Текст книги "Until You"
Автор книги: Jeannie Moon
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 22 страниц)
Chapter 10
‡
Kate rose early and looked out the window at the quiet city streets. They’d come back to bed after their late night meal and he’d made love to her again. Did real people live like this? Because Kate felt like she was caught up in a romance novel. David knew what she wanted, what she needed. Every time he touched her, it was like an electric charge going through her. But more than that, she had a feeling this relationship had the potential to be something life changing.
Looking at him, asleep in the big bed, Kate sighed. David’s dark hair lay tousled across his forehead and his muscular frame was relaxed, but still exuded power. He had a large bruise on his right side that had just started to fade, and his breathing was slow and steady. It made Kate wonder if he could be like that with her—slow and steady. If he could, they might have a chance.
She’d told him everything. Told him about her past, and how she’d gotten to this place. Once upon a time she was confident, competitive, and even a little reckless. But Richard had broken her spirit on many levels, and it was only now that Kate understood not only how far she’d come, but how far she needed to go. Her writing was so much more than the hobby she’d made it out to be. It had saved her. It gave her something to be proud of and it gave her an identity. It gave her the ability to be independent. David, on the other hand, was something else. Talking about her past made her realize he was helping her rediscover the person she used to be.
If ever there was a contradiction, David was it. He presented a fierce and violent presence on the ice, but with her he was warm, caring, and understanding. He personified the dumb jock in interviews, giving short, clichéd answers, but in reality he was intelligent and articulate. The most remarkable thing was this man, who had the most beautiful young women ready to throw themselves at him, was with her—a middle-aged divorcée with custody problems and a pending nervous breakdown.
She glanced outside again and saw the newspaper on the front stoop. She figured a cup of coffee and the paper was a good way to pass the time while David slept. He had another game that night and had to be at the arena around ten for a morning skate, which meant he still had a couple of hours to sleep.
Grabbing his robe, Kate headed downstairs so he could rest.
*
In the daylight, she could see that the kitchen opened onto a deck that led into a small yard. The house was the biggest surprise. She never expected him to have such a refined home. Everything was tasteful and classic. There were few frills, nothing trendy, and only one flat panel TV that she could see in the whole house.
His den gave her the clearest picture into his personality and his history. There were some pictures of his family, and one of him and some of his teammates when he played hockey for Canada in the last Olympics. But the most dramatic thing about the room was that it was filled, floor to ceiling, with books. All of her titles were there, which she found flattering, as well as volumes of history, philosophy, and literary fiction. He wrote notes in the margins; as she flipped through a copy of Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, she marveled at his insights. His degree from Boston College hung proudly on the wall, from which she discovered that David earned a B.A., summa cum laude, in history. This man who cracked heads on a nightly basis was a deep thinker, a scholar, and most definitely an enigma.
Who knew?
She washed the dishes from the previous night, made herself a cup of coffee, and sat down with the paper. The news was depressing, as usual, and after getting her fill of national and international tragedies, she went to the local section. A little fashion, some gossip, and local news was how she normally offset the global problems in the main section.
This time, however, the gossip page made her feel like she’d been hit by a bus. A fairly good sized picture of David and her former student, Chelsea, was front and center. The image was disturbing enough. He had his arm around her as they walked along a city street. They looked like they were in a conversation—a perfect, happy, plastic couple. But what really had Kate ready to snap was the caption:
“Local celebutante Chelsea Connor may have snagged the ultimate prize in Philly’s most eligible bachelor, David Burke. The word is a summer wedding is planned.”
Kate closed her eyes and let it all sink in. It didn’t make sense, but when did her life ever make sense? She gazed at the picture and felt a tightness around her heart, which made her run her hand across her chest. It physically hurt to look at the picture and think about what it might mean. It was the same feeling she had when she saw them together that morning in New York. It was humiliating, and while Kate knew she should talk to him about it—he’d probably be able to explain it—she just couldn’t. Kate didn’t want to have to ask questions; she didn’t want to have to wonder about the people in her life. If David was engaged, everything she’d hoped for, everything he’d let her believe, meant nothing. Even if he wasn’t engaged, he and Chelsea were obviously enough of a couple that such speculation wasn’t a complete reach.
Which meant David would never really be hers.
Sobs caught in Kate’s throat as flashes of last night played in her mind like a cruel movie. The way he touched her, the things he whispered to her in the dark, made her believe there might be a future. Now all she wanted to do was get away from the reality the picture in the paper forced her to accept. He was a ladies’ man, a player, and expecting him to change was foolish. If it wasn’t Chelsea on his arm, there would be someone else. This was who he was, and nothing short of a miracle would get him to change.
Young women, beautiful women, women without stretch marks, spider veins, and teenage children were the ones David would really want. Kate was never going to fit into his life and she had to get out now, before the damage to her heart was irreparable.
