Apparently he did, he realized on Thursday afternoon when Kate called, filled with excitement.
“I got a response!” she’d cheered into the phone the second he’d picked up.
“Hmm, what?” He blinked at the clock readout on his computer and wondered if he’d fallen asleep. He only had half an hour before he had to meet Dylan at the school. How had the day vanished so fast?
“I got a response from one of the online magazines,” Kate explained. “They want to call me tomorrow and talk about giving Dear Cupid a trial run.”
“Wow, that’s great!” His sleep-deprived brain managed to rally at her good news. “I told you you’d get bites.”
“Oh, Mike, I can’t thank you enough for nudging me. I’ve never been more excited or nervous as when I hit send on that first wave of emails.”
“Me either,” he laughed, remembering when he’d shown up at the cabin on Tuesday, bringing Dylan home from rehearsal, and found Kate in a state of anxiety. He’d taken both her and Dylan out for a very quick celebratory dinner, then pulled an all-nighter to make up for it. The hardest thing he’d done all week had been ending that evening with nothing more than a goodnight kiss.
As Kate rattled off the details about the magazine and the potential offer, he remembered that kiss. The way she’d poured herself into it, pressing her body to his. He’d known he could have easily taken it much further. One thing stopped him: his certainty that if he climbed into bed with her, he’d probably fall sound asleep the second they finished making love. He couldn’t afford it.
He could, however, rest his head on his hand while he listened to her voice. He liked hearing her so happy and excited. The words drifted through his mind, lulling him…
“Mike?” He heard Kate’s voice somewhere in the distance. “Mike! Mike!”
“Hmm, what?” He jerked awake.
“You fell asleep.”
“Oh God, I’m sorry.” He looked around. “What were you saying?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Fortunately humor, rather than irritation, filled her voice. “I have to tell you I’m impressed.”
“That I fell asleep on you?” He rubbed his eyes.
“No. With how hard you’re trying to keep your promise to Dylan. I wish I could say you’ve proved your point and you can stop now, but I can’t. You have to see this through.”
“I know.” Some doubt must have crept into his voice, because she didn’t respond right away.
“Mike, you can do this, right? Before you answer, I know you’re trying, that’s obvious, but I want you to be honest. If you can’t do this, please, tell me.”
For a second, he thought about admitting she’d been right. Then he remembered her warning him not to get halfway through the week and back out. So he bolstered his determination.
” ‘Try? There is no try,’ ” he said, quoting a line from The Empire Strikes Back. ” ‘Do, or do not.’ “
“Okay, Master Yoda,” she chuckled. “You’re making Dylan very happy.”
“Speaking of,” he said with a yawn, “I need to get to the school.”
“Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe I should be there today.”
“No way. It’s dress rehearsal, and we don’t want you to see our routine until tomorrow night.”
“Okay…” She sounded leery. “If you’re sure.”
“Absolutely. We’re gonna knock ’em dead.”
***
ONE MORE DAY, Mike told himself Friday afternoon. All he had to do was make it through tonight, performance night, and he could focus his attention back on work. And winning Kate. And continuing to build a relationship with his future stepson.
He always felt stressed pushing up against a deadline, but he’d never felt this stretched to the breaking point. Tonight, though, he’d do the play with Dylan. Next week, he’d submerge himself fully in getting his part of the movie in the can. Then…
Then, he and Kate would spend some time together.
Santa Monica, he thought, as he rushed through some final changes to the scene he’d been working on all day. He’d take Kate and Dylan to meet his family. Smiling at the thought, he gave the file a final glance, saved the latest version to the shared folder online, then shot off an email to Frank, asking him to check it.
Yes! He punched both fists into the air. Now he could clean up and head over to Kate’s to pick up Dylan.
Before he even pushed the chair back from his desk, his phone rang. He told himself not to answer, even when he saw Frank’s name on the caller ID. The new life he wanted would have boundaries on his accessibility, and his colleagues would have to get used to that. But everything inside him screamed “Answer the phone! It could be an emergency!” Cursing his own weakness, he answered it. “Frank, I’m on my way out the door, so unless it’s life or death—”
“Shut up and listen!” Frank snapped. “Did you just upload a file to the shared folder?”
“Yes.”
“Shit!” Frank let out several more curses. “You just picked up a virus. I was about to call and warn you. I’m with the animation team now. Looks like someone sabotaged the folder. Everyone who’s opened the folder has something eating their hard drive.”
Mikes heart stopped. “Is everyone shutting down?”
“We’re trying to backup.”
“No! You have to do a safe shutdown and unplug. Now! Put me on speaker phone!” Mike started shouting instructions as he went through the process on his own computer. In less than a minute, he had all the computers off. Flopping back in his chair, he stared at his blank screen. Nothing but silence came over his phone so he imagined everyone in L.A. doing the same.
With dread mounting, he lifted the phone. “How long were some of the computers on after they downloaded the virus?”
“Not sure.” Frank had calmed down some, going from freaking out to seriously worried. “Some of them, maybe an hour or more.”
“God.” Mike scrubbed his eyes as the reality sunk in. Months of work and millions of dollars potentially destroyed. “Well, anything on those machines is probably toast. Depending on how insidiously the virus broke through our auto-backup systems.”
