Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [49]
Tyler frowned. Kate had made the same comparison the night before, and he hadn't liked it then, either. "Why do you say that?"
"He's a wanderer, a traveling man, a gypsy at heart."
"Your father doesn't seem to have wandered too far in recent years."
"I'm not sure that's completely by choice."
"He stays for the family?" When she didn't reply to that question, he asked another. "What's your father like?"
She thought for a moment. "Daddy is one of a kind. He's bold, brave, crazy, selfish at times, generous at others. He's complicated. He's like an upside-down cake. All the ingredients are there, but they're not in the right order. Does that make sense?"
"It's an interesting description."
"That's Duncan McKenna -- interesting. Not always smart, not always right, but always interesting."
"You admire him," Tyler said, reading between the lines.
"He lives over there." Caroline pointed to the marina. "In a small sailboat. When we first came back here, he rented us all an apartment. He lasted three months there, then he bought the boat and left us on our own. He couldn't sleep on land. He still can't."
"So you and your sisters stayed together?"
"For the first year or two. It wasn't easy. We'd lived together on a boat for almost three years, but we were suddenly bumping into each other and tripping over things. We argued all the time. Kate wanted a house. Ashley wanted a job. And I was trying to finish high school, but I didn't really belong there. I was a lot older than the other kids -- maybe not in years, but definitely in life experience. I took an early test and got out as quickly as I could. Once I was out of school, Kate got going on her plan to buy the bookstore, and Ashley started taking classes in photography. We eventually split up and got our own places."
"What happened to the family home -- the one you lived in before you took off on your three year adventure?"
"My dad sold the house when we went to sea. He needed the money to finance the trip." She paused. "I wish he hadn't sold it. I think we all would have liked to go back there to live, Kate especially. She loved that house."
"Who lives there now?"
"It has changed owners over the years, but the family who owns it now bought it to use only as a vacation place. It's boarded up in the winter. They usually show up sometime in July. Kate tried to buy it back, but they didn't want to sell. Sometimes I go out there and wander through the yard. It's on a bluff overlooking the water. We used to sit there, the three of us girls and my mom, watching for my dad's boat to sail back into the harbor." She gave a disgusted shake of her head. "That sounds pathetic, doesn't it? "I'm not going to spend my life waiting for someone to come home, believe me."
Tyler smiled. "How about Kate? What can you tell me about her and Jeremy?" he asked.
"What did Kate tell you?"
"Not much, just that they were engaged to be married before he died."
"Yes." Caroline looked away. "It was very sad. He was a great guy."
"Must have been tough on Kate."
"I'm not sure she'll ever get over him."
"She loved him that much?" The idea disturbed Tyler more than it should have. It was no business of his whom Kate had loved or how deep that love had gone, unless, of course, she was Amelia's mother.
"Kate is an all-or-nothing person. She loves with her whole heart. She doesn't hold anything back, even if people don't always deserve it, like my father." Caroline paused. "And Kate doesn't tolerate anyone messing with the people she loves."
"Is that a warning?"
"I find myself liking you for some unknown reason," Caroline said frankly.
"I like you, too."
She smiled at him. "Coming from a reporter, I'll take that for what it's worth."
"One last question?"
"What?"
"Why wasn't Jeremy sailing on your boat?"
"Because my dad wanted it to be a family venture, and Jeremy wasn't family."
"So he joined the competition."
"He wanted to race. It was