Page 40 of New Year, New Guy
‘He obviously made mistakes with you and I suspect he regrets them every day. Has he reached out to you recently?’
A stiff invitation to Christmas dinner. Brief email updates when his mother was ill. Passing Hunter’s name on to a friend interested in one of his custom-built log cabins. He rattled off the list and avoided Laura’s eyes. ‘I guess I wasn’t as forthcoming as I could’ve been.’
‘How will you live with yourself if something happens to him before you get a chance to at least try to reconcile?’ Her eyes glistened. ‘No family is perfect but I never doubted my parents’ love and they never doubted mine for them. Every day in my job I deal with people who have that choice taken away and regret is the ugliest word in the English language . . . I’m pretty sure it is in the American one too.’
‘I’ll think about it. All of it. Okay?’
‘Sounds good to me.’
He risked a fleeting grin. ‘What time is your wedding overhaul session anyway?’
‘Overhaul? You make Polly and I sound like a couple of old cars in need of a tune up.’ Laura glanced at the bedside clock. ‘She’ll be here to pick me up in an hour. I ought to shower and—’
‘—What you “ought” to do first is let me make love to you again.’ Hunter pushed her back down on the bed. ‘That’ll put a glow on your face and make the spa’s job much easier. You’ll need less make-up to fool people you’re not past your sell-by date yet.’
‘I should smack you and toss you out of bed!’
‘But you won’t.’ He’d take the temporary reprieve and run with it. When she challenged him again Hunter hoped he’d be prepared.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Polly stretched out in the hot tub and took another sip of champagne. ‘Tell me this isn’t more fun that mopping up yucky stuff at A&E?’
‘Much more fun.’ Despite her earlier misgivings Laura had thoroughly enjoyed being pampered. Would she have relished it more without thoughts of Hunter McQueen intruding at regular intervals? Definitely. But a person rarely got everything they wanted.
‘Make-up and nails next and then it’s time for our fancy afternoon tea.’ A cloud flitted across her sister’s face. ‘Mum would have adored all this.’
The grief of missing their parents had been the proverbial elephant in the room through all the wedding preparations, and they’d only dared release it on a few occasions.
‘She would positively swoon over Hunter,’ Polly declared. ‘She always had a thing about Americans and would’ve dumped Dad in a heartbeat if Robert Redford ever came calling.’
All morning Laura had tiptoed around her sister’s pointed questions but now the gloves were off.
‘Don’t lie and tell me it’s a casual fling because you don’t do those, and don’t claim he’s only staying longer to follow up on Danny Pearce either.’
The second glass of champagne loosened her tongue and Laura poured out the whole baby story all the way through to her bedtime confrontation with Hunter.
‘That’s pants.’ Polly topped up their glasses. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘About Mike? Report him. Not out of revenge because I’m way past that but because it’s the right thing to do.’
‘Good. He deserves it.’ Polly’s decisiveness made her smile. ‘I’m not stupid. I know you’ve never told me everything aboutyour crappy marriage and now I hate myself for never realising you wanted children.’
‘That’s not your fault. I kept it all to myself because that’s how I am.’ Laura sighed out her frustration. ‘But I don’t want to be that way any longer.’
‘Do you think one day you’ll stop treating me as your baby sister and we can try to be equals?’
She nodded.
‘And Hunter?’
‘He promised to—’
‘—think about it all. I know, but you need to be more proactive than that.’ Polly sounded vehement. ‘Offer to help him reach out to his family. If he gets to a better place with them, I’m sure the rest will fall into place.’
Tears misted her vision.
‘Come on, that’s enough serious stuff. Let’s finish our miraculous transformations so we’ll be irresistible to our men by the time we get home.’ She grinned. ‘Johnny will have to wait to show his appreciation because I’ll be busy decorating the church after this.’
