The Millionaire Claims His Wife
“What are you talking about?”
“Do me a favor, will you? Shut off the light. My head’s pounding like a drum.”
“You want some aspirin?”
Annie shook her head. “I already took some.” She sat down on the sill, her knees drawn up to her chin, her eyes on the darkness beyond the glass. “You want to know what Dawn said? Okay, I’ll tell you, but you’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t like much of anything that’s already happened today,” Chase said, getting to his feet and walking toward her. “Why should this be any different?”
“The first thing she said was that she loves Nick.”
“Uh-huh.” Chase folded his arms and leaned back against the window frame. “Why do I get the feeling we’re about to play, ‘good news, bad news’?”
“She said she knows that he loves her.”
“That’s the good news, right?”
Annie nodded. “The bad news is that she ran away from him for the same reason.”
Chase’s brows knotted. “Let me be sure I’m following this. Our daughter fell in love, got engaged, moved in with the guy, married him, went off with him on her honeymoon...and then decided to bolt because it dawned on her that she loves him and he loves her?”
Annie sighed. “Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.”
“I’m relieved to hear it. For a second there, I thought I was going completely nuts. What’s the rest?”
“She’s afraid.”
“She’s afraid,” Chase said, trying to stay calm. He had the feeling they were moving into the sort of emotional deep water that women swam through effortlessly and men found way over their heads. “Of what?”
“Of them falling out of love.”
“Annie.” Chase sat down on the sill, his knee brushing hers. “You just said, girl loves boy. Boy loves girl. They’re just starting out. There’s no reason for her to think—”
“She’s afraid of what’s going to happen.”
Chase waited, but Annie said nothing. He could almost see the water rising.
“What’s going to happen?” he said carefully.
Annie shrugged. “Their love will shrivel up and die.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I said the same thing.”
“And?”
“And, she said...” Annie swallowed hard. “She said she’d watched us today, at the wedding.”
“Us?” Chase nodded, as if he had a clue as to what they were talking about. The only thing he was sure of was that the water was definitely getting deeper. And rougher. “As in you, and me?”
“Us,” Annie repeated, “as in you, and me. She said it hurt her to see how we hated being forced into each other’s arms, on the dance floor.”
“Well, of course we did. Nobody warned us that was going to happen. Did you explain that to her?”
“I did.”
Chase thought back to the moment when Annie had gone into his arms. He thought beyond that, to when he’d suddenly realized how good it had felt to have her there, and he cleared his throat.
“We managed, didn’t we?”
“Sure. I pointed that out to her.”
“And?”
“And, she said it was sad, that—that we’d had to pretend we enjoyed dancing together again.” Annie’s cheeks grew warm. She could clearly recall the instant when being held in Chase’s arms had gone from being an unwanted chore to being—to being... She took a deep breath. “I told her it was nothing for her to worry about.”
“And?”
“And, that was it.”
“What was it? I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
Annie put her mug on the sill beside her. Then she linked her hands together in her lap.
“That was what triggered it.”
“Triggered what? I still don’t know what—”
“Dawn said she was standing at the airport ticket counter, just standing there, you know, while Nick checked their luggage through and confirmed their seats, and all of a sudden it struck her that what was really so sad about you and me was that once upon a time, we must have loved each other a great deal.”
“She’d have liked it better if we hadn’t?”
Annie swallowed. Her throat felt uncomfortably tight. “She said—she said that she realized, for the first time, that you and I must have felt just the way she and Nick feel. You know, as if we were the only two people on the whole planet who’d ever loved each other so much.”
“Lovers always feel that way,” Chase said gruffly.