couldn’t replace him; nobody could.
“He’s not going to be pleased when he learns, Kate,” Julian warned her.
Kate nodded in silence, watching Garrett’s mother walk up to him. The elderly woman said something he didn’t seem to find particularly pleasant to hear, and a frown settled on his handsome face as he listened.
If only she didn’t love that stubborn moron so very, very much...
“Lately he’s not pleased about anything,” Kate absently said. She remembered the times she’d caught him looking at her with a black scowl during the family events, and just couldn’t see why he seemed so bothered with her. “And I don’t want him to stop me.”
Her father’s job had been to protect the Gages. And he had. But somehow, with his death, the family had ended up feeling like they should protect Kate.
They’d made her feel welcome and appreciated for almost two decades. But after receiving so much for so long and giving back so little, Kate felt indebted to the family in a way that made her desperate to prove to them, to all of them, that she was an independent woman now. Especially to Garrett.
“Fair enough. Sunny Florida it is,” Julian agreed.
He had always been the easiest to talk to. There was a reason everyone, possibly every female at this party other than Kate, had a little crush on Julian John.
He seized her hand and kissed her knuckles, his eyes sparkling. “I guess this means we’ll be buying a beach house next door.”
She laughed at that, but then sobered. “Julian. You will take care of Molly for me, won’t you?”
His eyes warmed at the mention of his soon-to-be wife. “Ah, Kate, I’d die for my girl. You know that.”
Kate gave him a smile that told him silently but plainly how much she adored him for that. Witnessing their love for each other and how it had started out of friendship had been surprising and inspiring, and yet also heartbreaking for Kate. She loved seeing her sister so happy, but couldn’t help wish...
Wish Garrett would look at her in the way Julian looked at Molly.
Stupid, blind Garrett.
Blind to the fact that the little girl who’d grown up with him had become a woman.
Blind to the fact that she would gladly be his woman.
And even blinder to the fact that before he could say yay or nay, Kate Devaney was moving to Florida.
* * *
“What do you mean, Katie’s moving to Florida?”
Stunned, Garrett stared in disbelief at his mother, his date and business associate completely forgotten at his side.
“Only what I meant. Little Katie’s moving to Florida. And no, there’s nothing we can do about it. I already tried. And hi there,” she said to the blonde pouting at his side. “What did you say your name was?”
“Cassandra Clarks.” The woman extended a hand that sparkled with almost as many jewels as his mother’s.
But Garrett was too preoccupied to pay attention to their sudden conversation, a conversation that was no doubt about the promising possibility of merging Clarks Communications into the Gage conglomerate. He spotted Kate across the room, and a horrible sensation wrenched through him. She was leaving?
When her gaze collided with his, the grip in his stomach tightened a notch. God, she looked cute as a ladybug tonight, too cute to be waltzing around in that dress without making a man sweat.
Then there were her eyes. Every time she looked up at him with those sky-blue eyes, pain sliced through his chest as though that bullet had actually hit Garrett, instead of her father. He’d never forget that he was living now, breathing now, because Kate’s father had stepped into the line of fire to save him.
He’d tried to make it up to her. The entire family had. A good education, a roof over her head, help with securing her own place and encouragement so she’d open her catering business. But lately Kate seemed sad and discontent, and Garrett just didn’t know how to resolve that.
He felt sad and discontent, too.
“But...she can’t go,” he said.
Eleanor Gage halted her conversation with Cassandra and turned her unapologetic expression up to his. “She says she can.”
“To do what? Her whole life is here.”
His mother raised a perfectly plucked brow that dared him to wonder why, exactly, she would want to leave, and a sudden thought occurred to him. He frowned as he considered it. Kate’s distance would be good for him. He might even finally be able to get some sleep. But no. Hell, no.
He’d made a promise to her father, years ago, the tragic night of his death. Kate and her little sister, Molly, had become orphans because of Garrett. They would always belong here, with the Gages. This was their home, and Garrett had done everything in his power so that they would feel comfortable, protected and cared for.
Molly was marrying his younger brother now. But Kate?
Garrett had always had a weakness for her. He respected her. Protected her. Even from things he himself sometimes felt.
His whole life he’d ignored the way Kate’s hair fell over her eyes. The way she said Garrett an octave lower than any other word she spoke. He’d ignored the way his chest cramped when she spoke of having a date, and he’d even done his best to try not to count all the freckles on the bridge of her pretty nose.
It wasn’t easy to force himself to be so damned ignorant. Of that. But he’d done it by force and that was exactly how it would remain.
Kate was like his sister and best friend. Except she was truly neither....
No matter.
He would still do all kinds of things to protect her—and this included making her see that moving to Florida was not a good option. Not an option, period.
Scowling, he snagged his mother by the elbow and pulled her closer, so that Cassandra didn’t overhear. But the woman took the cue and easily began to mingle—leaving him to talk to his mother in peace. “When did she say she was leaving?”
“The day after the wedding.”
“Eight weeks?” His brain almost ached as he tried to think of ways to keep her here. “Long enough to change her mind then.”
“My darling, if you manage to—” his mother gently patted him on the chest “—you’ll make me a very happy woman. I don’t want Katie anywhere in the world but here.”
Garrett bleakly agreed and snatched a wine goblet from a passing server. He almost downed the liquid in one gulp, wondering how in the hell one could change the mind of a stubborn little handful like Kate. She could teach old, grumpy men a thing or two about sticking to their guns, and Garrett wasn’t looking forward to being on the opposite end of the field from her. Or then again, maybe he was.
It
