“How are you two doing?” Kate hugged the two marines before she sat down. “Aren’t you almost out?” she asked Carter.
“I have one year, seven months, eight days, and six hours left,” Carter replied. “But who’s counting?”
“Are you staying in?” Grant asked Mark.
“I don’t know. I have another year before I have to decide, but I guess I should start thinking about it.”
“There’s a bright, sunshiny new day waiting for you outside of the military,” Grant said.
“I know, but…” Mark took a gulp of his wine and lowered his voice. “I’ve never seen combat.”
“So?” Carter said. “That’s probably a good thing. One of us has to stay sane.”
“I just…” Mark took another drink of wine. “I should have… I don’t know…”
“Aren’t you in IT?” Grant asked.
Mark nodded.
“Then they aren’t going to risk you. Combat is for idiots like me.”
Kate wasn’t sure if she should put herself in the middle of that conversation. She didn’t know what it was like to be in the military, especially not during a war. She didn’t understand why Mark wanted to see combat so much.
“There’s always a place in Holbrook Enterprises for you,” she said to him. “Grant’s been crushing it in sales, and I’m sure he could use some backup. He was telling me he had new ideas for products that you could help develop. I know your parents miss you as well.”
Mark looked pained. “I’ll think about it.”
Kate poured him some more wine. “Have another drink.”
He smiled softly at her. “I missed you, Kate.”
She thought she saw a murderous look flash across Grant’s face, but maybe it was just her imagination.
As she drank more wine and ate some of the delicious food, Kate felt herself relax. Alan was off her case for a few more days. So what if her bank account was drastically lower? She was still employed. Maybe she would even be awarded a bonus for all her hard work over the summer. She was determined to enjoy the wedding and hope that it would all work out in the end.
“I’m off,” she said after the last of the toasts were made and she had drunk an after-dinner sherry. “We have to be up at four in the morning to start doing makeup.”
“Me too.” Walter stood up. “You three don’t stay up drinking,” he added as one of the waiters plunked down a bottle of expensive whiskey.
“Off to bed?” Brandy said as Kate left the clearing. “I’ll have to entertain the boys on my own!”
Chapter 56
Grant
Grant saw Brandy coming toward their table. He ducked down then hightailed it away from the rehearsal dinner. He did not want to deal with her. As he walked around, trying to clear his head, he came upon a small gazebo nestled in one of the gardens, and he gratefully sat down on a bench in it.
Grant thought he ate too much and probably drank too much at the rehearsal dinner. He’d never attended a real wedding before, with a planner and thousands of dollars in flowers. He thought maybe he would never get married. Grant had always thought that the marines he’d known who had married were making terrible decisions. They women they picked stole all their money, ran up credit card debt while their husbands were deployed, and neglected the house and the kids.
He didn’t know anyone who had a happy marriage—certainly not his adoptive parents. He hoped Ginny and Eric would be happy.
Could I be happy with Kate?he wondered.
“Contemplating the meaning of life and your existence?” Carter said as he ducked into the gazebo. He had a bottle of whiskey and some glasses, and he poured Grant a generous amount.
“What do you know about Kate?” Grant asked after taking a swallow of whiskey.
Carter laughed. “She was my babysitter when I was little.”
