Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [66]
"I wasn't trying to sneak onto the boat. And I know who owns it."
"I hope so. If not, I can always show you my daddy's pink slip. That's right, my daddy. Not yours, Kate, even though you used to think of him as a second daddy, didn't you? Uncle K.C., isn't that what you called him? Didn't you give him a big fat kiss every time he brought you candy or toys or whatever else you wanted, little princess?"
There was an animosity in David's voice she hadn't expected. "You sound like ..."
"What? What do I sound like?"
"Like you hate me." She laughed as if the thought were absurd, but he didn't laugh back, and a chill washed over her body.
"Of course I don't hate you," he said smoothly. "I don't even know you. Isn't that right? We only spoke a few times over the years when I came to visit my father. You were all too busy to hang out with me."
"I didn't think you were interested in hanging out with us."
"Oh, I don't know. I was always curious about the girls who spent more time with my father than I did."
"That wasn't our fault."
"Did I say it was?"
She didn't like the thread of their conversation. "I'm leaving now."
"Don't you want to go onboard?"
"No." Kate shook her head, even though his unexpected invitation had sent her heart racing.
"You're not interested in seeing what the inside looks like?"
"Not really."
He stepped in front of her as she turned to leave. "It's the first time in my life that I got something of yours, instead of the other way around."
Kate frowned, seeing not just anger in his dark brown eyes but also pain. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about holidays and birthdays, Christmas presents that my father gave to you and your sisters instead of to me. He wanted your family, your mother. He wanted your life."
"That's not true. He was a friend, that's all."
"Really? You think that's all he was?"
"Yes." She hated the doubt that once again crossed her mind. First K.C., then her own father, now David. Did they all know something she didn't?
Uncle K.C. had always been around when she was small. So many videos showed him standing by the Christmas tree or laughing with her mother in the kitchen. Then it had changed. Something had happened. She did not want to believe it had anything to do with her mother.
"I thought you were the smart one," David said. "I must have been mistaken."
"You don't know anything. You're just trying to annoy me."
"I might be," he admitted. "Or I might not."
"Why did you and your father come back here? So you could have this little moment of triumph in front of us? So you could say you're better than us? Is that what it's all about?"
David didn't answer right away. Then he said, "I'm not sure." There was a touch of uncertainty in his voice.
"What? Now you're pretending ignorance? I thought you knew everything about the relationship between your family and mine."
"I know more than you, obviously."
"Like what? What do you think you know?"
"My father and your mother had an affair."
His blunt words stole her breath away.
"That's not true." A sense of impending doom lent little strength to her words. "It can't be true."
"You look a little like him -- my father."
The implication flashed through her like the sharp edge of a knife. "You are sick."
"Why don't you ask him?"
"I wouldn't believe a word your father said." She walked briskly away from him.
"Then ask Duncan," David called after her.
She didn't have to ask Duncan. She knew who her father was. Didn't she?
Chapter Twelve
K.C. Wales, born Kendrick Charles Wales in San Francisco, California, was the only son of a fisherman and a high school English teacher. Tyler skimmed the data appearing on the screen of his laptop computer. He wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for, but he knew it wasn't in K.C.'s childhood. The connection with the McKenna family had come later. Sure enough, as his fingers flew across the keys,