Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [131]
"We looked for Jeremy, but we couldn't find him," Ashley said. She put a tentative hand on Sean's arm, but he threw it off in anger, glaring at each of them.
"How hard did you look?"
Kate flinched. "We looked, Sean. Don't you think I would have saved Jeremy if I could have? I loved him. He was everything to me."
"But your father hated him. Maybe he made a choice that night. Maybe it was easier to let Jeremy's accusations drown."
"That's not true," Caroline said. "Dad wouldn't have done that. He might be a drunk, but he's not cruel."
"Why didn't you say something?" Sean asked in bewilderment. "All these years, you let me and my parents believe that Jeremy went down with the Betsy Marie. How could you do that?" Sean stared at them as if he'd never seen them before. And he hadn't. He was seeing them for the first time the way they really were. Kate felt naked and ugly and totally ashamed.
"We didn't set out to lie," she said. "But when we got back to shore, everyone was talking about the guys who went down on the Betsy Marie. They were comforting me, knowing that I was involved with Jeremy. Dad asked us not to correct them. When it became clear that no one knew Jeremy had been with us, it was too late to come clean."
"Because you were afraid that your father might have been held accountable," Sean said roughly. "He killed my brother. He shoved him, knocked him out, and then didn't try to rescue him."
"That's not what we just said," Kate said.
"Isn't it? That's what I heard. And then the three of you covered it up."
"Because Jeremy was dead, and nothing we said would change that," Caroline explained.
But her explanation didn't satisfy Sean. Kate could see it in his eyes, eyes that were so much like Jeremy's. Only Jeremy's eyes had never condemned her, never wished her to hell as Sean's eyes were doing now. She couldn't blame him for the hate. It was the same hate she'd felt for herself every day for the last eight years.
"I loved Jeremy," she said. "If I could have died in his place, I would have."
"But your father saved you, so you saved him in return." Sean shook his head. "What the hell am I doing out here with the three of you? How could you even ask me to do this?"
"I asked you because I was desperate," Kate said. "That's why. Because it's not just my father who is missing. Tyler is with him, a man I care very much about. A man I don't want to lose the same way I lost Jeremy. You can hate me, Sean. You can hate all of us. We probably deserve it. But there's an innocent man out on the water who has no idea about any of this. And he doesn't deserve to die because of something that happened eight years ago, something we can't take back no matter how much we want to,"
Sean stared at her for a long moment, then turned his attention to the water in front of him. "We probably won't be able to find them, anyway. They could be anywhere."
"But you won't turn back, will you?" Kate asked, holding her breath for his answer.
"Not yet," he said finally.
For a few moments no one spoke. The only sounds were those of the increasingly furious storm. Kate, Ashley, and Caroline huddled together, arms linked, drawing strength from one another as they stood behind Sean, their father's fate resting in his angry hands.
They peered through the darkness. The spotlight running from the top of the boat illuminated patches of water, but it was difficult to see much of anything. The radio continued to relay distress and rescue calls, but none that fit the description of their dad's boat.
It couldn't end like this. Not like this,