Stand-In Groom (17 page)

After his food arrived, she gave him a few moments’ peace to start eating while she pushed the remainder of her omelet around the plate. The birds in the centuries-old oak trees that shaded the large yard provided background music, and a light breeze brought the fragrance of roses and honeysuckle.

When he stopped to spread Cheryl’s homemade strawberry jam on his toast, he broke the long silence. “Whatever you’re thinking, whatever questions are on your mind, I can handle it.”

She rested her fork on the edge of the plate and folded her hands atop the white napkin on her lap. “How am I ever supposed to trust you again?” She’d meant to lead up to that question, not just blurt it out. She didn’t take her gaze away from his face, though.

He grimaced, then let out a slight chuckle. “That’s my Anne, always straight to the point.”

She tried to stop her heart from fluttering at being called “my Anne” but wasn’t entirely successful. She was woman enough to admit to herself she was enjoying watching him eat breakfast. He was so fastidious. Not a crumb hit the table as he bit into the toast.

He swallowed and wiped his mouth with the napkin. “The irony of the situation is if I promise I will never lie to you again, you won’t know whether or not to trust me. So all I can do is promise to try to earn your trust and regard.” He reached for the coffeepot and leaned closer to refill her cup. “Will you allow me to do so?”

He smelled wonderful. And the stubble on his face gave him a rugged look she’d never imagined. What was he wanting her permission for? Oh yes, he wanted to try to regain her trust. “Yes, I’ll allow you to do so.”

His grin tugged at her heart. “Excellent.” He lifted her left hand from her lap. “Now, more to the point, will you forgive me for deceiving you?”

Charm is deceitful.…
Was he for real, or was he trying to charm himself back into her good graces? But she couldn’t call herself a Christian and not forgive someone when asked. “Yes, I forgive you.”

He kissed the back of her hand. “Thank you. You have no idea what it means to me.”

The silence that fell between them brought a sense of comfort. He returned to his food, and she picked up her coffee, watching him over the cup’s rim. “How much of what you told me about yourself is true?”

He frowned and cocked his head to the side as if surprised by
her question. “Everything. I’ve never lied to you about anything— other than who the groom is.”

“How did you do it? I mean, didn’t it bother you to have to live a lie?”

“Yes. It bothered me very much. There were times I couldn’t sleep at night, when I almost called you at 3:00 a.m. to tell you the whole truth.”

“I wish you had.” She set her cup down and started to relax. He hadn’t lied to her about anything else…if she could believe his statement. She wanted to. “How did you know where to find me?”

“You told me the day we were out here you occasionally escape to the inn. How is it none of your family know you come here?”

“My family?” Anne frowned. “Why would they need to know?”

Instead of answering, he handed her his phone. “Call Forbes. He was sick with worry looking for you last night.”

“He could have called me.”

“You left your mobile at home.”

She groaned and accepted his, immediately dialing Forbes’s number. It didn’t ring twice before he picked up.

As soon as he heard her voice, he said, “Anne? Where are you? Do you realize how much you’ve upset Meredith and Jennifer by disappearing like this?”

“I’m sorry I worried everyone.” Her guilt over the concern she’d caused her family was tempered by anger at the way Forbes had handled the entire situation. “After family dinner tonight, you and I are going to have a long talk.”

“So you’re going to be at dinner tonight?”

“Practice begging my forgiveness between now and then.”

Forbes laughed. “Will do, Anne-girl.”

When she finished with Forbes, she dialed her own number to check her voice mail. Several from Forbes, which she deleted. Then one from George. She glanced at him as she listened to it. He sounded even more distraught than her cousin had.

She waited until he finished refilling their coffee cups to hand
him the phone. “Why were you so frantic to find me?”

He reached up to cup her face. “You were upset, and I didn’t know what you were thinking. I couldn’t bear to think you might hate me and would never want to see me again.”

Emotion gathered in her throat. “I was upset, yes, but not like that.”

He glanced at her; then his cinnamon-hued eyes scanned the yard. “Why don’t we take a walk?”

