Marking Time (41 page)

“I don’t think your dad needs to see me right now. Not with your sister in the hospital.”

“Just for the ride? I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“Okay.”

The limo was waiting for them. Reid secured the plane and held her hand as they ran across the tarmac to the car.

In the car, he put an arm around her, and she rested against him. “Hurry,” he told the driver.

They crossed the Newport Bridge in record time. “This reminds me too much of my mother’s accident,” Kate said, weeping into his chest. “This is just what it felt like.”

He smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead. “She’s young and strong and healthy. She’ll be just fine.”

They pulled up in front of the hospital, and Reid followed Kate out of the limo.

“Thank you so much,” Kate said, wiping tears off her face.

He hugged her. “Let me know how she is.”

“I will.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jamie asked.

Reid and Kate turned to find her Aunt Frannie and Uncle Jamie on the sidewalk. Kate ran into her aunt’s outstretched arms.

Reid put his hands up to fend off Jamie, who once was his good friend at Berkeley. “I just gave her a ride.”

“You’ve got some nerve showing your face around here,” Jamie said, his jaw pulsing with anger. “Especially right now.”

“Don’t worry, I’m leaving. I’ll pray for your sister, Kate.”

“Thank you,” she said with a last glance back at him as her aunt and uncle each put an arm around her to escort her into the hospital.

Frannie, Jamie, and Kate rode the elevator to the third-floor intensive care unit.

“You need to prepare yourself, sweetie,” Frannie said. “She looks pretty bad.”

“Is she going to die?” Kate asked in a small voice.

“No,” Jamie said gruffly. “We won’t let that happen.”

They stepped off the elevator, and Kate ran to her mother.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Clare whispered.

“Tell me she’s better.”

“She’s no worse, but they say that’s good news.”

“Can I see her?”

“Dad’s in with her now. They want us to take turns.”

“Will he mind that I’m here?”

“Of course not.”

Kate exchanged tearful hugs with all her grandparents, who had driven up from Connecticut. Jill came through the swinging door and dissolved when she saw Kate. They clung to each other for several long minutes.

“This feels far too familiar,” Jill whispered through her tears.

Kate nodded, and her eyes filled again when Andi came over to hug her. “Are the boys here?”

Andi shook her head. “We sent them home with a sitter.”

Jack came out of Maggie’s room, his eyes red and his shoulders stooped.

“Daddy,” Kate whispered.

He looked up, and his face softened when he saw her.

Kate went to him. His arms tightened around her, and she clung to him as sobs hiccupped through her.

“Kate,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. “My girl. I’m so glad to see you.”

Since she couldn’t speak, she just held on to him.

In the middle of the night, Kate went with Jill to get coffee in the cafeteria.

“I’ve been thinking,” Jill said.

“About?”

“Aidan. He’d want to know about Maggie.”

“Don’t you think that’s up to Mom to decide?”

“She’s not thinking clearly. I’ll bet she’d be happy to see him right about now.”

“I don’t know, Jill. She might not appreciate that.”

“I’m going to call him anyway.” Jill reached for her cell phone. “I still have his number in my phone.”

“If this goes bad, I had nothing to do with it,” Kate said.

Clare was sitting with Maggie at six o’clock the next morning when the girl stirred.

“Maggie? Honey? Open your eyes.” Clare cried out when one magnificent blue eye fluttered open, followed by the other. “Oh, baby. Can you hear me?”

Maggie blinked and grimaced when she tried to move arms encased in plaster.

“Stay still, honey,” Clare said, tears tumbling down her cheeks. “You took a bad fall. You hurt your head and broke your arms. But you’re going to be just fine. Let me get Daddy, okay?” Clare ran to the door, calling for Jack and the doctor.

Jack rushed into the room. “Oh, thank God,” he said when he saw Maggie’s eyes were open.

“Daddy.”

“Oh, baby, you scared us,” he said.

The doctor checked Maggie’s eyes with a flashlight. “You have a severe concussion, Maggie, so you need to stay really still for a while to give your brain time to recover. Okay?”

“Okay.”

The doctor turned to Jack and Clare. “We got very lucky,” he said and left the room.

“What happened?” Maggie asked.

