“Jason, listen to me,” Kate began.
“My granddaddy didn’t kill Waneath,” he wailed.
“He told your father it was an accident, and maybe it was, but that’s for the sheriff and the courts to decide.”
“He’s sick, he’s been having spells, he didn’t know what he was doing!” Jason cried.
“The autopsy goes to the sheriff,” Kate said. “And he’s going to want to talk to your grandfather.” She avoided David’s eyes. “As for me, I’m going home to Atlanta. I’ve done what you hired me for, David. And I’ve had enough Southern Gothic to last a lifetime.” She walked away. David followed her.
“Kate, Kate, please wait. Listen to me.”
Kate raised her hands. “You did it to me again, didn’t you?” she said, and punched the down button on the elevator savagely. “I thought we were on the way to becoming a team again. You chose not to let me share your problems in New York. You’re doing the same thing now. I can’t live with a man who shuts me out, David, and I can’t go on loving one either.” The elevator doors opened. “I’ll recommend a lawyer for Dub. Arnold can clear up things here. Have a really great Christmas.” The doors closed and she was gone. The three of them, Jason, Arnold and David, stared after her.
“Dad?” Jason put a hand on his father’s shoulder. “You can’t let them arrest Granddaddy. I don’t care what he did. He’s an old man. You’ve got to stop her.”
“I can’t.” He sighed. “Besides, she’s right. That’s exactly what I’m doing—locking her out, locking you and everybody else out.” He leaned against the wall beside the elevator. “Trying to keep everything smooth on the surface for everyone else, fighting everybody’s battles alone. Keeping my own counsel.”
“That’s what men are supposed to do,” Jason said.
David stared at him. “Is that what I’ve taught you?”
“Yeah. I mean, we’re supposed to take the heat, aren’t we? Not let anybody see how we feel about things? Suck it up and keep going. That’s what you always do. ’Cause when you let people see into you, you get creamed.”
David shut his eyes. “Then I’ve made you into a coward,” he said softly.
“A coward? Hell, no, Dad, I respect you. You’re the bravest man I know.”
“No, I’m a coward. So afraid of letting even the people I love most in this life see me vulnerable, see me needing help, support, love. That’s what it’s all about, Jason—not being strong and silent and locking everyone outside for fear if they see the real you they’ll run away and leave you. I’ve done that all my life. My father did it, and if you’re not careful, you’ll do the same thing. It lost me the woman I love once, son, and I’m damned if it’ll lose her for me again.”
“Dad?” Jason looked at his father uncertainly, as though seeing him for the first time. “Dad, you’re scaring me.”
“Good. That’s what growing up is about. I watched my mother damn near destroy my father the moment he let his guard down, and I swore I’d never ever let mine down in front of anyone. I’m scared too, Jason. Scared and so damn lonely for Kate that I’m sick with it. I’m not going to let her go, and if that means walking away from Long Pond, from Dub, and even from you for a little while, then that’s what I’m going to do. It’s all on your shoulders, son. I know you’re strong enough to handle things without me.” He turned to Arnold. “You mind staying here with Jason? I’ve got to find Kate.”
“Go. You two are crazy enough to deserve each other.”
David hugged his son, and when the elevator doors behind him slid open, smiled at the boy as he slid from view.
KATE PULLED ON her gloves as she walked into the parking garage of the hospital.
She’d drop the autopsy report by the sheriffs office, pick up the rental car at the motel and drive straight through to Atlanta. Arnold could bring her clothes.
She and Alec might not have been the world’s greatest lovers, but at least they’d been a team. Alec had shared his problems as well as his triumphs with her. She could no longer accept anything less, especially from the man she loved.
She caught her reflection in the side mirror as she unlocked the car. Her hair was wild and her face looked flushed.
Suddenly, the strength left her legs. She wrenched the door open and sank onto the seat.