She tiptoed into the bedroom, gathered her clothes, and stopped to look at him sleep. The pain she felt, the feeling of inadequacy, was all too familiar. He hadn’t been honest with her, and after what she’d gone through with Richard, that was something she couldn’t forget. David was peacefully asleep, peacefully unaware, as Kate left the room and faced the fact she might never be able to fully trust anyone again.
*
David awoke hoping to wrap himself around Kate, maybe make love to her again before he had to be at the arena, but instead found he was alone in bed. It wasn’t the way he wanted to wake up. Rolling onto his back, he thought about her, about how being with her had changed him.
They’d talked about everything. His family, his job, her job, her divorce, her daughter. They laughed, they made love, and a couple of times he’d held her while she cried. He knew more about her than he did about people he’d known for years. This was what people meant when they talked about soul mates—finally he understood.
He got up and when he looked around his room, he realized her things were gone. Her lingerie, dress, and shoes were no longer on the chair in the corner of the room. Strange. The house was eerily quiet, and David had the sense something had gone very wrong, very quickly.
The night before, he’d learned about her addiction to coffee, so he pulled on a pair of jeans and made his way to the kitchen, where he hoped he would find her. But the only thing he saw in the kitchen was the newspaper. The dishes they’d left in the sink were clean, but Kate wasn’t around.
He didn’t understand.
He couldn’t believe she’d left without saying anything and he wondered what the hell he’d done. Shuffling the sections of paper around, he figured Kate must have been reading it before she decided to take off. Was this payback for the way he treated her?
He glanced at each section and felt the bile rise in his throat when his eyes fell on the old picture of him and Chelsea. Mother of God. This gossip shit was getting out of control. He glanced at the caption and the only word that jumped out at him was wedding. Wedding? According to the article, he was getting married.
“Fuck.” The word came out on a breath of pure disbelief. Did these reporters just make this shit up? The more he thought about it, only one answer made sense—Chelsea.
Now he knew what made Kate bolt. He finally found a woman he was crazy about, someone who made him feel like a real relationship was possible, and that blonde bitch wrecked it. David didn’t know how the information about the non-existent wedding had made it into the paper, but he was certain Chelsea was behind it.
The paper usually arrived on his doorstep around six in the morning. It was almost nine. She might have left thirty minutes or three hours ago… he had no way of knowing when or where Kate had gone. The worst part was he couldn’t do anything except set the record straight. And maybe tell Chelsea exactly what he thought of her manipulative little games.
David let loose with a string of expletives and slapped the sugar bowl that was on the table. It flew and exploded against the wall, raining down in hundreds of little pieces. It was exactly how he felt.
Everything was in pieces.
Chapter 11
‡
He felt like shit. Not knowing what he could do about it, David settled down at his kitchen counter with a cup of coffee, a bottle of pain reliever, and his tablet and thought about what had transpired over the past forty-eight hours.
Since yesterday morning, he’d called Kate three times and left as many voice mails. He didn’t hear from her. In one of the messages, he damn near begged her to call him back and David never begged, but he was desperate. He should have ended everything cleanly with Chelsea, with everyone, before he took up with Kate, but he didn’t think it mattered that much. He was wrong.
Chelsea met him after the game last night and tried to get him to take her home, but he told her in the clearest way he could that they were finished, that they were not getting married, and that he would never marry her. He’d done everything he was supposed to do, according to Dating 101. He did it calmly, in a public place, and he took all the blame, even though he knew, after her most recent stunt, she was one obsessed bitch. It didn’t matter how he handled it. She freaked and made a scene. It took two security guards ten minutes to get her out of the arena and another fifteen minutes for him to calm down.
Had he really missed all the signals? Had he been that arrogant? Chelsea’s mission was to use her face and body to snag a wealthy husband. And not just any husband, but one who fit her profile. She’d let that piece of information slip, how David was perfect for her and how he was exactly what she always planned for in a husband. Planned for? In her eyes, they were all but married. She never even considered what he wanted. Chelsea sure didn’t fit into his ideal of a perfect mate. No matter what people thought, he wasn’t that shallow. No matter how beautiful a woman was, no matter how good in bed, if their hearts couldn’t find any common ground, there was no chance he’d want to be with her long term.
But that was what David would do—he’d find beautiful girls who’d do anything for him and then he moved on. He never treated women badly; in fact, he was known as charming and considerate. But when he was done, he was done.
No one ever held him accountable for his behavior. He went out with who he wanted and never thought about how it affected any of the women involved. Obviously Chelsea was a special kind of crazy, but he was sure there were other women he’d hurt or offended. Probably a lot of them.
Last night he was so pissed he wanted to hit something. Instead he got drunk. Jay and Cam got him home and poured him into his bed at three in the morning. Sleep was what he needed¸ but what he got were dreams. Erotic, sweaty dreams about Kate. He decided when he woke up he either had to try to see her or forget about her.
