She fled, leaving Ellen staring after her, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
Outside, Kate muttered a curse over the lack of a car, then decided it was just as well. Maybe on the walk back to Century City the solitude and exercise would clear her head. She knew that she had hurt Ellen, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself. All of the pain of feeling like an outsider had boiled over under her sister’s attempt at kindness.
Kate didn’t want Ellen’s pity. She didn’t want anyone’s pity. She just wanted a family of her own again. Knowing that Ellen might have subconsciously felt that way for years only made the anguish greater.
When she stormed back into the office, not one bit calmer than she had been when she’d left the restaurant, Zelda was on the phone. She quickly hung up and followed Kate into her office.
“I hope you’re satisfied,” Zelda said, staring at her indignantly. “That was your sister. You left her in tears.”
Kate regarded Zelda coldly. “My personal life is none of your concern.”
Her secretary’s eyes widened at the sharply spoken reminder, but at least she clamped her mouth shut, whirled and walked out.
Terrific, Kate thought. Now Zelda was mad at her, too. How many people could she manage to alienate in one day? And what else could possibly go wrong? When her phone buzzed, she snatched it up and growled a greeting.
“Uh-oh,” David said. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
She drew in a deep breath. She was disgustingly glad to hear his voice, even though she should be furious with him. He’d promised to call the week before about arranging that studio tour for Davey. He hadn’t. Even so, she wasn’t up to challenging him about it right now.
“Sorry,” she said wearily. “It’s been a bad day.”
“Tough case?” he inquired sympathetically.
Kate almost laughed. If she told him the real reason for her foul mood, he’d question whether she had any business at all setting up rules and regulations for anyone’s family life.
“No,” she responded finally. “Just a family matter.”
“No problem with the honeymoon couple, I hope.”
“No. They’re fine as far as I know. Look, I really don’t want to talk about this,” she said dismissively. “Did you have a reason for calling?”
“I did, but it seems my timing’s a little off. I was hoping to lure you out to the studio. My schedule’s pretty jammed up. That’s why I haven’t gotten back to you before now. I was thinking maybe tomorrow or the next day. Davey’s been bugging me ever since we left your house. Frankly, I think he’s more anxious to see you again than he is to see my sets. I had to promise to call you today. I figured if I didn’t, he’d have you filing more papers.”
Kate chafed at the dutiful note in his voice. He sounded harassed. When he added, “If you can’t make it, I’ll understand,” she knew he wouldn’t just understand, he’d be grateful for the cop-out.
“Ah, but will Davey?” Kate said wryly.
Even though David sounded as if he’d be just as happy if she turned him down, Kate couldn’t help the anticipation that swept through her. She glanced at her calendar. Both days were crammed with appointments. However, she considered Davey’s case a priority. At least, that’s what she told herself when she said, “I think I can clear Wednesday afternoon if we make it late.”
She heard the pages of his appointment book flip.
“How late?” he asked.
“Four-thirty. I know that’ll put us smack in the middle of rush hour when we finish up, but I don’t think I can get out to the valley before then.”
“I guess that would work,” he said slowly. After another beat, he added, “We could have dinner afterward, so you won’t have to worry about the traffic heading home.”
Kate caught the slight hesitation in his voice, the evident strain. Clearly he had mixed feelings about this entire invitation. She wondered if he would send Davey back home alone the minute he’d seen the sets if she didn’t intervene and agree to prolong the evening by joining them for dinner.
To be perfectly truthful, though, she wanted to accept for her own sake, as much as Davey’s. The lure of those feelings of contentment she’d experienced over the weekend was too powerful to resist. Especially today, she longed to feel that kind of connection to another human being again.
“Dinner would be great,” she said. “Now tell me which studio and soundstage. Should I pick up Davey on the way?”
“If you don’t mind, that would really help me out,” he said, then gave her directions. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“Me, too,” Kate said, realizing as she hung up just how much.
Trying to substitute Davey and David for the family she felt she’d lost was a very bad idea, especially since David clearly had misgivings about a simple tour of his set and dinner. She recognized the dangers with every fiber of her being. And yet, at this moment, the prospect of seeing the two of them again definitely brightened an otherwise dreary, depressing day.
* * *
From the moment they walked through the door of the huge soundstage on the lot in Burbank late on Wednesday, Kate felt as if she’d wandered into another world. Beside her, Davey’s eyes were wide with awe. David, regarding everything with a critical possessive eye, looked as if he was perfectly at home.
“Wow!” Davey said. “Dad, this is totally hot.”
That pretty much summed up Kate’s own reaction to a landscape so barren, so otherworldly that she expected to be greeted by an alien at any second. “Definitely hot,” she echoed.
David glanced at Kate, a smile tugging at his lips. “Do you suppose that means cool?”
“Or awesome,” Kate responded.
“I wish they’d hand out translations of current slang at PTA meetings.”
“Just go by the look in his eyes,” she suggested. “Can’t you see how impressed he is by all this?”
David’s gaze clashed with hers and sent a little frisson of awareness tripping through her. “And you?”
