Double Take (34 page)

“Home?” She didn’t have a home. Not in New York, and not in Skerrit County.

“And let go of the guilt. This is a case where you are only guilty of being easily manipulated by your sister, and having some pretty bad judgment—nothing more.”

She
was
guilty. “Is it so obvious?” she whispered.

He finally smiled. “A man can read your eyes, Kait, and that’s the biggest difference between you and her.”

“Truce?” she asked softly.

“Truce?” He was startled, a rare moment for Rafe Coleman. He hesitated, then held out his hand. “Yeah, we have a truce.”

Kait shook his hand. His grasp was hard and strong and very much like his brother’s. She thought about losing Trev and the girls, and tears clouded her vision. But at least she had done the right thing. At least Lana was in jail.

“Look, you’re exhausted—and probably more so emotionally than anything else. Go home and get some rest. You’ll feel better in a couple of days.”

She stared at him. “I don’t have a home.”

He returned her stare. “I think you do, but, then, last time I meddled in my brother’s affairs he ignored my advice completely. In any case, two of my favorite girls are waiting to see you.” He pushed open the corridor door.

Kait could not imagine facing Trev. She was filled with dread.

“You’re right,” she finally said, because there was no avoiding it now. She had to pack, and she had to say good-bye.

An officer gave her a ride back to Fox Hollow. Kait thanked him, and as he drove away, she looked up at the front door of the big house, her heart sinking.
She didn’t want to leave
. But she was unwanted now, and she didn’t have any choice.

Kait slowly started up the front steps. The door flew open, Marni dashing out, screaming, “Mommy, Mommy!”

Kait stooped and caught Marni as she ran directly into her arms. She stood, the child in her embrace, holding on to her for her dear life, her sanity, her future.

“Mommy, I’ve missed you! You went away!” Marni cried in protest.

“I’m so sorry,” Kait returned, finally setting her down. “I had to go away, but just for a few days.” Then her heart sank. She had to be very careful about what she said now, and how she said it.

“But you didn’t say good-bye and you didn’t tell me where you were going!” Marni wailed, clinging to her hand. Then utter determination covered her tiny face. “You are not going away again.”

Kait somehow smiled, but it was wooden. “Sit down with me, honey,” she said, and they sat down on the front steps of the house, hand in hand. Her heart was already broken, so how could it be breaking again, but this time into a thousand shards, each one more painful than the one before?

“You’re not going away,” Marni stated stubbornly.

“What did Daddy tell you?” Kait asked carefully.

“He said it was an emergency and that you had to go, and that when you came back, he would explain everything,” she said. She stared at Kait. Kait heard a sound behind them and stiffened, knowing it was Trev. “I know he knows now, Mommy, that you’re a new mommy.”

Kait felt Trev’s eyes on her back. “Yes, he does.” She slowly shifted and met his green gaze. She didn’t know what she expected to see when she finally looked at him, but to her amazement, she saw sadness. She started, realizing that his heart was broken too.

“Hello, Kait,” he said softly.

She had seen hurt and pain in his eyes before, but never like this. She stood up. “I...I was just going to explain everything to Marni.”

He nodded, walking over to his daughter and cupping her head. He seemed incapable of speech.

Kait wished desperately that he would forgive her so they could rekindle the love they had briefly found. But she knew her wish was a flight of pure fantasy. “Honey? I have a story to tell you, a story about sisters,” she said to Marni.

“A story?” Marni began to relax, although she darted another suspicious glance between Kait and Trev.

“Sit down,” Kait said, and they both sank back down on the front steps of the veranda. Trev moved to lean against a column. Kait glanced at him and their eyes briefly met. Quickly, they both looked away from one another.

“There were twin sisters, Marni, two little girls who looked exactly alike,” Kait began nervously. “But these little girls weren’t alike at all. One was shy, a bit afraid of her life, even afraid to have friends, and she spent all of her time reading books or working at the stable so she could ride a pony there. The other twin wasn’t shy at all. She had lots of friends, especially boys, she was always laughing, running, jumping.

She never studied and she almost failed all her classes, while the shy twin always got the highest grades.” Kait had Lana on her mind now, and it more than hurt. She felt a tear rolling down her cheek.

