CARRIE AND AURORA had switched to decaffeinated tea around eight o’clock. Plus they’d raided the pantry and refrigerator for samples of desserts brought by well-meaning friends today. And between them they’d managed to make a dent in Aurora’s expensive bottle of brandy.
“I don’t know about you, Carrie, but this cherry cheesecake is hard to top.”
“Speak for yourself, Aurora. I’m sticking with chocolate mousse pie.”
“We can’t give up now, dear. There are at least a half dozen cakes and pies we haven’t tried yet.”
Carrie smiled. “Between all the tea we drank and all the sugar we’re consuming, neither of us will sleep tonight.”
“I don’t mind,” Aurora said. “Sleep is overrated.”
Carrying their plates, they went back to the kitchen to scavenger for more sweets. Aurora set a few dishes on her long farm table. “I’m sorry it took such a sad occurrence for us to become friends,” she said. “I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know you better.” She scooped a chunk of blueberry cobbler onto Carrie’s plate.
“I know,” Carrie said. “But I feel like I’ve known you for my entire life. My sisters told me they think of you as family.”
“As I do them.”
“And you’ve helped them with their problems. You were so kind to Lizzie and Alex, and it was you who talked Jude into going back to the hospital to see Liam. I don’t know if either one of them would have found their happy endings if it weren’t for you.”
“I wish I could do the same for you, Carrie, but your man sounds like a difficult fix.”
Carrie sighed. “He is, and I absolutely must stop thinking about him. It has been four days and not a word. He was due to leave today, and I’m sure he’s no longer in the country by now.”
“You’ll meet someone, or maybe when this young man returns…”
“I won’t count on that,” Carrie said. “I told you a bit about my past with men. Someday I’ll fill in the details, pitiful as they are, but Keegan was different. I sensed from the very beginning that I could trust him. He didn’t make demands or act disappointed when he didn’t get his way.”
Carrie sat at the kitchen table and pushed her plate of cobbler away. “I really doubt that I’ll find that kind of connection again, Aurora. Keegan erased practically all my doubts and fears. With him I would have, I wanted to…” She sighed deeply. “It doesn’t matter now.”
She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Oh, my, it’s almost nine thirty. You must be exhausted, Aurora. And my family must be wondering when I’ll be home.” She stood. “I’ll just grab my coat.”
A knock at the front door halted all further discussion.
“Who could that be at this hour?” Aurora said.
“Do you have someone scheduled as a late check-in?”
“No. Some skiers are coming tomorrow but no one tonight. You stay here, dear, and I’ll check it out.”
“No way am I staying here. We’ll go together. It’s probably just my father, but in case it’s not, there is safety in numbers.”
Carrie locked her arm with Aurora’s and smiled. Did she imagine the sparkle in Aurora’s eyes when she mentioned that the caller might be Martin?
When they reached the front door, Aurora peeked out the leaded-glass side panel. “I don’t recognize him.”
“Hello!” a familiar voice called. “I’m looking for Carrie Foster. Is she here?”
Carrie’s heart stopped beating for a few wonderful, terrifying seconds. She clasped her hand over her mouth and spoke through trembling fingers. “It’s him. It’s Keegan.”
“Well, my goodness, will wonders never cease?” Aurora started to open the door.
“No, wait!” Carrie said. “I’m not ready to see him. I don’t know why he’s here. And then there’s my mother’s funeral today. And I’ve probably had too much of your brandy.” She began trembling and grabbed hold of an antique hall stand to steady herself. “It’s too much.”
“Hello!” Keegan called again.
“I can’t just leave him out there, Carrie,” Aurora said. “It’s cold outside. And besides, he saw me looking out.”
Carrie took a deep breath. Her next words came out of her mouth at a speed she didn’t think possible. “Give me a minute. I don’t think he saw me. I’ll run to the kitchen. You can open the door, tell him I’m not here. Tell him I went away and you don’t know where.”
Aurora gave her a look that was part sympathy and part exasperation. “Carrie…”
But Carrie was already across the room and heading for the kitchen. She shut the door all but a crack and gave in to the temptation to listen.
Aurora opened the door. “How can I help you?” she said.
“My name is Keegan Breen,” he said. “I’m a friend of Carrie’s. I’m aware that it’s late, and because of the events of the day, this may not be a good time, but someone in her father’s household told me Carrie might be here. I really need to speak to her.”
Carrie heard the subtle creak of the door as Aurora opened it more fully.
“Come in, young man. You need to warm up.”
He stomped his shoes on her mat. “Thank you. So…”
“Yes, Carrie and I were visiting this evening.”
