The Wedding Dress (7 page)

Gareth had seen and heard some unpleasant things in his time as a cop, but this was pretty damn high up the list. “You’d actually do that?”

“In a heartbeat. Though it would be easier if you could just ‘find’ a sample. I don’t care how you do it,” Richard said. “Just get it done.”

He hung up, leaving Gareth standing there holding the phone.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” Margaret said as she came in through the front door. “What’s wrong?” When he didn’t answer right away, she said, “I’d rather not have to guess like I do with my teenagers.”

“Richard wants me to force Anne into giving a DNA sample.”

She frowned. “That’s not uncommon in a case like this. What’s the problem, Gareth?”

The problem was that people didn’t go in for DNA tests in legal cases unless they were already pretty certain of the outcome.

“This will destroy her, Margaret.”

Margaret reached out to put a hand on his arm. “And that won’t be your fault.”

“You honestly don’t think it will be my fault if I push Anne into the test that proves her father cheated on her mother and destroys everything she ever thought about her family?”

“No,” Margaret insisted. “It won’t. It will be her father’s fault for cheating. You have a job to do. All you can do is try to make it as easy as possible. So far, I’d say you’ve been a lot kinder to Anne Farleigh than anyone else would have been.”

Gareth shook his head. “The point is that it’s
me
dragging her into it.”

Margaret sighed theatrically. “Working for a PI with a conscience is tough going. At this rate, my kids are never going to get their way paid through college.” She paused and gave him a small smile. “But I knew exactly who you were when I went with you, Gareth. You’re one of the best men I’ve ever known. And you need to do what’s
right
.”

Gareth didn’t pause before picking up the phone again.

“Gareth?” Richard Wells said. “You’ve managed to set it up already?”

“No,” Gareth said.

“So you’ve come to me with more problems? I don’t have the time to sit and hold your hand while you do your job.”

“Actually, this is about my job.” Gareth didn’t hesitate. “I quit, Richard.”

“What?”

“I’m not doing any more work on this case for you.”

There was silence on the other end of the line for a second or two. “This is a joke, right? You made the mistake of getting too close to Anne Farleigh, and now you can’t do your job anymore.”

“Then it’s just as well that I’m quitting, isn’t it?” Gareth said. “I’m done, Richard.”

“You’re done all right,” Richard replied. “Don’t think you’re getting any more work from my firm. Or from any of our clients. Oh, and you’d better not go running to Anne Farleigh to blab what you know.”

“I don’t work for you anymore, Richard,” Gareth pointed out.

“You signed a nondisclosure clause when you agreed to do this job, or did you forget that part? Look it over, and you’ll see what it will cost you if you breathe one
word
of this to Anne Farleigh.”

“A minute ago, you wanted me to talk her into the DNA test.”

“And it will still get done,” Richard said. “But now I’m thinking that if we time it right, she might just fold completely.”

“You can’t—”

“Oh yes, I can,” Richard said. “It’s you who can’t save her. You can talk to her all you like, but if you tell her anything you were told in confidence—”

Gareth hung up the phone with a loud bang.

“Looks like I’ll have to put off buying that private island for a while, won’t I?” Margaret said softly. And yet, her expression told him just how proud she was of him, despite the fact that they were going to have to find several new cases, and fast.

“Sorry,” Gareth said. “But I need to go—”

Margaret put a hand on his arm. “I know exactly what you’re going to do. Just promise me you won’t do anything that will get you thrown out of that nice apartment of yours. With all of my kids making messes all over the house, I don’t have room for you to move in too.”

Gareth headed first for Anne’s house, but when she wasn’t there, he knew where he’d find her. She was in the Rose Chalet’s main hall talking to a woman Gareth didn’t recognize, and there was a recording device sitting on the table between them.

For the briefest of moments, Gareth feared that Richard had somehow managed to get someone down there to force a deposition out of Anne, and he started forward. Then he realized they were talking about dresses. Thank God.

“I don’t pay too much attention to what the trends are,” Anne was saying. “Instead, I try to figure out exactly what’s right for the individual client and her wedding. Too often, people wear dresses that are beautiful, and they’re the right style for the season, but they aren’t right for them.”

“And do you only use specific materials?” the reporter asked. “Some designers are very careful about where they source things these days.”

“I use whatever looks right, wherever I can find it,” Anne said with a smile. “For Felicity’s dress, for example, I had the
perfect
fabric in a storage box at home.”

Gareth’s chest squeezed tight as he stood there watching her. He had to tell her about the upcoming DNA test. He had to warn her, had to inform her of the kinds of things Richard and Jasmine might come out with when this case went to court…

And then what?

Gareth had no doubt that Richard would make good on his threat to sue Cavendish Investigations. He’d likely win, and then both Margaret and Gareth would have to start over.

And yet, fear of having a lawsuit brought against him wasn’t what stopped Gareth from just walking up to Anne and saying it straight out. If it had just been that, he would have done it in a heartbeat.

No, what stopped him was the sure knowledge that leaking information to Anne would be breaking the rules. And whatever Gareth thought of Richard Wells—and it wasn’t very much at this point—Gareth had given his word. He’d signed a contract. He’d made a legal commitment.

Could he go back on that? Even for Anne?

A few minutes later, when her interview was winding down, she looked up and spotted him. “Gareth! What are you doing here?” She hurried over to hug him hello. “Are you here to take me out to lunch again? It’s a bit early, but I think we’re almost done here, aren’t we, Tessa?”

The female reporter with her looked Gareth up and down. “Sure, have fun. I think I have everything I need, and I’ll email you if any other questions come up.”

“So,” Anne said, slipping her hand into Gareth’s, “where are we heading for lunch?”

He knew he ought to say
nowhere
. Or that he ought to warn her about the DNA test, rules be damned.