“How do we find out?” Panic returned to Frank’s voice.
“First, you need to have all the machines scrubbed by a qualified tech before you can even turn them back on. Once that’s done, we’ll start accessing damage. A good tech should be able to recover some of the files.”
“Okay, I’ll call the studio’s geek team. We need to get back up and running right away.”
“Frank, it’s late in the day on a Friday.” Mike glanced at his watch and saw he needed to get off the phone or he’d be late picking up Dylan. “You need to be sure whoever does this is qualified. I wouldn’t count on anyone powering up until sometime tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow!” The shout nearly busted Mike’s eardrum. “We can’t miss an entire night’s work. What the hell is wrong with you? You seem to have lost all concept of the word deadline. Is this job important to you or not?”
Mike set his teeth. “Every job is important to me, and you know that.”
“Then help us work through this. I assume you know how to scrub a computer properly.”
“I do.”
“Great. Then get your computer up and running and help us figure out how to work around this.”
“Frank, have you totally blanked on the fact that this is the night I’m doing the school play with Kate’s son?”
“You have got to be kidding me! Cameron, so help me God, if you step away from your computer before you get us up and running, I will never use you as an animator again. Is that clear?”
Chapter 25
*
KATE WAS LAUGHING at her son’s excitement as she scooped up her phone with a quick glance at caller ID. “Mike, hi. Are you on your way? Dylan is practically beside himself with pre-performance jitters. It’s adorable.”
“Kate.” The way he said her name made her go still. “
Don’t scream, okay?”
“Oh God.” Her stomach dropped.
“Something came up.”
“Something came up!” she hissed into the phone so Dylan wouldn’t overhear.
“By ‘something’ I mean an enormous, potentially career-ending disaster.”
“Hang on.” She marched out on the deck and closed the door behind her. “Don’t you dare tell me you can’t do this tonight. You had your chance to back out. You can’t do this to Dylan.”
“Kate, you don’t understand—”
“How many times have I heard that phrase?” She pinched the bridge of her nose as he went on about sabotage and viruses and Frank threatening to blackball him. The words blurred together with a sickening surge of pain. How could she possibly go inside and tell Dylan that Mike couldn’t make it?
“Are you listening to anything I’m saying?” Mike demanded, panic adding an edge to his voice.
“Honestly? No.”
“Well, you need to, because I need you to fill in for me so Dylan can still do his skit.”
“Are you joking?”
“No! My part of the skit is all backstage. You can do it. Dylan knows the routine and so does his teacher. They’ll show you what you need to do.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“Look, Dylan’s skit is the last one before the finale. I can’t promise, but I’m trying—”
“What happened to ‘There is no try’?”
“Life happens, Kate. You think I’m enjoying this? You think I’m not sick to my stomach?”
“I can’t even talk to you right now.” Her throat tightened. “I have to go break my son’s heart.”
“Kate, wait! I have to explain about his costume—”
She disconnected, so angry her whole body shook. Dylan’s teacher could tell her whatever she needed to know about the costume.
***
“WHAT DO YOU mean, stunt harness?” Kate stared at Miss Marshall, Dylan’s teacher, as if she’d lost her mind.
“Dylan’s costume has a body harness in it so he can fly,” the young woman explained with worried eyes. “I’m not sure I know how to fasten it properly. I don’t want to run the risk of him falling from ten feet off the stage floor.”
“No one told me anything about Dylan flying.” Terror streaked through Kate at the thought.
“I’m sorry.” Miss Marshall shook her head, clearly harried. “I can’t help with this.”
The teacher dashed off to solve another problem. With minutes left before curtain time, chaos reigned backstage as children and parents hurried to get ready.
“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Dylan said in a small voice. His hand slipped inside Kate’s. “I guess it won’t happen now. I won’t even be in the play.”
One look at her son’s dejected face made Kate want to cry. Or scream. Or strangle Mike. Instead, she forced a smile onto her face.
“Don’t give up,” she told him as brightly as she could as she dialed her phone. “We’ll just call Mike so he can tell me how to do it, okay?”
The phone went instantly to voice mail. Her nerves frayed even further. Of all the times for him to turn off his phone, why did he have to do it now? “He’s not going to make it, is he?” Dylan looked at her with devastated eyes.
In that instant, Kate’s hope died. For the past hour, she’d kept up a brave face, telling Dylan Mike might make it, he was trying, don’t give up yet. Even if Mike didn’t, she’d fill in for him so the skit would go on.
The time had come to face reality. Mike wasn’t going to make it. And she didn’t know how to fill in for him.
That left her with one herculean task: figure out how to minimize the damage to Dylan. With a desperate prayer for guidance, she squeezed her son’s hand. “Dylan, let’s have a seat, okay?”
He nodded bravely and they made their way through a kaleidoscope of children scrambling about in their colorful costumes. The parents who’d be performing looked equally excited as nerves buzzed in the air. How awful for Dylan to have to sit backstage, knowing he’d be left out.
She found two folding metal chairs against a wall in a relatively quiet area and waited until her son had settled beside her. “I know you’re disappointed—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Dylan interrupted her, clearly on the verge of tears. “I shoulda known.”
