Kiss Me Kate (The English Brothers Book 6) (14 page)

The wrinkle now, however, was that Kate was starting to fall for him again. Another kiss like last night and—

Ring ring. Ring ring.

Her landline was ringing, which meant that either her parents or one of her cousins was calling, because no one else had her number.

“Hello?”

“Kate, it’s Strat.”

“Morning.”

“Morning,” he answered. “You busy?”

“Just packing for Naw’lins.”
And thinking non-stop about Étienne.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

She sat back down on the edge of the bed. “The doomsday voice is back. Last time you called me with the doomsday voice Barrett had gotten into bed with J.C. Rousseau. Who’s he in bed with now?”

“It’s not his bed I’m worried about.”

“Then whose?”

“Honestly? Yours.”

She chortled. “Is that a joke?”

“You left with Tony Reddington at 8:57 last night. Étienne Rousseau promptly got into a tiff with Connie Atwell and left solo ten minutes later. I was wondering where he ended up.”

“And you think I know?”

“I think you two were on the terrace together. I think he knocked back two double vodkas when he came out alone. You left soon after without saying goodbye, and he got into a fight with his date.”

“Stratton—”

“You don’t
know
everything,” he blurted out.

Kate opened her mouth then closed it as a shiver trailed down her back. “About what?”

“Étienne…and you.”

“What are you talking about?”

She heard Stratton gulp through the phone, which meant he was swallowing down a pretty thick lump. “Alex and I…we made a promise never to tell you. You’d been through enough. And you never asked. Once in a while, when we were in college? You’d get drunk and mention Étienne…you’d ask me why he never called you, never wrote to you…”

“And?” she murmured, her heart hammering.

“It was because…he…he didn’t love you, Kate. He
never
loved you. In fact…he disrespected you.”

Her eyes glistened with sudden tears. “What? Wh-what do you mean?”

“That Monday after Spring Break,” said Stratton, chasing the words with a heavy sigh. “He said some terrible things about you at school, br-bragging about your time together…and Alex heard, and, well, he beat up Étienne. He took care of it.”

“What things?” asked Kate in a soft, stunned voice. “What things did he say about me?”

“He called you ‘Easy English’ and he made some lewd comments about your…the size of your chest. And—”

“Stop,” gasped Kate. “You
heard
him say these things?”

“No,” said Stratton. “Alex did.”

“So Alex beat him up.”

“Yeah.”

“Then what?” asked Kate, her heart racing as these unknown pieces of her history were revealed to her so many years later.

“Well,” said Stratton, taking a deep breath, “when the Monsignor came outside, Étienne had managed to get on top of Alex, and he was in the process of landing a couple of good punches to Alex’s face. A few of Alex’s friends pulled him off and…”

“And what?”

“He was expelled.”

“
Étienne?
” Kate winced. “He was expe—But Alex started it!”

“Kate!” exclaimed Stratton. “Alex was defending
you
.”

“I know,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean… I know that. I’m just trying to get my head around all of this. Then what?”

“Then nothing. Alex’s friends vouched for him, saying Étienne started it. It wasn’t Étienne’s first fight. He was expelled and sent away to some military academy in the South, thank God. Plus, the Rousseaus started spending their summers in France.” Stratton paused. “We really didn’t see him much after that…until I ran into him again a couple of years ago.”

Stratton used to be the next-door neighbor of Étienne’s ex-girlfriend, Amy, before he and Valeria had moved to their own place.

He sighed heavily. “God, I hate like hell to be the one to tell you all of this, Kate. I’m sorry that—”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this ten years ago?”

“We thought it would upset you to know he’d been talking about you like that. We didn’t want him to hurt you any more than he already had.”

A tear slipped down her cheek as she processed his words. “You were protecting me.”

“Always, Kate.” He paused. “Listen, now you know why we were so pissed at Barrett for taking the deal. We all talked last night after you left, and Fitz can go to New Orleans tomorrow. You shouldn’t have to—”

“No,” she said softly, but firmly. “This information doesn’t change anything, Stratton. It’s still part of the past. This deal is the future. I’m still going to New Orleans.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am,” she said, reaching up to wipe her cheek with the back of her hand.

“Was I right to tell you?”

“Yeah,” she said, sniffling softly. “You actually answered a few long-standing questions for me.”

“I wish
I
could beat him up for you this time.”

Kate chuckled softly, reaching for a tissue to dab at her eyes. “No. It’s okay, Strat. If memory serves, you warned me about Étienne a long time ago. I probably should have listened to you then.”

“I never liked him.”

Pausing for a moment, Kate let these words sink in, surprised by their unexpected impact. The child Kate once was, had unquestioningly believed anything told to her by someone she loved. The woman, and lawyer, she had become, had learned to search a little harder for the truth.

“No. You never did.” She paused again, her brain trying to put together an elusive thought just out of her grasp. “Why not? What was the real reason you didn’t like Étienne?”

“He was a troublemaker, and—”

“Stop. The
real
reason, Strat. This was personal from the beginning.”

“It’s stupid.”

“I’d still like to know.”

Stratton sighed in that long-suffering way Kate had known all her life. “Freshman year at St. Michael’s. He knew I liked Jillian O’Connor, who went to St. Bernadette’s and was on our bus. He was sitting in front of me and overheard me say that I was going to ask her to the Christmas formal. Étienne stood up, grinned at me, then walked to the back of the bus and promptly asked her to go with
him
to the Christmas formal.”

“He scooped your date.”

“She said yes…and he winked at me when he sat back down.”

