“She’ll be a wonderful grandmother. Just ask Lissa.”
Karin’s smile faltered slightly. A little of the sun slipped from the room. “Lissa’s mad at you, you know.”
“Part of being a parent. You’ll find that out soon enough.”
“It’s probably my fault.”
“That she’s mad at me?” He wasn’t going to go into her reasons. “No, she’s mad because I’m a mean, mean dad. We’ll survive, don’t worry.”
He leaned over and touched her lips with his. It was a gentle kiss, a tender kiss, a kiss that could go on forever. His heart soared into flight, but he brought it back down to earth and pulled away.
“Thanks for everything,” she said softly. Her eyes were glowing as if life was filled with sunshine.
“Sure.” His felt filled with rain.
Chapter Eleven
Karin braced herself as the convertible slowly went around the corner. It probably wouldn’t do for one of the festival grand marshals to tumble off the back of her car in the parade. Her smile grew a little wider as she continued to wave to the crowds along the parade route.
Little kids, teens, adults and elders, most dressed in Oz costumes, were lining the streets. They were all waving to her and Elmer, and taking pictures. Behind their car was the Chesterton High School marching band, and then came floats and civic groups and social clubs and sports teams, some antique cars and tractors and more.
“Good crowd this year,” Elmer said to her.
“Seems like it.”
Actually, Karin hadn’t been back for the festival for several years and she had never been in a position to judge the size of the crowds. Even so, the interest she had today in the crowds wasn’t so much in their size as in whom she was passing. So far, she hadn’t seen Jed or Lissa and the parade was almost over.
But then, over near the park, she saw them. Jed standing so tall and Lissa looking so excited. The little girl was beside herself waving and shouting to Karin, while Jed just smiled at her. And the smile seemed to melt her heart into—
She stopped, frozen in half wave. Her heart? She put her hand on the frilly pink sash around her waist, but it wasn’t the baby she was feeling. It was something else.
She looked back over at Jed and felt that stirring again, that sense of wonder and expansion and amazement. She felt infinitely rich and more alive than she ever had before.
Not only did she have a heart, she was in love. And it was wonderful. Maybe she ought to be shocked or scared or in denial, but she couldn’t be. It truly felt wonderful. She wanted to dance and sing and shout it out to everyone.
But all she did was give Jed a slight wave and smile before the car turned another corner and they were lost from sight. Then she spent the time waving to the hundreds of Dorothys along the way as her mind explored this idea of love. To try it on and see if it fit. Or rather, try it on and delight in its newness.
“Nice young man, you’ve got there,” Elmer said to her. “It’s obvious that he cares a lot for you.”
“Is it?”
Her newly liberated heart did a little dance of joy, twirling in the sunshine of her love. Maybe once this was all over, she and Jed could see each other again. Maybe they could try to build a real relationship. One based on feelings, not a lie.
Maybe he would like to come to see the baby when it was born. Or even be there when it was, but maybe her dreams were going too wild. Maybe she needed to take it slow and not build up expectations until she had a little more basis for them.
The convertible turned into the junior-high-school parking lot, pulling around into an empty spot to make room for the vehicles behind them. Betsy McKinley hurried over, checking her clipboard.
“Okay, you have two hours,” she said. “Then you need to be at the library for the start of the play. Oh, and Karin, there’s a reporter who was asking to interview you.”
“Sure, why not?”
All Karin had wanted to do was hurry over to see Jed, not to tell him about her feelings just yet, but to be with him. She had other responsibilities though. And maybe he’d be walking over this way to meet her. She could always hope.
Betsy waved a woman over. A photographer trailed behind. “Dr. Spencer says she has time for a few questions,” she called out.
Karin had a moment’s misgivings as she watched the woman and the photographer come over. She had no idea why her stomach was jittery. The woman was probably in her mid-thirties and dressed well enough, but her eyes glittered with a look that struck Karin as being hungry.
