Campaigning for Love (5 page)

“You have a lot of things going on in your life right now. You just lost your mother. Part of why I made you come here this weekend was so you’d rest. You’ve been burying yourself in your work. Use this weekend for what I intended. Give yourself time to remember Alice, to find peace and say goodbye to her.”

He squeezed her hand. “She loved you so much. She was proud of all you’ve accomplished. But she wouldn’t be happy knowing you’re using those acts of charity to hide out from life, even the bad parts of it. You’re no coward, so why are you doing it?”

“I experience the bad part of life every day. You see what we deal with in family court. I’m trying to keep as many children as I can from going through what I did. They need to know someone cares about them.” She could justify everything she did. It was no one’s business if she buried herself in her work as an escape from the loneliness that nipped at her heels, its bleakness waiting to claim her, swallow her up in its blackness.

“If you don’t let yourself feel, even the hurt of losing someone you love, you can’t heal. You won’t be able to move on. You’ll always be running from who you are, from what made you who you are.”

He set his cup down. “Katherine, you mean the world to me. With Alice gone, you’re stuck with me and my meddling ways. Give Nick a chance. He isn’t the same boy you knew years ago any more than you’re the same girl. Don’t cheat yourself out of making a friend just because you’re scared you’ll get hurt again.”

Her gaze clashed with his. “I don’t want to be his friend. I don’t want to be his anything. He’ll finish his time in family court and be out of my life for good.” She rose and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for caring enough about me to interfere, though.”

The warmth of his concern and the cold weight of his request followed her out the door. He thought Nick had changed. That his respectful, responsible act was sincere. She knew better. He wanted the judge to back him for his candidacy. And the easiest way to win the judge’s approval was befriending her.

Not this time. Nick Delaney’s days of using her to get ahead were over.

Chapter 5

T
he next morning, a knock on her door woke Katherine from a sound sleep. When she peeked out into the hall, she found a breakfast tray on the floor with muffins, croissants, juice and coffee. She opened the door wider and looked across the hall. Nick’s door stood wide open and he was nowhere in sight. She carried the tray inside and closed the door with her foot.

After her en suite breakfast and a quick shower, she went downstairs in search of the men. The kitchen was empty. She wandered around, searching the rest of the house. Nick was on the back porch with a mug of coffee and the morning paper, his feet propped up.

She stopped in the doorway, unsure he’d welcome her company. “Are you who I should thank for my breakfast?”

He glanced up and gave her a warm smile that darkened his eyes. “Yeah, I didn’t want you to think you had to do everything. I pick breakfast up for the office on Fridays when I don’t have court. I’ve gotten pretty good at to-go orders.”

“Well, thanks. It was...it was nice of you.” More than ready to move away from any further expressions of gratitude, she asked, “Where’s Uncle Charles?”

“He took the dogs for a short walk through the neighborhood.” Then he turned the conversation back to her. “I didn’t know you liked dogs.”

“A pet’s one of the first things they told me I couldn’t have when I went into foster care.”

“Why don’t you get one now?”

Typical Delaney logic. “I want” was good reason to do something, no matter how impractical. But she had responsibilities that kept her away from home into the evening. The desire for a pet was a little girl’s dream. But she offered the practical excuse she used on herself whenever she walked past a pet store and willed herself to ignore the cute puppies in the window. “I’m never home. It wouldn’t be fair to keep one crated all the time.”

“I guess not.”

She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She rocked on her heels, her hands stuffed in her back pockets.

He rose and faced her. “Look, Kat. Excuse me, Katherine...”

“You can call me Kat outside the courtroom.” Maybe that small concession would fool Uncle Charles into believing she was cooperating.

“Thanks. Why don’t we trade information now? Then you won’t have to talk to me again until after lunch.”

He’d given her an out. She should be relieved. He must be as reluctant to be around her as she was to be around him. “Okay. What do you want to know about me?”

“What’s your favorite color, your favorite time of day, and why?”

Huh? Of all the things he could ask, those shouldn’t be on the list. She stared out over the lawn. “My favorite time of day is sunset. It relaxes me to watch the sun slip away. My favorite color is sapphire blue.” She looked back and her gaze collided with eyes the exact shade she’d described. Her stomach lurched and she fought for breath.

He watched her for a long time without saying anything. The tightness built in her chest. She was an idiot. He wasn’t the type of man to let an opening like that pass without some sort of smug comment.

“Now it’s your turn.”

She pasted on a false smile. “What do you do in your free time?”

“I play basketball on a community league team.” He picked up his mug and the paper. “Thanks for sharing a little about yourself.” He moved past her, leaving her alone on the porch.

