Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Kate
I stare down at my phone.
I haven’t heard anything from Gage since yesterday.
He called me from Minneapolis. His connecting flight to L.A. was delayed by a few hours.
I was in the middle of a consult with a bride and her party of twelve friends and relatives.
All their voices drowned out Gage’s.
I explained that I was busy. He understood, ending the call by telling me that he was excited to be a dad again.
I clutched the phone in my hand as I bit back the emotion that swept over me.
When I turned back to the face the soon-to-bride she mistook the tears in my eyes for approval of the gown she had on.
She bought it on the spot.
“What secrets does that thing hold?” Callie asks from behind the bar.
I’m at Tin Anchor.
I stopped in after work for a martini.
The need to feel close to Gage was strong so coming here seemed like the right thing to do.
“This thing?” I wave my phone in the air. “My mom calls it a stress magnet.”
Callie laughs.
I expected her brother, Zeke, to be tending bar, but he’s not in sight.
I only sat on this stool and introduced myself as a friend of Gage’s ten minutes ago, but I already like her.
She’s younger than me, but she’s wise.
I listened to her offering advice to the man who was seated next to me. She told him to push his stubborn male pride aside and tell someone named Gina that he’s crazy about her.
She tucks her dark brown hair behind her shoulders. “Your mom is right.”
A laugh bubbles out of me. “What’s it like working for Gage?”
Her blue eyes widen. “This is off the record, right?”
I nod. “I won’t tell him anything.”
“He’s the best.” She wipes the top of the bar with a towel. “He’s been good to Zeke. He hired him first and when he heard that I needed a part-time job, he offered this to me on the spot. I pick and choose my hours. He pays well and we keep all of our tips.”
“He’s a good man,” I say without any hesitation.
“Can I tell you something?”
I scratch the back of my hand; anxious that it will be something I don’t want to hear. “Please.”
“The first time he talked about you I thought to myself that I hoped that one day a man would love me that same way.” Her lips curve up. “You’re the luckiest woman in the world, Kate.”
I don’t ask her to repeat what Gage told her about me. I already know. I feel it when he touches me, and I hear it his voice.
I see it when I look up at the shelf behind the bar that holds the treasures of my past life with him.
“Does he have a brother?” she asks jokingly.
“Two happily married ones.”
“Well, shit.” She laughs. “I guess I have to wait until my Prince Charming finds me the way yours found you.”
Twice.
He found me twice. I am the luckiest woman in the world.
We can’t change what’s already happened. We can only accept it and embrace the future.
Once Gage is back in New York, I’ll share my past with him so we can start building a new tomorrow together.
Gage: I have some legal stuff to deal with here. I’ll be back in New York ASAP.
“You look worried,” Tilly notes as she slathers soft butter onto a piece of bread. “Is it about Gage?”
I haven’t told Tilly or Olivia that Gage isn’t Kristin’s biological father.
All they know is that he’s been in California visiting his daughter for the past week.
I watch as Tilly takes a big bite of the bread. “Someone is starving.”
She chews, swallows and then answers. “I haven’t eaten anything yet today.”
It’s noon and we’re waiting for two big bowls of pasta at a restaurant around the corner from my store.
The only thing that I’ve consumed today is a cup of lukewarm coffee, even though I’ve been up since six.
My communication with Gage has been sparse and interrupted by my work.
We talked on the phone once but that was two days ago and it was brief.
I could hear Kristin in the background calling to him, so I made an excuse about needing to get to the showroom floor. I didn’t want to steal a minute away from his time with his daughter.
I expected Gage to come back today, but the text message he just sent rained on that parade.
I type back a response to him as Tilly finishes her bread and butters another slice.
Kate: I’ll see you when you get here.
As much as I want to pry and question what’s going on there, I don’t want to insert myself into the middle of a situation that I don’t belong in.
I haven’t met Kristin yet and the conversations I’ve had with Gage about her have only touched on where things stand in terms of his right to custody and visitation.
All I do know is that something has shifted.
He’s in the same city as his daughter now and lawyers are involved. That has to be good news.