Just the Husband She Chose

by Karen Rose Smith

  “Why did you do this?” Larry asked.

  “I didn’t do it to ruin the deal.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  “I told you before. Dad felt uncomfortable about Farley. He’d heard rumors, and he asked me to look into them.”

  “I should have researched Farley more thoroughly myself,” Larry murmured.

  Jolene said gently, “You wouldn’t listen to Dad. You were so sure this was the right thing to do.”

  Larry glanced at Hunter. “No, not the right thing to do. It was the thing that would put me in his league. All of these years I’ve been trying to be self-confident, as sure of myself, as good at handling Morgan’s as Hunter is with his law practice. And now I almost brought down the whole company.”

  To his sons John said, “There’s no reason for you two to compete. You are both my sons. You always have been and you always will be. I don’t have a favorite, though neither of you believes that. Your mother doesn’t have a favorite. Hunter, you aren’t less of a son because you were adopted. We chose you. And Larry, you’re not less of a son because Hunter’s older and came first. I thought we tried to make that clear to both of you over the years, but we never succeeded.”

  Hunter heard the sincerity in his father’s voice. His dad had come to him for help and had trusted and respected his opinion…so much so that John Morgan had stopped this merger meeting without having absolute proof in his hands.

  Jolene stepped to Hunter’s side. “We never knew each other very well. I always felt if I tried to get close to you, I was being disloyal to Larry somehow. That wasn’t fair to any of us. But I think of you as my brother, Hunter, just as I do Larry.”

  Hunter’s chest tightened.

  Jolene said to her father and Larry, “Why don’t you go inside and tell Mr. Farley the deal is off.”

  Still looking shaken, Larry glanced at John and then nodded. He put his hand on the doorknob, but before he turned it, he looked at Hunter. “Thanks.”

  At that moment, Hunter didn’t know if he and Larry would be close, but he did know that somehow they’d made a start. Today wasn’t one he’d soon forget.

  After John and Larry went inside, Jolene faced Hunter. “You know, don’t you, that it wasn’t Mom and Dad’s fault that you felt adopted. It was more of Larry’s and mine.”

  “I’ve never seen all of it with much objectivity,” Hunter admitted.

  “Did you know that after your accident, Mom and Dad never left your side, except when Slade or I were with you?”

  “No.”

  “I didn’t think so. Those days when you were in a coma were the worst days Mom and Dad ever spent. They sat by your bed, and talked to you, and cried and prayed. They love you, Hunter, every bit as much as they love Larry and me.”

  Hunter couldn’t speak for a few moments. “I’ve been so foolish blaming them for leaving Slade behind.”

  “I’ve heard them talking about it since Slade found you. They’ve felt guilt over the years, Hunter. Guilt that they separated you from your twin. But they had to make decisions, and as people say—hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

  “I’ve always known you were smart. I just didn’t know you were wise, too.” Suddenly he felt as if he really did have a sister.

  “Not so wise. I’m just not in the middle of it like you are.” She gave Hunter a smile. “You know, Larry might be easier to live with now, if you don’t lord this over him.”

  Hunter smiled back. “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “He kept complaining to me before you got here that Eve should have told him what this information was. But deep down, I think he admired her being loyal to you. And if he’d taken her advice and talked to you about it, this never would have happened.”

  “Eve told him to talk to me about it?”

  “Yes. I think Larry likes her, even though he won’t come right out and say it. Must be that Southern accent.”

  Larry liked Eve. Eve had been loyal. Hunter’s whole world felt as if it had turned upside down. He’d accused her of betraying his confidence. He’d accused her…

  The door opened, and Larry and John Morgan stepped out into the hall again. “We’re finished with Farley,” Larry said. “And I’ve changed my mind about merging. I’d probably have to give up too much control.” He glanced up at Hunter. “And that’s hard for me.”

  “It’s hard for anyone,” Hunter agreed.

  “Why don’t we all go out for dinner?” Larry suggested. “We can toast our nonmerger.”

