She shook her head. “I’m worried about the girls. A very honest concern, don’t you think? Since you are heavily involved with Miss April—”
“And you are surely all but engaged to Muscleman?”
“Jordan...” She broke off. Cold seemed to be racing through her. A sense of pure panic.
Because Miss April had arrived. She was stepping out of the Florida room doors, Peggy at her side, pointing to the guest house. Tara smiled, listened, nodded. Peggy stepped back into the Florida room, and Tara looked over to the guest house, pausing for a moment.
She was bone slim, casual, her white blond hair feathered around her oval face, a form-hugging short blue sheath emphasizing the beauty of her form, even her sandals displaying feet that were perfect.
And young.
“Oh, God!” Kathy gasped.
“What?”
She stared at Jordan, wild. “It’s her!”
“Her?”
“Tara.”
“She isn’t due yet.”
“Well, she’s here!” Kathy started to leap up. She was amazed when he came to his knees, grasping her arm. “Kathy, damn it—!”
“Jordan, don’t you understand me? Your lover—your mistress—is coming across the patio as we speak.”
“Kathy, it’s all right! Don’t panic so, I—”
“Oh, God!” Kathy said desperately, wrenching away from him, finding her nightgown. “Jordan, the buttons are ripped, they’re here on the floor. But I’ve got them. Oh, what am I going to do? I can’t walk out like this. I—”
“It’s all right!”
“It’s not.”
He gritted his teeth, staring at her hard, opened his mouth as if about to speak, then changed his mind. He swore softly.
“Fine. You don’t want to be caught here.” He leapt up, still stark naked, and amazingly unaffected and totally unself-conscious.
Yet totally appealing still. Even more so by the light of day.
He strode across the room to one of the drawers, bent down, opened it. He tossed something to Kathy, drawing out a pair of trunks for himself.
“Well, put it on.”
“But Jordan—”
“It’s a bathing suit, Kathy. We can have been going for an early swim when I suggested coffee.”
“Jordan—”
“It’s the best I can do, Kath. Since you are so determined to pretend nothing has happened.”
“Things have happened. But things haven’t changed!” she whispered miserably.
He stepped into the trunks. “Let’s go swimming then,” he said harshly.
Downstairs someone was trying the front door.
Kathy stumbled into the bathing suit in a flash. Jordan was already heading down the stairs.
And a soft tapping now fell upon the front door to the guest house...
Thirteen
“JORDAN!”
Kathy came down the stairs just in time to see Jordan open the door to Tara Hughes.
The young woman entered the guest house with a great deal of enthusiasm, throwing her arms around Jordan and placing a wet, passionate kiss on his lips with almost frantic fervor. Kathy thought Jordan was rather stiff beneath the onslaught, but then maybe she wanted him to be not quite as receptive to his beloved as he usually was.
“Jordan, I thought I’d be working through Sunday at the earliest, but they finished up early and one of the photographers has his own little seaplane and was willing to deliver me right to a dock on the beach! I’m so glad to be here; I know how important this week is to you. Did the gorgon arrive? Is she behaving? Is... is...?”
Tara broke off, having seen Kathy standing at the foot of the stairs.
Kathy would have happily strangled Jordan at that moment. He had crawled into a nice, normal, conservative man’s bathing suit, but he had handed her a contraption with no back and a front so low it might as well have been next to nonexistent. She felt nearly naked, and even if she had half-killed herself with Jeremy at the gym, even if her most intimate, continual relationship of late had been with a Stairmaster, Tara’s startled scrutiny made her incredibly uncomfortable.
But the younger woman appeared stunned and humiliated herself. After all, she had just referred to Kathy as a gorgon.
“I... I...” the blonde stuttered, sounding very much like a version of Ricky Ricardo. “I—”
Kathy couldn’t bear to let her discomfort go on any longer. She stepped up to introduce herself, amazed to feel a certain sympathy, though why one of the most gorgeous young women in the world would want or need it, she didn’t know.
