Getting It Right This Time (28 page)

A pause. “Haven’t they contacted you?”

Kate pressed her hand to her rolling stomach. “No, but surely it’s only a matter of time.”

“Probably you’re right. So isn’t that even more reason to stay put? To face this out? James was their son no matter what kind of crappy husband he was__”

“Luce…”

“What? He was their son, they loved him but he’s gone. Jess isn’t. They will love that girl more than they’ll love anyone else now, Kate. She’s all they’ve got left of James. They always loved you like a daughter, didn’t they?”

“Yes, but…”

“They won’t listen to it. They’ll want you to be happy. You’re their grandchild’s mother, and they won’t risk estrangement from you. They love Jess far too much.”

Kate slowly nodded as the trembling in her fingers subsided. “You’re right. Don and Kath have shown me nothing but kindness since the day I met them.”

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“Exactly. And I’ll put money on it that they want to see you happy.” She paused. “Whether that be with or without Mark.”

“Maybe. But that doesn’t change the fact Mark’s life involves the press and psychotic, egotistical and potentially dangerous female stars, does it?”

“You do know Marcia Langton’s disappeared, don’t you?”

Kate’s heart hitched and her breathing stopped. She could hear Lucy’s smile through the phone. “What do you mean disappeared?” she asked slowly.

“Well…” She stopped.

Kate rolled her eyes. “Get on with it, Luce.”

Her friend giggled. “Well…he’s dropped her.”

“Dropped her?”

“Uh-huh. Kicked her skinny size zero ass right out of his office and into space.”

Kate cursed the way her heart picked up speed as her hand became clammy against the phone.

“What are you talking about? He can’t just drop her.”

“Can’t you just enjoy the moment?”

“No,” Kate said firmly. “Tell me.”

“Fine, fine,” Lucy huffed. “He told her he doesn’t want to represent her anymore. He knows she masterminded the sabotaging of your relationship. He thinks she’s been working with Underwood.”

Kate silently cursed. “I knew it. He knew it.”

“Yep, well, she will finish her
Hamlet
commitments and then Mark says she will be on the first plane out of the UK to Hollywood. He’s paying for the one-way ticket.” Lucy paused. “So this changes everything, doesn’t it?”

Kate stood up straight. “No.”

“Kate, come on…”

“No.”

“Look, Mark…”

Lucy’s rationale faded into the background as Kate’s brain jammed with ifs, whys and maybes. It shouldn’t matter. What Mark did or didn’t do should no longer matter to her. She’d made her decision. It would be just her and Jess for the foreseeable future--maybe one day she would find a man to love, a man with a normal nine to five job, earning a living, having time to spend at the beach, or the cinema, an evening meal with them. She didn’t need Mark and his flashing paparazzi bulbs, huge cars and the majestic…the wonderful, the dream reality of The Landscape.

She didn’t need him. She didn’t need to see his smile, his eyes. She didn’t need to hear his voice, the rich boom of his laughter. She didn’t need to feel the touch of his hands on her skin, the firm and possessive pressure of his lips against hers. She didn’t need--

“Kate?”

She started. “I…um…none of it matters, Luce. None of it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

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Getting It Right This Time

Kate snapped the phone shut and walked over to Jess on trembling legs. “You okay, sweetheart?”

Jess nodded without taking her eyes from the screen. Kate pressed a kiss to her crown, wandered into the bathroom, shut the door and slipped to the tiled floor with the tears damp on her cheeks.

She loved him so much.

Her phone rang in her hand and Mark’s name showed on the display. “No. Not now, Mark.”

She turned off the phone.

Chapter 16

Three days had passed since Kate disappeared, and Mark was grinning like a man who’d been told to spend the afternoon ranking Victoria Secrets models. He’d found her. He knew where she was thanks to the remarkable--and somewhat dubious--resources of his faithful, wonderful and soon to be massively rewarded personal assistant. Liam was a genius!