“You fell backward off the ladder to the attic,” Jack said. “Do you remember?”

When she tried to nod, her face tightened with pain.

“What were you doing up there, honey?” he asked.

“I was putting away my Barbies.”

“Why?” Clare asked. “You love them.”

“They’re for babies.”

Her parents exchanged glances over her bed.

“No one thinks you’re a baby,” Clare said.

“You all do! Everyone treats me like I’m a baby, so I thought if I stopped acting like one…”

Jack hung his head. “Is this because we wouldn’t tell you about Kate?”

“Sort of.”

“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “When you’re feeling better, Kate can tell you all about it herself.”

“She can? Really?”

He nodded. “She’s here. She came home to see you.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. “She did? Wow, you guys must’ve been freaking out.”

Jack’s entire body sagged with relief. “Yes, baby,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. “We were definitely freaking out.”

Clare smiled at him and nodded in agreement.

Clare spent an hour with Maggie until the nurses shooed her out so they could care for Maggie. Leaning against the wall, she tipped her head back to say a silent prayer of thanks.

Aidan burst through the swinging doors, his eyes wide with fatigue and fear.

Clare gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Had anyone ever looked so good?

“Jill called me. I got here as fast as I could.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Tell me she’s okay.”

Clare clung to him, wallowing in the familiar scent of sawdust and cologne. “She will be.” As she said the words, she felt the tension ebb from his big frame.

He released a ragged sigh. “That was the longest five hours
ever
,” he said, still holding her close to him.

“I can’t believe you’re here. I’ve missed you so much.”

“Me, too.” He brushed a light kiss over her lips. “Can I see Maggie?”

Clare looked into Maggie’s room, where the nurses were settling her against fresh pillows. “In a minute. They’re almost done.”

“I have stuff I need to tell you.”

“What kind of stuff?”

He shook his head in dismay at the sight of Maggie with the big casts and the pale face. “I realized something in the last five hours when I didn’t know if that little girl I love so much would be alive when I got here.”

Clare couldn’t take her eyes off him. “What did you realize?”

“I’m already a father.” His eyes were riveted to Maggie as he spoke. “Maybe it’s just a stepfather, but I can’t imagine any father could’ve been more scared than I was when I heard about what happened to her. You and those girls of yours are already mine.”

Clare’s eyes stung with tears. “Aidan.”

“You were right, Clare,” he said, focused now on her. “I
do
have it in me. I’m sorry I was such a fool and that it took something like this for me to see it.”

She tugged him down and kissed him hard. “Do you remember the question you asked me that last night at your house?”

Wincing at the memory, he nodded.

“I’d like to change my answer.”

“
A
idan, hurry up,” Clare called up the stairs. “It’s on!”

“We’re coming,” he said from upstairs.

Clare put out a big bowl of popcorn, opened a Sam Adams for Aidan and a light beer for herself. The TV was tuned to the Academy of Country Music Awards on Country Music Television.

Aidan came downstairs carrying their son, Max. “
Someone
didn’t want to get out of the tub.”

“Give me that boy.” Clare held out her arms and breathed in the scent of baby shampoo coming from Max’s soft coffee-colored skin and curly dark hair. His big brown eyes danced when she tickled him.

Max pointed to the television. “Kate!” he squealed. He was almost three and smart, funny, and so full of joy.

“There she is!” Aidan said with a big smile as they watched Kate alight from a limo with Buddy and Taylor. “She looks amazing.”

Clare knew the silver gown was Chanel couture, the shoes were Manolo Blahnik, and the jewelry was on loan from Harry Winston. A team of stylists had worked for weeks to prepare Kate for the big night. She was up for best new artist and song of the year for “I Thought I Knew.”

Jill and Maggie had flown to Los Angeles the day before to accompany their sister to the award ceremony. They’d called earlier from inside the auditorium and were having a blast hobnobbing with the biggest stars in country music.

Aidan put his arm around Clare. “I’m so excited.”

She smiled and kissed him. They’d been married almost a year ago in a small ceremony at his house in Stowe. Their marriage had cleared the way for the adoption of Max a month later. Lately, they’d been talking about finding him a companion.

