A Wedding In the Family (12 page)

When she pulled into Adam’s wide driveway, she parked behind an unfamiliar vehicle. Adam’s truck was nowhere to be seen. She glanced at her watch. He should have been home by now. An even deeper uneasiness settled over her as her eyes came to rest on the license plate of the older-model car in front of her van. Out-of-state tags. Adam hadn’t said anything about expecting visitors. In fact, she had not heard him mention even knowing anyone from that part of the country. Darkness had settled in, but lights glowed in the house, and the flickering in the living room indicated the television was on. She hesitated, wondering whether to leave and call Adam from a pay phone to see if everything was all right, or to walk up to the front door and find out for herself.

“This is ridiculous,” she murmured, annoyed at
her own growing fear. “All I have to do is open the door and find out what’s going on. That’s why he gave me the key. So I could get in when I got here.” So Angela talked herself out of her instinctive caution, walked up on the front porch, and slid the key into the lock.

Almost immediately, before she even pushed open the heavy wood door, she heard a voice—a decidedly female voice—call out, “Just a minute.” Then the door flew open and Angela came face-to-face with a blond, beautiful stranger—a woman about Angela’s own age—wearing a large, oversize plaid robe and drying her face with a bath towel. From the expression on the woman’s face, Angela realized that the blonde was as startled to see her as she was to see the blonde.

“Oh…hello,” the stranger began as Angela stared at her without speaking. “I—can I help you?” she asked, as if she had every right to be standing there inside the front door of Adam’s home, looking beautiful and not quite dry.

“Um…yes, maybe. I’m supposed to meet Adam here. I have this key to let myself in…Who are you?” Angela finally asked. She felt as though she had walked into a movie already in progress and needed someone to fill her in on the first twenty minutes. On second thought, maybe she didn’t want to know.

“I’m a friend of Adam’s.” The blonde smiled.

The plot thickened. Angela frowned and looked away. “I’m supposed to meet him here for dinner,”
she explained, feeling angry, embarrassed, betrayed. Dinner plans had obviously been changed. Too bad Adam hadn’t thought to mention it to her. And apparently, he hadn’t mentioned anything about it to this pretty blonde, who seemed quite comfortable here in his house.

“Dinner? Is it that late?” the woman asked in obvious surprise. She glanced at her bare wrist and laughed. “I guess I don’t have my watch on.”

“No, I can see that you don’t,” Angela quipped. No watch and not enough clothing in general, she thought

Angela had already had about all the awkwardness of this situation that she could stomach. “I must be mistaken about the date or the time.” Or Adam Dalton, in general. “Sorry to have bothered you.” And even sorrier that this other woman was so unbearably attractive with wonderful high cheekbones, wide chocolate-brown eyes and a complexion mostly seen in magazines. And all with no makeup, as far as Angela could detect Angela, herself, found it difficult to look away from the stranger, and she doubted that Adam would even make the effort.

She turned to go, angry but mystified by this turn of events. How could she have been so wrong about a man? Again?

“But what’s your name? I’ll tell him you stopped by,” the woman called out

Angela glanced back to see her adjusting the belt of her robe. “Just tell him Angela was here. I’m sure he’ll be surprised that I’ve met you.”

Almost as surprised as she was, Angela thought as she looked down at the key she still held in one hand. She knew she could have handed it over to the woman on the spot; instead, she slid it into the pocket of her jacket. This was an item she preferred to return to Adam personally. Probably by throwing it at him the next time she saw him.

S
he pulled open the door.

“It’s not the way it looked,” Adam stated flatly, skipping any greeting. His expression was dark, almost grim.

“Not the way it looked,” Angela repeated. “I am met at your door by a beautiful blonde wearing a bathrobe? How can that be
anything
other than the way it looked?”

Adam glanced past her into the apartment. “May I come in? Are the kids here?”

