She left her mug on the tabletop and slid off the bar stool. She met Shaw’s gaze with her chin up and said, “I’ll get my own lawyer. He can work out the details with yours.”
“Kate…”
She waited for him to ask her to stay. Felt an ache under her breastbone when he didn’t.
“The boys and I are going to visit their Grandpa King today at M.D. Anderson before we go see Ryan,” she said. “He finally broke down and told his children he has leukemia, so a few of them might turn up there. One of his sons, my uncle Breed Grayhawk, is an FBI agent. Considering who your father is, and the fact you’re still accused of murder, it would be awkward if you came along.”
She watched a muscle jerk in his cheek and knew she’d annoyed him. Too damn bad. She wasn’t much pleased with the situation herself.
“Bruce will go with you.”
“Is that really necessary? I mean, now that J.D.’s dead—”
“I have other enemies. And I don’t trust my father.”
He hadn’t said he didn’t trust her to return with the boys. She thought it was more a case of him not believing she’d have the nerve to defy him by taking them and running. Which made her mad.
But not mad enough to do something stupid, like taking the boys and running.
“Send your bodyguard, then,” she said. “We plan to see King right after lunch.”
“I’ll make sure the car is ready.”
They stared at each other for another beat or two. Kate thought he might want to say something else. Wished him to speak the words she wanted to hear. But he didn’t.
She had already turned to leave when he called out to her again. “Kate…”
She turned back and met his gaze, afraid that the longing in her eyes might give her away. Afraid it might tell him how much she wanted to hear words of love from him. She felt sick again, her stomach churning with the knowledge that she was being disloyal to Jack, the man she supposedly loved.
Disgust and anger and humiliation raised bile in her throat. “Is there something else?” she asked when Shaw didn’t speak.
His eyes were like the stone walls that surrounded his fortress, allowing no one to see behind them. At last he said, “I’ll call my lawyer Monday morning.”
39
Kate kept expecting Shaw to do something or say something to put a stop to the wheels she’d set in motion. He’d been in a disgustingly good mood all morning, as though nothing out of the ordinary had transpired between them at breakfast. He’d headed outside with the twins to play catch with a new baseball and gloves he’d bought for them. Then they’d tossed the frisbee for Harley.
Kate had absented herself from both activities, telling Shaw she had a new book she wanted to read. He hadn’t tried to talk her into joining them, and the boys had seemed perfectly happy spending the time with Shaw.
She’d tried reading her romance novel but hadn’t been able to escape into the fantasy. Reality kept intruding. She spent the first half of the morning fuming that Shaw seemed so uninterested in keeping her around.
Which must mean she wanted to stay.
Then there was the little matter of her nausea, which had returned. She was going to have ten kittens if it turned out she was pregnant. Well, actually, one baby, she thought, suppressing a hysterical giggle. The possibility she might be pregnant was freaking her out.
Mid-morning she hunted Bruce down and told him she wanted to do some shopping, thinking she could sneak out and get a home pregnancy test, which would at least end the suspense. Maybe she just had a twenty-four-hour bug.
Oh, really? What else but pregnancy would cause you to miss two periods?
Suddenly she thought of something that might. Cancer.
“I’ll be glad to go pick up anything you need, Mrs. Pendleton,” Bruce told her.
Of course he would. Then he’d tell Shaw exactly what he’d bought for her. “I need feminine products, Bruce. I’d rather choose them myself.”
Bruce blushed. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll just tell the Boss—”
“I really don’t want to make a big deal of this, Bruce. Couldn’t we just go? You know Wyatt would want me to have what I need. And the situation is…urgent.”
That was almost the truth.
Bruce blushed even redder. “Yes, ma’am. I understand. But the Boss—”
She put her hands on her hips and said with not entirely faked agitation, “Do you really need to ask Wyatt if I can go buy Tampax?”
“I guess not,” he said, looking around for someone who could give him instructions about what to do in this situation.
