The laughter that followed faded pleasantly as they focused on eating their lunches for a couple of minutes. Until Deanna picked up where they’d left off, “But, seriously, if you ever need any help with Grandmama or anything, just let us know.”
Peter could see that Kelly was about to say they were just fine, but it was too good an opportunity for him to ignore. So, before she could say anything, he put in, “Thanks. We appreciate that. Actually, I was hoping to take Kelly away for the weekend for a little honeymoon, but we weren’t sure if we could manage it or not.”
Kelly gave a little jerk and she widened her eyes at him, her surprise turning into a look that made it clear she wasn’t at all pleased by what he’d said.
“Of course, you need to have a honeymoon,” Deanna said. “When did you want to go?”
“They’re planning that reception for us next weekend, so this weekend is really the best time for us to go.”
“That would be fine,” Deanna said, smiling, as if she were really happy to be able to help. “Mitchell and I could come stay with Gran—”
Mitchell cleared his throat quite loudly.
Deanna corrected herself. “Grandmama could come stay with us for the weekend, since Mitchell is allergic to the Pride.”
“She doesn’t like to leave home,” Kelly said. “There’s no reason why—”
“Of course, there’s reason,” Deanna objected. “You’ve always taken care of her. You deserve to have a break.”
“I had a break last weekend. I don’t need—”
“You do need a honeymoon, and it wouldn’t be fair for you two not to have one, just because you have the responsibility of taking care of Grandmama. I’ll talk to her this afternoon. It will be fine. You guys definitely need to go.”
Kelly’s eyes were shooting daggers at Peter, and he knew he’d be in for it, once they were alone together again. She wasn’t happy with him. At all.
But he couldn’t help but be relieved at the idea of a weekend away. Just with Kelly.
“Thank you,” Peter said. “That’s really great. I have to work Friday morning, but we could leave mid-afternoon. And we’d be back by the end of the day on Sunday.”
“Where will you go?” Mitchell asked.
“I don’t know. But we’ll figure out something.”
***
Kelly had arguments with Peter occasionally—usually just snippy, little disagreements that were soon forgotten—but she couldn’t remember ever being as angry with him as she was at the moment.
The asshole. She’d told him very clearly she didn’t want a honeymoon, and then he’d went and engineered it anyway.
What the hell was he thinking?
She put on a polite manner and fake smile for the rest of lunch, but she was steaming as they walked in silence back to Peter’s car.
She wasn’t the kind of person who had a fiery temper. She didn’t get angry very easily. So she wasn’t used to the feeling of practically exploding from it.
Especially directed at Peter.
She shut the car door and buckled her belt, breathing heavily as she tried to control her feelings enough to form words.
Peter had buckled too and turned on the car, but he looked at her rather than shift into gear. “Just say it,” he murmured, sounding resigned.
“How could you?” she snapped. “You knew—you knew—I didn’t want to go anywhere, and you just did it anyway!”
“Why shouldn’t I do something nice for us?”
She clenched her hands, more enraged by his calm look than she would have been by matching anger. “Because I told you I didn’t want it.”
“The reasons you didn’t want to go weren’t reasonable. It’s my money. I can do what I want with it. And you have two sisters. You’re not solely responsible for your grandmother’s welfare.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you think my reasons are reasonable or not. All that matters is that I said no and then you went ahead and did it anyway.”
“I know you’re annoyed, but it’s not really that big a deal.”
“Not a big deal? You think trampling all over my wishes isn’t a big deal?”
He raised his eyebrows. Not his cute, one-eyebrow thing, but a rather cool, smug, two-eyebrow arch. “Since you’ve brought it up, you know very well that I don’t want to go around asking people to help me in my career, and you did it anyway just now. How is that any different?”
She froze for a minute, so surprised by the words that she couldn’t fully process them immediately. “Seriously? You mean my mentioning to Mitchell that you want to go into hotels?”