She opened the door wider to allow him entrance, but only to the hallway. “The kids are at Mom and Dad’s for the evening because we had a date. If you will recall, you’d invited me for dinner—”

“Exactly—dinner at my place. Do you think I’d be stupid or careless enough to have some woman there—in my home—then? At the time you’re expected to show up?” Adam was inside the apartment
now, raking a hand through his tawny gold hair and watching her through troubled eyes.

“No,” she answered truthfully. “I don’t think you’d have ‘some woman’ in there. Only one that meant something…enough to risk—”

“You? Enough to risk
you?
” He placed his hands on her shoulders, stopping her from walking away. “There is no one like that, Angela. Don’t you realize that by now?”

“Then who
is
she?” she asked angrily, facing him with burning tears welling up in her eyes. “And what was she doing with you?”

“She wasn’t ‘with me.’ Not exactly, anyway.”

“Adam!” she cried in frustration and pushed away from him. “Either explain this or leave.”

“It’s Patty,” he replied. “She’s here, with Brandon.”

Brandon. Patty’s son. The child Adam had thought was his own.

“Why?” Angela asked as she studied Adam’s haunted expression. “What does she want?”

“She wants my help,” he responded, releasing his hold on her and staring bleakly into her cautious, blue eyes.

Her heart sank. Patty would want Adam. She’d be a fool not to. “She wants
you,
” Angela corrected quietly. Of all the concerns she’d had about this relationship, it had never occurred to her to worry about Patty. Her teeth sank into her lower lip as she considered the possibilities. Maybe Patty wanted a future with some stability…a real home, maybe. Specifically,
a
log
home. With Adam Dalton in residence. “So she can do that? She can just show up at your house as though she belongs there?”

“No,” he said, but his adamant response did little to ease Angela’s fears. “Brandon’s father left her, she lost her job and she happened to find out where I live through my brother.”

“Did he give her a key to your house? And did he hand her the bathrobe? Or did
you?
” she asked quietly, blinking back threatening tears.

“No,” Adam answered with emphasis. “It’s nothing like that. Patty is no threat to us.”

“But she has Brandon. And probably a better hold on you than you know.”

“He’s not my son.”

“That’s what you say, but how do you feel when you see him now?”

He looked at her for a long, silent moment, and then shook his head. “I feel sorry for the boy. Patty hasn’t given him much of a home.” He reached out to touch Angela’s cheek. “He just turned thirteen, and he needs a decent father figure in his life, but it’s not going to be me.”

Angela moved easily into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder. “I don’t want to lose you, not even to Brandon. God forgive me, I know that sounds selfish probably to you and the Lord and everyone else.”

Adam touched the soft hair at her temple. “You’re not going to lose me.”

She raised her head. “But Adam, she’s at your home—”

“Listen to me,” he began, “Patty found an extra house key I keep in the garage, so she and Brandon went inside while I was still at work. I had no idea they were there until I came home. She had showered and changed clothes before I got there, and Brandon was watching television. I was running a little later than usual, so I was surprised you weren’t already there. Eventually, she got around to telling me about you coming to the door, and about the bathrobe and…I knew you’d be upset”

“Why should I be upset?” she exclaimed. “After all, it was just a beautiful woman wrapped in a bathrobe that I found inside the home of the man I love. I could be wrong, Adam, but my guess is that that little discovery would upset 99 percent of the female population.”

“Think so, huh?” Adam asked quietly with an undeniable hint of amusement in his expression.

But Angela’s crystal blue eyes lowered to the knit fabric of Adam’s shirt as she fought the threatening sob rising in her throat. Should she say what she was thinking? “I don’t want her staying with you. I don’t want you going home to her tonight. If you’re going home to anyone, it should be to me.”

“Angela—” Adam gently placed a hand under her chin and raised her gaze to meet his gentle gray eyes “—I’m not going to touch Patty.”

“But I don’t even want you to
want
to touch her,”
she said, placing her hand over her heart as if to shield it, “and if she spends the night there—”

“You don’t trust me much, do you?” he said, brushing his mouth tenderly against her crown.

