For All of Her Life (28 page)

By midnight, the Miami Beach officer left them. Within the next hour, Mickey Dean was gone as well. Jeremy, Joe, Angel, and Jordan locked all the doors to the house and set the alarm. Mickey had contacted a private agency and had hired two men to watch the house for the following week. While all this was going on, Kathy met Jordan’s eyes. The danger wouldn’t come from outside tonight, they both knew it. But they had to go through all the right steps anyway.

Right before going up to bed, Tara sat beside Kathy on the couch on the porch. “I—I’ve got some Valium, if you think you could use one. Hell, any doctor in the country would suggest you take a pill tonight.”

“I’m all right, really. The drink was great. I’ll sleep like a rock.”

Tara shook her head. “You’re something. If someone had held a knife to my throat a few hours ago, I’d still be screaming. You’re brave.”

Kathy shook her head, smiling. “No, I’m not. I was in terror while that guy threatened me. But he was probably just some hired punk. If I’d been brave, I would have decked him.”

Tara laughed. “If you’d tried, you might be dead now.”

“Actually, I don’t think I could have done it. He was so damned strong! But it’s over and I’m all right, and we’ll all be really careful until we know just what’s going on.”

Tara nodded, and shivered. “I think I’ll have another drink. Hell, maybe I’ll have that Valium. If I don’t I’ll lie awake all night. But I’m just down the hall from you. If you get scared, come down and cuddle. We’ll slumber-party it.” She stopped speaking suddenly, as if embarrassed to realize that she had just admitted she would not be sleeping with Jordan. She shrugged, eyeing Kathy with sudden suspicion. “But then, you have Jeremy, don’t you?”

The way she looked at her then made Kathy uneasy. “I’m sure I’ll curl up in a little ball all by myself tonight,” Kathy told her lightly.

Tara stood looking down at her. “Yeah. I’ll bet.” She leaned down over Kathy. “You know, when I put my mind to it, I can usually raise the damned dead.”

“And what does that mean?”

Tara smiled. “It just means... I wonder.”

“About what.”

“Your love life with Adonis.”

Kathy offered her a very deep smile. “Jeremy?”

“Mmm.”

“He’s a completely loyal man, Tara.”

“If you say so.” Tara smiled, then added more seriously, “If you get frightened, come see me, though I’m certainly no heroine!”

“Thanks,” Kathy called after her.

Tara went over to Jordan, and Kathy noted that he instinctively slipped an arm around her, even as he replied to something that Angel was saying. A knife seemed to turn in Kathy’s stomach. There was a relationship there. Deeper than she’d wanted to believe.

And Tara wasn’t really so bad.

She made a point of slipping up to bed herself as quickly as she could after Tara said good night, disengaging herself from Jordan when his concern for her had come forth all over again.

The girls followed her upstairs, hugging her, clucking over her.

“I’m all right, I swear it. This wasn’t really so big a deal, guys!”

“Right. You were almost murdered.”

“I was threatened.”

“With a knife. You might have been killed.”

“Not tonight,” Kathy murmured.

“Still...”

They were right. She was very happy to be alive. She hugged them both fiercely, forgetting her pain, and they lay together for a while, the three of them, close in body and spirit.

“Dad would have killed him,” Alex supplied.

“If he’d gotten his hands on him,” Bren added.

“If Dad had killed him, Dad would be in jail, so let’s be glad it didn’t happen, huh?”

“Dad was good though, huh?” Alex asked her. “A perfect gentleman.”

“’Cause he loves you,” Bren supplied softly.

“Oh, guys, don’t start, please!” she begged softly. “You know your dad; he’s the most protective guy in the world. It’s his nature.”

“He does love you,” Bren insisted.

“I’m your mother, a very old part of his life,” Kathy said. She hesitated. “Yes, he probably still loves me. A little, maybe. Don’t go making things out of it.”

“We won’t,” Alex said.

“Go to bed, huh?” Kathy suggested.

“Yeah, sure.” They both kissed her again, rising, and started from the room.

“I’m still sure he loves her,” Bren said, speaking to Alex again as if Kathy couldn’t possibly hear her.

“Sparks. There are absolutely sparks around them,” Alex agreed.

