Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [75]
"You call dating an ex-con under control? I heard that Mike hit his wife. That's why she left him."
"That's not why she left," Caroline said quickly. "But, I told you before, Mike didn't hurt me, and I'm not dating him. So drop it."
Kate didn't want to drop it, but pushing Caroline wasn't getting her anywhere. Maybe she'd have a talk with Mike Stanaway instead.
"Tell me more about Dad and this race," Caroline said. "He really gets to pick his own crew? I'm surprised Rick Beardsley doesn't want more say in it."
"That's what Dad said."
"Is Dad going to race to San Francisco and on to Hawaii, or just around the island on Saturday?"
"I didn't even ask him that." The thought had never occurred to her. Was her father leaving Castleton for good?
"So Dad could be gone in a week. That will be weird."
It would be strange without their dad in town. Even though he was often a nuisance, he was still their father, still their checkpoint, still the only parent they had left. "We have to stop him from doing this, Caroline. We both know what a maniac he can be. There are no rules out on the sea, no sense of what's right or wrong, especially where Dad is concerned. For his own protection, we need to take a stand, all of us together. Are you willing to say no to him? That's what I need to know."
"I'm not sure. Maybe if I race with him ..." Her voice drifted away.
"He'll like you better? Is that what you were going to say?" she challenged, seeing the truth in her sister's eyes. "Dad loves you, Caroline. I don't know where you got the idea that he doesn't. You're his baby, his princess."
"I'm the one who disappoints him the most. It's okay, Kate. I get it. I've gotten it for a long time. What you don't get is that we can't outrun the past. It's catching up. Every day it's getting closer. Don't you feel it?"
Kate did feel it. Even now she had goose bumps running down her arms. "We set our course a long time ago. We have to stick with it. No uncharted waters, remember?"
"Dad will race no matter what we say."
"We have to try to talk him out of it, Caroline."
"Fine. If you want me to go with you to talk to him, I will."
"Thank you."
For a moment they sat in quiet, looking out at the boats, then Kate felt Caroline stiffen next to her. "What?" she asked.
Caroline pointed to the water below. "There she is."
Kate squinted against the bright sunlight. Sure enough, there was the familiar bright blue sail with a white dove soaring toward the sky. "The Moon Dancer," she breathed. "K.C. can't be using the same sails, the same colors. He can't be."
"They wouldn't be in good enough condition," Caroline agreed. "Unless he had them copied."
"Why would he do that? Mom designed those sails. She was so proud of them being one of a kind."
"I don't know why he's doing anything. I'm the younger one, remember? Usually the last to know. And I never had much contact with K.C. when we were kids, just his annoying son."
"You didn't like David?"
"Hell, no. He was an annoying, irritating asshole most of the time."
"I don't remember him being around much."
"That's because you were older. I was the one who got stuck with him when he came to visit. He didn't like us. He was jealous of his dad spending time with us. I remember one time when K.C. brought you one of those snow globes. David was so pissed off he tried to break it when you weren't looking. But I stopped him. So you can thank me now."
"Why didn't you tell me then?" Kate asked curiously.
"I don't remember why. Probably because I wasn't supposed to be in your room."
Kate thought about Caroline's words. They certainly painted David as a person with a grudge -- a big enough grudge to make up a lie about K.C. being her real father? Or had he wanted to break her snow globe because even then he'd sensed she was more important to his father than he was? She did not want to believe that was true, but she couldn't stop wondering now that David had put the thought into her head.