“This is Mary Catherine Cooper,” Betsy was saying. “With Worldwide News.”
The supermarket tabloid? Why would one of those newspapers that traded on the sensational be doing a story on the Wizard of Oz Festival? Karin’s feeling of uneasiness grew. She hoped they weren’t going to try to sensationalize something about the festival.
“What can I do for you, Ms. Cooper?” Karin asked as the photographer, after a nod from the reporter, started taking pictures. Karin knew her voice sounded cool, but she couldn’t shake her worries. “Can we walk as we’re talking? I need to get to the next event.”
It wasn’t strictly true as she had plenty of time to walk the six blocks, but it gave her more control over the interview.
“Whatever works for you, Doctor,” the woman said. “And you can call me Cooper. That’s what everybody does.”
“Fine.” Though Karin didn’t expect to be talking to her long enough to call her one thing or another.
She lifted her skirts slightly to avoid the gravelly surface of the parking lot and started walking. The reporter walked alongside her, taking out a small tape recorder and flicking it on while the photographer walked backward ahead of them, taking shots as they walked. How many shots did they want, for goodness’ sakes?
“Is it true that you’re engaged to Jed McCarron?” the woman asked.
It wasn’t the type of question Karin expected to be asked. And not one she particularly wanted to answer. Her steps faltered. “I beg your pardon?” she said. “Why in the world would your readers care about that?”
“Just how did you meet Jed and his daughter?” Cooper went on as if Karin hadn’t spoken. “Are either of them patients of yours?”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Karin exclaimed. “I thought this was an interview about the festival.”
“You’re not denying that you know Jed McCarron and his daughter, Melissa, are you?”
“No, I’m not denying it,” Karin snapped. “But I do fail to see what interest it would be to anyone at all.”
The woman hurried her steps and turned so she was facing Karin, the tape recorder held out to catch every word. Every nuance.
“The Crunchy Flakes kid is one of the most popular figures in the country,” Cooper said. “Our readers want to know all about her.”
“All about who?” This interview was turning bizarre. Was it too late to change her mind? “Look, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I have commitments and need to go.”
But the reporter wasn’t giving up that easily. “Is there some reason you don’t want to talk about the medical condition of Lissa or her father? Are you claiming doctor-patient privilege?”
“I’m not claiming anything,” Karin snapped and looked around her. Damn. There were nothing but houses along here. If there was anything even remotely related to the festival, she would have claimed it needed her attention. She hurried her stride instead. “I don’t have the slightest idea who or what you are talking about.”
“Come on, Doctor. You expect me to believe that this Melissa McCarron is not the Melissa McCarron who’s the Crunchy Flakes kid?”
Karin stared at the woman, her exasperation growing. “I never heard of Crunchy Flakes or the Crunchy Flakes kid.”
The woman pulled some papers out of her pocket and thrust them at Karin. “That’s not your Melissa McCarron?”
Karin stopped walking and looked at the top paper. It was an
ad for the cereal, featuring a little girl in overalls, curly light brown hair and the biggest, warmest brown eyes in creation. No, the second biggest and warmest. Jed had his daughter beat in that department.
Karin looked at the other papers. They were clippings from various newspapers, but all with the same photo accompanying a short article on the festival. The photo had been taken at the elementary school and showed a group of kids painting yellow bricks on the school sidewalk. Lissa—recognizably so—was front and center.
Karin wanted to deny that she’d ever seen this little girl before, but couldn’t. Her newly discovered heart quivered slightly. How could she be hoping for a future between her and Jed when he didn’t even care enough to share this truth about Lissa?
“She’s a worldwide spokesperson for the cereal,” Cooper said. “They feature her in all their television ads.”
Karin shook her head slowly, her eyes still glued to the paper. “I hardly watch television, and if I do, I don’t pay attention to the ads.”
“I see,” Cooper said. “You’re engaged to Melissa’s father, but didn’t know she’s a celebrity?”
