Chapter Fifteen

Shane sat at the dining table with Kit at his right and Co-Co to his left. This little bride-to-be never shut up. She warbled like a bird on a branch.

He hadn’t yet had the chance to talk with Kit again about his latest conversation with Dana and how she’d reacted to his and Kit’s unusual arrangement. She hadn’t liked the idea one bit and had called him a pushover. “You’re always acting first and thinking later,” she’d said.

The accusation hadn’t been fair. He wasn’t impulsive, not the way Dana was. He’d never contemplate living in another country just because someone made the offer, not without first considering the impact it would make.

After Kit had opened up about how she and Brian hadn’t fit, he’d wanted to tell her what was going on inside him. Somehow he wanted her to know there was a crevasse in his relationship that had more to do with the people he and Dana were on a fundamental level than it had to do with their being on different continents or his agreement to play the part of Kit’s boyfriend. But he hadn’t had the chance, nor did he really think he could formulate the words.

He was glad he’d talked with Hop about it, although he didn’t know what possessed him to open up to the captain the way he had. Hop wasn’t surprised Shane found Kit attractive, intriguing, fun to be around. Hop loved Kit. Shane hadn’t missed the earnestness in Hop’s tone in that subtle warning not to hurt her. She’d been hurt enough.

Beside him, Kit buttered her dinner roll. She cut the pat in half with the edge of her knife and spread the butter over the open roll. She paused, butter knife in hand, and then went back for the other half of the pat to finish the job. A smile fought to claim his mouth, but he managed to keep it in check when she looked up at him.

“Today carbs are my friend.” She took a big bite of her roll, and as she chewed, a dab of butter clung to her upper lip.

“Any friend of yours.” He reached for his own dinner roll.

She leaned in closer as she pushed the butter dish in his direction, and he inhaled her scent. She smelled like the honeysuckle that grew in a grouping near the riverbank outside the back deck.

“So far, so good,” she whispered, her breath at his ear.

“No SOS necessary.”

“Don’t jinx us.”

“So”—Co-Co leaned forward—“what are you two conspiring about?”

“We’re discussing how good the rolls are.” Kit took another big bite.

“Oh, Kitty-Cat. I envy the way you don’t seem to worry about what you eat. I’m always counting every calorie.” She patted her nearly concave midsection.

“Lucky for Kit, she doesn’t have to,” Shane interjected. He pinned on a smile, as if he’d won a round.

Co-Co shifted in her seat. “Let’s hear how you two met.”

Kit pointed to her mouth as her teeth worked over the bread. He flashed her a look she read loud and clear—thanks a lot.

“We met at Jabberwocky’s,” Shane said. “She was at the bar waiting for her friend, and I just couldn’t resist going over to her.”

Shane did not miss how Brian leaned in closer to listen.

“Tell me more,” Co-Co cooed as she placed an elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand. “Was it love at first sight?”

He looked over at Kit, who took another bite of her dinner roll. He knew what she was doing, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. She was a cagey one.

“It was.” He reached over and put an arm along the back of Kit’s chair. “For me, anyway.”

“How about it, Kit?” Co-Co leaned even more forward, almost putting her face on the table. “Was it like that for you, too?”

She flicked the tip of her tongue across the butter-slick pink cushion of her lower lip. She met his gaze and held it.

He bent forward to address Kit. “We just clicked.”

Co-Co, seemingly satisfied, turned toward Brian, who was listening intently. Shane couldn’t read his face, but unless he was having gastrointestinal distress, this conversation was making him uncomfortable.

“Like us, honey,” Co-Co said in her syrupy tone. “Right, Brian?”

He cleared his throat. “Yes.”

Shane didn’t like this Brian guy. He didn’t like his looks or his demeanor. He seemed like a wimp, and what guy on the planet would do to Kit what he had done? Brian was a moron.

****

Throughout dinner Kit was amazed at how easily Shane talked with the guests. He complimented Aunt Dee Dee on the meal, although all she did was select menu items from the caterer. It was not the gratuitous chitchat that some people proffered. Everything Shane said appeared to be unplanned, genuine. She was in trouble. She was really starting to like him. Hard to believe a few months ago she’d declared men were more trouble than they were worth. That was before Shane Dugan showed up.

After dessert, guests milled about with after-dinner drinks. Some people wandered out onto the patio through the french doors off the living room. One of Dee Dee’s nephews from Uncle Larry’s side, Paul, had cornered Shane about his new hobby of fly-fishing, a sport Shane appeared to know a bit about. Paul’s young daughter Abigail, Co-Co’s junior bridesmaid, gazed up at Shane with a moony-eyed look of a girl with a crush. Kit’s mouth curved upward.

Her gaze flitted to the doorway to the dining room, a view she couldn’t avoid at this point in the evening after a couple of glasses of zinfandel. There was no sign of the hole in the molding where a pushpin had held the mistletoe in place in the center of the doorway. It must have been painted over, the smooth line of the wood like brand new.

