by Natalie Fox
‘I said I’d like to see him and I wasn’t asking your permission,’ he stated flatly.
Karis hesitantly stood up. She didn’t like this man. She hadn’t liked him before meeting him so nothing was new. He had a serious attitude problem. He had nothing good to say about her and that was unjustified because he didn’t know her. But he was Josh’s father and unfortunately that couldn’t be questioned so she couldn’t deny access to him, whatever the time of night. Without another word Karis lifted a candle in a jar from the table to light the way.
He followed her along the verandah and she felt his dark, disapproving eyes boring into the exposed skin of her back. Again those prickles of awareness played at the base of her spine.
Carefully Karis slid open the door and, holding the candle up, stepped back to let him pass through into the little boy’s bedroom. To her utter surprise he took her elbow and urged her into the room ahead of him and then shocked her deeply by saying under his breath, ‘I don’t want him to awake and be afraid.’
With her heart twisting Karis stood beside him at the foot of Josh’s bed. What an appalling admission that was. What dark past had these two shared? But at least by visiting him while he slept Daniel was showing some concern for his son’s feelings.
Josh slept peacefully on his back, his head turned to one side, the sheet pushed down to his waist in the heat of the night. The child, in sleep, was unaware he was being gazed down on, Karis with love and caring in her eyes for she did indeed love the little boy…but the father? Karis dared take a sidelong glance at the man who gripped the brass footrail of his son’s bed as fiercely as he had grasped the rail of the yacht he’d arrived on.
He didn’t want to be here, she thought despondently. This was a duty call to his son. His face was set, unyielding, showing no emotion as he gazed down at the boy.
Then Josh stirred and in that instant Daniel Kennedy’s lashes flickered. A tiny, fleeting reaction that had Karis’s heart beating wildly in the hope that she might see some of the love this boy deserved from his father.
The flickering reaction to his son’s movement was gone as swiftly as it had appeared. Stiffly he stepped back from the bed and so did Karis, and then the candle flame wavered as the movement of his body turning to face her stirred the still air around them.
‘You have cared for him well,’ he said, his voice so low and throaty, she scarcely caught the words.
A compliment? She hadn’t expected one.
‘To outward appearances,’ he added, so meanly that Karis’s heart nearly stopped with shock.
Once they were back outside on the verandah Karis slid the door shut behind them and lifted the candle so she could see his face more clearly.
‘I don’t think you will be disappointed, Mr Kennedy,’ she said softly but firmly.
‘I’d better not be,’ he said thinly. ‘I don’t want to start my married life putting right all the added damage you might have done this past year.’
He gave her no space, no time to respond to that wicked, uncalled-for criticism. He was gone into the airless night before she’d fully taken in what he had said.
Karis stood for a long while on the verandah, staring out over the gardens and not seeing anything, trying to cool her anger and to grasp at the reality of what he had said. Starting married life? Daniel Kennedy was married to that beautiful but awful screeching woman and this was their honeymoon?
Was Daniel Kennedy divorced from Josh’s mother and Simone the second wife or even the third or the fourth? Oh, it didn’t bear thinking about. Poor little Josh. He didn’t deserve that.
And it was none of her business, Karis told herself miserably and unconvincingly. The night seemed to oppress her and the cloying heat to press down on her and she was swamped with dreadful thoughts of that Simone taking over and being Josh’s mother.
The pair of them had come to take Josh off the island. They were good-looking but seemed distinctly lacking in terms of character.
And then she felt again that mysterious snap of envy she had been whiplashed with earlier. She did envy that siren Simone. She envied her for being married to Josh’s father and claiming Josh for her own and she envied them all starting a family life together because that was something she had been cheated out of in her own life. But that was all she envied Simone for; the rest of her feelings were taken up with pity. Being married to Daniel Kennedy must be like living with Satan’s first cousin: hell on earth.
CHAPTER TWO
‘HEAD tucked in. Beautiful. Bend your knees, Josh. Super. Go for it,’ Karis encouraged warmly from the rocks below.
