Worth the Drive (24 page)

“Well, yeah. To meet, to spend some time with, then definitely Steve Yzerman.
He’s been my hero forever.
But to play a round of golf with? Can you imagine playing a round of golf with a guy who’s won three majors?”

“I can imagine playing all sorts of games with
Darío
. Can’t you, Kat?” Alison joked. Katie lightly kicked Alison’s shin under the table.

Ron rolled his eyes at
Alison’s double entendre. He’
d never really liked Alison. He loved Lizzie, but then, everyone loved Lizzie. And Lizzie hadn’t been around for most of the years she and Ron had lived in the Copper Country. Lizzie hadn’t been there to distract Katie from Ron. Alison had. Alison had been the one Katie turned to when struggling with infertility, not Ron. Ron still resented Alison for
taking
the place in Katie’s life that he couldn’t fill. Katie supposed it was easier for Ron to blame Alison than to blame Katie herself. Or himself.

Lizzie seemed to take great interest in what Ron had just said. “Ron, do you think a lot of people feel that way? Would they have all liked to play with a professional golfer rather than a hockey or football player?” Lizzie asked. Lizzie was formulating some kind of
plan, but then, when wasn’t she?

“Anybody serious about golf would,” Ron answered. “I’d pay good money to play a round of golf with him.” He spoke to Lizzie beside him, but he didn’t take his eyes from Katie. Katie now realized that he hadn’t since he sat down with them. She wondered if she looked different outwardly? If someone who knew her as well as Ron did could tell she was pregnant just by looking at her? Did she glow as much on the outside as she did on the inside?

“Do you think
Darío
would play a round of golf with someone tomorrow and we could put it into the auction tonight?” Lizzie asked Katie and Alison.

“Lizard, that’s a great idea,” Alison said, then looked at Katie for her reaction.

Katie nodded. “A great idea,” she added. “Do you want me to ask him?” She hoped Lizzie would say yes so she could leave the table.

But Lizzie was already rising. “No, I’ll do it,” she said and was halfway across the room
before Katie could move.

Ron gave her a puzzling look. “Did you meet
Darío
while helping Lizzie out?” he asked.

She gave a noncommittal shrug and took a drink of her milk, left over from her dinner. She swallowed the liquid, praying the stuff would go down her rapidly closing throat.

Ron knew something was up. He looked at her with suspicious eyes. There was almost a sweet kind of symmetry to that. That Ron would be suspicious of her! Katie desperately wanted to blurt out that she and
Darío
were a couple. Wanted to see Ron’s reaction to that. She also wanted to shout out her pregnancy to the man who thought such a thing literally inconceivable.

She held herself back. She wasn’t going to tell him about the baby, much as she wanted to. She’d made a spur of the moment decision at her parents place on Friday not to tell even her family until she got back from her three months with
Darío
. Only Lizzie and Alison
, and Don at work,
would know, and they had promised complete secrecy. Katie wasn’t even sure Lizzie had told
Finn
, but even if she had, he wouldn’t say a word if Lizzie asked it of him. She was at the end of her first trimester, it should be fine to tell people, but it wasn’t the fear of miscarriage that kept Katie from wanting her family
and
,
by extension
–
with her
well-meaning but
gossip
y
sisters-in-law – the rest of th
e Copper Country
to know she was pregnant.

In fact, Katie had no real fear of a miscarriage at all. She had nothing to base
her security
on other than a deep-seated sense of calm. She knew, just absolutely
knew
with complete clarity, that her baby would be fine.

She didn’t tell her family because she wanted to keep it to herself for just a while longer. She wanted to share this only with the two women she loved more than sisters.

And
Darío
.

But not Ron. Even if seeing his beautiful face register
his
shock would have brought her a sadistic pleasure.

She took another sip of milk, wincing at the taste, and prayed
Ron would leave the table soon
so that her resolve to not taunt him with her news would hold. And that Alison’s resolve not to throw her drink in his face would hang in there, too.

“You hate milk,” Ron said suspiciously.

“I’ve acquired a taste for it,” Katie said, her eyes lowered. She never could lie worth a darn, and never to Ron.

“Acquired a taste for it?” Ron said, disbelieving.

“Yes, acquired a taste for it,” Katie echoed, her chin raised in defiance.

“So Ron, how are those divorce papers coming along?” Alison asked. Katie gasped at the abrupt change of subject, and the new topic, then realized that Alison had done it on purpose. She was trying to take Ron off the track that Katie’s sudden taste
for
milk might take him. Katie sent a telepathic “thank you” to Alison and swore that she heard a “you’re welcome” in return.

“Actually, that’s what I came to talk to you about,” he said to Katie, totally ignoring Alison, as if it were Katie
who
had asked the question. He turned to Alison, as if seeing her for the first time – though Alison wasn’t someone you could ignore – and said, “Do you mind, Al? Could you give us a minute?”

“Yes, I think I do mind,” Alison said.

Katie was grateful. She didn’t want to be alone with Ron. She didn’t completely trust herself not to
lose her
resolve and tell him she was pregnant and that she was going away with
Darío
. Especially if they were going to be talking divorce. “Alison can stay, she knows all the gory details anyway.”

Ron snorted. “Of course she does. And so does Lizzie. So does the whole damn town. I’m surprised your brothers haven’t come to string me up.”

“They wanted to, believe me,” Katie said.

Ron smiled. A small, sad smile. “Well, I guess I can’t really blame them,” he said. “Thanks for keeping them away from me.” Katie nodded in response.