Swiveling around in his chair, Mark stared out of the window covering most of the wall behind his desk. The mid-morning August sun burned high in the sky, a few clouds enhanced rather than shadowed the gorgeous day. Mark tapped the piece of paper bearing the name of The Carrington Hotel against his palm and laughed. It could be a snowstorm with raging winds and an impending tornado and he’d still think it was a gorgeous day.

Marcia had a final performance tonight. Then he would escort her to the airport and watch her get on the plane to LA. He had delivered the news to her that morning that he’d severed all her future possibilities, telling interested producers and publicists she no longer felt Britain was big enough to contain her talent.

Another burst of laughter bubbled at the back of Mark’s throat.

Nothing pissed the British off more than insinuating the united force of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were any less powerful than any other country in the world. The UK might be small but it was there, loud and proud on the universal map.

“Hoorah!” Mark exclaimed and punched his fist in the air. God, he was losing his mind to his euphoria.

Shaking his head, he swiveled around and slapped his hands on his desk. He felt like a kid in a sweetshop, but he still had one more thing to do before he went after Kate and told her his plans--his fantastic, amazing, exciting and ultimately plausible plans for them to be together. His eyes burned. His plans for them to be a family--him, Kate and Jess together.

Adjusting the knot of his tie and moving his head side to side in a pathetic effort to relax, he reached forward and pressed the button for the intercom into Liam’s office.

“Liam?”

“Yes, boss.”

“Can you come in here for a second?”

“Sure. I’ll be right there.”

Mark released the button and inched further back in his seat. His gaze trained on his office door as he fought the grin on his face into a serious, ambiguous expression of nonchalance. The grin momentarily broke. Liam was about to have bloody kittens.

After a discreet knock, the door opened. Mark’s smile abruptly dissolved. He met his assistant’s eyes.

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“Come and take a seat.”

Liam did a double take. “Everything all right?” he asked as he sat.

Mark kept his eyes locked on his. “Any reason why it shouldn’t be?”

“No, you sound kind of…strange.”

A smile battled at Mark’s lips. He pressed them firmly together until the tug surrendered.

“I’m fine. In fact, I’m more than fine.”

Liam raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

The smile broke before he could stop it. “I’m bloody fantastic.”

Liam grinned. “Who’ve you signed up? Whoever he or she is must be either the next big thing, or they’re already the big thing and they’ve jumped ship to you. Come on, with a smile on your face that size, it means big bucks either way.”

“This smile has got nothing to do with money. Not a damn thing.”

“Yeah, right. I’ve worked with you for nearly three years, and there’s only two things that make you smile like that.”

“Which are?”

“Money and success. So which is it? Or maybe it’s both.”

“You’re halfway there. It is two things that are making me want to jump out this seat and kiss you…”

“What?” Liam visibly paled.

Mark laughed. “Kiss you, my friend, kiss you. And those two things are Kate and Jessica.”

Liam’s eyes grew wide and his color drained even more. “There’s no new client?”

“Nope. I’m going to be with Kate and Jess, Liam. Permanently. As much as possible. Every dang day if they’ll have me.”

“Well, that’s great, I’m happy for you.” He frowned. “Is that why you called me in here? To tell me you’re reunited with your girlfriend?”

Mark smiled. “No.”

“Then you’re going to have to help me out here. I’ve got work coming out of my ears since you dropped Marcia. Phone calls left, right and center…”

“I called you in to let you know I’m out of here. I’m leaving.”

Liam opened his mouth as if to say something. His gaze met Mark’s, flitted over his face until his eyes grew wide. “The agency? You’re leaving the agency?”

Mark’s grin widened. “Yep.”

“But you can’t. Are you insane?” Liam leapt to his feet. “Business is buzzing. It’s the most successful and renowned agency in England. Stars all over the country want to be represented by Johnston’s. Producers come to you for the best, the newest, the most beautiful. What--”

“I’m glad to hear you have so much pride in the place…” Mark paused, bracing himself for the oncoming onslaught. “Seeing as I’m putting you in charge.”

“What am I suppose to tell Simon Scott when he--” Liam stopped.

