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“Because I’m going to take the other two slices home for my sister, and she does like mushrooms.”
“How old’s your sister?”
“Four.”
“And how old are you?”
“I’ll be sixteen in December.”
“That’s quite an age gap,” he noted.
She nodded. “My mother says Becca is a lesson in what happens when you stop being careful.”
He had no idea what to say to that, so he backtracked. “I guess if you’re not even sixteen yet, you don’t have your license.”
She shook her head.
“I’ll be seventeen in January,” he told her, though she hadn’t asked.
“Did you get the car for your sixteenth birthday?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I wanted an SVT Cobra Coupe, but my dad said I would only get one of those when I could afford to buy it myself.”
She lifted her brows, and he knew without her having to say it that she expected—as a lot of people did—because his family was wealthy, he’d get whatever he wanted.
“My father has some pretty strong ideas about making sure his kids know—” he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers “—the value of a dollar.”
“I bet even the car you’re driving now cost more than a few dollars.”
He nodded his agreement. “And it gets me where I want to go, so I can’t really complain.”
“I have to take three different buses to get to and from school,” she admitted.
“That sucks.”
“By the time I make all the necessary transfers, the trip adds almost an hour to the start and end of each day.” She shrugged. “On the other hand, it beats the alternative.”
“Walking?” he guessed.
To his surprise, she smiled as she shook her head. She really had a pretty smile. “Still being at South Ridge and feeling like I’m going nowhere.”
When the waitress came to check on them, he asked for a box for her leftover pizza. She brought the box along with the bill, and he put some money on the table for payment, then counted out fifty dollars more and tucked them under the edge of the take-out box for Kenna.
Her eyes were riveted on the money, but she made no move to touch it.
“It’s yours,” he reminded her. “We had a deal.”
She finally reached for the bills and tucked them into the front pocket of her backpack.
“I’m not usually so mercenary,” she said, “but my sister needs new shoes.”
He’d never known anyone like her. She was honest and genuine and completely unapologetic. Yeah, she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder, but from the little glimpses that she’d given him of her life over the past few weeks, he thought she’d probably earned it.
“So...do you think we could do this again sometime?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
“I’ll admit that I no longer think you’re a complete ass just because your family has boatloads of money, but the fact remains that we don’t run in the same circles.”
“Actually, if you want to get technical, it’s yachtfuls of money.”
Her lips tipped up, just a little, at the corners. “Which is too bad, because I almost think I could like you.”
Then she pushed back her chair, and he immediately rose to his feet and offered her a hand. She seemed surprised by the gesture, but she put her hand in his, and he felt an unexpected warmth spread through him in response to the contact.
“I want to say ‘hi’ to someone in the kitchen before I head home,” she told him.
“I can give you a ride.”
She shook her head. “Thanks, but I don’t live far.”
“Are you sure?”
“I know where I live,” she promised him, her blue eyes sparkling with humor.
He’d never known anyone else who had the ability to make him feel like an idiot with so little effort. But she wasn’t ever mean about it and, truthfully, he kind of liked that she challenged him. Most of the girls he knew just nodded in agreement with everything he said. Kenna had her own thoughts and opinions, and she wasn’t afraid to share them.
“I meant—are you sure you don’t want a ride?” he clarified.
“I’m sure.”
“Okay,” he agreed, albeit reluctantly.
“Thanks again for the pizza,” she said, and turned toward the back of the restaurant.
“Thanks for letting me win the bet.”
It had been a long time after before he realized that he’d won a lot more than a hundred-dollar bet that day.
He only hoped he hadn’t jeopardized everything by putting a ring on her finger.
* * *
When they landed at the Raleigh-Durham Airport Sunday afternoon, there was a text message on Kenna’s phone from her sister.
@ library with Todd
Kenna sighed and simply replied ok.
It wasn’t okay—not by a long shot, but she knew that expressing her disapproval of the relationship would only succeed in fueling her little sister’s affection for him.
Besides, she had bigger things to worry about right now. Like Sunday night dinner at the home of her new in-laws.
David and Jane Garrett had bought a modest farmhouse set on ten acres of property when they were newlyweds. Over the years and as their family had grown, they’d renovated and added on so that the current dwelling bore little resemblance to the original structure. The first time Kenna had ever seen it, she’d loved it.
The two-story house was big but not particularly grandiose. Certainly no one seeing it from the street would think that it belonged to one of the wealthiest families in Charisma. But any time David complained that the floors were creaky and suggested they should move to a modern home in a newer neighborhood, Jane shot him down. “Each one of our boys took their first steps in this creaky old house, and I’m not selling those memories.”
Kenna had a lot of happy memories of times spent in that house, too. Studying for numerous exams with Daniel at the butcher-block table; nibbling on warm chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven; playing flag football with his brothers and his cousins in the backyard; sitting on the porch swing with her head on Daniel’s shoulder, trying not to cry the night before he left for college.
Because she’d spent so much time there over the years, no one was surprised when she showed up with Daniel Sunday afternoon. He’d wanted to get there early, so they could tell his parents about their marriage before everyone else arrived. Everyone else being his oldest brother, Andrew, Andrew’s daughter, Maura, his girlfriend, Rachel, and middle brother Nathan.