But right at that moment, with her lips so close to his, Gareth couldn’t think about anything other than how wonderful it had been to kiss her and how much he’d like to do it again.

Chapter Thirteen

“How did you find this place?”

The tiny diner looked like it had been transplanted straight out of the nineteen-fifties and seemed to be run by about twenty assorted members of the same boisterous family, all of whom bustled about them.

“I was walking past one day,” Anne replied, “and everyone inside looked so happy. I knew that it had to be a good place to eat if it made people that happy.”

Would anyone else have decided to try the food in a diner for a reason like that?

Only Anne.

And, he had to admit as he took a bite of his hamburger, the food was pretty good… though it didn’t even come close to matching his company.

All through lunch, Gareth was mesmerized by every movement Anne made, every elegant gesture, every beautiful smile.

And there were so many smiles…

He shouldn’t be taking this day off, especially when he needed to line up more clients in the wake of quitting Jasmine and Richard’s case. So what was it about Anne that made playing hooky seem perfectly all right? And what was it about her that made him smile just watching her talk with the waitress?

Unfortunately, his smile didn’t last long. Not when he still had to tell her about the DNA test.

Because all it took was a half dozen of her smiles for him to realize that the nondisclosure agreement didn’t matter. She did.

Now, the tricky part was finding the right way—and time—to tell her.

* * *

Anne laughed while they went to go check on their shoes in the shoe garden, and Gareth told her the story of the first time he’d chased a criminal as a cop, and how they’d both ended up so out of breath he’d barely been able to read the man his rights.

“You must have been very determined to go after him like that. What had he done?”

“Actually, he was a shoplifter,” he admitted with a wry twist of his lips. “But he’d broken the law, and I wasn’t about to let him get away.”

They both laughed then. Gareth was so easy to talk to. They started to walk back to his car and ended up on a park bench, buying bread from a bakery so they could throw breadcrumbs to a small flotilla of ducks that bobbed on the water expectantly.

The best part was that he always listened so intently. When she started to tell him about different kinds of lace and this lovely little place nearby where she liked to buy it, only to realize that a big, tough private detective probably wouldn’t be interested, he actually suggested that they drop into the store, rather than trying to change the subject as most men would have.

“I think I’d rather sit here awhile longer,” Anne suggested, sliding her hand into his.

* * *

A little while later, sitting on Pier 39, they watched the sun start to fall. It was one of those things Gareth had heard of doing, but who actually did it?

Anne did.

She looked as beautiful as ever as she tilted her face up to the sky to soak up the rays of the setting sun. He couldn’t imagine standing and watching a sunset alone, but with her, it actually made sense.

It was such a small thing, but Anne took those small things and looked at them until she found the beauty in them, and when she did, he could see the beauty too, for the very first time.

It was almost enough to drive thoughts of the DNA test from his mind.

* * *

Anne felt like she was living a fairy tale as she walked along the sandy beach in the moonlight, hand in hand with Gareth.

It wasn’t just how strong, how steady, he was. No, those things were wonderful, but the best part, the part that made it special, was the fact that he seemed to feel the same way and was content to walk with her in the kind of comfortable silence that lasted until Anne noticed a particularly beautiful shell, or until she wanted to tell him about the time she’d been to the beach with Rose when they were both kids.

And yet, Anne could tell Gareth was thinking about something as they walked. Something important.

She hoped he would feel comfortable enough with her to talk to her about it soon.

* * *

Gareth whirled round in a circle with Anne in his arms. He still wasn’t sure how she’d talked him into dancing barefoot on the beach with no music. It wasn’t the kind of thing he did.

Except that here, now, with her, dancing in the sand made perfect sense.

“That’s it,” Anne said breathlessly. “You just have to listen for the music in the waves.”

A few minutes later, their legs tangled up, and they tumbled down together on the sand. They were so close now that it was easy to kiss her. Easy and amazing at the same time.

They held each other like that for long minutes, looking out over the waves, with Gareth’s arms wrapped around Anne as they did so.

It was perfect. Too perfect to ruin by saying the wrong thing.

He’d tell her about the DNA test when he took her home. That would be better, anyway, because then he could comfort her in private if the news hit her hard.

“Would you like to come back to my place for a late-night dinner?” Anne asked, out of nowhere.

“Your place?”

Anne nodded. “I haven’t planned anything, but—”

Gareth cut her off with a kiss. “I’d love to.”

* * *

Anne didn’t have anything in her fridge that constituted a romantic dinner, yet she did her best with what she could find, throwing together chicken, rice, and a sauce packet she didn’t remember buying.

“This is great,” Gareth assured her when he tasted it.

He was always so kind. As they ate, they talked about their childhoods and tried to outdo each other with silly stories of adventures they’d had as kids.

All the while, Anne felt as if Gareth was circling around something. She tried to be patient and let him tell her in his own time.

But was there any chance that he was going to say that he was in love with her?

* * *

He had to tell her.

Gareth had been putting it off all day, but Anne deserved to know about the DNA test.

He’d do anything to spare her pain. He’d seen how upset she’d been when he’d first come to her house, and how happy she’d been after the mediation when she’d thought it had all gone away, yet he couldn’t
not
tell her.

Not when it meant that Richard Wells would be able to spring the news on her later.

Gareth put his fork down, trying to find the words. “Anne, there’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you all day.”

“I know you have, Gareth,” Anne said with a wide smile on her beautiful mouth.

And then she kissed him.

* * *

Anne kissed Gareth as passionately as she’d ever kissed anyone, and then she slid her hand into his and pulled him through the living room and up the stairs.

When she turned back to face him at the threshold of her bedroom, he was looking at her with such hunger that a shiver of need took her over, body and soul.

She reached up on tiptoe to kiss him again, a kiss that was sweet and tender and wonderful.