To Make A Marriage. Carole Mortimer

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      Not that Andie didn’t look as gorgeous as always; in fact, the casual clothing gave her a more approachable appearance, Adam decided thoughtfully. He was just surprised at the change in her, that was all…

      She paused in the act of dead-heading roses, turning as she seemed to sense his gaze on her, a slight blush colouring her cheeks as she looked at him—warily, it almost seemed to him…? Had their friendship really come to that?

      Probably, he acknowledged with a regretful sigh for the easy camaraderie they had once shared. But what had he expected? Nothing stayed the same. The fact that Harrie and Danie were now both married was testament to that.

      ‘I was just thinking how much like your mother you are.’ He spoke quietly, knowing, with this newfound strain between them, that Andie would not welcome any comment he might make concerning her personal appearance.

      Andie’s expression changed from guarded to noncommittal. ‘She would have approved of Harrie and Danie’s choice of husbands,’ she commented huskily.

      Yes, she probably would. Barbara, like Rome, had adored all of her daughters, wanted only the best for them. From the little he had seen of Quinn and Jonas, he had a feeling Barbara would not have been disappointed.

      But what about Andie—would Barbara have approved of her lifestyle…? Andie was a career woman, had been the senior editor of Gloss for three years now, and showed no signs of wanting to change that for a husband and family of her own.

      Yes, Barbara would have approved, he decided; Barbara would approve of anything that made her daughters happy.

      Besides, Harrie and Danie still had their respective careers, as well as their husbands!

      ‘I’m—’

      ‘So here you are, Adam,’ Rome’s rasped comment as he entered the greenhouse interrupted what Adam had been about to say. ‘Audrey said you were around somewhere.’

      Adam briefly studied the older man, and he did not like what he saw. Rome’s boyish good looks—blonde-haired, blue-eyed—were still the same, but there was a look of strain about those eyes and his mouth, a hardness to the latter that boded ill for anyone who got in his way.

      ‘And, as usual, she was right,’ Adam returned lightly.

      ‘How on earth are you going to manage without her, Rome?’

      Rome glared at him through narrowed lids. ‘No one is indispensable, Adam,’ he responded coldly.

      Adam raised blond brows. ‘No employee, possibly,’ he returned acidly. ‘But I always thought of Audrey as being more than that,’ he added challengingly, aware that Andie was listening to the verbal exchange with a pained expression.

      But it had taken only one look at Rome’s face, at the hard implacability of his expression, to realise that the friendly chat he had intended having with his longtime friend was out of the question; Rome looked as approachable as a wounded bull-elephant!

      Rome gave a dismissive shrug of broad shoulders. ‘Obviously Audrey had decided differently,’ he rasped harshly. ‘And, as I have learnt to my cost recently, there is absolutely no point in trying to stand in the way of a woman who has made up her own mind what she intends doing with her own life!’

      The remark, Adam knew, could have been directed at Harrie and Danie as much as at Audrey, and their determination to marry the men of their choice with as little delay as possible. However, Adam sensed, rather than actually saw, Andie’s reaction to her father’s remark, could feel the tension emanating from her as she paused in her care of the roses.

      Leading Adam to wonder about the decision concerning what she intended doing with her own life Andie could possibly have made recently for her to assume Rome’s remark was actually directed at her…?

      Seeing no immediate answer to his question in either Andie or Rome’s faces, he turned his attention back to Audrey; he would try and talk to Andie later on in the weekend. Try—because that hadn’t been too easy to do just recently!

      ‘And what does Audrey intend doing with her life?’ he prompted the other man.

      ‘I have no idea,’ Rome answered scathingly. ‘I suggest you ask her that yourself.’

      ‘Meaning that you haven’t bothered?’ Adam countered, his expression deliberately innocent as the other man scowled at him.

      ‘Meaning that Audrey has made it more than plain that it’s none of my damned business!’ Rome snapped.

      ‘Hmm,’ Adam murmured thoughtfully.

      ‘What, exactly, does that mean?’ Rome challenged hardly.

      “‘Hmm”?’ Adam repeated, realising he was provoking the other man but knowing he had no choice if he was to get anywhere in this conversation at all. ‘I’ve always thought of it as a pretty noncommittal remark, myself.’

      ‘Then why make it?’ Rome grated disgustedly. ‘You—’

      ‘Daddy,’ Andie interrupted softly. ‘Aren’t you being just a little—aggressive to your guest?’ she said, once she had Rome’s full attention.

      Rome looked far from pleased at the obvious rebuke. Adam couldn’t say he was exactly overjoyed by it himself; since when had he been relegated to being Rome’s guest…?

      But he already knew the answer to that, he acknowledged heavily. He and Andie, although still polite to each other—overly so, Adam felt!—were no longer friends, that easy camaraderie they had once shared no longer there. He knew the reason for that all too well, and regretted it more than he could say! More than he had ever regretted anything else in his life!

      ‘I can take a little aggression,’ Adam assured Andie lightly; in fact, he would relish it. His relationship with all of the Summer family had changed over recent months, necessarily so with Harrie and Danie, now that they were both married. But he had a feeling that if he were to speak as plainly to Rome as he wished to concerning Audrey, then he might jeopardise his friendship with the older man to such a degree that it would be irretrievable. Which meant his visits here would be a thing of the past…

      Did he really want that?

      Of course he didn’t! His friendship with the Summer family had been his anchor for more years than he cared to think about!

      But he couldn’t just stand by and watch Rome make the biggest mistake of his life, either. He, perhaps more than most people, knew what it was like to love a woman who was completely out of your reach. As Audrey would be to Rome if he should let her leave…

      ‘Let’s walk back to the house,’ he suggested to Rome as he walked over to join the other man in the doorway.

      ‘There are a few things I need to discuss with you anyway.’

      ‘And I thought you just came down to visit with all of us,’ Andie put in with hard derision. ‘How silly of me!’

      Adam glanced back at her, sighing heavily at the sparks in her eyes as they easily held his.

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