Thrown By Love (35 page)

“I’m thinking,” she said.

“No, don’t think. Do
not
think.” He pulled her to him and crushed her lips with his. She pressed her palms to his chest and pushed him back with a light laugh.

“Don’t you want to hear my answer?”

“Not really. I’d rather do this.” He pulled her to him, backed her against the wall and smothered her lips in a kiss.

“Ahem.”

Chloe wriggled out of Scotty’s arms. They turned to face Joe Rafelli, the Giants’ GM.

“Do I detect a lady in distress?”

The look on Joe’s face would’ve been comical in any other situation.

“No, Joe,” Chloe said with a wink. “You detect a woman who’s just decided to marry one of your players.”

Scotty saw worry creep into Joe’s puzzled smile as he looked from her to Scotty and then back to her.

“He’s
not
going back to the Sabers,” Joe said, wagging a finger at her.

“You bet he isn’t,” Chloe said with a laugh.

A roar from the crowd shocked through the tunnel. Scotty felt heat rise to his face. “Uh, Chloe? That’d be my message to you on the scoreboard.” He ran a hand through his hair and shot a grin to Joe. “You already know what it says.”

“You didn’t!” Chloe said, punching his arm.

“No fair attacking my players.” Joe waved his hands in mock alarm, though he smiled.

“You can take it out on Alex,” Scotty said, sliding his arm around Chloe’s waist and tugging her close. “All his idea. Too bad I couldn’t wait that long.”

Epilogue

Sun slanted through the garden surrounding the reflecting pool at Woodlands. Chloe ducked through the hedge at the end of it and slipped into the rose garden. Vibrant reds and golds painted the surrounding trees with color, and late fall blooms scented the air. Though she’d come out for a quiet moment, she could still hear the sounds of laughter and the orchestra playing under the tent up near the house. Woodlands felt alive. She felt alive.

Scotty’s entire family had come out for their wedding. G’maw had already tried the patience of Agostin, Chloe’s gardener, with her questions and quirky suggestions about what she thought he should plant and where. But as Chloe had watched the two of them scrapping over the past few days, she was pretty sure that secretly he liked having the feisty old lady around.

Scotty’s parents, Meg and Sam, along with his sister Dara, had sat in on the lecture she’d given at Stanford earlier in the week. It felt good to be teaching again, even if it was just a guest lecture here and there. Maybe when she hired a new general manager she’d have even more time for teaching. But she wasn’t ready to let go of George Ellis, not quite yet. He was one of the last ties she had to her dad.

Her dad.

He would’ve been happy to see her surrounded by friends and family, and she was pretty sure he might’ve approved of Scotty. One thing she knew for sure was that he would’ve been happy to know that she no longer felt the deep loneliness that had haunted her since his death.

The wide skirt of her wedding dress caught on a thorn and she bent to release it. Brigitte had helped her find the perfect dress and plan the myriad details of the wedding and party. She’d cried when Chloe had asked her to be her maid of honor. Chloe had been lucky to have her help. Wedding planning made running a baseball team seem like child’s play. To Chloe’s surprise, Brigitte had shown up with Royce Berenson as her wedding date. Chloe had introduced them on a whim and it turned out that Brigitte had an interest in cosmology after all—particularly if the lessons came from a handsome Brit.

Scotty had invited the boys from the Big Brothers program, not just Max but all those sponsored by the players. Agostin had set up archery targets in the field west of the house, saying boys needed something challenging to put their energies into and that chatting with wedding guests wouldn’t cut it. Though she was wary, she hadn’t argued. She could only hope he’d be as watchful as he’d promised.

Jackie and Alex had driven down from Sonoma and were staying with them at Woodlands for a few days. Chloe loved seeing Alex and Scotty together, and Jackie was more than the sister she’d always wanted—she was a peer, a colleague, someone Chloe could romp with and yet also talk science to.

Sabrina, Alex’s sister, had come with them. Her charm and good advice had helped Chloe calm her nerves when Scotty’s family descended on Woodlands. Sabrina had guts. She’d risen to stardom in a matter of months when the indie film she’d had a lead role in became a box office hit. No one could ever be ready for the onslaught of public attention and the harassment of paparazzi that Sabrina described, but Sabrina had handled it well. She’d left her bodyguard down with the drivers and appeared to be enjoying the day.

Chloe had even invited Alex’s cousin Alana. Alana had cooked up a bridal shower with Sabrina and hosted it at Alex’s castle in Sonoma. It was there, sitting in a tent in the courtyard, that Chloe had realized that Alana, too, had to face finding her way. Though she
seemed
confident, over the past few months Chloe had come to see that like many of Chloe’s wealthy school chums, Alana was a bit lost, untethered, as if she hadn’t yet found a life purpose to anchor her. Chloe had grown to like Alana, so maybe they’d even become friends. Besides, if Alana hadn’t made Chloe jealous that day at the Sabers picnic . . . Well, who knew how events would’ve played out?

She grasped the lace of her dress, but the thorn had caught in its intricate layers and held firm. Using both hands she untangled the lace and pulled it free, happy to see that neither the rose nor the skirt was any worse for the encounter. At the sound of footsteps on the gravel path, Chloe turned, pulling herself back from her thoughts.

