Finally Satisfied (3 page)

"Of course you will. I wouldn't have asked if
I thought otherwise." Cara carefully removed the veil and folded
it. "All this decision-making has left me starving. Lunch is on
me."

Reggie's mouth twitched. "I'd prefer to have
mine on a plate, if that's okay with you."

Cara's laugh echoed across the store as she
hurried away to change out of the gown.

***

They settled around a large table at the
Roadhouse. Angel looked at Cara. "Wouldn't we be more comfortable
in a booth?"

Before Cara could reply, the chair next to
Angel slid back and Mitch settled into it. "Hello, Angel."

She shot Cara a murderous look. "Is there
something you forgot to tell me?"

Cara lifted her face for Gray's kiss,
avoiding the question. "Did you guys get everything taken care of
this morning?"

Reggie moved over a seat so Sam could sit
next to her. "I didn't see anyone checking out the bridesmaid dress
colors. I tried to explain it to Sam, but I don't think he quite
got what I was telling him. I hope you don't show up wearing purple
or something."

Sam grinned. "We have our ways of getting
information. I guarantee you won't be disappointed." He gave Angel
a sympathetic look. "And to answer the question Cara avoided, we
decided since we're on a time constraint here it would be best to
meet for lunch to compare notes and see what else we needed to
accomplish today. Hopefully we won't forget anything if we all put
our heads together."

Angel scooted her chair back and stood. "I
think y'all can handle things from here without me. I have things
to do."

"Sit down, Angel," Mitch said quietly but
firmly. "You have nothing to worry about from me. I'm done. So
enjoy the free steak instead of making a fool of yourself ."

Angel was so shocked to hear him talk to her
like that, she sat without thinking.

He leaned close so only she could hear what
he said next. "If you ever need me, you know where to find me. But
I'm not going to put myself in the position of being slapped down,
by you or any other woman, ever again."

Then he turned back to the group as though he
hadn't just rudely put her in her place and said, "Drinks are on
me. Who wants a beer?"

The steak looked and smelled amazing, but it
might as well have been cardboard as far as Angel was concerned.
She'd lost her appetite and barely picked at her food. She shook
her head when Cara asked if she wanted a doggy bag. She didn't have
a dog and she'd never touch that steak.

Gray relieved her of the unmangled portion of
meat and divided it between Sam, Mitch, and himself. They laughed
and talked and teased until Angel wanted to scream. "Can we get on
with whatever you wanted to discuss? I have things to do."

Everyone sobered and fell silent. Damn, she
hadn't meant to draw all their attention to her. She wanted to
crawl under the table.

Reggie forced a smile. "Angel's right. She
told Cara in the beginning that she had plans for the day, so let's
get to it."

"O-kaaay," Cara drawled. She pulled a
notebook from her purse, then a pen. "I've reserved a large section
of the resort for February tenth through February fifteenth. The
wedding will be outside in the winter garden, weather permitting.
But if the forecast looks ugly, we'll do it inside instead. Most
everyone I've talked to so far agrees that it will make an ideal
winter vacation, so we'll have plenty of company for the whole
week."

Cara checked off a line in her notebook.
"Angel, you and Mom will share a room, Sam and Reggie have their
own room, and of course Gray and I have one. Mitch, you can either
have a room to yourself, or you can share with one of the single
guys. We'll leave that up to you."

"I'd rather have the room to myself," he
said. "I'm a light sleeper, and I'm sometimes up until the wee
hours."

"Okay." Cara marked that down. "Now, the
resort provides the minister, a violinist, the photographer, the
food and cakes, flowers, chairs, etc. Pretty much anything we'll
need for the ceremony. We'll need to provide the bubbles, the
bridal bouquets will be ordered from a florist in the nearby town,
the DJ is covered…anything I missed?"

"What about the ring bearer and flower girl?
Who is going to take that role?" Angel didn't really care, but kids
made good photography subjects and the parents would probably buy
tons.

"Mitch's niece and nephew. Shane is four and
Melinda is eight, so they'll be perfect."

