Treading Water (8 page)

Jack stared at her, clearly shocked. “Who
does that?”

Touched by his outrage, she smiled. “I made
my peace with it a long time ago. Eric hasn’t asked me where his
father is, so I’ve been able to put it behind me for now, anyway.
I’m sure the questions are coming.”

“
I’m so sorry. It must’ve
been a terrible time for you.”

“
It was, but we survived.
Everything was much harder when he was younger, and I was panicked
all the time about him being hurt by what he couldn’t hear. I’ve
gotten better about that.”

“
There was nothing they
could do for him?”

“
He wasn’t a candidate for
a cochlear implant. I hope maybe someday there’ll be other
options.” She reached into her bag for a photo of a gorgeous blond
towhead with huge blue eyes.

“
He looks just like you,”
Jack teased as he handed the photo back to her.
“Beautiful.”

“
Thanks for that, but
he’s
all
Alec.”

“
That must be tough in
light of how things ended with him.”

“
It doesn’t bother me. Eric
is a constant reminder that even though life sometimes doesn’t work
out like you’d hoped, good things can come from disappointment. My
life would be so much less without him at the center of
it.”

“
That’s a great way of
looking at it. You’re amazing. A lot of people would’ve been
destroyed by that kind of betrayal.”

“
Just like you, I didn’t
have the luxury of allowing it to destroy me. I had a child to
think about, and believe me, it’s Alec’s loss. He’s missed out on a
wonderful kid.”

“
We’ve both been through
the wars, haven’t we?” he asked as their lunch was
served.

She smiled at his choice of words. “You
could say that, but we’re lucky, too. We have great kids and fun,
interesting jobs. Things could be worse, right?”

“
I’ve spent an awful lot of
time the last sixteen months feeling sorry for myself.”

“
You seem to have done an
admirable job of handling an unimaginable situation.”

“
That’s nice of you to say,
but I did a pretty crappy job of taking care of my kids for a long
time. I was so focused on Clare that I neglected them. Thank God
Frannie and Jamie and a lot of other people were there for them
when I wasn’t.”

“
It sounds like you did
everything you could for your wife. That’s why you were able to go
back to being a dad to your girls and get back to work—because you
know you did everything you possibly could for her.”

“
I usually find it hard to
talk about, but you make it easy.”

“
I’m still recovering from
my foot-in-mouth incident last night,” she said, enjoying her
lobster salad as the conversation went in a less intense
direction.

“
I thought we were past
that.”

His wry grin made her heart skip a beat. He
was so magnetic and everything she’d ever wanted in a man. But she
reminded herself—and her galloping heart—that he belonged to
someone else. Thinking of Tony and their fledgling relationship,
she experienced a pang of guilt over all the feelings she suddenly
had for Jack.

“
What is it?” he
asked.

She ventured a glance at him. “Nothing,
why?”

“
You just had this look…in
your eyes, like something upset you.”

Rattled, she put down her fork and took a
sip of her wine. “You’re a very nice guy, Jack Harrington.”

As a muscle in his cheek pulsed with
tension, he glanced down at the table and then at her. “May I ask
you something that might seem wildly inappropriate coming from a
professional colleague?”

Releasing a nervous laugh, she said, “Sure.
Go for it.”

“
Are you seeing anyone at
home?”

A flush of heat worked its way through her,
settling in her face. Andi put her hands on her cheeks, hoping he
wouldn’t see how his question had affected her.

“
I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve
embarrassed you.”

“
No, it’s fine. It’s just
kind of warm in here.”

“
It’s none of my business.
I don’t even know why I asked.”

He looked so befuddled that
Andi’s heart went out to him.
Danger!
“We’ll be working together
very closely for the next year and a half. I’d like to think we
could be friends as well as colleagues.”

His face lifted into a
small smile that sent arrows of desire darting through her.
Big trouble.

“
I’d like that,” he
said.

“
In that case, I can tell
my
friend
who is
also my colleague that I recently started seeing the father of one
of Eric’s friends.”

Was that disappointment she saw on his
face?

“
And how’s that
going?”

“
It’s…ah…interesting, I
guess you could say, to be back in the dating world after so many
years of being married and then single during my ‘I’ll never date
again’ phase.”

“
I can’t imagine ever
dating or anything like that. I mean who’d want to take on a
situation like mine? Married but not really… How would that be
fair?”

“
You don’t have to decide
that for someone else. If a woman chooses to get involved with you,
she’d do so knowing your situation.”

“
I still can’t see it ever
happening. I’d feel so disloyal to Clare, you know?”

“
I can see what you mean.”
She paused for a moment. “I didn’t know her, but I can’t imagine
she’d expect you to be alone the rest of your life. Wouldn’t she
want you to be happy?”

Laughing, he said, “Not if being happy
included other women. She was a little territorial where I was
concerned.” He fiddled absently with an extra napkin on the table.
“I’ve been so caught up in trying to mend fences with the girls and
get back in a groove at work that I haven’t given my own future the
first thought.” His eyes shifted up to meet hers. “Until
recently.”

The statement hung in the air between
them.

Andi cleared her throat and got busy
finishing her salad.

“
I’ve made you
uncomfortable again. I’m sorry.”

“
Nothing to be sorry
about.” She forced a bright smile as her heart hammered in her
chest. “What time are we meeting everyone at your
house?”

He studied her for a long, breathless
moment. “Six.”

Since they had some time to kill, he took
her to the Cliff Walk that ran along the backyards of the mansions
they’d toured that morning. The ocean crashed against the jagged
rocks below, sending huge streams of mist into the air.