She walked through the doorway and made her way to the big windows in the living room. She put her back to the view when it conjured the image of Christmas Eve’s dash over the icy driveway to get away from Brian and Co-Co.

A few steps away Shane was in conversation with Paul, making the guy laugh, which in turn made Shane laugh as well.

“Hi.” Abigail did a pirouette in front of Kit. “Mama said she and Daddy are taking dance lessons. I take ballet.”

“You’re doing that turn very well, Abigail. Your lessons are paying off.”

“I’m going to be a ballerina when I grow up. But I’m only nine now.”

An arm wrapped around her shoulders. Mom. She gave Kit a kiss on her cheek, gave her a squeeze.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Kitrina.” Mom’s voice was thick with emotion, making Kit turn to meet her eyes.

“What is it, Mom?”

“You.” The crevices by her eyes were deep when she smiled. “I’m just happy to be here with you. I like your Shane.”

A zing of guilt climbed Kit’s spine like cold fingers tracing along each vertebra. But she managed a “thanks.”

“Sweetie.” Mom squeezed her again. “It’s okay to feel nervous.”

“Nervous? What are you talking about?”

Mom pointed to Kit’s face. “Nobody knows you like your mama. Never forget that, girl of mine. I see the way you look at that man.”

“Not sure I follow, Mom.” She pulled her gaze away, looked down at her dress, and brushed off a nonexistent piece of lint.

“Come with me.” Mom grabbed her hand. “Let’s get away from big ears.”

She dragged Kit away from the living room and ushered her down the hallway to the study.

The entire time Kit practiced the SOS signal. Would Shane hear it from the vantage point of Aunt Dee Dee’s study?

In the square, paneled room, Mom pushed her down on the overstuffed loveseat. She took a seat beside her.

“Mom, this is silly. Why are we here?”

“To talk without my sister being Miss Nosy Pants.” She leaned in close. “Ever since that whole mess with your cousin and Brian, things have been touchy.”

Touchy. Kit smiled. That was one way to put it. With this family’s habit of brushing their missteps under the proverbial carpet, the furniture should be tipped over from the uneven flooring.

“It’s all behind us now, Mom. Co-Co and Brian are happy. I’m happy. Case closed.”

“I’m glad, sweetie. That Brian wasn’t for you anyway.” She reached out and squeezed Kit’s hand. “But I did catch that look you were giving Shane.”

“What look?”

Mom shrugged one shoulder. In her sleeveless dress, her shoulder was tan and freckled from the sun. “Worried.”

“Worried?” She scoffed. “Worried about what?” Did mother radar ever dry up or at least run low?

“Listen to me.” Mom’s eyes implored. “And listen good. I see there’s real affection with you two. A mother knows. But I also sense your hesitation, almost like you’re afraid to give in to it or like you think meeting Shane was too good to be true. Don’t think like that.”

She opened her mouth to speak, and Mom hushed her by lifting her index finger. “Let me finish…” She settled on the seat and like royalty, crossed her legs at the ankle. “Do not let what happened with Brian taint your new relationship. Too many times we do that to ourselves, we women. We are always waiting for a shoe to drop. Don’t. Enjoy it. There is no shoe that’s going to fall from the sky and land on this new chapter of your life. Okay?”

Sadness or shame—Kit couldn’t tell which—poured over her head like a bucket of paint, covering every inch of her, suffocating the fantasy she’d allowed herself just minutes ago. When her mother pulled her into a hug, she hugged her back harder. She felt sorry for her mother. The woman didn’t even realize that she herself was the shoe that fell onto Kit’s head and knocked much-needed sense back into her. Shane belonged to another. She’d almost forgotten.

“And, honey, you’ve been such a good sport about your grandmother’s wedding gown. I’m hoping you’ve let go of the disappointment. It was just a dress.”

“It was more than that, Mom.”

Mom put a hand on top of Kit’s and gave it a squeeze. “It marked one moment in your grandmother’s life. You know that photo I found in a box in my mother’s attic, the one with Gram on the steps?”

“Yes. You told me the dress was pink.” She was tempted to make a face but didn’t. Instead, she complimented what stood out to her in the picture. “It had a snazzy rhinestone belt buckle, right?”

“Yes, it did. Gram looked so happy in that snapshot, didn’t she?”

Kit nodded her head but didn’t know what that had to do with Co-Co being the recipient of the wedding gown.

“Happiness is on the inside no matter what’s on the outside.”

When Kit went back to the party, guests were still lingering, some by a dessert table set up on Dee Dee’s sideboard, some hanging by the bar. Shane stood with Brian, each of them nibbling on a cookie from the selections. Her insides did a tumble. As if reading her presence, Shane turned his head in her direction. The message in his green eyes flashed as though with intentional sequence—SOS.