Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Angie!” I nearly choked, banging my hands on the table.
Colin chuckled. “No ring on the finger yet. Don’t try to take my moment. When it happens, you’ll be one of the first to know.”
Angie sat back and smiled at me. “I’ll be the first to know.”
I was blushing hard. “Okay, this isn’t necessary. Colin, you don’t need to be bullied by Angelica.”
“When have I ever let anyone bully me, my love?” He kissed my cheek and laced his fingers with mine beneath the table.
My heart was about to burst when the server came over and took our order.
Colin seemed to ponder something. “I’m not sure I realized how much meeting your mom meant to you.
You met my family. Though I admit—even if you met them on our wedding day—it wouldn’t have made a difference to me.
I suppose that all goes back to how differently we were raised and how loving a family you’ve had. ”
Hearing him talking about “our wedding” as if it was a foregone conclusion made my head spin, but in a good way. All the feel-good chemicals were flooding my brain at once.
“I would like you to meet her. Would you want to go out to the retirement community?” I asked.
Angie interjected. “You’re going to have to slum it sometimes. We’re used to living among the peasants.”
I hit her playfully on the arm.
“Okay, okay, I’m done,” she said with a laugh.
Colin smiled good-naturedly and winked at me. “I guess I could slum it for a weekend. What about this weekend?”
“Wow, that’s quick! Umm. Yes, sure. She’ll be thrilled, of course.
I’ll call her tomorrow morning and tell her we’ll be there the next day.
It’s a small bedroom we’ll be in. Queen-sized bed.
” I was suddenly hesitant about all of this, and my body showed it.
I was sweating, wishing I had another bra to change into.
He laughed. “I’ve slept in smaller beds. Don’t worry about me. Remember, I went to boarding school. I’ve also backpacked across Europe. I’m adaptable. I hope you don’t think I’m a snob.”
Angie spoke up again. “You know what? You don’t strike me as a snob. He’s a keeper, Kate.”
We laughed. I tried telling myself everything would be all right.
That night, as I lay next to Colin in his king-sized bed on the softest sheets imaginable, I questioned myself again. How would we merge our lives? Would I get used to helicopters and summer houses? It sounded so romantic and like winning the lottery, but something still made me uneasy.
Before I was able to voice my concerns, Colin was kissing me all over, and soon I forgot everything except the exquisite sensations he gave me for the next hour.
A couple of days later, I was sitting next to Colin in traffic on our way toward my mother’s retirement community by the beach, wondering why he hadn’t suggested we take the helicopter. Was he trying to prove something?
He looked serene as the breeze, which carried a hint of salt air, flowed through the open windows of Colin’s car.
“You’re not at all stressed by this, are you?” I asked.
He brought my hand to his lips. “I have you next to me all to myself. What else would I need?”
I was so incredibly grateful for him, but also insecure at the same time.
“Colin, does my not coming from money bother you at all? What does your family think?”
“My love, it does not bother me in the least. I doubt my parents care at all, seeing as Stephen married who he did. I’m not seeking their opinion, nor have they given it to me.
I speak to my father only about the business.
Most recently, about the case against Blake and Kirkman.
Thank goodness that’s almost behind us. I haven’t spoken to my brothers since the wedding—my father took care of Landon.
And my mother? She sends me messages from time to time when she remembers she has a son. ”
I was trying to accept that my lack of money wasn’t important, but I was still so self-conscious about it. I tried to pay for dinner for Angie and me the other night, and then again yesterday at an indoor rock-climbing place, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
And how to reply to his description of his lack of communication with his family? Perhaps his brothers and father were lost causes, but I wasn’t convinced of his mother’s apathy.
“Did you respond to her?” I asked.
“Of course. It’d be rude not to. She seems to be doing well, though. If she’d had to adjust her medications, she’d have told me.”
“When I was leaving the house the day after the wedding, she said that she was always able to count on you to be there for her. It must not be easy as a kid to be sent away. And when you do see your mother, she’s relying on you to be the one to take care of her.”
“She doesn’t need me to take care of her, Kate.”
“Maybe she’s looking to stay connected? Be involved in your life?” I suggested, hoping I wasn’t pushing him too far.
He was quiet, inching the car along and staring straight ahead with a steely gaze now.
“That’s not how we are. I’m not sure you can understand that. And it has nothing to do with money, or the lack thereof. I—sorry, I can’t talk about this right now.” His voice was firm but low, the way I’d heard him speak in the boardroom many times.
“Okay. I’ll let it go,” I said. For now. “I hope we can have a nice time here. Even if you’re not eating caviar or being waited on hand and foot.”
He flashed me a smile. We’re okay.
When we pulled into the designated parking spot, my mother appeared at her door, waving at us.
“Oh boy,” I said. “Here we go! That’s my mom.” I pointed to where the crazy woman still had her hands in the air.
“I love her already,” Colin said, opening his door.
He pulled out the suitcase as I reached into the back for his gift to my mom.
We switched so that he would be holding the enormous bouquet of sunflowers mixed with crimson daisies and coral roses.
I’d told him she loved decorating for fall, and he chose well.
I went in for a hug first, my mom holding me tightly. “I’ve missed you, sweetie. Oh, Kate, it’s been too long.”
My mom let me go, and before I introduced Colin, she wrapped him in her arms.
“Colin, I have to hug you. If you love my daughter, I have to hug you.” My mother hugged him as if she already knew he wasn’t temporary.
While he’d had a moment of surprise at first, he also put his free arm around my mother. “Mrs. Donovan, I’m so glad to finally meet you. I brought you these.”
My mom let him go to take the flowers. She eyed them, then my boyfriend, and then looked back down at the flowers. Suddenly her eyes welled up, and she covered her face.
“Mom.” I put my arm around her, concerned.
