by Donna Fasano
"Of course, we will."
A frown bit into the silky smooth skin of her mother's forehead. "Is it your gown? You wanted the other one, didn't you? It was a little showy with all that beading, but if that will make you happy..."
"No, Mother," Katie said.
"Well, then just tell us." The concern was gone from her mother's tone, replaced with an edge of irritation. "Tell me what's wrong. You're acting like a spoiled child."
"I think it would be prudent of me, Katie," Jason spoke up, "to give you a little privacy with your family."
He turned and walked out of the room with his daughter. Confusion was evident in Gina's eyes as she waved bye-bye at them all.
"Did he call you Katie?" Everett asked, his tone a mixture of humor, disbelief, and distain.
She watched Jason walk away, and then her gaze skimmed over to the three people who were supposedly her closest loved ones. Suddenly she felt very desolate and alone.
* * *
Jason eased Gina down onto her changing table.
"Let's get you dressed," he told her. "Then we'll slip out the back door and play ball in the yard, okay?"
"Ball!"
He smiled at his daughter's enthusiasm, despite the bleak and heavy emotions that lay in his belly like a brick. He couldn't put just one name to the roiling feelings. He felt angered by Katie's lies and deceit. Yet he couldn't forget the worry and confusion that had plagued him ever since she'd cryptically implied her safety was in jeopardy. Then when he'd witnessed the treatment she'd received at the hands of her parents and the slick bastard they'd brought along with them, Jason had actually begun to feel sorry for her. That was the last thing he wanted. Especially when Katie was getting ready to walk out of his life. He'd almost been happy when Katie's mother had referred to her daughter as a spoiled child. Judith Wellingford's accusation that Katie had acted out of self-centeredness when she'd run away from home had rekindled Jason's annoyance and his anger.
He was happy to have his ire churned up again. Happy that her deception had been refreshed in his mind.
"Lady ball too?"
Jason focused on Gina's hopeful eyes. "No, honey. Lady won't—I mean, Katie will be visiting with her family. She's too busy to play ball with us."
Gina's gaze traveled toward her bedroom door, and she seemed to listen a moment to the murmur of voices out in the living room. The sadness expressed on his daughter's face nearly split his heart in two.
"Come on, now," he told her brightly. "Let's get dressed so we can have some fun."
Out in the yard Jason tossed the bright blue ball and chuckled as Gina ran after it, shrieking. She bent over, picked it up and rather than throw it back to him, she ran like the wind across the backyard.
Ellen was hanging sheets on her clothesline, and Jason watched her stop her chore long enough to give Gina a kiss. Keeping a close eye on his daughter, he went to sit down on the back step. He smiled as Ellen took the ball from Gina and tossed it toward him. Again Gina called out gleefully and ran after the ball.
Jason returned his mother-in-law's wave, and he watched her walk across the yard toward him.
When she got close, she smiled a greeting. "Nothing like sun-dried sheets to let a person know spring is in the air."
He just smiled.
"You have company this morning," she observed.
Jason nodded.
"I saw Katie's picture in the paper." Ellen's lips compressed, and it was evident that she felt she didn't need to say any more. Finally, she lifted her chin and asked, "Are you upset with her?"
He gazed across the lawn to see that Jack had come out to play ball with Gina. Their laughter sounded good to his ears, and he listened a moment before he responded to Ellen's question.
"She lied to me," was all he said.
The woman was quiet for the longest time, then she inhaled deeply. "I know this is going to sound funny coming from me—what with my history with Katie and all—but… she's a good person, Jason. A really good person. She could have held it against me—what I did to her, I mean. But she didn't. That girl's very forgiving."
He shrugged. "That doesn't change the fact that she lied."
"She must have had a good reason."
Jason ran a hand through his hair. "I'll tell you what her reason was—her rich daddy set it up for her to marry Everett Keegan—" his voice dropped to a murmur as he added "—of the Philadelphia Keegans."
A disgusted sound erupted from deep in his throat. "For some reason," he said, "Katie decided she wanted out of the arrangement. And rather than tell her parents and the slick Everett how she felt, she ran away. Can you imagine that? A grown woman running away from home?"
Ellen let some time pass before she softly remarked, "Just doesn't make sense to me." She propped her fist on her hip. "Katie's a strong woman. She might be intimidated by her father, I suppose. But I don't think she could be persuaded to marry someone she didn't have a mind to. I just can't see that happening."
"She told me she'd agreed to the marriage." He smoothed his palm over the thigh of his jeans. "She told me she'd agreed to marry that rich jerk in there." He heard the contempt in his voice, and it made him sick to his stomach.
"Jason, you've made several references to wealth in the past few minutes," Ellen observed. "I've never known you to be jealous of what others might have."
"I'm not jealous." He looked at his mother-in-law, knowing that his answer came so quick that it was telling. His cheeks puffed out as he exhaled. It was time to be honest. With Ellen and with himself.
"I love her," he said softly.
Ellen nodded. "I know that, hon."
"And I hate the thought that he can give her all the things that I can't."
Ellen grinned. "It's pretty obvious that she doesn't want what he can give her. She's living in your spare bedroom, isn't she? She's helping you take care of Gina. Seems to me she could be living in some fancy big house, planning some fancy wedding. But she's not."