She sat on the chaise longue, but got up after a few minutes and stood by the rail, staring out into the woods. Finally, she sat down in the chair he’d vacated. The scent of his spicy aftershave lingered on the cushion. She closed her eyes and breathed deep, not thinking about or wanting to feel anything.

Uncle Charles’s weekend sabbatical was giving her too much time to think about herself and her life. She missed Alice. She drew a deep breath and released it slowly, settling the jumble of emotions this weekend had stirred within her. But she wasn’t brave enough to go inside until she heard the dogs barking and knew Uncle Charles was back.

* * *

Nick was in the library when Judge Pierce and the dogs came in. “There you are,” the judge said. “I’d hoped we’d get a chance to talk this morning.” The dogs went over and lay down at Nick’s feet.

At the judge’s comment, he smiled sardonically. “Let me guess, you want to talk about Katherine.”

“I do, but I also want to talk about you. What happened between you two in high school?”

Nick had tried to remember their history and his actions and couldn’t think of a cause for Kat’s animosity toward him now. But he knew in his bones that her behavior stemmed from some slight she blamed him for. He needed to figure out what that was and fix it. The judge was a good starting place.

“We had a math class and study hall together. She aced a big test I bombed. I asked her to tutor me and we became friends. At least, I thought we did.

“When my father found out my new study partner was a girl in foster care, he wasn’t pleased. He ordered me to stay away from her. I promised him I would.” He dropped his head, ashamed of his father’s prejudices and his blind obedience. “He said I had to think about my future and my goals. If I ever wanted to hold a public office, I needed friends who were the right kind of people. He said if I didn’t stop seeing her, he wouldn’t pay for my tuition.”

Judge Pierce listened without comment. “I see. And what did Katherine say to all this?”

Nick stared at him. “I couldn’t tell her what my dad said. All I remember saying is that I had to start college early so I’d be too busy to hang out with her. That’s the weird thing. I thought she took it pretty well. She said she understood and even wished me luck. By the next Monday, she had vanished. I called the group home. They told me she’d been transferred. Why would she do that only six weeks before graduation?” He got up and paced. He felt the same helpless frustration he’d experienced back then.

“I’ve thought about her a lot over the years. I wondered where she went, what she did with her life.” He turned and smiled. “When I saw her in your courtroom I couldn’t believe it. I never dreamed she was interested in law. She never mentioned anything about college or a career choice. It’s obvious she’s angry with me, but I don’t know what I did.”

“And Katherine requested the transfer?”

“When I asked him, my father said a lot of them feel like they have to move on. Maybe she was jealous of my chance to go away to school because she was stuck here.” He rubbed his hands over his face in exasperation, not buying his words any more than he suspected the judge did. “I want to ask her, but when I try, she goes on the defensive and we end up snarling at each other.”

The judge laughed. “At least you recognize what discussions between the two of you look like from where I’m sitting in the courtroom.”

After a short silence, he offered Nick a hint of encouragement. “Maybe the two of you will learn how to talk by the end of this weekend.”

Nick made no effort to hide his skepticism. “I hope you brought your gavel.” He reached down and rubbed the dogs’ ears.

“Give her time. And more importantly, let her know you care. She hasn’t had very many people in her life who cared about her.” The judge walked out, leaving him alone with the dogs.

* * *

A few minutes later Katherine came into the library and found Nick on the floor wrestling with Buster and Bruno. She turned to go.

“Wait.”

She hesitated in the doorway. “Sorry, I thought Uncle Charles was in here.”

Nick sat up and rested his back against the sofa. The dogs gave up on their play and stretched out in front of the hearth. “You just missed him.”

He watched her. She tried not to squirm.

“Kat, can we talk? I mean, really talk.”

One of her fears about this weekend was coming true. She wanted to tell him so many things. At the same time, she didn’t want to speak to him at all. She was stuck. If she walked out, she’d disappoint Uncle Charles and create more friction between her and Nick while they were in the courtroom. If she could just deal with him for the next month, he’d be gone from her life. This time, forever.

Resigned, she sat on the edge of the sofa with perfect posture and as far away from him as she could get. “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”

“What made you decide to practice law?”

“Alice, my adopted mother, helped me figure out what was important to me. She asked me what I would want if I could have anything. I said I wanted to be in charge, to have control over my life. I didn’t like the way they did things in foster care, the way I was treated. She asked if I thought I could do a better job managing the lives of kids like me. I’d never thought of it that way. But I knew I could. I’d been where they were. I knew what they were going through, what scared them the most.

