Page 33 of Substitute Bride

Rose had to tell someone or she might just explode. “I kissed him,” she whispered.

Kelly’s dark green eyes went wide. “What did you say?”

“She said she kissed him.” The voice came from the doorway behind them.

Both of them whirled around to see their grandmother standing there in her usual black dress and stern expression.

Rose wanted to melt with embarrassment. She wouldn’t have minded for Kelly to know she’d slipped up and kissed James. But she definitely didn’t want her old-fashioned, interfering grandmother to know.

The old woman walked all the way into the room and sat down in her favorite Queen Anne chair near the fireplace. “Am I to assume the gentleman kissed you first?”

Rose wished the floor would open up and swallow her. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Young lady, you just brought it up with Kelly, so it has now become appropriate conversation for the family. I assume you didn’t kiss him against his will.”

With a gasp, Rose replied quickly, “Of course not.”

“Very good.” Her grandmother closed her eyes. “Very good.”

Kelly’s and Rose’s eyes met across the room. “It’s not really good,” Rose said dryly.

“Of course it is. We can make it work. What is this I hear about his still being engaged to that most inappropriate woman who came into our house uninvited last week?”

“He’s not still engaged to her. He broke it off several days ago. She’s just going around talking as if they’re still together.”

“Hmm.”

“Does she have a few screws loose?” Kelly asked, shaking her head in confusion.

“I don’t know. I assume she’s trying to make things work in her favor, but I don’t know what her end goal is.”

“Her end goal must not be realized,” their grandmother intoned in that almost prophetic tone that never failed to scare Rose. “Let me think for several hours. I will develop a plan.”

“I don’t want a plan, Grandmama. Really, I don’t. I just want to go back to work and forget all this drama ever happened.”

“You really think you can do that?” Kelly asked.

“I can try.”

The truth was, Rose was absolutely positive that she could never forget about any of it.

Jill texted Rose around lunchtime to ask if she was coming back to swim that afternoon, and Rose felt too bad for the little girls to refuse.

It turned out the afternoon wasn’t too painful. They played games in the pool for a few hours, and then they dried off and went inside. At five o’clock, the girls were getting hungry, so Rose went to the kitchen to make some sandwiches.

She was spreading peanut butter when James joined her in the kitchen. He’d acted naturally and casually all day, not behaving as if anything was different. Rose marveled that he could put it behind him so easily.

She wished she could.

“Do you need any help?”

Rose shrugged. She didn’t need help, and she’d rather not be with him alone like this, but she nodded toward the pitcher of lemonade she’d pulled out of the refrigerator. “You can pour drinks, if you don’t mind.”

James pulled out some cups and started pouring.

“What are the girls doing?” Rose asked, mostly to make conversation. She felt strange—and as though James was discreetly watching her as if he wanted to make sure she was all right and wasn’t going to have an emotional breakdown or something—and she wished for the billionth time she hadn’t been stupid enough to kiss him yesterday.

“They’ve decided to build a fort with the blankets and towels and eat their sandwiches underneath it.” There was a smile in his voice.