The Mistaken Heiress

by Shelba Shelton Nivens

  “I bet I would, too, son.” He shot Kate an intense look.

  She pushed back her chair. “If all of you are finished, I’ll clear the table. Maybe you have a table game we can play after we fill the dishwasher.” She looked from one child to the other.

  “I do, I do.” Paul Jr. jumped to his feet, the bare drumstick in his hand. He gave it one more nibble and laid it on his plate. “I’ll get it.”

  “I have a really good one,” Lisa said. “Let’s play mine first. I helped cook dinner.”

  Their dad cleared his throat. “I thought you two might want to watch a movie while Katerina and I talk in my office.”

  Kate grinned at him. “What’s the matter? You afraid we’ll beat you?”

  Lisa gave him a coy look. “Yeah, Daddy, are you afraid we’ll beat you? I’ve never seen you play a game.”

  “I can play games.”

  “Come on, Dad,” his son coaxed. “Let’s show these girls we can beat ’em.”

  Paul laughed and picked up his plate. “Okay. Let’s help Kate clear the table first.”

  * * *

  Kate managed to almost put Steve out of her mind while she laughed and played with Paul and his kids.

  About ten o’clock Paul pushed back his chair. “It’s bedtime, kids. Put the game up and tell Katerina good-night.”

  Paul Jr. gave his father a pleading look. “Aw, Dad, just as we were getting good.”

  “Just one more game?” Lisa begged. “We don’t have school tomorrow.”

  “But Katerina and I have work.”

  “Ooo-kay.” They spoke in unison as they began gathering up game pieces. Each gave Kate a quick hug and dragged toward the stairs.

  Before the kids disappeared around the upstairs landing, Paul Jr. called back, “Hey, Dad, I bet we’ll beat ’em next time.”

  Grinning, Paul slipped an arm around Kate’s shoulders. “Let’s sit by the fire and relax with something to drink.”

  She took his hand away. “I’d better get home.”

  As she lifted her jacket from the rack by his office door, he took it from her, then leaned over and kissed her neck.

  She stiffened. He spoke close to her ear. “The kids love you, Katerina. You look right standing at my stove.”

  She gave a shaky laugh. “Are you suggesting I become your cook instead of your legal assistant?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  She faced him. “I’m much too tired, physically and emotionally, to deal with anything more tonight, Paul.”

  “I want to help you deal with it, Katerina.”

  “You’re grateful to me for helping with your kids. And for helping out in your office. That’s all.”

  She reached for her jacket, and he held it for her to slip into. She pulled a scarf from a pocket and tied it around her hair.

  “You’re covering that beautiful head.”

  “My ears get cold. I think I’ll grow my hair out again. I’m beginning to miss it.”

  He touched her cheek. “I like the new Katerina.”

  “I’m not new. I’m the same person. I just look different.” She turned toward the door.

  “I can see about contesting the will.”

  “No. If this is what Grandpa wanted...”

  “People often have ministrokes before having major ones. Your grandfather’s mind may have been impaired by one when he made the will. Are you familiar with the people who witnessed it? You said they were your grandfather’s old army buddies.”

  “Mr. Bennett lived in Birmingham. The other one lived somewhere out of state.”

  “I should be able to locate Bennett and see what he has to say.” He touched her arm. “For now, put it out of your mind while I work on it. How about a New Year’s Eve party Thursday night? A lawyer friend invited me, said bring someone.”

  New Year’s Eve? I wonder what Steve... She shook her head. “Thanks. But I...already have an invitation for a New Year’s Eve party.”

  She didn’t tell him it was at the church and she didn’t plan to go. And she no longer had hopes of Steve asking her out.

  Chapter 18

  Steve threw another log on the fire and sat down in the rocking chair. Here it was New Year’s Eve and he sat all alone brooding, watching sparks fly up the chimney. He had tried to call Kate several times since he’d come back from Christmas in Georgia with his family. But she never answered the phone or the messages he left.

  Was she angry with him or just tired of his company? Maybe she’d learned about the will and given up on taking the land. Or maybe she was out with another man. Her aunt had said she was having dinner with friends when he’d called Sunday evening.

  I don’t like football and I don’t have a boyfriend, she’d told him the day she’d burst in on him at his campsite. But she could have met someone since then.

  Stop fretting about it, Steve. You don’t have a claim on her just because you have her house.

  But suppose she’s sick...

  He’d try calling one more time, and if he didn’t get her this time, he’d go over to the house.

  She answered on the first ring.

  “Katie! I’m glad I caught you. You haven’t returned my calls.”

  “I’ve been sort of—tied up.”

  “Tied up?”

  “Yeah. You know, with—things. Not the same kind of things you have. Not with—the same kind of people.”

  People? Had she learned what he did for a living? “Katie...?”

  “I’ll be really busy for a while, Steve. Classes start back next week. I guess I won’t be dropping in on you anymore when you’re—busy.”

  “I’m never too busy for you, Katie. As a matter of fact, I thought—if you’re not busy tonight...”

