Unfinished Business - Nora Roberts Page 0,48

right.” Vanessa tossed back her hair.

“I’m a handsome so-and-so?”

“No, you’ve never had a lick of sense.”

“Hey!” he called after her. “Where are you going?”

Vanessa shot him a long, teasing look over her shoulder and kept walking.

It was like old times, Vanessa thought as she stopped to talk to high school friends and watched children race and shout and gobble down food. Faces had aged, babies had been born, but the mood was the same. There was the smell of good food, the sounds of laughter and of a cranky baby being lulled to sleep. She heard arguments over the Orioles’ chances for a pennant this year, talk about summer plans and gardening tips.

She could smell the early roses blooming and see the tangle of morning glories on the trellis next door.

When Brady found her again, she was sitting on the grass with Lara.

“What’re you doing?”

“Playing with my niece.” They both lifted their heads to smile at him.

Something shifted inside him. Something fast and unexpected. And something inevitable, he realized. Seeing her smiling up at him, a child’s head on her shoulder, sunlight pouring over her skin. How could he have known he’d been waiting, almost his entire life, for a moment like this? But the child should be his, he thought. Vanessa and the child should be his.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No.” He brought himself back with a long, steadying breath. “Why?”

“The way you were staring at me.”

He sat beside her, touched a hand to her hair. “I’m still in love with you, Vanessa. And I don’t know what the hell to do about it.”

She stared. Even if she could have latched on to the dozens of emotions swirling through her, she couldn’t have put any into words. It wasn’t a boy she was looking at now. He was a man, and what he had spoken had been said deliberately. Now he was waiting for her to move, toward him or away. But she couldn’t move at all.

Lara bounced in her lap and squealed, shattering the silence. “Brady, I—”

“There you are.” Joanie dropped down beside them. “Whoops,” she said as the tension got through to her. “I’m sorry. I guess it’s bad timing.”

“Go away, Joanie,” Brady told her. “Far away.”

“I’d already be gone, since you’ve asked so nicely, but the limo’s here. People are already heading around front to stare at it. I think it’s time to see the newly weds off.”

“You’re right.” Almost using Lara as a shield, Vanessa scrambled to her feet. “We don’t want them to miss their plane.” She braced herself and looked at Brady again. “You’ve got the tickets?”

“Yeah, I got them.” Before she could skirt around him, he cupped her chin in his hand. “We’ve still got unfinished business, Van.”

“I know.” She was grateful her voice could sound so calm when her insides were knotted. “Like Joanie said, it’s bad timing.” With Lara on her hip, she hurried off to find her mother.

“What’s all this about a limo?” Ham demanded as Joanie began unrolling his pushed-up sleeves. “Did somebody die?”

“Nope.” Joanie fastened the button on his cuff. “You and your new wife are going on a little trip.”

“A trip?” Loretta repeated, as Vanessa handed her her purse.

“When newlyweds take a trip,” Brady explained, “it’s called a honeymoon.”

“But I’ve got patients all next week.”

“No, you don’t.” With Brady and Jack on either side of Ham, and Vanessa and Joanie flanking Loretta, they led the baffled bride and groom to the front of the house.

“Oh, my” was all Loretta could say as she spotted the gleaming white stretch limo.

“Your plane leaves at six.” Brady took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to his father. “Vaya con Dios.”

“What is all this?” Ham demanded. Vanessa noted with a chuckle that old shoes and cans were already being tied to the bumper. “My schedule—”

“Is cleared.” Brady gave Ham a slap on the back. “See you in a couple weeks.”

“A couple weeks?” His eyebrows shot up. “Where the hell are we going?”

“South of the border,” Joanie chimed in, and gave her father a hard, smacking kiss. “Don’t drink the water.”

“Mexico?” Loretta’s eyes widened. “Are we going to Mexico? But how can we— The shop. We haven’t any luggage.”

“The shop’s closed,” Vanessa told her. “And your luggage is in the trunk.” She kissed Loretta on each cheek. “Have a good time.”

“In the trunk?” Her baffled smile widened. “My blue silk blouse?”

“Among other things.”

“You all did this.” Despite the persistent photographer, Loretta began to cry. “All of you.”

“Guilty.” Brady