To Make A Marriage. Кэрол Мортимер

why make it?’ Rome grated disgustedly. ‘You—’

      ‘Daddy,’ Andie interrupted softly. ‘Aren’t you being just a little—aggressive to your guest?’ she said, once she had Rome’s full attention.

      Rome looked far from pleased at the obvious rebuke. Adam couldn’t say he was exactly overjoyed by it himself; since when had he been relegated to being Rome’s guest…?

      But he already knew the answer to that, he acknowledged heavily. He and Andie, although still polite to each other—overly so, Adam felt!—were no longer friends, that easy camaraderie they had once shared no longer there. He knew the reason for that all too well, and regretted it more than he could say! More than he had ever regretted anything else in his life!

      ‘I can take a little aggression,’ Adam assured Andie lightly; in fact, he would relish it. His relationship with all of the Summer family had changed over recent months, necessarily so with Harrie and Danie, now that they were both married. But he had a feeling that if he were to speak as plainly to Rome as he wished to concerning Audrey, then he might jeopardise his friendship with the older man to such a degree that it would be irretrievable. Which meant his visits here would be a thing of the past…

      Did he really want that?

      Of course he didn’t! His friendship with the Summer family had been his anchor for more years than he cared to think about!

      But he couldn’t just stand by and watch Rome make the biggest mistake of his life, either. He, perhaps more than most people, knew what it was like to love a woman who was completely out of your reach. As Audrey would be to Rome if he should let her leave…

      ‘Let’s walk back to the house,’ he suggested to Rome as he walked over to join the other man in the doorway.

      ‘There are a few things I need to discuss with you anyway.’

      ‘And I thought you just came down to visit with all of us,’ Andie put in with hard derision. ‘How silly of me!’

      Adam glanced back at her, sighing heavily at the sparks in her eyes as they easily held his.

      His own friendship with Andie, it seemed, was already irretrievable…