Marrying Kate (10 page)

Her immediate fear was that it had something to do with their marriage. Had she done something wrong? Kate quickly thought back over the past couple of days trying to pinpoint something that might have upset him. Nothing came to mind but that didn’t ease her worry.

"Auntie Kate!" This time she was the distracted one, Kate realized when she heard the exasperation in Bry’s voice.

"Sorry, honey, what do you need?" She pushed aside her depressing thoughts and focused on Bryan.

"I forgot to tell you you’re supposed to make cookies for class tomorrow." He handed her a sheet of paper. "Here’s the paper my teacher
said to give to you."

Kate glanced at it, frowning. Cookies? She hadn’t even attempted any type of baking. "How long have you had this, Bry?"

He shrugged. "Couple a days."

"You should have given it to me as soon as you got it," Kate admonished him. "You know I have a hard time with this sort of thing. I’m not sure I could make anything in time. At least anything edible."

"Here, let me take care of that." Jared took the paper from her hand and scanned it. "One of the men at work has a sister who is a terrific baker. She’s always sending cookies and other goodies for us. I’ll ask her if she could whip these up for Bry."

The small amount of self-confidence she’d managed to build in her abilities in the kitchen shriveled up inside Kate. She felt like a complete failure. She couldn’t even bake cookies for a class treat. Kate wanted to snatch the paper back from Jared and inform him that she
could
do this for Bry, but she knew she couldn’t. And on top of that, she didn’t want to embarrass Bry with her pathetic attempts at baking cookies.

Silently, Kate stood and began clearing the table. No one seemed to notice her withdrawal which rankled her even more. After everyone left and it was finally just her and Dani, Kate decided that she was going to try her hand at cookies. No one would know if she failed
, but if she didn’t then she’d have something waiting for her family when they came home.

Grimly determined, Kate searched the cookbooks for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. With Dani corralled on the other side of a baby gate out of reach of the oven, Kate set to work.

Two hours later she gave up in defeat. The cookies went into the garbage which she then carted outside. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she cleaned up the mess. Thankfully Dani had gone down for a nap so she didn’t witness her aunt’s meltdown.

"Stupid recipe," Kate muttered as she shoved the cookbook back into its place on the shelf. "Easy, my foot."

It wasn’t bad enough that she’d simply failed, she’d failed at a recipe that had specifically had "easy" in its title.
Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
. Hah.

Feeling totally inept, Kate decided it would do her ego good to work on something she actually excelled at. Resolutely she
pulled the boxes out of the closet in her old room and began to pull the components out. She hadn’t used it in all the time she’d been here. If she’d needed to check email or go on the internet, she just used the desktop in the office. Her computer with her special programs had sat packed in boxes since she’d sold her condo and shipped everything. The children had demanded too much of her emotion and time to even think about working. Now was different though and even if it wasn’t, this was an emergency. Kate
needed
to do some work she excelled in.

She set up the computer
on the desk the guest room and within minutes Kate sat in front of a familiar screen. As she began to type, the tension of the morning ebbed away. Time flew by and before she knew it, Dani was awake. Reluctantly, Kate left the computer, her mind abuzz with ideas.

After their lunch Kate was so tempted to go back to the computer
, but she’d determined earlier that she was going to plant the garden. Kate had had someone out to till the soil so all it needed was her little seedlings.

It was a gloriously warm day so she dressed herself and Dani in cool outfits. She put Dani on a blanket with several toys in the shade of a big tree. After slathering on the sunscreen, Kate called to mind all she’d read regarding planting seedlings.

She worked steadily through the afternoon stopping only long enough to get Dani a snack and then put her down for her afternoon nap. With the monitor beside her so she’d hear Dani when she woke, Kate continued to plant. She worked slowly, carefully, not wanting to damage any of the tender seedlings. After she patted the earth around the last plant, Kate stood to survey her work. She didn’t think it looked too bad. The rows of plants were straight and even
ly spaced. The soil was moistened as she’d read. Now she just had to wait, tending it it in the weeks ahead until her efforts paid off in vegetables. Hopefully.

Kate could hardly wait for the first fruits of her labor to appear. She brushed the dirt from her hands. Working on her computer and in the garden had been a balm for her wounded ego. For the many failures she’d faced over the past few months it was nice to have a few successes.

The kids came running into the house as Kate washed her hands. She gave them each a snack and listened as they talked about their day. After things settled a bit Kate sent them up to their rooms to change and start on their homework.

She hadn’t heard from Jared all day which was unusual. He generally called at least once during the day. She’d had the cordless
phone and her cell out in the garden with her so hadn’t missed his call. It was strange since Kate knew he had a phone with him. He’d gotten a cell phone for himself. Kate already had one though rarely used it since she rarely ventured far from the house. But she knew Jared took his wherever he went and had called her from it several times.

Dinner time came and still there was no word from Jared. The kids asked about him and finally Kate let Bry phone his cell.

"There’s no answer, Auntie. The lady just says something about the customer being out of range."

Truly worried now, Kate tried to keep it hidden from the kids. "He probably turned it off and forgot to turn it back on again."

The kids seemed to accept her explanation because they scooted off to watch a bit of television before bed.

Kate was in the kitchen cleaning up, trying hard to keep herself sane, when she heard the door from the garage open. Her hands gripped the plate she was putting in the cupboard. Her fears vanished but a whole new set of emotions took their place.

She wanted to rage at him for making her worry, for not calling her
, but Kate figured he’d just tell her she didn’t have any reason to worry. Didn’t have any right to worry. And on top of all that, she just wanted to burst into tears. That was not a good sign.

