s thanks were nearly lost in April’s questions about his nephew’s graduation and his mother’s back. Jorge started to steer toward registration, but April said, “That’s all set. Straight to the elevators, please.”
On their way what seemed like a dozen hotel employees exchanged greetings with April. In the elevator, she said to Jorge, “What are you grinning about?”
“Mr. Pierce would not be happy at how long you have known so many.”
“And there is no need for him to know,” April said firmly. Apparently seeing the questions in Katie’s eyes, she added, “I stayed here when Hunter was, uh, training me for you-know-what. He was paranoid about anyone knowing and thought – I’ll tell you later, because here we are. Thanks, Jorge.” She took Katie’s elbow, and steered her off the elevator.
“My things,” she protested as the doors closed with Jorge and her suitcase still inside.
April headed down the hallway. “Jorge will take them to your room and here’s the key. But we’re going to the suite where everyone’s hanging out, and this is your suite key.” She handed that over, then used another key to open the door. “Oh, good, you’re all here.”
For a dazzled instant, it seemed to Katie all of Washington might be in that room. And the crowd wasn’t even as impressive as the view over the tops of trees to the White House. Almost immediately the crowd surrounded her, shaking her hand, pronouncing names, and welcoming her.
She said hello back to April’s cousin Leslie and her husband Grady, greeted Tris and Michael Dickinson, as well as Paul and Bette Monroe, whose Evanston home was where she’d met April, as well as— Katie scanned the room.
“The king’s not here,” April whispered. “I told him to give you a chance to get settled.”
A bevy of kids eddied into the room, including the two she’d met at the Monroes’, followed by two dogs. “Rufus and Dragon,” April said fondly, as the dogs danced around her.
“Oh,” said one boy
with vivid disappointment, “we thought it was Hunter.”
“That charmer is ours, Jake,” Leslie admitted, then introduced all the kids, promising at the end, “There won’t be a quiz on names or affiliation. Sometimes I forget which ones belong where.”The door swung open to a chorus of “Hunter!” from the boys.
“He’s the cool guy,” Leslie informed Katie, “because he’s not related to any of them and he carries a gun.”
“And because he’s just cool,” April added before Hunter reached her, kissing her while stretched over a boy who said, “Eww.”
“Some day, Nick,” Paul said. “Some day.”
Hunter grinned, dislodged a smaller boy from his leg and held out his hand to Katie. “Great to see you, Katie. I see April has already unleashed Etienne on you.”
“That’s what’s different.” Tris looked from her to April and back. “It makes you look less alike. You see each of you as individually beautiful before noticing the similarities.”
“Wait ‘til you see what Maurice has in store for her,” April said. “This one dress looks so simple, but—”
“Before you start on that,” Hunter interrupted, “let me introduce my colleagues to Katie.”
April immediately went to the two people who’d followed Hunter into the room and gave them each a hug. The African-American woman who exuded no-nonsense intelligence except for a wicked gleam in her eyes was Sharon Johnson, Hunter’s supervisor. The good-looking younger man was introduced as Derek Kenton, Hunter’s partner. April recognized him from the night she’d met King Jozef.
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