The Surprise Princess (17 page)

Then, as if she could hear his thoughts, she knew Brad was telling her not to explain any more. He was right. If she said they weren’t telling C.J. and Carolyn in order to protect them, Ellis would be even more suspicious, and probably never stop digging until he knew the whole story. And the more people who knew the truth, the more vulnerable Brad might be.

She closed her mouth.

Once again, Ellis looked from her to Brad.

“Then I guess all that’s left is to tell Katie every secret I picked up in four years of trying to keep you in line so you wouldn’t freelance your way into a world of hurt.”

While the others laughed, Ellis’ gaze sharpened. She followed the direction of the look and felt a jolt to realize Brad still held her hand. Only it wasn’t solely Brad holding her hand. Her hand held his as well. She started to withdraw, and Brad held on.

Their eyes met, and she saw a hint of warning in his.

She produced a smile and did her best to relax her hand, as she turned back to where Thomas and Frank were telling Ellis about the brief ceremony. She even contributed a bit, though not much contribution was needed when these four got together.

She was relieved when the server brought their salads so Brad released her hand. Certainly it was relief that brought a slight coolness where Brad’s warm palm had heated her skin. Yes, relief.

“So what are you going to do?” Thomas asked as they ate.

“Do?”

“You know, like where are you going on your honeymoon?”

Katie couldn’t look at Brad, yet knew if she looked at any of the others they’d see the utter blank that had taken over her mind. She grabbed her water and started drinking seriously.

“We’ll only take the weekend.” Brad sounded so calm. “We’ll plan a honeymoon later.”

Thomas nodded. “So are you moving in with Katie? Or is she moving in with you?”

“We’re not going to rush into anything—”

“Except marriage,” Ellis murmured.

“—my lease runs a while longer and of course the house is Katie’s. So we have time to decide.”

“Sell both and get a place that’s yours together,” Frank advised.

Thomas jumped on that. “Better yet, get a new place for the two of you – it’s a good time to buy – and keep Katie’s house to rent it out.”

That started a conversation on real estate, interspersed with teasing about Thomas’ mogul tendencies, that lasted throughout dinner.

Along with dessert, came another stir at the doorway.

C.J. and Carolyn, being escorted in by Filomena, Alberto’s wife and the ruler of the restaurant.

“T
hought I spotted you guys in here when we walked in,” C.J. said.

“But Mr. Coach C.J., you called first to see if—” Filomena’s sentence was smothered when C.J. wrapped her in a hug. Since she was about a foot and a half shorter than him, her face was pressed into his shirt.

Katie recovered first. Under the table, she took his left hand and tapped the ring.

Trying to mask his movements, he pulled the snug-fitting ring off.

“We hope you don’t mind us crashing your party and joining you for dessert,” Carolyn said, with only the slightest hesitation before “party.”

Katie transferred both her rings to his palm. He slid all three into his pocket.”Of course not,” Ellis said. “Here, you want to sit beside Katie, so you two can talk.”

“No, no,” Carolyn protested with a hand to his shoulder.

Brad heard Katie release a breath, but he thought her relief might be premature.

Sure enough, Coach and Carolyn went around to the other side of the round table where they could look directly across at Katie and him.

Released from C.J.’s hug, Filomena forgot everything except chastising a new waiter for dropping a dessert fork. She quickly had the desserts served and bustled the unfortunate waiter out.

“Did I ever tell you guys we came here the first time Carolyn agreed to come out to a meal with me?” C.J. asked, digging into his cake.

“We went to that prime rib place first on the way to watch a game,” his wife corrected.

He grinned at her. “Ah, but you didn’t agree to go there with me. I sprung that meal on you, because I was still having to trick you into spending time with me.”

Interesting. Coach had had to spring things on Carolyn to get their relationship rolling.

“You came here for your first date?” Frank asked.

“It wasn’t a date. It was a working dinner,” Carolyn said primly. “Oh, all right. It was a date. Though we did mostly talk about you guys.”

