Page 60 of Christmas at the Castle
“Actions speak louder than words, dear brother. Not that Kat has ever been interested in you.”
That puzzled him. Granted, Kat would have been too young back in camp, but during college, vet school, and now…
“I’m considered as much a catch as Jamie is. Perhaps a better one given my rank and wealth.”
“For some women, yes. Not for Kat.”
Gill should let this drop, but he couldn’t. His ego stung. “Why not?”
Sophie sat on a chair. “You really want to know?”
He needed to know the reason. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t getting involved with Kat. “Yes.”
“Well, to start with, you’re not nice to her. You haven’t been nice from the day we met.”
He pointed to his calf. “She’s the reason I got hurt. See the scar?”
“Which shows you hold grudges,” Sophie said without missing a beat. “Another checkmark against you.”
He scoffed. “Kat was irresponsible.”
“She was thirteen,” Sophie countered.
He could picture that day as clearly as yesterday. The touch of Kat’s hand as she comforted him. The bravado she’d shown opening her knife. “Perhaps it’s time to let what happened by the lake go.”
“How big of you.”
He deserved that. “Anything else.”
“You glare at Kat.”
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do. You always have, even back at camp. If you’re not glaring, you’re staring. It’s borderline creepy.”
Gill wanted to deny it, but he had been trying to figure out Kat. She had the right motivation to be a gold digger, except nothing she’d said lined up with that. She could have easily left with Jamie tonight after dinner, but she hadn’t.
Perhaps Gill had gone overboard in his assessment of her.
“I’m not used to seeing her around here,” he admitted. “I’ll be more careful at how often I look at her.”
Maximillian rubbed up against Sophie.
She gave him another pat. “Good, because if I didn’t know better, I’d think you liked her.”
“I don’t.” He said the words quickly. “Anything else?”
“Yes, but this reason is mine.”
“Yours?”
Sophie nodded. “I finally realized Mother would never approve of a match between the two of you, so I gave up on the dream.”
“A smart move.”
“But now that I’m getting married and will have a brother-in-law—”
“You want your dream to come true.”