The boy didn’t hesitate this time. From a higher rock he executed the most perfect dive into the warm, limpid waters of the creek. Karis raced into the water and swam strongly towards him.
‘I did it! I did it!’ Josh spluttered in excitement, his wet face flushed with pleasure as he bobbed up and down in the water, stretching his arms out to her.
‘I knew you could,’ Karis laughed as she hugged him tightly, and then tipped him back into the water and spun round so he could straddle her back. He screamed with laughter as she swam to the shore with him. Once they were on the beach she felt Josh stiffen suddenly. She let him go and he slithered down her back to the warm sand and stood rigid behind her.
Daniel Kennedy stood watching them from another outcrop of rocks, his eyes shaded by sunglasses, so that Karis couldn’t gauge whether he looked pleased with his son’s dive or not.
Josh had seen his father too, hence the stiffening of his slight body and his hiding behind her now. Karis moved aside because to screen him from his father was wrong, but before she could grasp his hand to reassure him he was gone, sprinting in the opposite direction to his father, back towards the cottage where Saffron was watching over baby Tara.
With a sigh Karis picked up her sarong to wrap around her wet, bikini-clad body while she tentatively watched Daniel coming towards her across the sand.
He stopped in front of her and stripped the glasses from his face. He was frowning and really Karis wasn’t surprised. She doubted he smiled very much.
‘Were you responsible for that performance?’ he asked her tightly.
Karis knotted the sarong at her cleavage and tensed in surprise as Daniel Kennedy’s eyes, frown and all, settled on the knot for a few dangerous seconds. For a newly-wed he certainly hadn’t thrown off the cloak of bachelorhood yet, Karis thought ruefully. Obviously a man with an eye for women, which explained a lot. The second or third or fourth wife theory gained strength in her mind. Perhaps this Daniel Kennedy was into serial marriage.
Deliberately folding her arms across her front to hide the cleavage he found so fascinating, she lifted her chin and asked bluntly, ‘The dive or him running away?’
The frown deepened and his concentration shifted to the defiance in her eyes. ‘The dive,’ he insisted quickly and quite challengingly, too, as if he thought her too smart by half even to have suggested otherwise.
Lucky for him, Karis thought. ‘Yes, I’ve been teaching him. It was Josh’s first perfect dive,’ she told him, and then added, ‘I’m Karis Piper by the way. We missed out on formalities last night.’
She forced a smile, trying to warm to him for Josh’s sake. She’d given her own attitude a lot of thought overnight. She didn’t like him and so long as there was an R in the month of April she doubted she ever would, but, putting personalities aside, she had to do her best for the boy and if being nice to his father helped she’d have a go at the very least. She even lifted her hand to him.
He took it and their exchange was brief but long enough for Karis to know he had blood running through his veins, not iced water as she might have anticipated. His touch had been surprisingly warm.
‘Yes. I know who you are, Miss Piper.’
‘Mrs, as it happens,’ she asserted quickly, giving him a warning flash of her green eyes. ‘My daughter, Tara, isn’t illegitimate and I’m not a teenager either,’ she added tightly, reminding hi
m of what she had overheard last night. ‘To classify me correctly you would have to file me under the emotion-weary widow heading. I thought you would have checked with Fiesta by now, seeing as you pay my wages for looking after your son.’
So much for the be-nice-to-Josh’s-father resolve. But hardly her fault, she excused herself; he wasn’t exactly the easiest subject to be nice to.
His steely eyes glared at her hard. ‘You have a lot of spirit. I’m not sure that is enough qualification to be caring for my son.’
Karis’s heart flipped in defence. This man was something else. Not real at all, as Fiesta had suggested when she had overheard them arguing the night before.
She met his cold glare with eyes equally determined not to be put down. ‘I think being spirited is an ideal qualification to be looking after Josh, Mr Kennedy. Lesser spirited people than myself haven’t achieved a smidgen of what I’ve done for him.’