But when they got to the farm, they discovered that Andrew and Rachel had beaten them there, eager to share the news of their engagement. Daniel sent Kenna a look, to which she responded with a subtle shake of her head, discreetly slipping her rings off her finger and into her pocket.
She knew they had to tell David and Jane about their marriage, but she didn’t want to steal the spotlight from Andrew and Rachel. Or maybe she was worried that having the light focused on Daniel and herself would reveal that they weren’t head over heels in love as his brother and fiancée obviously were.
Nate showed up just as dinner was being put on the table, so the story of Andrew and Rachel’s engagement was told again—in great detail by seven-year-old Maura—as platters and bowls of food were passed around.
No one made roast beef with all the trimmings like Daniel’s mom, and it was usually one of Kenna’s favorite meals. But today, as she listened to the discussion about potential dates and venues for Andrew and Rachel’s wedding, she found herself moving more food around her plate than she put in her mouth.
Everyone was thrilled about the engagement. Of course, Andrew and Rachel had been dating since February—not a long time, really, but long enough to be sure that this was what they wanted. As Kenna watched their interactions, she couldn’t help but see that there was a connection between them, so real it was almost tangible.
Beneath the table, Daniel gave her hand a questioning squeeze. She knew he was eager to share their news, because it was a prerequisite to accessing his trust fund, but the timing just seemed wrong to her. Or maybe, seeing the secretive looks and warm glances that passed between Andrew and Rachel, it was the marriage that seemed wrong.
Thankfully, with so many people around the table, there was rarely a lull in the conversation. There was discussion about Thomas Garrett’s impending retirement and Nate’s expected move to the CFO’s office when he was gone; Andrew asked Kenna if she was looking forward to the end of the school year and her summer vacation, which prompted Maura to regale them with her plans to play soccer and take ballet classes and go to horseback riding camp; and then Jane happened to mention that she needed to go shopping for a new dress for Lukas and Julie’s wedding.
Lukas Garrett was one of Daniel’s cousins who lived in Pinehurst, New York; Julie Marlowe was his fiancée, originally from Springfield, Massachusetts. Long before they’d decided to get married themselves, Daniel had asked Kenna to attend with him because he hated going to weddings on his own.
“When is the wedding?” David asked.
His wife rolled her eyes. “June twenty-first. Don’t worry, I put the date in the calendar on your phone.”
“That seems fast,” Andrew noted. “They only met seven months ago.”
Nate shook his head. “The Garrett men are dropping like flies. I think maybe I should lie low until this epidemic passes.”
“Stop it,” his mother admonished. “You should be so lucky to fall in love and share your life with someone one day.”
“I’d say that Daniel and I are the lucky ones,” Nate countered.
“Don’t drag me into this,” Daniel protested.
“Birds of a feather,” his brother said. “With no intention of having our wings clipped.”
“Do you feel as if your wings have been clipped?” Rachel asked Andrew.
“Only by choice,” her fiancé assured her.
“And that’s great for you,” Nate said. “But it’s not my choice.”
“Never say never,” Daniel cautioned.
“Whose side are you on here?”
“I’m not taking sides—I have nothing against marriage.”
“Since when?” Nate demanded.
Under the table, Daniel gave her hand another squeeze. “Since Kenna and I got married.”
Chapter Four (#ulink_cae12b17-378b-52d2-a198-0f8ab1e2c35f)
“Well, that was a disaster,” Kenna commented, as they drove away from his parents’ house toward her apartment.
“Actually, I thought it went pretty well,” Daniel told her.
“Your mother cried.”
“Not because we got married, but because we went to Las Vegas and didn’t tell anyone.”
She didn’t look entirely convinced, but she let it go. “And now she wants to plan a big reception, so that we can celebrate with all of our family and friends.”
“My mother does love to throw a party.” And he kind of liked the idea of making a public statement about their marriage, letting the world know that Kenna was now his wife.
“You have to talk her out of it.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t play the blushing bride in front of two hundred people,” she told him. “Especially the single female contingent who will want to gouge my eyes out for taking you off the market.”
“She won’t invite two hundred people,” he said, choosing to ignore the latter part of her statement.
Kenna just looked at him.
“Okay, she’ll probably invite two hundred people,” he acknowledged. “But so what? Did you really think we’d be able to keep the news of our wedding a secret?”
“No, I just didn’t want anyone to make a big deal out of it.” Those words were barely out of her mouth before her expression brightened. “Andrew and Rachel’s wedding, on the other hand, should be a very big deal.”
He’d always been impressed by the quickness of her mind and had to chuckle now. “Would you really throw my brother and his fiancée under the bus to save yourself?”
“It’s not throwing them under the bus if they want to be there,” Kenna pointed out. “Rachel wants the fancy wedding with all the trimmings—and Andrew wants to give her whatever she wants.”
“He was in a bad place for a long time after Nina died,” Daniel remembered. “It’s good to see him so happy again.”
She nodded, because she’d been there through that difficult period after his eldest brother had lost his wife, and she’d shared his worry.
“Don’t you want that for yourself?” she asked him now. “To get married because you’re in love?”
