The Best Man (2 page)

“Don’t worry, Joel. I’m not here to cause trouble.”

“Kate, honey…I didn’t do anything wrong.” Voice dripping despair, he glanced to the guests, silently begging forgiveness. Mouth twisting in a boyish grin, reminding Kate how his practiced charm had lured her into marriage, he repeated. “This isn’t a wedding. It’s a commitment ceremony.”

Clenching her fingers in the seams of the faded dress an islander had given her to wear on the flight, Kate kept her voice devoid of emotion. “I came to tell you I’m alive.”

The anguish on Laurel’s face caused Kate a twinge of pity. The secretary couldn’t see past her adoration for her boss. Shoving away pangs of regret at losing Laurel’s friendship, Kate continued. “I came in person so you would know it isn’t a prank. I didn’t come to ruin your wedding.”

“It’s not a wedding.” Joel hissed. His face-hardened, erasing all trace of his boyish charm. Voice low, whether in guilt or regret, he said. “I thought you were dead.”

That’s it?

“You left for home three days after the tsunami.” Kate couldn’t hold the accusation back. Disappointment and shock caused her voice crack. Luke moved close, but accusations spilled from her lips. “I was still clinging to the top of a palm tree when you boarded a flight home.”

“Why wait until today to come back?” Joel gave up any attempt at maintaining his composure, revealing the temper under his fake charm.

Silence filled the sanctuary. Guests leaned forward, waiting for Kate to respond.

Eyes wide, Kate noted Joel’s frustration, Laurel’s despair, the shock on Luke’s face and guests’ curiosity. Tremors shook her in her borrowed shoes, but she held her head high. For the first time since she met Joel, she was in control of her life.

Seeing the pretended concern on his face, she was glad he left her behind. The woman he’d married, the old Kate, was as dead as the love he’d pretended. Strength gained from surviving her ordeal allowed her to meet Joel’s stare. She had courage and a new purpose in her life. She was in control. “My plane landed in New York this morning. I caught the first flight to Raleigh.”

“You could have called.” Joel waved a hand dramatically.

“Joel!”

“I tried.” Kate ignored Luke’s harsh word of warning and watched Joel as avidly as everyone in the church. She hadn’t seen a movie in months, but she was watching an actor at his best.

Joel dropped his arm to his side, and guests turned in Kate’s direction, making her feel she had joined him on a stage.

This was all her fault
.

She shouldn’t have come to the church. But she hadn’t had choice. She needed to stop this wedding for all their sakes. “No one answered at any of the numbers I tried.” Kate gestured to the guests. “Now, I know why there was no answer at our...”

Words dried on her tongue. Every fiber in her objected to calling the house she shared with Joel as home.

Home
.

That one word summed up her dreams for as long as she could remember. She’d dreamed of having two parents and a real home all her childhood. Shoulders square, she said. “You changed your cell phone number.”

Gasps from the guests filled the air like escaped balloons. 

Muscles worked in Joel’s neck, protruding as if he’d swallowed an ice cube. “I lost my phone in the tsunami.”

The pasty color of his face and wilting voice pulled at Kate’s conscience. Her anger seeped away. “I know. The tsunami was bad.”

“Why did you wait so long to come home?”

Kate fought the memories his question brought back. “I had a lump on the back of my head and didn’t remember who I was.”

She wasn’t going to reveal the rest. Joel didn’t care. A man who loved his wife would have torn piles of debris apart to find some sign of her…even if he expected to find her body.

Kate forced the memories back. She’d learned her lesson. She would never give a man the power to hurt her again. Not the father who deserted her as a baby, and not the man she had married to gain her father’s good opinion.

“It took this long to remember who you were?” Joel snarled like a wounded animal.

Kate knew his pain came from losing control of the situation. Thinking of their marriage, she doubted Joel was capable of real emotion. “I had amnesia.”

“Joel!” Luke’s reprimand sliced through the tension holding them captive. He put a restraining hand on Joel’s sleeve. “This isn’t the time or the place.”

“I think it is.” Joel sent his best man a glance out of the corner of his eye. “I deserve an answer after she’s been gone all this time.”

Kate noticed the way he tilted his head to make his face more visible to the church full of on-lookers. It was the confirmation she needed.

Joel never loved her.

She didn’t blame him for the days she’d been stranded in a tree without food and water, but she couldn’t forgive him for not caring about her when she’d trusted him with her heart.

With her life
.

Now, she just wanted him out of her life. “It was a remote island.”

“I found a way off, why couldn’t you?” The unfeeling words made Kate certain he’d never cared.

Joel wanted a new wife.

She wanted to forget past hurts and start a new life. They had both suffered fear and wanted to move on. “I didn’t come back to ruin your weddin—”

“Commitment ceremony,” Joel gritted.

“To ruin your life,” she continued in a firm voice. “I came to reclaim mine.”

Joel looked stunned, but fast as flicking a light switch, he remembered the guests leaning forward so they wouldn’t miss a word of the exchange. “It’s okay, Kate. All that matters is that you’re safe.”

His syrupy tone made Kate’s stomach heave. She clamped her lips tight so she wouldn’t say words she would regret and turned to Luke.

Laurel made a mewling sound like a wounded animal.

Kate wished things were different, that she hadn’t hurt her former friend, but she had to make her position clear. “I came to reclaim my life. I thought you should know I’m alive.”

***

Luke wanted to protect Kate as he’d protected her inheritance in her absence.

“Kate, we need to get out of here.” Luke held his body stiff to keep from brushing against Kate. Seeing her standing there looking fragile as a weeping willow bough, but alive, seemed too good to be true.

