“No. Of course, not. It’s nothing.” Kelly smiled, brushing the poignancy away.
Rose obviously didn’t believe her. “Is everything all right between you and Peter?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?” Kelly didn’t like lying to her sisters. She almost never did. But she and Peter had agreed to act like theirs was a real marriage, and she wasn’t going to break her word to him.
“I don’t know. It just looked like something was wrong. There are always ups and downs. James and I are crazy about each other, but we still argue over stupid things. Last night, it was about him not rinsing out the sink after he spits his toothpaste.”
“Oh, no. I’m with you on that one. I’d get so annoyed about all the dried gunk leftover.”
“That’s what I say! He says sometimes he’s in a hurry and it’s no big deal, since we each have our own sinks. But I still have to see it all over his sink! So Peter rinses out the sink?”
Kelly had never thought about it before. Just one more thing to love about Peter. “Yeah. Yeah, he does.”
“He sounds like a keeper.” Rose was smiling, her eyes on James, who was swinging Julie around in the pool playfully, after having caught her. “Anyway, my point was that no marriage is smooth-sailing all the way.”
“I know it’s not.”
“But you still look like something is wrong.”
“Nothing is wrong.” Kelly really wished Rose would drop the subject. Afraid she was going to spill everything if the interrogation continued, she searched her mind for something true that would also be not quite the core of the problem. When her eyes landed on her grandmother, who was across the pool deck, fixing a pasta salad with Deanna, she thought of a perfect excuse. “Although Grandmama still doesn’t like him. It’s really obvious, and it makes it difficult for both me and Peter.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. I thought she’d be thrilled about him being a Blake. I mean, she planned that big party—”
“Yeah, she was happy about the party, but she’s not happy about Peter. It doesn’t seem to matter that he’s a Blake. She just doesn’t want me to be married to him.”
Rose’s lips turned down thoughtfully. “You know how she is. Maybe she’s just giving him a hard time.”
“I thought so at first, but she doesn’t change, even when I called her on it and asked her not to do it. She doesn’t want me to be married to him.”
“But you are married to him. You’ve got to do what’s best for you and Peter, even if she doesn’t approve. You probably need to move out of the house pretty soon.”
“Grandmama needs—”
“She needs someone with her, yes. But there are other options.”
“I guess.” Kelly sighed. She couldn’t even imagine moving out of the house, leaving her grandmother alone. Especially not for a marriage that had an end date. She’d never let her world change that much. “We’re not going to do anything until after graduation, though.”
“That makes sense. But just let me know if you need any alone time. I can always come over and stay with Grandmama for the evening while you and Peter get away.”
For the last week, since their walk after the party, Kelly and Peter had been finding alone time. Just this morning, when her grandmother had left to have brunch with a couple of friends at the country club, Peter had dragged Kelly into the bedroom and made love to her until she was limp and hoarse.
That night, after the party last weekend, they’d somehow come to an unspoken understanding—that sex was a good possibility, as long as Grandmama wasn’t in the house.
The game in the pool had evidently dissolved into a contest over who could make the biggest splash with a cannonball. All the votes were on James—since his daughters had full confidence in their daddy—but it was now Peter’s opportunity to beat him.
Kelly gazed at Peter as he climbed out of the pool, water streaming down his lean, tanned body. He was gorgeous, she realized with an unexpected pang of ownership. And he was so much more than just gorgeous.
“Deanna said you guys were thinking about buying a house up north for a bed and breakfast,” Rose said, breaking into Kelly’s thoughts.
Kelly gave a visible jerk. “Oh. Not really. I mean, Peter was kind of interested, but it was too expensive.”
“I thought Deanna said that Harrison Damon had approached him about investing.”
Kelly swallowed and glanced away from her sister. She hadn’t known the news had gotten around. That would make Peter very unhappy. “He did. But I don’t know if anything will come of that. Anyway, I can’t—I mean, I don’t want to leave Savannah.”