She nodded and stood. George assisted with her chair, then offered her his arm. When she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow, she could feel his tension. “George, there’s more to this than your worrying about me being mad at you, isn’t there?”

He led her down one of the many gravel paths that led to the gardens hidden beyond the tree line. “It’s not important.”

“You’re going to try to regain my trust by being honest with me, remember?”

He grimaced and patted her hand. “Right.” Their shoes crunched on the gravel path, and the daytime symphony of locusts, birds, grasshoppers, and other insects started to warm up as the sun grew hotter. He stopped at a marble bench hidden beneath an enormous oak tree. They sat in silence for a few moments.

George took a deep breath. “This isn’t the first time deception has nearly ruined my life. A very long time ago, I fancied myself in love. Felicia was unlike any woman I’d ever met. We were both too young—I nineteen and she seventeen. I’d been forced to leave home three years before, give up my dream of attending university, and start working to support my mother after my father suffered a debilitating stroke. I’ll admit I was as attracted to the idea of the daughter of a duke falling in love with me as I was to Felicia herself, but I convinced myself I was in love with her, despite our youth, despite her immaturity.”

He picked up a leaf and twirled it between his fingers. “She talked about eloping, running away together, and then surprising her parents. I told her I couldn’t bear lying to her parents and
insisted on going to them and telling them everything.” He let out a rueful laugh. “I know now that she never wanted to marry me. She was just trying to manipulate her parents into sending her to Paris for the summer. The man she really loved—an earl, married with three children nearly her age—summered there and wanted to set her up as his mistress.

“Of course, my employment was terminated immediately, much to Felicia’s amusement. Felicia was sent to Paris in the care of the governess who’d introduced her to the earl in the first place.” He dropped the leaf on the bench, rose, and paced, hands clasped behind his back.

“What did you do?” Anne retrieved the leaf and pressed it between her hands.

“Rumor spread amongst the aristocracy as to what had happened—all from the point of view that I’d lead dear, innocent Felicia astray—and I couldn’t find employment anywhere. I went to work for a British actor. That gave me entrée into other circles and allowed me opportunities for travel and employment I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere.”

“Thank you for telling me.” She couldn’t meet his gaze. Dare she trust him enough to confide her own story of falling for someone who was only using her for his own end?

George knelt in front of her. “I’ve never told anyone else—aside from my mother and brothers—about it. I’m glad you know.”

“I’m sorry I frightened you by disappearing.” The thought of opening up old wounds with George when the new ones weren’t yet healed kept her from sharing that part of her past with him.

“I trusted God would keep you safe. I prayed He wouldn’t let us find you until the time was right.” His brown eyes sparkled. “Was the time right?”

She couldn’t resist his grin. “Apparently so.”

“Speaking of time.” He glanced at his watch, then stood and offered his hand. “If we’re going to finish planning
my employer’s
engagement party, we’d best be going.”

“It’s a good thing I cleared my calendar for today.” She got a schoolgirl thrill when he intertwined his fingers with hers as they walked back up to the inn. Cheryl had cleared the table and left the check anchored under the vase of fresh-cut roses.

George reached for it, but Anne snatched it from him.

“Anne, please, it’s the least I can do.”

“The least? George, you’ve already paid enough in worry and stress for this date. It’s the least I can do.”

He nodded his agreement. As she settled up with Cheryl, his phone started to beep. He winked at her, then stepped out onto the front porch to answer the call. After paying for breakfast and her room, she went upstairs and quickly threw everything into the bag she’d packed in haste last night before her getaway.

When she joined George outside, he was still on the phone, deep frown lines etching his forehead and mouth. “Yes, sir. I understand. Yes, she called me last evening.…” His frown dissolved into a smile. “No, I did not plan on calling them.… I agree, sir. I will run anything like that past you before any calls are made.…” He reached his free hand out toward Anne and she took it. “Yes, I believe I will be able to speak with the wedding planner about it sometime today. Good-bye, sir.” He ended the call and clipped the device back to his belt. Over her protest, he took her bag from her. “My employer. Courtney called me last night and asked if we could call to see if Cirque du Soleil would perform at the reception.”

