“Sorry to pop in so early, but I was sure you’d be up,” Destiny said, breezing past her without waiting for an invitation.
“Barely up,” Kathleen muttered. “Would you like coffee and maybe a banana nut muffin?”
Destiny beamed. “Ah, yes, I’ve heard about those muffins. I’d love one. You’ve definitely found the way to my nephew’s heart.”
Kathleen paused as she poured the coffee. “I beg your pardon.”
“You’re getting to him,” Destiny explained patiently. “Ben is a sucker for sweets. I told you that. You’re handling him exactly right. I’m not sure it’s a tactic that would have worked on any of my other nephews, though I did pack Melanie off to see Richard once with a picnic basket filled with his favorite foods and wine. That turned out well enough.”
The last was said with a note of smug satisfaction in her voice.
Kathleen set the coffee in front of Destiny, then brought in a muffin from the kitchen. The extra minute gave her time to try to figure out what she wanted to say to dispel Destiny’s notion that she was waging any sort of campaign for Ben’s heart or that she was willing to be drawn into Destiny’s scheme.
When she was seated at the table again, she met Destiny’s gaze. “You do know that the only thing I’m after where Ben is concerned is his art, don’t you?”
Destiny regarded her serenely. “I’m sure you want to believe that.”
“Because it’s the truth,” Kathleen said, feeling a little bubble of hysteria rising in her throat thanks to the confident note in Destiny’s voice.
“Darling, it was after two in the morning when Ben came in last night.”
“He stayed with you?”
“Of course he did. Did you think he would drive all the way back out to the farm at that hour?”
“I honestly never gave it a thought,” Kathleen responded. If she had, she would have sent him packing a lot earlier just to avoid this exact misconception on his aunt’s part.
“Yes, I imagine there was very little thinking going on at that hour,” Destiny said happily.
Kathleen choked on her coffee. “Destiny!” she protested. “It’s not like that with Ben and me.”
Okay, so she was ignoring all the kissing that had gone on from time to time between them, but very little of that had occurred in the wee hours of the night before. A safe good-night peck on the cheek was the closest they’d come.
Destiny frowned. “It’s not?” she asked, her disappointment plain. “The two of you aren’t getting closer?”
“Of course we are. We’re friends,” Kathleen said, almost as unhappy with the label as Destiny obviously was.
Destiny sighed. “Friends,” she echoed. “Yes, well, I suppose that’s a good start. I can see, though, that I’ll have to do a little more work on my end.”
“No,” Kathleen said fiercely. “You’ve done enough. Let it be, Destiny, please.”
Ben’s aunt looked taken aback by her vehemence. “Why are you so opposed to anything coming of this relationship with my nephew?”
Kathleen was having a hard time remembering the answer to that herself. It had started because she’d been afraid to trust another man. It had been magnified by the fact that Ben had a reputation as a moody, reclusive artist.
But the truth was that he was nothing like what she’d been led to believe, in fact quite the opposite. He was so far removed from the kind of man her ex-husband had been that the only thing the two had in common was their gender.
She faced Destiny and tried not to let her bewilderment show. It would be just what the sneaky woman needed to inspire her to get on with her campaign.
“It’s not that I’m opposed to anything happening with Ben,” she said candidly. “But the two of us are adults. We don’t need someone running interference for us. You’ve done your part. Now leave it be. If anything’s meant to come of this, it will happen.”
“Even if I can see that you’re both too stubborn to admit what’s right under your noses?”
“Even then,” Kathleen told her.
Destiny nodded slowly. “Okay, then, I can do that.”
Her easy agreement made Kathleen instantly suspicious. “Really?”
“For now,” Destiny told her cheerfully. “I suppose I should go along to my meeting. Thanks for the coffee and the muffin. Our little visit has been very enlightening.”
Enlightening? Kathleen thought as she watched Destiny depart at the same brisk pace with which she’d entered. In what way had their exchange been enlightening? Destiny had said it in a way that suggested she’d read some undercurrent of which Kathleen was completely unaware.