Chapter Eighteen
The next day, Victoria got up early yet again and headed to the beach for a nice long walk. She and Miles hadn’t made plans for this morning. This time, instead of meeting him on his journey back to the inn, he met her on her journey back. Apparently, he was running behind schedule.
Still, she was glad to see him.
“Are you ready for today’s meeting with all of us sisters?” she asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.” They were about a quarter of a mile down the beach from the Lovelock Inn. “Do you have any questions you want to talk about with me privately?”
Victoria looked into his curious eyes and said, “Regarding the last will and testament of my father or the two of us?”
The wind coming off the water ruffled his hair, leaving a few strands of his salt-and-pepper hair hanging over his forehead. His eyes seemed very warm in the morning light as she gazed up into his face.
He looked rugged and handsome and she was fast losing her ability to communicate sensibly. She wanted to reach out and smooth his wily locks of hair back into place. Her fingers tingled with the desire to do so, but she kept her hands to herself.
It was clear she had caught him off guard asking about the two of them.
“I am happy to discuss any topic at all with you, Victoria.” He finger-combed the loose strands of hair back, as if his unruly locks did this to him frequently no matter what the wind condition. One stray lock stubbornly fell over his forehead again.
“Are you planning to move to Valentine Key?” she asked, to keep from running her fingers through his hair in public. “Or do you have business that will keep you in Philadelphia?” Or a girlfriend, she thought. She didn’t think he was the kind of man who would lead a woman on if he was involved with someone else.
Nor could she believe a man as appealing as Miles Lang was single and interested in boring Victoria Lovelock, who’d become a virtual hermit after her daughter moved away.
“I am. Are you really moving to Valentine Key, like you told Darby yesterday?”
Victoria nodded as she tucked her hands into her pockets, more to stop them from twiddling nervously like a teen talking to her crush. “Yes, that’s my intention. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get down here. There are some things I’d have to take care of, like subletting my apartment, putting some things in storage and packing for a move. Ultimately, I guess it will depend on the dictates of whatever business it is that my father decreed I’ll have to run for a year. So we’ll see. And that’s not to say I’m going to do it, I’m just thinking about all of it.”
Miles grinned. “Is that your subtle way of trying to get information out of me early?”
Oh, she really liked that grin. It went all the way to his amber-brown eyes.
“I guess I didn’t realize it was a national secret. But, yes, I think you should tell me all things early.” Only then did she notice that the two of them, as they had been standing on the beach chatting, had migrated closer to each other. Anyone who saw them would think they were a couple, gazing intently into each other’s faces.
All around them were the sounds of the morning. Waves lapped up on the beach in a soft, rhythmic hiss. Birds called out to each other on the wind. And, not too far away, the strains of classical music drifted also on the breeze, as if someone had cranked up the sound and opened the windows so that everyone could hear their taste in music.
That all was just the background noise to the main event of staring into Miles Lang’s eyes like they had some sort of future together.
Normally, any thought of a new relationship would panic Victoria to the point she would do exactly the opposite of whatever had given her the idea. The loss of Angelica’s father had left her so devastated she was gun-shy when it came to risking her heart.
For some reason, with Miles, Victoria did not feel threatened or worried or anything negative about what might happen between them. Instead, she felt hopeful.
She used to worry that if she ever overcame her wariness about finding love again, she might give her daughter a stepfather who wouldn’t work out. She had Horatio’s sterling example of how wrong marriages could go. As the years passed and her grief with them, that was the main reason she’d remained single for so long after Travis died.
The only frame of reference she had for how stepfathers worked had to do with secondhand information from Aunt Lily regarding Colleen, Darby, and Evaline and their stepfather, Clifton Abbott. Not that there had been any bad news in that arena, though Victoria understood that it had not been smooth sailing in the beginning.
She supposed the biggest factor, if she’d even paused to think of it in such clear terms, was she had wanted Angelica all to herself after the tragedy of losing Travis. Perhaps she had merely been waiting to meet the right person.
