by Marie Force
Kate groaned and made a face at him.
Jack held up the birth certificate. “The dates don’t lie, so like it or not, it’s time for us to let you go. All we can do is hope that when you’re a big star you won’t forget to come home once in a while. Your mother and I are so proud of you, and we love you very much.” He raised his glass. “To Kate.”
Kate’s cheeks turned red as her guests saluted her. She walked over to hug her father, and Clare was once again startled to witness the new level of intimacy between Jack and the girls. While he’d always been a wonderful father, his relationship with his daughters had clearly grown and deepened during her long illness. Kate pulled back from him and reached for her mother.
“Will you play for us, Kate?” Clare asked as she hugged her daughter.
“I’d love to.” Kate looked at her father with a big grin on her face. “I have a song just for you.”
“Why am I afraid?” he asked.
“Oh, be very afraid,” Kate joked and went to find her guitar.
The room quieted again when Kate began to strum the opening notes of the song. “This is by someone I hope to meet someday—Martina McBride—and it’s for you, Dad.” She launched into the chorus for “Independence Day.”
Jack tossed his head back with laughter. “Very funny, Kate.”
She gave him a wicked grin as she finished the song. “This one’s for everyone else,” she said, launching into a haunting rendition of Sarah McLaughlin’s “I Will Remember You.”
“She sure is something, isn’t she?” Madeline Harrington asked Clare.
Clare had been so absorbed in Kate, she hadn’t seen Jack walk away. She glanced at her former mother-in-law. “She sure is. She’s going to get where she wants to be.”
“I’m not sure whether to hope for that or against it,” Madeline said with a sigh.
“You don’t approve.”
“It’s not about approval. I worry—no more or less than you and Jack, I’m sure.”
“I have a good feeling about it. I didn’t at first, but she inherited Jack’s ability to get things done. I don’t think I ever really saw that before now.”
“You’ve succeeded in making a doting old grandmother feel better,” Madeline said with a smile. “It’s so good to have you here with us. Sometimes I still can’t believe it. We wished for it for so long.”
Touched, Clare squeezed the older woman’s hand. “Thank you for all the phone calls and cards and visits. You’ve always been so good to me.”
“I love you, Clare, and I always will. For the rest of my life you are my daughter-in-law, and next summer I want to see you at Haven Hill, do you hear me?” Madeline referred to her home on Block Island where they’d summered together for years when the girls were younger.
“I promise,” Clare said as she hugged her. “I love you, too, Madeline.”
“Well, I told Betty I’d help her get the babies down. It’s going to take both grannies to settle those rascals.”
Clare chuckled. “Good luck.”
Jill walked up to them with a baby brother in one arm and the ice bucket in the other. She handed the baby to her grandmother. “I hear you’re on bedtime duty.”
“That’s right.” Madeline held her grandson up to gaze at him. “And which one are you, my love?”
“Robby,” Jill said. “I think.”
“Does that need a refill?” Clare asked, pointing to the ice bucket. When Jill nodded, Clare took it from her. “I’ll do it.”
“Thanks, Mom. Right through there,” Jill said, pointing the way.
“I’ll find it.” Clare wove through clusters of people on her way to the hallway off the great room. She pushed open the swinging kitchen door to find Jack resting his forehead against Andi’s. Her hands were on his face as she spoke softly to him.
Clare froze. “I’m sorry.”
Chapter 9
As if she’d touched something hot, Andi’s hands fell from her husband’s face.
“Clare, come in,” Jack said.
Clare felt her cheeks heat with color. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t,” Andi said graciously. “Do we need more ice?” She took the bucket from Clare. “It’s out in the garage. I’ll get it.”
When Clare turned to go back the way she’d come, Jack stopped her. “Clare.”
She turned to him and fought through her embarrassment at having witnessed a tender moment between her ex-husband and his new wife.
“I’m glad you came tonight. I know it means a lot to Kate that you’re here.”
She nodded. “We’re going soon. I still get tired far too easily, and you’ve got an early morning.”
He groaned. “She wants to leave at five.”
Clare smiled. “She’s not wasting a minute.”
“We’d be leaving at midnight if she’d had her way.”
“Your mother’s worried about Kate.”
“Believe me, I know. I’ve heard all about it.”
“Well, have a safe trip, and thanks again for taking her.”
“I promised I would.”
“Make sure she calls me when you get there.”
“Will do. When are you leaving for Vermont?”
“In the next few days. I’ve been so busy getting Kate ready that I haven’t packed a thing for myself yet.”
“Keep in touch while you’re there.”
“I will.”
Andi came back in with the refilled ice bucket.
Jack took it from her. “I’ve got it,” he said and went back out to the party.
Clare started to follow him but turned back. “Andi?” she said. “I want to thank you for giving this lovely party for Kate.”
“It was my pleasure,” Andi said with a warm smile.
“And for everything else, too. You’ve been so good to my girls. I just…well…thank you.”
“I love them.”
“Yes, I believe you do.”
