Treading Water: Coming Home Part 2

"Jill?"

"Kate would like to contact your father."

He froze, staring at her with contempt stamped into his expression. "You can't be serious."

"I'm only the messenger, so don't shoot me."

"There's no way in h.e.l.l I'm revisiting that issue." His hands dropped to his lap, and he stood. "The first time was more than sufficient, thank you very much."

"She only wants to see him for a minute," Jill said, making it up as she went along. "Apparently, there's something she needs to tell him."

"The last thing he needs is to hear from her. She ruined his freaking life and nearly destroyed my relations.h.i.+p with him. She has a lot of nerve thinking I'm going to help her get in touch with him."

"I understand," Jill said, and she did. It was a sore subject for all of them. "And for the record, I told her I was uncomfortable asking you."

Hands in pockets, he stared out the window. "Typical Kate to think of herself first and everyone else second."

"You don't give her enough credit, Ashton. She's very generous and good to the people in her life."

"I don't expect you to see her faults."

"I see them, but I love her enough to look past them."

"You'll forgive me if I don't love her that much." He turned to face her. "Tell her to leave it alone. A lot of people were hurt by what happened between them. My dad has a good life now, a life that satisfies him. I'd hate to see him hurt by her again."

"He hurt her, too."

"Maybe so, but I only saw his side of it, and it wasn't pretty. Trust me on that."

Jill nodded, sorry she'd broached the subject. She picked up her briefcase, stood and started for the door.

"Jill?"

She turned back to him.

"You never answered my question."

"Oh. I thought you were mad."

"I am mad, but not at you. I don't believe in shooting the messenger."

"Could I think about it?"

"Sure. Take all the time you need. You know where I am when you make up your mind."

Jill nodded and left, taking the stairs on wobbly legs.

"Have a good day, Jill," Debi said.

"Thanks, you, too."

Jill nearly dropped her keys in her haste to get in the car. For a long time, she sat there, staring out the winds.h.i.+eld, trying to process what'd happened. Ashton Matthews had asked her out. Her sister's sworn enemy was interested in her. What would she tell Kate?

Nothing, she decided. She'd keep it to herself for now.

Chapter 2.

Kate forced herself to wait an hour after Jill's car came down the driveway before she headed for the winding path through a wooded area that separated their two homes. All morning, her nerves had been sharply attuned to the importance of Jill's meeting with Ashton. Kate didn't care about threats of lawsuits. She'd been threatened before-h.e.l.l, she'd been sued before-and Jill always took care of it before it escalated. And whether he hated her or not, Ashton watched her back on behalf of Buddy's company.

No, she wasn't worried about lawsuits or breach of contract actions. She had far more important matters on her mind as she knocked on her sister's door.

"It's open," Jill called.

Kate stepped inside. "Well, hallelujah! You do own jeans!"

"Very funny."

Standing in her kitchen, wearing faded denim, a white linen blouse, her hair in a ponytail and her feet bare, Jill looked much as she had at twenty. Kate was relieved to see her sister out of the suit, sipping a gla.s.s of iced tea and finally looking relaxed.

"Drink?" Jill asked.

"No, thanks." Kate slid onto a barstool. "How'd it go?"

"Fine. You know Ashton. Always your biggest fan."

Kate snickered. "At least he's consistent. So I take it he wasn't willing to tell you where I might find his father?"

"Correct."

"Hmm. Well, I guess I'll try plan B, then."

"Which is?"

"B is for Buddy-and Taylor."

Jill started to say something but then stopped herself.

"What?"

"I was thinking on the way home," Jill said hesitantly, "that maybe some things are better left alone."

Kate took a moment and chose her words carefully. "That may be true-and you're probably right that I should leave it alone. But over the last few months, I've had an overwhelming need to see him, to talk to him, to...apologize to him."

"For what?"

"For the way I handled things at the end. After everything we shared, I owed him more than to walk away the first time things got tough."

