Gwynneth Ever After (5 page)

The entire evening was extraordinary.

They laughed until Gwyn’s ribs hurt, argued until one or the other of them rolled their eyes and gave in out of sheer exasperation, and shared silences that contained not a single awkward moment. Through it all, Gwyn felt herself sinking slowly into an ocean she knew better than to swim in.

When her internal warning bells became too loud, she tried to tune them out by telling herself that it was just one evening – a single night of fantasy out of an entire lifetime of reality - and she’d more than earned it. When a part of her remained unconvinced, she simply ignored it.

At last, Gareth consulted his watch with an air of reluctance. “I hate to call it a night, but it’s getting late, and I imagine you have to be up with your kids in the morning.”

Gwyn glanced at her own watch, and her eyes widened in horror at the one-thirty time showing on its face. “It can’t possibly be that late,” she muttered, giving her wrist a shake.

“I think it is,” Gareth whispered. “And I’d venture a guess that we’re not welcome to linger any longer.”

She followed his gaze around the dining room, finding the place empty but for themselves and an employee laying out fresh linens and tableware for the next night. “I think you might be right,” she said, rising from her chair. “I can’t believe we stayed so long.”

“I’m a little surprised myself,” he admitted. “I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much. Thank you.”

“You bought me dinner,” she reminded him, following him from the dining room to the front door and the coat check. “I should be thanking you.”

“Only if you enjoyed it as much as I did.” The light note in Gareth’s voice seemed to contradict the intensity of his eyes, and Gwyn felt her breath catch a little.

A single night of fantasy or not, she’d be wise not to get too carried away.

“I did,” she told him.

“Then you’re welcome. Now let’s get you home so you can catch a few hours before you have to get up again.” He took her coat from the hanger and held it out to her. In silence, she slipped her arms in and let him settle it across her shoulders.

“If I need to, I’ll sneak in a nap while the kids are at school in the morning. I don’t have to pick up Nicholas and Maggie until eleven-thirty, so I have a couple of hours to myself.”

“You met your deadline, I take it?”

“I did. At three-thirty this morning – or yesterday morning, I suppose.”

“Two late nights in a row? You’ll be dead tomorrow.”

“Probably, but it was worth it.” Realizing how her words might be taken, she added hastily, “So I could take a bit of a break, I mean.”

“Of course.” Gareth held the door open for her. “Do you work from home a lot?”

“All the time.” She stepped past him onto the porch and waited for him to close the door and join her. “I’m self-employed. It makes things a little interesting financially now and then, but I like setting my own schedule around the kids. Katie is in school full-time, and Nicholas and Maggie go into a junior kindergarten for the morning, so I work while they’re gone and then again for a few hours after everyone goes to bed.”

“Not always until three-thirty, I hope.” Gareth offered her his arm when they reached the uneven stone path at the bottom of the stairs.

Gwyn tucked her hand through the crook of his elbow with a naturalness that surprised her. “Only once in awhile. I’m too old for a steady diet of that.” She shivered in the night air.

“Cold?”

“A bit, but I don’t mind.”

She stumbled on the loose gravel and Gareth caught hold of her hand to steady her.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine, thanks.” She slowed her steps as they moved toward the unlit far corner of the parking lot, and Gareth followed suit. As her eyes adjusted to the increasing dark, she glanced up at the sky and glimpsed again the stars overhead. Without the glare of streetlamps to interfere, thousands more pinpricks of light studded the deep night.

“Oh,” she breathed. “There are so many of them.”

“Makes you realize how much we miss with all our city lights, doesn’t it?” Keeping his grip on her hand, Gareth drew her into the center of the parking lot, away from the trees overhanging the perimeter, their tangled branches obscuring part of the sky even in their leafless state.

“Look over there,” he said. His chest brushed against her back, solid and comfortable and a whole lot of other things that she tried very hard not to think about. He rested one of his hands on her shoulder and lifted the other to point upwards. Fighting the sudden urge to nestle into the potent male strength behind her, Gwyn made herself focus on his words.

“Just to the left of the Big Dipper, and a little bit up. See the long string of stars curving up and then back down again? That’s Draco. And there’s Ursa Minor – the Little Bear
 
– you can see the Little Dipper inside it, with Polaris at the end of its handle, and up and to the right of that is Cassiopeia...”

Twenty minutes later, a thoroughly enchanted Gwyn shivered until her teeth clacked together. “I hate to leave,” she said. “But I’m not dressed for this.”

Gareth released her shoulders and stepped away. “Your teeth are chattering,” he said. “I’m sorry – ”
 

“Don’t be. That was my first-ever astronomy lesson. I loved it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Of course, you realize that I’ll have forgotten ninety per cent of it by tomorrow.” She paused as Gareth shrugged out of his coat. “What are you doing? Oh, no, Gareth, don’t. I’m fine, really.”

“I’m not shivering,” he pointed out. “You need it more than I do.”

Stepping in front of her, he reached around to lay his coat across her shoulders, wrapping her in warmth – his warmth. A faint male scent drifted upward from the fabric, tilting her world another degree away from reality.

Gwyn’s insides turned liquid.
 

Gareth placed his hand under her elbow. “Come on, let’s get you into the car where it’s warmer.”
 

Only after he’d seated her, tucked his coat over her legs, and slammed the door shut, did Gwyn remember to breathe.

Chapter 6

Gareth raised his head and cracked one eye open to peer at the clock. He turned a disbelieving gaze on his cousin, who was seated in the armchair beside the bed, grinning and using a booted foot to prod him in the ribs.

“Morning,” Sean said cheerfully.

Remaining on his stomach, Gareth buried his face in the pillow and growled, “It’s six a.m.”

“I know. I have court this morning, so they let me off early.”