“What were their names?” Marni asked with avid interest.

“Lana and Kait.”

Marni stared, no longer smiling. “My other mommy was named Lana. My mommy who went away.”

Kait stroked her hair. “I know. The twins lost their mommy like you. She died of cancer when they were thirteen. Their daddy was so sad, his heart broken, that it was hard for him to be a good daddy afterwards, like Trev. The twins had never been like other sisters, and now they grew even further apart. Lana had a lot of boyfriends, she skipped school, she bought a motorcycle, and she went to wild parties. Kait studied hard. Kait dreamed of having one boyfriend, just one. And then one day, after they went to different colleges, Lana just never came home.”

Marni was wide-eyed. “Never?”

“Never,” Kait said, feeling another tear. She didn’t dare look at Trev now, for she might lose it. “So the twins, who were never like real sisters to begin with, were apart for many years. Kait thought it was sad, and she missed her sister so much—and then she saw her sister once or twice—Lana would suddenly come to Kait’s town, and they’d have lunch or dinner. And then she was gone again. Kait never understood what she had done wrong, so that her own twin sister didn’t love her.” She had to stop. Marni patted her knee. It was hard to see.

“Don’t cry, Mommy,” Marni whispered.

Kait nodded, fighting the need to choke out a sob. A handkerchief was dangled in front of her. She looked up and met Trev’s pain-filled expression, accepted the handkerchief, and dabbed her eyes. “But one day,” she choked, “Lana came home. And she said she was in trouble, and she begged Kait to do a terrible thing.”

“To change places?” Marni asked.

“Yes.” Kait nodded. “Lana asked Kait to go to her home, and pretend to be her. I was so happy to see her again, so desperately happy, that I couldn’t refuse. You see, I’m Kait, honey. I’m your mother’s twin sister.”

“But you’re my mommy now!” Marni cried, on her feet like a shot.

Kait stood, shaking. “I’m your aunt, but I love you as much as if you were really my own daughter,” she whispered.

“No!” Marni stomped her foot. “You are my new mommy now and I won’t let you go!”

Trev took his daughter’s hand. “Sweetie, Kait has to go. She has another life in New York.”

“I won’t let her leave,” Marni shouted, pulling away from her father. “Daddy, don’t let her go!”

Kait stared at father and daughter, Marni furious and frightened and beginning to cry, Trev with tears welling in his eyes. She silently begged him to ask her to stay.

He did not. “Kait has to go back to New York.” He was hoarse but firm.

Marni whirled. “Don’t go!”

Kait felt as if her words were a robotic fist, somehow striking right through her chest and body, splitting her flesh apart. Her soul crumbled in its wake. “I did a terrible thing, lying to you and Sam and your father about who I really am,” she said.

“Mommy asked you to do it! It’s not your fault!” Marni screamed.

Kait heard the front door open and close; she glanced back, it was an ashen Sam. “Lying was my fault, honey. It was wrong. Can you understand that?”

Marni nodded, remaining fiercely determined. “But you’re not lying now! So now you can stay!”

Kait was completely broken now. She looked up at Trev.

“Elizabeth already packed your bags,” he said to her. “If she missed something, we can send it to you.”

He was really going to do this. He was really going to forget everything they had shared, and let her go.

“I’ll go call a cab,” she said hoarsely.

Trev nodded, not offering to drive her the hour it would take to get to Reagan National.

“Dad!” Sam cried. “Don’t let her go!”

Trev didn’t answer.

Kait knew that if she didn’t leave immediately, she wasn’t ever going to make it out of Fox Hollow in one manageable piece. She walked past Sam, incapable of sending her the faintest smile of reassurance, and reached for the door.

“How can you do this?” Sam screamed at her father.

Kait glanced back.

“Mommy!” Marni wailed, in panic.
“Mommy!”

Kait couldn’t move.

“Ssh, ssh,” Trev soothed, taking her into his arms.

Marni kicked and punched him, wildly, desperately; Kait closed her eyes and somehow made it inside.

And she heard Sam shouting at Trev, “You suck!”

“Sen˜or? I am leaving now. Do you want anything else?”

