Coming Home (18 page)

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 glasses 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 glass 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 wineglass 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 crashing 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 glass 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
God
,” 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.”

“I hate that this is happening to her, and I’m certainly not thrilled to discover—especially this way—that she’s back with him. But I can deal with it. I can deal with anything as long as I don’t have to be around him and as long as I have you.”

“You’ve got me, love. For better or worse, I’m all yours.”

“It’s been a lot more better than worse.” They had recently celebrated ten years of a marriage that had brought them unparalleled joy.
 

“A lot more.” She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “And this too shall pass. I promise.”

Jack held on tight to her and took her words to heart. Since his gorgeous wife was always right, he’d have faith she was right about this, too.

“But I’m not going there for Christmas.”

Laughing, she gave him one last squeeze before she stood and held out her hand to him. “Let’s go to bed.”

Across town, Clare O’Malley paced from one end of the circular bedroom she shared with her husband Aidan to the other as she waited for her daughter Kate to answer the phone. When she once again reached Kate’s voice mail, she had to fight the urge to throw the very expensive phone against the wall.
 

“
Why
does she do this? Every time something goes wrong, she goes deep undercover and doesn’t answer the phone, even when her
mother
is calling.”

“Think about it from her point of view,” Aidan said, always the voice of reason, which at times like this was rather aggravating. “She’s got to be mortified. You’re probably the last person she wants to talk to.”

“I’m not going to judge her. That’s not why I’m calling. I want to know if she’s all right.”

Aidan stood and came over to stop her from pacing by putting his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. His green eyes were filled with love and compassion. “She’s not all right, and there’s nothing more you can do tonight to help her. You’ve left her messages. You’ve told her you love her and you’re thinking of her. When she’s ready, she’ll call you.”

“I hate that she won’t talk to me.”

“She’s probably not talking to anyone.”

“I bet she’s talking to Jill. I should call her.”

Aidan gently eased the phone from her hand and placed it on the bedside table. “Jill is probably in full-on crisis mode, putting out fires all over the place. Come to bed.”

“There’s no way I can sleep knowing they’re going through this.”

“Try.”

As much as Clare hated to be managed, she allowed him to help her into bed and curled into his embrace the way she did every night.

“I know this is very upsetting, but there’s nothing you can do. She knows you love her no matter what.” As he spoke, he ran his hand over her back soothingly.

Clare tried to relax even as her mind raced. “I can’t believe this is happening. She never even told me she was going to St. Kitts or that she wanted to see him again.”

“I know you’d like to think they tell you everything, but there’re some things one doesn’t tell one’s mother.”

“My girls aren’t like that. We talk about things like this.”

“What if she’d gone to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see her? What if they attempted a reconciliation that didn’t work out? She was probably waiting to talk to you until after she saw him and had something to tell you.”

Clare hated to admit that he might have a good point. “Maybe.” She took comfort from the familiar woodsy scent of sawdust that clung to her carpenter husband. “Why
him
of all people?”

“Who knows? But there must be something still there if she went to see him after all this time.”

“He’s
so
much older than her.”

“You’re
so
much older than me,” he said, catching her fist before she could slug him.

He was about to turn fifty, but the stinker didn’t look a day over forty, whereas she felt older and more decrepit by the day, despite what he said about her when he wasn’t being a smart-ass. The seven years between them had never been an issue, but there was a big difference between seven years and twenty-eight years.

“That’s not funny,” she muttered.
 

“Yes, it is.”

Clare couldn’t contain the smile he brought to her face just by being himself. He always knew what to say to her, how to comfort her and how to make her laugh, even when it seemed that nothing was funny. “Thanks,” she said.

“What for?”

“Making me laugh when I don’t want to. Being here to talk me off the ledge.”

“Where else would I be? You’re my girl, and Kate’s my girl, and if you’re hurting or she’s hurting, so am I. I hate that this is happening to her. I hate that she took this huge chance on going there to see a man she was in love with a long time ago and this happened to her. I hate that she’s trapped by her celebrity and can’t live her life in peace the way normal people do.”

Clare listened, amazed by the passion behind his words. How had she ever gotten so lucky to be loved by such a man?

“But I also know all this crap is part of the life she signed on for when she left home and went to Nashville, looking to make it big. While the crap isn’t fun, a lot of what she gets to do is fun, and she loves it.”

“Yes, she does. You’re right about that. I just hate that I can’t wave my magic mommy wand and make this go away for her.”

“And I hate that I can’t wave my stepfather wand and make it go away.”

“I love you for wanting to.”

“I love you, too.” He kissed her softly and sweetly, and as she always did, Clare melted into him.
 

“Don’t try to distract me.”