“We’re glad you could be here tonight. Jack told me you’re planning to go away for a while. We’ll take good care of Maggie for you. Don’t worry about her.”
“I appreciate that. I know it’s an imposition with all you have going on.”
Andi’s eyes danced with amusement. “Are you kidding me? She’s the biggest help with the boys—all of them. I’m lost without her on the days she’s at your house.”
Clare smiled, imagining Maggie bossing everyone around. “I’m glad she’s a help to you.”
“Take care of yourself, Clare. We’ll take care of Maggie.”
“Thank you.” God, Clare thought, that was awkward. Yet she was oddly relieved to know that her daughter was well loved by the woman who’d be helping to care for her while Clare put her life back together.
“May I borrow the birthday girl?” Clare asked.
Kate took a last bite of cake and set her plate down on the table. “Excuse me,” she said to her friends.
“Is there somewhere we can talk?”
“Come on upstairs.” Kate led her mother through a maze of boxes to the far end of the second floor.
Clare tried not to wonder which of the closed doors led to the bedroom Jack shared with Andi.
“Sorry about the mess,” Kate said. “We put all our energy into downstairs to get ready for tonight.”
“I can’t believe how much you’ve all gotten done in just over a month.”
In Kate’s room, one last suitcase lay open on the floor. Clare marveled at how quickly Kate had managed to put her unique stamp on the room.
“All ready?” Clare asked as it set in that she wouldn’t see her middle daughter again for some time.
“Just about.” Kate sat next to her mother on the bed. “Thanks for coming tonight. I know it wasn’t easy for you.”
“It was a lovely party.”
Kate smiled. “Andi did it up.”
“Yes, she did. I’ll miss you, Kate.”
When Kate leaned over to rest her head on her
mother’s shoulder, Clare realized the girl was crying.
“What, baby?” Clare gathered her daughter into her arms, wishing she could turn back to the clock to when Kate was little and relied on her for everything.
“I just feel bad leaving right now.”
“Because of me?”
Kate nodded.
Clare ached at the pain she saw on her daughter’s face. “Honey, listen. I’ll be just fine. I want you to go to Nashville and have this big adventure and enjoy every minute of it. I don’t want you to spend one second worrying about me, okay?”
Kate nodded again and wiped her face. “Okay.”
“Promise?” Clare tipped up her daughter’s chin so she could see her lovely blue eyes.
“I promise.”
“I want you to call me all the time. I want to hear all about what you’re up to. No detail is too small for your mother.”
Kate chuckled. “You got it.”
“I love you, Kate. We all do. And we’re so proud of you for having the courage to do this.”
“I love you, too. I wake up every day and feel so grateful to have you back.”
“I’m here for you any time you need me, no matter where I am.” Clare hugged her again. “Walk me back down?”
Kate brushed away the last of her tears. “Sure.”
Downstairs, Clare found her mother sitting with Jack’s parents.
“Ready to call it a night, Mom?” Clare asked.
“Whenever you are.”
Madeline and John got up to hug them both.
“So great to see you, honey,” John said.
“You too.”
Maggie came over to them. “Are you leaving?”
“I think so. Want to come home tonight?”
“Let me ask Dad.” Maggie dashed off to find Jack.
Right then Clare acknowledged another seismic shift in her life—the girls now deferred to Jack. Clare had always been the boss, and before her accident it wouldn’t have occurred to any of them to ask Jack’s permission if she was in the room. She’d been absent just long enough for that dynamic to change.
Maggie came back. “Dad wants me to stay here tonight because Grandma and Grandpa are going back to Connecticut tomorrow.”
“That’s fine, honey. I can come pick you up tomorrow afternoon.”
Maggie kissed her mother and grandmother good-bye.
Clare and Anna said their good-byes and walked to the door with Jack and Andi. It was all so civilized, she thought, so goddamned civilized. What would they say, she wondered, if she let loose with the rage she felt boiling in her gut? What would they do if she grabbed Jack by the arm and dragged him out of there?
“It was a great party,” Clare said, resisting the urge to take back what had once been hers. “Thank you again.”
“Thanks for coming,” Andi said.
“Drive carefully tomorrow,” Anna said to Jack.
He hugged them both. “I will.”
Clare kept quiet on the ride home, trying to absorb it all.
“Nice party,” Anna finally said.
“Very,” Clare agreed. “You were right, Mom. Thank you for making me go.”
“Mothers are always right. Don’t you know that by now?”
“You’re gloating!” Clare said with a grin. “I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
“That’s probably because Andi’s so nice.”
“She really is. If he had to be with someone else, I’m glad it’s someone the girls like.”
“If they didn’t like her, he wouldn’t be with her.”
“No. No, he wouldn’t.”
Kate woke up at four in the morning, her heart hammering with anticipation. And dread. Her eighteenth birthday—the day she’d been waiting and planning for, but she hadn’t expected to be so sad about leaving her family.
She got up to shower. When she was dressed, she tiptoed down the hallway to the nursery next to the room her dad shared with Andi. The babies slept peacefully in the predawn, and Kate was careful not to wake them. She leaned first over Robby’s crib and then Johnny’s to watch the soft whisper of their breathing. Her eyes filled with tears. They would grow up while she was gone, and she would be a stranger to them on her infrequent trips home.
