Page 19 of Substitute Bride

“Of course not. You know everything, and you always eat with us. The girls would get worried if you stayed in the kitchen.”

His tone was brusque, but he always sounded that way when he was off guard, so she didn’t take it as bad temper. She just smiled and carried the napkins and drinks into the family room, feeling a little nervous for no reason at all.

The girls were setting up a picnic blanket on the floor in front of the couch, and the cheese pizza had been placed square in the middle. They grabbed Rose’s table accoutrements and laid out place settings for the four of them.

James came in with the other pizza, having taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves to his light blue dress shirt. He gave a half smile at the seating arrangements and lowered himself to sit on the floor without comment.

Rose gave herself a quick, urgent lecture. Just because the meal felt very intimate and domestic didn’t mean it was. They weren’t a family, and they would never be.

She worked for them and nothing more.

She’d learned her lesson several years ago after the fiasco with Richard. She wasn’t going to start imagining something that wasn’t there since it just led to heartache.

“Thank you for pizza, Daddy!” Julie exclaimed, after taking her first bite.

“You’re welcome.”

“Is something big happening?” Jill asked, older and therefore a little more aware of undercurrents. She looked from her father to Rose as she waited for an answer.

“Well,” James began, looking a little relieved at the clear introduction to what he had to say. “There’s something a little bit big. I wanted to let you both know that I’m not engaged to Genevieve anymore. We have broken up.”

The girls both stared at him, Julie with her mouth partly open.

Then Jill asked, “Is it because she was mean to us?”

“Partly. But it’s more than that. Just because you have a fight, doesn’t mean you break up. But we realized that we weren’t happy together, so we wanted to end it before we got married.”

Rose wondered if Genevieve had realized the same thing, or if James was just generalizing for the girls. She could fully believe that Genevieve would fall into a full-fledged snit for a while, but James was a great catch—attractive and affluent with a great house and a luxurious lifestyle. If Rose had read the other woman correctly, she wouldn’t want to let all that go if she didn’t have to.

Her thoughts were distracted when Jill nodded soberly. “You shouldn’t get married if you’re not happy.”

“That’s right,” James said, reaching over to stroke the girl’s hair back from her face. “I think it was the right decision for all of us.”

Julie had just stared, chewing on her bite of pizza slowly. Eventually James asked her, “What do you think about that, Julie?”

“I’m glad,” the girl admitted, ducking her head as if she felt guilty. “I didn’t like her.”

“You didn’t?”

Julie shook her head, peeking up at her father. “Is that okay?”

“Yes, of course that’s okay. Sometimes it takes awhile for us to warm up to people who we don’t like at first, but in this case there’s no reason for you to get to know her better since we won’t be spending any more time together. But I hope you’ll tell me next time if you don’t like someone who is around. I want you to tell me anything, even if you’re afraid I don’t want to hear it. Okay?”

Rose was touched by his earnest words and by the girl’s serious response, nodding and muttering, “Okay, Daddy.”

“What about Rosie?” Jill asked, turning to look at Rose with wide eyes.

“What about her?” James asked.

“Did you ask her what she thinks?”

Rose felt her cheeks flushing, ridiculously embarrassed by the childish question. “Oh, Jill, honey, it doesn’t matter what I think. It’s a matter for your daddy and the two of you.”

“But Rosie matters too, doesn’t she?” Jill asked, suddenly looking concerned. She turned to her father with a beseeching look.

“Of course Rosie matters,” he said immediately. “She just meant that it was a family matter.”

“But Rosie is family,” Julie said, her mouth full of another bite. “Right?”