Summer Secrets (28 page)

Now she’d had a taste of what she was missing, and that taste had made her want more.

It could hurt, a voice inside her head reminded her. And could she survive another loss? Wouldn’t it be better to play it safe?

While she was thinking, she caught a glimpse of a man coming out of the coffee shop down the street. It was Mike Stanaway, the man her sister had been with at the ferry landing on Monday. She’d tried to talk to Caroline about him at the clam chowder cook-off, but her sister had claimed she was too busy to chat and then disappeared.

Maybe this was her opportunity to talk to Mike. While Kate weighed her options, Mike took off at a brisk pace. She broke into a jog to follow him and came down the dock just as he disappeared onto his boat.

Climbing aboard without waiting for an invitation, she called out his name as she went down the stairs into the cabin. She stopped abruptly as she saw Mike offering her sister Caroline a cup of coffee. Caroline was sitting up in bed, wearing a black spaghetti-strap undershirt. A tangled sheet covered her bottom half.

Her hair was a mess, her makeup smeared as if she’d been crying.

“What are you doing here?” Caroline demanded.

Kate was so stunned by her sister’s appearance she could barely speak. “I -- I wanted to talk to Mike. I didn’t know you were here.”

“About me? You wanted to talk to him about me?”

“Get dressed. I’m taking you home.” Kate glared at Mike, daring him to try and stop her, but he didn’t say a word.

“I’m not twelve, Kate. I’ll go home when I want to,” Caroline snapped. “And I’d like you to leave.”

“What?” Kate asked in shock.

“You heard me. I want you to leave.”

“Not without you. I’m not leaving you here with him.”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine. You look like someone who knocked back a liquor store last night.”

Caroline uttered a bitter laugh. “You don’t know anything.”

“I know this is not a good place for you to be.”

“Mike is my friend.”

“She’s too young for you. What are you doing with her?” Kate demanded of Mike.

“That’s her business and mine,” he said quietly but firmly.

“I know what I’m doing, Kate. You have to trust me.”

“It’s him I don’t trust,” Kate said, tipping her head in Mike’s direction.

“He won’t hurt me.”

“He already has. Look at your arms.”

“I told you I banged my arm. For God’s sake, Kate, would you just leave? I’ll call you later, or I’ll come by the bookstore, just go now. Go,” Caroline added, with a pleading smile. “Trust me to take care of myself.”

Kate did not want to leave without her sister, but what could she do? “You better not hurt her,” Kate said fiercely. “Because if you do, I will come after you.”

Mike didn’t reply, just tipped his head in acknowledgment. Kate hesitated, then turned and ran up the stairs. Once on the dock, she stopped, debating her options. If she stayed nearby, she could hear Caroline if she called for help. Would she even call for help? Caroline certainly didn’t want her interference. But, if she left, she’d be worrying the rest of the day.

As she paced back and forth on the narrow dock, she saw a man approaching her -- K.C. Just when she thought her day couldn’t get any worse.

“If you wanted to take a closer look, why didn’t you just ask?” K.C. said as he stopped in front of her.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’d be happy to give you a tour, Katie. I’m sure you’re curious.”

It was then that Kate realized the Moon Dancer was just a few slips down. She’d been so preoccupied with following Mike that she hadn’t noticed until now. “I didn’t come here to see you or the Moon Dancer.” Although, now that she was here, maybe she should find out what K.C. was up to.

“Have it your way,” he said, walking past her.

“Wait. I did want to ask you something.”

K.C. smiled as he turned back to face her. “I thought as much.”

“Why are you really here? Why did you buy our boat and have the sails remade in exactly the same design? I’m sure that wasn’t a coincidence.”

“I bought the Moon Dancer because I wanted it, because your mother and I designed that boat in our heads long before she and Duncan decided to have it built. It was always meant to be mine -- like so many other things that Duncan stole from me.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “I assume you mean my mother.”

“Nora belonged to me. He knew that.”

“My mother went where she wanted to go,” Kate countered. “And the three of you were friends. I remember you being at every important occasion in our family until my mother died. Why would you have been there if you hated my father so much?”

K.C. sent her a steady, assessing look. “That was because of you, Katie.”