Karin realized the photographer was still taking pictures. Something tightened up inside her, something turned cold and pushed the world away.
“I still don’t see why any of this matters,” she said.
“Because she was voted the most popular kid in America,” Cooper said. “And if there’s a rumor she’s moving to Indiana just when her contract is up for renewal, her career could go down the tubes.”
“With your gentle help,” Karin pointed out.
The reporter shrugged. “If she’s a story, we have the right to tell it.”
“Well, she’s not,” Karin snapped. “She’s just a kid on vacation.”
“She’s not a story or she’s not moving here?”
Karin frowned. If she walked away from this reporter, the woman would write the story anyway. But it would probably be filled with lies and innuendos. Lissa’s career could be ruined either way. Well, not either way.
“There’s no story,” Karin said. “Wherever you got your information, it was wrong. Jed and Lissa are here on vacation, that’s all. They’ll be returning to Los Angeles tomorrow to resume Lissa’s career.”
Cooper gave her a long look. “Is Jed McCarron the father of your child?”
Karin looked her straight in the eye. “No, he’s not.”
Cooper’s face fell, and she clicked off the tape recorder. “Damn.”
The photographer lowered the camera. “Now what?”
Cooper shrugged. “We do a story on America’s most popular kid on vacation.”
“But you’ll spoil her fun if you follow her around with a camera,” Karin protested.
The reporter just looked at her. “You got a better story I can send in?” she asked wearily. “This is a business, Doc. My editors sent me out here to get a story, I have to bring one back.”
She slipped her recorder into her pocket and nodded to the photographer. “Let’s go find her.”
Karin stood still and watched them walk toward the festival area downtown. So Lissa was famous and Jed was a liar. No, she guessed he hadn’t actually lied if one defined the word narrowly. He hadn’t ever said to her that Lissa wasn’t famous. He just hadn’t ever told her she was.
Why? Had he thought he couldn’t trust Karin to keep the secret? All he would have had to do was threaten to tell they weren’t really engaged. Even if he hadn’t trusted her, he should have known she wouldn’t tell. No, he hadn’t told for one simple reason—it hadn’t mattered if she knew.
It was kind of funny, in a strange way. Here she had been sure she had no heart, and she finds out she did because she could feel it breaking.
Keeping her eye out for the Worldwide News crew, Karin walked through the crowd at the vendors’ booths along Main Street. There were thousands of people looking at the Wizard of Oz memorabilia and the other crafts, but she didn’t see the Worldwide News people or Jed and Lissa. She just hoped the reporter hadn’t found them already. Karin had no idea how she felt about any of this, but she knew she had to warn Jed.
“Karin, hey. You look—” Heather stopped, a worried frown on her face. “What’s the matter?”
Was it that obvious? She tried to smooth the worry lines away. “Nothing. I just can’t find Jed and Lissa.”
Heather’s frown faded and she laughed. “Hey, a man that much in love can’t be far away.”
The words jabbed at her heart, needles trying to burst the little dream she’d been so foolishly building. But she had to hide the hurt under a smile. “Well, if you see him, would you tell him I need to talk to him?”
“Sure will.” Heather started to walk past, then stopped. “Wait a minute. I do know where he is. Your mom said she sent him back to the bar to get her another roll of film.”
“Maybe I can catch him there.” Karin forced her smile to last a moment longer. “Thanks loads.”
Actually, that would be great if he was in the bar, Karin thought and hurried down Morgan Street. It would mean they could talk undisturbed, though Karin had no idea what she was going to say to him. But what was there to say? All the hurt was because of fantasies she’d concocted, not because of anything he’d said or done. She would just warn him about the reporters, not bring up any of the rest of it.
When she went into the bar and found him on his way out, she forgot all her plans. All she knew was the pain so new, so strong, that she couldn’t think of anything else.