  Everyone laughed. Part of Hunter felt light, but the other part felt very heavy when he thought of Eve and the things he’d said to her. “I’d really like to come to dinner with you, but what if I join you for a drink instead? I need to get home tonight.”

  “I suppose you still are a newlywed,” Larry gibed.

  Hunter could look at Larry in a new light now. Eve had been right about him, too. Insecurity had always driven him and made him cut Hunter out. Now maybe they could start being brothers.

  And maybe, after he shared a drink with his brother, sister and father, he could figure out what to do about Eve.

  An hour later, Hunter arrived home. The storm clouds had opened and rain was pouring down in driving sheets. The van was still sitting in the driveway. He opened the garage door and pulled in, then switched off the ignition. Eve’s car was gone. He suddenly felt panic as he’d never felt before. Where had she gone?

  Had she left the house? Or had she left his life?

  Following the hall into the kitchen, he found a note on the island, but he didn’t experience any relief until he read it.

  Hunter,

  Lauren MacMillan finished her plans for our gardens. I’ve gone to dinner with her to discuss them. I won’t be late.

  Eve

  Our gardens?

  She’d worked so hard turning this house into a home, even after he’d put the title only in his name. That didn’t seem to matter to her. He’d been afraid to admit how much he liked sharing his life with her, how he couldn’t wait to see her every night, how he was counting the days until their baby would be born.

  Somehow they’d make things right tonight.

  He heard the noise in the family room. As he went through, he saw a brunette in her twenties, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, running the vacuum cleaner. She turned it off and smiled at him.

  “Hi. You must be Mr. Coleburn. I’m Sandra Grayson. I should be finished in about half an hour.”

  “Do you know what time my wife left?”

  “I think it was around seven.”

  Hunter glanced at the rain streaming down the windows. It was almost dark, and he didn’t like the idea of Eve being out in the rainstorm. Sometimes there was flash flooding….

  “I’m going to get a quick shower. If the phone rings, will you answer it? It might be Eve stranded somewhere.”

  “Sure. I’ll do that.”

  A trace of a memory flickered in his mind. As he went to the stairs, he suddenly stopped. Déjà vu. He’d been staying in a hotel in Florence, Italy. The maid had come in to turn down his bed. Expecting a business call, he’d said to her, “Will you answer the phone if it rings?”

  She’d nodded, and he’d gone into the shower.

  That had been about six weeks after he’d left Savannah, Georgia. He remembered because he’d walked the streets of Florence that day, knowing how much Eve would have enjoyed it—the art, the statues, the buildings.

  What if that had been the night Eve had called? What if the woman she’d talked to had been a maid?

  He hadn’t believed her, and he’d been keeping her at arm’s length because of it…and so much more.

  Hunter showered, letting the water sluice over him, trying to absorb everything that had happened today, everything that had happened in his life.

  When had he started distrusting? When his parents had died and he and Slade were placed at the boys’ home? He hadn’t even been aware of it as a baby, but maybe something down deep inside him
had. Maybe something down deep inside had told him that the people who cared for him weren’t really connected to him. Then he’d been adopted, and Slade had been left behind. He’d been too young to realize he’d been separated from his twin, but some part of him had known. He’d been alone; he’d always felt alone…ever since he could remember feeling.

  John and Martha Morgan had adopted him, and he was sure they’d cared for him and loved him. But their lives had been in turmoil—a new job, a new town and then another new baby. Larry’s jealousy must have started early.

  And he’d felt alone.

  That aloneness had persisted until he’d met Eve. Five years ago, she’d seemed to be the piece of his heart that had been missing. He’d known it instantly. He’d known it dramatically. He’d known it confidently.

  How overpowering and terrifying that must have been for a nineteen-year-old girl to find herself the center of an older man’s attention…attraction…desire. She’d been sheltered. She’d been inexperienced. And if she’d had feelings similar to his, they probably went deeper than anything she’d ever felt before.

