Love Inspired January 2016, Box Set 1 of 2 (24 page)

Except Drew caught her.

Wide blue eyes looked up at him. Beautiful eyes. Searching. Wondering.

He was wondering, too, but one of them had strict rules of engagement and a spider to kill, so he tweaked her nose, climbed up on the chair and dispatched the furry beast quickly. When he tossed away the paper towel, Kimberly put a hand to her heart, making light of the situation. “My hero.”

“At your service, ma'am. And I didn't even have to draw my weapon.”

“You employed hand-to-hand combat.” She pulled the chair to the next cupboard and smiled up at him. “Well played.”

“Rescuing a beautiful woman isn't a hardship, Kimber. Not in this case, anyway.”

He shouldn't have added that last, but he couldn't help himself, and when she pivoted to face him, he recognized the look in her gaze. Longing, like him. Interested, like him. They'd been thrust together for a few weeks of work. Their paths would diverge at the end of September. He'd be in Jersey and Manhattan; she'd be here, helping her parents.

Bad timing or good? He didn't know, but he broke the look and went back to dusting. “Call me if you come under attack again. I've got a weapon in hand.” He held up the dust cloth. “And I'm not afraid to use it.”

“Will do.”

As they finished, she checked her watch and winced. “Listen, I need to clean up before I go to the office. Can we do a working lunch a little later? And do you mind grabbing the food? I've got a noon appointment with Emily and a new wedding client. She's taking lead, but I'm advising, so I have to be there. I can't do a client intake meeting when I smell like industrial-strength cleaner.”

“Can do.” Drew reached out and brushed a fleck of something from the curve of her cheek. “Hold still. There. Got it.”

She made a face. “Should I ask what it was? Or better off not knowing?”

“We'll call it an unknown entity and leave it at that,” Drew decided. He gathered up the paper towels and the bathroom cleaning supplies as Kimberly filled Drew in on his new living arrangements. “There's no Wi-Fi out here, but there is in the house. I'll get you the password so you can use your computer. And can you make lunch at one-thirty? Just in case we run over. This is an unusual circumstance wedding. The bride and groom are both deployed, and we're trying to plan the wedding around their return this winter.”

“Winters here are nothing to take lightly. There's little reprieve, and it's a rough time for weddings.”

“You're right, and this will be my first northern winter in a bunch of years. I'm hoping I can man up and be brave. I might have lost my heartiness down south.”

“I don't think you've lost a thing, Kimber.” He put the last of the cleaning supplies back into the box and carried it down the stairs. He didn't look back to see her face. “I think your parents are blessed to have you here, your sisters are grateful for your help and expertise, and Mags will love you for all time, no matter what winter brings.”

He stopped when he realized she wasn't walking behind him. He turned, then stopped, dismayed. “I made you cry?”

“Shut up.” She swiped her fists against her cheeks much like she'd done as a tough-as-nails kid. The sight inspired a wealth of old feelings. Friendship, grace, family, fun and love. He'd had it all at the Gallagher house.

“Come on—stop. I was just being nice. I didn't mean a word of it. Just ignore me, I should have just been quiet.” He pretended dismay, trying to tease her out of the funk of emotions, and when she laughed, he hoped his ploy was working. “Did you seriously get all worked up because I called you a blessing? Because that's preposterous behavior. You should know how amazing you are, and always have been, and not be surprised when someone mentions it. Next time just say thank you and be done with it.”

“You're bossing me around again. What's up with you, Drew Slade? One minute you're all nice and sweet, and the next you're ordering me around like one of your lackeys, which I'm not, by the way.”

“Oh, I get that.” He grinned down at her and swept one last stray tear from her cheek. “But it made you stop bawling, didn't it?”

“I wasn't bawling. I was...emotional.”

He slung an arm around her shoulders and headed toward the house. “Right. We can call it that for the moment, but I know what I saw. You're a softie, Kimber. You just don't want anyone to know it.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

S
he didn't want anyone to know it, especially him, so why did she fall apart because he was nice, and kind, and sweet, and good?

