“I can see that.” He glanced at the balcony doors. “Won’t it be too chilly for you out there?”
She grinned. “I’m sure you’ll manage to keep me warm.”
She went to the bedroom to change while he opened the balcony doors. Vegas had to have at least a million twinkling lights. Funny, how he hadn’t appreciated the beautiful sight before. He was torn between feeling trapped and feeling like the luckiest man in town. If someone down there was winning the biggest jackpot in history, they still weren’t half as lucky as him. He had beautiful Katie Greer in a slinky black dress and thigh-high boots.
“Don’t forget the boots,” he called out to her.
Her answering laughter tickled his ears.
Hands in pockets, he smiled to himself and waited for his wife to join him on the balcony. Weird. His wife. That was going to take some getting used to.
Chapter Six
“I thought you were taking me home,” Katie said.
After three days in Vegas, she peered through the windshield at a huge stately manor. Grayish-blue, the two-story structure had a wrap-around porch, lovely bay windows, and a black tile roof with two brick chimneys. It was the kind of house she and Phillip dreamed of having one day. The sight of it made her queasy.
“Thisishome,” Chase said. He unbuckled his seat belt and removed his sunglasses. “My father left me this place when he died. I almost put it on the market last year, but then I found out about the codicil. My gut told me to keep it.” He grinned sideways at her. “Glad I did.”
He shot around the car and opened the passenger side door for her.
“Why are you glad?” she asked, swinging both legs out at once.
“This house is perfect for us.”
She swallowed hard. “Perfect? For us? Why?”
He put an arm around her shoulders when she stood and waved a hand as if he were a model onThe Price is Rightshowing off the next prize. “Picture it. You can live here while I stay in the city during the week. My family won’t drive all the way out here to bother you, so you won’t have to deal with them. When you get pregnant, you’ll be able to take it easy and relax stress-free. I’ll drop in on the weekend, and no one will question our inevitable divorce because they’ll think we just grew apart.”
Katie’s stomach muscles clenched. She hadn’t expected him to push her out of her job and drop her at the front door like a bad date. She purposely moved away from him so he’d have to remove his arm. “I’m your wife,” she said. “Not your dirty little secret. I will not be treated like your mistress, and don’t forget that.”
He blinked, looking bewildered. “You’re my wife for themoment. Let’s not forget that either.”
After rolling her eyes at him, she walked to the front door and waited for him to let her inside. She actually liked the idea of being on her own during the week once she got pregnant. She wouldn’t want to be scrutinized by everyone as they watched for signs of cracks in her make-believe marriage.
Chase unlocked the door. She explored the house on her own while he made a few phone calls in the den. She walked through two separate living areas larger than her tiny apartment, a formal dining room, the biggest kitchen she’d ever seen, and several smaller rooms.
And that was just the downstairs.
She pulled dirty covers off furniture as she went. Each time, a cloud of dust hit the air, and she wondered how long it had been since someone used the place. She waved the particles away while moving to the next cover. Expensive pieces—just one probably cost more than every stick of furniture she owned—perfectly fit with her style. Living at the lake house wouldn’t be a hardship.
Her eyes went to the ceiling, and she wondered about a nursery. That made her think of all the things the baby would need. Perhaps Chase was right. She should stay at the house and get it ready for their child.
She hoped she was already pregnant. Her body felt tender in a few sensitive areas, but it was too soon to tell. During their honeymoon they had done it everywhere except for the bed. A couple of times he tried to lure her to the bedroom, but she always found a way to detour him. They had sex in the hot tub, on the couch, against the wall, and on the balcony. As long as they weren’t in a bed, she could tell herself it didn’t mean anything. Just sex. They weren’t making love like she had with Phillip, so she wasn’t cheating on her husband’s memory.
On the long drive home, she had fantasized about a warm bath and a nap on a soft mattress. But first, she needed to call her best friend. She didn’t want Bianca to hear it from someone else, so she took her phone out the back door.
A lovely garden waited. She could tell at a glance that a professional landscaper put it together. Complimentary colors were planted next to each other, shorter plants in front of taller ones, and a gray stone path wound around separate batches of floral arrangements leading all the way down to the lake. She couldn’t have done a better job herself. It was the garden of her dreams, and she loved the house. Since he didn’t want it, she wondered if she could get him to add it to her severance package.
She quickly dismissed that idea after remembering he thought it would be best if she took the baby to another state. Chase was probably right about that. If she was living as close to him as the lake house, his control-freak nature would take over, and he would start telling her how to raise her child.
Katie took the path. She walked along it until she came to a decorative wood bench. It didn’t look comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, but she wanted to relax while she made her call. She sat on the edge and hit the button corresponding with her friend’s name.
Bianca answered on the second ring.
“Are you sitting down?” Katie asked as her heart thundered in her chest.
“I hate it when you ask me that. What did you do now?”