Page 35 of Chasing I Do
“First meeting?” Margo pulled back. “You make it sound like there was more than one.”
At Gage’s silence, she began pacing, her heels clicking on the slate tile as if she were giving voice to every thought racing through her mind. “Secret rendezvous! Missing members at family dinners! Outrageous demands!”
“There haven’t been any rendezvouses.” Although, there had been a brief moment yesterday where it had felt like exactly that. A secret rendezvous, with a special lady, that had the potential for magic. “And if anyone has issued outrageous demands, that would be me. She is letting Rhett rent the venue, working with his security team, and she even agreed to go away for the evening of the wedding.”
Margo laughed. “Of course she did. The girl couldn’t see a good thing through even if it was attached to her glasses.”
“We don’t know what all happened between them. Those were their issues, not ours,” Gage said, and for the first time he didn’t feel like he was betraying Kyle. He felt as if he were defending the mother of his niece. “Darcy has been more than generous.”
With everything.
His mother spun around, her face pale and drawn. “There you go, already taking her side.”
Jesus.
“There are no sides.” Although, right then, he wasn’t sure which side he’d pick. “Stephanie wants to get married at Belle Mont. Darcy owns Belle Mont. Unfortunately, for all involved, Stephanie wants to walk through the rose garden with an Easton.”
Margo clutched her heart, as if Gage has personally invoked a heart attack. “Watch your mouth, Gage Matthew Easton. Stephanie is lucky to land a man like Rhett. He’s successful, charming, honorable—”
“He didn’t seem to mind throwing me under the bus last night at dinner.”
“—loving, and voted one of the world’s sexiest people.”
“I’ll be sure to add that to the list of things to say in my best man’s speech.”
She ignored this. “And Darcy should be honored to host their union. Just like she should have been honored to marry Kyle. But she always wants more.”
“Whoa, Mom, let’s not take this there.” Becausethereis exactly where Darcy was afraid it would go. And watching his mom get all upset and red in the face, he was starting to see her point.
“I will take it wherever I like. That woman will never be happy with what she’s given. It was always more, more, more.” Margo shook a finger. “I blame it on her upbringing. Who could go the distance when they spent their entire formative years moving from house to house? I told her she wasn’t Kyle’s match, and she didn’t fit within our family’s character.”
Gage’s heart literally stopped. “Hold up, you told her that?”
He could only imagine how that must have hurt, especially since Darcy always questioned her own mother’s love for her.
“Of course I told her. Why wouldn’t I? She was complaining about Kyle, saying she wasn’t happy.” She threw her hands up. “Who couldn’t be happy with a man like Kyle? After everything he’d done for her and her standing in the community, and she still wasn’t happy. I chalked it up to a chemical deficiency, but Kyle had made his choice. What was a mother to do?”
“Besides making her feel inferior to the family she was supposed to be marrying into?”
Darcy must have been in a bad way if she’d gone to Margo for advice. Darcy wasn’t one to talk badly of anyone, especially Kyle. It was why her actions at the wedding had been such a mystery. She’d never said boo about not being happy. And then to reach out for help, only to be shoved further under?
“Did you ask her why she was upset?”
“Oh, you know.” Margo flicked her fingers dismissively. “Not enough quality time, needing to be the center of Kyle’s attention, wanting different things. She said something about Kyle and his secretary, or maybe it was his intern. Who knows anymore? The point is, Kyle gave her everything, and she accused him of sneaking around.”
Gage couldn’t believe he was asking this, but, “Was he?”
“How would I know? I told her that Kyle wasn’t raised that way. He wouldn’t disgrace himself by cheating with a lowly intern. But if she was afraid something was missing in her relationship, maybe she should cut back at work and put in more effort when it came to Kyle and his needs.”
“Jesus, Mom. She’d just landed a job working for the biggest event company in Portland. Her career was taking off. Why should she have to sacrifice her work when Kyle was notorious for burning the midnight oil?”
Kyle hadn’t just worked late into the evenings—he’d taken work trips nearly every weekend leading up to their wedding. Darcy had grown more and more distant from him and his family during that time. Yet, Kyle had acted like everything was fine. Even at his bachelor party, he’d been all smiles and grins.
Then at the wedding, Gage remembered seeing a perky co-ed hanging around the groom’s room. Later he saw her talking with Darcy, and then … that was it. Darcy was gone.
“You knew her suspicions, but you never asked if it was true?”
“Why should I?”
