Treading Water: Coming Home Part 1

Treading Water.

Coming Home.

Marie Force.

For all the readers who asked me to finish Reid and Kate's story, this is for you.

Chapter 1.

The darkness came faster this time, too fast to prepare before it was upon her. Bright lights, the roar of the crowd, the band behind her... One minute, Kate Harrington was in the middle of a show. The next minute, she was in an ambulance being rushed-again-to the emergency room. This was the third time she'd pa.s.sed out since a bout of pneumonia had weakened her, but it was the first time she'd done it on a stage in front of twenty thousand screaming fans.

As the paramedics started an IV and put an oxygen mask over her face, her sister Jill watched the proceedings with big, frightened eyes.

Kate couldn't remember where they were. There'd been so many cities, so many hotels, so many venues, so many crowds over the last ten years that they'd begun to blend together into a panoramic muddle of images. When she thought about the media coverage this incident would garner, she held back a groan.

The paparazzi followed her every move like a band of rabid dogs. Pa.s.sing out in the middle of a concert would make for a big story.

She pushed the mask aside. "Call Mom and Dad so they don't hear it on the news," she said to her sister, who doubled as her manager and attorney.

"Okay," Jill said, pulling out the phone they called her Siamese twin because she was permanently attached to it.

As the ambulance sped through the night in the city she couldn't remember, Kate could only imagine what they'd say this time. She'd been accused of everything under the sun, from cocaine addiction to secret pregnancies to mistreating her staff. Nothing was off-limits. No lie was too big or too preposterous. Such was life in the celebrity fishbowl.

Though she'd gone looking for a career in country music, her "crossover" appeal had made her a huge star-much bigger than she'd ever hoped or wanted to be. She'd sold more records in the last decade than any other female performer in the world, and along with that success came rabid interest in her every move.

The speculation about her personal life had been worse than ever since pneumonia forced her to cancel two weeks of shows, which was why she'd resumed the tour so soon, hoping to put an end to the vicious rumors. They'd said she was back in rehab, drying out from years of drug abuse. Her plan to go back to work and shut down the rumors had been working well until she pa.s.sed out on stage. Now the gossip would be worse than ever.

If it hadn't been such a nuisance to deal with, the buzz would've amused her. She was, without a doubt, the most boring celebrity in the history of celebrities. She never went anywhere that didn't involve work. After a few spectacularly public romances fizzled, she'd sworn off men, especially well-known men. When she wasn't working, she holed up at her farm in Tennessee with her horses, her family and her close friends-few as they were.

Of course, boring didn't sell magazines, so they made up most of what they said about her. To the outside world, she was just another pill-popping, dope-snorting, pampered princess who'd had too much success far too soon. The people closest to her knew the truth, but sometimes she suspected even her own family wondered if any of the rumors were true.

They arrived at the hospital, and as they whisked her inside, she heard someone mention Oklahoma City and remembered arriving at the hotel suite with Jill and the sound check at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. She recalled asking Jill if they could tour the memorial at the Murrah building, and Jill saying they didn't have time to arrange the security she'd require for such an outing. Kate had been to every major city in America and countless others overseas, but she'd rarely gotten to see anything while she was there. She was always too busy working-or too insulated by the security required to go anywhere.

This late-fall tour had been the idea of her mentor, friend, producer and fellow superstar, Buddy Longstreet. He and his record company, Long Road Records, had made her a star, and there wasn't much she wouldn't do for Buddy when he asked for a favor. That was how she found herself coming off a summer tour and heading right into a second tour that was due to wrap up on New Year's Eve at Carnegie Hall.

Since she could barely lift her head at the moment, the idea of performing at Carnegie Hall in a few weeks seemed as daunting as climbing Mount Everest. Her chest hurt, her eyes were so heavy she could barely keep them open, and she felt like she could sleep for a year.

The piercing pain of another needle being jammed into her hand forced her eyes open as a team of doctors and nurses swooped in on her. Outside the cubicle, she saw Jill on the phone, pacing back and forth in the sky-high heels and power suit that was her uniform. As she rarely saw her sister dressed in anything else, Kate liked to tease her about sleeping in a suit.

Truth be told, she didn't know what she'd do without Jill to manage all the details, to hammer out the contracts, to fight the battles and manage the team that made it happen. Thanks to Jill, all Kate had to do was show up and sing. Worries that her sister was sacrificing her own life to run hers was something that nagged at Kate more often than she'd care to admit. But since existing without Jill at her right hand was unimaginable, Kate stayed mum on the subject, and Jill certainly never complained.