She reached out and touched him on the arm. "And it also seems to me that something must have happened. Katie isn't flighty. If she agreed to marry that fella in there and then changed her mind, something must have happened."
The statement hung in the air, and it stirred up the cop in Jason just enough that he was left wanting some answers.
* * *
"Please, Dad," Katie pleaded. "Try to understand. It's not that I want to go against you—"
"Katherine, how am I supposed to understand anything that you're saying?" her father's baritone voice boomed. "You keep talking in vague circles. You're not telling me anything."
She had gotten the three of them to sit down, thinking that she'd be better able to explain what she was feeling. But she'd been wrong. How could she tell them how she felt and what she wanted, when she knew it was going to hurt them?
Darting a glance at Everett, she saw his eyes glittering. She knew he thought she wouldn't be able to tell her parents that she wanted to call off the wedding. Well, she would, damn it! She'd find a way to make them understand. She might not be able to reveal everything, but she'd tell them what she could.
"Mom, Dad," she started to say, for the fifth or sixth time, "I know how you feel about Everett. I know he's like the son you never had. I know you thought he and I would someday make a great political team."
These days, great political figures didn't just happen, they were made. Everything was planned, from the upbringing, the education, the perfect chosen mate… everything. And that's what she and Everett had been groomed to become: the perfect political couple.
"I know that you love him very much," Katy murmured.
Her mother nodded at the end of each sentence. "Just like you love him, dear."
"Well actually, Mother, I don't."
"What?"
"Now you're just talking silly, Katherine," her father said. "It's just a case of cold feet."
"No, Dad," she said firmly, "I'm not. I don't feel toward him..."
She saw Everett glower at her.
"You know..." she said to her parents, "the way married people are supposed to feel about each other. You know... passionate."
"Passion is highly overrated, Katherine," her mother said.
"Passion." Bill Wellingford clicked his tongue disgustedly. "A couple doesn't need passion to have a good marriage."
"I don't want my marriage to be a business merger!"
Oh, God, she was talking in that babyish voice she detested so much. Then stop it, she silently commanded.
"I refuse to allow that to happen. You and Mom may not mind living without romance and passion, but I won't live my life like that."
This new sternness she was showing seemed to fluster her father.
"What makes you think your mother and I don't enjoy a little passion in our marriage?" he asked. "There's plenty of passion and romance between us, isn't there Judith?"
The woman tinged pink. "Well, dear, I love you very much."
Katie frowned. "Then why don't you want that for me?" She nearly shouted at them. "I don't love Everett."
This time the statement was strong and unequivocal.
"Well, you don't need to alert the entire neighborhood, Katie."
Her gaze flew to where Jason was standing. His brawny body filled the doorway, and her newfound strength seemed to grow tenfold. It didn't matter that he was angry with her, just his being there was enough.
The room was quiet, and everyone was looking at Jason, as though they were expecting him to do or say something profound. And he did.
"The woman doesn't love you, Everett."
The golden boy rose to his feet. "You keep out of this!"
Jason glared. "You sit down."
With the lightest of touches, he pushed Everett's shoulder. The man lost his balance and flopped back into the chair where he sat in scowling silence.
Katie watched as Jason gazed at each of them in turn.
"Isn't anyone hearing what the woman is saying?"
The congressman remained silent. Then Katie's mother sat up straight and said, "Well, we kind of knew how Katherine felt, but we thought that, given time, she might come to—"
"Oh, Mother." Katie couldn't keep the disappointment out of her voice.
"Okay," Jason said, barreling ahead full steam, "so you've established that everyone knew Katie didn't love Everett, yet you all encouraged her to promise to marry him. Even Katie is guilty here. She agreed to marry a man she didn't love. And from what she's told me, this marriage has been in the planning stages for years. And she's gone along with the idea for—"
"You've discussed our personal lives with this man?" Everett asked Katie.
Before she could speak, however, Jason cut his hard blue eyes at Katie's fiancé and said, "Shut up, Everett."
It was amazing to Katie that Jason could rattle off all the particulars of her miserable state in such a commanding, unemotional fashion, and she realized it was his law enforcement experience that enabled him to remain in complete control of this situation. Then Jason turned to face her, and his hawklike expression made her stomach quiver.
"So, Katie, I'd like you to tell us all something." His voice was rock firm. "What made you change your mind?"
Her mouth went dry. "Jason, don't," she whispered.
"But we need to know," he said, pressing her gently. "I need to know."
She felt trapped. Should she tell them all the horrible truth? Or should she save both herself and Everett the embarrassment? It was the sudden kindness she saw reflected in Jason's eyes that was the deciding factor. She could look into that gaze of his and confess anything.
"Well," she began.
"Katherine!"
Jason whirled on the man. "I told you to shut up, Everett."
Katie saw her parents sitting in tense silence.
"You didn't run away because you don't love him," Jason said. "Tell your parents." His tone lowered. "Tell me."
"It's okay, Katherine," her father said, his curiosity indenting the space between his brows. "I want to know."