Normally, he’d check out all the local scores, but after last night, he didn’t want to read even one account of the game. The media had been all over his lack of production, now they would start slamming him about bad penalties and selfish play. Of course, they were right, as were his teammates and coach. He took them right out of the game the night before with his stupid play. He got called for a ‘delay of game’ and the Pens had capitalized. He couldn’t catch a break. Instead, he went directly to his e-mail and saw the usual crap from the team, but then his eyes fell on something from Annie Hemmings.
The link in the e-mail led him to a site for a local foundation, and when he read the blurb about their upcoming event, he wanted to give Annie the biggest hug ever.
Many of the city’s most prominent will be gathering to raise money for the Children’s Literacy Foundation of Greater Philadelphia. The foundation gets books into the hands of underprivileged children and helps support school library programs. One of the most notable in attendance will be bestselling author Katherine Adams, who has donated a percentage of the royalties from her latest book to the program.
A fancy fundraiser was the last thing David wanted to do with a rare Friday night off, but if it meant he could try to set things right with Kate, he was all for the effort.
He sat as his desk, picked up his cell, and called his agent. The secretary put him right through, which was the advantage to being one of the top clients, and he waited for Alan to pick up.
“Dave, how’s it goin’?”
“Hey, I need you to do something for me.”
“If it’s legal, anything.”
David wondered how he was going to ask for this. Alan would know immediately that something was up. “There’s this organization, locally in Philly, they’re doing good work with literacy in schools.” That was all true, now came the hard part. “They’re having a benefit next week and I’d like to show my support.”
Alan didn’t respond immediately, but when he did, he got to the point. “Why?”
“Why what?” David said.
“Literacy? You always do the kids’ charities, but usually it’s a sports thing.”
“What are you saying? I can’t support something academic?”
“No, you just aren’t known as an academic kind of guy. You ready to let the world see you have a first-class brain?”
David didn’t deliberately come across like a dumb jock in the press, but he didn’t like interviews. If reporters thought all he’d spit at them were clichés, they’d leave him alone.
“I want to go to the benefit.”
His agent groaned. “What’s the charity?”
“Ah… The Children’s Literacy Foundation of Greater Philadelphia,” David read from the screen. “I’ll e-mail you the website.”
“Okay. I’ll check into it and call you back in an hour or so.”
It didn’t take an hour.
“Dave, it’s Alan.” He paused. “I can get you into the cocktail party, but it’s going to cost you.”
David rolled his eyes. “How much?”
“Five grand.”
“What?” David dropped the phone. “Are they fucking kidding? For watered down drinks and bad hors d’oeuvres?”
“They do a lot of fundraisers during the year. This one is the real society bash. University people, Main Line Philadelphia, politicians. Definitely not your scene. Very formal.”
“Shit,” he growled.
“Do you still want to go?
David thought about Kate and the way she looked at him with such contempt at the game, of how she pleaded with him to get out of her life when they stood alone in her classroom. After what had happened this past weekend, with the gossip about him and Chelsea, she’d probably tear him to shreds. He should stay away from her. That would definitely be the smart thing to do.
Screw it.
“Yeah, get me a ticket.” So much for being smart. “See if you can get the team’s community relations to put a spin on it and get the foundation a little more publicity, okay?”
Alan laughed. “You should give those society types an eyeful. I’ll make some calls and get back to you later.”
When he hung up, David grinned and then shook his head. This was the most desperate thing he’d ever done. He’d just been hosed for five thousand dollars to go to a cocktail party to impress a woman he had only seen a few times, a woman who was probably so pissed she wouldn’t give him the time of day. But after playing around for all these years, David was pretty sure Kate was the one. He had to make it right with her.
He had to at least try.
*
“You’re packing?”
It was Tuesday evening, eighteen hours before her flight was scheduled to leave, and Kate had walked out of her bathroom to find her daughter surveying the open suitcase on her bed. Closing a zipper bag full of toiletries, which she placed in a closed compartment of her bag, Kate thought carefully about what she was going to say when the questions started coming. This was going to end badly.
“Yes, I’m a little confused about what to take.” Kate turned her attention to the bathing suits she’d taken from the drawer. “Are you packed, honey? I’m dropping your things at your dad’s after I take you to school tomorrow.”
Kate smiled as Laura walked over and picked up a black bikini that was a lot more revealing than any of her other bathing suits.
“This is new,” Laura said, holding up the skimpy string bottom. “You didn’t tell me you were going away.”
“We talked about going away several times.” Kate sat on the bed. “I planned this trip a while ago.”
“You did? Oh. Well, the Bahamas is more my speed than an amusement park at this point.” Laura was trying so hard to be cool, it broke Kate’s heart. “But this bathing suit is a little much, isn’t it Mom?”