“Let’s go then,” she said, anxious to get him out of the house before Shaw and the twins came in for refreshments or to use the bathroom or just to take a break.
The closest Walgreens drugstore was a half hour away in The Woodlands. Kate managed to convince Bruce to let her go inside on her own. There were several different pregnancy tests. She picked up the e.p.t. Certainty, an upgrade of the test she’d used nine years ago, when she’d determined she was pregnant with the twins. She felt the same breathlessness now as she had then.
She bought a few other things, so she’d be able to hide the e.p.t. box in the bag, including Tampax, which she might actually need if it turned out she just had the flu or food poisoning or…What else caused nausea? And two missed periods?
Bruce looked relieved when she returned to the car.
“Thanks, Bruce,” she said, hugging the bag tightly to her chest.
“You’re welcome, ma’am.”
When she stepped inside the house, she could hear the boys in the kitchen. She presumed Wyatt was with them and hurried to the bathroom attached to the guest bedroom that had remained unused all these months, to hide the bag of toiletries under the sink. She would have liked to take the pregnancy test right away, but she was afraid she might get interrupted, so she headed to the kitchen.
“Hey, Mom, where were you?” Lucky asked.
“I went to the drugstore to buy a few things.”
“What kinds of things?” Chance asked.
Shaw lifted a black brow that repeated the question.
“Girl things,” she said dismissively. “What’s for lunch?”
“The boys voted for PBJs,” Shaw said.
“I love peanut butter and jelly,” Lucky said to Shaw.
“Me, too,” Shaw said, ruffling his hair.
“Me, three,” Chance said.
Shaw tweaked Chance’s nose and he laughed.
They love him. What she saw in both sets of blue eyes was adoration for the man who’d sired them. How naive she’d been to think they wouldn’t want to stay. She felt melancholy, missing the fantasy of happily ever after, even though she knew it didn’t happen that often in real life. If only she’d gone looking for Shaw when she’d found out she was pregnant with the twins, maybe they would have become a family.
That chance had come and gone. Or had it? Kate turned and caught a fleeting look in Shaw’s eyes. Something astonishing.
Yearning.
For her? For the fantasy?
“While you boys eat your sandwiches, I’m going to get dressed for our trip to the hospital,” Kate said.
“Don’t you want a sandwich, Mom?” Chance asked. “I can make one for you.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” she said. “I had a snack earlier.” She headed out of the kitchen before Shaw could question her more closely and hurried to the guest bathroom. She was most likely to have privacy while Shaw was helping the boys make their sandwiches. She retrieved the pregnancy test from the bag under the sink and quickly read the directions.
“The readout is ‘Not Pregnant’ or ‘Pregnant.’ Well, that’s easy. Ninety-nine percent accurate. Simply remove cap and insert test strip into holder.” Kate stopped to follow the directions, then picked them up to read again. “Place absorbent tip in urine stream for five to seven seconds. Test any time of day.”
Kate did as she was told. “Here goes nothing.” When
she was done, she picked up the directions to find out how soon she’d have the results. “Three very long minutes,” she muttered.
Kate set the holder on the counter and looked at her watch.
“Mom? Where are you?”
“I’m in the bathroom, Chance,” she called back.
“No, you’re not,” he called back. “I’m in your room and the bathroom door’s open and you’re not here. Where are you?”
Kate grabbed the directions and the box and started to put them in the guest bathroom trash. The can was empty. The box and directions and test strip and holder were going to get noticed if she threw them in there. She put the trash she’d collected back in the plastic bag full of toiletries, then stuck it under the sink.
She heard a knock on the door and Lucky’s voice. “Mom? What are you doing in there?”
Kate looked down at her watch. Two minutes had passed. Did she dare hold them off for another minute? Or should she chuck this test and take another one. She looked down at the test strip, which clearly read Not Pregnant.
She felt…disappointed.