When she had met Miles Lang a decade ago, her interest had been piqued. Her growing feelings for him as they interacted over the years had been gradual, so gradual that it had taken until now for her to realize how strong they had become.
Victoria wasn’t someone who believed in love at first sight. She had liked Miles the first time she met him. That he was a worthy man was obvious. And intelligent. And attractive. She got a good feeling inside when she was around him, and had joked that he was the first lawyer she ever liked.
The good feeling she got when she was around Miles had stuck with her all these years. Now, it seemed, she was more than ready to act on that feeling.
“Good morning,” a voice called out.
Victoria and Miles did not move away from each other as they looked toward the shoreline and saw a man walking by with his dog. Victoria didn’t know who it was or why he felt the need to interrupt them. Victoria and Miles said hello and waved. The man with the cute little pug nodded and kept walking.
Miles took the initiative and grabbed her hand as if he’d never let go. She squeezed once to let him know she felt the same way. Before they started walking, she indulged her further desire by running her fingers through his hair, putting the errant lock on his forehead back in place. She didn’t expect it would stay there long. That was okay.
He grinned as she fixed his hair. “Now you’ve done it. You’ll have to keep doing it. You know that, right?”
She nodded. “Yep. I’m okay with that.”
“Good.”
Together, they strolled toward the Lovelock Inn in no particular hurry. This time, whoever was watching from the inn would see them holding hands all the way back.
And that was also just fine with Victoria.
Let them watch and dare to comment.
∞∞∞
Sunshine Lovelock had gone to bed the night before reeling from the information she’d learned during the reading of her ex-husband’s last will and testament. No, not ex. Husband. And Horatio had kept that bit of news from her for years.
After having dreams both good and bad all night, she didn’t feel any better about what she’d learned.
All these years. All the time they’d been living apart. They had been married!
She wasn’t sure exactly how to express the feelings she had stuffed down yesterday during the will reading.
She certainly hadn’t wanted anyone to know how she truly felt, which was terrible. After Horatio left for a time during her pregnancy and after the birth of the twins, he had then abandoned their marriage.
With all of that history between them, she’d thought she couldn’t feel more betrayed. She’d been wrong. What if she’d met someone, fallen in love, or gotten married? What if she’d become an unwitting bigamist?
Of course, to fall in love with another man, she’d first have to fall out of love with Horatio Lovelock. To Sunshine’s sorrow, that had never happened.
After Miles Lang announced Horatio had never divorced Sunshine, her daughters had both discreetly asked if she was okay. The two of them probably knew her better than anyone else on this Earth. Of course they were surprised to find out that she had been married to their father all this time. Everyone was.
Sunshine, even after a rocky night’s sleep where she had dreamed about that tumultuous time in her life, was stunned by her first thought as she watched dawn’s early light brighten the curtains: “What a big waste of time when we could have been spending it together.”
Perhaps it was foolish to still be in love with the man who had treated her so poorly. She couldn’t help it. If she’d learned nothing else in her life, Sunshine knew that the heart wants what the heart wants, no matter how inconvenient or inconceivable it might be.
While they had gotten married in Chicago and had honeymooned in the Caribbean, they had lived in his Philadelphia family mansion for a time early on in their marriage.
Until Horatio found a suitable home for them in Chicago, Illinois. For Sunshine their home had been amazing and much more than simply “suitable” from her perspective at least.
Sunshine had enjoyed spending time in both locations before she got pregnant with the twins. While Lovelock Enterprises had a private airplane at their disposal, Horatio hadn’t used it very often. That was how they’d met in Las Vegas.
But once they were married, he offered it to her whenever she wanted it.
It was the height of extravagance to fly on a private jet. Sunshine was in awe of the new life she had and very grateful to be in love with her husband who showered her with the kind of luxury she’d never known.
Sunshine then remembered how happy Horatio had been when she told him she carried his child. He’d picked her up and spun her around their living room.
She only wished that delight had lasted.
