Playing For Keeps (The Alpha Brotherhood #3)(36)
Author: Catherine Mann

“Not much farther. The gate’s just beyond those trees.” He crested the hill, revealing his home away from home for the past two years.

Celia gasped. “You leased a castle?”

He laughed. “Not a castle, actually—a manor house.” A very large, brick manor house, restored but dating back to the seventeenth century. He wanted somewhere to escape the chaos around his L.A. home, and this small village called to him. “And, uh, it’s not leased. I own it.”

“And your mother has a flat in London. What would that be? Quarters in Buckingham Palace?”

“Not in the royal palace, but with a nice view of it.” His mother had followed his father around for ten years while his dad played in bars and honky-tonks, dragging her son along, as well. When they reached Azalea, Mississippi, his mother had woken up the next morning to a note on the pillow. Apparently dragging a woman and kid around was killing the band. For a long time, Malcolm wondered if his mother would have left him behind if she’d been given the choice.

But she hadn’t. And there was no denying she’d sacrificed everything for him and for his talent, even though his love of music had to be a hard pill for her to swallow given his father’s proclivities. She’d made peace with it when she’d decided he would achieve the star power his father never had reached. He’d practiced to make her happy, to pay her back for costing her security.

He took his foot off the accelerator, coasting down the hill toward the gates covered with ivy. “My mother and I need our space after living in that crappy two-bedroom apartment for so many years.”

“This is definitely…spacious.”

“You disapprove?” He stopped outside the heavy iron gates, letting the security scan his irises.

She shook her head. “Your money is yours to spend. I’m just a bit overwhelmed by the scope of what you have.”

He drove through, her reaction to the house he’d chosen far too important to him. “This is what I wanted to give you, a fairy-tale home.”

“The sort of happily ever after you sing about.” She grinned at him impishly.

He winced, downshifting around a curve on the winding driveway. “Not fair, turning my cynicism back on me, you know.”

“Actually, I was being honest.” She leaned out of the window, inhaling. “And oh, my goodness, there are flowers everywhere. It’s truly a beautiful home.”

Apparently she approved of the sculpted gardens he’d ordered with her in mind. He didn’t know the names of most of the flowers. When he’d overseen the renovations, he’d just pointed to pictures in the landscaper’s book, but he’d specifically requested climbing roses and lavender.

“I’m glad you like it.” Pride kicked through him over pleasing her, having finally found the right way to romance this complex woman.

“Who wouldn’t? The place is magnificent.”

He wanted to press for more. Hell, when hadn’t he wanted to push for more from Celia? He wasn’t the most perceptive man on the planet, but something in her tone was still…off.

And opening some deep discussion right now didn’t seem wise since his mother had just stepped out onto the lanai to greet them.

* * *

Celia dried her palms along her whispery red dress, sitting on the lanai beside Terri Ann Douglas and feeling the woman’s eyes boring into her. Malcolm was parking the car and putting away their minimal luggage. Apparently, he’d had his mother arrange for everything else they would need here. Terri Ann had ordered the kitchen stocked, the beds fluffed. She’d given the main staff the weekend off, with only a catering service making very brief—discreet—stops by for meals.

“Um, Mrs. Douglas—”

“Terri Ann, please,” his mother said nicely enough.

“Okay, Terri Ann, um…” She forgot what she was going to say.

God, this was awkward. She’d been semi-prepared to talk to the woman when she’d thought Malcolm was going to try to dump her on his mother back in the States. But she was totally unprepared for this visit now.

Perhaps because the memory of their night together was still so fresh in her mind and she was wondering how soon they could distract themselves with sex again. She trailed her fingers along the waist-high wall between her and those magnificent gardens with an angel fountain glistening in the late-afternoon sun. The scent carried on the air, and she couldn’t even enjoy it because her stomach was in knots over this confrontation she should have seen coming. Malcolm’s mother was here, serving up tea and sandwiches, for heaven’s sake, as if the past didn’t exist. As if they could erase the last time this woman had spoken to her.

Screamed, actually.

Crying and accusing her of wrecking Malcolm’s life.

So long ago.

Time had been kind to Terri Ann, smoothing the edges. Her dark blond hair may have grayed somewhat, but her blue eyes were no longer tired with dark circles. She still favored cowboy boots and jean skirts. Did she also hold on to grudges?

Celia tried to smile, waving to the table of pretty little sandwiches, cakes and tea. “Thank you for going to so much trouble for me.”

“No trouble at all. After all Malcolm does for me, the least I can do is help him out whenever he asks.” She sat on one side of the stone table and served up a plate. “And he doesn’t ask often.”

Celia nibbled the edge of a cucumber sandwich. “Uh, thank you.”

Damn, she sounded like a broken record.

“Malcolm will want something heartier from the pantry, but these seemed more ladylike for you.”

Terri Ann thought she needed some kind of special airs put on? She just wanted to have an adult, comfortable conversation with the woman.

“I’m sorry.” Celia set aside the delicate china plate carefully. “Would you mind if we use this time to clear the air before Malcolm arrives?

“I don’t know what you mean.” Terri Ann folded the napkin on her lap once and over again.

“You made it very clear eighteen years ago that you didn’t approve of me.” Celia pleated the hem of her dress between her fingers and hated that she betrayed her nerves this way. Hated even more how this woman made her feel sixteen and awful again. “I don’t expect us to be best friends now just because Malcolm brought me here.”

“That’s good to know,” Terri Ann said, giving little away. “I don’t want to upset my son.”

“And I don’t intend to run telling tales to stir trouble. I know you don’t have any reason to trust me, but I’m not the same self-centered girl I was in those days.”