Kitty drained the rest of her margarita. “Said what?”
“You know,” Pilar said. “The L word.”
“Oh, that… I can’t remember.” She tried for a casual laugh, but it sounded more like a donkey bray. It was her nervous tic. And the Bunco Babes knew it.
Shea laid down her dice and gave her a hard stare. “You can’t remember when the man you’re with first told you he loved you? Moose and I have been together forever, but I still—”
“Yes, yes,” Pilar said, waving her hand impatiently through the air. “We all know Moose said the big three after we won the state football championship back a thousand years ago. We’re not interested in you. We’re interested in Kitty.”
Shea snorted. “I was just trying to make a point.”
“Point taken.” Pilar turned her dark eyes back on Kitty. “So, how’d he say it, Kit? Did he take you to dinner? Or just blurt it out without warning? Or—”
“He’s never said it at all. Okay? Is everyone happy now?”
Oops. She should never have had that second margarita. If she could take the words back, she would. But it was too late. The silence of the lambs was nothing compared to the sudden, death-splitting silence of the Bunco Babes. Where was Anthony Hopkins with a sick Chianti joke when you needed him?
“Oh,” Mimi finally managed to squeak out.
The rest of the group looked at her with sad eyes.
Kitty swallowed hard. “It’s not like I’ve told him I loved him either,” she said, feeling way too defensive. She’d hinted at it. She’d said she thought she was falling in love with him. But that was back in the beginning of their relationship. Once they’d moved in together neither of them had come remotely close to saying it.
“So…you’re not in love with him?” Pilar asked incredulously.
“I… Like I said before, I’m perfectly happy with the way things are between Steve and me.”
Before anyone could respond to that, her cell phone pinged, signaling she’d just received a text message. Thank God. A reprieve from the Spanish Inquisition! Kitty kept her phone with her at all times in case one of her real estate clients needed her. Maybe this was good news on a listing. “Excuse me,” she said, getting up from the card table.
She went in the kitchen for some privacy. The text message wasn’t from a client, however. It was from her father.
Hey, sweetheart! I’ll be in town tomorrow night and would love to have dinner with you and Steve. I’ve got a big surprise.
Over the past twenty-five years, Kitty had been introduced to at least a dozen of Alan Burke’s “surprises.” Her parents had divorced when Kitty was ten, resulting in a move to Whispering Bay so that Kitty and her mom could live with her grandmother. Eventually, her mother had remarried. And divorced again. She was now on her third husband, but happily married this time around.
Her father, on the other hand, had remained happily single. He’d recently retired from his job as an airline pilot and was living near Asheville, North Carolina. Kitty saw him three, maybe four times a year. They were as close as they could be under the circumstances. She loved her dad, but sometimes he seemed more like an immature older brother than a responsible father figure.
Please let this surprise be old enough to know who The Beatles are.
She texted him back. Sounds good, Dad. Looking forward to it!
She made her way back to the living room, then stopped cold. There was a quiet, sad sort of atmosphere that was more reminiscent of a funeral than their usual rowdy Thursday night game.
Ten years ago, she, Pilar and Shea had formed this group. They met every Thursday night to roll the dice, drink frozen margaritas and gossip. The Bunco Babes were practically a Whispering Bay institution. Women in town fought to be on their sub list and waited years for an opening into the group. They were more than just friends. This was her family.
Kitty tried to view her relationship with Steve through their eyes.
Was she deluding herself? Ten months ago, when she and Steve had moved in together, she’d thought they were on the fast track to Happily Ever After. But tonight the Babes had forced her to take a hard look at her situation. If Steve loved her, then why hadn’t he told her? After almost a year together, he should know by now if she was the one, right?
There was no doubt that his three previous marriages would make him reluctant to try again. But he had to have thought about it.
Oh God. Of course he’d thought about it. How could he not have?
Her friends didn’t have to say it out loud, but they were right.
Kitty was head over heels in love with a man who wasn’t in love with her in return.
CHAPTER TWO