“Not with a woman that looks like that,” Angela admitted.

“Then how could I be trusted with a woman who looks like you?” he asked as his hands moved to tenderly touch both sides of her face.

A soft sigh of frustration escaped as she once again leaned her forehead against his shoulder. “Adam, don’t I just want Patty out of your house. Is that so wrong? I mean, couldn’t she stay with your brother? Or someone else who is safely, happily married?” Angela looked up at him.

“She’s already gone. I paid for a hotel room and gave them money for meals, gasoline…necessities.” Adam kissed the crease of worry that knitted Angela’s brows together. “Patty has both her parents and three brothers she can go to, and that’s exactly what I told her. I’ve done my share for her. If I’m going to help anyone, it’s going to be you.”

Angela blinked. “What?” she asked quietly, thinking she had surely misunderstood him. “Help me?”

Adam wasn’t sure what he’d said wrong, but from the look of disbelief that sparked in Angela’s eyes, he knew it had been something significant. “You’re a woman, alone, Angela, with three kids to raise.”

“I don’t need your help,” she stated quietly, calmly, as her anger slowly mounted. “Is that what I am to you? Someone to help?” She pulled away from
him, knowing she was probably angrier than she should be. But being lumped in with other “needy” females had always been a sore point with her. She’d managed things pretty well this far in life without much assistance from a man.

“No,” he responded quickly. “It’s much more than that—you know it is.” He raised a hand to touch her face, but she backed away, folding her arms in front of her.

“But what was it in the beginning? Did I start out as some sort of mission project?”

“Of course not.” Adam lowered his head and rubbed a hand over his face in frustration. How had this conversation gone so wrong? “It started because I was attracted to you, Angela. You’re so…easy to talk to and—”

“Needy?” she added, barely able to say the word without screaming it at him. Was that where all of this began? “I was the poor widow, or divorcee…or whatever it is I am.” She turned to walk away, put more distance between them—as if there wasn’t enough emotional distance between them already. “You thought—”

“I thought, ‘There’s a beautiful woman I want to get to know.’”

“You don’t need to tell me I’m beautiful just because I’ve seen your first wife. There’s no comparison. Patty is gorgeous. Don’t say—”

“Say what? That you’re beautiful? Is the truth always this hard for you to accept?” He searched her
expression for some glimpse of the understanding he needed to see.

She shook her head, her dark hair moving softly around her face. The sadness deep within her eyes pierced Adam’s heart. Had he become the source of that sorrow? He spanned the empty space between them, touching her shoulder gently, wanting her in his arms. How had he hurt her so when all he ever wanted was to hold her, love her?

“Adam, don’t.”

“Do you remember that night at the rec center? The Open House? You were envious of Tiffany. Her youth, her looks, whatever…and I wondered why. Why on earth would you be bothered by her? Or any other woman?” Strong, sure hands moved to her waist, preventing her from inching away. “Angie, you’re everything I want.”

“No, I’m not,” she assured him. “I’m not needy enough for you to rescue, and not beautiful enough to hold your attention even now that I have it. Patty showing up today proved that.”

“Patty has nothing to do with my love for you or how attractive you are.” He hesitated. He hadn’t wanted to tell her yet that he loved her. He’d wanted a more tender moment.

But Angela’s sadness remained.
Love.
He’d never mentioned it before tonight. Did he mean it? Was he sure? She knew that any doubts she’d had about her feelings for him had vanished at Patty’s arrival and at the thought of him in someone else’s arms. But
how did the presence of his former love affect him? “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

Adam studied her downcast expression silently for a moment. “What did Dan do that so destroyed your self-esteem?” he asked in the quietness. “Or was it the things he
didn’t
do?”

She pulled away. “Dan doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

“He has everything to do with it,” Adam countered. “He was the man in your life for more than a decade. Much of what you think of yourself has come from him.”

He was right, Angela knew, although she was reluctant to admit it. “Our marriage wasn’t a good one, but my not being beautiful didn’t have much to do with it.”