“Were?” Keegan said. “Do you mean she’s no longer here?”
What would Aurora say? She prided herself on being a good friend to the Foster daughters, but she’d also made it known that she did not approve of lying. Her ex-husband and son had lied to her too often and she was vehemently honest now.
“To tell you the truth,” Aurora began, “I don’t know if she’s still here or not.”
“Her car is out front,” Keegan stated bluntly.
Aurora chuckled nervously. “Then I suppose she’s still here. Why don’t you come into the parlor and warm up? I’ll see if I can find her.”
“Thank you.”
Carrie listened to the rustle of fabric as Keegan lowered himself into one of Aurora’s comfortable chairs.
Five seconds later Aurora bustled into the kitchen. “What are you waiting for, Carrie? He’s here. He wants to see you.”
Carrie shifted from one foot to the other. “I don’t know,” she said. “What if it’s something terrible? What if he forgot to tell me one of the reasons why it would never work for us, and he came here to make sure I understood? My history with men… I’ve always believed one thing and it turned out to be something completely opposite. At least now I’m beginning to adjust to being without Keegan. I don’t think I could bear it if he came to break my heart again.”
Aurora pulled out the kitchen chair Carrie had been using and told her to sit. “I’ve just seen this man, dear, and he looks as nervous as you do…”
Nervous? Keegan?
“He doesn’t look at all like a man who came here to send you farther away from him. He looks like a man who realizes his mistake and regrets it with his whole heart.”
“Oh, Aurora,” Carrie said. “How can you possibly tell that by just looking at him?”
“Because I look at more than the eye can see,” she said. “I look inside.”
“But this has been such a horrible week, such a reminder to me that my instincts are so often wrong, and I’m doomed never to find happiness.”
Aurora smiled.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I thought Lizzie was the one studying drama in this family. Come to find out, you’re not bad at playing the downtrodden heroine yourself.”
Slightly offended, Carrie sat straight in the chair. “Aurora! If you knew my past with men…”
“I don’t need to know your past, honey, unless you just want to tell me. It doesn’t matter. We don’t live backward, Carrie. We live forward. If you’ve had relationships with a dozen men or zero, it all comes down to one thing—you never found the right one. And you won’t find him if you sit in this kitchen and concentrate on what went wrong in the past. Your future could be waiting in my parlor right now.”
“I wish I could believe it,” Carrie said.
“Believe it.” The voice that came from the doorway was strong, masculine and just a bit quivering.
Carrie stared up at the man who’d stolen her heart in a winter blizzard and had warmed her ever since. She couldn’t speak for fear he would leave. She couldn’t breathe for fear she would die.
Aurora backed up a step, looked at Carrie, then at Keegan. “I assume you two know each other,” she said with a grin.
Keegan smiled, a wonderful huge spreading of his fabulous lips that was so unlike him and yet so genuine, as if he’d just learned how to do it. “I know her,” he said. “This woman is my wife—or at least I hope she will be.”
Aurora’s eyes widened. Carrie released a sound between a sob and laughter.
“How does it feel, Carrie Foster,” Keegan said, “to have someone proclaim you to be an intimate member of the family without one word of warning?”
She found her voice. “Truthfully, it feels strange and a bit scary and wonderful.”
“I know,” he said. “I remember.”
He crossed the space separating them, pulled out a chair and sat down, letting their knees touch. He picked up both her hands and held them in his before glancing down at her leg, still supported by the boot. “I assume you’ll be able to toss that boot into the garbage bin and walk all seven acres of Cedar Woods after you’ve turned it into an oasis.”
“You’re keeping your campground?”
“I’m keeping our campground,” he said. “Your name will be on the deed.”
“Oh, my God, Keegan, do you mean it? All seven acres plus the two trailers in back?” The roots she’d so often dreamed of owning were becoming a reality. “Are you really proposing to me, or…?” Carrie almost choked. Had she really said those words?
He grinned. “Crazy as it sounds, yeah.”
With a snap of Velcro fastenings, Carrie ripped the boot from her leg, stood as tall as her five-foot-four-inch frame allowed and pulled Keegan up with her. Grasping his nape, she brought his mouth to hers for a long, lingering, blood-pumping kiss that didn’t leave room for doubt or fear or thinking about the past.
When she drew away, she realized Aurora had left them alone, and there was still much she didn’t know. “How did you get here?” she asked. “What happened with Butch? Have you decided not to go to Latvia? Oh, I hope so. How did you know I was here at Aurora’s?”
He hugged her to his chest and kissed the top of her head. “Read my book. It will all be in the last chapter.”