Treading Water: Coming Home Part 18

"Maybe so, but it'll be awfully fun, too."

"It already is."

With his hands on her face, he smoothed his thumbs over the fragile skin under her eyes. "You look rested and relaxed. I know this thing with Kate is upsetting, but I don't want you to make yourself sick trying to make it right for her. You got me?"

Jill smiled at him, appreciating the concern behind his words. "Yeah, yeah." She glanced down at his lap. "Need some help putting that away?"

"Ah, no, that's all right. You've done more than enough."

Laughing, Jill sat back in her seat, feeling quite pleased with herself. She'd shown him.

Chapter 8.

Whenever something went wrong in his life, Jack Harrington went for a run. Usually the exercise helped to calm him, which led to a solution to whatever was bothering him. Some things, however, couldn't be pounded out on the pavement of Newport's famous Ten Mile Ocean Drive. Tormenting questions kept cycling through his mind. Primary among them: What the h.e.l.l was Kate doing back with Reid Matthews? And how could they have been so stupid as to be caught having s.e.x in broad daylight?

It had been a very long time since he'd experienced the sick feeling in his stomach that had been with him from the minute he'd first heard about the video. In the ten years since his ex-wife, Clare, had recovered from her coma and they'd survived the trauma of their divorce to move on with new spouses, life had been relatively calm and quiet-well, as quiet as it could be for a father of six children who ranged in age from twenty-nine to ten. He much preferred calm and quiet to turbulent.

But as he'd learned from the past, life could turn on a dime and lay down a new challenge when you least expected it. In the decade that his middle daughter had been a music-industry sensation, Jack had learned to live with the rumors and the innuendo that seemed to follow her. Kate often a.s.sured him that the rumors were part of being a celebrity in a twenty-four-hour news cycle that was always hungry for the next big scandal. She'd told him time and again that he had nothing to worry about where she was concerned. She liked to joke that if the gossipmongers had any idea how boring her life really was, they'd be extremely disappointed.

Well, he thought as he jogged through the dark, Kate had certainly given them something to talk about this time. And since there was no refuting the fact that it was actually her on the video, he doubted the gossips were disappointed. Not that he'd looked. He couldn't bring himself to do that. But his youngest daughter Maggie had told him it was indeed Kate, and Maggie had confirmed with Jill that Kate was indeed with Reid-a former friend of his who Kate had taken up with after she moved to Nashville.

He'd tried to call Jill to get her take on the situation, but Jill's phone had gone straight to voice mail. No doubt she was overwhelmed trying to deal with the mess Kate had made.

As he ran the length of the beach near his home, he told himself Kate was twenty-eight years old. No longer a child, no longer his responsibility. However, he could tell himself that over and over again, but no matter how far she traveled or how famous she might be, she'd always be his little girl. And the thought of her in pain, even if it was pain of her own making, caused him pain, too.

He arrived home a short time later and braced himself to put on a brave face for Andi and their three sons. Determined to keep his torment private, Jack came in through the mudroom and was surprised to find only one light burning over the stove in the kitchen and Andi waiting for him at the kitchen table with a bottle of wine.

"Hey," she said with the s.e.xy smile that could still turn him to putty after more than twelve years together. "You were gone a long time. That's usually a sign of trouble."

He smiled because how could he not? She knew him so well. Better than anyone ever had. Sometimes he felt like she knew him better than he knew himself, which should've frightened him but didn't. He was in very good hands with her by his side.

"Sorry to worry you."

"I knew this news would hit you hard for more reasons than one."

Jack shrugged and ran his fingers through damp hair that would probably be even grayer by morning. He credited his six children with turning him prematurely gray.

"Come sit with me," Andi said. "Have some wine. Talk it out. Let me help."

Everything in him was drawn to her and her generous offer. "Where're the boys?"

"If they know what's good for them, the twins are taking showers, and Eric is finis.h.i.+ng his homework. He was upset earlier. Read about it on Twitter, I guess. He's preparing himself for some razzing at school tomorrow."

"That's just great." Jack cringed at the idea of their seventeen-year-old son watching his sister have s.e.x online. "Tell me he didn't look at it."

"He said he didn't want to know."

"I suppose that's one bit of good news."

"Clare called earlier, too. She's anxious to speak with you."

"I'll call her in the morning," he said as he dropped into a chair at the table.

Andi reached for his hand. "Talk to me, Jack. It might help to air it out."

"What's there to say? She's back with him and getting busy in broad daylight where anyone can see."

"I had a feeling that her being back with him would be the worst part for you."

"What is she thinking? She could have any guy she wanted. Why him?"

"Think about what you just said."

"Which part?"

"About her having any guy she wants."

Jack focused on the comfort of her hand wrapped around his. Being close to her always calmed him. "I can't get my head around that. I never could." He'd introduced her to his college friend when she first moved to Nashville, hoping Reid would "keep an eye" on his eighteen-year-old daughter as she tried to break into the business.

Reid had done a lot more than that, and the resulting rift between Jack and Kate had taken a long time to heal. If Jack were being truthful, things between them had never been the same since the day he caught Kate and Reid together and cut off all ties with his daughter. They'd made up long ago, but still ... It was different.

"It's been a long time, Jack. Whatever they had between them is apparently still there. It seems to me that she's with the guy she wants."

"How can she want someone my age? How?"

