AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She deliberated only a moment before tossing him the keys. “Sure, why not? You might as well make yourself useful.”
Tate winked at Emma. “You’re right. She is a bossy wife.”
Everyone laughed, including Kim, though she felt a funny little jolt at hearing Tate refer to her as a “wife.” As she opened the front passenger door, she reminded herself that she’d better get used to it—at least for the next day or so.
“Oh, w
ait!” Lynette made a show of hitting herself in the head with the palm of her hand. “I can’t believe I almost forgot.”
Kim lifted her eyebrows in question. “Forgot what?”
Lynette dug into her pocket and pulled out a gold band. “I brought this for you,” she said to Kim. “You and I wear about the same size in rings, I’d think, and this fits me. Tate, did you bring yours, like I told you to?”
Tate held up his left hand, demonstrating that he was already wearing a band on the ring finger. Kim hadn’t even noticed, and it took her aback to see it there. She hadn’t thought about rings, which only proved how little prepared she was for this weekend.
“Whose ring is this?” she asked as Lynette pressed the other band into her hand.
“It was our grandmother’s. Tate’s wearing our grandfather’s ring. We inherited them when they passed away. I realized last night that you’d need rings to convince your family you’re married, so I called Tate and told him to bring his and I’d let you borrow mine.”
Swallowing hard, Kim shook her head. “I don’t want to take responsibility for your grandmother’s ring. I’m sure I have something that will work. I have a silver band somewhere, I think.”
“What can happen to it on your hand?” Lynette asked matter-of-factly. “Besides, it’s more believable with a matching set. You can return it to me when you get back. I’m going to want to hear all the details, anyway.”
“Maybe Tate should put it on for you,” Evan suggested with another wicked grin.
Wondering what had gotten into her usually serious-minded friend, Kim frowned at him and quickly shoved the ring onto her finger. It was a little tight, which was a good thing, since she didn’t want to risk having it fall off. “I’ve got it. Now, you guys had better get back to work. Tate, if we’re going through with this, let’s get on the road.”
He chuckled and opened the driver’s door. “Yes, dear.”
The others were still laughing when Kim closed herself into the car and reached for her seat belt. She couldn’t quite share their amusement.
* * *
Hands on the wheel, Tate slanted a quick, sideways glance at Kim, who sat very straight and prim in the passenger seat of her car, her face turned away from him as she gazed out the side window. The car was so small their arms almost touched over the center console, but it might as well have been a yacht for all the emotional distance between them at that moment. She hadn’t said a word since he’d driven away from her house ten minutes ago.
Was she regretting again that she’d become involved in this admittedly outlandish scheme? Probably she wondered why he’d allowed himself to be swept into the plan by his sister and friends. He’d had plenty of time to ask himself that question during the past nine days, and still hadn’t come up with an answer that was entirely satisfactory. He’d decided to stop analyzing and just go with it, a philosophy that had always served him well in the past.
Was Kim anxious about what lay ahead? He couldn’t blame her for that. He wasn’t nervous, exactly, figuring the next couple of days would be interesting and provide plenty of funny stories for his friends, but he was aware of the challenges they could encounter. He hoped she wasn’t uncomfortable being alone with him now—especially after that unexpectedly volatile kiss.
Surely she knew she could trust him not to let things get out of hand; just as he knew she wouldn’t read too much into his behavior this weekend, since she had always been adamant that she wasn’t looking for a relationship. He and Kim were friends, and he treasured that friendship. He had no intention of breaking that bond.
Okay, maybe there’d been times when he’d been tempted to carry their relationship beyond a casual acquaintance. Maybe there had been more than a few occasions when he’d looked at her laughing with her friends across the lunch table and felt a strong urge to have her all to himself. More than once, he’d considered asking her out, but he’d always dissuaded himself with the reasons that would not be a good idea. He didn’t want to ruin their comfortable friendship. He had always been wary of dating single mothers. His sister would never forgive him if he did anything even unintentionally to hurt her friend. And then there was the fact that Kim had never given him any significant sign that she wanted him to ask her out, despite an occasional moment of what he thought of as heightened awareness between them. Even now, after a kiss that had shaken him to his bone marrow, Kim was as reserved and carefully cordial with him as ever.
Maybe the kiss hadn’t been as stimulating for her as it had been for him. He’d thought he saw some of his own surprise and awareness mirrored in her eyes when she had pulled away, but then she’d turned and planted one on Evan. Which, Tate admitted privately now, had rather annoyed him. Just what purpose had that served in preparing her for the coming weekend?
A particularly enthusiastic round of tinkling and babbling came from the backseat as Daryn pumped her toy and kicked her feet. “She seems content back there,” he said, figuring talk about the baby would set Kim more at ease.
She glanced over her shoulder. “She likes riding in the car. She’ll probably fall asleep soon.”
“She sure likes that monkey.”
“Mr. Jingles,” Kim informed him with a faint laugh. “A gift from her father.”
Tate kept his eyes on the road and his tone casual. “Yeah? I thought you said he wasn’t a part of your lives.”
“Oh, he’s not. He visited me in the hospital when Daryn was born, left the monkey and a generous check, wished us both the best and walked out of our lives. Last I heard, he was living in Alaska where he’s pursuing his dream to be a bush pilot.”
It was the most he’d heard her say about her child’s father. Perhaps she was simply acknowledging Tate’s inevitable curiosity about the man whose role he was filling this weekend. Maybe she didn’t want those questions to become the elephant in the car with them, so to speak.