But he stared at the man it took all his strength not to hate.

Joel flinched as if Luke’s words lashed his skin. He shrugged Laurel’s hold off his arm and stepped close as he growled. “Get her alone and talk her into taking your side, you mean?”

Luke stared at the man who’d barged into his life with claims they had been fraternity brothers. “Get out of the church so you can continue with the wedd—”

“Commitment ceremony!” Joel snarled.

Luke’s breath hissed. “We’ll continue this later. Kate needs to leave.”

Eyes hard, Joel turned to Kate. “No matter what he tells you, this doesn’t change a thing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Joel’s lips curled in a one-sided snarl. “You will soon enough. Luke can’t wait to fill in the details.”

Kate stepped back. “I—”

“Joel, what’s going on?” Laurel wailed.

“Kate’s leaving and I’m going with her. Get someone else to act as your best man.”

“I saw that coming.” Joel reached for Laurel’s hand. “Everything’s fine, sweetheart.”

Two hundred guests gasped like a well-orchestrated movie sound track.

Joel’s head whipped toward Luke. “Get her out of here.”

“I’ll take care of Kate.” Luke stared his partner for long seconds, promising more than getting Kate out of the church. He hoped Joel understood the challenge. Kate’s return changed everything. Joel was on borrowed time.

And suddenly, Luke’s future took on new meaning. Hope renewed in his chest. He’d loved and lost. He would not lose again.

Muscles wound with tension sprang into action after holding his control. Blood zinged through his veins. He could breathe, for the first time in eighteen months, without feeling pain.

Excitement surged through him. Kate’s return gave him hope.

But Kate was alive!

She was thinner, almost gaunt. Below the hem of the sick green dress, her knees looked knobby. Her hair was ragged as if hacked by a piece of bark or a shell. The dull sable strands hung by a face that was all cheekbones and hollows.

Dark circles underlined her warm chocolate eyes. He’d loved the sparkle in Kate’s eyes when they first met. But a solemn stare replaced her lively charm.

Luke had the urge to drop to his knees and offer a prayer of thanks for her survival.

But he couldn’t expose his deep emotions in front of Joel or Kate. This was not the time. Joel would see his feelings as a weakness and turn it to his advantage in their battle over the law firm.

And Kate...after all she’d been through, who knew how she would react. He didn’t want to scare her off.

He didn’t have a clue to what she must be feeling.

Was she devastated by Joel’s new marriage? That she appeared on this, of all days, left him wondering if she wanted Joel back in her life.

Luke made a mistake by not acting on his emotions when Joel popped into their lives. He’d acted the gentleman and kept his mouth shut to Joel’s false claims. A decision he had regretted every day since Joel married Kate and made partner in the law firm.

He didn’t dare reveal his feelings for Kate. There was no way of knowing how Joel would react. For Kate’s sake, Luke had to push his personal feelings aside.

To protect Kate’s best interests, he had to put the firm’s success first. And pray he could follow up on his personal feeling later.

Now wasn’t the time to tell Kate how much he regretted not fighting for her affections six years ago. Too much had happened. Too many things needed explaining. And Kate needed someone she could trust.

Luke fought a strong surge of emotion. Gained control of the rage building inside him, and managed to smile at the woman he had thought was dead.
Kate
!

Kate was alive.

His heart pounded loud as a drum when he cupped her elbow. The warmth of her skin against his hand sent shock waves though every muscle in his body. Reality jarred through him hard as a knock up the side of his head. He had to break the news to her.

Luke had to find a way to tell her all that had happened in her absence and stay neutral. For her sake, he had to shelve his personal feelings. Luke smiled into her brown eyes. “It’s so good to have you home, Kate.”

Her lips tilted at one corner. “Thanks, Luke. It’s good to be back.”

The musical tone of her familiar voice thawed the ice hiding the secret buried deep in his heart. The tilt of her chin sent a wave of relief through him. Kate’s gaze was shinning with determination. She was going to be okay.

At least he could help her this time. He would make sure she didn’t suffer from Joel’s actions.

Luke glanced over his shoulder at Joel as he urged Kate up the aisle. Joel stood like a man of marble, a weeping Laurel clutched in his arms. Questions exploded in Luke’s head.
What would Joel do now? Did Kate’s return mean anything to the man who had left her behind?

How could any man leave his wife for dead?

Kate’s arm brushed against his. Relief rushed through him. Kate was alive. That’s all that mattered. Everything else he could handle. “We need to leave.”

He would take care of Kate from this day forth. Having thoughts similar to the vows he had just heard should have alerted him to trouble, but Luke was lost in a sense of well being he hadn’t felt since the day Joel reported Kate as missing.

Putting his arm around her to assure himself she was alive, he urged her out the front doors of the church. “Hurry. I want to get you out of sight from the guests.”

“I feel like a cast member in a bad play.” Tension crackled in her voice.

“It could have been worse.”

Kate stopped, mid-step. “Thanks, for your help, Luke. But I can take care of myself.”

“You have a car?”

“I’ll call a taxi. Ummm...can I borrow your phone?”

“You sound as stiff necked as your old man.” Luke gave a mental eye roll.

Not now
.
She’s had enough shock for one day. But he couldn’t put it off much longer...

“Forget your pride. We’re running out of time here.” Luke tucked her next to his side and walked faster. He’d thought he would never see her again, much less have a chance to hold her. He fought back emotions feeling her warmth caused.

He wanted more than their easy friendship in the past. He had from day one, but he’d hidden his feelings, like her father had hidden his.

He’d been too much like her father, as it turned out. While he kept his feelings buried, Joel had stolen her away. Now, her father...