  “I am busy. I had an invitation to a party at an attorney’s house.”

  “I see.” A picture of the slick-talking Paul Boyer popped into his head. Was she going out with her boss? He’d heard the man was divorced.

  “Do you think we might get together before you return to school?”

  “I’m leaving this weekend and I have a lot to do to get ready. So this is goodbye, Steve. I hope things work out well for you and...” He thought he heard a catch in her voice as she broke the connection.

  And her goodbye sounded so final.

  He’d thought they were becoming friends. Maybe a little more than friends. At least learning to get along. He thought he was getting to know her well. Now he felt he didn’t know her at all. What had happened with her while he was away those few days?

  He backtracked in his mind to the last time they were together. It was the night they decorated the tree and went to Vulcan. They’d had such a good time together. Or at least, he thought she had, too. She had avoided his good-night kiss when he’d opened the car door for her, but she hadn’t appeared angry.

  He placed the phone on the table beside the rocking chair and sat frowning into the fire. What did she mean by his being tied up? What—or who—did she think he’d been tied up with? What had she started to say but hadn’t finished?

  He shook his head and stood. Would he ever figure her out? Would he ever get a chance to try, with her avoiding him?

  Looks like I may as well take down the tree. From the sound of things, all the needles would die and fall off before she came again.

  * * *

  Kate taped the last box shut and glanced around the tiny apartment. “And thus closes another sad chapter of my life. I hope the next one is better than the last one.”

  She picked up the box and trudged down the stairs.

  A couple she had seen around the dorm swung through the front door of the building. The girl stepped aside while the guy held the door open for Kate. “Need some help?”
r />   “Thanks. This is the last one.”

  As the door closed between them, she heard the girl call, “Race you up the stairs.”

  Kate stood on the little porch, holding the box, listening to their footsteps pound up the inside steps and their laughter float back down. Would she ever have such a carefree and happy relationship?

  She couldn’t imagine ever being as happy again as she’d been the night she and Steve had stood together under the stars at Vulcan Park. And ate hot dogs while sitting cozily in his pickup atop Red Mountain.

  How quickly that bubble had burst.

  Sighing, she hefted the box onto her hip, then trudged across the icy ground toward her car.

  When she reached her aunt’s house, her mother’s car was sitting in the driveway. “Is that you, Kate?” Her mother walked out of the kitchen and followed her into the bedroom.

  “I brought you this.” She handed Kate a folded paper.

  Kate sat on the bed and unfolded it. A deed!

  It was signed by her mother and uncles.

  “Thank you, Mother, but I won’t need it. I’ll not be playing in the dirt anymore. I’m not going back to school.” She held the document out to her.

  Her mother drew back and glared at her. “Not going back! You’re telling me you’re going to waste all the time and money you spent there the past three and a half years?”

  “It won’t all be wasted. I can still use the things I learned in business classes. That’s what you suggested, isn’t it?”

  Her mother nodded and sat down beside Kate. “That seems best to me. Find out what else you need to take to get a business degree. You can transfer to the University of Alabama instead of going back to that cow college.”

  “Mother! It’s a good school. It...” She stopped. Lord, give me patience.

  She tried again. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do. And I’m sorry I was so rude to you. But I don’t want the land this way.” Especially since Grandpa didn’t care enough to leave me part of it. She dropped the deed onto the bed between them.

  “Kate, don’t be difficult. It’s already done.” She picked up the deed and pressed it into Kate’s hand. “I insist you take this and then get yourself to the University of Alabama first thing Monday morning and see if you can salvage some of the time you’ve wasted down there.”

  Kate watched her mother flounce from the room and slam the door behind her.

  “I don’t want a business degree, Mother. I’m not transferring to the University of Alabama.”

  She glanced at the paper in her hand. Maybe she would keep the deed and sell the little plot of land like her mother had sold the rest.

  Then, after Jane had her baby and got back to work, Kate could use the money to go off someplace and work with her art for a while.

  * * *

  Jane’s baby was born at the end of January. Kate agreed to work every day until Jane’s doctor allowed her to return to the office.

  Driving past Steve’s driveway on those cold winter evenings, her eyes searched out his lights through bare tree limbs in the gray evening stillness. Oftentimes, she detected a swirl of dark smoke above the trees. But she resisted the urge to drive down the hill and join him at his fireside.

  Occasionally, she accepted Paul’s offer to dinner at a nice restaurant. Quite often she picked up food at the grocery store on the way to his house, where she and Lisa cooked a meal together. Sometimes she, Paul and the kids played a game after dinner. At other times, she helped Pauley or Lisa with homework while their father worked on legal documents in his study. But as soon as Paul sent the kids off to bed, she insisted she had to leave.

  He didn’t try to talk her into staying longer and made no more inappropriate suggestions. At the office, he behaved professionally.

  But each time she left his house, or he left her at her front door, he took her arm, leaned over and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. Kate allowed this and came to expect it. But she didn’t invite more.

  Then, on Thursday morning, before Jane was due back in the office the following Monday, he walked into the outer office while Kate was proofing a report she had printed. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream is playing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival this week. Do you think you might like to go see it tonight?”

