Page 61 of Substitute Bride

James hesitated to take the hat and coat, but the old woman narrowed her eyes at him. “You will present yourself appropriately, young man.”

“Please, Daddy!” Jill said, still tugging on his arm. “You’ll look like a prince!”

“A prince!” Julie echoed.

Right. A very gallant prince in a top hat, tails, and workout shorts.

“I’ll put them on upstairs,” he said, starting up the stairs, vowing that nothing more would stop him from finally getting to Rose.

The girls ran up at his heels and Kelly and Mrs. Beaufort were right behind them.

There was only one closed door in the hall, so he went to stand in front of that one. He shifted the ungainly bouquet into one hand and knocked on the door with the other.

“Put on your coat and hat, Daddy!” Jill cried, grabbing the clothes from Mrs. Beaufort and thrusting them at him.

With a sigh he set the hat on his head and had the jacket halfway on when Rose opened the door.

It looked like she’d been crying, and she was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and yoga pants. She stared in shock at the people collected outside her door.

Her eyes ended up resting on James, who must have looked like an absolute fool.

“Surprise!” Julie screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Daddy,” Jill hissed, “Put your other arm in!”

“What—” Rose choked, staring around and suddenly looking unsteady on her feet.

“We’ve come to take you home as our mommy!” Julie declared, her volume just slightly less in decibel than her earlier announcement.

“Shh,” Jill said, giving her sister a nudge. “We’re not supposed to tell her that yet.”

James was completely at a loss for words. The whole thing had become a farce. Kelly was somewhere behind him, but he could hear her strangling on laughter. And Rose couldn’t do more than make another squeak.

Finally Mrs. Beaufort took control of the situation. She cleared her throat and then took both of the girls by the hands. “We will leave your father to declare himself now. Come, Kelly. We will be in the parlor having lemonade.”

“Lemonade!” Julie repeated.

“We’ll be downstairs, Daddy,” Jill added. “Don’t forget to give her the flowers.”

Then the four of them trooped down the stairs, leaving him alone with Rose in the doorway of her room.

He thrust the bouquet of flowers at her, and she took them, needing both hands to hold the huge collection.

Now he had to say something.

But first he was going to take the damned hat and jacket off.

12

Rose had been hiding in her room crying.

When she’d been dumped before by Richard, she’d done the same thing, but that time she’d been more humiliated than anything else. So she’d been able to see herself from a distance and had felt a little amusement about the melodramatics.

This was different though. She couldn’t see herself at a distance at all. She could only acknowledge, over and over again, what had happened.

She hadn’t been careful after all. She’d fallen in love with her boss. Her boss who was and who would always be off-limits.

And now she’d lost both him and the two girls she adored.