A Groom Worth Waiting For. Sophie Pembroke

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       CHAPTER TWO

      THEA SHOULD HAVE known this wasn’t just about shoes.

      ‘So...Zeke coming home. Bit of a shock, huh?’ Helena said, lounging back on Thea’s ridiculously oversized bed.

      ‘Yep.’ Thea stuck her head in the closet and tried to find her bronze heels. Had she even packed them?

      ‘Even though old Ezekiel Senior has planned a welcome home dinner?’

      ‘I told you—Flynn didn’t think he’d come,’ Thea explained. ‘So neither did I.’

      ‘So Flynn was just as shocked?’ Helena asked, too innocently.

      ‘Probably,’ Thea said. ‘He just hides it better.’

      ‘He hides everything better,’ Helena muttered. ‘But, to be honest, he didn’t seem all that surprised when I told him Zeke had arrived.’

      Thea bashed her head on the wardrobe door. Rubbing her hand over the bump, she backed out into the room again. ‘Then maybe he just had more faith that his brother would do the right thing than I did. I really don’t think I brought those bronze shoes.’

      ‘No? What a shame. I’ll just have to wear my pewter ones.’ Helena sat up, folding her legs under her. ‘Why don’t you trust Zeke? I thought you two were pretty close before he left.’

      Thea stared at her sister. She’d known all along she didn’t have the stupid shoes, hadn’t she? She’d just wanted an excuse to quiz her about Zeke. Typical.

      ‘We were friends,’ she allowed. ‘We all were. Hard not to be when they were over at our house all the time.’

      ‘Or we were there,’ Helena agreed. ‘Especially after Mum...’

      ‘Yeah.’

      Isabella Ashton had quickly taken pity on the poor, motherless Morrison girls. She’d been more than happy to educate fourteen-year-old Thea in the correct way to run her father’s household and play the perfect hostess. At least until Thea had proved she wasn’t up to the task and Isabella had taken over all together. Thea would have been relived, if she hadn’t had to bear the brunt of her father’s disappointment ever since.

      And been made to feel like an outsider in my own home.

      Thea swallowed and batted the thought away. Helena probably didn’t remember that part of it. As far as she was concerned Isabella had just made sure they were supplied with any motherly advice they needed. Whether they wanted it or not.

      Thea moved over to the dressing table, looking for the necklace Isabella had given her for her eighteenth birthday. The night Zeke had left. She’d wear it tonight, along with her own mother’s ring. Isabella always appreciated gestures like that.

      ‘And you’ve really not spoken to Zeke at all since he left?’ Helena asked.

      Thea wondered how much her sister suspected about her relationship with Flynn’s brother. Too much, it seemed.

      ‘Not once,’ she said firmly, picking up Isabella’s necklace. ‘Not once in eight years.’

      ‘Strange.’ Helena slipped off the bed and came up behind her, taking the ends of the chain from her to fasten it behind her neck. ‘Do you think that’s why he’s come back now? Because you’re getting married?’

      ‘Well, he was invited, so I’m thinking that was probably the reason.’

      ‘No,’ Helena said, and something about her sister’s quiet, firm voice made Thea look up and meet her eyes in the mirror. ‘I meant because you’re getting married.’

      Thea swallowed. ‘He didn’t come and visit the last time I almost got married.’

      ‘Or the time before that,’ Helena said, cheerfully confirming her view of Thea as a serial fiancée. ‘But then, those times you weren’t marrying his brother.’ The words And you didn’t go through with it... went unsaid.

      Thea dropped down onto the dressing table stool. Wouldn’t that be just like Zeke—not to care that she might marry someone else as long as it wasn’t a personal slight to him? But did he even know about the others? If he did, she predicted she’d be subjected to any number of comments and jibes on the subject. Perfect. Because she hadn’t had enough of that at work, or from her friends, or even in the gossip pages.

      Only Helena had never said anything about it. Her father had just torn up the pre-nups, asked his secretary to cancel the arrangements, and said, ‘Next time, perhaps?’ After the last one even Thea had had to admit to herself that she was better off sticking to business than romance.

      It was just that each time she’d thought she’d found a place she could belong. Someone to belong to. Until it had turned out that she wasn’t what they really wanted after all. She was never quite right—never quite good enough in the end.

      Except for Flynn. Flynn knew exactly what he was getting, and why. He’d chosen it, debated it, drawn up a contract detailing exactly what the deal entailed. And that was exactly what Thea needed. No confused expectations, no unspoken agreements—this was love done business-style. It suited her perfectly.

      Zeke would think it was ridiculous if he knew. But she was pretty sure that Zeke had a better reason for returning than just mocking her love life.

      ‘That’s not why he’s back.’

      ‘Are you sure?’ Helena asked. ‘Maybe this is just the first time he thought you might actually go through with it.’

      ‘You make me sound like a complete flake.’ Which was fair, probably. Except she’d always been so sure...until it had become clear that the men she was supposed to marry weren’t.

      Helena sighed and picked up a hairbrush from the dressing table, running it through her soft golden waves. Thea had given up wishing she had hair like that years ago. Boring brown worked fine for her.

      ‘Not a flake,’ Helena said, teasing out a slight tangle. ‘Just...uncertain.’

      ‘“Decisionally challenged”, Dad says.’

      Helena laughed. ‘That’s not true. You had a perfectly good reason not to marry those guys.’

      ‘Because it turned out СКАЧАТЬ