* * *
After his conversation with Jimmy, Wade had driven out to Sally’s studio, where he’d just missed Gabi. When he’d heard she was meeting Louise in town, his blood had run cold. He wanted Gabi and his sister to be friends, but the accelerating pace of their friendship was just a little scary. He didn’t entirely trust Louise to keep her promise about staying on good behavior.
It was twelve-fifteen when he walked into the Seaside Café and spotted the two of them huddled together over a table strewn with yellow legal pads and papers. They had iced tea at hand, but no food.
He grabbed an extra chair from a nearby table and put it between them, finally catching their attention. Gabi smiled, but his sister frowned suspiciously.
“What’s up, Wade? Why are you here?” Louise asked.
“Am I intruding on a private business conference?” he inquired lightly, his gaze on Gabi.
“Absolutely not. Louise is just sharing some of her research with me. It’s going to save me a ton of time,” she said happily.
He nodded. “That’s great.”
“Don’t you usually take your lunch to work?” Louise asked, clearly not pleased by his unexpected appearance.
“Usually. Today I didn’t. I drove out to Sally’s, intending to ask Gabi to go to lunch with me. Sally pointed me in this direction.” He studied his sister with a narrowed gaze. “What’s with the attitude? Did you have something on the agenda besides a friendly chat with Gabi?”
“Of course not,” Louise said huffily. “I promised you those days were behind us. I promised Gabi, too, for that matter.”
“We’re fine, Wade,” Gabi assured him. “But I’d love it if you could stay. I’d like your input on some of these day-care centers. Louise said you’ve done renovations in a couple of them.”
Pushing his concerns about his sister’s intentions aside, he took the notebook Gabi was holding out and glanced over the list.
“Okay, aside from the fact that it strikes me as absurd to be looking for day care months before the baby even arrives, I’d say this one is the best-run facility I’ve been in.” He pointed to the third one on the list, knowing full well it was where Louise had sent her own children.
Gabi nodded. “That’s what Louise said, too.”
“This does make me wonder if you’ve decided to stay here permanently,” he said, trying to keep a hopeful note out of his voice.
“If it works out, yes,” she said at once.
“Works out how?” Louise asked, her gaze narrowing. “You mean with my brother?”
“Louise!” Wade said sharply.
“Well, it’s a fair question,” his sister retorted.
“No, this is all about me,” Gabi said. “And finding work that will fulfill me. As much fun as I’m taking lessons from Sally, I’m a long way from convinced that I have a future in the wind-chime business. And I absolutely do not want to take over Castle’s and run it, even though I know it would thrill Cora Jane if I would.”
“So if you don’t find this satisfying work, you’ll what? Go back to Raleigh?” Louise asked with another pointed look at Wade.
Gabi shrugged, clearly not ready to commit. “I’ll just have to see.”
“Stop nagging the woman, Lou,” Wade ordered. “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves. I know how you like to plan every last little detail of your life, but these decisions are months away from needing to be made.”
Louise sighed and sat back. “Point taken,” she said, though she didn’t look particularly happy about it.
Wade managed to steer the conversation onto more general turf, and the rest of the meal passed without incident. Still, there was no mistaking Louise’s eagerness to take off as soon as they’d finished eating. That alone suggested he’d been smart to intrude on this little get-together of hers. While she might not overtly try to sabotage the relationship, he imagined she could plant seemingly innocuous little seeds of doubt that would come back to haunt him.
As soon as she’d gone, Gabi looked at him curiously. “What was that about?”
“What?”
“You were borderline rude to your sister,” she accused.
“I just don’t think this was the innocent little get-acquainted lunch she might have led you to believe.”
“What do you think it was?”
Trying to put his suspicions into words without sounding like an idiot was trickier than he’d imagined. “A reconnaissance mission?” he suggested.
“To learn my deep dark secrets?” Gabi asked, barely suppressing a smile.
“Learn yours? Tell you mine?” He shrugged. “Hard to say, but it struck me as a bad idea either way.”
“Since there’s not much about my life that you don’t already know, I think we can dismiss that as a real concern,” she said. She looked him directly in the eyes and asked, “How about yours? Are you hiding anything from me?”
The way she asked the question made him wonder if someone hadn’t already planted a few seeds of distrust in her head.
“You know exactly the kind of guy I am,” he said, though he couldn’t seem to keep a defensive note out of his voice.
“I certainly thought so,” she agreed.
He frowned at her phrasing. “Have you changed your mind?”
“Tell me more about you and Kayla,” she suggested bluntly.
Wade was completely thrown that she would go there. He thought he’d given her as much information as she needed. Had somebody aroused her suspicions that he hadn’t completely leveled with her? Who would do that? And what would they reveal?
“Any particular reason?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound totally paranoid.
“Curiosity,” she claimed. “She was your wife, Wade. She was carrying your baby when she died. Isn’t it natural for me to want to know more about her, about the kind of marriage the two of you had?”
Even though Wade didn’t entirely buy it, he didn’t want to create a problem where none existed by being evasive.
