Page 24 of Landing Love

Rory Belmont? The head of the PBA? She was the reason Ann met Bill and now had a sound roof over her head, even if the PBA didn’t pay for it. Ann owed that woman a great deal for offering to help, even if Bill was the one who repaired her roof.

“Perhaps you had better tell me the whole story.” She picked up Junior and her bag of baby supplies. “Let’s go to Mineola as planned, and you can tell me everything over lunch. We can visit the hospital after lunch—if that’s all right with you?”

“Yes, that’s fine.” He stood awkwardly, running his hand behind his neck. For a long moment, he gazed at her, biting his lip as if fighting some inner war. “Can I hold Junior for a moment?”

She couldn’t help but smile as she handed her son over.

Bill hugged Junior close.

“Sometimes a man needs to hug a baby,” he said over Junior’s shoulder. “It’s been a distressing morning.”

Her heart melted like butter. How could she not adore a man who so obviously loved her son?

Bill closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. “All right. You can have him back.” He relinquished Junior to her. “Let’s go.”

On the way to Mineola, Bill talked nonstop, spinning the tale of how Hank Hawley and Rory Belmont began seeing each other in secret, only to get caught by a private detective hired by her ex-fiancé. Her father cut her off completely, but she was able to take a paying job as the Executive Director of the PBA. She moved into the apartment above Bill’s parents.

“What? Aurora Belmont lives upstairs from your parents? That can’t be true.” It was impossible to picture Aurora Belmont living anywhere but a Park Avenue mansion.

“God’s honest truth. You can ask my parents when we get there if you don’t believe me. My mother tried to fix us up together before she found out that she was with Hawley. Can you imagine? Me. With Rory Belmont.” He shook his head.

Yes, she could imagine it all too well, and it made her want to throw things. But she was being ridiculous. There was no reason to be upset about the prospect of Bill with Miss Belmont. It wasn’t as if Ann had any hold over him. “Why is that so absurd? If she could fall for your friend, maybe she would have fallen for you if he wasn’t in the picture.”

Bill laughed long and hard. “No. Women like that don’t fall for guys like me. And to be frank, I don’t fall for women like that either. No society types for me. No, thank you. There is no way that would have worked.”

“What type of woman do you like?” she asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

With a crooked smile, he turned to her. “I like you.”

It was embarrassing how her heart leapt at his words. “That’s not an answer. I’m not a type.”

“Exactly.” He grinned. “You are unique and lovely and creative and kind and nothing like anyone else I’ve ever met.” He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. His kiss spread warmth all through her and made her heart pound. Oh dear. This was not the direction she intended things to go.

“I think we’ve strayed from our original topic,” she said, hoping to return to a safer subject. Her hand tingled where he’d kissed it as she folded it back in her lap.

“Ah, yes. Hank and Rory.” He gave her a conspiratorial grin as he settled in to dish his gossip. This whole story could have been torn from the front pages of one of her mother’s magazines.

It turned out the drama was far from over. Bill explained that Hank’s plane had been sabotaged and that the police were now investigating. It looked like Rory’s father, August Belmont, was a prime suspect, as was her former fiancé, a senator from Connecticut.

“I only found all of this out this morning. I can’t wait to tell Pritchard and Thompson.” He looked as gleeful at the prospect as her mother would have been talking to her sewing circle.

It almost made Ann laugh. “That’s quite a story. I wonder how it will all turn out.” She wished them both well, and even she couldn’t resist such a juicy story. Her mother would eat her heart out for the inside scoop on gossip like this.

The thought of her mother gave her a pang as she bounced Junior on her knee. Everything would be so different if she was still here.

The car pulled up beside an adorable florist in downtown Mineola. The building was painted light green with white trim, and a green and white striped awning overhung a profusion of flowers of every color on display.

Bill turned off the ignition. “We’ll have to wait and see. And we’re here. Watch out. Here come my parents. They can be…a lot.”

A tall, gray-haired man with a mustache came up to the car. He wore a deep green vest over his pristine shirt, and he had a gray jacket on despite the heat. Soon after, a generously proportioned woman with brown hair streaked with gray followed. She was wiping her hands on an apron.

“Mum, Da, this is Ann Prince and her son Junior. Ann, these are my parents, Shannon and Finn O’Donnell.” He beamed at them all as he spoke, clearly proud of his family.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Prince,” his father said.

“Very nice to meet you,” said his mother, “and this little fellow too.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Ann said with a little flutter of anxiety in her belly. Why should she be nervous about meeting Bill’s parents? It’s not as if they were about to become her in-laws.