Longing for Home (15 page)

Either way, Kate knew she was somehow to blame.

She started to back away—quietly—when a blond head popped up in the chair next to Alex. A bright smile lit up the small, heart-shaped face.

“Me an’ Alex are readin’ the book. See?”

Kate sagged against the doorframe.

Did she see?

Yes.

Would she have believed it if she hadn’t spotted Tori resting in the crook of Alex’s arm, holding up Kate’s ancient copy of
The Secret Garden
as evidence?

Not in a million years.

Chapter Sixteen

“I
t’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?”

The French doors slid open with a whisper behind Alex, and he stiffened.

“You’re still awake.” He hadn’t meant to sound so accusing, but Kate had escorted the children upstairs over an hour ago and Alex assumed she’d turned in for the night, too.

“I had a few things to take care of.”

That didn’t surprise Alex. Kate always had something—or someone—to take care of.

She came to stand beside him on the deck, a cup of coffee cradled in her palms and a smile on her face. “I whipped up a few pans of stuffed French toast for the guests for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

Alex’s gaze skimmed Kate’s slender frame. For the campfire, she’d worn figure-hugging jeans and a faded green hoodie to provide insulation against the mosquitoes. At some point, and he had no idea when, she’d switched to black sweatpants, a T-shirt dotted with winged cupcakes and an apron knotted around her waist.

“So you ducked into a nearby phone booth?”

“I don’t follow.”

“Orders?” Alex muttered.

Kate grinned. “No, I mean, you have to spell it out. It’s after ten and this is decaf.”

Feelings…do I have to spell the word or spell it out for you?

Jeff Gaines’s laughing comment rudely intruded on Alex’s thoughts.

He politely but firmly kicked it aside.

“I mean you’ve changed clothes three times today for three different events. Maybe you should just throw on a cape like all the other superheroes and save time.”

“A cape.” The clover-green eyes brightened, as if the idea appealed to her.

“You’re completely missing the point.”

“You can’t serve tea and scones in blue jeans and you can’t serve s’mores in a fancy dress.”

“That’s just it. You didn’t have to supervise the campfire this evening. Or lead the sing-along. Or make sure the pieces of chocolate remained in direct proportion to the number of graham crackers.”

Kate tilted her head to look at him. A band of moonlight slid across her face, caressing her jaw and weaving strands of silver into the copper curls.

“And
you
didn’t have to keep an eye on Tori this afternoon.”

Alex had hoped she wouldn’t bring that up.

“I didn’t think Tori would like tea.” And Alex didn’t like tears, so reading a book had risen to the top of his “to do” list.

Until Kate had found them.

He would have turned the book over to her immediately, but Tori had insisted that he finish reading the page.

Kate perched in the chair across from them, a half smile on her face. It had taken all of Alex’s self-control to keep his eyes fixed on the printed words and not on the shapely, sun-kissed legs visible below the hem of her sundress.

He’d retreated to his office as quickly as possible and hadn’t caught more than a few glimpses of them as the evening wore on. Logan and Tori stayed close to Kate while she’d started the campfire and welcomed the guests who, Alex suspected, were as drawn to Kate’s laughter as they were to the promise of something sweet.

Alex had spent the past few hours on the phone with his attorney, who’d called him after being approached with another you-can’t-refuse-this offer from a major hotel chain that been trying to buy him out for years.

He’d refused it, but not quite as enthusiastically as he had in the past. Something Alex couldn’t quite explain. Not to his attorney or to himself.

“Tori wanted me to tell you good night. And that she likes your peanut-butter sandwiches the best because you cut the crusts off.” Kate looked at him curiously. “How did you know that, by the way?”

Alex shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of experience with books and tea parties. When they get older, it changes to movies and pizza.”

“Well, I think you made a new friend. Don’t be surprised if she wants you to read chapter three.”

“As long as it’s not in the middle of the night.”

“You heard her.” The words rolled out on a sigh. “Tori fights to stay awake. It’s like she’s afraid to close her eyes.”

“Leave a light on,” Alex suggested. “She probably doesn’t like the dark.”

Kate’s brow puckered. “I didn’t think about that.”

Alex had.

“She reminds me of Abby at that age,” he said without thinking. And immediately regretted the words. It was something Alex didn’t talk about. A part of the past he didn’t want to
think
about.

“What happened to Abby…it must have been devastating for you and your parents.”

The quiet acknowledgment stripped the air from Alex’s lungs. Even the people who remembered what had happened knew not to bring it up.

“She told you.” Alex had had his suspicions, but the compassion reflected in Kate’s eyes confirmed them.

“We’re friends,” she said simply. “She told me that as a child she’d been abducted by one of the hotel employees.”

“Did she mention that he was also a family friend?” Alex’s hands tightened on the rail.

“Yes.” Kate handed him the coffee cup, an unspoken invitation to share.

After a moment’s hesitation, Alex took it from her. The intimacy of the gesture and the connection it created between them nudged him off balance.

Alex wasn’t sure what Abby had told Kate, but suddenly he wanted her to see it through
his
eyes. And he wanted her to understand why it was dangerous to trust. To give people access to your life.

“Porter Lakeside was our parents’ first hotel and they worked round the clock, right alongside the staff, pitching in wherever someone needed help.

“I remember pushing Abby down the halls in a laundry cart and sneaking down to the kitchen in my pajamas to have a piece of cake. Even when our parents bought another hotel and started to get reviewed in travel magazines, it felt as if everyone was one big, happy family. Until one of the employees was caught stealing and Dad had to fire him. Abby didn’t know that when Carl asked her to get in his car. She trusted him.”

