Waiting for You (28 page)

“Calling me a mule is a little harsh.” His voice was smaller than Karise had ever heard it. He seemed smaller in that moment.

Karise smiled, taking his hand back. “I really hope you can let
yourself off the hook for being a kid. I’d like to think that you love me
for my charm and wit, not out of some sense of obligation.”

He placed his free hand over hers, leaning closer and looking her
in the eyes. “I came to find you out of a sense of obligation. Once I did,
I was completely enchanted by you. I’ve always known our family wasn’t
complete without you; I was just waiting for you to know it, too.”

Karise took a steadying breath, blown away by his words. “Thank
you. And thank you for being a mule.”

Devon laughed and kissed her hand before releasing it so they
could both reclaim their coffee.

“Hey Devon?”

“What,
mi princesa
?”

“Have you called Papá yet?” she asked.

“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t had a chance. I’ll do it today.”

“Don’t. I mean, let me talk to Aidan first.”

“You aren’t calling the wedding off, are you? Because I finally
decided to like the guy.”

“No,” she rushed to reassure him. “I’m not calling the wedding off.
But I think I might postpone it. We all have such heavy hearts right now.
I don’t want that hanging over my wedding day. And I was thinking, if Alex’s family is able to get away again, that maybe we could have the wedding in Ecuador. If it’s okay with you and Aidan, that is.”

“We’d be honored.” Devon smiled. “Talk to Aidan. Whatever the
two of you decide will be perfect.”

“I’m only two minutes late.” Alex slid into the booth beside Karise,
bumping her over with her hip. “So how come I get the feeling I’ve already missed all the good stuff?”

“Really the biggest news is that Karise is going all runaway bride
on us. This makes two attempted weddings.” Devon winked at her,
but that didn’t stop Karise from sputtering in response. He quickly
clarified rather than end up with a cup of ice water over his head. Alex
told Karise she’d still dump the glass on him.

Luckily for Devon, Karise was more concerned with opening the
envelope that had been sitting in her living room for weeks. She
produced it from her bag and held it up for the others to see.

“Are we ready to do this?” she asked. Three matching pairs of eyes
met. Three heads nodded. “Okay.”

Karise pried the envelope open, carefully spilling the contents onto
the table. They sifted through the meager belongings, not entirely sure
what they were looking for. Devon was the first to pull out a prize.

He held the keys up for the others to see. “These are the keys to the old Buick.”

Alex’s forehead crinkled in concentration. “I think I remember
that car.”

“It’s the one she d
rov
e to the store that day.
See, there’s the keychain
I made her for Mother’s Day.”

They stared at the keys for a moment. Alex was the first to speak.
“You should keep those, Devon.”

Karise nodded in agreement before turning her attention back to
the pile on the table. “Look. How on earth did she get these?” She began
unfolding the pieces of paper to reveal photographs of each of Victoria
McAlister’s three children.

“Oh my gosh.” Alex snatched up a tattered magazine page. “This
is from that gossip rag that caught Daniel and I out dancing. Look,
pre-tattoo by about fifteen minutes.” She handed the picture to Karise.

“Cute hair. I like you better brunette, though.”

“Me too. How humiliating. I can’t believe that’s the picture Mom had of me.”

“She had this one, too.” Devon dangled an old photograph of a toothless young Alex.

Alex swatted the photo away and turned her attention to the ones
on the table. “Seriously? Are there any good pictures of me in there?”

“This is a good one.” Karise pointed to a picture of Alex and the twins.

“That was taken at a fundraiser for the hydrothermal project in
Washington. How on earth did she get this? I can’t imagine many high-
profile magazines covered that.”

“It looks like she printed it; she must have found it online.”

“Is that how she got this one?” Karise held up a snapshot from her college graduation.

They went through each piece of folded paper on the table. As
they did, it became even-clearer that even though Victoria McAlister
had left her children, she had not forgotten them. She’d followed their
life in pictures. When they came to the end of the pile, they came to the end of Victoria’s earthly belongings.

“Her whole life came down to moments missed.” Karise wanted to cry. “That’s so sad.”

“Maybe it’s the best gift she could give us,” Alex
suggested.
“Maybe
she left us a warning not to miss our own moments.”

Devon cleared his throat and wiped his eyes with his thumb.
“Have we decided what we’re going to do with her ashes?”

“I think we should split them up.” The words surprised even Karise
as they tumbled out of her mouth. “I think we should each spread them
somewhere that’s special to us. I mean, we’re her legacy, right? I think
it makes sense for her to be with each of us.”

The other heads at the table slowly nodded.

“The Point,” Alex said. “I love those cliffs. It’s my favorite place on the island.”

“My poppy field. Well, Aidan’s and soon to be mine, too.” Karise
stopped herself just short of rambling.

Devon took a moment to deliberate before deciding. “
My waterfall
.”

They decided Karise would spread her ashes first before giving the
urn to Devon, who would in turn pass it to Alex. Once that was figured
out, they spent the
rest of their breakfast
enjoying each other’s company.

Normally, Karise would have been looking forward to seeing Aidan
again. But now that she’d decided to postpone the wedding, she was
dreading it instead. She swung by Kate’s house to check on its progress
before heading back to the cottage to pick up Victoria’s urn.

By the time she got to Aidan’s, she’d worked herself into a full-scale
panic, but all her worries scattered once she saw him. He paused from
slinging hay to wave at Karise and then wipe sweat from his brow.

“Hey, handsome,” she called out as she waved back. She left the urn in the car lest Clyde knock it over with his tail, and crossed the yard to stand in front of Aidan.

