Authors: Kat Attalla
She stiffened. "That's not fair."
"Yes, it is. I answer any questions you ask me."
He had been up front from the beginning about his colorful family history. Only she couldn't share things easily. Years of living two separate lives had made her afraid to trust. If she was going to have a normal life, she had to start somewhere. "I was standing too close to a guy with a switchblade."
His eyes narrowed to angry slits. “You mean someone did it on purpose?"
“I'm told I was lucky. He was aiming for my face, but someone pushed me backwards in time." That someone being her bodyguard. She had been warned repeatedly not to mingle in the large crowds following concerts, but she had foolishly believed that nothing would happen to her.
"Did you know the guy?"
"No."
"Out of the clear blue, some guy just stabbed you. Why?"
"He didn't like my music?" Her overly rehearsed line didn't play to an audience of one. At least not this one. "I don't know why. I didn't get a chance to ask him. I woke up in a hospital, and the police had already arrested him."
"No trial?"
Kate shrugged. "Plea-bargained to assault." That didn't stop the gossip magazines from speculating on the true facts of the case. The incident wouldn't have raised an eyebrow if it had happened to Kate Costello. Unfortunately, it happened one evening after a concert in full view of the press and hundreds of fans seeking autographs.
"And that didn't bother you?"
"Hell yes, it bothered me. But they didn't ask me first. That sort of stuff goes on every day in New York." She hated discussing the incident because she got upset all over again.
Like most people, Jake had a morbid curiosity, and he had it fixated on this unknown assailant. "How can you live in a place like that?"
"I don't live there any longer. Do I?"
"But you're going back soon."
Kate pulled a jelly jar from the cabinet and slipped off the counter to the floor. "You keep telling me I am. Are you marking the days off on a calendar?"
"What about your work?"
"It doesn't require that I live in New York. Like most musicians, I travel when I'm working. Hand me the bread." And get off this subject, she silently added.
"How much time are you talking here?"
"A lot, I guess. I never stopped to figure it out. About six months a year, on and off."
He handed her the bread absently, lost in thought. "Am I missing something, Kate? Why don't I recognize your name? You obviously make a lot of money, so you must be well known."
"You sure are full of questions today."
"So were you earlier, but I didn't avoid them."
She laid the knife on the counter and turned to face him. "Jake. Do you know who Art Tatum or Itzhak Perlman are? Or Sheila Armstrong? Tops in their field, but if you're not into classical, blues, or opera, you wouldn't recognize their names. When you and Chloe start talking about Merle Haggard or Waylon Jennings, I'm completely lost."
"I guess you're right."
His halfhearted concession gave her a temporary reprieve. She knew they would have this conversation again, but perhaps the next time she might be ready to explain more. She didn't know if Jake would be able to separate who she was from what she did. Her mother hadn't been able to.
"Just for the record, Kate. I know who Perlman is. He's the fiddle player who did the credit card commercials."
Kate burst into laughter. "Fiddle player?"
"Violinist. Fiddle player. There's no difference except the money they get paid."
If Jake ever would be ready for the truth, it wouldn't be any time soon. "You really are hung up on the money, Jake. I'm sorry that I get paid well for what I do."
"It doesn't bother me anymore."
"Don't lie. You've mentioned it twice in this conversation alone."
He flashed her that innocent grin of a child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I'm conscious of it, I suppose."
"You suppose?" She poked her finger into his shoulder and added, "You think about it whenever we're in the same room."
"I didn't think about it in the bedroom," he denied.
"Well, thank goodness for that."
He folded her hands in his own and pressed them to his lips. "Could we go back there before we have another argument?"
"What about your sandwich?"
"It'll wait." Jake reverted to the same diversionary tactics that he wouldn't let her get away with earlier. And because she wanted to be diverted, she followed him.
Chapter Nine
Jake waited in the parking lot, watching the students file out of the main doors. He must be getting old. He never remembered the girls looking like that when he went to high school. Some of them looked older than Kate, and they made Chloe seem downright babyish. Fifteen going on thirty. Would he ever be ready for this?
He was worried about Chloe, and he figured that since he had to come into town, he would pick her up and spare her the hour-long bus ride. Although she babbled on continuously around Kate, the last few evenings, she'd been quiet and irritable. He hadn't found an opportunity to speak with his daughter about his relationship with Kate, and he wondered if she might be feeling jealous. It seemed unlikely, since she pushed them together at every turn, but she was a female, and, therefore, prone to illogical behavior.
He slouched down in the seat and grinned. If Kate knew he had thought like that, she'd let him have it right between the eyes. He wouldn't consider her a feminist, but she could get on a soapbox when he started in on the differences between the sexes. Sometimes he started up just to get a rise out of her.
A tap on his window gave him a start.
He straightened and pushed the brim of his hat back. He recognized the rusty-haired boy as Tommy Johansson and rolled down the window.