“You lied to me,” she cried. “You said you were a cowboy.”
Jed stopped, looking confused. “I am.”
“Oh, yeah. Right.” Karin snorted. “And your daughter is just an ordinary little girl. Not some kind of worldwide spokesperson for a big cereal company.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” He was acting confused.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“It never came up,” he said. “And I don’t see what difference it makes anyway.”
Not see what difference it makes? The fact that he kept something so major from her didn’t make a difference? That in itself was as hurtful as an outright lie would have been.
“It seems pretty odd that it never got mentioned,” she said.
“There are lots of things that never got mentioned this past week.”
But nothing so major. Nothing that anchored him so firmly in California. Nothing that made her stupid little dreams impossible.
“I suppose you’re right,” she said stiffly, “I’m making a fuss over nothing. Why, I didn’t tell you that I usually use French dressing on my salads and you aren’t fussing about that.”
“Lissa being in cereal ads has nothing to do with anything,” he snapped. “It didn’t make any difference to anything we were doing here.”
“No?”
“No.” There was no doubt in his voice. “She wanted to be a regular kid on this vacation. She didn’t want anyone fussing over her. So that’s what we did. I didn’t hurt anybody by going along with that wish.”
Only a foolish woman who had learned about love the hard way. But that was a consequence to be hidden at all costs.
“Mom and I wouldn’t have rushed around telling people, you know.” She tried to keep the pain out of her voice. “We would have kept her secret.”
“There was no reason to tell it. No one recognized her. There was no need to protect her.”
As an argument, it would have worked with anyone he hadn’t made love to. Anyone who hadn’t shared her deepest fears with him. Anyone who hadn’t found out she had a heart by falling in love with him.
But those were her problems and her way of seeing things. Obviously, none of those things had mattered to him.
“Well, you’re wrong about no one recognizing her.” Karin didn’t even bother to hide the weariness in her voice. “A reporter approached me a few minutes ago. She wanted to interview me about you and Lissa. When she found out there was no stor
y, she went looking for you both.”
“Damn.” A montage of emotions danced across his face. Anger, impatience, determination, decision. He clutched the box of film a bit tighter. “We’re going to have to get out of here and quick. By dinner, reporters will be on this place like a swarm of locusts.”
Karin froze up inside as he disappeared into the hall. She heard his steps on the stairs up to the apartment. That was it? Reporters were around, so it was goodbye Chesterton? It was what she had expected, but she had hoped for something else.
She turned and followed him upstairs. She found him in her mom’s bedroom, packing up Lissa’s things.
“She’ll miss the rest of the festival,” Karin said.
He shrugged. “It can’t be helped. It’s not that I really mind talking to a reporter, but once Lissa gets recognized, people converge on her. It’s not safe without Crunchy Flake’s security people to keep control.”
“That doesn’t seem like much of a life,” she said.
He looked up at her, his eyes defensive, his jaw tight. He zipped the bag shut sharply. “It was her choice. All along,” he pointed out. “She got into it on a whim and chose to stay. No one’s forced her.”
“Does she know that?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped and swung the bag off the bed. “That I’m subliminally making her stay in advertising? What kind of a father do you think I am?”
“How would I know?” she snapped back. “It’s not like I know you.”
His brown eyes were pools of turmoil. “No, you don’t. Not any more than I know you. Lucky we kept it that way.”
“It certainly is.”
He turned and stomped into the other bedroom. Their room. She just stood still, frozen to the spot, with her eyes closed as she listened to the soft sounds of him packing his things. It hurt more than she had ever expected. The baby moved inside her, as if it was trying to keep him here, too, and somehow the pain was all that much greater.
What a fool she had been to let herself fall in love. She should never have started that stupid pretense. From the start she should have admitted the truth to her mother and friends. All she was left with was pain. She heard his steps coming back this way and she opened her eyes.
Pregnant & Practically Married (The Bridal Circle #3) Page 18