Whitley glanced around him, then cleared his throat. “The McBride boy jumped mine for no reason at all,” he told Kit. “But it’s over now.”
Kit lifted an eyebrow and looked at Michael. “There’s rarely a really good reason for fighting, Michael,” he said. “It’s such an unimaginative way to settle minor differences.”
“That’s right,” the coach said, nodding in relief and looking impatiently at his watch. “Just what I was telling ‘em.”
Kit didn’t take his eyes from Ernie Whitley’s florid face. “I suppose the only incentive for me to get involved in a fight would be if someone were to say anything unpleasant about my fiancée or her children. I’m afraid I would take great exception to that. Savannah and her kids are a true asset to this community. If anyone has anything to say to the contrary, I assume he would be willing to say it to her face. Or mine,” he added, his voice quietly dangerous.
Fiancée. The word rocked Savannah back on her heels. Was Kit only trying to protect her reputation…or was he as serious as he looked?
She heard the whispers, the murmurs, the speculation, but she kept her eyes trained on Kit’s grim face.
Whitley opened and closed his mouth a time or two, then cleared his throat “I didn’t know you two was engaged,” he muttered.
Nick stared at Kit in awe, then glanced uncertainly at Michael, his expression torn between resentment and what might have been envy.
“I’d suggest you keep it in mind.” Coolly dismissing the other man, Kit turned pointedly toward the coach. “Under the circumstances, I don’t think one of the boys should be punished and not the other, do you? Maybe you could let it go with a warning to both of them this time.”
“I—uh—” The starstruck coach shuffled his feet. “Yeah, I guess that’s what we’ll do. Boys…no more fighting, okay?”
Michael nodded, scooped his dusty cap off the ground and settled it firmly on his head. And then he looked at Kit, his eyes shining. “I’m glad you’re here, Kit.”
Kit reached out to straighten the brim of the boy’s cap. “I promised you I would be here, didn’t I? I couldn’t leave with that promise on my mind. I’m sorry I missed your game. I got stuck in traffic between the Atlanta airport and here.”
He’d gotten all the way to the airport before he’d decided to turn around and come back, Savannah realized. Because he’d made a promise to a thirteen-yearold boy.
How could she not love him?
“Congratulations on your engagement, Savannah,” Lucy called out, bearing down on them with an obvious hunger for details burning in her eyes. “When’s the happy day?”
Savannah looked pleadingly at Kit.
With a skill she could only admire, he managed to usher Savannah and her family through the crowd and out of the park, politely responding to comments and questions without actually answering any of them, avoiding conversational delays without actually being rude.
Savannah hoped he could teach her that skill. She had a feeling she was going to need it in the future.
Reaching the parking lot, Miranda turned eagerly to Kit and took his hand. “Did you just say that to make them shut up about Mom, or did you mean it, Kit?” she whispered, blurting out the question Savannah had been asking herself.
Kit looked over Miranda’s head to meet Savannah’s eyes. “I never say anything I don’t mean,” he replied quietly.
Miranda squealed and threw her arms around Kit’s waist. He returned the hug warmly.
“That’ll show ol’ Lucy Bettencourt,” Miranda said in satisfaction.
“Miranda, did Lucy say something to upset you last night?”’ Savannah asked.
Miranda nodded, a frown creasing her forehead. “I heard her talking to Marie Butler in the ladies’ room,” she admitted. “I was in a stall and they didn’t know I was there—at least, I don’t think they did.”
“What did they say?”
“Mrs. Butler said it probably didn’t bother Kit that you had, um, illegitimate children, because people in Hollywood do that sort of thing all the time. And Mrs. Bettencourt said that she bet you two already knew each other when you went away for vacation. She said you probably spent the whole vacation having an affair.”
Savannah felt her mouth tighten. She was too angry to respond immediately.
It broke her heart that both of her children had heard allusions to their unfortunate parentage. She had never wanted them to think of themselves as mistakes. She’d tried to convince them that, while ideally she would have been older when she’d had them, she still considered them the best part of her life.
How could other people be so cruel as to hurt them over something that was in no way their fault?
Kit blew a sharp breath out of his nose and muttered a short, pithy word in an undertone that Savannah could only hope the children didn’t hear. He made a visible effort to control his temper when he spoke firmly to the children and to Ernestine.