Talk about repeating old habits! She’d accused David of doing the same thing he’d done twenty years ago. What was she doing except re-creating her same knee-jerk reaction? Had she given him a chance to explain? To justify his choices? Even to tell her how long he’d known about Dub?
No, she’d simply gotten on her high horse and run screaming from the room, just as she planned to run back to Atlanta with her tail between her legs. From the only man she had ever, would ever love.
A small voice from within her spoke then, “And from a man who truly loves you.” Oooh, boy. Talk about responsibility. Talk about scary. Talk about vulnerability.
And what about acceptance?
Yeah, she thought, let’s talk about acceptance. Was that why she ran? Made a mountain out of a molehill? So she wouldn’t have to face the realities of loving him?
Did she love him only when he was strong and perfect and doing precisely the right things? The right things, that is, according to the gospel of Kate. Making the choices she would make? When he lived up to her idea of perfect hero?
Is that the way he loved her?
Or do I love him when he screws up big time? Does he love me when I do?
Damn straight. “Get up off your rear end, Kate Mulholland, and go back upstairs,” she said.
As she stood, David came pelting down the ramp toward her.
She froze.
“Damnation, you’re not leaving before we straighten this out.”
“I’m not leaving, period,” she said.
“What?” He frowned.
She shut the car door and leaned against it.
“I just found out today that if Dub dies I inherit Long Pond,” David said.
Kate blinked. This was not the way she’d envisioned the conversation.
He continued, “You want me to hire another lawyer, fine. But if I have to hog-tie you and keep you a prisoner until this mess is cleared up, I’ll damn well do it, and after that I’ll walk away from Long Pond and go wherever you want to go and do whatever you want to do. I’m not losing you again, and if you don’t like it, or like the fact that you don’t always agree with what I decide, you’ll have to adjust. Do I make myself clear?” His chest heaved.
“I thought Long Pond meant everything to you,” she said with more truculence than she felt. Inside, her heart began to lift.
“So did I. I love running the place, but I love you considerably more. If I have to go back to school and learn to be a landscape gardener or a computer programmer, then that’s what I’ll do, but I will not give you up and I won’t let you give me up.”
“And Jason?”
“He’s very close to being a grown man and out on his own living his own life. If Dub has to go to jail, I don’t know how I’ll manage to fulfill my other obligations, but if I have to commute from Atlanta, I will.” He stared at her. “Well, say something, dammit!”
An elderly couple walked up the ramp past them and eyed them suspiciously. For a moment she thought the man would ask if she needed help, but his wife whispered something to him and dragged him along.
“Yes, David,” she said meekly.
He gaped at her. “What?”
“I’m sorry I yelled at you and walked out”
He eyed her suspiciously. “This isn’t like you.”
“Being loved is a darned sight scarier than loving. I’m terrified.”
“Being loved? You actually admit I love you? You’ve never done that before.”
She shook her head. “I never believed it before.”
He reached for her, pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. Then he raised his head and kissed her, deeply, tenderly and forever.
After a moment she broke the kiss, and said breathlessly, “But if you ever keep anything from me again, I swear I will deck you.”
“And then walk out on me?”
“You should be so lucky. I will not walk out, I’ll get right up in your face and make your life miserable in true lawyerly fashion until you spill your guts. I’m through walking out.”
“Till death do us part?”
She caught her breath. “Are you asking me to marry you again?”
He squeezed her so hard she thought she’d pass out. “On Christmas Eve with holly in your hair.” He sobered an instant later. “But you’ll have to put up with a commuter marriage until this business with Dub is resolved, and he can start running Long Pond again on his own.”
“No way. Do you think it matters one whit to me where I practice law? In some fancy law office in Atlanta or in Jackson, Mississippi, or even in Athena? What matters is the people I represent, not the fees they pay me. I’ve got enough money. What I don’t have is a life or a love.”
“I can’t let you—”
“I beg your pardon? You’re doing it again, David. Knock it off.”