She steeled herself, her tongue darting out nervously to moisten her lips. "I don't want to be—" she stopped herself. Then her chin tipped up. "I won't let myself be manhandled."
"What?" her father whispered, scooting to the edge of the couch. "What did you say?"
His wife blanched as she placed a restraining hand on her husband's thigh.
"It wasn't bad," Katie rushed to assure them. "He never actually hit me or anything. He just kind of grabbed... and shoved."
"She's lying!" Everett bolted to his feet, his eyes wide. "You don't believe her, do you, Bill?"
One look from Jason, and Everett perched himself on the edge of the chair.
"We're all going to remain calm here," Jason quietly announced. He looked back at Katie.
"I know it was because I made him angry," she said, "because I didn't want to marry him. Every time I tried to explain how I felt—"
"You knew?" The congressman's face reddened as she swiveled his gaze to Everett. "You knew why Katie left, and you didn't tell us. You led us to believe you were as baffled as we were."
Judith's chin trembled. "He hurt our little girl, Bill."
Pandemonium broke out then and there. Bill Wellingford sprang off the couch, and Katie was afraid Jason was going to have to arrest her father, then her mother, as each one took a turn threatening to beat the living daylights out of Everett. Katie had never witnessed such spontaneously reactive behavior from her usually refined parents.
She knew she should probably help Jason get the situation under control; however, she just stood in the middle of the room, a large grin creeping across her face. Her parents loved her! They hadn't sided with Everett as she'd thought they would. They hadn't disapproved of her for speaking out.
All her life she'd listened to her parents extol Everett's virtues. All her life she'd heard how perfect he was. How wonderful they would be together. Ever so slowly, the idea had set in that her parents thought more of Everett than they did of her.
But her mother and father had actually listened to her concerns, and they were reacting fiercely and loudly to protect her. Their behavior told her in no uncertain terms that they loved her. And that revelation made her giddy with sheer joy.
* * *
Soon it was all over. Everett had heeded Jason's advice to use his cell to call for a cab—but only after he'd walked a block or two from the house. And her parents had gone home. Oh, they had tried to talk her into coming with them, but Katie firmly told them she had some things to discuss with Jason first. She had gently and lovingly reminded them that she was a grown woman, fully capable of taking care of herself. However, she did promise to call them later and let them know of her plans.
Katie waved out the window as her parents drove away. Then she turned her gaze on Jason.
"How did you know?" she asked him quietly. "About Everett, I mean."
One corner of Jason's mouth cocked upward. "I sort of guessed after your reaction to me this morning. But you won't believe who prompted me to actually do something about it," he said. "It was Ellen."
Katie's eyes grew wide. "Ellen?"
"Yes." He nodded. "She was certain that something specific must have happened to make you change your mind." Then he shrugged. "She made me very curious."
"I'm glad—" the words sounded all breathy "—that you were curious."
His face tensed with a serious expression. "You really don't believe it was your fault, do you?" he asked. "Everett's being physical with you, I mean."
"Well, I do," she started to say, then quickly corrected, "I did." Her smile was small and sad. "It's hard not to, when the person who's being physical is telling you that you've brought it on yourself."
Jason's exhalation was filled with disgust. "I answer so many domestic dispute calls, and the wives of those violent men—time and again—blame themselves for the pain that's inflicted on them. It's crazy." His look turned even more intense. "Everett i
s responsible for Everett's behavior. There is nothing you can say that would be bad enough to provoke violence. Nothing."
His tone softened as he said, "What I'd like to know, though, is why you felt you couldn't confide in your parents."
Katie sighed. "I'm not sure I have an answer for you." After a moment she went on. "Ever since I can remember, I've been trying to prove myself worthy of their love." She felt chagrin flush her cheeks at the admission. "I guess you could say I suffer from perfect-child syndrome." Again she hesitated. "Everett always seemed to be that perfect child. Mom and Dad always bragged about his grades, his athletic talent, each and every achievement. He could do no wrong."
Unwittingly her hands came together in front of her, and she began to wring them into a tight knot. "Now I'm guessing that they did it because they wanted me to feel about Everett as they did—that he was a perfect match for me. But all I got out of all of it was some mixed-up notion that they loved him more than they loved me." She gave him a look that was something between a grimace and a smile. "Sounds illogical, huh? But that doesn't make it any less true."
Several silent moments passed, silent moments that seemed filled with warmth and healing for her.
"Well," Jason finally remarked, "now you know that your parents love you."
Katie nodded.
He grinned. "I thought I was going to have to handcuff your dad for a minute. And your mom... I think she actually connected with Everett's jaw at one point. That woman has an awesome left hook."
She laughed with him, and it felt good... right.
Suddenly, his expression became serious. "I'm sorry about the way I busted in on you this morning," he said. "I'm sorry I was so angry. I guess seeing your picture in the paper caught me completely off guard."
"It's okay," she assured him. "I'm just sorry I wasn't honest with you from the very beginning."
His smile was full of warmth and understanding and forgiveness.
Her love for him at that moment burned in her chest as hot and bright as the summer sun. But he hadn't moved a muscle to close the distance between them, and Katie feared that the old shy awkwardness had sprung up between them again.
