Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [47]
"Yes. I can't remember when I last heard you sing. It must have been when we were on the boat."
"Probably." Caroline paused. "Are you going to hang out?"
"No," Kate said with a shake of her head. This wasn't her scene. It was too loud, too chaotic, too young. Her sister would think she was crazy if she said that. After all, she wasn't even thirty yet, but sometimes she felt a lot older. "You shouldn't be smoking, Caroline."
"You're not my mother," Caroline said for probably the thousandth time. In fact, if Kate had a dollar for every time she'd heard those words from either Ashley or Caroline, she'd be a millionaire by now.
"It's bad for you," she persisted.
"Maybe that's why I like it." Caroline coughed at the end of her sentence, making a mockery of her words.
"I can see how much you like it." Kate took the cigarette out of Caroline's hand and walked over to the bar, snuffing it out in a nearby ashtray.
"I'll just light another one."
"We have more important problems than your smoking." Kate pulled her sister over to a quieter corner. "I just met with Tyler Jamison. He's not going to quit digging into our lives. He's been talking to Sean and God knows who else. I don't know what to do."
Caroline looked at her in amazement "You don't know what to do? You always know what to do."
"I don't this time, all right?" Kate snapped. "I need some help. I need to find a way to distract him."
"Well, that's easy. The best way to distract a man is with sex, or the possibility of sex. In fact, anything to do with sex."
"I'm not going to have sex with him." Kate was shocked her sister would even suggest such a thing.
"He doesn't have to know that. Flirt with him, Kate. Kiss him. Get his mind off the past and on the present and the future."
"That's your advice? Why did I bother to ask?"
"I have no idea why you asked, since you never take my advice. But that doesn't mean it isn't good." Caroline laughed as a young man slipped his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck from behind.
"When are you going to run away with me?" Curt Walker asked.
"When you let me cut your hair," Caroline said, twisting around in his arms to give him a kiss on the cheek..
"Kiss me on the lips, and I'll let you shave my head," Curt said.
Caroline looked over at Kate. "See how easy it is? You ought to try it. You might even like it."
Kate turned away as her sister gave Curt a flirtatious kiss. Everything was so simple for Caroline, so easy. She walked out of the bar, telling herself firmly there was no way she was going to kiss Tyler Jamison. It was a ridiculous idea. She didn't know why she was even thinking about it. Nor did she understand why her cheeks were suddenly warm and her heart was beating so fast. She didn't want to kiss Tyler. She couldn't want that. And even if she did, it wouldn't work.
Tyler wanted a story. He didn't want her. She'd have to find some other way to distract him. She waved a hand in front of her face, wishing for a cool breeze, but strangely enough there was not a speck of wind tonight. Another bad sign. She would have to be patient, wait Tyler out. He wasn't a man to stay in one place for long -- wind or no wind.
Sunday morning had come and gone, and Tyler was getting nowhere fast. He stopped at the edge of the pier, out of breath and out of patience with himself. His run around the town had done little more than raise his pulse; it certainly hadn't brought him the peace or the answers he craved. He needed a different approach, a new plan. Kate wasn't going to tell him anything willingly. That was certainly clear. It was also clear that she was a very good candidate to be Amelia's mother. She'd been engaged to Jeremy, planning to get married, then her fiance was killed, and she was devastated. Sounded like a good reason to give a baby away. At least the best reason he'd heard so far.
If Kate was Amelia's mother, Mark was in trouble, because as far as he could see, Kate was