Angel felt sick. "But, but that means…" She
didn't wait to hear any more. She grabbed her purse off the floor
and fled the restaurant.

***

Reggie dropped her keys on the entry table,
then winced and grabbed them up again when George raised an
eyebrow. "Sorry. Old habit."

"Would it help if I had a key rack installed,
Miss Reggie?"

She glanced at the immaculate wallpaper. "I'd
hate to put a hole in that paper. Maybe we could put a carved
wooden bowl on the table that I could put them in so I don't
scratch the finish?"

George's lips twitched, something she'd seen
a lot of lately. Reggie wondered if he had a nervous condition.

"I think that could be arranged, Miss." He
bowed slightly, then opened the front door for Sam.

Reggie started to kick off her shoes, then
remembered where she was. "I'm going to run upstairs and change.
Any plans for tonight?" She'd never realized how busy Sam's
schedule was. Something different every night and she was pretty
sure tonight would be no different.

Sam nodded. "The ballet, eight o'clock.
Dinner and drinks after with the Harrisons."

She stifled a groan and started up the
stairs. She stopped and turned around. "Please tell me when the
time comes that we're eloping to Paris."

Sam grinned. "And break George's heart? He's
already working on the back gardens in anticipation."

"Great," Reggie muttered under her breath.
She didn't want a dog and pony show. Just a small, intimate group
of their closest friends and family, her best friends as
attendants, and a hell of a party afterwards. But if she wanted
Sam, she had to take him with all his baggage in tow.

And dear Lord, she couldn't imagine her life
without him.

She stripped out of her clothes and turned on
the water in the oversized claw foot tub. Then she called Cara.

"Did you find out what Mitch said to make her
run away like that?"

"Nope," Cara said. "He refused to tell us.
I'm afraid she's not going to go through with being in the wedding.
She looked totally panic-stricken in the restaurant."

"Are you sure Gray doesn't know?" Reggie
dropped a Lush bath bomb into the water and watched it start to
foam. She moved the phone to her left hand and started unbuttoning
her blouse with the right. "Can't he ask Mitch what's going
on?"

"He said no, and no. He's not butting into
their business."

"What were we talking about when she turned
green and ran?" Reggie dropped the shirt on the floor and wriggled
out of her pants.

"She'd just asked about the ring bearer and
flower girl."

"And you said Mitch's niece and nephews…"

"Yep," Cara said. "And Angel said…what did
she say?"

"Nothing really. She started babbling and
that was that."

"So it has something to do with the niece and
nephew. Maybe she had someone else in mind? Someone she had her
heart set on?" Reggie draped her bra and panties over the bench
near the tub. "Hang on a sec."

She set her phone on the bench, arranged her
towel and rag close at hand, and climbed into the tub. Once she was
settled, she picked the phone up again. "So, what do you think? Any
insights into the Mitch-Angel dilemma?"

Cara sighed. "Not a one. No one on our side
of the family has kids the right age, so I don't think she was
hoping for a different choice of kids. I give up. We'll just have
to watch for clues whenever those two are together to see if we can
figure it out."

"Well, call me if you learn anything more. I
have to go to the ballet tonight, so I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Reggie started to say good-bye, then stopped. "Thanks for
understanding about the dresses."

"Not a problem. I like the ones we chose. I'm
more into jewel tones anyway. Have fun tonight. Love you."

"Love you too." Reggie hung up and reached
over to put the phone down. Her hand bumped into a warm body
instead of the bench.

"Do I have competition?"

Sam pulled his shirt over his head, revealing
the hard abdomen Reggie had come to love. Her hands itched to touch
him. "You know better than that. I was talking to Cara."

He dropped his pants and kicked them into the
corner. "We just left them. What did you have to discuss that
sounded so serious?"

Reggie caught her breath as he slid the
boxers down his legs and stepped out of them. "Just trying to
figure out what happened to make Angel bolt and run."

Sam stepped into the tub behind her and slid
into the water, sending bubbles over the edge. "And did you?" He
slid his hands around to her belly and linked his fingers together,
pulling her back against him.