Jack stopped her to point out his house
across the wide span of water. “It’s between the two white ones,
lots of glass. See it?”

“
Wow, I can’t wait to see
it up close.” She looked up at him, a teasing grin on her pretty
face. “Is it a Jack Harrington original?”

“
As a matter of fact, it
is.”

“
Was it difficult to build
right on the coast like that?”

“
It was a bit of a
challenge but well worth it. I love living so close to the
water.”

She took a good look at the view. “I can see
why.”

Making a studious effort to stay away from
the personal topics they’d strayed into over lunch, Jack kept the
discussion focused on the plans for the hotel, decorating ideas,
and design highlights. But despite his best intentions, he was
captivated as she talked with animated gestures about the ideas the
day in Newport had generated.

He’d embarrassed her over lunch by asking
personal questions he had no right to ask. Not only was she a
colleague, but she was involved with someone else. Why that
information had filled him with such unreasonable jealousy would be
something he could stew over later when he was alone. For now, he
was delighted to simply be with her.

She was so caught up in what she was telling
him that she missed a small dip in the path and lost her
footing.

Jack reached for her and stopped her from
falling.

Gasping, she looked up at him with chocolate
brown eyes gone wide with surprise.

Jack kept his arms around her as she
regained her balance. “Are you all right?”

She glanced at the rocky shoreline below the
path and tightened her grip on his arms. “That would’ve been quite
a fall.”

“
Someone goes over at least
once a year.” When she looked up at him, the impact once again hit
him like a punch to the gut. “Andi…”

“
Yes?”

“
I…” He wanted to kiss her.
After more than a year of feeling nothing at all, the desire was so
fierce, he could barely breathe. Then all the reasons why he
couldn’t kiss her or anyone else came flooding back to remind him
he needed to let go of her.

But damn it, he didn’t want to.

He finally released her.

“
Jack? What is it? What’s
wrong?”

Rattled, he shook his head. “Nothing. Let’s
get going, shall we?”

Chapter 6

At Jack’s house, a game of Marco Polo was
going on in the pool. Andi waved hello to her coworkers and to
Frannie and Jamie, who were working the grill.

“
We’ll be back in a
minute,” Jack called to them. “Andi wants to see the
house.”

“
Take your time,” Frannie
shouted over Jimmy Buffett on the stereo.

After Jack introduced them, Jill got up to
offer Andi a drink.

Andi waved to Kate and Maggie in the pool as
she accepted the glass of wine from Jill.

“
It’s
unreal
!” Andi said as she and Jack
went into the house. “She’s you all over again!”

“
So I’ve been told. She
gets sick of hearing it from everyone.”

“
I’m glad I didn’t say
anything to her, then.”

“
She’s used to it. But what
sixteen-year-old girl wants to look just like her dad?” he asked,
grinning. “Clare and Kate, same story—uncanny resemblance. Then
there’s Maggie.”

“
A bit of both of you?” she
asked as she followed him through the kitchen.

“
Exactly. You can probably
tell by how much younger Maggie is that we didn’t plan her. And
believe me, we were taken aback by the idea of another baby when
Jill and Kate were in elementary school. But Maggie completes us.
I’m so glad she came along when she did.”

Listening to him talk about his kids made
Andi sad that Eric didn’t have a father like Jack in his life.
Pushing that depressing thought away, she focused on the incredible
house he’d built for his family. It featured hardwood floors and
lots of glass to take full advantage of the magnificent ocean
view.

He led her upstairs to the girls’ floor and
then up the spiral stairs to the master suite.

“
I’ve lost count,” she
said. “Four bathrooms?”

“
Six,” he said with a
sheepish grin. “Seven bedrooms.”

A casual photo of Jack and his pretty blonde
wife sat on a table, and Andi could tell it had been taken on the
boat. She followed him to the balcony that hung over the pool area
with the ocean farther below.

“
This was Clare’s favorite
spot. She used to come out here every morning for a few minutes no
matter what the weather.”

“
I can see why she loved it
so much. It’s an amazing house, Jack. Truly.”

“
Thanks.” He seemed
embarrassed by her effusiveness. “I surprised Clare with it at
Christmas six years ago in one of my finer moments, if I do say so
myself.”

“
She knew nothing about
it?”

“
Not a thing.”

“
And how’d you pull that
off?”

“
There was a lot of lying
involved,” he said with a grin. “For which I was forgiven when she
saw this place the first time.”

“
She’s lucky to have
you.”

“
I was lucky to have her,”
he said, hesitating, as if he wanted to say something
else.

“
Jack? What is
it?”

His face tightened with tension, and all at
once, he seemed far away. “There was more to Clare’s accident than
I told you last night.” It seemed to cost him something vital to
talk about Clare standing in front of the speeding car, her failure
to move, and how he now had to live with the gnawing uncertainty
that perhaps she’d done it on purpose.

“
You don’t really think
that, though, do you?” Andi asked, deeply moved by his story and
the pain that radiated from him. In that moment, she was startled
to realize there was almost nothing she wouldn’t do to make him
smile again.

“
I didn’t believe it was
even remotely possible until I saw the video from the mall
security. She had time to get out of the way.”

“
After meeting you and the
girls and seeing the home you built for her, it would seem to me
that Clare had everything in the world to live for.”

“
That’s what I always
assumed, but who knows if that’s how she felt. We had a fight on
the morning of the accident, and when I look back over the months
preceding it, I can see now that something was off. You know what
they say about hindsight…”

“
You can’t do that to
yourself, Jack.”