“Tara—” she began, but Jordan was already stepping in as well.
“Tara, this is—”
“Yes, it’s Kathy Treveryan, I, er, know. My God, you haven’t changed. You are Kathy, right? Of course. I’m babbling. I’ve seen your pictures. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“To call me a gorgon?” Kathy inquired, smiling.
“Oh, Lord.” Tara moaned.
“Kathy, Tara Hughes. Tara, the gorgon,” Jordan muttered wryly.
“I am sorry!” Tara repeated.
“It’s quite all right.” Kathy glanced at Jordan. “He has called me much worse over time.”
“He never called you a gorgon,” Tara said, then blushed furiously. She seemed to gather her poise then. “I am so sorry. I just didn’t expect to see you—here. I mean, so soon. I mean—”
“It’s quite all right. Really,” Kathy said. “And my name is Connoly. Jordan and I are divorced. Let me say that it really is a pleasure to meet you. You’re as gorgeous in person as you are in pictures.”
“Thank you,” Tara murmured. Her huge blue eyes wide, she looked from Kathy to Jordan. “I... didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” she said.
That was a lie. She’d be damned happy to interrupt anything brewing, Kathy thought. But Kathy was the one treading on Tara’s territory.
“How sweet, but don’t be ridiculous. Of course, you’re not interrupting anything,” Kathy told her quickly. “We’d been about to go for a swim—obviously, right?—but then we thought coffee sounded good first. Jordan was about to make some. I wonder if that’s really necessary now. I’m sure Peggy has some brewing in the main house. I think I’ll hurry on over and have some.”
She started to make a swift retreat, trying to sail past both of them and out of the wretched situation.
“Kathy!”
She was so amazed that she nearly gasped out when Jordan reached out to stop her. He’d meant to grab her shoulder; he caught her hair, tangled the class ring he wore on his right hand in it. He tried to disentangle himself. Meanwhile Kathy stood still while Tara stared at the two of them and Jordan cursed.
“I was just going to say we’d all go over for coffee,” he muttered. “I really need some. I’m sure you do too, Tara, eh?”
“You know I don’t drink coffee,” Tara said, frowning.
“Well, Peggy will have boiled water for tea!” he all but snapped.
Kathy was so eager to escape that she didn’t care if she ripped out half of her hair, but at that moment she suddenly became free. It didn’t matter. Jordan didn’t intend to let her escape. He set his left hand upon the small of Kathy’s back, the right upon Tara’s, and nearly thrust them both from the guest house. “Let’s go see what’s going on over there, shall we?”
“But Jordan—” Tara began.
“It’s a really perfect day,” he broke in, propelling both women across the patio. “I’d thought to take the Sand Shark out. We should get started as soon as possible. I promised the girls we’d go diving today.”
“I don’t dive, Jordan,” Tara reminded him a little coolly.
“Yes, but you enjoy the boat, right? You can snorkel.”
“I hate snorkels, they smash your face,” Tara declared testily.
“You’re welcome to stay at the house,” he told her.
“I wouldn’t do that! I was so excited to get this time!” she said, then lower
ed her voice to a whisper not intended to be heard by Kathy. “To be here when you might need moral support!”
Kathy wanted to die—to jump into the pool and dive to the bottom.
“Do you know, it might be too scorching today to take the boat out,” Kathy suggested.
“I promised the girls,” Jordan said.
“We wouldn’t want to disappoint them,” Tara muttered.
When Kathy narrowed her eyes, Tara smiled sweetly.
“Then I think I’ll just grab coffee and run upstairs with it and get a few things together,” Kathy said.
This time, she escaped before Jordan could restrain her and raced ahead of them into the main house, annoyed with herself for desperately wishing the Stairmaster had at least hidden half the cellulite in her thighs when she could be concentrating on far more important, more adult, things—like world peace.
Either way, her wishing was farfetched.
It didn’t matter.