Anne laughed. “Really? And was your employer putting the brakes on that?”

“Fortunately, yes.” He opened her car door for her. Before she could get in, he leaned close and kissed her cheek. “I’ll meet you at your office.” His voice was caress-soft.

On the drive back into town, Anne had plenty of time to think about everything George had said. Although she wanted to be upset with him for deceiving her, her relief he wasn’t a client and her attraction to him made it easy to rid herself of her anger. And since he’d been burned once in love before also, he’d understand why she
would want to take their relationship slowly.

George got ahead of her going through a couple of lights she got stuck at and was sitting on her back steps when she pulled up in the alley behind her office. Her heart fluttered in anticipation of being with him and not having to hide her feelings.

F
orbes skipped out on Thursday night dinner. But by the time she sat down with her family—and George—at Jenn’s restaurant, Anne was the happiest she’d been in a very long time. George had agreed they needed to take their relationship one step at a time while he tried to rebuild her trust.

Her other cousins’ reactions ranged from bland astonishment to squealing excitement from Jenn and Meredith. And every single one of them insisted George attend Sunday dinner with the whole family.

George twined his fingers with hers as he escorted her from the restaurant. “I think they like me.”

The twittery feeling in her stomach intensified. Was it okay to hold hands if they were taking things slowly? “Yeah, I think so, too.”

“Which is good, as I plan to be around them for a long time.”

A long time. She reminded herself she was thirty-five and not fifteen as her heart jumped up and down like an entire championship-winning Little League team. She barely knew this man, and he didn’t have a great track record for honesty.

He opened the door to the convertible Mercedes and offered his hand. She caught the tip of her tongue between her teeth.
God, don’t let this be too good to be true!

Pointing the car back toward Town Square, he reached across for her hand and lifted it to kiss the back. “What time shall I call for
you Sunday morning for church?”

Her whole arm tingled. “What? Oh, uh, service starts at eleven, but we’d better leave my place around ten thirty.”

“Will you be tied up all day tomorrow and Saturday with your clients?”

“I probably won’t get home until well after midnight Saturday.”

“You put so much time and energy into your work. Is it that rewarding for you?”

She nodded, stifled a yawn, and leaned back against the leather headrest. “I love my work. I never imagined I’d find planning other people’s weddings so fulfilling. It’s not a profession I’d ever dreamed of entering—although I did it as a maid of honor in a couple of weddings in college. I always planned to be a college professor.”

“Yet you had to drop out of graduate school.”

“Not by choice. I—I had to quit school to go to work fulltime. Cl—the guy I was dating at the time—had moved elsewhere to pursue his career and borrowed a lot of money from me.” She glanced at George, whose sharp profile reflected the lights from the instrument panel in front of him. He’d been honest about his relationship. “He asked me to marry him. Since I figured I could continue graduate school after his career took off, I withdrew from school and went to work full-time for my aunt and uncle at B-G. But even that wasn’t enough. I had to give up my apartment and move back home—back with Uncle Errol and Aunt Maggie—just to be able to afford to pay for my car and insurance and the minimum on all the credit cards I’d taken out that year to help support him.”

“What happened?” Soft, deep concern resonated in George’s voice.

“His career took off, and once the money was flowing in, he didn’t need me anymore. I made excuses for his inattention for a long time, but he finally called me two days before the wedding was to take place to call everything off. I haven’t heard from him since.” She sincerely wished she didn’t hear
of
him all the time, too. She was probably the only person in the country who didn’t idolize
Cliff Ballantine, mega–movie star, humanitarian, and most eligible bachelor with the charming Southern accent.

“I wish I could say I’m sorry.”

She raised her eyebrows. “But you can’t?”

“No.” He turned and grinned at her. “Because if you’d married him, we never would have met.”

Her insides turned to jelly. She hadn’t thought of it like that.

In the alley behind her office building, George came around and assisted her out of the car, then turned and opened the door of her car for her. He reached for her hands and once again kissed the backs. “Good night, my Anne.”