can’t leave Danny alone up here. Even if he were old enough, I wouldn’t. Not after tonight.”
won’t be alone. I have a bodyguard downstairs who’ll be with Danny until Billy Wyatt is caught and arrested, no matter how long that takes.”
Kate frowned at the notion of having a bodyguard around all the time, but before she could frame her thoughts about it, Mitchell said implacably, ’s not up for negotiation, Kate.”
Chapter Forty-eight
’RE IN LUCK,” Kate said. lights are still on in the kitchen.”
is that lucky?” Mitchell asked, following her down the wide, oak-paneled hallway, lined with offices, at the bottom of the staircase.
it means that someone else may be preparing our meals, which means they’ll be edible,” she said with a laughing glance over her shoulder.
As she spoke, she shoved open a pair of wide stainless-steel doors concealed behind an antique oak screen inlaid with ebony parquet, and Mitchell saw a small group of men and women who, he surmised, were still celebrating Danny’s return. Rather than going in there with Kate, he retraced his steps to the hallway so that he could look at the assortment of framed photographs, plaques, and magazine and newspaper articles he’d noticed a moment before.
It was a very impressive display, he noticed as he looked at the various awards Donovan’s had received and the articles written about it. The items were arranged in chronological order, so he didn’t come to Kate’s accolades until he neared the far end of the hallway. She’d enhanced the restaurant’s reputation, he realized, and when he came to the last, most recent item, he felt a strange burst of pride that Kate had just been named Chicago’s Restaurateur of the Year.
She returned from the kitchen while he was still reading theTribune article, walking toward him in tan-colored jeans and a soft cashmere sweater that was the same green as her eyes, with an open cowl neck that threatened to bare her shoulders. With her long flowing red hair and her hips swaying gently as she walked, she looked feminine, regal, and sexy at the same time.
Mitchell tipped his head toward theTribune article and said, remember when you were terrified you wouldn’t be able to keep this place open, but look what you’ve accomplished.”
made a mess of things the first few months, and I would have given up back then if it hadn’t been for Danny. I needed to make a success of things for both our sakes.”
As she spoke, she led him to the front of the restaurant, walking past the ma d’s desk and through a doorway. She flipped on a light switch, and mellow lights illuminated a stylish lounge with an ornate bar lining two walls; despite its size, the room was cozy and inviting. asked Tony to bring our meals to us in here,” she explained, walking toward the bar. Mitchell suddenly remembered the way she’d looked presiding over a candlelit table in a villa by the sea. Now as he watched her, he understood why she’d seemed so sure of herself and self-possessed that night.
From beneath her lashes Kate watched him studying the room. She couldn’t believe he was actually standing just a few feet away from her. This day had begun as the worst of her life, and it was ending as one of the very best. He’d taken off his tie and jacket upstairs and folded his shirtsleeves back over his forearms, and she was well aware of the subtle attraction and relaxed camaraderie springing to life between them again. She was equally aware that it was a very fragile, tenuous thing now, created out of illusion and nostalgia for Danny’s sake and carefully maintained by an unspoken agreement to avoid any discussion of the past.
you like a drink?” she asked from behind the bar.
He nodded, looking around.
He drank vodka, Kate remembered very well, but she hid that knowledge behind the safe veil of pretense they were keeping up. would you like?”
His gaze swung to her. know the answer to that.”
With those six words, he deliberately tore away the veil and shoved both of them into the treacherous quicksand that was their past. Kate was stunned. ’re still very sure of yourself,” she chided, turning to reach for a bottle of Donovan’s best vodka.
you’re still very beautiful.”
Kate’s hand froze on the neck of the bottle, then she took it carefully down and reached for a glass. wasn’t aware that you thought I was beautiful.”
hell you weren’t.”
This was an entirely new tone, not one from their past at all. Kate fixed him a vodka and tonic with lime, as she’d done in Anguilla, and then decided—considering the direction he seemed to be heading—that she ought to have something to drink, too. Painful questions were popping up in her mind, questions she didn’t want to ask, with answers she didn’t need to hear and probably wouldn’t believe if she did. She was so grateful and happy about the things he’d done today . . . so amazed at the tender way he’d looked at his son that she wanted to freeze their emotions right where they were.
you do me a favor?” she asked with a smile as she came around the bar and handed him his drink.
depends,” Mitchell said, already knowing what she was going to ask. Her eyes were candid and appealing, and part of him was willing to agree to what she was going to ask. The other part of him was adamantly opposed to doing anything of the sort. ’s the favor?”
you please not say anything at all that brings up the past?”
In answer to that, he looked straight into her eyes and said bluntly, in the living hell could you ever have considered marrying an asshole like Evan Bartlett?”
this going to be another one of those conversations we used to have, where you do all the asking and I’m the only one giving answers?” she asked darkly.
An inexplicable smile touched his lips, and his voice gentled. .”
you go first,” she replied.
He nodded, took a sip of his drink, and leaned his right elbow on the bar. ’s your question?”
Kate didn’t want cooperation; she wanted to maintain peace between them. don’t have one,” she lied.
answer mine. How in thehell could you ever have considered marrying Evan Bartlett?”
is going to go very badly,” Kate asserted, pointing to a table by the windows across the room and answering his question as she walked toward it. ’m not certain there was any one reason as to why I got engaged to Evan. It was a combination of things I discovered aboutyou, actually, that led to our engagement.”
me?” he asked skeptically.
, you,” Kate replied. me something,” she added, turning around and looking at him with baffled sorrow. t possible delight will you derive from my telling you that I was completely duped by you? How can you be so extraordinary in so many different ways, and yet be so . . . so heartless and egotistical?”