Peggy had opened up the house, and Kathy was able to fly swiftly into it through the porch entrance. She hurried through the living room, smelled the coffee upon entering the dining room, and knew that she couldn’t resist. She made a beeline for it, intending to do as she had said, snag a cup and race up the stairs. But Peggy was there, setting a cover over a chafing dish, and she smiled with such warmth and sincerity that Kathy knew she couldn’t run right out.
“Kathy, excuse me, but you do look like a million bucks!” Peggy told her. “That’s a beautiful suit. Where did you get it? Is that a New York style?”
Kathy opened her mouth to answer. “I... er... just picked it up somewhere along the line.”
“You look much better than that one!” Peggy whispered, inclining her head toward the rear of the house, from which Jordan’s and Tara’s voices came to them.
Kathy poured a cup of coffee.
“She seems very sweet.”
Peggy made a face. “Like saccharine.”
“She’s stunning.”
“She’s after him, big time.”
“Peggy, he’s a free agent. If she wants him happy—”
“He hasn’t been happy since you left.”
“Really? Why, she’s gorgeous. She’s young. She’s perfect.”
“You underestimate Jordan.”
“Right. What man wouldn’t be swayed by a woman like that?”
“Kathy—”
“Oh, Peggy!” Kathy set her cup down, swiftly hugging the wonderful woman who had once been her housekeeper. “Jordan and I are over. Have been over. You make me feel as badly as my daughters do. I can’t fix things now. And apparently he’s been intimate with Tara for quite some time.”
Peggy shrugged. “A while.”
“And I have a great life. Honestly, I do.”
Peggy nodded, adjusting silver on the buffet table. “I guess so. You’re dating a very nice young man.” She eyed Kathy. “Young man, I repeat.”
“Women are supposed to date younger men—because we outlive them. My mother told me so.”
Peggy grinned. “Oh, by the way, Sally is on her way to the house.”
“What?” Kathy had been picking up her coffee again, anxious to flee up the stairs before Tara and Jordan reached them. She was so startled she nearly spilled it. “She told me she wasn’t coming until tomorrow or Monday.”
“Seems everyone is anxious to arrive.” Peggy sniffed toward the rear of the house. Jordan and Tara had obviously paused to talk outside.
What were they saying to one another? Kathy couldn’t help but wonder.
“Anyway, Sally says she decided there just wasn’t any reason for her not to come earlier. She called the airlines and had no problem changing her ticket. She called here about fifteen minutes ago to make sure it was all right to come on along. I assured her Jordan will be delighted to see her whenever she can get here. I knocked on your door to see if you wanted a word with her, but I didn’t get an answer. I thought you might still be sleeping.”
“I must have been out by the pool,” Kathy said, staring into her coffee.
Peggy didn’t say anything, but Kathy could feel the question in her gaze.
“Hmmm. Didn’t see you there.”
“Well, I think I have to... brush my hair. Or something,” Kathy murmured. She must get upstairs. She wanted some time to herself.
She needed a shower. Before her mother got here. And she needed to recoup some poise, some composure.
“Kathy, there’s all kinds of breakfast here,” Peggy offered.
“I won’t be fifteen minutes!” Kathy said cheerfully. “Catch Mom when she comes in, will you? She’s always in dire need of coffee this early in the morning.”
“It isn’t early. It’s just past ten.”
“She’ll have been up a while. She’ll need more coffee.”
With that, Kathy managed to flee back up the stairs.
To her room. Her room.
She swallowed the coffee as if it were a shot of liquor she could gulp. It scorched her throat. She started to sit at the foot of the bed and changed her mind. She really needed that shower. She hurried into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
What had Tara Hughes seen when she had looked at her? A gorgon?
Her hair was wild, a tangled auburn mane. Her eyes were wide, still dilated, very amber. Panic seemed to be good for her. And the bathing suit, brief though it was, was a very attractive one, designed, oddly enough, to minimize any anatomical failings with its clean cut. She looked good. Not like a thirty-year-old model, but good. Attractive. Panic even seemed to make her look sexy.