“It does matter, and you have a right to be upset. I want you to listen to me, though.” She searched for the right words. Nothing would fix this, but she had to try. “I don’t want you to think for one minute that Mike not making it tonight is because he doesn’t want to be here. He’s upset about this too.”
“If he wanted to be here, he’d have made it. I guess I shouldn’t ’spect him to like some dumb kid.”
“Oh God, Dylan, don’t say that!” She slid from her chair to kneel before her son. “Mike doesn’t think you’re a dumb kid. He thinks you’re bright and special and he likes you very much.”
“No, he doesn’t.” Her son’s face flushed with anger. “He’d be here if he did.”
“Sweetheart, life isn’t that simple.” How did she explain this in a way that Dylan would understand, and believe, when she felt torn apart by her own anger and hurt? By letting go of the past, she realized. She had to stop expecting Mike to let her down. If Mike could have kept this promise, she believed with every fiber of her being, he would have. Unfortunately, if she couldn’t convince a seven-year-old boy of that, and somehow redeem Mike in his eyes, they might never get past this. “Dylan, I need you to listen to me. There is a big difference between someone breaking a promise because they never really cared about keeping it, and someone honestly trying but falling short.”
“It’s still a broken promise.” Dylan scowled at her.
“Yes, it is. And it hurts very much.” She straightened a tuft of his hair. “The difference is, the first kind of broken promise hurts only the person who was let down. The second kind hurts the person doing the letting down just as much. I promise you, Mike is just as upset about this as you are.”
“I don’t care!” Dylan dissolved into tears of despair.
“Oh, honey.” She pulled him to her, wrapped her arms about his trembling body, and rocked him back and forth. “I’m so, so sorry this happened.”
Sorry for him, for herself, and even for Mike. All she could do now was pray they hadn’t lost the chance of forming a family. Resting her cheek against the top of Dylan’s head, she struggled not to cry.
The sound of a metal door popping open echoed through the backstage area like a gun blast.
Kate glanced behind her and gasped at the sight of Mike charging through the back doors. Other parents shushed him, but Kate wanted to shout with joy. Her heart lifted as she rose in a rush.
The instant he spotted her, relief washed over his face and he hurried over.
“You made it,” she said, breathlessly. “I didn’t think you would.”
“I didn’t think so either,” he panted. “God. Frank’s gonna kill me for going AWOL.”
“He’s not going to fire you, is he?”
“I got enough done to appease him for tonight, but only because I turned off my phone so he’d stop interrupting me with his screaming.”
“That’s why you turned off your phone?” Disbelief had her gaping at him. “I thought you wanted to keep me from interrupting you.”
“You’re joking, right?” Before she could answer, he looked down at Dylan. His face went slack with shock when he saw the boy’s tear-swollen eyes. “Hey, hey, buddy,” he said soothingly as he went down on one knee. “What’s this?”
“I didn’t think you’d come!” An awestruck smile broke over Dylan’s face as he launched himself against Mike’s chest, flinging his arm around him. “But you did!”
Mike nearly fell backward at the impact of the solid little body. His arms went around the boy as he stood up, carrying Dylan with him. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
“I don�
��t care.” Dylan squeezed him tightly. “You made it!”
Warm joy flooded through Mike as he hugged the boy back. Then he took a second look at Dylan. “Dude, you’re not in costume.”
“Mom didn’t know how to put it on.” Dylan gave Mike a guy-to-guy smirk. “Good thing you’re here to do it.”
“Good thing.” Mike set the boy down then glanced at Kate. He found her beaming at him even as she dried her cheeks.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said with gratitude shining in her eyes.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about Dylan and what this meant to him.”
“Thank you!” She launched herself against him, throwing her arms around him just as her son had.
Any doubt Mike had about his decision vanished as he held her against him. Frank would get over his conniption fit—eventually—but nothing would ever replace this, or the look he’d seen on Dylan’s face.
She pulled back enough to stare at him. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“How about ‘break a leg’?” he suggested. “Because you need to be out in the audience while I get Dylan in his costume.”
“You got it.” Framing his face, she gave him a big kiss. It only lasted a second, but his head spun with the fact that she’d done it in front of her son. “Break a leg.”
***
“WHAT ARE YOU doing out here?” Linda whispered as Kate made her way past purses and knees to the middle of the row.
“Mike made it,” Kate whispered back, grinning.
“Really?” Linda brightened. “That’s fantastic!”
“No kidding.” Kate laughed from sheer relief, then waved at her parents who sat on the other side of Linda and Jim.
“Shhh!” an angry parent admonished from behind them.
She gave an exaggerated cringe to apologize, then turned to watch the show. A father and son had taken the stage to perform “I’m Getting Married in the Morning” from My Fair Lady, but she couldn’t focus. Instead, the memory of Mike bursting through the door backstage occupied her mind.
Linda nudged her, bringing her out of her thoughts. “I think Dylan’s next.”
“So soon?” She glanced at her watch and realized she must have been daydreaming for some time. Nervous excitement shot through her.
Good Guy Heroes Boxed Set Page 27