Colin Farrell came out of the bungalow’s single bedroom, his cotton short-sleeved shirt completely unbuttoned, several days’ growth of beard upon his face. The cleaning girl that had been hired by the Realtor from the local village stood in the bungalow’s single room, a combination of living room, kitchen, and dining area. The bungalow was spanking clean and as neat as a pin. The refrigerator was fully stocked. A fan slowly whirled overhead. All of the villa’s windows were wide open, all thanks to the slender Mexican woman standing near the rattan couch. And just past Rosita’s head, Colin could see the wide brilliantly white expanse of beach and the sparkling azure of the Caribbean Sea. “No,
gracias,
” he said.

She smiled at him, her big brown eyes flickering over his chest and torso. “I am pleased to stay, sen˜or,” she said softly, meeting his eyes.

He had no time for this. He knew what she wanted and was not interested at all. “I will see you tomorrow, Rosita.
Man˜ana. Hasta luego, gracias,
” he said firmly.

She pouted but smiled once more before she left, leaving the front door wide open, the better to catch a breeze.

Colin walked to the fridge and took out a bottle of ice-cold beer, which he popped. He drank thirstily, then walked to the front door and stared out of it, first north and then south and then north again. Not a single vehicle could be seen. And there was one pedestrian, Rosita, walking slowly toward the village that was three kilometers away, her fine gauze skirts swinging about her swaying hips.

His heart lurched.
Where was Lana?
She had been due hours ago, and soon the sun would set.

He swigged and reversed direction, crossing the too neat and so empty bungalow, and finally halting on the veranda outside. A path led from it the short distance to the beach. He leaned against the porch’s post, staring out to sea.

She had not been caught. Lana was the smartest and most resourceful woman he knew. No, she had
not
been caught, but clearly she had experienced a delay, or she had missed her flight. He had been waiting for her arrival all day.

But he would not worry. Not about Lana. She could take care of herself.

But he was worried. Because she had his number, and she had not called him on his cell phone. He was sick with worry now.

Suddenly he heard the most welcome and miraculous noise—that of an approaching vehicle. Colin dashed inside and to the front door. He ran into the driveway. A large vehicle—a bus, a van, or a lorry—was coming down the road at a snail’s pace, and it was coming from the north.

His heart skipped and then beat hard. He tossed the beer into the shrubs and hurried to the mailbox, shielding his eyes and gazing into the sun.

Lana was on that bus. He knew it.

An eternity passed as the van approached. When it was but yards away, he saw that it was filled with passengers, but other than two boys riding the sidesteps, hanging on to the windows, he could not make out the identity of anyone in the old beat-up Chevy. He waited for the Chevy van to begin to slow down and then stop, so as to discharge Lana.

But it did not slow down.

In disbelief, he watched it creep by him.

And then it was going past him, not even stopping.

“Hey!” he shouted. He ran after the van. “Hey! You! Señor! Stop the van!
Detenga el carro! Quiero hablar contigo!
”

The van slowed and Colin ran after it, finally reaching the driver’s window.
“Un Americana,”
he panted.
“¿Donde l’americana?”

The driver looked at him as if he was crazy. In perfect English, he said, “There are no Americans here. Do you want a ride, sen˜or?”

Colin stared at the sweating Mexican in disbelief. He finally shook his head. The van rolled forward and Colin leapt away to avoid having his foot run over by a back wheel. The two boys hanging on to the side of the car laughed at him, pointing and jeering.

He began to slump. Why wasn’t Lana on that bus? He dug into the back pocket of his cotton chinos for the hundredth time that day. There was no message icon on his cell phone. Colin returned to the bungalow, grabbed another beer, and this time, he walked down the grassy, palm-shaded path to the beach. He was not going to worry. Lana was going to appear at any moment, like the mirage of an oasis in the desert, only she would not be a mirage.

And then he squinted down the beach, directly into the setting sun.

A figure appeared to be approaching.

He stared, willing the figure to be real and not a figment of his imagination.

The figure
was
real. His heart began to pump with insistence, with the seeds of joy.

He wet his lips, starting forward. Jesus Christ—the approaching person was a woman! She was too distant for him to make out her features, but she had dark brown hair that glinted with reddish tones in the sun, and she was Lana’s height. He began to run.