The Sweetheart Hoax (24 page)

A dog crate?
In his Mercedes?
Yikes. “I’m sure we can wedge it in the trunk.”

“I can break it down,” Danny said. “It’ll fit.” He gave Kate one last kiss and rubbed her belly before heading to the door. “Ready?” he asked Phil.

Phil pecked Kate on the cheek. “You let me know if you need anything.”

“I will,”
Kate
said, her eyes huge. “And thank you.”

“Anything for you.”

“Get your lips off my woman and let’s go,” Danny said from the doorway.

“I can’t help it if your wife finds me irresistible,” Phil joked and tugged his tie into place. “All women do.”

They walked to the elevator, past the nurses’ station where three of them huddled in puce scrubs.

“So, daddy, I hear you’re having a girl.”

 
“Can you believe it?” Danny said as the elevator dinged. “What the hell am I going to do with a girl?”

Phil slapped his shoulder and squeezed as the doors opened in front of them. “Love her, man. Love her.”

Danny looked at Phil and nodded. “I already do.”

***

Kate reached for the phone as it rang by her bedside and tossed the magazine she was reading aside. “Hello?”

“What are you up to?” Danny asked.

She tried to sound her most innocent. “What are you talking about?”

“Baby, I know you too well. You’re butting your nose in with Phil and Margot. Don’t even try to deny it.”

The man was impossibly bright. “Fine. I may have asked him to take the crate to Margot’s house. So what?”

“So what? Did you forget you promised me you wouldn’t get in the middle of whatever’s going on between them?”

“I didn’t forget and I didn’t break my promise. I simply asked him to do me a favor. Come on, Danny. You know you’d rather check on Solitude than deliver the crate.”

“Of course I would, but I’d also like to check on our dog.”

“Oh,” she said. Sometimes she forgot that Danny loved Teddy as much as she did. “Sorry. I should have thought of that.”

“You were too busy playing matchmaker to think about anything.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help it. They’re perfect for each another.”

“Kate…” She recognized the warning tone of his voice. Danny hated to get involved with other people’s personal business.

“Well, they are and you know it, too.”

“I don’t know anything except what people tell me, which is too much. I don’t want to know they hooked up over the weekend. I don’t care.”

“She’s in love with him, Danny. Don’t you want them to be happy?”

He sighed. “Of course I do. I just don’t want to be responsible for them. I’m not responsible for them and neither are you.”

“I encouraged her to go away with him, so in a way I am a little bit responsible for how miserable she is right now.”

“Which is exactly why you should stay out of it. Leave them alone to figure things out.”

“I just thought if I could get them in the same room, they might be able to work things out.”

“Whatever happened between Phil and Margot is their business. Not yours.”

“I like Margot,” Kate said. “She’s funny and real and such a nice person.” She straightened her arm as the blood pressure cuff began to tighten. “You’re the one who encouraged me to find women friends. Well, I’ve found one now and this is what friends do for one another.”

“Kate, I don’t want you to get worked up about anything, especially our friends love lives. Think about Faith.”

Kate reached for her belly as Danny spoke their daughter’s name. “I do, Danny. I’m so glad we found out. I feel closer to her already.”

“Me too. She’s going to a beauty like her mama.”

“She’s going to be strong like her daddy.”

“I love you, Kate.”

“Oh, Danny. I love you, too.”

“So you’ll butt out?” he asked.

She chewed on her lip. She didn’t want to lie to her husband. “I’ll think about it,” she said.

Chapter 25

Margot couldn’t go home. She could barely drive through the angry haze that wanted desperately to wrap around her heart and squeeze the tears from her eyes. She wouldn’t let him bring her to tears. Not now, not on the day she’d reached a major goal in her life despite anything he’d ever done for her.

Without making a conscious decision about where she was heading, she found herself at the hospital walking along the familiar hallways to Kate’s room. She felt comforted by the bright lights and sterile smells that were so much a part of her childhood. Her friend would ease the sting. Her friend would help her calm down and put the episode behind her. But she wasn’t ready to tell Kate about her past.

“Hey,” she said when Kate ushered her in with a beaming smile.

“How was the test?” Kate asked.

Margot blew out a breath, so relieved to feel her world tilt toward normal. “Good. It wasn’t bad. I don’t want to jinx it, but I’d be surprised if I didn’t pass.”

“Yeah!” Kate clapped her hands. “I knew you could do it. When do you find out for sure?”’

“It typically takes forty-eight hours for the results to post, but I’ve heard some people call to verify their license after twenty-four. I’m sure I’ll start obsessively calling tomorrow.”

Kate cocked her head and stared at Margot. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is something bothering you?”

So much for normal.
She thought she could hide her encounter with her father. She thought just being around her friend would help her put the incident behind her. She must have thought wrong. “I…I ran into someone. He upset me, that’s all.”

“An old boyfriend?”

Margot chuckled. “Not mine, no. He’s a jerk, and he said some things…” She shook her head and took a seat in the chair by the bed. She didn’t want to give her father the satisfaction of ruining what should be one of the best days of her life. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, but if you change your mind, I’m not going anywhere for awhile.”

“Blood pressure still up?”

“Just a little too high. I’m trying not to get impatient. I want her to grow and get bigger and stronger.”

“Are you glad you found out she’s a girl?” Margot asked.

“Oh, so glad. Now I just can’t wait to see her, to see what she looks like. Will she have dark hair
like mine, light like Danny, or something in between
? Will she be round and chubby or long and thin?
Hair or no hair?
Content or fussy?
There are so many unknowns.”

