Chapter 2
Two
Kate forced herself to wait an hour after Jill’s car came down the driveway before she headed for the winding path through a wooded area that separated their two homes.
All morning, her nerves had been sharply attuned to the importance of Jill’s meeting with Ashton.
Kate didn’t care about threats of lawsuits.
She’d been threatened before—hell, she’d been sued before—and Jill always took care of it before it escalated.
And whether he hated her or not, Ashton watched her back on behalf of Buddy’s company.
No, she wasn’t worried about lawsuits or breach of contract actions. She had far more important matters on her mind as she knocked on her sister’s door.
“It’s open,” Jill called.
Kate stepped inside. “Well, hallelujah! You do own jeans!”
“Very funny.”
Standing in her kitchen, wearing faded denim, a white linen blouse, her hair in a ponytail and her feet bare, Jill looked much as she had at twenty. Kate was relieved to see her sister out of the suit, sipping a glass of iced tea and finally looking relaxed.
“Drink?” Jill asked.
“No, thanks.” Kate slid onto a barstool. “How’d it go?”
“Fine. You know Ashton. Always your biggest fan.”
Kate snickered. “At least he’s consistent. So I take it he wasn’t willing to tell you where I might find his father?”
“Correct.”
“Hmm. Well, I guess I’ll try plan B, then.”
“Which is?”
“B is for Buddy—and Taylor.”
Jill started to say something but then stopped herself.
“What?”
“I was thinking on the way home,” Jill said hesitantly, “that maybe some things are better left alone.”
Kate took a moment and chose her words carefully. “That may be true—and you’re probably right that I should leave it alone. But over the last few months, I’ve had an overwhelming need to see him, to talk to him, to…apologize to him.”
“For what?”
“For the way I handled things at the end. After everything we shared, I owed him more than to walk away the first time things got tough.”
“He went behind your back and did something you specifically asked him not to do,” Jill reminded her.
“He went behind my back and saw to it I had the career I’d always dreamed of.”
“At the time, you resented him for not hearing you when you asked him not to pull strings for you.”
“I know. Believe me, I’ve been over it and over it a million times in my mind. I still wish it’d happened differently, but I’ve had an amazing career that he made possible. And I treated him badly.”
Jill sat on the stool next to Kate’s. “You’ve certainly changed your tune on that incident, and, I might add, you’ve had an amazing career because of you and your talent.”
“If he hadn’t told Buddy about me, who knows if I ever would’ve made it in this business?”
“You were too good to fail.”
“You have to say that. You’re my sister.”
“You would’ve gotten there eventually. I have no doubt about that.”
“Regardless,” Kate said with a shrug. “He made it easier for me, and for a long time I’ve regretted the way I treated him when I found out about it.”
“Why don’t you write him a letter or something? Why do you have to see him to apologize?”
This is the sticky part, Kate thought. The apology wasn’t the only reason she wanted to see him. “I told you—I need some closure,” Kate said, going for generic over specific.
Jill eyed her shrewdly. No one knew her better than her older sister. “I don’t like it. Tearing the scab off a healed wound is never a good idea.”
“If I’m being completely honest, the wound never healed entirely.”
Jill gasped. “God, Kate! How long have you felt this way?”
“All along, I suppose.”
“Is this why it didn’t work out with Clint or Bobby or Russ?”
Kate winced at the reminder of the failed affairs that had marked the years since she left Reid. “Maybe.”
“So none of them ever stood a chance because you never stopped loving him? And you knew the whole time you were still in love with someone else?”
Kate held up a hand to stop her sister. “It’s not that simple. I thought about him, about Reid, a lot. That never stopped.”
“But?”
“It took a while—and a couple of failed relationships—for me to realize I’d been foolish to think that kind of love was going to come along again. I’d been foolish to think… I’d been foolish. That’s the bottom line.”
“I had no idea,” Jill said, slumping into her chair and looking at Kate in amazement. “I spend twenty hours a day with you and had no earthly idea you were still pining over him.”
“How would you know? I never talk about it—about him—to anyone.”
“And yet you’ve thought about him.”
“Every day.” After a long pause, Kate said, “I need to see him. I need to know if there’s any chance at all that what we once had is still there.”
“And if it isn’t? What if he’s moved on with his life and married someone else? What happens then?”
“Is he?”
“Is he what?”
“Married to someone else? Did Ashton tell you that?”
“All he said is his father is happy and has a life that satisfies him. He said it took a long time for his dad to move on after what happened with you.”
