“Oh?” Saturday…she was supposed to have Saturday off. “Oh! That’s right.”
“You said you have somewhere you like to go….”
“I do.”
“Is it somewhere close? Is there a time you have to be there?”
“It’s not far and I can get there when I get there.”
“I’m only asking because I need to make a schedule for myself.”
“Schedule?”
“Do I need to get up with the kids? Will you be back at night or take the whole day off? Stay overnight with your parents?”
She hadn’t really thought about it. But her only real priority was seeing Jason. She didn’t need to stay at her parents’ house. She could come back here. “I could get up with the kids—”
“You don’t have to—” He sighed as if frustrated. “I’m just trying to get everything straight that’s all.”
“Can we play it by ear on Saturday morning?”
He set his coffee cup down with a snap. “Sure.”
Then he left and Tory collapsed against the kitchen counter. Trying to pretend she didn’t have an ugly accident in her past kept getting more and more difficult. Sure, she didn’t want his pity, and she wasn’t really lying—but she wasn’t being honest either. And this was the second time it had caused an awkward conversation. She had to own up to it.
Regret swamped her. Once he knew, he’d pity her. She wouldn’t feel normal anymore.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Was that really why she wasn’t telling him? Because she wanted to feel and appear normal to him?
Oh, Lord. What was wrong with her?
At noon, she pushed the twins’ double stroller up the thin brown brick lane to Gwen’s. When she reached the mansion, she rang the bell. Gwen immediately answered. Dressed in a chic, classic outfit, she looked the part of lady of the house.
She clapped her hands together. “Come in! Come in!” She turned and called down the hall behind her. “Kate, the babies are here!”
A short brunette in jeans and a sweater popped out of a doorway in the back and raced up the hall. She took one look at Cindy, with a big pink bow in her curly yellow hair and Sam, who filled his half of the double stroller, and she clapped her hands together too. “Gwen, you’re right. They are the cutest kids in the world.” Then she extended her hand to Tory. “I’m Kate. Chance’s sister-in-law. Max’s wife.” She grinned. “Can I hold one?”
Tory took the hand Kate had extended, her mouth sort of hanging open. Kate was gorgeous, but not “cover model” gorgeous. More like girl-next-door perfect. Perfect. The kind of woman Chance should marry too. “You can hold them both if you like.”
Gwen laughed. “We get the babies all to ourselves for the next hour—or two if we can persuade Tory to take a long lunch.”
Tory shrugged out of her old denim jacket. “Can’t today. Once I eat, it’s nap time. I’ve finally got them on a schedule.”
“Then run along,” Gwen said, nudging her toward the hall that led to the kitchen. “Kate and I want as much time as we can get with these two.”
Tory ambled down the long hall and took the two turns that got her to the double swinging doors that opened into the kitchen. Cook, a short gray-haired lady in her seventies who’d been with the Montgomery family for thirty years and JoAnn, the maid, sat at the long table in the back of the room.
Cook waved her over. “Soup’s getting cold.”
Tory hung her jacket on the back of an available chair. “You didn’t have to wait for me.”
“I didn’t,” JoAnn said, rising from her chair. “Mrs. Montgomery’s having a party on Saturday. I’m not just busy. I’m supervising a crew from an outside cleaning service.” She gave Tory a hug. “Sorry, but I have to run.”
After she was gone, Tory picked up her spoon and took a bite of soup. “Yum. I swear, Cook, you should open a restaurant.”
Cook batted a hand. “At my age? Besides, the Montgomerys are like family now.”
Tory glanced down at her soup. “I can understand that.”
Cook laughed. “Oh, can you now?”
“Yeah.”
Cook laid her hand on Tory’s forearm. “Why do I get the feeling something’s wrong?”
She sighed. “Because something is wrong. Off sync.” She drew in a breath. “I’m behaving—different—around Chance.”