The doctor heard two heartbeats at one of her appointments early on and Horatio had been even more delighted she carried two babies.
More chances for the son he’d wanted, she knew now.
Soon after Sunshine found out she was carrying twins, Horatio had been keen to pay whatever it took to show the sex of the unborn babies. Poor Victoria was visiting for the Christmas holidays at their Chicago home that year. She had also been the unfortunate witness of what had happened when the ultrasound revealed the twins were girls.
Horatio had flown into a rage the likes of which Sunshine had never seen from him. She couldn’t believe it. He had said some truly awful things and living with him had been almost unbearable. Of course, it was more unbearable for Sunshine when he moved out of their spacious Chicago brownstone.
Horatio had tried to make amends, in his own way, right before the twins were born. He contacted her a few weeks before she’d given birth early. An early delivery was not unexpected when it came to twins.
Sunshine had gladly welcomed him back into her life. For some reason, he had been cautious and resisted her suggestions that he move back in. He promised to do so once the twins were born. That had been perfectly fine with her.
Through their daily phone calls, they made plans for their future together. Even though she was a few years older than the optimal maternal candidate, she agreed to try again to have a son for Horatio after the girls were born. Her pregnancy with the twins had been easy to that point, so there was no reason not to.
Sunshine loved children. She had been an only child and had always longed for siblings. She’d thought that when she got married, she would have lots of children.
Her life had been looking up right before the twins were born. She’d been madly in love with Horatio even through all the difficulties they had in the early months of her pregnancy.
Fate could certainly be a cruel, terrible, vengeful entity, as she’d found out.
Horatio had wanted Sunshine to go to a different hospital than where she ended up. Fate again had dictated the way her life had gone.
When her water broke while she was out shopping and she could feel the pressure of the girls both wanting to be born, she’d been forced to hail a cab to take her to the hospital.
The cab driver spent more time looking in the rearview mirror at her screaming in the backseat and holding her belly than he did the road. During the entire trip through town, he threatened her with all manner of things if she gave birth in the back of his cab.
Sunshine had given the name of the hospital Horatio had wanted her to go to. He’d ignored her and dumped her at the first hospital he found on the way, which was nowhere near the right hospital.
The place she ended up at turned out not to be the best place to have a baby or two, as it turned out. Sunshine gave birth to her sweet babies without her husband by her side or her regular doctor because of fate and a mean cab driver who wouldn’t take her where she was supposed to go.
Horatio tracked her down later that day. He came to the less-than-the-best hospital and told her he was sorry how things had worked out. He said he was sorry he hadn’t been there when the twins were born. He was sorry he’d left her alone for months.
She could tell he meant it.
He insisted on transferring her and the girls to his chosen hospital. At that time, Sunshine had agreed, even though it was an odd thing to do hours after giving birth. He handled all the details to ensure the transfer to the better hospital happened before the end of the day.
Sunshine was just happy that he wasn’t upset about where she’d ended up and where the twins had been born. She was happy that he’d come to her side and apologized for his behavior. They could be happy together, she just knew it.
She seemed to remember that she’d mentioned fate at the time and he agreed. He said he would make things right and move her and the twins to a much better place for recovery.
Before the transfer, Horatio had gone down to see the girls in tiny, clear cribs in the hospital’s nursery. Baby Girl Lovelock A and Baby Girl Lovelock B, with a little pink ribbon on the cards identifying them. When she’d seen them before they were taken to the nursery, they were swaddled in the standard baby blanket all hospitals used.
Sunshine didn’t know how long Horatio stayed in the nursery, but he had not returned after a couple of hours. The team that was moving her to the upscale medical facility arrived, packed her and the babies up and away they went without Horatio.
Sunshine assumed some business had come up—business always came up with Horatio—and that he’d had to leave the hospital after seeing their two sweet baby girls.
Unfortunately, that was not even close to what had happened.
Sunshine didn’t find out what had transpired until the next day. That terrible, awful day.
Fate truly was a cruel, horrible and despicable entity.