C.J. chuckled. “Boy, have we ever corrupted her – she started referring to players as ‘individual students who happen to be involved in this peculiar pastime involving a sphere.’ Now it’s ‘you guys.’

“

“I was never that…” Carolyn let the protest die as she looked around at their grins. “Okay, Coach Draper. Shall I tell them about what you did at that dinner?”

“Me? I was a perfect gentleman.”

“He spoke to the waiter in Italian.”

They groaned. “Way too obvious, Coach,” Thomas said.

Ellis shook his head. “You’ve got to be subtle to impress a girl that you’d played in Italy.”

“
Now
you tell me. I might have gotten somewhere with that babe if I’d had you guys to coach me,” C.J. said dryly, tugging Carolyn close to kiss the top of her head. “Hey, speaking of foreign travel, the team’s itinerary this summer’s been expanded. Final paperwork went through today. We’re also going to Bariavak.”

Beside him, Brad felt Katie stiffen. He slid his hand under the tablecloth to take hers. He squeezed lightly, reminding her they had this covered. It would be okay.

Brad had told his friends they were taking the weekend. What he hadn’t said was they were taking it for manual labor in her yard.

They’d all stayed at Angelo’s, talking and laughing until after midnight. She’d been exhausted, but she couldn’t leave – Brad had driven her to the courthouse and the restaurant. The two of them leaving together would surely have started remarks that would have made C.J. and Carolyn suspicious … if they weren’t already. Plus, it would have cleared the way for C.J., Carolyn, and possibly Ellis to pump Thomas and Frank.

So she’d silently supported Brad’s choice to stay until everyone left.

Brad put their rings in a small box she gave him and left it on a kitchen shelf.

Saturday morning she heard him in the shower, but he was gone when she got up. He soon returned with supplies … and a list of tasks a mile long.

If his goal was to work them both so hard neither of them had time to get uncomfortable, he succeeded. She fell into bed so exhausted each night that she barely was aware of him sleeping in the other room. Barely.

Early Monday he left for a week on the road, scheduled to return Saturday, she knew because she’d made the arrangements.

He was right. They certainly didn’t trip over each other. Except she kept thinking about him. But she could hardly blame him for that.

There were also his usual phone calls to the office from the road. He teased. She handled business. It was almost like it had always been.

Except nothing was as it had always been.

She decided to clean Saturday morning. Because the house needed it. Not in anticipation of his return.

She was vacuuming the living room with a bandana around her head. The front door opened, Brad walked in, dropped his bag, and stood looking at her.

She couldn’t look away. He hadn’t shaved, the stubble darker than his hair. He looked tired, a strain around his eyes.

It might have been half a minute before she remembered the vacuum and turned it off.

“You’re not supposed to be here yet.”

“Caught an earlier flight. Would have knocked, but your neighbors were watching from across the street – yes, I know that wouldn’t be an issue if the trees were still there – but it seemed a good time to use my key.”

She answered his slight smile with one of her own. “Wouldn’t have mattered, I wouldn’t have heard you over the vacuum.”

“Katie—”

Her cell phone rang.

For another beat they looked at each other, then he nodded toward her phone sitting on the coffee table.

She picked it up. “It’s April.”

He frowned, but said nothing as she turned so he wouldn’t be in view, produced a bright smile, and accepted it as a video call.

“Hi, Katie, we’re both here,” came April’s voice. Hunter added a hello from beside April, though he appeared distracted by a computer screen to one side. “We wanted to see how you are and, uh, how things are going.”

“No change,” she said brightly. “Everything’s fine. Busy at work. Very busy.”

“But it should be lighter now, right? And you’re still coming to Washington next week, right?”

“Yes.”

“That reminds me,” April said, “I hope you don’t mind, we invited Brad.”

She almost said she knew, but with Brad listening, she substituted, “How could I possibly mind anyone you choose to invite to your wedding.”

“She was afraid you might not bring him as your plus-one.”

“Hunter,” April scolded. Then she grinned. “Though that is the truth.” Before Katie recovered, April’s grin changed to a frown. “Please don’t tell me you were going to bring someone else.”