  All these years he’d been bitter about her refusal, angry because she’d turned him away. He hadn’t been angry with just her; he’d been angry with fate…for that aloneness. And at Eve because she could have eased it. Since then he’d been living his life automatically, taking pleasure and satisfaction where he could, not feeling real joy. Not until Slade had found him. Slade had made a difference that Hunter only now realized. But even with their reunion, there’d been bitterness against his parents for separating him from his twin.

  Rumbles of thunder penetrated Hunter’s soul-searching, and he quickly finished in the shower and got out, drying himself off, barely aware of pulling khaki shorts and a white T-shirt from a drawer. Slipping on moccasins, he went downstairs. Sandra was putting cleaning supplies back in her carrier. He paid her, and then asked, “Are you sure you want to leave in this?”

  “I don’t have far to go. I’ll be fine.”

  Hunter watched her run to her van, start it up and pull out of the driveway. Then he switched on the weather channel and was dismayed by what he saw. The storms in the area were causing flash flooding. His heart raced faster as he worried about Eve being out in the storm.

  What if something happened to her?

  To her, not just to their baby.

  She’d become his life. She’d become his…

  Love.

  He’d been afraid to see it, afraid to admit it, afraid to say it.

  When she came home, he’d tell her what an idiot he’d been. He’d apologize to her. He’d ask her to truly be his wife.

  When she came home.

  Rain splashed down the plate-glass windows of the restaurant where Eve sat with Lauren at dinner. She was looking over the plans Lauren had drawn up for the gardens, but she couldn’t keep her mind on them. She couldn’t keep her mind on anything. Believing that coming out to dinner tonight would help sort her thoughts had been a mistake.

  Lauren was saying, “So if you like the flat slate rocks, we could use those, or… Eve, are you all right?”

  Eve looked up. From the time she’d spent with Lauren, she knew the landscape architect was perceptive and would recognize a denial if she heard one. She shook her head as tears came to her eyes.

  “What’s wrong? Is it the pregnancy?”

  Eve shook her head again. Her problems with Hunter were private, and she believed she should keep them that way.

  “Is it your husband?” Lauren probed, sincerely concerned, not just curious.

  “We’re having some problems. It’s complicated and I…I really can’t talk about it.”

  Lauren’s brown eyes studied her. “You’re not afraid of him, are you?”

  “Oh, no. I’m not afraid of Hunter. I could never be afraid of him.”

  Lauren looked relieved. “And you love him?”

  Tears fell down Eve’s cheeks. “So much that he’s become my world.”

  Lauren leaned forward slightly, her eyes sparkling. “I’ve seen my parents love each other through ups and downs and ins and outs. They’ve been married for the past thirty-five years. I don’t think there’s any problem that love can’t fix.”

  Eve hadn’t been around very many marriages to know that. But she wanted to believe it. “I’m hoping you’re right. And I’ve got to get home. The plans are great. They really are.”

  “Why don’t you wait until the storm lets up a little?”

  Eve shook her head. “I can’t wait. If Hunter is there…I have to talk to him.” She opened her purse to take her share of the bill from it.

  “Supper’s on me,” Lauren said with a smile.

  “I insist.” Eve started to protest.

  Lauren grinned. “You can’t insist. You can pay next time. And please, be careful driving.”

  Her friendship with Lauren had sprung up so quickly, but Eve knew it was the kind that lasted. After she rolled up the plans and said goodbye, she dashed to her car. Water was already brimming over the curb.

  Her drive home was tedious. Some streets were flooded, and she had to take detours. She drove slowly, watching her speed, careful the pools of water didn’t throw her car. The drive took twice as long as it should have, and when she pushed her remote to open the garage door, her hands were shaking. But she saw Hunter’s car inside.

  She lowered the door again, then went through the hall to the kitchen. Hunter was standing at the sink, and his expression was… She wasn’t sure what it was.