“If we could just get rid of Tara—”

“And Jeremy.”

“Jeremy’s no problem!” Bren reminded her sister.

“Oh, yeah. Right. Tara then.”

“Girls!” Kathy wailed.

“Good night, Mom. Call if you need anything,” Alex said. The two left, closing her door behind them.

Kathy closed her eyes. She tried to sleep. The drink hadn’t helped enough. She rose, thinking about venturing down the hall to ask Tara for a Valium, but walked to the window instead and stared out.

She could see Jordan, silhouetted in the frame of the guest house window. She was suddenly glad to know that he was alone.

Watching over her.

It was wrong. He was more involved with Tara than he cared to admit, and he assumed Kathy was cheating on a lover who trusted her implicitly. Not good, since the trust factor had been such an important issue between them. So what did it all mean?

That sex was good.

So for the next week occasionally, they’d have sex.

She almost groaned aloud. Surely, she had more will power than what she was displaying!

But she was locked into this now. They both were. They all were. Blue Heron was getting back together. And come what may, they were taking the roller-coaster ride.

Just what the hell had occurred ten years ago?

She didn’t know, but they had to find out. Maybe it wouldn’t even matter how they felt about it. Maybe the truth was going to come out one way or the other and each day was taking them inexorably closer to the past...

Jordan raised a hand to her in acknowledgment. She raised a hand in return.

After a minute, she left the window. Oddly enough, she was now able to sleep.

Despite the late hour when she’d retired, Kathy rose early. It was Sunday. She showered and donned a cool sundress, amazed that the fear she had known during the night had already largely faded.

She wanted to go to church.

She loved the beautiful old Episcopal Cathedral just over on the mainland on the outskirts of downtown Miami. The organ was spectacular, and they sometimes had extraordinary flutists and even bagpipe players at services.

She didn’t want to behave foolishly, but neither did she want to be a prisoner. If she took the right precautions, surely no one would be looking for her in church.

When she came downstairs, things were quiet. Peggy must have been up and about because chafing dishes filled with breakfast goodies had appeared in the dining room. A large silver samovar offered coffee, and Kathy helped herself to a cup, then wandered out to the porch. She was curious when she noted that someone was already lying on one of the lounges by the pool, so she let herself out of the house through the porch door and circled around.

She cried out with delight when she saw the man stretched out in the lounge. “Dad! I mean—Gerrit!”

He was up in a matter of seconds, a tall, very straight, handsome man with thinning, snow white hair, an aging but wonderfully sculpted face, and one of the world’s best smiles. Jordan’s father had always been extraordinary. Kathy had kept up with him a bit over the years, Christmas cards and pictures, anything that concerned the girls.

“Kathy!” he exclaimed with pleasure. She thought he was going to take her hand, but he gave her a tremendous bear hug instead, from which she barely salvaged her coffee.

He pulled away from her a second later, rescuing the teetering coffee cup and setting it upon the ground, then holding both her hands and eyeing her somberly and carefully. “You look wonderful, Kathryn, absolutely wonderful. A sight for sore old eyes.”

“You look wonderful, too. And those eyes don’t look sore or old. You’re the picture of health. What have you been up to?”

“Diving in Mexico,” he told her. “I just became certified in cave diving.”

Kathy laughed. “Good for you. Was it fun?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve been telling your mother all about it, trying to get her interested.”

Kathy smiled. “Mom’s living in New York, you know. The opportunities for cave diving are limited there.”

“Ah, but in the world are many opportunities.”

“Maybe,” Kathy agreed politely.

He swept out a hand to her. “Have a seat.”

She joined him, sitting on the lounge next to his as he sat, still watching her. “How are the books going?”

“Great. I really do love my work.”

“There’s not much more than that you can ask of life. A good job, health, happiness. How about the last, Kathy? You happy?”

She grinned. “Sir, subtlety does not seem to be one of your virtues.”

“It’s sir, now? What happened to ‘Dad’?”

“I...”

“You didn’t divorce
me,
did you?” A lot of Jordan came straight from his father. Gerrit liked to tease, even torment, but he’d give a stranger in need the shirt off his back. He had his ideals and beliefs, and he stuck to them like glue; he also had the most infectious grin Kathy had ever seen. He seemed truly pleased to make her smile with him as he dug into her just enough to bring both pain and laughter.