Since Jared had to walk past the family room to get to anywhere else in the house, the kids spotted him and were soon bombarding him with questions. Kate took advantage of the brief reprieve to gather her tattered emotions.

"Sorry I’m late," Jared said casually as he strode into the kitchen. He set a box on the counter. "I went by to pick up the cookies for Bry."

"You weren’t answering your phone," Kate said, hoping he couldn’t hear the tinge of anger in her voice.

"Did you need to get hold of me for something?" Jared asked.

Kate shook her head. "Bry was just wondering why you were late and decided to call you. The call wouldn’t go through."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t call from the office because I planned to call from the car. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize my battery was dead and I had taken the car adapter into the office to have one of the guys look at it since it’s not been working the past couple of days."

"Do you want some supper?" Kate finished putting the plates in the cupboard.

Jared rubbed his stomach. "No thanks. Darlene made me two thick sandwiches with freshly baked bread and roast beef. Absolutely wonderful."

Kate clutched the dishtowel between her hands and turned away from Jared.
Darlene
. Even the name sounded perfect. She wondered if the woman was single. Had Jared enjoyed spending time in her company? Maybe he could have married her if he’d just waited a couple of weeks.

"Do want to try one of the cookies? She sent along some extra for us to try so Bry isn’t the only one getting a treat."

The kids all accepted one then Jared held one out to her. Kate wanted to refuse it. She didn’t want to eat perfect Darlene’s cookies. But she didn’t want to raise any alarms by refusing so she reached out and took it from him. She bit into it. Chocolate chip. Talk about adding insult to injury. It tasted like sawdust to her and when Jared turned away Kate put the cookie down on the counter and dropped the cloth over it.

"Wow, the kids are gonna love these tomorrow!" Bry said after he swallowed the last of his cookie.

"I’m sure they will," Jared agreed. "Here, I brought Darlene’s phone number with me. I want you to call and thank her for baking these for your class. She wouldn’t take any money for her efforts."

Bry took the number and went to the phone. Kate listened as he talked to the woman and wondered if he would have liked her for a mother.

Kate was in an emotional panic by the time the kids were all in bed. She desperately needed some time alone to pull herself together. She knew her thoughts earlier had not been kind or fair
to either Jared or Darlene. Jared had promised to be faithful to her, even if he didn’t love her, and Kate had to believe that he was a man of his word. Letting doubts like that creep in would just give Satan a foothold in her life and in her marriage.

After the kids were down Jared went into the library so Kate retreated to her room. Once again before the computer, she turned off all other thoughts and emotions and focused on what she was doing.

"
Kate?" Jared’s voice broke through her concentration.

Kate blinked a couple of times, automatically saving her work then looked at the digital clock in the corner of her computer screen. One o’clock! She hadn’t realized what time it was.

"What are you working on?" Jared asked as he sat down on the bed.

Kate rotated her neck a couple of times to work out the kinks then shut off the monitor and stood up. "It’s a kids’ computer program."

"Are you writing
one? I thought you did research in Seattle."

"I did
, but a few years ago I started taking night classes in computer programming. It was completely different from my research work, but I enjoyed it immensely. I was two classes away from getting my diploma. This is the first time I’ve tried working on a program of this sort. The kids kind of inspired me."

"Is it working?"

"It’s coming together, so we’ll see."

They had left
the guest room by then and were walking down the hallway to the master suite. As Jared closed the door behind them, all the emotions and thoughts of the evening flooded back. Kate prayed that that there would only be sleeping in the bed tonight. She didn’t think she could handle more than that emotionally.

It wasn’t until they lay together in the dark that Jared spoke again. "Katie, what’s wrong? You’ve been really quiet all evening, even before you went to work on your computer."

Kate felt a tear slip down her cheek but managed to speak normally, although not honestly. "Nothing."

Jared’s hand found hers under the covers. "Honesty,
Kate. Remember, we promised honesty."

Kate turned her head away from him, tears flowing more quickly now. Her throat was so tight she couldn’t have spoken if she had wanted to.

She felt movement and suddenly Jared was propped up on an elbow next to her, his hand cupping her damp cheek as he turned her to face him in the dim moonlight.

"Don’t tell me nothing’s wrong, Katie." Jared’s thumb moved across her cheek, brushing away a tear. "I have never seen you cry before. What is causing these tears? Was it something I did? Were you upset that I was late?"

Kate nodded slightly and managed to speak. "I was worried when you hadn’t called all day and then were late. I knew you were distracted this morning
, and I was afraid something had happened."

Jared eased down on his side, sliding his arm under her. His warm breath caressed her ear as he sighed. "Yes, you’re right. I was distracted this morning and because I’m demanding honesty from you, I have to be honest myself."

Kate tensed, afraid of what he might reveal to her. Jared must have felt her movement because he began to stroke her arm. "Hey, it’s nothing too serious. We have it all under control but I think you need to know, just in case.

"I’ve discovered since my return that although my death was reported in error, it was not really a mistake. I
think I was supposed to have died in that helicopter crash. I think that the aircraft had been tampered with in some way to ensure an accident, and hopefully my death. They obviously didn’t think anyone had survived the crash so put out the story about my dying in a car accident. It would have been too hard to explain why I was in the helicopter belonging to a well-known drug lord.

"Because of that, I believe that someone is out to get me
—and not just me, but another guy I also worked with. I was told that he had died as a result of a car bomb. He also sent me an email warning me about not trusting anyone. I’m not sure what will happen now. Clearly I’m still alive, so I can only assume that someone is unhappy about that. I don’t know what—or when—they might try to rectify that situation.