“No amusement parks.” Kate grabbed the suit and tossed it in the suitcase. “I’m going to the spa we talked about. You know, the one on St. Bart’s.”
There was an audible ‘whoosh’ as the air left Laura’s lungs. “The last place you mentioned was Florida, not the spa on St. Bart’s.”
“I was going to surprise you, but you were set on going with Dad and Marie, so I didn’t say anything. Dad knew.”
Laura’s eyes darted around and her face flushed. Laura was angry, but Kate found she didn’t really care. After everything she’d been through over the past week, she was in no mood for anyone’s crap, including Laura’s.
“Are you going alone?” Laura asked.
“No, Julie took your ticket.”
“I can’t believe you’re going without me.”
“I was disappointed, but I didn’t want to use a fancy trip like a bribe. I want to spend time with you, but I won’t manipulate you like that.” It was the truth, and it was time she leveled with Laura. “I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time with your dad. Where are you staying?”
“No place as nice as you.”
And isn’t that too freaking bad, Kate thought.
Laura was trying to find words to make the situation Kate’s fault, but she seemed to realize she had no argument. She was angry because she’d let herself be manipulated by her father and her future stepmother. Poor Laura was a mass of selfish confusion. She wanted all the things her mother brought to the family, but she didn’t want her mother. Was she realizing her father was only a marginally successful academic who couldn’t support them? Interesting. Being with Richard and Marie so much, Laura was absorbing their self-centered, materialistic values, and it upset Kate that her daughter was so easily manipulated by money. Kate could have called the airline and gotten Laura a ticket, upgraded their room, and never missed the money. She could have stolen Laura right out from under Richard and Marie, but she wouldn’t play those games. Laura finally seemed to understand.
After a protracted silence, and no apology from Kate, her incensed seventeen-year-old stormed out and slammed her bedroom door.
Score one for the grown-up.
*
After what felt like an endless day, Laura sat with her father and Marie in the lawyer’s office. They were leaving for the Bahamas the next day and Dad said they had to get the meeting done before they left, so she was missing three tests to sit here and feed this guy information. He was shooting questions at her about her mother and taking notes on a large yellow pad. It didn’t seem like she mattered at all, but Laura put up with it because once the hearing was over she would be with her dad full time and maybe he would stop talking to her about Mom. It was like he was obsessed that Laura like him better. Maybe if she lived with him full time, he’d believe she loved him.
The lawyer asked questions about what her mom did, who she saw, and how often she went out. The truth was, Laura didn’t know too much about her mother’s life because it was never important to her. Lately, the only thing she did know about was the trip she was taking with Julie to the Caribbean. They left this morning and were going to this awesome spa—a trip she should be on, but stupidly she blew off Mom for the Bahamas.
Mom always made dinner when she was there. She worked at night in her office. Her only friends were people from the school. That was about it.
“Oh, and there’s some guy who’s interested in her.”
That got her dad’s attention. “A man?”
“Yeah.” She looked toward her dad. “I heard her and Julie talking about him. But I don’t know if anything is going on. It may actually be over. I haven’t met him or anything.”
Marie looked at Richard and then the attorney. He nodded, knowing what they wanted him to do. “I’ll have the detective look into it.”
“Detective?” Laura asked. “You’re going to spy on Mom?”
Marie smiled and shrugged. “How do you think we know so much about her? You can only tell us so much, and we need this information to protect you, dearest.”
Her father leaned in and patted her shoulder. “I want to know who your mother is with to keep you safe. God knows who she’s cavorting with.”
Her relationship with her mom was far from perfect, but Laura doubted Mom would be with anyone dangerous. She hated all this legal shit. She just wanted a normal family, and at this point Dad and Marie were as close as she was going to get. God, that was pathetic.
Her phone buzzed and she glanced to the screen. It was a text from Jack. He wanted to see her that night, but she didn’t know if she would be able to get out. They were going to be packing and her dad would be around… it probably wouldn’t work. She really wanted to see him though. They’d been out twice and Laura really liked him. Based on the way he kissed her, she guessed he liked her, too.
“John, make sure the financials are part of the custody petition.” Laura snapped back to the conversation when she heard Marie’s voice.
“Financials?” Why were they talking about money? This was about custody.
“Sweetheart,” Marie said, “Any custody suit brings with it monetary issues. Your mother will have to pay us.”
“Whoa. You’re going to be paid to have me live with you?”
Her father was growing impatient and he shot Marie an annoyed look. “Laura, it’s money to support you. Your mother has it, so she’ll have to give it to us for you.” Her dad leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Try not to let it worry you. All you’ll have to do is tell the judge where you want to live. The rest will take care of itself.”
She slouched in her chair and kept quiet for the rest of the meeting. Even though the discussion centered around her and where she would live, Laura knew it wasn’t about her at all.