‘And what exactly have you done for him?’
His tone was unremittingly censorious and Karis gave up the struggle not to rile against it. ‘Plenty,’ she stated, and added with a sweet smile, ‘Why don’t you spend some time with him and find out?’
She stooped down to gather up Josh’s towel and hoped her cheeks weren’t flushed with anger. She really had tried but he was impossible.
‘I intend to do just that,’ he told her determinedly.
Karis straightened herself up and looked at him, her eyes narrowed. ‘Not before time,’ she let slip before she could help herself.
He caught her arm as she turned away, a grip so jarring it cascaded droplets of water down from her hair to glisten on her sun-warmed bare shoulders. He let her go immediately after securing her attention.
‘There is a reason for everything,’ he told her quietly and seriously. ‘Choices and decisions have had to be made for my son in the past, all with the best intentions and all unavoidable. Whether those harrowing decisions were right or wrong only time will tell. I care very deeply for Josh and I want what is best for him. I always have and I always will. Please remember that before you pre-form impressions in that pretty little head of yours. Don’t fight me, because I need your help to smooth the path between me and my son before I take him away from here. Have I made myself clear?’
Karis stared blindly at him for a few seconds, wondering whether to argue with that in case he hadn’t noticed she was a human being and didn’t like being spoken to as if she were some newly acquired puppy needing to be housetrained. But she shouldn’t care how he treated her because her feelings were immaterial; it was his son that mattered.
So, he wanted her to smooth the path for him, did he? The request was heart-wrenchingly sad coming from a father to a stranger who had cared for his son. And did he seriously think she would object to what he had in mind? That was even sadder. Couldn’t he see how much she cared for the little boy?
‘Will I have your full co-operation?’ he urged when she made no attempt to answer him. There was only a slight softening of tone in the request.
Karis swept her wet hair from her brow to stop the drips of water from obscuring her view of him. ‘I care for your son and care for his future too, Mr Kennedy,’ she told him sincerely. ‘I want what is best for him and if you think I won’t give you my full co-operation then you are making a bad character judgement.’
His eyes darkened angrily for a fleeting second but then it was gone and he said coolly, ‘Good. So long as you are on my side all should be well.’
On his side? What was this—a war? Well, if sides were to be taken she would always lean Josh’s way. A child needed protecting. Josh was afraid of his father and there had to be good reason. Sure, she’d co-operate but Josh would always come first with her.
‘When do you intend taking him?’ Karis asked tentatively.
She wouldn’t be able to bear it but she had known it had to happen at some time in the child’s life. A year was too long to have cared for the boy, with no parental support. Every waking hour had been spent with him and Tara. She knew him as well as her own daughter.
‘Sooner rather than later. Simone isn’t fond of the Tropics.’
Had Karis just heard right? She stared at him in dismay. If this was cooperation she was out of it already. ‘I don’t think your wife is the first consideration here,’ she managed to get out. ‘I think—’
‘Simone is not my wife yet and you are not employed to think further than the care of my son,’ he retaliated quickly.
A mysterious surge of relief rushed at her at the news that Simone wasn’t Josh’s stepmother yet, not Daniel’s wife either. But anger was in hot pursuit, bringing a flush of defensive words from her mouth for what he had just said.
‘Just a minute, Mr Kennedy. That isn’t fair. Yes, I’m employed to care for Josh and, as you must know, it hasn’t been easy. You turn up here, out of the blue, expecting your son to run to you with open arms and then wanting to whisk him out of a settled life because your lady doesn’t like the Tropics. What about Josh’s feelings in all this?’
‘That’s enough!’ he ordered thickly.
‘Oh, no, it isn’t nearly enough!’ Karis went on determinedly. ‘Child psychology obviously isn’t your forte; as for being a father, you are even less qualified. None of this can be rushed. Josh’s feelings must always come first. I might not have any official qualifications to look after children, Mr Kennedy, but I sure as hell know how to love them.’