"He went behind your back and did something you specifically asked him not to do," Jill reminded her.

"He went behind my back and saw to it I had the career I'd always dreamed of."

"At the time, you resented him for not hearing you when you asked him not to pull strings for you."

"I know. Believe me, I've been over it and over it a million times in my mind. I still wish it'd happened differently, but I've had an amazing career that he made possible. And I treated him badly."

Jill sat on the stool next to Kate's. "You've certainly changed your tune on that incident, and, I might add, you've had an amazing career because of you and your talent."

"If he hadn't told Buddy about me, who knows if I ever would've made it in this business?"

"You were too good to fail."

"You have to say that. You're my sister."

"You would've gotten there eventually. I have no doubt about that."

"Regardless," Kate said with a shrug. "He made it easier for me, and for a long time I've regretted the way I treated him when I found out about it."

"Why don't you write him a letter or something? Why do you have to see him to apologize?"

This is the sticky part, Kate thought. The apology wasn't the only reason she wanted to see him. "I told you-I need some closure," Kate said, going for generic over specific.

Jill eyed her shrewdly. No one knew her better than her older sister. "I don't like it. Tearing the scab off a healed wound is never a good idea."

"If I'm being completely honest, the wound never healed entirely."

Jill gasped. "G.o.d, Kate! How long have you felt this way?"

"All along, I suppose."

"Is this why it didn't work out with Clint or Bobby or Russ?"

Kate winced at the reminder of the failed affairs that had marked the years since she left Reid. "Maybe."

"So none of them ever stood a chance because you never stopped loving him? And you knew the whole time you were still in love with someone else?"

Kate held up a hand to stop her sister. "It's not that simple. I thought about him, about Reid, a lot. That never stopped."

"But?"

"It took a while-and a couple of failed relations.h.i.+ps-for me to realize I'd been foolish to think that kind of love was going to come along again. I'd been foolish to think... I'd been foolish. That's the bottom line."

"I had no idea," Jill said, slumping into her chair and looking at Kate in amazement. "I spend twenty hours a day with you and had no earthly idea you were still pining over him."

"How would you know? I never talk about it-about him-to anyone."

"And yet you've thought about him."

"Every day." After a long pause, Kate said, "I need to see him. I need to know if there's any chance at all that what we once had is still there."

"And if it isn't? What if he's moved on with his life and married someone else? What happens then?"

"Is he?"

"Is he what?"

"Married to someone else? Did Ashton tell you that?"

"All he said is his father is happy and has a life that satisfies him. He said it took a long time for his dad to move on after what happened with you."

"And he didn't say where he'd moved on to?"

"Nope."

"It's like he disappeared off the face of the earth. I've tried everything I can think of to find him, but there's nothing. I saw that he sold his business, but there's no mention of him anywhere since then."

"What about his house in town?"

"Closed up tight."

"And you know this how?"

Kate flashed a sheepish grin. "I might've gone by there the last time we were home."

"What if you go to Buddy and tell him you want to get in touch with Reid and he says to leave it alone?"

"I'll go to Miss Martha," Kate said of Buddy's elderly mother, who'd once been Reid's housekeeper.

"Um, didn't she quit because she disapproved of you two?"

"That was a long time ago, and I'm not eighteen anymore. If all else fails, I'll hire a private investigator to find him. Hopefully, it won't come to that." Kate waited for her sister to fire back with another question, but she didn't. "What're you thinking?"

"I'm worried about what happens if you find him and he's not interested. What if he's gotten over it-and you-and moved on?"

"Then I'll have to accept that and move on myself. But I can't do anything until I know for sure it's really over with him. Can't you see what I mean?"

"I do, and, strangely enough, I even understand. A little. That doesn't mean I'm not worried. You've been so sick, and you're finally starting to recover. I'd hate to see you have another setback."

Kate leaned forward to hug her sister. "I love you for worrying about me, but I'll be fine."

Jill returned the embrace with equal fervor. "Promise?"