She worked like a dog and collected the big salary Kate paid her, but Kate wondered if she ever spent a dime on anything other than suits and heels and the latest and greatest in smartphone technology. The sisters were never home long enough to spend any of the money they'd made over the years.

As she watched her beloved older sister swipe at a tear, Kate reached her breaking point. Jill didn't cry. Ever. Jill was a pillar of strength and fort.i.tude. The pressure was getting to them both, and it was time to step off the treadmill for a while.

The medication they were pumping into her made Kate's tongue feel too big for her mouth, but her thoughts were clear. Enough was enough. Images of the huge log-cabin-style house she'd built five years ago on her sprawling estate in Hendersonville, Tennessee drifted through her mind, making her yearn for home.

Kate must've dozed off, because when she awoke, she was in a darkened room. She blinked a few times to clear her vision and saw Jill standing at the window, staring out into the darkness.

"Hey," Kate said.

Jill spun around to face her. "You're awake."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"A couple of hours. They admitted you because you're dehydrated. That's why you pa.s.sed out."

"I'm really thirsty."

Jill helped her to take a few sips from a cup of ice water on the table.

"Where are we?"

"St. Anthony's Hospital."

"Is the press going crazy?"

Jill shrugged. "I haven't looked."

"Yes, you have," Kate said with a small smile. "Don't lie to me."

"They're flipping out, as usual where you're concerned. This time they're saying it was a combination of pills and booze."

"I wish I had half as much fun as they think I do."

"I wish both of us did."

"It's probably high time we had some fun, don't you think? Let's stop the madness and go home."

Jill's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. "What're you saying?"

"I've had enough, Jill. We've been everywhere, done everything, made a fortune. Now it's time to live a little. How many nights have you spent in your place since it was finished?" Kate had given Jill three acres of property and a "gift certificate" good for the house of her choice. After her initial reluctance to accept such an extravagant gift, the house had been built to Jill's exacting specifications.

"I don't know. A month, maybe two?"

"And it's been done for a year. That's ridiculous. What're we trying to prove? Who're we trying to prove it to?"

"You have contracts, Kate. Obligations. Buddy will freak if you bail on the tour."

"I can get a note from my doctor," she said with a playful smile.

"You're apt to be sued. It's no joke."

"I'm not joking. Let them sue me. I need a break. A real break. I want months at home. I want the family in Tennessee for Christmas. I want to see Mom, Dad, Andi, Aidan, the boys and Maggie and spend real time with them, not twenty-four rushed hours between tour stops. Don't you want that, too?"

"You know I do, but it's not feasible right now. We've got thirty dates left on the calendar before we're done." She didn't mention that they'd get only a few days off before they were due in the studio to record Kate's sixth alb.u.m. After that, it was back on the road for another tour. "How am I supposed to get you out of all those obligations?"

"If anyone can do it, you can. I should've done this after I was sick. Instead, I went back too soon and collapsed in front of an arena full of people, giving the press enough fodder to last for weeks. I'm done, Jill."

"For now or forever?"

"I don't know yet. For now, definitely. I'll let you know about forever after I've had a break."

"There could be big trouble over this, bad press..."

Kate released a harsh laugh. "What other kind is there where I'm concerned?" She reached for her sister's hand and held on tight. "We're twenty-eight and twenty-nine years old, and we've spent the last five years working ourselves into early graves. We have millions in the bank, gorgeous homes that we pay people to keep clean for us, nice cars sitting unused in the garage, horses we pay people to ride for us, and five little brothers who are growing up far too fast and barely know us."

Jill nibbled on her bottom lip, seeming stressed as she listened to Kate.

"You haven't had a real vacation since you graduated from law school and came to work for me. I haven't had one in so long, I think the last one was Christmas break of my senior year of high school. It's time to live a little. What good is all the money in the world if we never do anything fun? Don't you want to have fun, Jill?"

And there was something else Kate wanted to do, something she should've done a long time ago, but that was her secret and hers alone. It wasn't something she could share with anyone, even her sister and closest friend.

"Our work is fun," Jill said. "I enjoy it, and you do, too, when you're feeling well."

"I haven't enjoyed it in a long time-long before I got sick." Saying the words out loud was somehow freeing. "I feel like I'm on a treadmill with every day exactly the same as the last. The only thing that changes is the city and the venue."