“Married less than an hour and already fleeing?” Mike Thomas chuckled as he walked along the rose-lined path toward her.

“Married less than an hour and still amazed.”

She leaned down to the rose that had snagged her gown and inhaled its vanilla-laced scent. “It’s called Celestial. My dad bought this rose for my mother. I remember the day they planted it.”

“She’d be happy for you, Chloe.”

Chloe reached her hand to him. He folded it in his.

“I wouldn’t be here without your help.” She felt the tears welling, not for the first time today.

“I’m not so sure about that.” He tugged his hand away and scraped it through his hair. “There’s something I need to give you. In the library. Mind if I take you away from your party for a few minutes?”

She followed him up to the house. He knew the place nearly as well as she did and took the back path that led away from the wedding guests and around to the back doors of the library.

But he didn’t stop in the library. He motioned her through the passage that led to her dad’s study. She’d become more comfortable going in there and had moved in a few personal items of her own. Yet as they walked toward her dad’s desk and she saw the wooden box sitting on it, returned to its usual place, a shiver rippled through her. Maybe she wasn’t as comfortable as she’d thought.

“You brought it back.” She fingered the polished box and noticed that the small gold padlock hung open.

“It’s time you opened it. I promised your father.”

“So cryptic,” she said as she lifted the lid. “I’d never have pegged you as one for such mystery.”

Nestled in the velvet lining was a single folded piece of paper. A chill prickled along the nape of Chloe’s neck as she unfolded it. When she saw her father’s familiar script, tears pooled and she blinked them away so she could read the words that rambled down the page.

Dear Spitfire,

I’ll keep this short, as I know if you’re reading this that Mike has dragged you from your handsome groom. I wouldn’t want to keep him or your guests waiting.

The quiver in her stomach fought with the humming delight of his words. It was as though she held a piece of him in her hands. Snatches of memories darted lightning fast into her mind, and suddenly she guessed that the events of the past months hadn’t unfolded quite as she’d thought.

You may remember that over the years we talked about intuition, about how one often knows things far beyond what can be observed. You have that gift, Chloe. Your mother did too. And I hope you’ll forgive that I acted on what bit of that gift the universe allocated to me.

When I saw you laughing and dancing with Scotty Donovan, I knew he was the man for you.

I was ill and couldn’t orchestrate things as I might’ve liked and I knew you’d balk at any blatant attempt on my part to encourage you to give the boy a chance. So I bought him for the Sabers and left you the team.

I knew the two of you would work the rest of it out. I can only hope that the ride wasn’t too rough.

She pressed her hand to her mouth, holding back a laugh, biting back a sob. She didn’t know which was more determined to get out. Trust her dad to go with understatement.

Knowing that you’d have a good man to share your life allowed me to go in peace. I hope you’ll forgive an old man his last indulgence. Even if you can’t, at least I know you are happy. It’s a cliché to say life is short, I know. But it’s true. Savor every moment and savor each other. There are some gifts that we can only humbly accept, living our lives in such a way afterward to deserve them.

Give my best wishes to Scotty.

My love is with you always,

Dad

Chloe reached a hand to the table to steady her wobbly legs. Tears fell, loosening the knot of sadness that had held her since his death. That he had little right to do what he did hardly mattered. Maybe there was some special dispensation for parents when it came to the well-being of their children.

“Hey!” Scotty shouted as he rushed into the library. “I’ve covered about three miles in this place looking for you. They want us to”—she turned to him, and he slowed when he saw her tears—“to cut the cake,” he stammered. He crossed to her and folded her in his arms.

“What’ve you done to my wife, Mike?” he said over the top of her head.

“I was just leaving,” Mike said. “I’ll stall the cake cutting—if I can keep Scotty’s boys away from it.”

Scotty didn’t try to stop Mike from walking out. All he cared about was that his wife, whom he’d last seen laughing and smiling and chatting with their wedding guests, was now sobbing in his arms.

“Hey.” He tilted her chin. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, maybe.” She sniffed.

She hadn’t cried during the ceremony, even though he’d felt his own eyes tear up. So he wanted to know what had shaken her.

He guided her to a short leather couch near the window and tugged her down onto it. He crossed to the desk and grabbed a tissue from the holder. He saw the odd wooden box, open, empty. He hadn’t seen it when he’d been in there before. He’d used the study a couple times—Chloe had insisted. But he’d yet to feel comfortable there. He sat next to her on the couch, pushing the billowing skirt of her wedding dress aside so he didn’t sit on it.

“
Nothing
never looked like this,” he said, handing her the tissue.

She lifted a shaky hand and took the tissue. She started to say something, but instead handed him the paper she held in her other hand.

“It was in the box.”

“That box?” He tilted his head toward the desk as he unfolded the paper.

She nodded and pulled her knees up under the folds of her wedding gown. She was beautiful, this wife of his. Whatever had made her cry on their wedding day, he'd do whatever it took to fix it.

“Read it,” she said, nudging him with her foot and biting at the inside of her lip.

He scanned the paper quickly at first, then stopped midpage and reread from the top, slowly. He felt her eyes on him, watching.

“He
knew
,” she said. “He knew I’d love you. That you’d love me. He knew.”