Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hayden
Because I’m paying but the only place to buy soft-serve ice cream is in the cafe, I leave Penny outside with Cara to wait for me. Usually Penny would be upset by this turn of events, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
I don’t know the young woman running the counter, but I vaguely recognize two of the women sitting at a table as old acquaintances of Gin Gamble.
I smile a greeting at them, getting arched eyebrows and tight smiles in return.
Word that Hayden Reilly bought ice cream for two will spread before we’re done with our cones.
Cara scowls when I walk out the door. She really needs to stop frowning at me all the time because she doesn’t exactly look like a woman who’s so swept off her feet by love for me, she has to marry me immediately.
She looks more like a woman waiting for me to turn my back so she can smack me upside the head with a cast iron skillet.
“Why didn’t you get chocolate?” she asks as I hand her one of the vanilla cones.
A small thing like Cara remembering chocolate ice cream is my favorite shouldn’t make my heart pound like this.
“Because dogs can’t have chocolate and Miss Penny here doesn’t follow pesky rules like not giving dogs ice cream.
In the city, we try to frequent places that have frozen doggy treats, but when ice cream is the only option, I get vanilla so I can share. ”
The scowl fades away as Cara gives Penny a sweet smile. I wish she’d look at me like that. I’m the one eating the vanilla ice cream. “She could have had some of mine.”
“We don’t like to be presumptuous,” I say, and she snorts.
It’s a short walk to the bench in the town square, and we walk quickly, both of us licking around the edges of our ice cream.
By the time we sit, Penny’s practically dancing, waiting for her share.
I use a plastic spoon to take some of mine and put it in the paper bowl I’d asked for.
As soon as I set it on the ground, she buries her face in it.
I turn my body toward Cara, hoping a lot of nosy people are watching. “So Cara is short for Carolina and your sister’s name is Georgia. Is that some kind of state you were conceived in thing?”
“It’s more of a weird family quirk, I guess—like an inside joke.
My great-aunt’s name is Tennessee, but everybody calls her Tess.
My grandfather—her brother—then married a woman named Arizona, so my dad’s aunt and mother were both named for states.
And then my dad fell in love with Gin, which is short for Virginia.
It’s almost like he had to name us after states at that point. ”
“So we can have daughters and name them…I don’t know, Nebraska and Idaho?”
I’ve never seen anybody choke on soft-serve ice cream before, but Cara does her best. Once she recovers, she gives me a cranky look. “We won’t be having children because we won’t be sharing a bed.”
I wish she didn’t sound so definitive about that. “Is a marriage even legal if it’s not consummated?”
“I don’t know. Is it 1845 right now?” she snaps back.
I laugh, but I know under the humor lurks a conversation we need to have. “Speaking of having sex.”
She snorts. “I think you mean speaking of not having sex, because we won’t be.”
This is a tough conversation to be having while her tongue keeps flicking out to lick her ice cream. “So, our wedding night—”
“Will be as fake as our marriage,” she says without hesitation.
I keep going because this part of the plan is important. “Considering how much this quaint little hometown of ours loves to gossip, I doubt it will go unnoticed if you and I leave our wedding reception in separate cars to return to separate homes.”
She considers my words, scowling again. “I guess that would be an interesting choice for two people who’ve supposedly fallen head over heels back in love after being reunited.”
Back in love. I catch that very important word, but I don’t react to it as I drop more ice cream into Penny’s dish. It’s important to keep Cara focused on the path ahead. Maybe she loved me once, but that was a long time ago and taking a detour through our painful past won’t serve either of us.
I can’t try to explain homecoming without telling her what really happened that night, and I don’t want to do that. The only way I can make up for breaking her heart is by getting her mother to sell me the house.
“I have a suggestion for dealing with that issue,” I tell her instead. “When we leave the reception, we can go to my apartment in Boston.”
“I have appointments on Monday. The first is at ten o’clock, I think.” She sighs. “I know that probably doesn’t seem very important to you in the grander scheme of things, but I can’t take a time out from my life for this thing.”
This thing being our marriage. “I’ve never downplayed your business, Cara, and I never will.
We can drive down in my car. I’ll have a car service bring you home in time for your first appointment on Monday because I need to handle a few things in the office.
There’s no reason everybody shouldn’t accept that two people with busy lives and existing obligations wouldn’t sneak a weekend away, but put off a proper honeymoon until later. ”
“You’re very good at scheming,” she says, and I’m not sure if she means it as a compliment or not. “And does your apartment have a guest room or will you be sleeping on the couch?”
“I have a guest room, but I can reserve a hotel room for you if you’d be more comfortable.”
As expected, her nose wrinkles. “That would be a huge waste of money.”
“It’s a very comfortable guestroom. And then, as I said, the fact we both have preexisting obligations is a very believable story because it’s the truth.”
“Fine. That’s what we’ll go with, then. But what about after?”
“After what?”
“After…you know.” She rolls her eyes. “It’s going to take a little while to get the house sale sorted and find Gin a place to live and we never finished that discussion because your mother came home.”
