Sebastian’s voice floated through the door. “You better hurry on down. Mom’s getting antsy.”
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Miles muttered to Chloe with a liberal dose of sarcasm. “We’ll be right there,” he called back to Sebastian.
“Come on,” Chloe cajoled him. “This is obviously important to her. Let’s not be any later than we already are.”
“I like you more and more every minute, you know that?” Miles said, taking her hand and leading her out of the room. “Mom was outright rude, and you’re still prepared to play nice and soothe her sensibilities?”
“Miles, I’m a guest in her house, and I’m here with her son. I don’t want to do anything to upset her.”
“And I won’t stand for her upsetting you, either. You know that, right?”
“I don’t deserve you,” she whispered, and squeezed his hand tight.
They were at the bottom of the stairs and people were pouring through the front door and being directed by additional staff out through the back to the patio and pool area where the barbecue had been set up.
“Looks like we’re right on time,” Miles remarked as they moved through the crowd and headed in the same direction.
Outside, the entire area had been converted with a patriotic and festive scene. Red, white and blue bunting hung from the veranda overhang and the uprights were wound with ribbons.
“Your family really goes all out, huh?” Chloe said, looking around her.
“Yes, we do,” Ava answered, drawing up from behind.
Chloe started in surprise. She hadn’t even seen the woman coming nearer.
“Mrs. Wingate, the decorations look wonderful.”
“Thank you.” Ava inclined her head graciously. “I don’t think you’ve met our good family friend, Keith Cooper, yet, have you? Keith, come on over and meet the young lady Miles brought down from Chicago with him.”
A tall man, with the remnants of an athletic build, extracted himself from the people he’d been talking to and walked over to Miles and Chloe.
“Keith, this is Chloe Fitzgerald. Chloe, this is Keith Cooper.”
Cooper offered his hand to Chloe and gave her a quick handshake. He only took the tips of her fingers, not even offering her the courtesy of a proper handshake. It was something that always bothered her when she met certain men. As if they thought the little woman couldn’t handle a full-on palm-to-palm grasp. Personally, she found it disrespectful.
When Mr. Cooper let her hand go, he snaked a possessive arm around Ava’s waist. Chloe felt Miles stiffen beside her at the familiarity.
“Keith is an old family friend. He and Dad went way back. In fact, they were rivals for Mom’s hand in marriage,” Miles pointed out quite deliberately.
Chloe could feel an undercurrent vibrating in the air between the three others.
“And the better man won the fair maiden,” Keith said with a wide smile.
But Chloe could see the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak to the caterers for a moment,” Ava said, smoothly extracting herself from Keith’s touch.
The man turned his attention to Chloe.
“Fitzgerald, name sounds familiar. You’re from Chicago, you say?”
“Yes, I teach elementary school there.”
“Hmm, and we’ve never met? You kind of look familiar.”
Chloe felt her blood turn to ice in her veins. She’d been told often enough that she looked like her mother. Had this man ever met Loretta Fitzgerald? Had he known her dad? If so, he could potentially expose her right now. Here in front of everyone. That wasn’t how she wanted to do things. When she told Miles the truth of her identity, she wanted that to be in privacy.
“I’m sorry, I’ve never had the pleasure,” Chloe forced herself to respond as smoothly as she could. “And Fitzgerald is a fairly common name. Those Scots travelled far and wide, didn’t they?”