Her heart stopped. He couldn’t mean what he was implying.

“I thought you were my daughter,” he added, confirming her worst fear.

“But it wasn’t true.” She made sure the words were a statement and not a question, but she was still holding her breath as she waited for his answer.

“No, it wasn’t true,” he said finally and seemingly with regret. “Nora had told me that all along. But I had reasonable doubt. We’d both slept with her within the same critical period of time.”

“I find that hard to believe.” She hated the thought of her mother with K.C., with anyone besides her father.

“Nora and I had been dating, but we’d had an argument, a misunderstanding. A few days later Duncan returned from one of his trips. My good friend was back,” K.C. said with bitterness. “I was happy to see him. So was Nora. She’d met him a few months earlier. I didn’t realize what an impression he’d made on her until he came back. They started seeing each other. The next thing I knew, they were married. I didn’t know she was pregnant at the time, but then you were born six weeks too early.” He paused for a long moment. “When she told me I wasn’t your father, I didn’t believe her. I thought she was protecting her marriage, protecting Duncan. I couldn’t fight her on it, not without hurting her. So I stayed close, figuring if I couldn’t have you, I’d at least see you, spend time with you.”

“Give me presents that made your own son jealous,” Kate interjected.

K.C. looked at her in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“You didn’t realize what effect your actions had on your son? David still believes that you’re my father, and that I’m your favorite.”

“That’s not true. I love him very much. And I never told him there was any possibility I was your father.”

“Then he guessed. Whatever happened back then, you need to let go of this old hatred of yours. What’s it going to accomplish to beat my father? Will you be happy then?”

K.C. didn’t answer right away, then said, “I think I might be. Duncan didn’t just cheat me out of the woman I loved. He cheated me in many other ways, including our race around the world.”

Kate stiffened and silently begged, Please don’t remember. Please don’t remember.

K.C. watched her closely. “Can you deny that he didn’t?”

It was a risky question, one she didn’t quite know how to answer, especially since she didn’t know what he knew. “That race was over a long time ago.”

“I was leading -- going into that storm. I should have won that race.”

“It’s not our fault your boat went down.”

He didn’t look like he believed her.

“We all need to move on with our lives,” she added quickly. “Don’t you think it’s time to put this thing with my father behind you? How long will you try to make him pay for winning my mother’s love?”

“As long as it takes,” K.C. said coldly. “You’ve heard about our bet, Katie?”

“Yes. My father is racing you for the Moon Dancer.” She paused, unable to stop herself from throwing gasoline on the fire. “And he’ll probably win.”

K.C. bristled at her words. “I guess that would depend on his crew. You were always a better sailor than your father. Another reason why I thought you were mine. But, no matter. When your father loses, I’ll get something else I want.”

Kate knew she would regret asking, but she couldn’t stop the words from coming to her lips. “What’s that?”

“The portrait of your mother with you and your sisters.”

“That’s mine,” she said tightly, unable to believe what he was saying.

“Technically it belongs to your father, does it not?”

Kate couldn’t believe Duncan would have bet the portrait. Or maybe she could. His ego knew no bounds. He probably didn’t consider it a risky bet.

Kate turned her head, hearing a commotion behind her. Caroline jumped onto the dock. She scowled when she saw them. “Waiting for me, Kate?”

“K.C. stopped to talk to me,” she said, taking advantage of his presence. He might as well be good for something.

“I’m going home,” Caroline muttered. “Don’t follow me. I’m not in the mood for you or one of your lectures.”

Kate let Caroline go, because it was obvious this wasn’t the time or the place. At least Caroline was going alone. That was worth something. She turned back to K.C. “You will never get my portrait.”

“Who’s going to stop me?”

Kate wanted to slap the sneering smile off his face and say she would stop him. But she couldn’t quite get the words out of her mouth. That would mean agreeing to join forces with her father and racing again. How could she do that?

“No one will stop me, Katie. You’ve left your father on his own this time. And we both know he can’t do it without you. He never could.”

