Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [95]
Caroline looked as if she was going to do what he suggested, but when her hand touched the glass she hesitated. She lifted it to her mouth and took a sip. She gave her father a hard, unforgiving look, then tilted her head back and drank the beer down to the last drop. She set the glass down on the table. "See, there are some things I'm good at," she said and turned toward the door.
Tyler wanted to go after her, but Duncan was saying something to him and Rudy put a hand on his arm, and by the time he excused himself and got to the door Caroline had disappeared. She'd had a dangerous, reckless look in her eye, and she was looking for trouble. He wondered if she would find it. He wondered why he was hoping she wouldn't. He'd come to Castleton to discredit the McKenna sisters, or at least the one who was Amelia's mother, and that could be Caroline. But now that he was here, he was finding it more difficult to see any of them as his enemy. He really did need to regroup and get his head together. Because no matter how nice they appeared to be, one of them wanted to take his niece away from his brother, and he couldn't let that happen.
Kate jogged down the sidewalk that ran along the marina early Wednesday morning. She'd almost made a huge mistake the night before, and she was doing penance this morning by putting her body through a punishing workout. Maybe if she got tired enough, she'd stop thinking about Tyler, stop wanting to make love to him, stop acting like a fool.
He'd been the one to call a halt to things. She was the one who'd been caught up in the moment, and it still irked, even after a long, sleepless night. She liked to be in control at all times, especially of herself and her emotions, but there had been a few minutes last night when she had been completely out of control.
What had she been thinking? She barely knew him. And she wasn't sure she could trust him. Her instincts told her he was hiding something. Then again, so was she. It was difficult to call him a liar when he could throw the word right back at her.
But all that aside, Tyler had been charming, fun. He'd made her laugh, made her feel emotions she hadn't felt in a long time -- if ever. That traitorous thought brought her jog down to a walk.
Had it ever been that good with Jeremy? Had her senses been so completely involved? Or was it even fair to compare? Time had dimmed so many memories. And she had changed as well. She was a grown woman now. Her needs, her wants, her wishes were different.
Kate paused along the rail, looking out at the water and the boats. She'd been content before Tyler came to town. She'd told herself work and family were enough. She didn't need a man in her life, didn't want all the messy, emotional complications of love, didn't want to have her heart broken again. And she'd almost bought into all of that until Tyler had arrived.
Now she'd had a taste of what she was missing, and that taste had made her want more.
It could hurt, a voice inside her head reminded her. And could she survive another loss? Wouldn't it be better to play it safe?
While she was thinking, she caught a glimpse of a man coming out of the coffee shop down the street. It was Mike Stanaway, the man her sister had been with at the ferry landing on Monday. She'd tried to talk to Caroline about him at the clam chowder cook-off, but her sister had claimed she was too busy to chat and then disappeared.
Maybe this was her opportunity to talk to Mike. While Kate weighed her options, Mike took off at a brisk pace. She broke into a jog to follow him and came down the dock just as he disappeared onto his boat.
Climbing aboard without waiting for an invitation, she called out his name as she went down the stairs into the cabin. She stopped abruptly as she saw Mike offering her sister Caroline a cup of coffee. Caroline was sitting up in bed, wearing a black spaghetti-strap undershirt. A tangled sheet covered her bottom half.
Her hair was a mess, her makeup smeared as if she'd been crying.