Dominic ducked his head, but not before she saw a look that could only be described as pride. He grabbed the blanket and came to stand next to her. “I wouldn’t say a genius. Besides, I wouldn’t have been able to go as big as this without the resources so easily at my disposal.” He threw the blanket open. It curled up on the edges and she bent down to smooth them over.
“Now you’re being modest. This place is incredible. You’ll have to give me the grand tour when we’re done eating.” She sat back and turned to see Dominic at the fireplace. Within a moment, a blaze came to life.
“Gas fireplace,” he said, as if he had to offer an explanation.
“Practical and environmentally correct.”
“Precisely my focus when I was studying architecture up at the U,” he said and returned to the island for their food.
Kate stood and helped him bring the cartons and a couple of paper plates over before taking a seat. “Pretty big space for a bachelor like yourself. Planning to open a bed-and-breakfast? Maybe an orphanage?” she teased.
“Nah. Just wistful thinking. Someday I plan on having a full house. A wife, kids. A dog or two. The works.”
A lump filled her throat unexpectedly. Not that these things were anywhere on her list of things to accomplish, but it sounded nice. He was going to make some lucky woman quite a husband.
“What are you going to do with the area upstairs?” she said, uneasy with the current topic and wanting to change courses. “It’s kind of open for a bedroom. Unless you like that whole lack of privacy thing.”
“A game room. Or an office. Not sure. Maybe both. There’s also a master bedroom over that way with a master bath.” He nodded to his left. It was next to the great room, which meant it probably had the same amazing view. “It’s part of why I wanted to show you this place. I’ve started some work on the tub area, and I thought you might be interested in taking a look. Maybe you’ll see some features you want to use at your place. Anyway, across from that master room is a smaller room. Downstairs is another open room
and space for two or three more bedrooms.”
“You are ambitious.”
He delivered a devilish smile and raised his brows. “Or realistic.”
Her stomach did a somersault, but she wouldn’t let him see his effect on her. She rolled her eyes instead and took a bite of some kung pao chicken. Which was pretty fantastic. She took another bite. “Either this is the best Chinese I’ve had in a while, or I’m insanely hungry.”
“Nope. It’s pretty good. I’m friends with the owners, actually. They’ve been in business almost fifteen years.”
“I’ll have to go there more often.”
She must have bit into a pepper because suddenly she was coughing, her eyes watering. Dominic sprang up and headed to the small fridge and grabbed a bottled water. She accepted it gratefully and took giant gulps. He went back to the kitchen and looked into the fridge as her coughing slowed.
“Want a beer?”
She nodded and Dominic grabbed two bottles and returned, settling back on the blanket. He twisted the top off one bottle and handed it to her before doing the same to his. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, and if you do, tell me to mind my own business, but…what ever happened between you and Michael. Why’d you two end things?”
Why had Michael ended things might be the more appropriate question.
Kate tipped her beer and tasted the yeasty flavor as she mulled it over. She gave Dominic’s question another minute of consideration and waited for the usual pain at thinking or discussing this subject.
Nothing. Except a little sadness at remembering the pain it had once caused her. Disappointment. The memory wasn’t even as gut-wrenching as it used to be.
She realized he was still watching her and waiting. “It wasn’t us, really. We were fine. It was more what Michael and I could never be. What I could never be.”
There was a dark glimmer in his eyes, a tightening of his jawline. “What you could never be? What the hell kind of shit is that?”
She leaned back, crossing her legs in front of her to get comfortable. “My family lines don’t trace back to the first settlers. I don’t have a trust fund that would rival the per capita income of a small third-world country,” she offered in explanation. “As I’ve mentioned before, to Michael’s family, just like Payton’s, that was important. The lineage most of all. They envisioned vacationing with their in-laws in Kennebunkport with little golden-blond grandchildren running around. Not redheaded rednecks.”
“I would hardly call you a redneck,” Dominic said, his tone light, but the tightening of his fist belied his real anger.
Unable to keep his gaze, she toyed with the beer bottle, tipping it side to side as she continued. “Michael was okay with it all. At first. But eventually it started to put pressure on our relationship. You probably remember Nicole mentioning the weekend brunch they were going to at his parents’ house? That was something I was never privy to in the three years we dated. It reached a head when Michael’s sister got engaged to a Huntsman. They fawned all over the happy couple. It wasn’t long after that Michael came to realize we just weren’t ideal for each other.”
“Ideal for each other? What the hell does that mean?” This time he couldn’t keep his anger from his voice. “You either love someone or you don’t.”
“He told me he still loved me. Was in love with me. But we wouldn’t work out in the end. That was just over a year ago. Then Nicole started at the firm, and the rest is history.”
“What a goddamn coward.” Then reaching forward, catching her eye, he added, “I’m sorry, Kate. But what a shit. Not even man enough to break up honorably but instead leads you on to think he loves you except for your shortcomings?” His outrage was clear. “He couldn’t even take the blame for ending things, pawning it off on his family and you—anywhere but on him, where it belonged.” He waited for her to look at him before he continued. “You deserve someone better. Someone who will love and appreciate you for everything you are.”