A Wife for One Year. Brenda Harlen
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As Kenna watched their interactions, she couldn’t help but see that there was a connection between them, so real it was almost tangible.
Beneath the table, Daniel gave her hand a questioning squeeze. She knew he was eager to share their news, because it was a prerequisite to accessing his trust fund, but the timing just seemed wrong to her. Or maybe, seeing the secretive looks and warm glances that passed between Andrew and Rachel, it was the marriage that seemed wrong.
Thankfully, with so many people around the table, there was rarely a lull in the conversation. There was discussion about Thomas Garrett’s impending retirement and Nate’s expected move to the CFO’s office when he was gone; Andrew asked Kenna if she was looking forward to the end of the school year and her summer vacation, which prompted Maura to regale them with her plans to play soccer and take ballet classes and go to horseback riding camp; and then Jane happened to mention that she needed to go shopping for a new dress for Lukas and Julie’s wedding.
Lukas Garrett was one of Daniel’s cousins who lived in Pinehurst, New York; Julie Marlowe was his fiancée, originally from Springfield, Massachusetts. Long before they’d decided to get married themselves, Daniel had asked Kenna to attend with him because he hated going to weddings on his own.
“When is the wedding?” David asked.
His wife rolled her eyes. “June twenty-first. Don’t worry, I put the date in the calendar on your phone.”
“That seems fast,” Andrew noted. “They only met seven months ago.”
Nate shook his head. “The Garrett men are dropping like flies. I think maybe I should lie low until this epidemic passes.”
“Stop it,” his mother admonished. “You should be so lucky to fall in love and share your life with someone one day.”
“I’d say that Daniel and I are the lucky ones,” Nate countered.
“Don’t drag me into this,” Daniel protested.
“Birds of a feather,” his brother said. “With no intention of having our wings clipped.”
“Do you feel as if your wings have been clipped?” Rachel asked Andrew.
“Only by choice,” her fiancé assured her.
“And that’s great for you,” Nate said. “But it’s not my choice.”
“Never say never,” Daniel cautioned.
“Whose side are you on here?”
“I’m not taking sides—I have nothing against marriage.”
“Since when?” Nate demanded.
Under the table, Daniel gave her hand another squeeze. “Since Kenna and I got married.”
“Well, that was a disaster,” Kenna commented, as they drove away from his parents’ house toward her apartment.
“Actually, I thought it went pretty well,” Daniel told her.
“Your mother cried.”
“Not because we got married, but because we went to Las Vegas and didn’t tell anyone.”
She didn’t look entirely convinced, but she let it go. “And now she wants to plan a big reception, so that we can celebrate with all of our family and friends.”
“My mother does love to throw a party.” And he kind of liked the idea of making a public statement about their marriage, letting the world know that Kenna was now his wife.
“You have to talk her out of it.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t play the blushing bride in front of two hundred people,” she told him. “Especially the single female contingent who will want to gouge my eyes out for taking you off the market.”
“She won’t invite two hundred people,” he said, choosing to ignore the latter part of her statement.
Kenna just looked at him.
“Okay, she’ll probably invite two hundred people,” he acknowledged. “But so what? Did you really think we’d be able to keep the news of our wedding a secret?”
“No, I just didn’t want anyone to make a big deal out of it.” Those words were barely out of her mouth before her expression brightened. “Andrew and Rachel’s wedding, on the other hand, should be a very big deal.”
He’d always been impressed by the quickness of her mind and had to chuckle now. “Would you really throw my brother and his fiancée under the bus to save yourself?”
“It’s not throwing them under the bus if they want to be there,” Kenna pointed out. “Rachel wants the fancy wedding with all the trimmings—and Andrew wants to give her whatever she wants.”
“He was in a bad place for a long time after Nina died,” Daniel remembered. “It’s good to see him so happy again.”
She nodded, because she’d been there through that difficult period after his eldest brother had lost his wife, and she’d shared his worry.
“Don’t you want that for yourself?” she asked him now. “To get married because you’re in love?”
“I’m already married,” he reminded her.
“And what if you meet someone now?”
“Huh?”
“What if you walk into a coffee shop tomorrow and bump into the woman you were meant to spend the rest of your life with?”
“If it hasn’t happened in the past twenty-seven years, I don’t think it’s going to happen tomorrow or any other time in the next twelve months.”
“But it could,” she insisted.
“If we were really meant to be together, I’d just explain to her that we have to wait until my divorce is final to fall madly in love.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
“Yes, I am,” he agreed. Because the scenario she was proposing was ridiculous—because there really was no one he could imagine wanting to be with more than he wanted to be with Kenna.
“It could happen,” she insisted.
“It’s just as likely that you might meet someone,” he told her.
“Yeah, because guys are always lining up to go out with high school science teachers. I practically trip over them trying to get to my classroom.”
“I believe it,” he told her. “Not because you’re a high school science teacher, but because you’re smart, fun, kind, loyal, generous and beautiful.”
“If I ever decide to join luvmatch-dot-com, you’re writing my profile.”
“But mostly—” he looked at her and grinned “—because you look really good in a skirt.”
* * *
After dinner, Daniel had not only convinced Nathan to let him borrow his truck, he’d somehow cajoled his brother into helping him move some of the bigger items that Kenna wanted from her apartment. So while they were taking apart her bed, she boxed up her clothes and personal items and took them over to his condo.
She’d just started unpacking when there was a knock on the door. Although she hadn’t expected they would be so close behind her, Kenna didn’t consider that it might be anyone other than her new husband and his brother—until she opened the door and discovered her mother-in-law standing on the other side.
“Mrs. Garrett, hi.”
“Can I come in?”
She