The sunlight hit his eyes first and Rick groaned aloud. “Aww, God, Charlotte, have a heart.” He rolled over and covered his head with his hands.
She walked up beside him. From his prone, facedown position, all he saw were her bare toes. Unfortunately she sounded like she’d strapped tin cans to the soles of her feet.
“I have a heart. Look what I brought you.” Leaning down, she put a glass on the table in front of him.
“What’s that?” He squinted at the dark liquid through slitted eyes.
“Something edible. I was going to make you my father’s old remedy which included raw egg and milk.”
His stomach rolled but he managed not to gag.
“But I took pity on you and brought you flat Coke instead. I also brought you aspirin.” She held out her hand palm up to reveal two tablets that he gratefully grabbed. “Hey, did you drink the water I gave you last night?” she asked.
“I don’t remember.” Pushing himself off the couch, he somehow managed to rise despite his reverberating head. He swallowed the pills first and the Coke second, filling his empty, growling stomach.
Then forcing himself to focus, he met her amused gaze. She was a glowing vision for any man first thing in the morning. Add to that, she’d given him a hangover remedy without making him scavenge and fend for himself. He couldn’t appreciate any woman more.
Unless she was Kendall, but that was a problem for when he’d recovered a little more. “Did I ever tell you my brother’s a damn lucky man?”
“Tell me yourself and quit ogling.” Roman walked into the room without regard to tiptoeing or to Rick’s obvious hangover.
“Who says I can see well enough to ogle? Everything’s a blur,” Rick muttered.
“Which means you’re seeing two of her. Lucky you.” Roman’s voice took on a distinctly amused tone. Coming up beside Charlotte, he put a hand around her waist and squeezed her close against his side.
“Don’t laugh at me after all you’ve done.” As Rick spoke, he recalled the punch in the gut feeling when he’d heard his mother admit to faking her heart condition. He remembered the relief mixed with betrayal, the urge to hug her and throttle her at the same time, and the unbelievable sense of disbelief that his brother would go along with his mother’s scheme. “How the hell could you let me think Mom was sick?”
Roman pulled up a chair while Charlotte settled on the arm cushion beside him. “We owe you an explanation,” Roman said, then paused as if gathering his thoughts.
Rick waited. The desire to tap his foot in annoyance was strong but he figured his pounding head deserved some preferential treatment.
“This is complicated.” Roman shook his head in obvious exasperation. “At first I didn’t tell you because we were in Europe on our honeymoon.” He reached out for Charlotte’s hand and she placed her palm in his.
Rick had all but given up the dream of having that camaraderie, that sense of oneness with anyone, especially Kendall. So seeing his brother and his wife together now was bittersweet. Rick massaged his aching temples. “You could have called,” he said in an attempt to focus on his family problems and not his even more messed-up love life. He’d have many empty days and nights ahead to figure out where he’d gone wrong there.
“I could have. Hell, I probably should have. In Charlotte’s defense, she begged me to call and tell you.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“No excuse that’ll stand up in court,” Roman said wryly. “I was wrapped up in being happy. And I figured a few more weeks of keeping quiet wouldn’t hurt anyone. Hell, I even deluded myself into thinking maybe Mom would succeed and hook you up with someone as great as Charlotte. That you’d be as happy as I ended up being. Despite Mom’s meddling.”
Rick raised his eyebrows, ignoring the pain ripping through his skull. “You should be shot.”
Roman shrugged. “You’re probably right.”
“What happened after you got back to the States? What stopped you from spilling Mom’s secret then?”
Roman winced, then with a groan, leaned back in his seat but still held on to Charlotte’s hand. He probably needed her support since he was damn wrong and cornered. How he’d justify his actions, Rick hadn’t a clue.
“Well, you have to remember we were away for a good month,” Roman continued. “I didn’t want to give her much leeway but Charlotte and I were busy setting up the apartment in D.C. I was getting used to the new job. And you have to admit, at first you seemed fairly amused by her attempt to find the right woman for you.” He shrugged. “So I let things go. For longer than I should have.”
“Damn right.” Rick tipped his head to one side, a mistake he regretted immediately when the brass band began playing again. “Then what stopped you from coming clean?”
“You and I both know part of Mom’s reason for playing this charade was because she wanted us happily settled, but she also wanted—”
“Grandchildren,” Rick said, stating the obvious. After all, Raina had drilled the idea into their heads for ages now.
“Right. And I didn’t think after faking her illness that she deserved to have her heart’s desire—grandchildren—come so easily. I wanted her to sweat a little. If I told her Charlotte was pregnant, I figured she’d . . .”
“Back off of myself and Chase?” Rick asked. “That would be the obvious assumption, right? So why not tell her she got what she wanted, that Charlotte was pregnant? Then blow the whistle on her scheme and give Chase and me some peace?”
“Because Raina isn’t most mothers and you can’t make obvious assumptions when dealing with her. I happen to know for a fact that she wants us all settled and happy. Not just one of us. If she knew Charlotte was pregnant, she’d just be more certain she knew what was best for us all and go after you and Chase even harder.”
Recalling Lisa’s dominatrix outfit, inspired by his mother’s words of encouragement no doubt, Rick shook his head hard. He saw stars. Damn, he had to stop doing that. “I’m not sure Mom could have gone any harder,” he muttered. “And if you’d been living here, you’d know that.”
Roman’s gaze darted away from Rick’s. “Well, I didn’t know how bad it had gotten. So I told Mom that Charlotte and I wanted time alone together before we started working on a family. So I wanted to make her sweat a little.”
If Rick’s head was spinning before this explanation, things were even worse now. But one thing finally jumped out in his mind. Charlotte was pregnant with the first Chandler grandchild. Pride and pleasure for his baby brother suffused him along with a fair amount of envy he figured was normal and he refused to analyze. Instead he glanced at his sister-in-law. Other than the beautiful glow in her cheeks, he never would have known. He started to rise, to wrap her in a huge hug and congratulate her but his head refused to cooperate.
She came to his side and placed a stern hand on his shoulder, chuckling as she said, “Congratulate me later. Get better first.” Then she settled in beside him. “Rick, there was more to our silence than just making your mother pay for manipulating us. I know we should have told you. But once we got home, I realized that my mother’s mental health was still shaky. Her depression . . .” She shook her head. “The medication wasn’t working yet. And I wanted to wait a few months to reveal the pregnancy. Until she could appreciate the news. So then I asked Roman to wait before telling anyone about Raina’s health. Or my pregnancy.”