Always Valentine's Day. Kristin Hardy
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and Carter hadn’t arrived.
It shouldn’t have surprised her. It shouldn’t even have made her pause. She’d known when he’d called that there was no way he was going to make it. It wasn’t exactly the first time he’d promised something he hadn’t come through with.
So why did she feel let down?
The reality was that she missed him. She hadn’t wanted the five-year schism between them, she just hadn’t been able to stand by and see him rush down the aisle halfcocked yet again. Perhaps the first time she’d watched him had been the hardest, when she’d been thirteen, pale, still grieving the loss of her mother the year before. After that, she’d gotten better at it, and it had gotten easier. She’d grown accustomed to the cycle, learned how to get used to the new faces in the house but not attached.
In marriage, Carter had taught her hope, but he’d also taught her cynicism. With her mother, it had been ideal. In the marriages since, the affection, the white lace and taffeta had a way of morphing all too soon to arguments and hostility, to an angry crescendo followed by a few months of quiet after the wife of the moment had swept out and before the next began to make his eyes twinkle. Over and over Larkin had watched it happen—the rash decisions, the headlong rush, the racing disillusionment, like high-speed footage of the phases of the moon. Marry in haste, repent in court. The last time, though, at twenty-two, she’d refused to sit by and watch it all play out again.
And she’d told him why.
Carter hadn’t taken it well. The words had been bitter and echoed through the silence between them in the years since.
The partially successful legal battle to break his prenuptial agreement had lasted longer than the marriage, or so she’d heard. There’d been no rumors of a new Mrs. Hayes on the horizon. Perhaps, approaching sixty, widowed and with four subsequent divorces under his belt, Carter had finally decided to take a breather. His voice on the phone that hot August morning a few weeks before had almost made her drop the handset in shock, but she’d listened. Come with me, he’d said. We’ll have fun.
A chance to get through to him, Larkin had thought, a chance to make things right. Of course, making things right was kind of hard to do with someone who wasn’t there.
She downed the rest of her drink and rose.
“I thought you were going to order champagne,” a voice said behind her.
And in a rush of gladness, Larkin turned to see her father face-to-face for the first time in five years.
He looked the same, she realized in surprise. Oh, a pound or two more, maybe, and a bit less hair, but there was still a spark of enthusiasm in his eyes, an energy in the way he moved. Carter Hayes had grown older, perhaps, but on the dawn of his sixtieth birthday, he was not yet old.
He pulled her to him for a hug.
“I thought you’d missed the boat,” she said into his shoulder.
“I told you I’d make it. One of these days you should learn to trust me.” He held on a moment more, then released her. “So,” he said as he pulled out a chair, “where’s that bubbly?”
“Look at this place,” Christopher said as he walked through the open door of his cousin Gabe’s suite. “You could fit my room in here three times and still have some space left over.”
“Is it our fault we know how to live in style?” Gabe stepped in from the veranda.
“It’s not the knowing that’s the problem,” Christopher told him.
The color scheme was tones of peach and gold, to contrast with the ocean blues. Mirrors on one wall made the spacious suite look even bigger. Below the mirrored panels, the bed held pride of place with its snowy linens, puffy duvet and embarrassment of pillows. The built-in couch that ran along the opposite wall before curving out around the broad glass coffee table would hold three or four visitors, or sleep his cousin’s two rambunctious boys, unless they wanted to curl up in the armchairs that finished off the conversational grouping. But it was the wall of windows giving out onto the broad veranda that truly spoke of luxury. It was the windows that brought the sea inside.
“So your room’s small?” Gabe asked.
“Not so much. It’s at least the size of your bathroom.”
“That’s what you get for taking over the room of a halfbroke public servant.” Gabe was referring to his firefighter brother, Nick, who’d had to cancel his trip because of his wife’s unexpected pregnancy.
“You’re right. I should have held out on coming until you agreed to swap me for your room.”
“You’d have held out a long time.”
“How’s Sloane doing, anyway?” Christopher asked.
“Still the size of a house, last time I heard.” Gabe’s eyes twinkled. “Twins will do that to you.”
They stepped outside into the fresh sea air.
“Hi, Christopher.” Gabe’s wife, Hadley, stood at the rail with their sons, Keegan and Kelsey, her pale hair blowing in the breeze. The slender blonde gave an impression of fragility, but there was a core of strength there as well. And excitement to rival that of her sons, he saw as she waved at the pine-covered islands that dotted the waterway. “Have you ever seen anything so gorgeous?” she demanded.
Gabe stepped forward and kissed her. “Yes.”
She made a show of rolling her eyes, but she didn’t move away, Christopher noticed. “I’m going to take the boys down to play with the other kids and leave you two to relax. There’s some sort of rumor about stuffed penguins somewhere on the ship.”
Gabe dropped a kiss on her temple. “I have a better idea. Let Uncle Christopher show them the penguins, and you can help me find my phone.”
“You’ve lost your phone?” She frowned. “When? Do you remember where you saw it last?”
“On the bed, I think. Under the pillows. Maybe under the covers.”
“I’ll find it, Dad.” Keegan raced inside and began throwing pillows industriously off the bed, chiefly in the direction of his little brother Kelsey, Christopher noticed. Who threw them right back.
“Now you’ve done it,” Hadley said, as the pillow fight escalated.
Gabe put his hands up. “You can’t blame me for trying.”
“Thanks for the thought.” She leaned in and kissed him thoroughly just before the chorus of yelps started inside. “I’d better get in there before they tear the place up. You two have fun.”
Gabe walked in and supervised pillow cleanup, then watched her herd the boys out the door. He headed back outside, this time with the addition of a couple of beers.
“Quite a woman you’ve got there,” Christopher said, taking one.
“Ain’t she, though?” Gabe Trask sat back in one of the deck chairs with a beatific smile.
“Too bad kids put a hitch in the cruise romance stuff.”
“Not at all.” Gabe twisted the cap off his beer and took a swallow. “You just get friendly Uncle Christopher to take them for a walk. A really long walk.”
Christopher eyed him. “What’s it worth to you?”
“You’re not going to make me call in a marker, are you? Who was it who got you the date with Lulu Simmons?”
“Did you forget how that turned out?”
“It’s not my fault that you shut the door on her skirt and ripped her—”
Christopher winced. “Can we talk about something besides my worst high-school moments?”
Gabe gave him a sunny grin. “But it gives us so much to talk about.”
“How