“I’m a little awed myself,” she admitted. “And a little worried. Are you sure you’re of this world? You make this look very real, as if you might have been to this place on your last vacation.”
“Just research and imagination, I’m afraid.” He held out his hand. Kate took it. “Let’s go take a look at the spacecraft. I had a field day with all the gadgetry. Even wrangled a trip to NASA headquarters to see what’s actually in use in our current spacecraft. There’s nothing in here that’s beyond the range of scientific possibility.”
As Davey raced on ahead of them, David called out, “Careful of the wires.”
The floor was crisscrossed with cables, and the air was filled with the sounds of hammering and shouts as construction crews put the finishing touches on the sets inside the cavernous soundstage. Technicians were running checks on the hot spotlights, creating pools of glaring light.
Despite the unfamiliar surroundings, with her hand clasped firmly in David’s, Kate felt the same tantalizing sense of belonging again. She was able to shove her worries aside, at least for a time. Perhaps there was something to be said for living in a fantasy world, even one as alien as the one David had created.
As they stepped through the doorway into a shiny, metallic room filled with blinking lights and an intimidating array of controls and levers, she suddenly wished they could launch this stage prop into another dimension where the demands of the real world no longer had a hold over any of them.
David tugged the door closed behind them, and for just an instant, Kate thought her wish might be granted. Then she saw how soberly he was regarding them.
“Now, look, you two,” he warned. “I want to remind you that everything you’re seeing today is top secret, okay? The producer wants all of this to make a big splash a few weeks from now when production begins. No leaks.”
“I promise, Dad,” Davey said solemnly. “Can I push these buttons?”
“Go for it,” Da
vid agreed with a laugh.
Suddenly they were inundated with shrieking buzzers and clanging bells. The strobe lights flashed with blinding intensity. The noisier and brighter it got, the happier Davey looked.
“It’s like being inside a computer game,” he announced excitedly.
“Just wait until you see the special effects,” David told him. “The man doing them is the best in the business.” He watched as Davey touched every surface, fingered every button, then asked, “Think your pals will like it when they see it on-screen?”
Though his tone was casual, Kate detected a hint of insecurity in his eyes. Whether he was willing to admit it or not, he wanted Davey’s approval every bit as much as Davey sought his. Her heart ached over the distance between them, an emotional gap that never should have happened between father and son.
Just as it never should have happened between sisters, she thought sadly.
“They’ll love it,” Davey declared. “Do you think someday I could maybe bring them here?”
“After we’ve finished shooting the movie,” David suggested. “How’s that?” He glanced at Kate and seemed to reach a decision of some sort. “You’ll have a birthday around that time. Maybe we could have the party here.”
Davey could barely contain his excitement. “You promise?”
After an instant of unmistakable uncertainty, David rested his hand on his son’s shoulder. “That’s a definite promise.”
As Davey went exploring again, Kate studied David intently, marveling at his change in mood since they’d talked on the phone on Monday. Then, he’d seemed almost reluctant to see her again, so much so that she’d been certain he’d had second thoughts.
Apparently he caught her scrutiny and somehow guessed the cause. “Kate, I’m sorry about the other day.”
“Oh?” she said, not wanting to give any hint that she was even aware of the distance in his voice when they’d talked.
“Things were crazy around here. I couldn’t see how I could fit this in at all, but Davey was bugging me.” He gazed at her. “I shouldn’t have called when I was feeling pressured. I’m sure it sounded as if this were the last thing in the world I wanted to do.”
“You didn’t sound overly enthusiastic,” she admitted.
“I’m sorry. I just want you to know it didn’t have anything to do with you or the things I said at the beach. Forgiven?”
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
His gaze locked with hers. “You sure?”
She smiled slowly. “I’m sure.”
He grinned. “Terrific. Now how about some dinner? I promised you food, and you look as if you’re faint with hunger.”
“It’s not that bad,” she responded with a laugh, suddenly feeling more carefree than she had in days. “But I did miss lunch so I could take off early this afternoon.”
“So what appeals to you when you’re starving? Italian? Steak? Seafood? Mexican?”
“Hamburgers,” Davey chimed in as he joined them.
“Hey, this is Kate’s choice, remember?”
Davey’s face fell. Then he glanced at her slyly. “I’ll bet she likes hamburgers, too.”
“Actually, I do,” she confessed. “How about Hamburger Hamlet?”
David shook his head. “And I was prepared to pop for something outrageously expensive.”
She grinned at him. “I’ll hold you to that another time. Right now this sounds like heaven.”
“Okay, then. The one on Beverly Boulevard?”
“Perfect. It’s right on the way home.”
Davey tucked himself into her side. “Can I ride back with you, too?”
“Actually, I’d like to hitch a ride, too,” David said, his expression all innocence, his mood once more bordering on that wicked, flirtatious tone of their weekend at the beach. “I had one of the assistants drop me off here this afternoon.”
Kate’s eyebrows rose. “And what would you have done if I’d had to take off and left you stranded?”
He grinned back at her. “There’s always Mrs. Larsen. Or Dorothy.”
