Part 25 (2/2)
”However will you spend all that time?”
”I'll probably go shopping or something,” she said with a teasing grin he couldn't see. ”I could use a couple of new suits.”
He let out a growl as he slid his hand straight down the front of her to cup her s.e.x. ”That's not what you need.”
Jill pushed her bottom against his erection, drawing a groan from him. ”No?”
”Nope.”
”What do I need?”
”This,” he whispered in her ear as his fingers delved between her legs. ”Me. You need me.”
”Do I?”
”Mmmm.”
As he set out to show her just how much she needed him, Jill's worries over her sister's career faded into the background.
”Thank goodness you finally called me back,” Clare said when she answered Kate's call.
Kate winced at the worry she heard in her mother's voice. ”It's been a rough couple of days.”
”I can imagine.”
”I'm sorry for causing you embarra.s.sment.”
”Forget that, Kate. I want to know how you are.”
”s.e.x tapes aside, I'm very, very happy-happier than I've been in ten years. I know you don't approve-”
”Don't put words in my mouth, Katherine.”
The use of her full name startled her, since her mother rarely pulled out the big guns anymore. ”Sorry,” she muttered. ”I should've told you where I was going-and why.”
”I would've liked to have known, but you're not under any obligation to report in to me about your every move.”
”Still, I wish you'd heard the news from me.”
”So, tell me... Tell me your news.”
”We're back together. For good this time. Among other things.”
”What other things?”
”I... We're... We're getting married.”
”Oh, Kate... Wow. That's... Wow.”
Her eyes flooded, and her throat closed tight around a wedge of emotion. ”I know I don't need it, but I so want your approval.”
”Oh, honey, you have it. Of course you do. You're a grown woman, free to make your own choices, and if this man is the one you want-”
”He is. He's always been the one I wanted. I never got over him.”
”I often wondered if that was the case.”
”You did?”
”You couldn't seem to make it stick with anyone else. It wasn't hard to put two and two together.”
”Dad won't understand.”
”Maybe not at first, but he'll come around.”
”He can't stand Reid.”
”He can't stand what Reid did ten years ago. Before that, he thought of him as a friend.”
”Still...”
”The advice I'd give a friend in this situation is to follow your heart and hope for the best where everyone else is concerned.”
”That's very generous advice to give a daughter who just told you she's going to marry a man nearly thirty years older than her.”
”I'd like to think my daughter is also my friend.”
”I am,” Kate said, blinking back tears. ”Of course I am.”
”Does he love you, sweetheart? Honestly and truly love you?”
”Yes. He never stopped loving me.”
”Then what more could any mother want for her daughter?”
”I didn't expect you to be so understanding.”
”You know how I love to be unpredictable.”
Kate smiled as a million memories of her mom siphoned through her mind, stopping at the fateful moment in which a car had struck her in a parking lot, changing all their lives forever. For the ten-millionth time since her mom recovered from the long coma, Kate was thankful to have her back in her life. ”Mom?”
”Yes?”
”Will you bring Aidan and the boys and Grandma Anna and Grammy O'Malley and any of Aidan's family who want to come to Nashville for Christmas? I want the whole family there. Maggie's already said she'll come. I've got plenty of room for everyone.” She didn't, really, but they'd make do. Somehow.