She cleaned up and avoided Drew by slipping out the back door, into the bright summer sun, then made it to the office minutes before Emily's client was scheduled.

“I was afraid you'd forgotten.” Emily had set the office chairs in a semicircle so they could converse without a desk between them once the client arrived.

“The housecleaning was a little more intense than anticipated, but it's done now, I'm clean and I'm here. Do we have cream and sugar for the coffee set up?”

Emily pointed to the far side of the coffee brewing system. “I just put them out. And brochures from all the wedding partners.”

“Good. The trick to partnering with outside businesses is to make sure the bride loves what the recommended business offers. If they settle for the partnership because they're saving ten or fifteen percent, you generally end up with problems because they
feel
like they've settled. And that's never good. Weddings generate enough problems without any help from us.”

“When we're done here, will you go over the regatta scheduling with me?”

Emily extended the request like a white flag of surrender, and Kimberly knew she needed to be more sensitive to her sister's needs. Em was a survivor, like her. Being thrust back into the family nest, even for good reason, was a tough pill to swallow. “Sure. Drew's grabbing lunch in about ninety minutes and bringing it over. You hungry?”

“I will be then.”

The common sense of Em's answer made Kimberly smile. “How about you, Allison?”

Allison shook her head as she rearranged a seating chart for an upcoming wedding on the wall-mounted planning board. “Thanks, but no. I brown-bagged today. We're saving for our winter break trip with the kids, and every dollar we save goes into a bank shaped like a princess castle.”

“Remember when we did that, Kimber?” Emily looked up from the computer as she started a new file for the incoming client. “Mom and Dad saved money for two years to land us that vacation.”

“And then Dave got the stomach bug, and they had to take turns staying at the hotel with him—”

“While the other parent took three girls to the theme park.”

“And on roller coasters.”

“And Mom hated roller coasters.”

“But Dad loved them.”

Emily sighed, then smiled at Allison. “You'll have a ball, no matter what. I loved that vacation.”

“Me, too.” Kimberly swiped a smudge off the tabletop, recalling that week. All of them together, and poor David. So sick for the first two days.

“You didn't even want to go, remember?” Emily's expression said one of them had a faulty memory and it wasn't her. “You were in love with Cory Albemarle and his jump shot on the basketball courts. You even tried out for cheerleading.”

“Oh, I remember. I didn't make the squad, and Cory asked you out instead.”

“Did he?” Emily frowned. “Did I say yes? Because I don't ever remember going out with Cory Albemarle.”

“You refused because you knew I liked him.”

Emily's brows shot up. “I was nice to you?”

“That once.” Kimberly angled Emily a teasing look. “Yes, you were nice. Very nice because I was heartbroken for days. Was that really seventeen years ago? We could use another dose about now, don't you think?”

She wasn't sure if Em would laugh or lambaste her. Laughter won and Kimberly smiled, relieved. “What did I see in him?”

“He was second fiddle to Drew Slade, so you thought you could trade down. Didn't work out so well.”

Emily knew she liked Drew way back then? She turned, surprised, but Emily sent her a sister-to-sister look. “You think I didn't know you were crushing on Drew? You had his name written all over the inside cover of your high school freshman agenda. With a hot-pink heart border.”

“A folder that was in my binder backward so no one could see,” Kimberly reminded her. “You snooped in my private folder?”

Emily cringed as the phone rang. “Possibly. But I think the statute of limitations is up on that particular crime. Or maybe I just hope it is.” She answered the phone, expressed regret to the caller, then began leafing through the early September schedule.

Kimberly knew the signs. Their noon appointment was a no-show.

Mental red flags popped up. Missing your initial appointment with a wedding planner didn't ingratiate clients. Time was money, and unless he had a really good excuse, canceling five minutes before the scheduled appointment was really bad form. “He's not coming.”

