Treading Water: Coming Home Part 3

"I promise."

"No matter what happens with Reid?"

"No matter what happens." Kate pulled back from the hug. "Speaking of stuff happening, anything I need to know about from the meeting?"

"We're working on getting you freed up for this vacation you want so badly."

Kate got up to leave. "I'll leave it in your capable hands, then." At the door, she turned back to face her sister. "Try to enjoy the downtime, will you?"

"Only if you do, too."

"Oh, I will."

The next day, Kate drove her Jeep out to Buddy and Taylor's house, planning to crash Sunday dinner. The crisp autumn day reminded her of home. While nothing could top a New England fall, Tennessee was no slouch when it came to foliage and clear blue skies.

She'd lived here so long now it felt like home, but her heart would always belong to the house on the coast where her mother and stepfather still lived with their sons, Max and Nick.

Her cellphone rang, and Kate put it on speaker to take the call.

"Hey, it's me," her sister Maggie said.

"Hey, Mags, what's up?"

"I heard you were back on drugs, so I figured I'd better check on you."

"You know me, a different day, a different fix. Where'd you hear it this time?"

"On the radio at lunchtime. The DJs were talking about you like they know you. You're really okay, though, right?"

"I'm fine. I went back to work too soon after the pneumonia and pa.s.sed out on stage. Anything else you hear is pure fiction."

"I know that-everyone who knows you knows that. Are you feeling better now?"

"Better every day. It's good to be home."

"Have you talked to Dad?"

"Not in a week or so, why?"

"You'll love this. The boys are letting everyone know that they want to be called John and Rob now that they're in fifth grade. Apparently, Johnny and Robby are baby names."

As her hair blew in the breeze, Kate let out a ringing laugh. "That's awesome. Thanks for letting me know. I'd hate to get in trouble the next time I call home."

"No kidding. Those two are a piece of work. They're playing in a big baseball tournament this weekend on the Cape. Dad, Andi, Mom, Aidan and all the O'Malleys are there watching them. Dad said they got the biggest turnout of all the kids on either team-including the home team."

Kate loved that her parents continued to share a warm friends.h.i.+p even though they were long divorced. "Can't you picture Grammy O'Malley in the middle of it, bossing everyone around?"

"Totally." The mother of their stepfather, Aidan, was an adored extra grandmother to the Harrington girls. "How's work?"

"Interesting this week. I'm signing for a deaf juror in a murder trial. Gruesome business. I'll have nightmares for weeks."

"Ugh, that sounds awful."

"It's a paycheck. How's Jill?"

"You won't believe it, but I finally got her out of her suit and into jeans. Don't look now, but I think she's actually taking a vacation."

"Shut the front door! How'd you manage that?"

"It wasn't easy, but I convinced her we both need a break-her as much as me. She works way too hard. I worry all the time that she's sacrificing her life to run mine."

"She loves every minute of running your life, and you know it."

"She does seem to love the job, but I want her to have her own life, too."

"You know Jill-she doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do."

"True."

"Well, I'd better get back to the Texas Chain-Saw Murder trial."

"Oh my G.o.d, they used a chain saw?"

"Hacksaw."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Yes," Maggie said, laughing. "It was a run-of-the-mill stabbing."

"That's sick. You're spending too much time in courtrooms."

"Seriously."

"Hey, Maggie, do you get time off at Christmas?"

"A week. Why?"

"Will you plan to spend it here with me? I'll send you a ticket."

"I'd love to."

"Great. I'll talk to you soon."

"Love you. Later."

Talking to her younger sister always left Kate smiling. Maggie was the same ball of energy she'd always been, zipping from one topic or task to another without so much as a pause in between. Kate wouldn't change a thing about her, and the idea of spending a whole week with her baby sister filled her with joy.

Taking the break from work had been the right thing to do. It had been so long since she'd felt anything other than exhausted, she thought, as she pulled into the driveway at Buddy and Taylor's two-story brick Colonial in Rutherford County. As Kate walked to the door, the wind whipped off the lake behind the house.

Kate thought about the first time she'd visited here, the day she learned that Reid had gone to Buddy on her behalf. She'd give everything she had, every ounce of success she'd known since then, to get back the few hours that followed those revelations.

