Free The Best for Last by Maria Geraci Page A

Everyone in Whispering Bay loves you, Kitty.”
    Everyone except Steve, apparently .
    She placed her head between her hands and let what he’d just said sink in. “Do you know how embarrassing this is?”
    â€œNow, Kitten, there’s no reason to be embarrassed. I’m a man and I know how other men think. I just want to make sure this guy isn’t going to hurt you.”
    Her birthday might be in two days, but she suddenly felt ten years older. “Daddy, please let me take care of this, okay?”
    He sighed. “I don’t know—”
    â€œ Promise me you aren’t going to talk to Steve,” she insisted. She wanted to be angry. She was angry! But a part of her was also touched. Wasn’t this what fathers were supposed to do? Look out for their daughters? Even though this daughter didn’t want to be looked out for. Plus, this was his special day. The day they were bonding as father and daughter, groom and best man. No, she couldn’t be totally angry with him.
    He looked at her sadly. “All right, I won’t say anything to him, but I want you to know that Sharon and I will always be here for you. No matter what happens.”
    #
    Kitty drove up to the McMansion with the fabulous view of the beach. Sometimes, she forgot just how stinking rich Steve was, but looking at this house was a reminder that the man she lived with was loaded. Not that he acted like it. Steve lived like a regular guy. He drove a pickup truck (albeit a nice one), cooked his own dinners, and even did his own laundry (along with hers, thank God).
    Yes, he was good looking, too, but that wasn’t the reason she’d fallen in love with him. It was all the little things about him. Like the way he pretended to dislike Viola’s cat when she knew he secretly left treats for him in their backyard (the real reason Armand hung around their driveway!), or how he’d go bowling with his uncle Gus’s team when they needed another player, even though he hated the game.
    But most especially, it was the way he made her feel. Like she was the only woman in the room. On the planet. In the universe.
    He had to love her .
    No matter what anyone else thought of him and his supposed intentions. Not Shea and Pilar and the rest of the Bunco Babes or Betty Jean Collins or even her own mother or father. She’d let her friends and family get to her. But no one else was in a relationship with Steve Pappas, except her .
    She’d thought about tonight all day long and she’d come to a decision. She was going to tell Steve she loved him. It was what she should have done last Thursday night after she’d come home from Bunco. So what if she was the first one to say it? A part of her was nervous, and yes, even a little afraid. But deep down in the very core of her marrow, she was positive that he loved her, too.
    She parked her car in the driveway and mentally prepared herself for the other part of tonight’s conversation. After what her father had told her yesterday, she had no choice but to tell Steve that the entire town was talking about them. It simply wasn’t fair that he didn’t know.
    He must have heard her car drive up because he met her at the door. “What took you so long to get here?” He grabbed her in a long hug and kissed her, making her bones melt in relief. He had to love her. He just had to. “Have we ever been apart this long?” he asked, ushering her into the oversized foyer.
    Kitty took a quick look around the house. She’d only been here a handful of times but the place looked completely different. Steve hadn’t liked it, but Terrie had had the house staged when it first went on the market with a Versailles-type gaudiness that had made Kitty giggle when she’d first seen it. But gone was the leopard print rug in the living room and the big golden mirror with the cherubs. In their places were a simple leather sectional and a few