“And you thought you’d ruin the surprise.”

“Silly, huh?”

“Have you named her yet?” Margot asked.

Kate rubbed the side of her belly. “Faith Marie. I was a little worried about the double F’s, but Faith was the one name we agreed on.”

“Faith Flannery,” Margot said with wonder. “I love it.” She spotted the laptop on the table in front of Kate. “What are you doing?”

“There’s so much I haven’t done. I wasn’t expecting to spend the last few weeks in the hospital.”

“I’ve seen her room. You’ve got it set up and ready to roll.”

“I know,” Kate said. “Thankfully that’s done. But I don’t have diapers or bottles or any of the little stuff I’m going to need. I feel bad asking Danny to get it because that baby store gives
me
a headache. He’d go nuts if I send him there for supplies. I’m ordering everything I need online and having it shipped to the house.”

Margot pulled the wheeled table in front of Kate. “Need some help?” Margot asked.

“That’d be great—wait!” Kate flung her hand over her mouth. “You’re supposed to be at home.”

“I am?”

“I sent Phil there with Teddy’s crate. I told him you’d be home this afternoon. You have to go home.”

“What? Why’d you do that?” Margot’s skin started to prickle with dread.
Phil at her house?
Today? Oh no. Please, she prayed, let Ashley be at work.

Kate flung her arms in the air. “You two are impossible. How are you going to figure out what’s going on between you if you never talk about it?”

“There’s nothing going on between us! We talked about it and I let him off the hook before he started making excuses.”

“Off the hook? Margot, you shared something together. Something special. And I happen to know he doesn’t want to be let off the hook.”

“It was only special to one of us, Kate. To him it was just like relieving a pressure valve. The farther away we get from the weekend, the more I’m able to see what drove us together.” She ticked a list off on her fingers. “His parents insisted we sleep in the same room, his brother—believe it or not—made us watch horses mate, and we spent Saturday night locked in each other’s arms, determined to convince the town he wasn’t gay.”

“Gay?” Kate sputtered. “That’s why he needed you to go home with him?”

Margot stared up at the ceiling. She just couldn’t keep her big mouth shut. “It’s a long story, and if he finds out I told you, he’ll never forgive me.”

“Okay…”

“I mean it, Kate. You absolutely can’t tell Danny.”

Kate closed her lips and made like a key locking with her hand. “Not a word,” she said. “I promise.”

“Wait,” Margot said. “What do you mean Phil doesn’t want to be let off the hook?”

Kate smiled. “He came here earlier to ask me if you were seeing anyone.”

“He did?” Her stomach felt all light and tingly. “Why?”

“He said there was someone at your house the other night when he brought Teddy. He thinks it was a man.”

“Oh.” She’d wanted him to think it was a man. She’d wanted him to leave so she didn’t have to explain about Ashley. “What did you tell him?”

Kate’s eyes widened and she chewed her lip in a way that made Margot’s stomach hurt. “I told him you were interested in him.”

Margot felt like she was going to throw up. She brought her hand to her mouth. “What did he say?”

“He seemed surprised because he said you blew him off. I told him you thought he regretted what had happened between you last weekend.”

“Oh my God. Then what?”

“Then Danny came in and he left.”

“He went to my house?”

“I think so. Where are you going?” she asked when Margot bolted for the door.

“Home. I’ll call you later.”

***

Phil lugged the wire crate from the back of his trunk and carried it up Margot’s porch steps. He’d pulled all the way to the back and didn’t see her car in the drive. He didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or relieved. How could she think he regretted their being together? How could he regret the most satisfying sexual experience of his life? Not to mention the fact that he’d been miserable every day since without her.

A rapid round of deep barks met his knock on the door. When he heard footsteps and the sound of Margot calming the dog, his heart rate sped up. She was home. They were going to get things straightened out. Today.

A pretty brunette answered the door, holding Teddy by the collar. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“
Ahhhhh
, is Margot home?”

“No, she’s not.”

Teddy began lunging at Phil, his tail wagging a mile a minute. “Hey, boy,” Phil said to quiet the dog before he ripped the girl’s arm out of her socket. “I’ve got his crate. From Danny.”

“Oh,” she said. “Okay.” She backed up from the door and dragged Teddy with her. There was something about her that looked familiar, but he couldn’t place her. “Why don’t you just bring it inside? I’m sure Margot will know what to do with it.”

Phil lugged the crate into the foyer and closed the door behind him. “This thing is pretty heavy. Where do you want it?”

“
Ummm
,” she glanced around the living room.

In the afternoon sunlight, Phil could see Margot’s touches everywhere. The simple denim couch was covered in colorful throw pillows. Her bookcases were crowded with medical books and thriller novels. Magazines were stacked haphazardly on her scarred coffee table. It was the kind of room that made him
want
to settle in with a good book and relax, not at all like his sterile living room at home.

“Maybe in the corner over there.” She pointed to a spot beside the long brown panels framing her window.

He set the crate down and knelt to put it together, securing the metal edges with the attached hooks. He glanced up and studied her. There was something about the girl. When she picked up a mug of coffee, he realized where he’d seen her before. He attached the last hook and stood up to face her. “Don’t you work at The Coffee Bean?”

She narrowed her eyes at him and lifted a brow. “Latte with skim and with a sweet treat to go? I knew you looked familiar.” She held out her hand for a shake. “I’m Ashley Hennessey.”