  “Tonight?” Kate’s hand went instinctively to her hair. “In Montgomery?”

  “We can close the office this afternoon. Your hair looks fine.”

  Kate studied his face as he waited for her answer. She had seen the lighthearted comedy as a college sophomore and would love to see it again. But could she trust Paul to keep his distance with her? Did he have another motive for asking her? She decided to take the risk. After all, he wasn’t leading her on like some people. She shook her head to clear the thought. When would she get over Steve?

  Chapter 19

  Green silk swished about Kate’s nylon-clad legs as she walked briskly from the ladies’ room and across the theater lobby. She paused to glance around her. By which door had Paul said to meet him?

  Stopping abruptly, she turned to look behind her—and bumped into a broad masculine chest clad in a white shirt and dark coat.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I...” She looked up and gasped. There, staring down at her, was a pair of startling blue eyes above a neatly trimmed beard. “Steve?”

  The eyes widened. “Katie?” The man clasped her arm. “It is you. Your hair...”

  Steve, in a tuxedo. Looking so handsome she thought her heart would melt. Or pound right out of her chest. She willed her legs to regain their strength.

  She attempted a cool smile. “Oh, yes, I forgot you haven’t seen my haircut.” She tilted her chin and touched her hair, which now curled around her cheeks and neck. “It has grown out some.”

  “Grown out? It was shorter? You cut it all off?”

  “Oh, yes. It was quite short.” Proud she was able to appear so calm on the outside while being so flustered on the inside, she offered him another smile and attempted to pull her arm from his grasp. “It’s good to see you, Steve, but someone is waiting for me.”

  “Oh? Who?” He glanced round them. “Where...?”

  “I have to go.”

  “Wait.” He released her arm and grabbed her hand. “Come meet someone.”

  She held back. “No. I...”

  “It will only take a minute.” He pulled her with him, threading a way for them through people milling about the lobby.

  He led her to the spot where two women and a man stood together. “Folks, this is Katie.”

  “Kate, it’s so good to finally meet you.” The woman from the woods hugged her, a broad smile lighting her face.

  Baffled, Kate looked from the woman to Steve.

  Steve opened his mouth to speak, but the woman laughed and spoke first. “I’ve heard so much about you I feel like I know you. I’m Elizabeth.”

  Elizabeth. So his wife’s name was Elizabeth?

  Steve was grinning from ear to ear. “Didn’t I tell you she was something? But the hair...”

  Kate caught her bottom lip between her teeth. She reached up and touched her hair. Had her wild mane been some kind of joke with him?

  Elizabeth touched her arm. “Don’t let his teasing bother you, Kate.”

  Chuckling, he turned to the man and woman standing beside Elizabeth. “Katie, this is Melissa Willis and Fred.”

  The two smiled and extended hands for Kate to take.

  Flustered, Kate shook hands with the couple. Was Steve Adams a born flirt and she had never before realized it? Or had he just been trying to soften her up with all his attentions in order to divert her attention from attempts to take back her family’s land? Either way, it was evident he had been talking to his wife about her. She wondered if he’d told Elizabeth he’d kissed
her.

  “Don’t you think so, Kate?”

  At the sound of her name, Kate blinked her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear the confusion in her brain. “Oh, uh, I’m sorry. I guess I...”

  “There you are, Katerina. I thought I had lost you.”

  Kate glanced round as a hand touched her shoulder. “Paul!” She glanced at the others.

  Steve’s eyes narrowed. The smile left his face.

  “Th-this is my bo...” She stopped and steadied her voice. “This is Paul Boyer. Mr. Boyer, this is Stephen Adams and his... Elizabeth. And Fred and...Melissa?”

  Melissa nodded.

  Paul reached out to shake hands with Steve. “Adams, I...”

  “Excuse me.” Kate laid a hand on Paul’s arm. “I think it’s time to go back to our seats.” She brushed between Paul and Steve and headed across the lobby.

  “Katerina.” Paul caught her arm. “Slow down. You’re going the wrong way.”

  * * *

  Steve watched Kate move away from him with Paul Boyer holding her arm. So, she was going out with him. That’s what had been keeping her busy. And he’d thought she was away at school.

  “Is that someone special?” Melissa asked. “Or should I ask?”

  “Only the love of Steve’s life,” Fred said.

  Steve was still watching Kate’s bright head disappear among the crowd.

  “Don’t tease him, Fred.” Elizabeth took Steve’s arm. “Come on, Stevie. Let’s go finish watching the play.”

  * * *

  Kate settled into her seat and took a deep breath as the curtain went up. So far, the performance had been lighthearted and fun. Now the drama onstage seemed dull compared to the real-life drama out in the lobby.

  She wondered where they were sitting, and glanced around the theater. But it was too dark to see much.

  Turning back toward the stage, she found Paul looking at her.

  “They’re across the aisle, two rows up,” he whispered, leaning his head close to hers.

  Kate felt herself blush. “Who? I wasn’t...”