“I don’t care if you’re flying to Mars. It’s still six a.m., and you’d better have one hell of a reason for waking me at this hour.”

“I’ll be gone again before you roll out of bed. I wanted to know how your date went.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Nope. Quite serious, actually. So? How was it?”

“Goodbye, Sean.”

Sean grunted.
 
“I figured as much, when I found you here.”

Gareth puzzled over the statement for a second, then decided sleep had made his brain fuzzy. He raised his head again, along with one eyebrow. “What?”

“Well, if it had been any good, you’d have been at her place.”

This time he let out a pained groan as his head dropped. He rolled onto his back, away from Sean’s booted toe, and covered his eyes with his arm. “She has three kids, Sean. It could have been the most earth-shattering date in the world and I wouldn’t have stayed at her place.”

It may well have
been
the most earth-shattering date in the world, but that was beside the point.

Silence met his response, then Sean cleared his throat. “
How
many kids?”

“Three.”

“Just how old is this Gwen, anyway?”

“Gwyn,” Gareth corrected. “And she’s thirty-five. Not that it’s any of your business.”

More silence. Longer this time. Gareth pictured his eternal-bachelor-type cousin digesting his words and hid a wry smile. Maybe now he’d shut up and go away.

No such luck. Sean’s boot gave him another, even less gentle shove in the ribcage.

“You’re dating a thirty-five-year-old woman with three kids? Are you out of your mind?”

“Not that I’m aware of, no.”

“You’ve never dated anyone over the age of thirty in your life. Hell, you’re famous enough that you’ll probably never have to.”

Gareth sighed. “Is that supposed to be some kind of compliment?”

Sean ignored him. “Do you have any idea of the complications involved with someone like that?”

“Someone like what?” Gareth peered at his cousin from under his forearm.

“Middle-aged, kids, desperate – ” Sean broke off, waving his hands in the air. “You know.”

“She’s seven years younger than I am, and two years younger than you. I’m pretty sure she still has a little life left in her,” Gareth retorted, annoyance creeping into his voice. A memory sidled into his mind of Gwyn’s slender form in the body-hugging red dress she’d worn the night before. “And trust me, she’s a long way from needing to feel desperate.”

Sean gaped at him. “You like her.”

“Of course I like her. I wouldn’t have taken her out for dinner if I didn’t like her.”

“No. I mean, you
like
her. Enough to get involved with her.”

“I’m not getting involved with anyone,” Gareth disagreed. “I have enough on my plate right now.”

“You sure as hell do have.” Sean dropped his foot from the bed and stood. “And you’d be doing yourself a significant favor by remembering that.”

Unbuttoning his uniform shirt, he strolled toward the open door, pausing in the opening to look back. “So are you going to see her again?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

Sean shook his head. “You really are out of your mind,” he said. “Oh, and before I forget, someone named Angela left a message last night, too. Way to collect ‘em, cuz.”

Gareth opened his mouth to correct his cousin, but Sean had already disappeared. Chasing after him to tell him Angela was nothing more than his agent seemed like way too much effort. Especially when he could employ his energy so much more pleasantly on other thoughts. He crossed his arms under his head and smiled at the ceiling.

Thoughts of certain “nice” single mothers, for instance.

***

“What do you mean, you can’t tell me until my birthday?” Sandy followed Gwyn into the kitchen, her voice pitched higher than normal in confusion. “That’s two weeks away. And what the heck does my birthday have to do with your mystery date, anyway?”

Gwyn sighed. “Give it up, Sandy. I’m not telling you.”

Sandy crossed her arms, bright blue eyes snapping beneath her shocking, red-dyed bangs. “Let me get this straight. I call last night to chat; Kirsten tells me you’re out with a man, dissolves into giggles and refuses to tell me another thing; I drive myself crazy with curiosity all blessed night; and now you won’t tell me anything, either?”

So Kirsten had refused to divulge any information, had she? That was a good sign, Gwyn thought, removing the last tray of peanut-butter cookies from the oven and switching off the temperature setting.

“In a nutshell, yes.”

“God damn it, Gwynneth– ”
 

“Language, Masters.”

“Fine. Then gosh darn it, Gwyn– ”
 

Gwyn giggled. Sandy was the only person in the world who could actually reduce her to giggles. But she still wasn’t about to ruin her birthday surprise by admitting Gareth’s identity, which would inevitably lead to an explanation of how she’d met him. She set the cookie tray on a wire rack and threw the blue plaid oven mitt at her friend.

“Would you please give it a rest? Don’t you have to go back to work soon?”

“Not for another half-hour,” said her friend, who had dropped by unannounced during her lunch break. “And I won’t give it a rest, because I’m hoping if I bug you long enough, you’ll tell me.”

“If you bug me long enough,” Gwyn corrected, “I’ll throw you out of my house. With no cookies.”

The phone on the counter by the fridge rang. Gwyn reached for it, turning back in time to smack Sandy’s fingers as her friend reached for the cookie tray. “Go away! Hello?”

“Is that me or one of your kids you’d like to go away?” Gareth’s deep voice asked in her ear.

Gwyn reached for the counter to steady herself. “It’s you.” She realized what she’d said, and added hastily, “I didn’t mean it’s you I’d like to go away, I meant – ”

“I know what you meant,” he replied with a rumble of amusement. “Did I call at a bad time?”

“No! No, not at all. I was just trying to fend off a cookie thief. My friend Sandy is over.” 
      Said thief raised an eyebrow, leaned on the center island with chin in hand, and listened without shame. Gwyn glared and turned her back on her.

“Did you manage to take a nap this morning?” Gareth asked.

“No, I ended up meeting with a client instead. But I’m fine. I wasn’t nearly as tired as I thought I’d be.”