“The Caribbean? Do you know where?” Luke straightened, eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t ask her. She told the police about it, however. They knew.”
Luke nodded, looking thoughtful.
“Anyhow, while his defection hit the town hard financially, it hurt my mother and I on every other imaginable level. If I spoke sharply to you afterward, and I’m sure I did, I am sorry about that. But my mind wasn’t on you or Gavin. Losing my father that way really devastated me.”
A weight seemed to lift off her as she shared the truth. Her father’s betrayal had hurt her deeply and always would. At least she’d finally had a chance to confide that to Luke since she’d been too upset to articulate it at the time.
Luke nodded. “I understand that,” he acknowledged before his gaze snapped up. “My parents might not have liked your father, but I always admired the way he treated Gavin. Going to races and stuff. That was very cool of him.”
Toward the driveway. She turned to follow his glance and spotted Gavin’s pickup, the headlights cutting a path through the snowfall even though it was still daylight. The grayness of winter and the precipitation limited visibility.
Rachel’s heartbeat quickened as he stepped out of the truck, lifting his hand to wave at them. Those sparks stirred inside her.
“So do you think we can move forward without all this awkwardness between us?” she pressed Luke, wanting to finish the conversation she’d come home to have.
“I want to trust you, Rachel,” he said, his dark eyes on her again. “Because two people who are important to me care about you a whole lot. And I don’t want to see either of them hurt.”
Her chest tightened at the implication that Gavin cared about her. That he hadn’t hesitated to let Luke know as much. But then again, Luke wanting to trust her wasn’t the same as trusting her. Or forgiving her.
But by the time she processed that, Gavin had reached them, his gray down vest and blue ski cap as impervious to the snow as the rest of him. He grinned widely.
“You two make my day, having an actual conversation.” He slung an arm around both of them.
If he sensed the tension between them, he was opting to ignore it.
And for now, Rachel didn’t see the need to press Luke about what he meant. She cared about Kiersten too.
And yes, Gavin.
She certainly wasn’t planning on hurting anyone. Her heart was the one most at risk.
Luke was the first to speak. “I couldn’t very well hold a grudge against the best man’s date for the wedding, could I?”
Rachel smiled at Luke’s attempt to extend an olive branch, even if it wasn’t the heartfelt forgiveness and fresh start she had hoped for. For now, it would have to be enough. She could attend the wedding without animosity, and she was finally going to have a real date with Gavin Blake. Funny how that eclipsed something she’d thought was most important—being accepted by the town again. But every nerve tingled at the prospect of this date. It was eight years later than she’d first hoped, and it was only going to be for one night. Well, one night plus the wedding day.
She had a rehearsal dinner and a wedding to attend with Gavin, and the next twenty-four hours played out in every romantic way possible in her mind. As Gavin and Luke argued about who had the hottest date for the rehearsal party tonight, Rachel reminded herself to keep her expectations in check. But after the emotional roller coaster of the past week, she figured it was okay to feel happy for the moment.
Besides, she had a party to get ready for.
Chapter Ten
Gavin swiped two glasses of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray at Luke and Kiersten’s rehearsal party later that evening. The winter wonderland theme for the event, held at the elegant Hearthside Inn in Lake Placid, was more upscale than the karaoke welcome reception had been, maybe because this one was hosted by Luke’s family. It didn’t surprise Gavin a bit that the Harris clan had chosen to celebrate their son’s wedding outside Yuletide. They never had embraced the town after the renaming.
With a solo pianist playing jazz renditions of the Christmas standards, the ballroom overlooking the lake had been decorated all in white. There was a candy bar full of white sweets in clear glass vases and a snowflake-making station for the kids.
A cut-crystal champagne flute in each hand, Gavin searched the crowd for his date, wanting to deliver on his promise to make this night memorable. Special.
Rachel had told him this time together was like a time out from their real lives. Something temporary. He hadn’t wanted to believe it then, still hoping that they shared something bigger than that. But if temporary was all they could do, he would make the most of every second. Even now, he couldn’t wait for her signal that she was ready to leave the event. He wanted Rachel all to himself.
Pausing at the edge of the dance floor strung with white icicle lights twined with frosty glass crystals, Gavin scanned the couples.
“Looking for your date?” a voice at his left inquired. Scott Malek, the mayor, stood in the corner of the room, glancing up from the phone in his hand.
Gavin tensed. Not because of the question, but because he’d been wanting to call the guy out for stealing his cross-country skiing event idea. Setting the untouched champagne flutes on the end of a bar draped in white linen, Gavin faced him head-on.
“I was. But now that you’re here, maybe you can tell me why you had the town engineer out—”
“Let me stop you there,” Malek interrupted him, stuffing the phone back in the breast pocket of his dark blue suit. “Miss Chambers already took me to task for the survey.”
“She did?” A feeling something like pride filled him that she’d approached the mayor on her own. Maybe, now that Luke had agreed to let go of his mistrust, Rachel felt more confident having a voice in the town again.
“Yes. But I’ll tell you the same thing I explained to her.” The mayor—a family man in his mid-thirties—held an arm out to a tiny red-headed whirlwind of a child who banged into his leg and hugged it. “I like the idea of the charity event. I just think a cross-country course could be utilized more than once a year.”
Gavin understood that. “I have experience with things like this. I would have liked to have been part of the planning.”