Reggie totally forgot the thread of the
conversation. "Did I what?" She moaned when his fingers slid lower
and began to move in rhythmic circles.

Sam chuckled. "Never mind."

***

Angel didn't go home. She didn't want to see
her mother's pitying looks, hear her lectures or endure her
questions. If she could afford it, she'd hop on a plane and fly to
Hawaii, lay on the beach and let the sun chase the cold from her
soul. She'd buy a condo so she could stay there forever, taking
pictures and never having to see Mitch's face again. Because that
face looked so much like Eric's.

She'd never told anyone who fathered her
child. But Mitch knew. He knew his brother had run away from his
responsibilities and his parents had helped him. He'd tried to help
her, but he was still a kid himself, with a college scholarship and
just a few days until he had to leave. He even offered to marry
her, but she'd refused. She wasn't some cheap slut who would sleep
with any guy who asked. And why else would he ask?

But now that she was older, she could see he
wasn't trying to get her into his bed with declarations of love--he
was trying to give her another option, a way to keep her baby. But
she was too hurt, and too scared, to risk her heart again,
especially to Eric's brother.

He'd left a week later and by the time she
saw him again, she was no longer pregnant and no longer the girl
she'd once been.

He'd sent letters, cards, even Christmas
gifts, but she'd returned them all. She didn't deserve them or want
them.

The sun glinted off the surface of the lake,
blinding her. She turned away, blaming the sun for the tears now
running down her face. She wasn't crying for what she'd lost or
what she'd never had. Really, she was so over that.

She could even be around Mitch now for a few
minutes at a time without losing her sanity. But there was no way
in hell she could handle Eric’s kids being in the wedding. She
couldn't see Eric living a normal life with a family after leaving
her to fend for herself. She couldn't face the censor on his wife's
face when she realized who Angel was. Or had Eric even told her he
had another son out there somewhere? And she could not risk her
friends and family finding out he was her son's father.

She had to find a way out. The anxiety began
to claw at her, making her breath come in short, choppy gasps. She
tried to take a deep breath, but she choked instead and started to
cough. Sweat broke out on her brow and her heart rate went sky
high. When the chest pain started, she was sure this time it was a
heart attack.

She dug in her purse for her pills before she
remembered she'd left them at home. She hadn't planned to be gone
long, and she wasn't expecting to see Mitch, so she'd thought she'd
be safe.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

***

Mitch came out of the dive shop, Gray at his
side, both of them loaded down with tanks, BC's, regulators, and
weight belts. Mitch hit the remote control to unlock his SUV,
lifted the tailgate, and tossed his gear inside. When he stepped
back to let Gray stow his gear, he saw a small crowd gathering on
the sidewalk down the street. "I wonder what's going on?" he
said.

Someone shouted for a doctor and he grabbed
his kit from the vehicle and took off running. Gray closed the
tailgate and followed.

Mitch tried to think what kind of medical
equipment he had in the truck today. If someone was having a heart
attack, he wasn't going to be much help. His full kit was in his
car, which he'd left at home.

The crowd parted as he pushed his way
through. He thought he was prepared for just about anything. But he
wasn't prepared to see Angel sprawled across the concrete, her skin
clammy, her breathing ragged. "What happened?" he asked of no one
in particular.

A woman at the edge of the group said, "I saw
her looking out over the lake, then she just turned around suddenly
and started coughing. Then she fainted. She may have hit her head
when she fell. I didn't see how she landed."

Gray stuck his head into the circle of faces.
"What do you need?"

Mitch waited until he'd finished checking her
heart rate before he answered. "I have a small portable oxygen tank
under the back seat. Get me that and a blanket."

When Gray returned with the oxygen tank,
Mitch slipped a cannula over her head and set the oxygen flow rate.
He pulled the stethoscope from his bag and listened to her heart
and lungs. Both sounded clear. "Did something scare her? Anyone
bothering her?"

The woman shook her head. "No, she was all
alone. She looked incredibly sad, though."

Angel's eyes blinked open, her gaze unfocused
at first.