He couldn’t seem to end the kiss, and when he finally tore himself away, his gaze was fixed on hers. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She gave him a gentle push. “Now go to work.”

He smiled and was out the door a minute later.

Clare kept herself busy for the next few hours doing laundry and making a beef stew for dinner. While she worked, her thoughts were never far from Aidan. She remembered back to the day she met him and pondered all the discoveries she’d made about him since then.

Clare had to admit that part of his initial appeal had been that he seemed to be nothing like Jack. But the more she got to know him, the more she realized he was a lot more like Jack than she could’ve imagined. Despite her first impressions, he was no simple carpenter. He was a Yale-educated doctor who happened to also be a gifted carpenter and, from what she’d been told, an equally gifted musician. Her eyes drifted to the baby grand piano in the living room and understood in that moment that the room had been built around the piano in silent tribute to the wife he’d loved and lost. When this man loved, he loved big, and Clare knew how very lucky she was that he loved her.

All at once, she wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to let him into her private world the way he’d taken her all the way into his. Tonight, she promised herself. Tonight I’ll tell him.

Chapter 31

The day after the terrible confrontation with her father Kate sat on the back veranda at Reid’s house. She tilted her face into the unusually warm winter sun.

The door opened, and Reid came out to join her. “Your cell phone’s been ringing,” he said, handing it to her.

She checked the caller ID. “It’s my mom.”

“Why don’t you call her back?”

“She’s probably going to jump all over me, too.”

“Maybe not.”

“Do you honestly think he hasn’t reported everything to her by now?”

“She might not feel the same way about it that he does.”

Kate snorted. “Yeah, right. They’re the ultimate tag team on something like this. They always have been.”

Reid leaned back against the railing that framed the big porch. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Yesterday you told your dad you’re going on tour with Buddy and Taylor. Does that mean you’ve made up your mind?”

Kate looked at him, filled with sadness over everything that had happened in the last few days. “I didn’t realize I’d made a decision until I said it. I needed to show him that I’ve done what I came here to do.”

“I just hope you’re doing it for yourself and not to prove something to him.”