“Come with me,” Adam said suddenly. He grasped her hand in his, leading her through the living room toward the back hallway. She was too startled by his actions to protest. He led her past the boys’ bedroom and then Heather’s room before he pushed open the door to the cluttered bathroom.

“Adam? Why are we going in here?” And why had she left panty hose and wet towels draped over the shower door? Because, she recalled, they weren’t supposed to be here tonight They were to have been at
his
place.

“Look,” he stated, turning her toward the large rectangular mirror that hung over the vanity. He flipped on the light switch to the left of the glass. “Your hair is a gorgeous black-brown color I can
hardly describe. You have the clearest, lightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. And your face…” He paused, and the approval of what he saw so apparent in his steady gaze did nothing to alleviate the tension that had been building between them for weeks. Angela’s breath caught audibly in her throat when Adam’s warm palm and fingers touched her cheek. “How I love that face…”

Angela’s eyes shifted in the mirror from her own features to Adam’s profile: the firm set of his mouth, the gentle look in his eyes, the dark blond hair she knew would be soft against her fingertips. These feelings she had for him were unlike any she’d known. How could she find a way to explain them? She didn’t want to be helped or rescued. She just wanted
him.
Forever.

Unless Patty was the catalyst. That was exactly how it had been with Dan Sanders. On the rebound from a former love, he’d pursued the lonely college girl Angela had been at nineteen, and got more than he bargained for: Nathan. Now here she was, with Adam. Did he have any of these feelings for her last night or the night before? And would he tomorrow? Or was she someone to want and need in lieu of what might have been? She raised her eyes to look cautiously into a storm of gray.

“Angie, I know it’s difficult for you to trust, and I’m trying to give you time but—” he stopped, and his warm gaze traveled over her face “—we don’t need to keep seeing each other for me to know that
my feelings for you are serious. Very serious. I’ve known that for a long time.”

“Lucky thing you found a woman you could help
and
feel serious about at the same time. That makes a tidier package, doesn’t it?” Her words were sharp, but the questioning look she gave him made it clear that she wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Least of all, him.

Adam didn’t respond right away. The things he wanted to say, shouldn’t be said. Not yet. He moved his hand, to her jawline, where a warm thumb caressed one corner of her mouth until Angela lowered her eyes to stare at the plum carpeting at her feet.

“You’re right, you know,” he said gently, “you don’t need me. I’m the one who needs you.” He paused. Should he say what he felt? “Angie, you said earlier that I’m the man you love. Did you mean that?”

She nodded, unable to answer without a fear of a sob.

“Then look at me,” he said.

Angela raised watery eyes to see the warmth she knew she’d find in his—along with confidence, certainty, clarity. He was a man who knew exactly what he wanted. She’d always thought that about him, even when he didn’t think it about himself.

“I don’t need more time to know who I want. Do you?”

She shrugged a little, almost hopelessly. “I don’t want to make a mistake.”

“Our being together is no mistake.” He spoke
gently, tenderly, and his heart pounded loudly within his chest.
God, I love this woman You’ve brought into my life. Don’t let me lose her now,
he thought
Not like this, not with inadequate words.

“Adam…” she began before her resolve melted in the warmth of his touch. In an almost painful motion, she covered the strong hand that lay so gently against her cheek and pulled his hand away. And he did not resist her action, although it nearly broke his waiting heart. She was slipping a little farther away from him, and he didn’t know what to do or say to repair whatever had gone wrong. Then Angela continued, “You could be with Patty right now. You know that as well as I do. But she hurt you before and she might hurt you again. So is that why you want me now? Because I’m safer? Is that why I seem beautiful and lovely and—”

“Angela?” His voice sharpened and his eyes flashed with anger and hurt at the accusation. “Do you think I would do that—use you like that?” Why hadn’t he told her how pretty she was or how much he wanted her before now, when it seemed so shallow. And too little too late. Because she wouldn’t have believed him then, either.