“The logistics are a nightmare,” he said ruefully.
“They certainly are. We have less than three weeks to get the charges against Jason dropped, convince the sheriff and the district attorney not to prosecute Dub on anything other than obstruction of justice for not reporting Waneath’s death, get him home to Long Pond to convalesce, affiliate me with a law firm in Jackson and arrange a marriage.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, Lord, and then there’s Christmas!”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHRISTMAS EVE morning dawned clear, bright and twenty degrees colder than normal.
“Thanks for offering to pick up my mother and Arnold at the airport,” Kate said to Jason over breakfast at David’s kitchen counter. “But do not drive like a lunatic.”
“Yeah, right.” Jason grinned at her.
“My mother will go upside your head with her handbag. She has turned into a very forceful woman.”
“Gee, wonder where she gets that from?” Jason said innocently. “I’m sorry my gram and granddad couldn’t make it.”
Kate wasn’t certain she felt the same way. She knew David’s father was delighted, but Mrs. Canfield? She’d have an opportunity to find out for herself when they visited in the spring. At the moment she had to admit she had heaved a small sigh of relief when they didn’t want to leave home at Christmas. The town was still divided by the scandal of Dub’s admission. Not having to face the Canfields was a small blessing.
“Where’s my dad?” Jason asked. “And are you going to eat that last piece of toast?”
“Over at your grandfather’s, and no, I am not.”
“Great.” Jason reached for the toast and began to drizzle honey over it in precise patterns. “How come Dad’s over there?”
“Dub wanted to talk to him about something before the wedding.”
“Neva says we’ll have Christmas dinner about four tomorrow if that’s all right,” Jason said. “I mean, you going to be newlyweds and all.”
“Tell her that’s fine.” She propped her chin on her hand.
“You really okay with this marriage business?”
“Yeah. I mean, you saved all our butts. Kind of handy to have a lawyer in the family the next time I get arrested.”
“Don’t even think that. I didn’t actually save anybody’s butt. Your grandfather is going to have to do a hundred hours of community service, he’s had to eat a bunch of crow with the townspeople as well as apologize to the Talleys. And he’s had to pay a whopping fine.”
“But he didn’t have to go to jail.”
“The only thing he was actually guilty of was the improper disposal of a body and failure to report an accidental death.”
“He was guilty of a whole lot more than that,” Jason said.
“Not according to the law.” She laid her hand on Jason’s sleeve. “Hard to see your idols have feet of clay, isn’t it?”
“He’s still my granddaddy, and I still love him. I guess this is part of growing up. Frankly, Kate, I downright hate it.”
“Sure you do. It’s going to take some time for the town to get over this.”
“My dad didn’t do anything wrong. Neither did you. Besides, Neva says the next big scandal and the Canfields will be ancient history.” He sighed deeply. “Hope she’s right.”
“Me, too. But remember, it’s Christmas, and you can’t hurt Christmas. Is Coral Anne coming to the wedding tonight?”
“Yeah. Mrs. Talley hit the ceiling, but Coral Anne’s tough.”
“Good. Now scat. I’ve got the caterer and the florist to check, a bunch of presents to wrap and a hair appointment at Charlotte’s. See you at seven? And do not drive my mother into a ditch.”
“HERE,” Dub said, and handed David a blue-covered legal document. “That Selig did this for me.”
“What is it?”
“Power of attorney for my shares of Long Pond. From here on in, David, it’s your show.”
“Now, listen, Dub—”
“I won’t be available to answer questions or get in your way.”
“Just because you’re working with the parks commission...”
“Nope. I’ll have that done in a month. I’m feeling a little guilty about this, David. I went behind your back and did something you may not approve of.”
“What now?” David asked.
“Well, since you have decided not to move to China, I stole a march on you and talked to those guys myself.” He sounded proud, but a little defensive. “They want me to go to China for three months this spring—just to see if it works out. Nothing definite.”