“I didn’t divorce your son.”

“Hmmm. Good point. So why won’t you call me ‘Dad’?”

“I don’t mean to be presumptuous.”

“To whom?”

“Well... to anyone, I suppose.”

“I’m the one it should matter to, and it’s hurting my feelings deeply that you don’t greet me with the same old affection. So?”

“So...” Kathy returned, gazing at him, still unable not to smile. “So, Dad, how’s the world treating you.”

“Fine. Now that I’m learning how to live without Mom.”

“Everyone still misses her terribly.”

“Thanks. I wish she was around to go cave diving with me. I just tell her about it in my dreams.”

“My father used to say those who went before us became angels on our shoulders. I always think of him that way, kind of seeing after me—and the girls, of course.”

“And you need him in New York City!”

“It’s not a den of iniquity.”

“No more so than Miami, eh?”

“No more so.” She laughed.

“Glad to be back to singing?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

“Sure. I think. I don’t know. I haven’t really done anything in so long...”

“It will come back to you.”

“I was never the main talent in the group.”

He wagged a finger at her. “You never saw your own talent. There’s a difference.”

“First practice is tomorrow.”

“Ummm. I hear there was some trouble last night.”

“Minor. It’s over. In fact...”

“In fact, what?” he asked.

“I know I promised Jordan to stay close, and I don’t want to do anything foolish, but I was dying to head over—”

“Ah! To the cathedral. The pipers are playing today.”

“Are they?”

“Want to slip over?”

“Think you can arrange it?”

“Sure. You just sit tight.”

With an arched brow, she watched as Gerrit stood and headed for the guest house. A few minutes later he came walking back, crooking a finger her way. She stood, intrigued, and followed him. He took her arm and escorted her through the house to the front.

“You talked to your son?”

“I did.”

“And?”

Angel pulled up at the front of the house, having driven from the garage. He was behind the wheel of an old, well-kept but nondescript Lincoln. His father was in the front seat beside him.

“Our chariot awaits,” Gerrit said, propelling her toward the car.

Not until she had been ushered into the middle of the back seat did Kathy realize there was a man seated behind the driver. His hair was queued back, and he was wearing large sunglasses. In a tailored suit, he was the picture of a nineties executive.

“Jordan?”

“Dad said you wanted to go to church.” He sounded irritated.

“I didn’t mean to cause a problem.”

“Well, you did.”

“Gerrit, really—” Kathy began.

“Kathy,” the older man said, patting her knee, “you wanted to go to church for God’s sake, no pun intended.”

“I didn’t mean to make you come,” she told Jordan.

“Great, make me sound like an agnostic in front of my father.”

“You’re a grown man, Jordan; you’ve every right to be an agnostic if you choose.”

“Oh, God,” Kathy groaned, sinking farther into the seat.

The drive across the causeway to the church took only a few minutes. All four men waited patiently for Kathy to get out of the car.

“I feel as if I’m surrounded by the Mafia!” she hissed to Jordan as she alit.

“If you’re not careful, you’re going to need the damned Mafia,” he snapped back. “You had to hear bagpipers; let’s go hear them!”

The music was beautiful. They walked into the service completely unnoticed, taking seats in the back and to the side. Jordan was to Kathy’s left, Gerrit to her right.

Jordan wasn’t talkative. Gerrit was—despite the service going on. But he could be very soft spoken and discreet. “Lots of things happened here.”

“Yes.”

“The girls were baptized.”

“Ummm.”

“We buried your father. And my wife.”

“I remember.”

“You and Jordan were married.”

“Another lifetime.”

“How’s your friend?”

“Pardon?”

“Jeremy. Nice fellow.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Damned good looking.”

“Very.”

“Hot and heavy between you two?”

“Dad!”

“Well?”

“He’s a great person. And it’s a good relationship.”

“Must be a damned interesting one.”

“Oh?”

“Considering the fellow is
not
heterosexual.”

Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Thankfully, it was time for the sermon, and the reverend’s voice suddenly boomed out, saving her for a matter of seconds.

It was a beautiful speech, all about love and trust and honoring the vows that men and women make in life.