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Mark swallowed the urge to laugh out loud as his assistant’s face evolved into an expression akin to a Disney character who’d slammed his hand in a door. His face turned from pink to red to scarlet in seconds, his mouth dropped open, wider and wider, and his hands came slowly up to press against either side of his head as though his brain was about to explode.

“You’re putting me in charge?”

Mark nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“What are you talking about, man? You can’t think the associate agents are going to take orders from me?”

Still smiling, Mark dropped into his chair. “No, but I do think they’ll want to keep their jobs.

And I do think you’d find a way to organize a rock gig at a barn-dance so this will be a piece of cake once you get stuck in. And I do think you’re going to be one of the finest theatrical agents on the planet within the next couple of years, and as this will be invaluable experience to you I think there is zero chance of you turning it down.” He paused, “And finally, I think your heart is close to bursting out your chest right now, because there is nothing you thrive more on than a challenge of manic proportions or why the hell would you have continued working for me for so damn long?”

The silence in the room was only broken by the occasional burst of laughter outside the closed office door or the shudder of the refrigerated mini-bar in the office. Liam’s hands lowered from his head until they were stretched out in front of him and his expression changed from a man who’s been told he might be pregnant, to a man who’d just won the lottery.

Mark shifted further back in his seat--suddenly unsure of his own safety.

Liam’s ensuing yell would’ve have shook the glass in the windows were they not triple-glazed. He shot around the desk and slapped his hands to Mark’s face. Mark noted the crazed exhilaration in his eyes a moment too late--the kiss Liam pressed to his forehead resounded around the room with an audible ‘smack’.

Laughing, Mark jumped to his feet and embraced Liam, both slapping each other’s backs.

The two of them danced a jig before collecting themselves and parting.

Catching his breath, the color and smile simultaneously slipped from Liam’s face.

“Shit,” he said, crossing his arms. “Sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have jumped on you when you’ve just offered me the position of the damn century.”

Grinning, Mark swiped his hand through the air. “Don’t be so bloody stupid. Despite everything that’s been going on around here lately, I trust you. There’s nothing wrong with showing me you’re as happy as I am. Sit down. We’ve got lots to talk about.” He looked at his watch.

“Underwood and the rest of the press will be here in less than half an hour.”

Liam sank into the visitor’s chair looking half-dazed. “Is this why you called them here?”

“Yep. I’m going to let that son of a bitch Underwood and the rest of the media assholes know that I’m taking a step back. I’m disappearing for a while with Kate and Jessica. If I’m not here, they’ve no story.”

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Liam’s expression turned somber. “They’ll follow you, Mark. You’re big news, which means big money.”

“Maybe they will. But how long are they going to hang around a couple and a three-year-old child who do nothing out of the ordinary every damn day. Because, my friend, that’s exactly what I want to happen. I want me, Kate and Jess to have the most boring, ordinary life possible.”

“And she’s agreed to that? Even though she only opened her business a few weeks ago?”

Mark looked at him, felt the weight that had continuously dropped and rose in his gut for the last three days fall once again. “I don’t know, but it’s worth asking her, don’t you think? I need them, Liam. And I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to them. I’ll leave all this behind. I will move away or become a bloody house husband if that’s what Kate wants. I just want us to be together.”

Liam stared at him and gave a low whistle. “Man, you’ve got it bad.”

Mark grinned. “Yep, I’ve got it bad.” He stood up. “So let’s go deal with Underwood so I can go get my woman.”

* * * *

The piece of shit stood at the front of the group, clearly thinking himself the leader of the pack rather than the most likely candidate to get punched square in the face if Mark decided that was the route he wanted to take. Underwood threw him a smile and a wink. Mark forced himself to return the greeting lest Underwood achieve the satisfaction of snapping him with anything less than happiness on his face.

Mark ignored the thumping of the vein pulsing at his temple and drew his gaze along the twenty or more faces eagerly watching him. Cameramen and photographers were peppered among the journalists, who held their tape recorders flung outward or their pens poised above notepads.