Emily disconnected the call as she nodded. “Sick kid. I could hear her crying in the background. She sounded inconsolable. I rescheduled him for later in September.”

“Won't that limit the choices?” Kimberly asked.

“A winter wedding does that by way of being a winter wedding,” Emily reminded her. “We'll still have plenty of time to put the actual wedding together. There's no problem arranging for a hall or inn or party house in February. And where will we be in February, Kimber?”

Kimberly took the chair facing Emily and pondered the question. “Who knows? What will Dad's status be? Will we be needed here?” She tapped her mouth with the index finger of her left hand, an ingrained habit. “Right now I won't let myself think past Christmas. Keep things going here, get Dad home and celebrate the holidays at the end of the year. And then face the future.”

“Well, that's months away, so we've got time.” Emily leaned forward. “Are you as scared as I am?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, good.” Emily's wry smile said she was hoping for that answer.

“I hate that Mom's there alone, but there's not much we can do about that during the busy season. If we left the office shorthanded to be with them, she'd be frantic.”

“I know. I've thought of that, often.”

“But I hate that they're so far away, alone, struggling through this,” Kimberly added.

“Isn't that part of the whole wedding vow thing?” Allison shot them a look over her shoulder as she finished arranging name cards for the final three tables of an ornate reception layout. “Sickness and health? For richer, for poorer? They're living their vows right now. And that's a good thing.”

“She's right, although I'm somewhat jaded about the whole vow thing these days.” Emily pulled up her spreadsheet on the upcoming September regatta. “Come look at this and see if there's anything I missed.”

Kimberly pointed at the itinerary almost instantly. “You need to allow more time for the speeches. A lot of these people get long-winded when they're in front of their yacht-club friends. And then here, where you've got the dinner plan? Make sure your vegetarian entrée is organic. They may sneak into the lounge and eat three chocolate bars for dessert...”

“Or take uneaten desserts off of other tables.” Allison laughed. “Hey, Drew.”

Kimberly turned and glanced at the clock.

“I'm early because I was done with my work and figured Allison could show me which room we're using for the staging area.” Drew scanned the office. “Where's your client?”

“Home with a sick kid.”

He frowned. “That's never fun. So what's wrong with the dessert-snatching scenario? Why waste good desserts? That's wrong on multiple counts. I may have saved a few forgotten desserts from the Dumpster in my time.”

“Waste not, want not.”

He smiled in full agreement. “Absolutely. Point me in the right direction, Kimber, and I'll get out of your hair.”

She didn't want him out of her hair, or even really, out of sight, and that could become a problem. Maybe it already was and it was only day two. “We're going to use the dungeon.”

“There really is one? I'm intrigued.”

She hooked a thumb. “Come see.”

She ignored the elevator and took the stairs to the subterranean level. Drew whistled lightly as she unlocked a door to a walled-in office, no windows, no access, other than through the fire door. “Mom always has a contingency plan, and she kept this room to be used as a backup office in case the upstairs ever got damaged by storm, fire, whatever.”

“This is a small fortress.”

“Perfect for our current needs, right?”

“Can I change the lock on the door?”

She understood the gravity of keeping Shelby's wedding plans confidential and nodded. “Both doors. Just leave us keys once this is done, okay?”

“If I forget to leave them, it gives me reason to come back.”

He was looking down when he said it, matter-of-fact, and when he angled his gaze up to her, her heart tripped and fell a little more. “Or you could just come back, Drew. Without a contrived reason. There's no law against that.”

He frowned as he went over the wiring and internet cable connections. “The thought of hurting Dave's kid more might be reason enough for me to stay away, Kimber.” His expression didn't change. His voice did. “I never thought about it from Callan's point of view until he let me have it last night.”

“He's a kid. They tend to have mono-vision.”