“So, back to the divorce,” Alison said.

Ron shot her a dirty look, then looked back to Katie. “The papers should be ready to sign in three to four weeks. I’ll bring them by the house when they’re ready.”

Katie assumed, but didn’t ask, that Ron’s wedding to Amber Saari would take place soon after that. Just another good reason to be out on the road with
Darío
. Katie shook her head, “No, that won’t work.”

Ron sighed, “Okay, I’ll bring them to the
Ingot
.”

“No
,
that won’t work
either. Bring them to Alison. S
he’ll forward them on to me.” She looked at Alison for consent and got her nod of approval.

“Where will you be?” he asked, suspicion returning to his voice. “I’ll send them to you myself, just tell me where you’ll be.”

Katie fidgeted
o
n the hard, metal folding chair. She wasn’t going to tell him about the baby, but should she tell him about
Darío
? Her family knew. The people at the
Ingot
knew
.
It was just a matter of time before the rest of the town knew too. But not yet. Not Ron. It wasn’t something she could talk to Ron about.

“Well, that’s just it.
I’ll be moving around a lot, so if you don’t know the exact date you’ll be sending them, it’d be better to give them to Alison, and she can contact me and I can give her the
address of the hotel where I’ll be
.”

Ron looked from Katie to Alison, trying to figure out what tactic to take, and which woman was more likely to spill. Knowing Katie could never lie to him, he said to her, “What hotels? What’s going on, Katie?”

“I’m going to be traveling for a few months, doing some correspondence work. I have the itinerary, but if you’re not sure exactly when the papers will be ready, I can’t tell you where to send them.”

Ron shook his head, as if to clear it. “Traveling? Correspondence work? You mean like a writing assignment for the
Ingot
?”

Katie saw her hands shredding her paper napkin into bits. Reminded of Peaches, she put the napkin down, straightened her back and said, “Exactly.” Well not exactly, but close enough.

“Since when does the
Ingot
have the budget for a traveling correspondent?”

Katie shrugged again. “It’s not coming out of the
Ingot
’s budget. It’s something I’m doing for myself.”

Before Ron could answer, Alison piped in, “Don’t worry, Ron, it won’t affect the settlement.”

Ron looked at Alison with contempt, then to Katie. When he turned to her, the disdain left his eyes and the blue pools of warmth that she’d once gazed into by the hour re
turned. “Traveling, eh?
That’s great, Katie
. Y
ou always wanted to travel.”

It’d been so long since she’d given up that dream that she was surprised Ron even remembered it. “It should be fun,” she said, her uncertainty clear in her voice.

“It’s something you want to do, isn’t it? I mean, you’re not just leaving town to…to…” he didn’t finish his sentence.

“Get away from you? She should be,” Alison barked.

Ron let out a heavy sigh, looking at Katie, trying to ignore Alison.

Katie shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving town for any other reason. I have this opportunity, it’s something I want to do.” That was all true, at least.

“Well, then, I’m happy for you. Finally getting to do something you always wanted.” She waited to hear the mocking in his voice, but it wasn’t there. What she’d always wanted most – what
they
had always wanted most
– was
a child together. She looked at him and saw the hurt in his eyes, the pain that she felt too. He was sincere, she realized. He knew that traveling was a poor second place prize. He reached his hand across the table, as if to capture hers. “Katie,” he whispered.

Alison made a grab for a napkin dispenser, knocking Ron’s hand back to his side of the table. Ron shook his head, rose and nodded a goodbye.

That must be Ron. The bastard. The enormously tall, well-built, handsome bastard.
Darío
chuckled to himself. It wasn’t like him to be insecure, and he wasn’t really. He knew he could offer Katie things that Ron never could. He was rich for one thing. And famous – or at least to those who followed professional golf. But
Darío
sensed that those things weren’t important to Katie.

No, the only thing of importance that
Darío
could do for Katie that Ron could not was give her a child.

And be faithful.

Darío
knew he would never look at another woman once Katie was his. And he had every intention of making her his as soon as they got out of her hometown. He’d thought that maybe they’d be together tonight now that he was staying at her house, but it would probably be better to wait until they were on neutral ground. Besides, would she be ready to make love to
Darío
in the house she shared with Ron? Did he want those ghosts to contend with?

He watched as Ron left the table Katie and Alison sat at. He watched Katie’s eyes follow Ron as he disappeared into the crowd on the other side of the room. Alison placed an arm around Katie, comforting her. Had the bastard said something to upset Katie?

After a moment, Katie and Alison both rose from the table, Alison heading toward the lobby. Katie scanned the room and
Darío
was pleased when her gaze rested on him. She smiled and walked toward him. He rose and met her halfway.

“Is your hand ready to fall off yet?” she asked.

In fact, his hand was cramping up a bit from signing so many autographs, but it came with the territory, so he
wasn’t about to complain. “It’
s not
so bad. Did Lizzie tell you I’
ll be playing golf tomorrow? Is that okay with you?” He wanted to ask about Ron, but kept his mouth shut. If it wasn’t something Katie wanted to talk about, he’d let it drop.

Katie stared at
Darío
for a moment, then laughed. “I’m sorry, but I was momentarily stunned at the idea of a man actually asking my permission to spend his Sunday playing golf.”
Darío
started to make a comment to the types of men who’d been in her life before, but she hurried on. “That’s fine. I can finish up my packing and take care of odds and ends. Thank you for doing it, Lizzie thinks it will go for a good price in the auction.”