She grabbed the strip and holder and dropped them in the bag under the sink. Then she flushed the toilet, waited a second and opened the door.
Shaw was standing there with the twins on either side of him.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked, looking around the bathroom like he expected to find drug paraphernalia.
“I was feeling a little sick, so I ducked in here to use the facilities. Is that a problem?” she asked in an aggrieved voice.
“You’re sick?” Shaw asked.
She should have known he’d key on that. “A little diarrhea, if you must know. Must have been something I ate.”
“You sure you want to drive in to Houston today?”
Kate realized the hole she’d dug for herself and said, “I had Bruce take me to Walgreens. I got myself some Pepto-Bismol, and I’m feeling much better.” That would explain the trip, which she was sure Bruce would report to his boss.
“The boys wanted to know if they can take their sandwiches in the car,” Shaw said. “Sort of a traveling picnic.”
“That’s fine with me, if it’s all right with you and Bruce.”
“All right. I’ll pack everything up.”
The boys skipped away after Shaw, who glanced back over his shoulder at her as though she might pull out that drug paraphernalia he hadn’t seen the first time he looked.
Kate realized she was going to have to make an appointment with a doctor and find out what was wrong with her. Because she still felt nauseated. If she wasn’t pregnant, there was some other reason she’d missed her periods.
Could be stress, you know. It doesn’t have to be cancer. But if it wasn’t pregnancy or stress, she had no idea what could be wrong with her. The possibility that she was seriously ill was frightening.
She had plenty of time on the ride to Houston to worry about what was wrong, while the boys ate their picnic in the backseat.
King was a leukemia inpatient on the eighth floor of the Main Building at M.D. Anderson. Ryan was an inpatient on the ninth floor of the same building. The boys gave their great-grandfather a hug and chatted with him for a few minutes, but they were anxious to visit Ryan.
“Can we go upstairs, Mom?” Lucky asked.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay longer,” she said to King. “The twins’ friend has been very sick for a very long time. He’s finally well enough for a real visit. Do you mind?”
“Go ahead,” King said. “I’ll be fine.”
But she saw he was disappointed that she wasn’t staying longer to talk. Apparently, none of his children had come to visit him. She made a split second decision to stay. “Go ahead without me,” she said to the boys. “You know where to find the gowns and masks and gloves. Go ahead and put them on. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t run! And don’t get into trouble!”
“You’re a trusting soul,” King said with a chuckle.
“I need a few more minutes to find out how you are.”
“I’m a lot better now than I was a month ago.”
“Really? I thought your situation was…” The word that came to mind was terminal, but she didn’t want to say that.
“I was dying,” King said flatly. “On my way out of this world and into the next.”
“What happened?” Kate asked, sitting on the bed beside him.
“She happened,” King said, pointing to the doorway to his room.
Kate turned and stood. She barely managed not to gasp at the sight of a very pregnant Holly McKinley.
Holly smiled at her tentatively and said, “Hi, Kate.”
Kate was half in shock as she held out her hand to grasp the one Holly extended. The woman was so huge with child that she looked like a balloon ready to pop. “What do you have to do with my grandfather’s recovery?”
Holly waddled over to King’s bedside and checked his pulse, then used her stethoscope to check his heart. “I came here a month ago to thank your grandfather for getting the clearances Jack and I needed to visit the FBI Training Center at Quantico, where our daughter was in school.
“In the process, I discovered he was a good candidate for a clinical trial I’m conducting with adult leukemia patients. Turns out my chemotherapy cocktail put your grandfather’s cancer in remission.”
Kate realized her jaw had dropped and closed her mouth. “That’s amazing. That’s wonderful!” She crossed back to her grandfather and hugged him tight. “I’m so glad you’re going to be all right.”
“I’m not out of the woods yet,” King said gruffly. “But this little lady says the chances are good I’ll live to see another birthday or two.”