“Mrs. Larsen hates to drive all the way out here, Dad,” Davey reminded him. “She gets real nervous on the freeways, and she gets lost on the other roads.”
“True, but she’d do it in an emergency.”
Kate chuckled. “And you consider the failure of a sneaky attempt to hitch a ride in my car an emergency?”
“No, but I would probably suffer irreversible psychological damage if you’d ducked out and left me, and that would be an emergency. Besides, you agreed to dinner and I doubt you go back on your promises.”
Kate caught the subtle message and gave him a wry look. There was a decidedly wicked twinkle in his eyes as he gazed back at her. Whatever reservations he’d had about this outing had clearly been shoved aside.
“You’re a fraud,” she accused as she led the way past row after row of huge, tan soundstages to her car. “You’ve been angling to get behind the wheel of my car from the minute you saw it in the driveway up in Malibu. Admit it.”
His expression brightened at once in a way that reminded her of Davey. “You’ll let me drive?”
“By all means,” she said, handing him the keys. “You won’t see any evidence of its power and speed in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but enjoy yourself. Davey and I will squeeze into the passenger seat.”
“You do realize, then, how ludicrous and impractical a car like this is in Los Angeles?” he said as he smoothed a hand over the bright red finish. “I don’t think anyone’s been able to drive over twenty on the freeway in years.”
“It’s not quite that bad, but what about your car? I suppose you consider that tank practical?” she countered. “When was the last time you needed four-wheel drive to get to the office?”
He laughed. “Touché.”
They continued to battle wits over dinner. By dessert Kate had almost forgotten the lousy way the week had started. She even pushed to the back of her mind the guilt that had been nagging at her ever since she’d walked out on Ellen. She needed time to get used to the idea that Ellen understood firsthand what Kate was going through now. She hoped an end to the estrangement was in sight. She would find some way to make it happen—to apologize to her sister.
By the time she dropped her companions off at David’s office, her spirits were higher than they had been since their weekend in Malibu. And she was increasingly confident that Davey and David were beginning to rebuild their old rapport. Life, she decided, was not half-bad. She hummed happily all the way home.
Then she opened the door to her apartment and discovered her mother and Brandon in her living room. Though they both looked tanned and relaxed, they did not seem like the ecstatic couple she’d been hearing from for weeks now. And judging from the concerned looks they instantly shot her way, their unhappiness was directly related to her. For an instant she almost regretted having given a spare key to her mother.
When she caught the distinctive scent of raspberry tea, she knew things were serious. That’s what her mother always brewed especially for Kate…and only in emergencies.
Chapter Ten
So much for that exhilarating mood she’d been in when she’d left David, Kate thought regretfully. She stifled a groan and plastered a welcoming smile on her face instead.
“Hello, Mother,” she said, dropping a kiss on her mother’s cheek. “Brandon. You look terrific, but what on earth are you two doing here? Last I heard you were headed for Florence or Paris or someplace.”
Brandon shrugged, his sharp gaze studying her intently. Kate detected no anger in the look, just worry.
“Your mother seemed to feel we were needed here,” he explained.
“But why?” Kate asked guiltily. “We just talked, a little over a week ago. Everything’s fine here.”
“No, it is not,” her mother said. Those blue eyes of hers sparked indignantly. “You and Ellen are on the outs, and I want to know why.”
Kate regarded her with dismay. “
She called and told you that? Why would she deliberately set out to ruin your honeymoon?”
“She didn’t deliberately set out to do anything. I called. She was upset. Penny got on the phone and with some urging on my part, she finally explained why. I had no idea you and Ellen were quarreling, and over my marriage of all things.”
Kate poured herself a stiff drink, then glanced at them. “Want one?”
Brandon shook his head and looked at her mother. “Lizzy?”
“No,” she said impatiently. “I want to know what is going on between my daughters.”
When Kate remained stonily silent, Brandon stood up and walked over to where she was staring out the window, her back to the room. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked them away, praying he wouldn’t see them. As much as she wanted to dislike Brandon Halloran, it seemed he wasn’t going to let her.
“Kate, you know I’d do anything in the world to make your mother happy, but this is one thing I can’t do. You’re the only one who can tell her what’s wrong and what we can do to help. I hope you will,” he said so gently and with such genuine compassion that Kate felt like a spoiled brat for hurting them. How had she allowed things to get so out of hand? Had she secretly wanted her mother to come home as proof she still cared? Lord, she hoped she wasn’t that selfish.
She sensed that Brandon had gone back to her mother’s side, heard a low murmur of conversation and then the sound of her front door closing.
“Darling,” her mother said quietly.
Kate turned and saw the look of anguish on her mother’s face. She saw something else as well: understanding.
“Darling, I know you’re feeling left out,” she said, proving that with a mother’s intuition she had guessed what was at the root of Kate’s uncharacteristic behavior. It also explained why she had turned up here, rather than at Ellen’s. “What can I do to show you that you are still very much a part of my life and of this family?”
Tears spilled freely down Kate’s cheeks. “Look, I know this is ridiculous,” she said, brushing irritably at the tears. “I’m a grown woman. I shouldn’t be so hung up on things staying the way they always were.”
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