With years of hindsight and maturity, she could see that she'd handled it all wrong. What might've been different, she wondered-and not for the first time-if she'd gone home and talked to him civilly rather than throwing her things in a bag and storming out of his house as if what they'd shared hadn't meant the world to her?

The quest to right the wrongs of the past might seem foolhardy to Jill. h.e.l.l, at times it seemed foolhardy to Kate. But it had become increasingly clear to her that she was stuck on what had happened all those years ago, and until she made peace with the past, she wouldn't be able to get unstuck or move forward.

With that in mind, she rapped on the door and stepped inside the comfortable, cozy home her superstar friends shared with their three daughters. Their son, Harrison, was in college at Texas A&M. "h.e.l.lo," Kate called. "Anyone home?"

Georgia Sue, the youngest of the Longstreet sisters, came running around the corner from the kitchen and slid to a stop just short of cras.h.i.+ng into Kate. "Hey, are you here for dinner?" she asked, hugging Kate.

"If your mom made enough."

Georgia rolled her eyes like the teenager she'd soon be. "She always makes enough to feed an army, or so she says."

"Your dad and brother eat like one."

"That's true." Georgia took Kate's hand and tugged her into the kitchen, where Taylor Jones, biggest female country star in the world, stood watch over a pot of something on the stove as she conducted an animated phone conversation. "She's mult.i.tasking as usual."

Taylor flashed Kate a warm smile and held up a finger to ask for one more minute on the phone.

"She's my idol," Kate said to Georgia.

Georgia laughed. "Want a drink?"

"I'd love one."

As Kate was a frequent visitor, Georgia got her a diet cola and a tall gla.s.s of ice without having to be told what Kate wanted. "Thank you, ma'am. How's school?"

"Boring as usual."

"I thought fifth grade was fun. My brothers are in fifth grade, and they love it."

"They're probably dorks, then," Georgia said with the sly grin that was all Buddy.

"Hey! My brothers aren't dorks!"

"Mine is."

"Yeah, he kinda is."

"I can say that, but you can't."

"Sibling handbook," Kate said, charmed as always by Georgia. "Rule 101-I can speak poorly of my siblings, but you may not."

"Exactly!"

Taylor hung up the phone and came over to hug Kate. "Are you here for dinner, I hope?"

"If it's no trouble."

"You know you're always welcome. Georgia, go finish your homework before dinner."

"But Kate just got here!"

"She'll be here awhile, right, Kate?"

"Absolutely. If you finish your homework, we can go for a walk by the lake, just you and me."

"Really?"

Kate tugged on the silky dark ponytail that was so much like Taylor's. "Yes, really. Now scram. Your mom and I need some girl time."

"I hate to point out that I too am a girl," Georgia said on her way out of the kitchen.

"Scram!" Taylor said in a tone that only mothers could pull off. "Shees.h.!.+ That one is full of beans. Good thing she came last and not first, or she might've been an only child."

"You know I love all your children, but she gets to me every time."

"She's always had you-and everyone else in her life-firmly wrapped around her little finger. Her father is absolute putty in her hands."

"In yours, too, if I'm not mistaken."

"In mine, too," Taylor said, blus.h.i.+ng. They were still wildly in love after nearly twenty years of marriage, four children and more number-one records between them and together than Kate could count. Taylor returned to the stove to stir and tend. "What's this about girl talk?"

"Is Buddy home?"

"Not at the moment, but I expect him soon. He's over at his mama's house, checking on her."

"How is Miss Martha?"

"Slowing down more all the time, but don't try to tell her that. We've had absolutely no luck in convincing her to move in with us, but the day she's no longer feisty and independent is the day I'll really start to worry about her."

Kate chuckled at the image Taylor painted. Ms. Martha was nothing if not feisty and independent.

"Do you need to talk business with Buddy? You know you can always call him."

"I know, but it's not about business. Jill and Ashton have all of that covered, at least for the moment."

Taylor poured herself a gla.s.s of tea and gestured for Kate to have a seat at the table. "Then what is it, honey? I can tell you've got something on your mind."

"My sister says I'm tearing the scab off an old wound, but I told her the wound never really healed."

"You're talking about Reid."

Surprised that Taylor had gotten to the heart of the matter so quickly, Kate nodded. "I've never stopped thinking about him."

"And you have regrets."

Kate stared at her friend. "Do you have ESP or something?"