Or was it...
... Jordan?
Being with Jordan again. Almost being caught being with Jordan again.
Well, Tara was here now.
Auld lang syne was not in the past. But...
She didn’t want to think about Jordan, Tara, herself. Or herself and Jordan, or Tara and Jordan. She wanted to curl up somewhere, pretend that the night might have gone on forever.
That nothing had ever gone wrong between them. That she was really home.
She wasn’t, she told herself firmly. She was a big girl. She’d wanted sex with her ex-husband. She’d had it. Time to shower and get on.
She stripped off the bathing suit and stepped into the shower stall, turning the water on. It was so cold she jumped. That was good. She should have taken a very cold shower quite a while ago.
Such thoughts didn’t help. And somewhere in the middle of her shower, she realized that warm tears were colliding with the wet spray on her cheeks. She shouldn’t have come back. It hurt more than she had ever imagined. Even more now that she had touched the past.
The shower kept running. Washing away the foolish tears that should have all been shed long ago. Despite the pain, she was glad to be here. She couldn’t bring back the past. She did have something back of Jordan, though, and it mattered, it counted, because he had been a part of so very much of her life. He thought someone had caused Keith’s death all those years ago, and strange things were happening. It was time to exorcise some ghosts. She would do so.
With dignity.
“Mom!”
The water was still spraying down on her when Kathy heard the door burst open and herself being called. She turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, leaping from the tub. It was Alex who had come in.
Her daughter was standing by the bed, hands on her hips, staring at Kathryn. She wore her sandy blond hair to her shoulders, with a sweep that half covered one green eye. In her teal bikini, she stood barefoot, her flesh a golden tan, her slim young figure stunning.
“She’s here!” Alex announced.
“She?” Kathy inquired, though she knew perfectly well who she was.
“Tara.”
“I know. I’ve seen her.”
“She was supposed to be modeling on some sandspit island,” Alex said.
“Let me get dressed. I’ll be right with you.”
Kathy closed the bath
room door and slipped back into the bathing suit she had discovered she rather liked. She opened the bathroom door and came out, sitting beside Alex on the bed and placing an arm around her. “I wish I hadn’t come here,” Kathy said.
“Mom, it’s been the best thing in the world—”
“Alex, I’m glad for me, and even for your father, that I did. We may finally be friends. But I’m sorry because of you and Bren. Your dad has apparently been seeing Tara fairly regularly. It makes no difference that she arrived here a day or so early.”
“We were supposed to have today alone. As a family.”
“You forget. Jeremy is here.”
“Mom. There’s nothing between you and Jeremy.”
“Your dad doesn’t know that—does he?”
“Of course not.” Alex waved a hand in the air. “Mother, don’t be so naive. Everyone knows men want what other men have. That’s a fact of life.”
Kathy smiled. “Oh, really? Well, what happens when one particular man has what scores of others pant over daily?”
“Mom—”
“She seems nice enough.”
Alex sighed. “She’s all right, I guess. Not too bright, but not dumb-blond stupid. And I’ll tell you one thing, she isn’t going to keep Dad long one way or the other.”
“Why?” Kathy asked curiously.
Alex shrugged. “She hangs. He likes his freedom. His place and her place. She’s always had her own room here. I don’t think he ever sleeps through the night with her, and he didn’t really want her this week.”
“How do you know? Did he tell you that for a fact?”
Alex hesitated. “No. But something has been bothering him for a while. And I know him. He wanted this week for Blue Heron.” She hesitated again. “He did tell Tara that if she was unhappy about the time he needed to spend with others this week he would understand if she wanted to go her own way.”
“He said this to her in front of you?” Kathy inquired skeptically.
“Well...” Alex murmured. “All right, I was eavesdropping. It was the weekend I came down after classes let out for summer.”
“You knew then that he was planning this, and you didn’t say a word to me? Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t have had time to warn me, your mother, you were busy talking to the newspapers!”
For All of Her Life Page 18