If Kate didn’t want him, he wasn’t going to beg her to let him stay.
And he wasn’t going to coast along in this limbo land in which they had been existing for so long.
On a normal day, he was a man of few words. Right now, when he should offer some sort of reassurance to Zelda, he was completely at a loss. He had no idea what to say because he didn’t know where his relationship with Kate stood or where it was going. They were married, but she wanted an annulment. She wanted to erase their union like it had been a bad mistake.
Kate had mentioned her father in passing. She had said it wasn’t a happy relationship. He hadn’t been part of their life since he had left the family when she and her sisters were in elementary school. She had not offered many details, and Aidan hadn’t asked her to relive something that had obviously hurt her. Maybe he should have, but Kate had put up her walls, as she so often did when things got complicated and uncomfortable. Just like she had done after Vegas.
Despite everything, Aidan still believed they were good together. If Kate could just give him some indication that she hadn’t completely closed her mind—even if she couldn’t see where they would ultimately end up—he would not give up on her. As long as they were headed in the right direction, they were staying together.
Even if it meant he had to keep caring about her in spite of herself, in spite of the way she was pushing him away right now.
The bottom line was that even Zelda could see how much he cared for Kate. Right now, he would remember that when he started giving up. He would be the glue that held them together right now, when Kate was doing her best to tear them apart.
When Gigi and Charles arrived and the dining room doors opened, and everyone yelled, “Surprise!” in unison, Kate’s heart melted a little as she observed the astonishment on her eighty-five-year-old grandmother’s pretty face. Hand on her pearls, Gigi gasped at the scene unfolding in front of her.
“Oh, my heavens,” she said, before turning to Charles. “Did you know about this?”
“Who, me?” Eyes wide, Charles shook his gray head. “What makes you think I had something to do with this wonderful surprise? Which is just fantastic. Thank you, everyone for the wonderful welcome home for my bride and me.”
With that, Gigi seemed to snap back into her normal gracious-Southern-lady mode. “Yes, what a wonderful thing for y’all to do for us. Thank you, each and every one of you.”
Zelda and Elle were the first to move forward and hug Gigi. Charles stood next to his wife with his hand on the small of her back, looking like a magician who had pulled off a particularly amazing sleight of hand, even though he’d had no idea about the surprise, either.
When Kate stepped up to take her turn at welcoming home the newlyweds, Gigi hugged her tight. “Darling girl. How are you? This party has your name written all over it. Thank you, sugar. Where’s that handsome boyfriend of yours?”
Kate gritted her teeth. “Do you mean Aidan?”
Gigi nodded. “Of course, I mean Aidan. Who else would I be talking about?”
“He’s around here somewhere.” Kate had to hand it to him—he had been giving her plenty of space tonight.
Gigi gave Kate another squeeze and asked the question Kate knew was inevitable. “How long until we will have the opportunity to celebrate your engagement, sweetheart? I hope it is soon. I’m not going to live forever, you know.”
“Oh, Gigi, don’t say that. Especially not on such a happy night. And this night isn’t about me. It is about you and Charles.”
“Well, you’re next, honey, and I can’t wait to throw you a party that’s just as magnificent as this one. When the last of my granddaughters gets married, I plan on throwing the wedding that will put all other weddings to shame.”
Kate’s heart twisted as she thought about how an annulment party was the most likely thing in her near future. And it would very well be the party that would end all parties.
At least for her.
“Gigi, I thought you prided yourself on keeping things equal. Elle and Jane aren’t going to like it very much if you say my wedding will put their weddings to shame.”
Gigi waved her comment away. “You know what I mean. As I said at my eighty-fifth birthday party, all I want is for all three of my darlin’ grandgirls to be happily married and settled in relationships that made them as happy as my Charles makes me.”
Gigi turned to her husband and smiled up at him. In that instant, she looked like a young, blushing bride.
Even though Gigi wanted all three of them to be married, it would crush her if she learned that Kate and Aidan had eloped. She wanted the chance to give each of them a wedding.
It was pretty much a given that her grandmother would never forgive her for having the marriage annulled. Not only was Aidan the best prospect for making Gigi’s trifecta birthday wish come true, but she genuinely adored Aidan.
A very short-lived marriage certainly would not tick the box on Gigi’s birthday wish list.
Kate wondered if it would help her cause to remind her grandmother that she had wanted them all settled in happy relationships. The happy part was key.
Would Gigi even care about the fact that marriage in general made Kate feel anything but happy? That it made her feel itchy and claustrophobic, like she wanted to run far away?
Thank goodness for Jane and Liam, who were holding trays of champagne and calling everyone for a toast, diverting Gigi’s attention from what they had been talking about. Kate accepted the flute of bubbly Jane handed her, but as with the red wine