“I’m not bringing anyone.”

April’s smile returned. “Great. Somehow I forgot to include the plus-one option on Brad’s invitation, so no worries there about needing to change table arrangements.”

“Again,” Hunter muttered.

“April, I think you might have the wrong idea.” She’d
really
have the wrong idea if she knew they were married.

“Don’t worry, we like Brad, and we want someone here who’ll have your back just in case.”

Hunter said, “I think Katie’s more worried about you butting into her private life, April.”

“I would never do that,” April said. With that peculiar feeling she was looking at a slightly distorted image of herself, Katie wondered if she was as bad a liar as April was. “I was checking because if we change the guest list again Bette would have our heads.”

“
Your
head,” Hunter said. “I haven’t changed my list since the beginning.”

“He’s so disciplined,” April said admiringly.

“And too smart to get on the wrong side of Bette.”

Katie brought them ice water then Brad got her to sit on the couch, beside him but not too close. No, he had little hope of her sitting too close.

He’d worked them both hard last weekend to avoid awkwardness. But that, combined with his trip, meant they’d had no chance to get comfortable with the situation, either.

It had been a long week. The snippets of conversations with Katie had not been nearly enough. The thoughts about her had been too much.

They were married.

Married.

You may kiss the bride…

She was a princess.

Abruptly, he said, “You know you’ll be around King Jozef next week in D.C., spending time with him.”

“I suppose.”

“You know they want you to have that DNA test. And now you can.”

“I … I don’t know if I want to.”

That was progress, wasn’t it? “You don’t owe the people who raised you a damned thing, Katie. When I think about what they stole from you—”

“I was
lucky
. Truly. Since I found those things in the attic, I’ve read about kids taken from their families and the things they endure… I was fed and clothed, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, sent to school. And after…” She straightened. “It sounds awful, but after he died things improved. My mother supported my going to college.”

“Financially,” he said. “Did she ever say she was proud of you? Or that you’d done well? Or that she loved you?”

“She wasn’t that kind of woman. But she worked very hard to support me. I can’t forget that.”

“You said once you had no family stories, Katie, but there
were
family stories. At least implicit ones. That they were your parents. That you were born in Portland. Your birthdate. Your age. That they moved to Ashton for opportunities. Those stories were lies. They stole your birthright, your family, your future.”

She looked down.

He swore sharply. That brought her head up, her eyes wide with surprise.

“What burns me,” he said, “is how they closed you off, kept you hidden – Worse, they taught you to keep yourself hidden. You’re wrapped in that gray shroud even when you’re not wearing it. You’re still living behind those damned trees even though they’re gone.”

He reached to her, stroking the back of his fingers down her cheek.

“Don’t hide, Katie. Don’t…”

You may kiss the bride.

He had. Just enough to taste her. To know there was fire between them.

Her breath hitched.

His mouth was on hers.

Her lips parted. His tongue slid between them.

Their teeth clashed. He couldn’t remember the last time that happened to him.

He changed the angle, one hand pushing off the scarf she wore so he could slide his fingers into her hair, cupping her skull. His hand wanted to shake, but it couldn’t now, not when it was needed to support her head as he kissed her deeper and harder.

She adjusted with him, her tongue meeting his. Her fingers slid into his hair. Her other hand gripped his wrist.

He drew her closer. His hand on her thigh. Was he imagining the faintest vibration under his palm? He’d felt it, too, when he’d put a palm on her leg under the table that day at Andy’s.

A frequency of what stretched between them?

Or could that be a tremor? Was he rushing her, not leaving her time to show reluctance?

Was she holding onto him because he’d rattled her?

He released her mouth. Pulled away, even as he brought her upright with him. Then he needed to shift to the side to put some space between them. Because she was too close.

Temptation. So close.

The next county might be too close.

Her fingertips went to her lips. He saw the rub of his beard against her skin, the swelling of her lips from the pressure of his.

He had to look away. Had to. Before he did even more.