In a fury she crumpled Josh’s towel into her fist and stormed away from him, bare feet grinding so hard into the sand that they were hot and raw by the time she reached the gardens.
Regret for her outburst washed over her as soon as she stepped into the kitchen of the cottage to find a subdued Josh munching a biscuit at the kitchen table. She wanted to cover her face and wish it all away but couldn’t because Josh would know something was wrong.
She hadn’t any right to speak to Daniel Kennedy that way and she was deeply ashamed of her outburst now. After all, he was the boy’s father and nothing in the world could change that. She shouldn’t be fighting him, she thought remorsefully, she should be co-operating as he had suggested because little Josh’s welfare and future were all that mattered. Trouble was, he made her so mad, stepping back into his son’s life and expecting so much, so soon, and treating her with such disdain when he hadn’t even given her a chance to show him how good she had been for his son.
She took a deep breath of new resolve. This little boy mattered, not her feelings. ‘I’ve been talking to your father and he was thrilled with your dive, Josh. He said—’
A shadow darkened the doorway and Karis turned, expecting it to be Saffron with Tara, but it wasn’t; it was the devil himself and on sight of him her skin prickled warily.
He spoke and this time he didn’t shout or sound angry. He actually sounded quite pleasant. ‘I said I wished Karis would teach me to dive too because I’ve never quite been able to do it. She said she wasn’t sure so I thought I’d ask you. Do you think she should give me lessons, Josh?’
Josh stared hard at his biscuit, not able to raise his eyes to his father. Karis held her breath, watching the poor boy struggling with some sort of inner conflict he obviously couldn’t cope with.
Karis glanced back at Daniel leaning in the doorway. Their eyes met and locked in mutual understanding and Karis was pleasantly surprised that his had softened considerably, as if he was sorry for being so sharp and censorious with her. He was trying; that was something at least. For Josh’s sake of course she would meet him halfway, but only for Josh’s sake.
She broke the eye contact first and went to the fridge for drinks for everyone. ‘I’ve thought about it, Josh, and think it’s a good idea. We could teach him together because you are so good at it now.’ She laughed, trying to make fun of it all. ‘But I bet he’s rotten at it. Should be good for a laugh at least.’
Josh didn’t think the idea at all amusing. To Karis’s horror he flung the half-nibbled biscuit down and flew f
rom the kitchen, out of the door opposite the one his father was leaning in. Karis closed her eyes in sufferance and said nothing till they heard the slam of a door on the other side of the cottage. His bedroom door, as Karis knew of old.
‘You’ll have to give him time,’ she murmured, fully expecting Daniel to fling some sort of accusation at her for Josh’s negative action. To her surprise he seemed to sag in defeat and sat down in the cane chair Josh had so rapidly vacated.
For a moment Karis felt a wave of sympathy for him. So far he had received one rejection after another from his son.
‘A drink?’ she offered, and started pouring juice from the fridge anyway when he didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure what to follow her query with. There was something so deep and emotional between these two that she wondered if they would ever come out of it father and son again.
‘Is he always like this?’ he asked at last. ‘Still so sullen, unresponsive and hating the world?’ He acknowledged the drink Karis put before him with a nod of his dark head.
Karis leaned on the fridge and sipped her drink, watching him from under her thick lashes. ‘With everyone but me. He warms to Saffron too but not to the degree he trusts me,’ she told him truthfully.
He looked up at her but Karis couldn’t read his expression. It was beyond her. She almost wished she hadn’t made the admission. If he had any feeling for Josh it must have hurt to hear that his son cared more for a stranger than himself, his own father.
‘I’m sorry if that sounded as if I’m the only one that matters to him but the truth is I fear I am,’ she told him. She let out a small sigh. ‘He’s difficult and it’s been a battle. I nearly didn’t stay when I first met him, but I think…’ Her voice cracked as she thought about all the traumas she and Josh had faced together and overcome and what state the boy would be in now if she had rejected him from the off as all the others had done.
