Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Chris was already seated when Kate arrived at IHOP for their lunch date. Several men and a few women followed her with their gazes, and he didn’t know if that made him proud or jealous. Maybe his answer depended on how this lunch would go?
“This is getting to be a habit, imp,” Kate started, but she didn’t hide the twinkle in her eyes. “What’s up? And how did you know I like IHOP?”
Chris wiggled his eyebrows. “A gentleman never reveals his sources. Do I need a reason to want to spend time with one of my two favorite ladies?”
“I suppose not, but you generally have one. Even if it’s just trying to get into a woman’s pants.”
“Kate, you wound me.” Chris put his hands to his chest as if to protect his heart from her.
She laughed. “You are incorrigible. It’s one of the things I like about you, but you do have a reason for lunch today. You said it was important on the message you left me.”
The server taking their orders interrupted them, giving Chris a few more moments to figure out how he wanted to approach his subject.
When she had gone, he took a long pull on his iced tea before speaking again.
“I did say that, didn’t I? It is kind of important.
We’re over a month into our contract now, and I’m worried about what happens at the end of it. ”
“What do you mean?” Her arched eyebrow inched up to her hairline.
“What’s Yvonne going to do? She’s here on a visitor’s visa to help her family. From what she’s said lately, her uncle is improving a lot. What if she decides to go home to the Netherlands at the end of our contract?”
“Do you think she wants to?”
“I don’t know. I know I don’t want her to go, though.”
“Why not?” Kate leaned forward.
Instead of speaking, he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and looked past her shoulder, like the answer might be written somewhere behind her.
Chris opened his mouth, then closed it again, buying himself a second by reaching for his menu even though he’d already read it twice.
The server chose that moment to appear at the table, pad in hand.
Taking their orders—a single Belgian waffle for Kate and steak and eggs with pancakes on the side for Chris—spared him from having to answer immediately.
After the server left them, Kate asked, “Why don’t you want her to go?”
He drew a deep breath. This hadn’t seemed hard when he’d rehearsed it in his head this morning.
“I don’t want her to go for a couple of reasons.
I’m head over heels for both of you, and I’m afraid to lose her because then I might lose you, too,” he finished in a rush and looked out the window to avoid Kate’s gaze.
He was afraid of what he might see there.
She reached across the table and took hold of his chin, forcing him to look at her. “Would you care to elaborate on what you mean by ‘head over heels?’”
“I need you to know that I’ve never said this to any woman but my mother. I love you, Kate. I think I have loved you for a long time. I also adore Yvonne, but that’s new. I want to spend the rest of my days with both of you. Is that elaborate enough?”
Tears glistened in her eyes. “I— I never thought I would hear you say those words.” She looked at him with an expression he didn’t dare to interpret.
“I love you, too. That’s part of what made it so hard for me in the beginning.
And I’m falling for Yvonne as well. I don’t know what the future holds, but if we want her to stay, we have to tell her how we feel. ”
“Please tell me you know how to do that. Telling you was hard. Somehow telling Yvonne seems like it will be even harder.”
“That’s because we haven’t known her as long.
We don’t have the history with her we have with each other.
It will work out. Even if we lose Yvonne, we’ll still have each other.
I promise, we’ll find a way to make it work.
” A single tear ran down her cheek, and Chris leaned forward over the table to wipe it away tenderly.