  “Eve,” he breathed. “I was so worried. I called the gallery, thinking you might have stopped there after dinner. But nobody answered. Then I called the police, but the reported accidents didn’t involve your car.” He stopped suddenly and just stared at her.

  “I’m sorry you worried….” Her voice caught. He must still have feelings for her.

  “I was more than worried. I was afraid maybe you wouldn’t come back.”

  “Where would I go?” she asked quietly.

  “Any place I’m not. I’ve been such an absolute jackass. Tonight I remembered something and— There was a maid in my room that night in Florence, Eve. There wasn’t another woman. She’d come in to turn the covers back. I’d gone into the shower. I’m so sorry I didn’t get your call. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you’d tried. I’ve been blind. There’ve been so many things clouding how I felt, how I feel. I love you, Eve. I’ve always loved you. You. Not just the idea of having a baby with you. Not just the idea of having a family with you. But you.”

  Eve couldn’t believe what she saw in Hunter’s eyes. She couldn’t believe the words she was hearing. And he must have seen that disbelief on her face.

  Crossing to her, he took her purse and the rolledup plans from her hand and laid them on the island. “Can you forgive me for blaming you for everything that happened? For my bitterness? For not loving you the way you should be loved?”

  Tears ran down Eve’s cheeks. “Can you forgive me for being afraid of love the first time I felt it? For not trying hard enough to reach you? I loved you then, Hunter. I was just so afraid.”

  He gently laid his fingertips over her lips. But then his thumb trailed across her cheek. “What about now, Eve? What do you feel now?”

  The urgency in his voice told her she had to open her heart completely. “I feel so much it still scares me. There’s never been anyone but you, Hunter. And I think my father knew that. That’s why he put that clause in his will, hoping it would lead me to happiness. I didn’t come to you to propose to you simply to get my inheritance. I knew it was the one chance I had to make my dreams come true. Because you’ve always filled my dreams, as well as my heart.”

  “Oh, Eve,” Hunter breathed as he bent his head and possessively claimed her lips.

  She surrendered completely as she gave him her love, and he gave her his. He broke away once, but as she reached her arms up around his neck, he came back to her again as if kissing her and holding her was the
only thing in this world that mattered. She melded against him, settling her body against his, and he groaned, sweeping her mouth with his tongue, caressing her back, holding her with such a sense of longing she didn’t want him to ever let her go.

  Suddenly he broke away and held her face between his hands. “So you can forgive me?”

  “Yes. And you can forgive me?”

  “Anything.”

  Then she wondered what had happened to his family’s business. “What happened at the meeting?”

  “You won’t believe everything that went on at that meeting—before and after it.” Without warning, he swept her up into his arms to carry her upstairs. “Everything’s fine. I’ll tell you all about it. Later.”

  Eve thought she’d felt desire for Hunter before, and that he’d felt it for her. But nothing had prepared her for their hearts and bodies coming together in a complete union of love. Their naked bodies were a means of communication that went beyond words, and sighs, and thoughts, and touch. Hunter’s touches had never been so tender. His eyes filled with so much emotion that it poured into her. She embraced him with a freedom she’d never felt before.

  They gave each other their hearts and souls and bodies, with vulnerability and passion and all-consuming love. When Hunter entered her, she clung to him, knowing there were no barriers between them and no past regrets. As they reached the height of fulfillment at the same moment, their future burst before them, almost overwhelming in its glorious intensity.

  Afterward, they stayed joined together, lying on their sides, still touching and kissing and appreciating.

  Hunter kissed her temple. “I’ve missed so much, Eve. Not only with you, but with my family.”

  She heard the guilt in his voice, and she stroked his jaw, waiting for him to go on.

  “I’m still trying to let it all sink in. But my parents have always loved me as much as Larry and Jolene. Circumstances just made me unable to accept it. Larry listened to me today, and I listened to my dad and Jolene. Maybe none of us had ever really listened to each other before. I don’t know. But I think everything is going to be different now.”