Kate watched as King pinched Dr. McKinley’s cheek. The doctor smiled and threatened to put a thermometer somewhere King wouldn’t like, if he didn’t keep his hands to himself.
At which point Kate finally processed what Holly had previously said. “You and Jack have a daughter?”
“Her name is Savannah. She’s twenty-six. I got pregnant when Jack and I were kids and gave the baby up for adoption. She was a perfect bone marrow match for Ryan. She’s the reason he’s alive and well today.”
Kate was reeling from Holly’s revelation. Jack had another child with Holly. A grown daughter. It was one more tie to bind him to his wife. And one more secret he’d kept from her.
“I can see you’re surprised,” Holly said. “Jack didn’t know about Savannah until a month ago. I never told him I was pregnant.”
“I see,” Kate said. But if Jack had known for an entire month he had a grown daughter, why hadn’t he mentioned it? All he’d said was that a very good donor had been found and that Ryan was getting a bone marrow transplant.
“What am I missing here?” King said, looking from one woman to the other.
“I was separated from my husband for a year,” Holly said, her gaze focused on Kate. “I believe he and Kate became friends during that time.”
“Yes, we did,” Kate said.
But what were they now?
“Where are the twins?” Holly asked. “King told me they were coming to visit him this afternoon.”
“They were here. They’ve already headed upstairs to see Ryan,” Kate said.
“Maybe we should join them,” Holly suggested.
“Go ahead,” King said. “I wouldn’t trust those two hellions any farther than I could throw them.”
As they left King’s room, Holly said, “Do you mind if we take the elevator rather than the stairs?”
“Of course not,” Kate replied.
“Have you seen Jack today?” Holly asked, eyeing her askance.
Kate stared at the other woman, surprised that she knew about her plans to meet with Jack. That couldn’t be good. Especially in light of the news that Holly and Jack had a grown daughter. “No, I haven’t seen Jack yet.”
“But you’re going to see him, right?” Holly said.
“We’d planned to meet aft
er the twins’ visit with Ryan,” Kate admitted.
“Then I’ll let him answer all the questions I can see in your eyes.”
Holly McKinley seemed confident. And sympathetic. Kate was afraid she was about to be bushwhacked by Jack. Apparently, a great deal had happened during the month he’d been out of touch. Holly wasn’t acting like a rejected woman. She was acting like a possessive wife.
The elevator door opened on the ninth floor and Holly gestured Kate out before her. Kate felt angry at Jack. If he’d been a little more honest, that elevator ride would have been a great deal less awkward. She resisted the urge to head for the Waterfall Café to see him, without stopping to check on the twins and Ryan. But King was right about the twins being a magnet for trouble. She had to make sure they were all right first.
She reached the doorway to Ryan’s room about the same time as Holly. The pregnant woman filled the entire space with her girth, so Kate had to look over her shoulder to see into the room. What she found confused her.
“Where’s Ryan?” she asked. The sheets on his hospital bed were mussed. The bed was empty.
“I don’t know,” Holly said, her voice frantic. “He’s supposed to be here. He hasn’t been released yet. He still has to be careful about where he goes and what he does to guard against infection.”
Kate didn’t see a nurse in the hallway or any patients or any parents. “Where is everybody?” she asked. “Where are my sons?”
“I don’t know!” Holly cried.
Kate’s cell phone rang and she fumbled in her purse for it, thinking perhaps Jack or Wyatt had intercepted the boys and taken them somewhere. She didn’t recognize the number on her phone. She almost didn’t answer the call, but she thought maybe it was Wyatt on a phone at one of his businesses. She wanted to let him know about this latest development, in case the boys had wandered off and gotten lost, and she needed his help finding them again.
“Hi, honey, it’s me. You missing something?”
Kate went white. “J.D.? You’re supposed to be dead.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, honey, but I’m still kickin’. I’ve got some instructions for you. I need you to follow them exactly, if you want these three boys back alive.”
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