“She told me I had a lot to do if I wanted to go to law school. She introduced me to Judge Pierce and helped me sign up for scholarships. She and the judge had me do pre-law at community college and join the honors college before I applied to Stetson. She helped me find volunteer work that boosted my community resume.” Katherine chuckled.

“She and Judge Pierce wrote recommendation letters and coached me on my interview. The college offered me a full ride on the spot. When I stood before the admissions board and they said I was exactly what they were looking for, it was surreal. I studied night and day, terrified I’d let Alice and Uncle Charles down. I cried when I received my diploma. Alice cried when I passed the bar. Judge Pierce helped me get my first job and had me assigned to his courtroom. He would never cop to it, but I think he cried after our first session.”

Nick sat and listened as if he cared about her triumphs and struggles. He’d always been able to trick her into believing she mattered. To him. Then he smiled, like a shark flashing a mouth full of white teeth. “Maybe we should get started on lunch,” he said and rose from the floor.

Katherine didn’t know what Nick was up to, but he was up to something. He hadn’t commented on her trip down memory lane after hounding her into talking to him. He’d just given her that toothy grin and jumped to his feet.

She got the ingredients for chicken salad out of the refrigerator and lined them up on the counter. He whistled while he worked. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, and she wasn’t having any luck tuning him out.

“Okay, what are you trying to do?” she asked after a few minutes of his off-key attempt at
The Andy Griffith Show
theme.

He had the gall to play dumb. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know exactly what I mean. You begged me to talk to you. I did, and you have no comment. There are no more questions about my past you need answered? I’m an attorney, too. We never let anything go.”

“I understand that talking to me is more than you can handle right now. I don’t want you to feel afraid or—” he paused, giving her a look that resembled pity “—inadequate. It’s okay if you’re uncomfortable sharing things about yourself with me.”

She stood in stunned silence. If he thought for one minute that she was some wimpy crybaby who didn’t know how to express the way she felt, then he was a complete idiot. “I am not afraid to talk to you about anything, Mr. Delaney!” She punctuated each word with a determined slice of her knife into the innocent onion at her mercy on the cutting board.

Nick had his back to her filling a pot with water. He made her wait until he finished his task and turned around. “I wouldn’t want you to feel anxious.”

“I’m not!”

“You’re sure? I mean, if things get to be too much for you, just say the word.” His concern bordered on patronizing. Her grip tightened on the knife and she fought the urge to choke him.

His worry and syrupy attitude were enough to make her gag. What was he up to? He couldn’t think she was that weak. “Oh, for goodness sake, I survived foster care. I can answer any personal question you want to ask me.”

“Okay. I’ll take you at your word. Are you seeing anyone?”

“Excuse me?”

“I think that’s a reasonable question. Your uncle mentioned you spend Friday nights with Jeremy. Is he your boyfriend? How serious are the two of you?”

“I don’t have time for dating. I spend all my free time volunteering.”

“So, who’s Jeremy?”

“He’s a friend from college. We do volunteer work together.”

“Hmmm.” He turned to set the timer for the eggs he’d put on to boil.

Katherine blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes and started dicing the chicken. “That’s all you wanted to know? My dating status?”

“I was going to ask why you aren’t married, but since you don’t have time to date, there’s the answer.”

“I don’t want to get married.” She forced the words out between clenched teeth.

“Why not?”

There was no way she was explaining the whys of that statement to him. “I doubt it would work for me, so why bother?” She raised and dropped her shoulders in a dismissive move. “Men in political office tend to be married. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you seeing anyone?”

“No one serious. I stay busy with work, too. But unlike you, I’m not opposed to marriage. I have an image of the right woman for me. I haven’t found her yet.”

Her hands stilled. “An image?”

Nick opened the fridge and got the mayonnaise. “Not a physical image. A personality. I want someone who shares the same concerns for the community. Someone willing to go with me to political and corporate dinners because she likes being with me, even if she hates the social hobnobbing.”

“Oh, I get it. You want a trophy wife. Arm candy.”

His answer was immediate and defensive. “I won’t marry to advance my career.” He ignored her snort of disbelief. “I want someone who knows the real me. Who can sense from across the room that I need rescuing. A partner I can discuss problems with, who will offer intelligent, insightful suggestions on how to fix those problems.”

“Sorry, I don’t know any social butterflies with political goals. I don’t attend many dinner parties.”

“Why is that?”

She organized their lunch on a tray while he put ice in the glasses for tea. “I don’t have time. Family court doesn’t require hobnobbing. Besides,
I
don’t have any political aspirations.”