“Dub, that’s wonderful!” David said, and meant it. “Maybe you’ll get your chance to see the world after all.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. You’re not mad?”
“I’m delighted. We’ll miss you. Maybe I can persuade Kate to come see you.”
“Whew! That’s a load off my mind.”
“But what’ll happen to Long Pond?”
“You’ll run it.”
“No,” David said, waving a hand above his head. “All this—the house, I mean.”
“Neva’ll look after it. Unless you and Kate want to move in.”
“Not on your life.”
“Didn’t think so. I won’t be gone forever. Long Pond’ll be here for Jason, if he ever decides he wants to come home. If not, he can use it as a vacation house when he’s not off making movies.”
“It’s a big responsibility,” David said.
“Shoot. You been doing most of it for the past ten years anyway. And I’ll expect my share of the profits. I’m not a total fool.”
“No, but you’re a remarkable one.”
“Call this my penance. I’m also endowing a college scholarship fund in Waneath’s name for a deserving graduate from Athena High. That way, if for some reason Big Bill and Mrs. Talley won’t cough up to send Coral Anne to an Ivy League school the way she wants them to, I can make sure she goes. If they pay for her, then I send somebody else. Good plan?”
“Great plan, Dub.”
“Had to do something to make up for what happened.”
“The doctors say there’s no telling how much your good sense was affected by the garbage in the arteries in your neck. According to them, you’ve been experiencing spells for some time, judging from the state you were in. I should have seen the signs and made you do something about it.”
“I didn’t want to know what was wrong with me,” Dub said. “Sure didn’t want to see any damn doctors. I can’t joke my way out of this one. I wasn’t crazy. I was responsible. And a blithering idiot. I got some things to work out, and I’d be better off getting away from Athena to do the working. Plus, there are some folks who’d rather not run into me on the street right now. Now, how’s about we have us a little bourbon and branch to seal the deal?”
“S
CARED?” Arnold asked. He was sprawled across the bed in his motel room, which Kate was using to dress for her wedding.
“Terrified. How’s my hair?”
“What do I know? You sure you want all that green stuff in it?”
“The holly? It’s tradition. I wear it in my hair at all my weddings to David Canfield.”
“If you say so.”
“Arnold, are you certain you want to move to Whitman, Tarber and McDonough with me? I still think I can get you that senior partnership in Atlanta as my last official act before I move to Jackson.”
“Wouldn’t know what to do with myself without you to boss me around.” He locked his hands behind his head. “I was never that attached to Atlanta. Besides, Pink Tarber is paying me more than you cheapskates ever did in Atlanta.”
“And all we have to do is make enough rain to pay our respective salaries. Think we can pull it off?”
“Indeed I do,” Arnold said. “I’ve already got us lined up to do a malpractice suit in Birmingham the minute you come back from your honeymoon.”
“Honeymoon? David intends to teach me to drive a combine on my honeymoon.”
“I warned you. Have you pulling the plow in no time.” He glanced at his watch. “Come on, the hour of thy doom approacheth. We’re due at the church in fifteen minutes.”
“Oh, Lord, Arnold, I am so happy I may cry!”
THE SMALL EPISCOPAL church was already festooned with greenery for the Christmas midnight service. Dub, much taken with Mrs. Hillman, was playing the southern gentleman on the front pew. Behind them sat Myrlene and Jimmie Viccolla with Myrlene’s mother. David and Kate had discussed the guest list and decided to keep the ceremony small and private, so the only other person invited was Coral Anne Talley.
Coral Anne looked downright pretty. She’d dropped a few pounds, and had taken Juanita’s words about her hair to heart.
Jason stood beside his father. From the back of the church Kate thought again how remarkably alike they were. Two men. Jason was no longer the boy he’d been only a few weeks earlier. Like his father he had become wiser and sadder. Kate prayed the rest of life’s lessons for him would be kinder.
Fathers and Sons (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 26