“Hello, my love.” He leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose,
careful not to touch her otherwise. She could appreciate that his sweat
looked better on him than her, so she was grateful for the consideration.

Karise had been dreading the wedding discussion. No matter how
many times Aidan told her he’d wait, she was afraid he’d perceive her
postponement as more than it was. Since she was making herself a
nervous ninny over the whole thing, she decided to spill it first thing.
She took a deep breath.

Aidan spoke before she got a chance. “I know you talked to Kate about having the wedding at the winery, but I’ve been thinking…I’d like to hold off a bit, maybe have the wedding in Ecuador when the timing is a little better.”

Karise narrowed her eyes. “Devon called you, didn’t he?”

“How do you know I’m not just that good?”

“Darling, you are phenomenal, but you stop just short of psychic.”
Humor crept into her voice followed by a wave of love. “It’s crazy
how much I love you. I don’t want to look back on our wedding day and remember all of the sadness that would have been surrounding it. I think I should get both of my house projects to a good stopping point and you should close your deal out East, and then we take Zoe on a vacation and come back a real family.”

Aidan took her face in his hands and kissed her lips tenderly. “I’d
follow you to the ends of the earth, love, and I’d wait for you until
the end of time. I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. Zoe will be thrilled. I only have one problem with what you said – you mentioned
two housing projects. When are you ever going to get around to
redesigning ours?”

Karise had forgotten to show him the pictures in all the chaos of the past few days. She’d get around to it, but for the moment, all she
could think about was him. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling
him close and kissing him with as much passion and love as she felt in her heart.

Aidan rested his forehead on hers. “I’m going to get you all stinky.”

“You’re worth it,” she assured him before glancing in either direction.
“Is Zoe here?”

He nodded. “She’s with Lani and Aaron, chaperoning and doing their nails.”

Karise giggled to herself at the picture of the tough cowboy getting
his nails painted by 40 pounds of pure sass. “So, uh, how busy are you
today?”

“Not that busy.”

“Would you
tell
me if you were?” She leaned back to look up at him.

“Nope.” He pulled her closer again so he could begin his gentle assault on her neck.

“Are we even going to go inside?”

“Nope.”

IN 52 HOURS,
Karise McAlister would be marrying the love of her
life. In her opinion, that moment couldn’t come soon enough. The past
two months of her life had been a blur as she’d worked like a fiend to
get Kate’s house finished and her newer contracts to a point where they
didn’t need her attention. Aidan, having landed several new accounts
with grocery chains, was working 16-plus-hour days on a regular basis.

It was a temporary evil while he implemented the people and
resources needed to meet the uptick in demand, which had given Karise
and Zoe a crash course in bonding. It also meant both of Aidan’s girls
missed him terribly. With everything else on their plates, Karise hadn’t
been able to run her house ideas by Aidan, though she’d won Zoe’s
approval with her drawings of a pixie-themed room, replete with a
bed nook that looked like a tree hollow.

Poor Aidan was exhausted, as evidenced by the fact that he slept
through the entire flight to Ecuador. Karise would have dozed, but Zoe
was vibrating with excitement, making Karise doubly grateful for
the private plane her brother had sent. When she wasn’t wrangling Zoe,
Karise spent her flight going over last-minute wedding plans with Kate.

It seemed Karise was forever battling with someone over simplicity.
Most recently, Devon overrode her by insisting on importing poppies
because he remembered her mentioning them once. Kate and Gavin
were the only attendants. Karise’s family members were the only guests.
When she’d asked about inviting Aidan’s family, he’d replied that it
would take the joy out of eloping if they did. She’d considered telling
him they had different definitions of what it meant to elope but held her tongue. It was his wedding, too, and if his family’s absence made him happy then it made her happy as well.

Now Zoe chattered their ears off as Karise tried to remember which
road was her turn. Devon had made sure there was an SUV waiting for them at the airport. Karise had been nominated driver, being the
only member of their group who’d ever been to Ecuador. Kate was in
the passenger seat commenting repeatedly on the beauty of Karise’s childhood homeland.

Karise glanced at Aidan in the rearview mirror. They’d seen each
other almost every day, but it had been ages since they’d shared a
moment alone together. She missed him so much it hurt. Aidan smiled
at her as if to say he felt the same way, too, and her heart tripped happily.
Just a few more days
, she told herself. Her attention turned back to the
road just in time to make her turn with less grace than she’d intended,
earning her some harassment from Gavin.

Karise ignored him, her excitement mounting the closer they got.
She rolled her window down so the scent of the roses could greet them.
Karise inhaled deeply and smiled; she’d never tire of their aroma.

At last, the main house came into view. Aidan let out a low whistle.
“So this is the house that inspired you to become an architect.”

“This is it,” Karise nodded. “It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?”

“Ours is prettier,” Kate declared. “It’s perfect. I tell everyone who
will listen what a good job you did. You thought of everything.”

Karise flushed under the praise. “Thank you. And thank you for the chance. I’d have been lost without you.”

“I don’t know,” Aidan mused. “You probably would have stayed
in Ecuador if not for Kate. You’d be lounging in paradise instead of chasing goats with me.”

“It wouldn’t be paradise without you and Zoe,” Karise countered.

“Awwww,” Kate and Gavin unintentionally chorused.

There was a line of people waiting to greet them before Karise even
had the car in park. Karise ran straight into her father’s arms. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, so many things to thank him for. For now, she settled for a fierce hug. “I love you, Papá.”