“He was right,” Drew corrected her. He made a couple of notes on a pad of paper, then took a step back, surveying the room as he spoke. “He lost his father, and his godfather stayed away out of guilt, so that made all those baptismal pledges a whole lot of hot air on my part.”

“You're here now.”

He looked up, thoughtful. “You don't think it's a stupid idea? To try and make things better?”

“Better can't possibly be stupid.” She met his gaze. “Breaking down barriers might not be easy. But it's a good mental health exercise.”

“I should talk to Corinne again.”

“She'll agree because she's the most sensible, hardworking person I know. And she must hate that Callan's holding this grudge.”

“He's not the only one that's blamed me, Kimber.”

He meant her, of course. Knowing that, she shifted her gaze. “I needed someone to blame, Drew. You were handy. It was unfair, and I'm sorry.”

“Me, too.”

She glanced back his way. He was watching her, hands by his side, letting her take the lead, but she couldn't quite do that yet so she glanced around the room. “So this will work?”

“It's stellar.” His phone buzzed. He checked the display and texted someone quickly. “Daryl's upstairs. I'm going to keep this off-limits for Amy, okay? On a need-to-know basis. The less she knows, the tighter the security.”

“Understood. We can have her working upstairs in the afternoons.”

“And I'll try to schedule anything we need to do down here for the a.m. That way she doesn't notice us disappearing downstairs.”

“Are you afraid she'll talk?”

He straightened his shoulders and shook his head. “If this wedding gets targeted by anyone with mal intent, getting a kid hostage is a great way of ferreting information.”

“You're serious.”

“Always. I do believe I've mentioned that before.”

“I thought you were being overly dramatic.”

“Not when it comes to safety.” His grave expression underscored his words.

“Not to change the subject, but did you order lunch?”

He laughed and nodded. “Yes. Josie's delivering it probably right about now.”

“So let's eat and then you, me, Rocky and Daryl can go over the routes we need to have ready, which will be much easier now with the simplified location.”

“Perfect. You give me the bridal perspective of what could go wrong from points A to B, and then Daryl and I will examine from a security vantage point.”

That made sense. Brides could be unpredictable creatures. And while Shelby seemed like a sensible woman, Kimberly understood the vagaries of wedding-day stress. Her job was to make sure that wedding-day jitters didn't put anyone in harm's way.

They locked up the basement office, took the back door out of the building and came around the front just as Rory arrived with Amy. “Dad! I had the best morning! Oh, my gosh, you should see all the fun things Rory let me do with the kids! It was wonderful! I felt like I never wanted to leave.”

* * *

Drew didn't miss his daughter's latest hint that she loved Grace Haven. She'd become a total fan in twenty-four short hours. Seeing his hometown through Amy's eyes, he couldn't disagree. It was model-town America, a Main Street experience, filled with history, heart and hope. But not for them because there was no work here for him and far too many memories. He'd already seen how his sudden reappearance hurt Dave's son. Having Drew in town would poke salt into too many old wounds. “I'm glad you liked it, honey.”

“Not liked.
Loved.
” She met him eye to eye, leaving no doubt about her intentions. “I could live here in a heartbeat, Dad.”

“Be kind of tricky with me in Jersey, wouldn't it?” He laughed and changed the subject by moving forward to accept food bags from Josie Gallagher's delivery van. “Amy, can you take this in for me?”

“Sure.”

He knew their conversation wasn't over, but it was over for the moment. He, Daryl and Kimberly had to stake out plans during the afternoon and blend while doing it.

“I'll take the tray.” Daryl smiled at Josie, and the way she met his smile said Josie made this delivery personally for a reason.

“Josie, can you stay?” Kimberly took the last bags from her cousin, but Josie shook her head.

“No, we're getting prep work done for the supper rush, but I wanted to make sure you guys were well taken care of. Let me know when you run the menu past the bride—”

“And her mother,” Drew warned.

Josie laughed. “I've handled mothers before. Including my own. It's all good.”