Huge Deal - Lauren Layne Page 0,43
Claudia for the wrong reason. What was it? The companionship?”
Kennedy gave a wry smile, because his father may as well have read his mind. “Maybe. More so, I think, that Claudia seemed like the type of woman I always thought I’d end up with.”
“She was beautiful,” Roger granted.
“Yes. But it was more than that,” Kennedy said, glancing at the water. “Mom set us up. The Palmers live in Europe now, but Claudia grew up just a few blocks north of us. They went to our church, though a different service. She knows all of the same people we do.”
“And that’s what you wanted? Someone from our social circle?”
“I don’t know. It seemed right on paper.”
“But didn’t feel right?”
Kennedy shook his head.
His father casually turned around, leaning his elbows on the railing as he faced the crowd. “This got anything to do with Jack?”
Kennedy gave his father a sharp look. “What about Jack?”
“You tell me. You’re always quiet, yes, but you’ve been even more reticent than usual since your brother moved back from Europe. Since he took up with your girl.”
“Kate’s not my girl,” Kennedy said, turning around so he, too, could lean back against the railing, crossing his arms over his chest.
“She sure cleans up nice, though. I always liked her.”
Kennedy forced himself to follow his father’s gaze, and though he thought he was braced for it, the sight of Kate and Jack together still packed a wallop in the vicinity of his throat.
Again with the pink.
What was with Kate lately? It was as though she’d gone out and bought a whole arsenal of pink dresses just for Jack, and also to torture Kennedy. He didn’t even like pink. Well, that’s not true. He’d never given a thought one way or the other to the color . . . until now.
The pink dress she’d worn at his birthday party had been flirty and feminine. The one on their double date had been fun and casual. But this . . .
Kennedy’s gaze drifted over her, and he swallowed. The front of the rose-colored dress was demure, tying at her neck and then skimming over her frame with only a hint at the slight curves below, all of the way down to silver sandals.
When he’d first walked in and seen her, he thought he could manage the evening without staring. Maybe. But when she’d turned around and he’d seen the back, he was a goner. She’d pulled her hair up into a simple knot at the back of her head, no doubt styled intentionally to show off the large bow tied behind her elegant neck, showing off her slender back. All of it.
Kate said something to Jack, who bent his much taller frame to hers, his hand coming around to rest lightly on the smooth skin that had been demanding Kennedy’s attention all night. Skin that was not his to touch. That had never been his. But could have been . . .
He turned back abruptly toward the water, away from his brother and Kate, as well as his own thoughts. Or tried to, anyway.
As usual, Kennedy’s father missed nothing. “Does she know?”
Kennedy didn’t play dumb. “No.”
“Does Jack?”
Kennedy shook his head. “I didn’t even know until a few days ago.”
“Hmm.” His father took a drink. “What’s your plan?”
“What do you mean, what’s my plan? She’s my assistant. He’s my brother. I get over it.”
Roger continued to study Jack and Kate. “You think she’s the one for him?”
Kennedy gave a fleeting glance over his shoulder, then back out at the river. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
Kennedy’s fingers clenched around the iron railing. “Well, what do you want me to do, Dad? Go storm over there and tell him that I don’t see it? That he’s not able to give her what she wants?”
“How do you know what she wants?”
“She told me. She wants love at first sight, someone who doesn’t hold back, who’s willing to go all in,” he said, recalling their conversation that night over the chessboard.
His father said nothing for a minute, then looked back at Kennedy. “You remember that summer when you were about nine or so, and we rented that house in Nantucket with the pool?”
“Sure.”
“It was all you boys wanted to do, swim in that pool. Not Fitz, he was too young, but the other three of you spent all damn day in that thing.”
“So?” Kennedy knew there was some sort of fatherly lesson coming, but he didn’t have a clue what it was.
“It says a lot about