“No,” Samantha said quickly, her cheeks heating as Gemma and their mother approached their group.
It was clear immediately that Gemma, at least, had overheard the last part of the conversation. “That’s not precisely true, is it, Samantha? She is going to the wedding as his plus-one,” Gemma told the older ladies.
“Really?” Julia Caine asked, looking pleased.
Oh, Gemma had done it now. Her friends would hound Sam all night about Ian if she didn’t figure out how to divert the conversation.
“Gemma, have you decided where you’re going on your honeymoon?” she asked with steady determination.
Katrina gave her a sympathetic look and lent a helping hand to the effort. “Yes. Last I heard it was a big secret. But we need details. All the details.”
“Josh has kept everything a big secret and I only found out myself a few days ago. I suppose I can tell you all now that the wedding is only a week away. Also, how can it be only a week away?”
For an instant, Gemma looked slightly panicked until her mother squeezed her arm, which seemed to steady her.
“Right. Well, he has a friend with a luxe cabin in Alaska. We’re being flown in by a bush pilot, who will leave us for an entire week with a fully stocked refrigerator.”
“Oh, wow. You had me at fully stocked refrigerator,” Andie Bailey said with a laugh. “I’m so tired of cooking dinner.”
“Right? Why do they need to eat every single day?” Devin Barrett said with a sigh.
“You didn’t have to cook dinner tonight, though,” Eliza said. “We’ve got a fabulous meal in store and then cake. So much cake. Shall we get started?”
By the time they finished eating under the globe lights strung across the terrace, Sam forgot she was ever reluctant to come to the shower. The evening had reminded her of all the things she loved about living in Haven Point. Laughter, good food, cherished friends.
Gemma seemed similarly touched. When she opened the gifts, many of them handmade, she even wept a little.
As people started preparing to leave, particularly some of the older women, she asked for a moment to address them all.
“You’ve all been so wonderful. Thank you. From the moment I came to Haven Point, you have all embraced and welcomed me and I am grateful beyond words. Thank you for the gifts. I shall use and cherish them all.”
“Even the dishwashing scrubbers Eppie and I crocheted for you?” Hazel called out.
She laughed. “Even that. I’m sure Josh will put them to good use. When I took a job here at Caine Tech, I was running away from some fairly painful things in my past. It turns out that instead of escaping, I was really running to something beautiful. This is exactly where I belong, in large part because of the friends I’ve made here.”
Sam sent a swift look at Margaret, wondering how Gemma’s mother handled her daughter finding a new home and friends halfway across the world. Margaret seemed emotional, but Samantha somehow sensed she was also happy that her daughter had found acceptance and love here.
It was hard not to compare that to Linda’s likely reaction under similar circumstances. Linda hadn’t even been able to bear the idea of Samantha moving away for college in Boise, two hours away. How would she have endured if Samantha had moved to another country?
She would have pouted and thrown a tantrum for a week or two and then would have been accepted the inevitable.
It was a startling realization, another reminder that in some ways she most likely had been too hard on her mother when Linda had still been alive. Her mother hadn’t been completely unreasonable.
The shower began to break up after that. As she had been working and hadn’t been able to assist in the decorating, Samantha stepped up to help clean up.
“You don’t need to do that,” Eliza assured her after Samantha carried a load of dishes to the gourmet kitchen. “The caterer has it under control.”
“Is there something else I can do, then?”
“Gemma might need help carrying gifts out to her car,” Eliza suggested.
Samantha filled her arms with gift bags, then headed around the house to the porte cochere out front.
As she approached, she heard Margaret and Gemma talking.
“I had a wonderful time,” Margaret was telling Gemma. “All your friends are truly lovely.”
“Aren’t they?”
Samantha couldn’t see her friend but could hear the happiness in her voice.
“I like them,” Margaret replied. “Which makes me wonder why you’re still hiding the truth from everyone.”
Sam froze at Margaret’s sudden sharp tone, so much like something she might have heard from her own mother before Linda would go on a tirade.
“Don’t, Mother. Not tonight,” Gemma said softly.
Margaret didn’t heed her. “Don’t you think it’s only fair you stop hiding who you are?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” Gemma said, her voice so low Sam almost couldn’t hear it. “This is who I am now. I’m a computer nerd working for Caine Tech. And I’m happy to be that.”
“That’s only part of it. Try as you might to hide it, you’re also Lady Gemma Summerhill. Daughter of the Earl and Countess of Amherst and sister to Lord Ian Summerhill, Viscount Summersby.”
Sam almost dropped the gift bags. Her heart began to pound so hard she couldn’t understand why Gemma and her mother didn’t turn around at the sound.
“Nobody cares about that here, Mother,” Gemma said firmly.
Oh, she was so very wrong. Samantha cared. The chasm between her and Ian had just widened until it now stretched farther than Lake Haven Valley.
He was a peer. His father was an earl. She knew enough about the peerage from the historical romance novels she loved reading to know that since Ian’s older brother had died, he must now be his father’s heir.
Why hadn’t he told her? He had let her make a fool of herself over him, knowing all the time that any relationship between them was utterly impossible.
How could the future Earl
