Texas Cinderella / The Texas CEO's Secret: Texas Cinderella / The Texas CEO's Secret. Victoria Pade

it would have been a mistake, even though she knew it couldn’t happen, as she slipped out of his sight down the path to the bungalow, she was wishing that this might have been one of those times—like all those others—when he’d ignored the you-shouldn’t-do-that and done it anyway…

      Chapter Five

      “Katie. Hi,” Tate said into his cell phone when it rang on his way to work Tuesday morning and the display let him know in advance who his caller was.

      “I hope I didn’t wake you,” Katie replied to his greeting.

      “No, I’m about five minutes away from the hospital. How’s everything?”

      “Okay. As well as could be expected, I suppose,” Katie said.

      Tate had known her long enough to think he knew all of her moods, but he couldn’t pinpoint this one. Trying to, he said, “You sound tired.”

      “I didn’t have the chance to tell my parents that the engagement is off until last night. You know how it is—there have been dinners and parties and people around since I got to Key West and I had to wait for a moment alone with them.”

      “And I don’t imagine that they welcomed the news,” Tate guessed, not eager to tell his own family for just that reason.

      “No, they certainly didn’t welcome it. They were actually very impatient with me.”

      “I’m sorry,” Tate said sympathetically.

      “It was no worse than I thought it would be, but still…” Katie sighed. “After all this time they were sure their dreams were finally coming true. I knew they weren’t going to be happy to have me wake them up.”

      “What about you?” Tate asked point-blank because he still wasn’t getting a clear read on Katie’s feelings. And while he knew breaking up was for the best, he was concerned about her.

      “Well, I am tired—you were right about that. We were up arguing until very late and I had an early hair appointment this morning so I couldn’t sleep in. But otherwise…”

      There was a pause that didn’t convince Tate that Katie was merely worn out.

      Then she continued. “I’m a little at loose ends. You were always sort of my guy,” she said with a laugh that helped him believe she wasn’t doing too badly despite the fact that she might be a little down in the dumps over the way things had turned out.

      “Even when we weren’t together,” she went on, “there was always just that thought that we’d probably end up with each other some day. And it isn’t as if I don’t care about you, Tate—”

      “Same here.”

      “But I truly do think there’s more out there for both of us.”

      Why did Tanya pop into his mind at that exact moment?

      But Katie was still talking and he forced himself to pay attention.

      “—it just isn’t easy to start over. I keep thinking that I haven’t ever been in a single, long-term, committed relationship with anyone of my own choosing. That was part of the argument last night—I said I needed to be able to decide who the man for me would be. But just between us, the whole time I was wondering if I’ll know how to choose someone for myself.”

      Tate laughed. “I’m pretty sure you just go with whoever you have the strongest feelings for,” he said. And again—for no reason that made sense—Tanya came to mind.

      “What about you?” Katie asked then. “How are you?”

      “I’m doing all right,” he said.

      “You sound better than all right. You sound a little more like your old self. Were you that glad to get rid of me?”

      “Come on, you know better than that,” he chastised. “And I didn’t get rid of you. If anybody got rid of anybody—”

      “I’m saying it was a mutual decision. And now you can, too—that’s why I wanted to talk to you first thing this morning. My mother is threatening to call yours. I asked her to wait but I don’t know how long she will. So don’t put off telling Eleanor or it’ll be my mother who does.”

      “I’m having dinner with the family tonight. I’ll tell them then.”

      “I hope it goes smoother with yours than it did with mine.”

      “Even if it doesn’t, it’ll all blow over before long,” Tate assured her as he pulled into the doctors’ parking lot of Meridian General.

      “It’s nice that we can still chat like this, though,” Katie said then. “And be friends…”

      “That isn’t going to change—we’ve always been friends, we always will be friends. You know if there’s anything you need from me you just have to ask, right?”

      “Same here,” she echoed his earlier words. “I should let you go, though, I just heard the parking lot attendant say good morning to you so you must be at the hospital. I’ll try to keep my mother from calling yours at least until tomorrow.”

      “Thanks.”

      “And I’ll see you at the Labor Day party—I should probably apologize to you ahead of time for anything my parents might say to you at that.”

      The McCords were throwing one of their lavish soirees to mark the end of the summer season and Katie’s family was always at the top of the guest list.

      “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine,” Tate assured her once more.

      “I hope so,” Katie said. “I hope everything will be fine for us both.”

      “It will be.”

      “Well, one way or another, I just wanted you to know that you’re free to tell whoever you want now. And thanks for letting me go first with the families.”

      “Sure.”

      They said their goodbyes then and Tate turned off his phone as he parked in his assigned spot.

      But the freedom he now had to get the word out that he was no longer engaged to Katie was still on his mind.

      Of course it was his family who had to be next to know.

      But right after that?

      For the third time it was Tanya who made an instant appearance in his head.

      Because Tanya was really the only person he wanted to tell…

      “The engagement is off? Oh, Tate…”

      Tate had waited until everyone was finishing dessert Tuesday evening to make his announcement. Not that everyone was there. His mother, Eleanor, was at the head of the table and her response to the news was rife with disappointment and disapproval. His older brother Blake was sitting across from him, and one of his younger twin sisters, Penny, was to his right. But even without the rest of the family there, Tate knew word would spread to Penny’s twin, Paige, and to his youngest brother, Charlie, and he hadn’t wanted to delay telling his mother until Paige and Charlie were around, as well.

      “These breakups are never for good,” Blake said with an annoyed sigh.

      “It’s time the breakups stop,” Eleanor said. “I know you’ve been in a bad way since we lost Buzz, Tate. But I honestly think the path out of it is to finally do what you should have done long ago—stop this seesaw you and Katie have always been on and take a definitive step into your future with the woman you know you’re going to end up with eventually.”

      “In other words, little brother,” Blake said, “it’s time for you to grow up.”

      Tate could have taken issue with that but he didn’t. “What it is time for,” he said instead, “is for Katie and me to get off the