“Hey,” Andi whispered when she came into the room. “You all ready?”
“I hope I didn’t disturb you,” Kate said with a nod to the baby monitor.
“No. Your dad’s up, so I got up, too. Are you all right, Kate?”
Kate turned back to Johnny’s crib. “They won’t know me,” she said as a rush of tears flooded her eyes.
“Oh, sweetie, they will. We’ll talk about you all the time, and we’ll bring them to visit you.”
Kate brightened. “You will?”
“Of course. We’ll all come.”
“I’ll miss them,” Kate said with a last look at the babies. “I was unprepared for how much I’d love them.”
“And I was unprepared for how much I love you,” Andi said.
Kate stepped into her stepmother’s outstretched arms. “I love you, too,” she whispered.
Jack walked into the room with his hair still wet from the shower to find his daughter silently weeping in his wife’s arms. “Hey, hey, what’s this all about?” He ushered them into the hallway and closed the door to the nursery.
“Kate’s feeling sad about leaving her baby brothers,” Andi said as she wiped the tears from Kate’s face.
Jack kissed Kate’s forehead and hugged her. “We’ll send lots of pictures,” he promised. “Are you ready to go?”
“Almost,” Kate said. “I have a few more good-byes first.”
“I’ll grab your bag and meet you downstairs when you’re ready,” Jack said.
“Thanks.” Kate opened Eric’s bedroom door and crept into the quiet room. She kissed the sleeping boy’s warm neck until he woke up with a giggle.
“I’m going now,” Kate signed.
His big blue eyes were solemn. “No, I won’t let you.”
“Take good care of our babies for me, okay?”
He nodded, and Kate held out her arms to him. She hugged him for a long time before she pulled back to look at him. “You are my brother, and I love you, Eric Harrington.” Jack’s adoption of Andi’s son had only become final a week ago, but he had felt like a little brother to Kate for much longer.
“I love you, too,” he signed.
“Want to help me wake up Maggie and Jill?”
He grinned and jumped on her back for the ride down the hallway.
Kate wept until long after they crossed the Newport Bridge on their way to Interstate 95 south. Saying good-bye to her sisters, her grandparents, Andi, and Eric had been awful. For the first time, Kate questioned the wisdom of what she was doing. She’d been so sure it was what she wanted, but the reality was daunting. However, it was all in motion now, and there was no turning back.
“You okay, hon?” Jack asked.
“I guess so. Leaving was worse than I thought it would be.”
“I don’t think there’s any way to adequately prepare for leaving home.”
“I’ve been so focused on where I’m going that I haven’t given much thought to what I’m leaving behind.”
“You’ll probably be homesick at first, but as you make friends and get into a routine, it’ll get easier.”
“You sure made things worse by having those babies just before I left,” she said with a weak grin. “Thanks for that.”
He grimaced. “I’m sorry. Hey! Did anyone remember to say happy birthday?”
She laughed. “No!”
“Happy birthday to you—” he sang.
She held up a hand to stop him. “Leave the singing to me, please.” They settled into companionable silence for a while. “Thanks for doing this, Dad. I know it’s a bad time for you to be away from home.”
“I’m eagerly anticipating six full nights of sleep, but don’t tell Andi I said that.�
��
Kate laughed. “Your secret’s safe with me. So how long will it take to get there?”
“About seventeen hours in a regular car. In this tank, who knows? Probably more like twenty. We’ll see how it goes. If we’re getting tired, we can stop for the night. I talked to my friend Reid yesterday, and he insisted we use the guesthouse at his place in Brentwood until we move you into your apartment. He said we can get there any time, and it’s ready for us.”
“That’s nice of him.”
“He’s a good guy. Uncle Jamie and I had a lot of fun with him at Berkeley, but I haven’t seen him since then. Jamie was better at keeping in touch with him than I was. In fact, it was Jamie’s idea for me to call him.”
“Is he an architect, too?”
“I think he keeps up his license, but he’s ventured more into real estate development. From what I hear, he’s been hugely successful at it.”
“Does he have a family?”
“He’s got a son, who has to be twenty-five by now. Reid got married the same week we graduated from Berkeley, and his son was born that year. The son is an attorney, and he lives in the same apartment complex where your place will be.”
“Is Reid still married?”
Jack shook his head. “His wife died young in a car accident. I remember when it happened. It was really sad because his son was just a little guy at the time.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
As Kate talked with her dad, she felt her sadness shift back to excitement. She was finally on her way to Nashville.
Part II: Forward March
The command that tells the group to begin marching forward.
Chapter 10
“Kate.” Jack nudged her. “Wake up.”
She stretched. “Where are we?”
“A couple of miles outside the city. You can see it, though.”
As Kate took her first-ever look at Nashville, she wondered if she would find what she was looking for somewhere amid the lights and buildings that made up Music City USA’s nighttime skyline.