The CEO's Unexpected Proposal. Karen Smith Rose

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СКАЧАТЬ bond vibrating between them, Mikala gestured at the counter. “Help yourself to anything you want in the refrigerator or the cookie jar. This will be your home for a while.”

      “Not until I come back. I feel like I’m taking advantage of your aunt by staying in that suite tonight. I could just sleep on the sofa—then she wouldn’t have to change the bed.”

      “We might not even register any guests between now and the fifteenth. Don’t worry about it, Dawson. Be comfortable tonight.”

      They were talking about beds and that wasn’t any more comfortable than anything else.

      There was a sudden knock on the kitchen door. Dawson asked, “Expecting someone?”

      “No, but I do have a session in about an hour. Maybe my client had the time wrong.” But when she opened the door, she smiled widely.

      Celeste Sullivan stood there with her almost-four-year-old daughter, Abby, holding her hand. Abby immediately held her arms up to Mikala for a hug.

      “Hi, honey. What an unexpected surprise!”

      Celeste laughed. “Abby was restless and Clay won’t be back until late tonight, so we thought we’d come for a visit. If it’s a bad time, we’ll go downtown to the library instead.”

      “No! Come on in. Wait until you see who’s here.”

      When Celeste came in, she spotted Dawson and immediately crossed to him to give him a hug. “It’s good to see you again! Clay said you might be moving back here. Is that official?”

      “It will be in a couple of weeks. I just came up to find a place to stay and to register Luke at school.”

      “Where are you going to be staying?”

      “Right here. Aunt Anna says I’ll be doing her a favor using one of her suites, so Luke and I will be on the third floor.”

      Abby came over to stand beside her mother and looked up at Dawson.

      He crouched down to her level. “Hi, there. Your daddy has emailed me pictures of you and you look even prettier in person.”

      Mikala’s heart warmed at Dawson’s tone. He obviously knew how to talk to kids.

      “I’m Dawson,” he said, extending his hand out to her.

      She ceremoniously shook it. “I’m Abby.”

      “It’s official. We’ve met.” He rose to his feet. “And now I have to give my dad a call and check on my son,” he said to Celeste and Mikala. “If there are any problems, I’ll have to drive back tonight.”

      It was quite evident that Dawson was putting Luke first, and Mikala admired him for doing that. Sometimes it was really difficult for a parent to put aside his own concerns for his child’s.

      Dawson said to Celeste, “I hope I’ll be seeing you after we get settled in. It will be nice to talk to Clay face-to-face instead of on the phone.”

      “I’m sure he’s looking forward to that, too. And Zack. He and Jenny are on their honeymoon now but should be back by the time you move here.”

      “Sounds good,” Dawson agreed, his gaze meeting Mikala’s. She knew what he was thinking. He wouldn’t be socializing much with old friends like Clay Sullivan and Zack Decker if his problems with Luke didn’t settle down.

      Once Dawson had left the kitchen, Abby ran over to the cookie jar and looked up at it. “Can I have one, Mommy?”

      “Sure, if you have a glass of milk to go with it.”

      Abby was amenable to that, so Mikala took milk from the refrigerator and poured her a glass, made tea for herself and Celeste.

      When they were all seated at the table enjoying their snacks, Celeste asked Mikala, “What was that look you gave Dawson before he left to go upstairs?”

      “What look?”

      “I’m not sure. Like the two of you have a secret. I know he’s moving back here so you can treat Luke. Clay told me.”

      “You know I can’t talk about that.”

      “I know.” Celeste waited a couple of beats, then nonchalantly prompted, “There were rumors back in high school about the two of you.”

      “What kind of rumors?” Mikala was absolutely surprised. She’d never given anyone reason to start a rumor about her and Dawson.

      “There was talk that Dawson was going to ask you to the prom.”

      “Why didn’t I ever hear about it?”

      “Because what’s-his-name asked you.”

      “What’s-his-name only asked me because all the popular girls were taken.”

      “Mikala! You never did have a true image of yourself back then. You were pretty but quiet, sometimes even more than I was.”

      Celeste had always been the opposite of her twin sister, Zoie, who had been an extreme extrovert. That’s why Zoie had initially caught Clay’s eye, even marrying him after high school. Clay hadn’t realized until after his divorce from Zoie that Celeste and he were much more suited for each other—especially since Celeste had been Abby’s surrogate mother. After the reunion last summer their bond and chemistry had transformed into love, and they became a family.

      Celeste had been quiet in high school, but in a different way than Mikala. Mikala had stood her ground when she’d had to. She’d always championed the underdog. If she’d kept to herself for the most part, that was because she’d felt so different from her other classmates who had moms and dads, a different kind of family than she did. Only with her small circle of friends had she felt more secure.

      Even back then, she’d kept her own counsel and was truly surprised about the rumor. “I had hoped Dawson would ask me to the prom. But when Carson asked me first, I accepted because I wanted to go so badly. I wanted to feel pretty and grown-up, like the popular girls. Dawson and I were friends and I didn’t think he thought of me that way—as a date. At least I didn’t think that until—” Uh-oh. She shouldn’t have let that slip.

      “Until what?”

      “Until the night of the prom.”

      Mikala still remembered vividly exactly what had happened. The night had started off with her feeling almost glamorous in a pink chiffon dress with her aunt’s aurora borealis crystals around her neck and on her ears. She’d worn white silk high-heeled sandals and carried a beaded bag. Carson had picked her up and brought her a beautiful corsage. They’d struggled making small talk, but that had been okay. After all, they hadn’t known each other very well. After they’d arrived at the prom and danced a couple of dances, Carson had gone outside with his buddies for a while. Dawson, who’d been there by himself because his date had caught the flu, had asked her to dance.

      With him standing before her, looking so handsome and grown-up, his gaze making her head swim, she’d thought about whether she should or shouldn’t dance with him. Even though she’d wanted to more than anything, she’d СКАЧАТЬ