“Is there where it all started? The rivalry between the Rousseaus and the Englishes?”

“Not really. In fairness, Barrett had stolen Bree Ambler from J.C. a few years before.”

“Huh. Barrett stole Bree from J.C., so Étienne stole Jillian from you. And knowing how protective Alex is, I’m guessing he wasn’t a fan of Étienne after that.”

“Alex had been coaching me…you know, helping me practice how to ask Jillian. So, yeah, he wasn’t too happy when I told him what happened. Like you said, there was always a rivalry.” Stratton paused for a moment, and Kate could hear Valeria’s voice in the background. “Sorry, Kate. I gotta go. It’s Sunday morning, which means mass with Val.”

“I understand,” she said. “Thanks for calling, Strat.”

“I hate dredging up the past like this, but I thought you should know, just in case…”

“In case?”

“In case you were getting any ideas…old feelings, that sort of thing.”

“Ah,” she breathed, glad he couldn’t see her face.

“I hope I made the right decision to call. Safe travels tomorrow, Kate.”

“Will do,” she answered, and carefully hung up the mouthpiece on the receiver.

Her mind was spinning, but instead of forcing a train of thought or immediately jumping to more hurt feelings based on Étienne’s conjectured comments about her on that fateful Monday, she waited to see where her thoughts landed. It only took a moment for one theme to eclipse the others, and surprisingly, it wasn’t Étienne’s purported comments about her.

The
rivalry
between her cousins and the Rousseau brothers added a new dimension to the dynamics of her week with Étienne. He’d never invited her to Chateau Nouvelle and she’d never invited him to Haverford Park. At the time, it hadn’t occurred to her, because the Winslow’s Westerly estate had been their sunny love nest, private from the prying eyes of protective cousins or little sisters. But perhaps Étienne had purposely kept their love affair a secret to avoid complications with her cousins or his brother, who wouldn’t have approved of them dating.

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and winced as she thought about Étienne’s expulsion. Her eyes filled with tears and fluttered closed, as she realized she was the inadvertent cause of his banishment. He’d been sent to military school because of a fight
her cousin
started. She couldn’t help but wonder… Did he ever get her letters? She had addressed them all to Chateau Nouvelle. She sighed deeply as she remembered Madame Rousseasu’s coldness. “
He won’t be here later”
and “
I’m quite sure my son doesn’t want to talk to you.”
He wasn’t there, because he was far away in Mississippi at military school. And he didn’t want to talk to her because her cousin had beaten him up and gotten him expelled.

Suddenly his comment at their first meeting—
Why don’t you go run and get Barrett to beat me up?—
which had seemed so incongruous at the time, made sense. It also told her something important: Étienne was under the impression that she knew about his beating and expulsion.

And what about last night when he’d said, “
We both made mistakes
.” She now heard this comment through a different filter as well. What mistakes? What mistakes did he believe she had made?

“Oh God,” she murmured, feeling light-headed as an awful question rose up in her head. “Did he ever get my letters at all?”

All these years, she’d assumed he’d used her, that he didn’t love her, that their week together hadn’t meant anything to him, and that could still be true, but for the first time in a long time, it was also possible that it wasn’t.

As for the comments ascribed to Étienne that led to the beating? Stratton hadn’t actually heard them from Étienne’s mouth, though he insisted Alex did, and Alex had been furious enough to beat up Étienne and stand by as he was expelled. Would Étienne have said such things? Bragged about being with Kate? Called her a slut? Made disgusting jokes about her body?

Her heart clutched and her lips twitched, but she forced herself not to get emotional about that particular part of these revelations until she had a first-hand account of what had happened. Alex knew the truth…and Étienne knew the truth, and whatever it was, Kate wanted it. But as much as she loved Alex, her heart told her to seek her answers from Étienne, to trust Étienne instead of her cousin. Because Alex hadn’t just been beating up Étienne to defend her honor, he’d also been punishing Étienne for his cruelty to Stratton, and it could have clouded Alex’s judgment.

Buzz. Buzz buzz.

Buzz. Buzz buzz.

She hopped up from the bed and grabbed her phone off the dresser, gasping lightly to see Étienne’s name pop up on her phone. She swiped at the screen quickly to read his text.

Kate, I’m sorry about last night. I had no right to kiss you like that, and I promise it won’t happen again. The only thing I will be concentrating on from now on is the deal. You can count on me to be professional. —Ten

Kate frowned at the text, the words
I promise it won’t happen again
making her feel both sad and annoyed. She didn’t exactly know what she wanted from Étienne, but no more kisses sounded terrible. First and foremost, she wanted to understand exactly what had happened between them, but she also knew that would be self-indulgent. They needed to settle business first. Their personal history would have to wait.

I owe you an apology too. You were trying to protect me from getting hurt, and I said awful, presumptive things to you. I’m sorry. Thank you for warning me about Tony. He and I talked. I think we’ll be able to remain friends. —Kate

Her phone buzzed again a moment later:

That’s good, Kate. I’m glad to hear it. Despite what you may think of me, I never, ever intended to hurt you.

She blinked back tears as she read these words, because if his words were true—if Étienne had never gotten her letters or calls…if he had believed in her complicity with Alex’s actions—then the injured party between them was not only her, as she’d believed for most of her life, but Étienne as well. She gulped, typing quickly before she lost her nerve.

I know that now isn’t the time because we should both be focused on business, but when this deal is settled, do you think we could talk about what happened? Between us?

She pressed send then took a deep, shuddering breath. What if he said no? What if he told her to go to hell?