"Chloe ain't here," he said to Jake.
"What?"
"She left early."
Alarm bells exploded in his brain. It wouldn't be the first time her grandmother had removed her from school without his permission in the hope of having her taken away from him. He had left specific instructions with the principal, denying Ruth and Joe permission to take her.
"Was she sick?"
The boy shrugged. "Don't know. Miss Kate picked her up a few hours ago."
Kate! Why would Kate pick her up from school early? His heart pounded against his rib cage. There must have been an accident. Before he jumped to conclusions, he decided he'd better go back to the house and see what happened.
However, when he returned to the house, they weren't there. He tore the desk apart looking for his phone book of emergency numbers. It took him several nervous attempts to dial the correct numbers for the doctor and the hospital, but neither one could give him any information.
By the time they returned to the house a half hour later, reason had deserted him. He watched in a fit of fury while the two girls chatted outside.
Chloe entered the living room, where he'd been hovering over the phone in a state of panic. When she saw him, she froze.
"Where were you today?"
"School," Chloe said nervously, clutching a paper bag in her hands.
He recognized the name of the store printed on the bag as one from the mall. "And after that?"
"Out."
"What's in the bag, Chloe?"
"Stuff."
He held his hand out. "Let me see it."
"No." She ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.
His jaw dropped in shock. His daughter had never disobeyed a direct order. He paced around the room, waiting for her to come back out. After five minutes, she still refused to answer his knock, and she turned on the shower to drown out his words.
Jake was livid. If Kate exerted this kind of influence over Chloe, then he would put a stop to it. He stormed across the yard with all the rage of a twister. What did Kate think she was doing? Didn't she understand anything? Only three days earlier he told her not to give Chloe her hand-me-downs, so she went out buying new things instead. He didn't care if she had more money than God, he didn't need charity.
He almost pulled the back door off the hinges as he stormed inside without bothering to knock. He saw her sitting in front of the fireplace with her head flipped over to dry her long hair.
When she heard the approaching footsteps, she tossed her head back. "Chloe?" she called out.
"Guess again."
"Jake?" She ran a hand through her tousled mass of hair in a vain attempt to restore some order.
She looked as if she'd tumbled out of bed after a wild night of passion. He wanted her, and that only added to his anger. "Do you want to tell me what your problem is?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Chloe. I'm talking about you picking up Chloe from school today and taking her shopping."
Kate's eyes widened. Her confusion could almost pass for genuine. "I don't understand why you're so angry. Did she explain what happened?"
"I don't care what happened. Just because we sleep together doesn't give you any rights where my daughter is concerned."
She rose and took a step towards him. "Would you just listen a minute?"
Her attempt to make excuses infuriated him even further. She wouldn't own up to the fact that she went behind his back.
"No. I won't listen. Chloe is my daughter, not yours. If you want a kid so bad, go out and adopt one. It shouldn't be too difficult with all your money." The pain reflected in her eyes pierced his heart. He didn't stop to think before the words came out his mouth. He couldn't even begin to fathom what made him say something so cruel. "That's not what I meant to say," he added, but it came out sounding like an afterthought.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach as if she'd been physically struck. "You're right, Jake. She's your daughter. But she's not your son."
"What does that mean?"
"She can run around in boy's clothes for the rest of her life, but it won't change the fact that she's going through puberty. I'm sorry the school called me when they couldn't find you-"
"School?" he cut her off. "What are you talking about?"
"Did you read the note I left you?"
It hadn't occurred to him to look for one. He realized that many things hadn't occurred to him before he started shooting off his mouth.
Especially the most important fact. Kate cared too much about Chloe to do anything that might hurt her. "I didn't see a note. What happened?"
"You were married, Jake. Figure it out. I'm sure you saw those things around the house every month. Fifteen is a little late to be starting, but the nurse assured her that it wasn't unusual since she's so physically active."
Puberty? Those things every month? "Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?"
"Unless you're an idiot. Did you want me to leave her to go the drugstore with the school nurse and humiliate her while she was already frightened about what was going on with her body?"
Apparently he was an idiot. That explained why Chloe had been so moody and withdrawn. He touched Kate's arm, but she yanked it back as if she'd been burned. "I'm sorry, Kate. I was worried when she wasn't at school. I didn't mean what I said."
Kate blinked her eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah, you did. You have more respect for the stuff you scrape off the bottom of your boots than you do for me."
Had he led her to believe that? He had lost a lot of respect for himself in the last five minutes. "That's not true."
"Well, it feels like that right now. I spent eight dollars. Pay it back and we'll be even."
Even? He doubted he'd ever be able to even up now. "Kate."
"Forget it, Jake. I have no rights where Chloe is concerned. Your daughter. Your rules."
"I shouldn't have said what I did."