Tyler flipped off the television set in his hotel room and realized he couldn’t put off calling his brother for another minute. He should have called yesterday, but he’d felt so conflicted after spending the evening with Kate that he just hadn’t had the heart to call Mark. He felt like a wishbone, being pulled in two directions, and it seemed like he was betraying both of them. There was no way they could all win. In the end, someone would be terribly hurt.

Picking up his cell phone, he punched in Mark’s number and waited.

“Hello?” A childish voice greeted him.

“Hi, honey. It’s Uncle Ty.”

“Hi, Uncle Ty.”

“How are you, sweetie?”

“I’m fine. Daddy needed some water, so I got it for him. I even put ice in it.”

“You’re a good helper. But I thought that was Shelly’s job.”

“She had to go out for a little while. She’s not back yet.”

“Not back yet?” Tyler wondered where Shelly had gone. Mark was supposed to have twenty-four hour care at all times, especially with Amelia in the house.

“Do you want to talk to Daddy? I think he might be asleep, but I can check.”

Tyler felt even more uneasy at the idea of Amelia being in the house with Mark asleep and no Shelly nearby. Amelia was only eight years old, although at the moment she sounded closer to twenty. For the first time, Tyler wondered if he was doing the right thing. Mark would have a long road back to recovery, a road that would require care, money, and time. Would Amelia be shortchanged growing up in such a way?

“Are you okay there by yourself?” he asked her.

“I’m not by myself. Daddy’s here. He’ll wake up if I need him.”

“What if you fall or something?”

“Then I’ll get up,” she told him with simple childish logic.

He couldn’t help smiling at her practicality. “I guess you will.”

“Daddy and I wrote Mommy a letter, and we put it on the dining room table so she could see it when she’s looking down on us. I printed in really big letters, too, so she could read it from heaven.”

Tyler’s stomach clenched at her words. “That sounds nice.”

“Do you want to hear what I wrote?”

Did he want to have his heart ripped out of his chest? “Sure,” he said, knowing that was the answer Amelia wanted.

“I’ll get it.”

Tyler heard her set down the phone and wished he could call her back. He was torturing himself -- punishing himself for getting carried away with Kate yesterday, for letting Mark down, even if only in thought not in action.

“Are you there?” Amelia asked when she returned to the phone.

“I’m here.”

“Dear Mommy, we miss you a lot,” she read. “We hope you’re happy in heaven, but we wish you were here. I sang your song last night to Daddy, and he said I must take after you, because he sings really bad. I’m going to try to be just like you when I grow up.”

Tyler’s heart twisted with emotion at her simple statement, and he couldn’t help wondering for the thousandth time why Mark and Susan hadn’t told Amelia she was adopted, maybe not the who, why, where, or whatever, but enough so that Amelia wouldn’t be shocked to find out one day that she was not who she thought she was.

“I’m talking to Uncle Ty,” Amelia yelled, probably to her father. “Daddy wants to talk to you,” she said. “Bye.”

“Bye, honey.”

“Ty? What’s up?” his brother said a moment later. “Why didn’t you call me back yesterday? I left you three messages.”

“I didn’t have anything new to report.”

“Well, maybe I had news,” Mark snapped. “George got another letter from the investigator, Mr. Watson. He found the doctor in Hawaii who delivered Amelia. He has a signed letter stating that the doctor turned the baby over to George on the exact same date of our adoption. He’s getting closer, Tyler. The doctor even has my name listed as the adoptive parent. But there’s no signed release by the birth mother or father. George assured me he had one, but he can’t seem to find it.”

“He never had it, Mark, you know that,” Tyler said forcefully. “That’s why he charged you so much money for the adoption. That’s why he told you to leave Hawaii immediately. And you did it, because you didn’t want to ask any more questions.”

“Yes, I did it. For Susan,” Mark replied. “I loved her so much. I don’t know if you can understand that. She was everything to me, and after all those miscarriages, I couldn’t stand to see her in any more pain. I’d do it again, if I had to make the choice. I don’t care if the birth mother signed the paper or not, she still gave her baby away.”

“Or her father did,” Tyler said. But did that make sense? Wouldn’t one of the girls hate Duncan if he’d stolen her baby and given it away? No one reacted that way to him, except possibly Ashley, who seemed to be the most distant from her father.