A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(92)

The house was as beautiful and imposing as Kat remembered. A wide smile pulled her face when the huge oak front door opened, and Nana Boo appeared with her black-and-white dog, Reggie, pushing to get past her. Jumping from the car, Kat slapped her thighs and whistled. Reggie dashed toward her, barking happily and wagging his tail like a damn whip. He jumped up, tongue slobbering.

“Reggie!” Nana Boo chided. “Get down!”

The dog immediately obeyed with a sheepish glance toward his mistress. Kat laughed and hurried over to her grandmother, who threw her arms around her, squeezing tightly. She smelled of peppermint and lavender.

“Oh, my darling girl,” Nana said softly. Kat clutched tighter at her grandmother’s words.

Small, wrinkled hands cupped Kat’s face. Her grandmother’s sparkling green eyes emitted nothing but love and warmth, and Kat was instantly calmer, reassured. Nana Boo always had a way of making her feel better. It was a grandmother’s gift.

Eva hugged her mother hard before they all made their way into the house.

Nana Boo had organized food and drinks to be served the following evening for the thirty or so people invited. Ben would be there, along with his wife, Abby, and his mother and father, colleagues of her father and numerous members of several charities Kat’s father had contributed to or supported, as well as Beth and Adam.

Kat continued to suspect there was still something going on with her best friend and, despite Beth’s words to the contrary, a part of her worried she herself had done something very wrong to upset her.

She lifted her bags onto the bed of her childhood room and tried to ignore the uneasy foreboding sensation lurching in her stomach.





19


The following afternoon, the house was filled. Serving staff offered entrees and champagne while Kat watched her mother float effortlessly from one person to the next, her smile fixed and her manner easy. Having grown up in a political family and been married to one of the youngest senators in the country, Eva could work a room with the best of them.

Ben, Abby, Beth, and Adam had arrived to a whirlwind of kisses and hugs from her and Nana Boo. As Kat watched them all exchange pleasantries, she was struck with how familiar Beth and her mother had seemingly become. She’d noticed it during her birthday dinner, but now, seeing the two women embrace and talk quietly, it appeared that, somewhere along the line, they’d become friends.

“How are you?” Kat asked, kissing Beth on the cheek.

“Good,” Beth said as she glanced at her fiancé, who was looking decidedly uncomfortable. “And you? Any news?”

“Nothing exciting.” Kat toed the floor, her face heating under the scrutiny of her friend.

“Something you wanna share?” Beth inquired with a tilt of her head.

“Not right now,” Kat said firmly, but followed it with a small smile, trying like hell to take the defensiveness out of her tone. She wasn’t sure it worked. She so wanted to share with Beth, with all of them. But something—something that made her turn cold—stopped her.

[page]Nana Boo was the only person she trusted implicitly with her true feelings for Carter. The quiet and covert conversation with her grandmother the previous night when Eva and Harrison had gone to bed had been wholly different from the ones with her mother and Beth. It had been easy, open, and filled with laughter. Nana regaled Kat with the latest gossip from the bridge club and the handsome new guy, Roger, who was her new golfing partner.

“He’s rough and ready,” Nana had explained with a laugh. “Which I like.”

Kat had curled up on the sofa with a chamomile tea and let herself get swept away by the soft tones and gentle words of her grandmother. She loved how Nana Boo knew what to say to make her smile, and the enthusiasm that the old lady exuded started to chase away the dark anxiety that had resided in Kat since the trip began. Kat heard herself laugh, and her smile was entirely genuine as Nana detailed her distaste for the new lady who had joined her salsa class.