Alex had trusted him, too.

“Abby said your parents had you change schools.”

“Not just schools.”
Everything
. “We moved to an estate outside the city with more gates and security cameras than the art museum. Mom and Dad didn’t socialize with the staff anymore and we weren’t allowed to, either.”

“That must have been really hard,” Kate said softly.

“No.” Not for him, anyway. “Dad explained it was up to him and I, as the men of the family, to make sure nothing like that ever happened again.”

“But you were only fourteen…he made you promise to look out for Abby?”

“I made a promise to myself.” Alex’s jaw tightened. “After I inherited the hotels, I decided to run things the same way my parents did. It works.”

Who are you trying to convince?
Kate wanted to ask.
Me? Or yourself?

She’d been stunned when she had found him reading to Tori in the three-seasons room. Her assumption that Alex didn’t care for children had shattered when she watched the little girl tuck her cheek against the broad shoulder and saw the remains of a tea party on the table.

“I’ve had a lot of experience with books and tea parties. When they get older, it changes to movies and pizza.”

Kate wondered if he realized what he’d revealed.

Alex knew what he was doing because he’d done it before.

At the age of fourteen, he been charged with the responsibility of protecting his sister after the unthinkable happened. At twenty-two, he’d taken on the added weight of protecting his parents’ dream. And sacrificed his own in the process.

It was easy to focus on the cynical executive Alex had become and forget that he’d once navigated his younger sister through the turbulent teens.

Fragments of conversations Kate had had with Abby fell into place like pieces of a puzzle.

To cope with two life-altering events that would have shaken anyone to the core, Alex had chosen to order his life in a certain way.

The Grand Plan.

Not a goal to become a household name or amass a fortune but to live in such a way that he maintained control. Not only over himself, but everything around him.

Every
one
around him.

“Matt Wilde left a message for you about the picnic tomorrow.” Alex slanted a look at her. “On my phone.”

Kate recognized the comment for what it was, a not-so-subtle attempt to change the topic. Maybe Alex already regretted revisiting a painful part of his past. She wanted to know more but knew he wasn’t a man who allowed any weakness to show.

Something had just happened. A subtle shift in their relationship that left her feeling both hopeful…and terrified.

“And you didn’t call him back and cancel that, too?” Kate strove to keep her tone light.

“I would have, if I thought it would do any good.” Alex pushed the cup toward her. “But I arranged for the college students Abby hired to clean the cabins to come back tomorrow evening so you wouldn’t have the extra cleanup.”

“I don’t know.” Kate looked thoughtful. “Asking the housekeeping crew to clean up the kitchen would fall under my duties, wouldn’t it?”

“I mentioned it when they stopped by
my
office.”

“I don’t think that counts.”

Alex shrugged. “I’m the boss and I say it does.”

“Temporary boss.” Kate began to inch away from the rail.

He pretended to consider that. Rejected it with a shake of his head. “No, I still heard the word ‘boss’ in there.”

“Fine. But that means that I can play by those rules, too. If you can add to an employee’s hours in your office, I can use the phone in
my
kitchen to cut them.” Kate shot toward the sliding glass doors to make that call but Alex had already anticipated the move.

Halfway across the deck, a strong arm snagged her around the waist. Kate felt herself being lifted off her feet and turned around.

“Rats,” she breathed. “I forgot you’re a runner.”

Alex didn’t release her and for some reason, it didn’t occur to Kate to try to escape.

Exasperation deepened his eyes to evergreen. “Are you always this contrary?”

Kate thought about that.

“No,” she said honestly. “I don’t think so. Do you always chase down your employees when you don’t get your way?”

Alex thought about that.

“No. I don’t think so.”

“See, if you were really my boss, I wouldn’t last a week.” Why had she brought
that
up?

“That’s true.” That slow, rare smile kicked up the corners of Alex’s lips and sent Kate’s heart into a freefall. “You’d set a terrible example for the rest of my minions.”

“I should—”
escape!
“—Go inside.”

“Planning to rescue that last piece of chocolate cake before the evil genius gets his hands on it?”

“Evil genius?”

“You play your part and I’ll play mine,” Alex deadpanned.

No fair. He was being charming again.

Laughter backlit his eyes and Kate caught a fascinating glimpse of the young man who’d loved to play practical jokes on his friends. The older brother who had sent his sister careening through the hotel corridors in a laundry cart.

The man who had patiently tweaked the blueprints for a tree fort and took an hour out of his busy day to read to a five-year-old.

A man it would be all too easy to fall in love with.

To break the power of that smile and the effect it was having on her, Kate took a step back but realized that Alex was holding her loosely by the wrists.

“Abby taught me some self-defense moves. Don’t make me use them.”

The laughter faded as Alex looked down at her and what shimmered in its place made her suck in a breath.

Kate’s mind fogged up, reducing visibility to the pair of jade-green eyes staring into hers.

He was thinking about kissing her.

He was
going
to kiss her.

“Good night, Kate.”

Alex let her go.

That was just as well, because if one of Alex Porter’s smiles had the power to melt her defenses like sunlight on a patch of snow, Kate could only imagine what one of his kisses would do.

Alex waited until he heard Kate moving around in the kitchen before he went back inside.

Call it cowardice…or self-preservation.

When he walked into the office, the first thing he saw was the piece of chocolate cake on his desk.

Abby’s
desk, Alex silently corrected.

His desk, on the top floor of Porter Lakeside, was twice the size of this one and faced a trio of oval, leaded glass windows that overlooked Lake Michigan.

What was happening to him?

In a week he would be back in Chicago, where he belonged.