The Wife He Needs - Brenda Jackson Page 0,56
her. I told her you were coming here for Christmas.”
Regan was about to tell him she might be seeing him sooner than that, when his next words stopped her. “I’m meeting Deena’s kids for Thanksgiving. We’re flying to Wisconsin, where they live.”
Regan didn’t respond at first. Then, because she knew how she felt was important to her father, she said, “I am truly happy for you, Dad, and I can’t wait to meet Deena when I come visit you for Christmas.”
“Thanks, sweetheart. I need to go now. Deena and I have a date later. We’re doing dinner and then a movie.”
She nodded, hearing the excitement in his voice. “Enjoy yourselves.”
“We will. You take care, sweetheart.”
“I will, and you do the same, Dad.”
After ending the call, Regan stood and walked back over to the window. At least her father had proved that one could love again—although it had taken him nearly twenty years to reach that conclusion. Better late than never. And he honestly sounded happy. She couldn’t wait to meet Deena.
Should she take that as hope for herself? She would if Garth had given her any reason for hope when they’d parted at the airport. He hadn’t. It was as if once he’d returned to his home turf, she was out of sight and out of mind. She had honestly thought he would have called her by now, if for nothing more than to see how she was doing.
She stood and was about to go into the kitchen when her phone rang. She quickly picked it up, hoping it was Garth, and then sighed in disappointment when she saw the caller was Charm. “Hey, Charm.”
“Hello. I just got back from visiting Walker, Bailey and the twins in Kodiak. The babies are adorable.”
“I bet they are, and I bet they are growing like weeds.”
Charm chuckled. “Yes, they are. The reason I was calling was to see if you wanted to do dinner tonight at the Riverview? It seems like I haven’t seen you in ages, and you need to tell me about Santa Cruz. I’m thinking of taking a trip there myself next summer.”
Regan didn’t have anything planned for later and getting out of the house to meet Charm was a good idea. “Yes, I’d love to have dinner with you.”
Garth stood at the window in his office and looked out. It was hard to believe it had been fourteen days since he’d seen or talked to Regan, and a part of him missed her like crazy. For the past thirteen nights he’d gone to bed remembering how they would shower together, make love, share a bed, and how he would hold her in his arms while she slept and then wake up making love to her every morning.
Those had been the times when he had felt a degree of peace he hadn’t felt in ten years. During those two weeks in Santa Cruz, he’d gotten used to being happy, satisfied, at ease with life and comfortable with having Regan around. He’d known her for years, all of her life, and she’d been his pilot for nearly five years, but he could honestly say that during those two weeks, he’d gotten to know her in ways he hadn’t thought possible. Not all of it had been spent in the bedroom. However, he would be the first to admit the times in the bedroom had been special.
He’d even opened up and told her about Karen, not knowing how much he’d needed to talk about his past with someone other than Walker. Doing so had placed a lot of things in perspective.
Regan had captured his heart.
He had fallen in love with her.
Garth shook his head, not believing how things had turned out. Maybe he’d fallen in love with her last year when his blinders came off, but he’d been fighting it. He’d been convinced he would be dishonoring Karen’s memory to give someone else his heart. It had taken ten years to discover he’d been wrong.
It had taken ten years to accept that losing the person he loved didn’t mean losing their memory, as well. To love someone and then grieve for them—that was a transition in life that a number of people went through. Just because he felt emotions for another person didn’t diminish what he’d once felt for the woman he’d loved and lost. It was about accepting that it was time to move on.
The relationship he’d shared with Karen had been unique, what he’d needed at the time. Now he