I love you, Luke thought with a sense of wonder, though he couldn’t bring himself to say the words aloud. How much would it mean to say it after all he’d done to Katie, all he’d asked of her? Besides, wasn’t he the one who didn’t believe in love? Perhaps what he felt was simply gratitude.
Gazing down into Katie’s eyes, however, he wondered how long he could go on disbelieving in love, when he was living day in and day out with a woman who epitomized love’s shining radiance and generous, accepting heart.
* * *
For all of their worrying the night before, Tommy had never shown up. Katie and Luke had stayed awake for hours listening for the doorbell and talking about inconsequential things, avoiding any of the real issues on their minds. It had been nearly dawn before they’d finally conceded that Tommy wasn’t coming and had gone upstairs to their separate beds.
As Katie had lain awake in hers, she had briefly regretted the edict that had banished Luke to a room several doors away. Then she had reminded herself of precisely how he’d manipulated himself back into her life.
All things considered, Katie thought she had handled Luke’s explanations about Robby rather well, in a mature, dispassionate sort of way. In the end she supposed it didn’t really matter that the child wasn’t Luke’s. She supposed she could even admire him for taking responsibility for Tommy’s irresponsible actions all those years ago, despite the way it had messed up her own dreams.
It was the fact that Luke had lied to her or, to be more precise, had left major gaps in the truth when he’d proposed, that irritated the daylights out of her. That was what kept her awake, seething with all the unspoken charges she wished she’d leveled at him when she’d first learned the whole truth. She’d been too stunned to get into it the night before. Now, though, she recognized that if she didn’t get it all out of her system eventually, she’d wind up with an ulcer. Sometime after dawn she resolved to tell Luke exactly how she felt.
Now at their late breakfast, faced with the opportunity to confront him, she was suddenly less certain. Compassion welled up inside her. He looked so exhausted, so anxious about what the day would bring. He couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from his son, as if he feared what might happen if he so much as blinked.
Not until Robby was safely away from the house, on his way to the park with a very protective Mrs. Jeffers who had been briefed about Tommy, did Luke seem to let down his guard and relax. Faced with a choice between biting her tongue until the entire crisis was resolved or getting everything out into the open, Katie finally plunged in. More secrets and silences wouldn’t help anyone at this stage.
“You know,” she said, idly pushing her uneaten egg around on her plate. “You can’t even have a decent business relationship with someone who picks and chooses which truths he’s going to share.”
“I never lied to you, Caitlyn,” Luke said.
She suspected he had deliberately used her given name the way he always did when he wanted to make a point or, as she’d told Robby, when he was furious with her. Katie couldn’t imagine what he had to be angry about. At this moment she didn’t give two hoots how angry he was or why.
“No,” she agreed as she stood and began clearing dishes. “You didn’t lie. You just neglected to mention a few significant things. Any other little bombshells you intend to drop?”
“About my past?”
His blas;aae attitude had her gnashing her teeth. “About anything, dammit.”
Suddenly he looked guilty as sin, a look she found extremely worrisome.
“Actually there is one thing I’ve been meaning to mention,” he confessed. “I started to get into it last night, but you looked beat and then Robby and Peg showed up.”
“What’s that?” Katie asked warily. In a desperate attempt to keep busy, she searched the refrigerator until she came up with a grapefruit. Cutting out all those little sections ought to keep her hands occupied so that she wouldn’t be tempted to use them to strangle Luke, whatever he had to reveal.
“I’ve rented out another room.”
It was the last thing she’d expected him to say. She regarded him incredulously. “You’ve rented out a room,” she repeated. “When did you have time to do this?”
“Actually, Mrs. Jeffers took care of it for me.”
Katie sucked in a deep breath. No wonder they’d been engaged in such a hush-hush conversation this morning, before Mrs. Jeffers left with Robby. Katie had foolishly assumed they were talking about keeping a close eye on Luke’s son. Instead, it had just been another one of Luke’s conspiracies with one of her boarders.
“I suppose you paid her off, too.”
“She did me a favor, that’s all,” Luke responded.
“How sweet of her.”
Luke regarded her warily. “I thought it was. Don’t you want to hear about the new tenant?”
“Oh, by all means,” she snapped. “Assuming you think it’s something I need to know.”
“Now, Katie...”
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes, get on with it, Luke.”
“Okay, it’s Henrietta Myers. You remember Henrietta. She leads the church choir. Mrs. Jeffers says she’s getting on in years and feels she can’t keep up with things at her own place.” At her lack of reaction, he continued in a rush, “Anyway, she’ll be moving in here at the end of the week.”
Katie slammed a knife through the grapefruit in a blow that just about bounced the fruit off the counter. She did, however, manage to keep a tight rein on her temper.
“I wasn’t aware anyone had moved out. Exactly which room did you give her?” she inquired testily. Surely he hadn’t tossed one of the others out to accommodate Henrietta.
“Mine,” Luke said and calmly took a sip of his