“And he didn’t say where he’d moved on to?”
“Nope.”
“It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth. I’ve tried everything I can think of to find him, but there’s nothing. I saw that he sold his business, but there’s no mention of him anywhere since then.”
“What about his house in town?”
“Closed up tight.”
“And you know this how?”
Kate flashed a sheepish grin. “I might’ve gone by there the last time we were home.”
“What if you go to Buddy and tell him you want to get in touch with Reid and he says to leave it alone?”
“I’ll go to Miss Martha,” Kate said of Buddy’s elderly mother, who’d once been Reid’s housekeeper.
“Um, didn’t she quit because she disapproved of you two?”
“That was a long time ago, and I’m not eighteen anymore. If all else fails, I’ll hire a private investigator to find him. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Kate waited for her sister to fire back with another question, but she didn’t. “What’re you thinking?”
“I’m worried about what happens if you find him and he’s not interested. What if he’s gotten over it—and you—and moved on?”
“Then I’ll have to accept that and move on myself. But I can’t do anything until I know for sure it’s really over with him. Can’t you see what I mean?”
“I do, and, strangely enough, I even understand. A little. That doesn’t mean I’m not worried. You’ve been so sick, and you’re finally starting to recover. I’d hate to see you have another setback.”
Kate leaned forward to hug her sister. “I love you for worrying about me, but I’ll be fine.”
Jill returned the embrace with equal fervor. “Promise?”
“I promise.”
“No matter what happens with Reid?”
“No matter what happens.” Kate pulled back from the hug. “Speaking of stuff happening, anything I need to know about from the meeting?”
“We’re working on getting you freed up for this vacation you want so badly.”
Kate got up to leave. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands, then.” At the door, she turned back to face her sister. “Try to enjoy the downtime, will you?”
“Only if you do, too.”
“Oh, I will.”
The next day, Kate drove her Jeep out to Buddy and Taylor’s house, planning to crash Sunday dinner. The crisp autumn day reminded her of home. While nothing could top a New England fall, Tennessee was no slouch when it came to foliage and clear blue skies.
She’d lived here so long now it felt like home, but her heart would always belong to the house on the coast where her mother and stepfather still lived with their sons, Max and Nick.
Her cellphone rang, and Kate put it on speaker to take the call.
“Hey, it’s me,” her sister Maggie said.
“Hey, Mags, what’s up?”
“I heard you were back on drugs, so I figured I’d better check on you.”
“You know me, a different day, a different fix. Where’d you hear it this time?”
“On the radio at lunchtime. The DJs were talking about you like they know you. You’re really okay, though, right?”
“I’m fine. I went back to work too soon after the pneumonia and passed out on stage. Anything else you hear is pure fiction.”
“I know that—everyone who knows you knows that. Are you feeling better now?”
“Better every day. It’s good to be home.”
“Have you talked to Dad?”
“Not in a week or so, why?”
“You’ll love this. The boys are letting everyone know that they want to be called John and Rob now that they’re in fifth grade. Apparently, Johnny and Robby are baby names.”
As her hair blew in the breeze, Kate let out a ringing laugh. “That’s awesome. Thanks for letting me know. I’d hate to get in trouble the next time I call home.”
“No kidding. Those two are a piece of work. They’re playing in a big baseball tournament this weekend on the Cape. Dad, Andi, Mom, Aidan and all the O’Malleys are there watching them. Dad said they got the biggest turnout of all the kids on either team—including the home team.”
Kate loved that her parents continued to share a warm friendship even though they were long divorced. “Can’t you picture Grammy O’Malley in the middle of it, bossing everyone around?”
“Totally.” The mother of their stepfather, Aidan, was an adored extra grandmother to the Harrington girls. “How’s work?”
“Interesting this week. I’m signing for a deaf juror in a murder trial. Gruesome business. I’ll have nightmares for weeks.”
“Ugh, that sounds awful.”
“It’s a paycheck. How’s Jill?”
“You won’t believe it, but I finally got her out of her suit and into jeans. Don’t look now, but I think she’s actually taking a vacation.”
“Shut the front door! How’d you manage that?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I convinced her we both need a break—her as much as me. She works way too hard. I worry all the time that she’s sacrificing her life to run mine.”
“She loves every minute of running your life, and you know it.”
“She does seem to love the job, but I want her to have her own life, too.”
“You know Jill—she doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
“True.”
“Well, I’d better get back to the Texas Chain-Saw Murder trial.”