“I just… Kate, I’ve lived for and dreaded this moment for so long. The day you’d bring a man home to meet me… I just wish your father was with me to see you two together, is all.”
“Aw, Mom,” I said, fighting back my own tears. I wondered if we were making Colin uncomfortable, but then he chimed in.
“I wish I’d had the chance to meet Kate’s father, too. She’s told me so much about him. I’m sure we would have gotten along.”
My mother grabbed Colin by the arm and pulled him inside, leaving me on the porch. I scoffed, rolled the suitcase inside, and closed the door behind me.
As soon as we were seated on the couch, my mother gave me some very grave news.
“I had to go out and get you both something for tonight’s theme night,” she said with all the seriousness she probably thought the situation deserved.
“I didn’t know you were coming until you phoned me yesterday, and I completely forgot about the party tonight until a couple of hours ago, and then it was too late to tell you to bring the right clothes.
But it will have to do.” She stood up and disappeared into her bedroom.
Colin looked to me for clarification, but I had none to give.
“What clothes, Mom?” I called out. “What party?”
She returned with a brown and a beige cowboy hat in each hand, handed them to us, and sat back down.
“It’s Country Harvest Night in the recreation room. You should see it. Hay everywhere. Big wooden barrels and pumpkins all over the place. I hope you like to dance, Colin.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing as Colin put on his cowboy hat.
“I hope I can take you out on the dance floor, Mrs. Donovan,” he said without faltering.
“You sure can. Kate, get your stuff settled in your room. I’ve had such a day. I need a long bath. There’ll be food at the party, but you can snack on anything I’ve got in the pantry there, Colin. Don’t be shy.”
“Thank you,” he said as my mother went back into her room and closed her door.
I put my cowboy hat on and said, “So you’ll be happy to dance with my mother, but what about me?”
He sighed. “I have to dance on Country Harvest Night.”
I leaned in to kiss him, but our hats bumped into each other.
“Get ready to be the center of attention,” I warned him.
“I’m used to it.”
“Oh, are you?” I cocked my head back.
He shrugged. “The only attention I want is yours.”
Colin tilted my hat back and pulled me in to give me a smoldering kiss that left me wondering how much sexy fun we could get away with in my room, which shared a wall with my mother’s room.
The party that evening was everything I had imagined when my mother had said there’d be barrels, pumpkins, and hay.
And as I’d predicted, Colin made me very popular.
Everyone wanted to meet my handsome, rich boyfriend.
At least that’s what Lisa told me as I watched Colin attempt to two-step with my mother.
I tried to encourage them, but it was hopeless. Neither one knew the steps, and Colin apologized several times for stepping on my mother’s feet.
“I think Colin might be better off waiting for another type of dancing,” my mother said when she came to deposit him back with me.
“I promise I have other things I’m good at, Mrs. Donovan. Dancing has never been one of them.”
She winked at me. “As long as one of those things is being good to my daughter, you can step on my feet whenever you like.” She quickly walked off toward her friends who were huddled at the bar.
Colin put an arm around me and pulled me close.
“Let’s get something to eat,” I said.
He didn’t move.
“She loves you a lot,” he said.
“Yeah. She’s my mom,” I said absentmindedly. Then I realized it was insensitive of me to take that for granted. “I mean—”
“I understand what you mean. I should have had that too, but I didn’t. It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.”
“No, it’s not. But I’m fine as long as you promise if we have kids someday to help me give them all the love they deserve.”
The idea of us having kids (and him being the one to bring it up) made the back of my eyes sting and gave me goosebumps all at the same time.
I nodded, stood on my tiptoes to kiss him, and whispered in his ear, “Want to go take a walk?”
He raised his eyebrows, looked around the room (presumably to see if we’d be missed), and gave a quick nod, leading us out the back door, which led to the pool area.
“What’s your impression of this place?” I asked. We walked along a lighted path past the pool area.
“I can’t wait to retire,” he said.
I laughed and held onto his arm, my head resting on his shoulder.
“But it’s not a luxurious place. And we’re in a smaller bed than you’re used to. And we have to cook our own food.”
“If we don’t want to cook, we can order out. And I can cook well.”
“You are a wonderful chef. But you wouldn’t want to cook for me every night, would you?”
He stopped us, put himself in front of me, and held me close. “I’d cook every meal for you if need be. But I can guess at what’s fueling all these questions. You still hold some uncertainty about our financial differences.”
He’d hit it on the nose. I winced.
Colin continued, “If I lost all of my money—yes, it would be hard because it means I’ve lost my position, which I’ve worked hard for.
It would take getting used to, just as it takes anyone getting used to anything they’re not accustomed to.
But it wouldn’t devastate me like losing you would.
That would be the greatest loss of my life.
You are the reason I trust in love again.
It hurts me that you are worried about something like this.
You’re worried about our worlds colliding, but Kate, wherever you are is my world. ”
I leaned my forehead on his shoulder and gave a laugh full of relief, nerves, and surrender.
Then I looked up into his eyes, now a deeper blue and full of questions.
“Colin, I’d love you if you lost every cent to your name.
This will be the last time you hear me talking about this.
I hear you, and I believe you, even if I’m still in shock that you’d pick me. ”
“We picked each other, I hope.” His charming half-smile floored me.
“Of course. I’d pick you over and over again.”
We stared into each other’s eyes for several moments while he traced a finger down my cheek and along my jawline.
I felt his hand holding mine tighten. Colin Slade—the man who never hesitated in boardrooms—suddenly looked terrified.
“I can’t let this moment go without telling you how I feel,” he said in a rush as if he might burst.
I was confused by this admission, since I thought that was precisely what we had been doing, and I was about to tell him so when he dropped to one knee on the floor in front of me.