"What about the band and the roadies and all the people your show employs?"

"We'll give the roadies and the tour people a nice severance package and pay the band to give us six months before they sign on with anyone else. You think they won't welcome some time at home with their families? Some of them have kids who barely recognize them on the rare occasion they're actually home."

Jill nibbled on her thumbnail as she mulled it over. Her mind worked a mile a minute, which made her such an a.s.set to Kate. After several minutes of mulling and nail biting, Jill glanced at her sister. "Let me see what I can do."

d.a.m.n, it was good to be home, Kate thought as she took her horse, Thunder, on a slow gallop through the woods that ab.u.t.ted her home twenty minutes outside Nashville. At thirteen, Thunder was showing no signs of slowing down and hadn't lost his enthusiasm for outings with Kate.

"We'll be spending a lot more time together for the next little while, boy," she said, stroking his neck as his hooves clomped along the well-worn path.

He nickered in response to her, as he always did, drawing a smile. She swore he was a human stuck in a horse's body, and the comfort of being with him filled her with joy.

As they often did when she rode Thunder, her thoughts strayed to the man who'd given her the horse after their ill-fated romance blew up in their faces. It was impossible, she'd discovered, to spend time with Thunder without thinking of Reid and the magical months they'd spent together.

Kate didn't believe in regrets. She was pragmatic enough by now to know that life could be incredibly sweet and just as incredibly painful. More than ten years had pa.s.sed since the last time she saw Reid, the awful day he flew her home to Rhode Island after her sister Maggie was badly injured.

But not a day had gone by that she hadn't thought of him, wondered where he was, what he was doing, if he was happy. One night, about six years ago, during a lonely moment on the road, she'd searched for him on the Internet and discovered he'd sold his business and left Nashville shortly after they broke up.

She'd been unable to find a single other reference to him online in the ensuing decade. It was like he'd dropped off the face of the earth, which was why she was about to ask something of her sister that she'd hoped to handle on her own.

Kate brought Thunder to a stop outside Jill's two-story post-and-beam house. She slid off his back and tied the lead to the railing. Rubbing her hand over his flank, Kate said, "I won't be long, pal."

His nicker and nuzzle made her laugh. Sometimes she felt like the horse she rarely saw these days knew her better than any of the people in her life, except for Jill, of course. Since they were young girls, Jill had known her better than anyone, which was why Kate was so certain her sister would balk at what Kate was about to ask of her. But she was determined to ask anyway.

She rapped lightly on the front door and stepped inside. "h.e.l.lo?"

"In here," Jill called from the kitchen.

Kate strolled into the kitchen, stopping short when she saw Jill dressed for business, bent over her laptop with papers strewn across the table. A steaming cup of tea sat ignored next to her. "Okay, what part of vacation didn't you get?"

Jill glanced up at her. "You might be on vacation, but I'm still trying to keep your a.s.s from getting sued."

Kate glanced over her shoulder, pretending to look at her a.s.s.

"Stop being funny. It's no joke. Buddy is furious with you, and Ashton is, too."

"What else is new?" Kate asked of Reid's son, who'd given her the cold shoulder every time she saw him over the last ten years. Since he was the chief counsel for Buddy as well as Buddy's superstar wife Taylor Jones and Long Road Records, their paths crossed more often than Kate would like.

"Regardless of his ongoing feud with you, he's also moving heaven and earth to prevent a slew of lawsuits."

"He's not doing it for me. He's doing it for Buddy and the company."

"Who cares why he's doing it? The end result will save you millions."

Since Kate had been focusing on rest and relaxation since they got home two days ago, the last thing she wanted to hear about was the threat of lawsuits. "Remember those jeans we bought in the Mall of America? You must still have them around here somewhere."

"I still have them."

"So you can only be productive in a power suit."

"I have a meeting in the city in just over an hour."

Kate helped herself to a diet soda. "With who?"

"Ashton."

Here's your chance, she thought, as a flutter of nerves invaded her belly. Just say it. "So, um..."

Without looking up from what she was doing, Jill said, "So um what?"

Kate dropped into a chair across from her sister.

Jill took off the gold-framed gla.s.ses she used for computer work and sat back in her chair. "What's on your mind?"

"I was wondering... While you're with Ashton, um..."

"Will you spit it out? I'm on a schedule."

"You're supposed to be on vacation."

"Speak. Quickly."

How to sum up years of longing and regret in one sentence?