"I don't know, honey, but why does anyone want anyone? Why do you want me?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "Look at you." Her thick dark curls fell over her shoulders, and her soft, brown eyes looked at him with love, always with love. "You're gorgeous and sweet and funny and... You're you, and I love you. I couldn't live without you."

She smiled as she always did when he professed his undying love for her. "Maybe it's possible that Kate feels the same way about Reid?"

Even though what she said made all kinds of sense, Jack shook his head. "That was over ages ago."

"I don't think it was."

"Why do you say that? Do you know something I don't know?"

"Of course not. I learned my lesson a long time ago on that front. I don't keep things from you. I promise. But when you think about the other guys she's been with over the years, there was never any spark."

He also couldn't deny that was true. "So all this time she's been carrying the torch for him?"

"It's very possible, and I think you need to accept that she's chosen to be with him, even if he's not what you would've chosen for her."

Jack drummed the fingers of his free hand on the table as he thought about what she'd said. "Am I supposed to welcome him into the family and act like I don't feel betrayed by the fact that he once seduced my young daughter and now he's failed to protect her from this latest situation?"

"She's equally culpable in the video debacle, Jack. If anything, she's more culpable."

"How do you figure?"

"After a decade in the spotlight, she certainly knows better than to do anything to feed the gossip machine-she knows better than he would how vulnerable she is as a celebrity. This was a huge mistake in judgment that she's paying for dearly."

"When you put it that way, it's very difficult for me to hate him as much as I'd like to."

Andi's soft laughter went a long way toward warming the chill that had invaded him earlier when he'd heard about the video. She stood and tugged on his hand. "Come with me."

"Where're we going?"

"Upstairs." She handed him the bottle of wine and took the gla.s.ses as she headed for the stairs. "Did you lock up when you came in?"

"Yep."

Inside their room, she took the wine bottle from him and nudged him toward the shower. "Take a long, hot one. You'll feel better after."

"Will you be waiting for me when I'm done?"

"You bet. I'm going to check on the boys, but I'll be right back."

When he emerged from the shower fifteen minutes later, she'd lit the fireplace in their room and poured them both a gla.s.s of chardonnay. He knotted a towel around his hips and went to join her in the seating area in front of the fire.

"Everyone in bed?"

"Almost. As always, Johnny was asleep the minute his head hit the pillow, and as always, Robby is fighting it."

"You'd better not let them hear you calling them by their 'baby' names."

"I know! But I can't get used to calling them John and Rob. That sounds so wrong."

"I know," he said with a chuckle. It had been hard for him, too, but their little boys were ten now and not babies anymore. "How about Eric?"

"Wresting with geometry, but he appears to be winning. I told him to get to bed at a reasonable hour."

"Which he will. He's a good boy."

"Yes, he is," she said, smiling. "He's a lot like his dad that way."

Jack loved when she referred to him as Eric's dad. He'd adopted the boy shortly after they were married and loved him every bit as much as his other five children-sometimes even more so because of the graceful way he overcame the challenges of being deaf since birth. "This is nice," Jack said, using his winegla.s.s to gesture to the fire. "Thanks."

"I know you have to be so upset, Jack. I hope you don't think I was trying to make light of it before. Heck, I'm upset about it, and I'm only her stepmother."

"You're more than that to her, and you know it." She'd come into their lives just over a year after the accident that left Clare in a coma for three years, and Andi's bond with his girls ran deep.

"Tell me what you're thinking," she said.

"At times like this, I wish I'd fought harder against her going into the music business."

"You could've fought it all you wanted, but she was going to do what she wanted to do. You remember what she was like back then. Beyond determined and filled with so much talent she could hardly contain it. Trying to stop her would've been like trying to keep the waves from cras.h.i.+ng onto your precious beach."

She was always so full of wisdom, his lovely wife, and she was usually right, something he'd long ago stopped trying to deny.

Andi put her gla.s.s on a table, leaned forward in her chair and placed both hands on his knees. "I know it's so hard for you to see your kid get hurt and not be able to do anything about it. Remember when that bully was teasing Eric about being deaf when he was in middle school?"

"I'll never forget that." Jack could still recall the rage he'd felt when he'd heard about what had been happening at his son's school.

"Neither will I. For a few days there, I was worried you might actually seek the kid out and give him a taste of his own medicine."

"I thought about it," Jack conceded.

Andi laughed. "I believe it. And one of the things I love so much about you is how much you love all of us."

"Come here." He held out his arms to her. "You're too far away over there."

She snuggled into his lap.

Wrapping his arms around her, he was surrounded by the fragrant scent of her hair. She'd once bought a different brand of shampoo, and he'd protested so vociferously, she'd gone back to her usual brand to pacify him. "There. That's much better."

"Yes, it is."

"And I feel much better than I did before, so thanks for making me talk about it."

"I didn't do anything."

"Yes, you did." He nuzzled his nose into her curls and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"I have one more bit of news that you need to hear."

"Oh G.o.d," he said with a moan. "What now?"

"According to Maggie, Kate is planning to invite everyone to Nashville for Christmas. She wants the whole family there-your parents, my mom and aunt, Clare, Aidan, their boys, even Aidan's family, if they want to come."

"There's no way I'm spending Christmas with Reid Matthews. No way."

"Jack..."

"What?"

"You'd really miss out on Christmas with your family-you'd make the boys miss Christmas with their sisters-because of him?"

"Yes."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see what transpires."