“And you ran out of there like your ass was on fire.” When I chuckle, she rolls her eyes, but the corners of her lips quirk into an almost smile.
“What’s the plan for us?” she asks. “As a married couple, I mean.”
“I’ve been thinking about that because, as the shock fades, our mothers are going to want the answer.
I think we lean in on me going back and forth to Boston quite a lot.
I have a nice space at my mom’s, with a sitting room and its own bathroom so when I’m in Sumac Falls, it would make sense for you to stay with me there.
Maybe being in the house alone those nights and keeping us apart the others will put some pressure on Gin. ”
“I don’t love the idea of staying at Colleen’s.”
“It’ll be fine. Once she gets to know you for yourself, apart from the Gamble family—”
“My family.”
“She’ll love you.”
Cara doesn’t look convinced, which is fair considering the generations of Reillys who have decidedly not loved Gambles. “That’s kind of sloppy, as plans go.”
“It is, but not having everything figured out goes well with the whirlwind wedding.”
“I guess so,” she says, sounding unsure.
We’re not doing a good job of looking like a couple madly in love, so I tilt my body her way and rest my arm along the back of the bench. The contact makes her stiffen for a second, but when she relaxes without shrugging me off, I breathe a sigh of relief.
I don’t think it would help relax her if I told her it’s not easy for me, either.
Every time I touch her, it’s not enough.
I want to haul her into my arms and kiss her until all of the history between us fades into nothingness.
I think about her constantly when I’m awake, and I dream about her when I finally sleep.
This morning I woke up with the memory of heartache filling my senses and my hand splayed across the tattoo on my chest.
No, telling Cara any of that would definitely not help her relax.
Before I can think of something that might reassure her, a ringing sound from the area of her back pocket means I have to move again so she can pull out her phone.
I can tell by her expression when she sees the screen, it’s not a happy call.
Maybe Gin already heard Cara’s sitting right in the middle of town with that Reilly boy and can’t wait until she gets home to vent her anger.
“It’s my sister,” she says. “Somebody must have told her.”
“You haven’t told her yet?”
“I was going to tell her after I told Mel, but I didn’t realize there would be so much wine involved. And it’s hard for my sister to grab time for calls, so…” She sighs and then gives me an apologetic look before accepting the call. “Hi, Georgia.”
I can only hear Cara’s side of the conversation, even though she’s sitting close to me, so at least her sister doesn’t seem to be yelling.
“I didn’t want to tell you by text, so I was going to call but things keep coming up. But yes, it’s true. We’re getting married on the twenty-ninth. I know it’s short notice, but I hope you and Tony can make it.”
There’s a long silence on Cara’s part, and I really want to lean closer and see if I can make out what Georgia’s saying. I don’t, though, focusing instead on eating my ice cream.
“No, it’s not that. I swear,” Cara says. “Of course I love him. I always have.”
My pulse quickens as heat runs through my veins, but then Cara turns to me and rolls her eyes. The reminder she’s lying is like an emotional ice bath, and I say nothing as she tells her sister she has to run and promises to call her back later.
She’s quiet for a bit after the call, and I let her be while we—with some help from Penny—finish our cones. Once she’s done, she gives me a sad look. “I was so worried about lying to my mother, I didn’t really stop to think about how it would feel to lie to Mel and Georgia.”
I hate seeing the uncertainty in her eyes, but I can’t let her off the hook.
Even if we said we’d realized we were being reckless and called it off, she’d be the subject of gossip and Gin would be even less likely to sell me the house.
“I know it’s hard, but keep your eye on the goal—your mother being able to take care of her own life so you can live yours. ”
She draws in a deep breath, steadying herself. “I know. What’s the next step?”
“I have to go back to Boston tomorrow for some meetings I can’t do remotely. I was thinking if you have space in your morning, we could drop in at the flower shop together before I go.”
She laughs. “I actually do have a cancellation I haven’t filled yet.”
I toss our napkins in the nearby trash can. “You seem to deal with cancellations a lot.”
“Sometimes.” She shrugs. “We usually schedule the next appointment before they leave and a lot can change in six to eight weeks. When people are juggling jobs, school, kids, doctor appointments and more, the family dog getting a bath and haircut is the easiest thing to bump, so I’ve learned to be flexible. My customers appreciate it.”
“So we’ll get the flowers sorted tomorrow, then.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think you want to do that.”
“I don’t want to help choose the flowers for my wedding?”
“My mother will be in the shop tomorrow morning. She helps Sherry out part-time and Friday mornings are one of the times she’s there.”
I don’t tell her I already know that. Gin and I are going to have to cross paths at some point before she becomes my mother-in-law, and I’d prefer it to be on neutral ground. “It’ll be fine, Cara.”
“Okay.” She doesn’t look like she believes me. “But I want to be on record saying this is a bad idea.”
I reach out and swipe a small bit of ice cream from the corner of her mouth, and she doesn’t flinch away. “So noted.”