Jack had passed along a few leads to Aidan, and before he knew it, he was firmly established in the restoration business in historic Newport. Clare knew she shouldn’t have been surprised when her new husband struck up an unlikely friendship with her ex-husband. Her goal of holidays together was now a reality, and Max referred to “Uncle” Jack’s sons as his cousins. Her life had come full circle, and Clare was content—again.

“This is it,” Aidan said.

Martina McBride and Alan Jackson announced the nominees for best new artist.

Clare buried her face in Aidan’s shirt. “I can’t stand it.”

“Look!” Aidan hollered. “There they are! Jill and Maggie!”

Max clapped his pudgy hands with glee at the sight of his sisters on TV.

“And the award goes to…Kate Harrington,” Alan Jackson said.

The arena went wild, and Clare finally looked up in time to see Kate hug her sisters, Buddy, and Taylor on her way to the stage. As she accepted the award and a kiss on the cheek from Martina, Kate’s blue eyes were wide with excitement and tears.

“Oh, my goodness,” she said with a hand on her chest as she tried to catch her breath. “There’re so many people I need to thank. Buddy and Taylor, you’ve been so much more to me than mentors. You’re my Nashville family, and I love you both.”

Buddy and Taylor wiped away tears and blew kisses to Kate from the front row.

“I want to thank our crew from the tour, the gang at Long Road Records, and everyone on my team. You all work so hard to keep me sane, and I can’t thank you enough. But mostly I want to thank my family for their love and support. Thank you to my sisters, Jill and Maggie, who are with me tonight. Thank you to my mom, Aidan, and Max, to Andi, Eric, Johnny, and Robby, and…” Kate paused to collect herself. “I want to thank my dad, who had the courage to say yes to this grand adventure of mine. Thank you, Daddy. I love you all very much. Thank you.”

Clare and Aidan cheered and cried and hugged each other as Max squealed between them.

Kate had done it, Clare thought. She’d really done it.

In a beachfront bar on St. Kitts, Reid nursed a scotch on the rocks and watched the show on satellite TV. Kate looked so amazing as she accepted her award for best new artist, and his heart swelled with pride. As a nominee for song of the year, Kate performed “I Thought I Knew” shortly after she received her award. Reid wondered if she still thought of him every time she sang his song. He remembered her giving it to him as a Christmas gift on the same magical night they rode Thunder in the snow.

He looked out over the water as the sun set in a big ball of fire on the horizon. Nine months earlier, he’d finally chucked it all for his shack on the beach. Two days after he decided to sell his business, a conglomerate out of Austin, Texas, snapped it up with promises to retain all his employees. He’d had to laugh at how ridiculously easy it had been to shed the business after all the years he’d spent trying to figure a way out. He closed up the house in Tennessee until Ashton wanted it for his own family, took enough clothes to get by on the beach, flew his plane to St. Kitts, and never looked back.

The day before he left Nashville, he’d taken Thunder over to Buddy’s stables with a note for Kate. He sold his other horses, but Thunder was hers now. She was right—the horse liked her best anyway. After he got Thunder settled, he spent a couple of hours mending fences with Martha, and she promised to come visit him in St. Kitts.

Ashton slid on to the barstool next to Reid’s. “Did she win?”

“Best new artist. Song of the year is next.”

“Like there was ever any doubt.”

Reid smiled at his son. They were slowly getting back on track, and this week together was a big step in the right direction.

“What do you say we take one of those deep-sea fishing trips tomorrow?” Ashton asked.

“Sounds good to me.”

“There’s a guy selling tickets at the marina next door. I’ll go buy a couple.”

“I’ll be along in a minute.” Reid returned his attention to the television, where Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were announcing the nominees for song of the year.

“And the award goes to…” Tim handed the card to his wife.

“Kate Harrington for ‘I Thought I Knew.’”

Reid watched Kate make her way to the stage to accept her second award of the evening. She hugged Tim and Faith, and turned to absorb the audience’s thundering applause.

“Thank you,” she said when the applause finally died down. “‘I Thought I Knew’ is a song that’s very close to my heart, and I’m so grateful for this award. I wrote this song at a special time in my life, a time I’ll never forget. Just like I’ll never forget this night. Thank you all so much.”