“All right.” It was almost over, she thought. She wouldn’t spend another day cooking in her temporary kitchen. The batch of cookies in the oven now would be the last she baked in her old stove.
“And,” he continued, “the guys will be here to help the installers. Then they’ll do the last of the finishing jobs and we’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Okay.”
Katie tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans and as she stood there watching Joe in his misery, she almost felt sorry for him. None of this was his fault. The morning after that scene at the restaurant Joe had explained what had happened and all about the bet Rafe had lost to him.
He’d apologized for going along with Rafe’s lies, but Katie knew he also hadn’t had much choice in the matter, either. As an employee, he could hardly argue with the boss. With that thought in mind, she managed to give the man a small smile.
“I have to admit, I’m looking forward to getting my life back,” she said. She wouldn’t confess to missing Rafe. Not to Joe. Not to anyone.
“Yeah,” he muttered, voice still gloomy. “I’ll bet.”
She noticed he was crumpling an invoice in one tight fist and asked, “Is that the last one?”
He looked down at the paper as if surprised to see it. Then he smoothed it out before holding it out to her. “Your last payment includes the little extras you asked for along the way that were off contract.”
Katie nodded and walked over to take it. She didn’t even glance at the total. “I’ll have a check for you tomorrow.”
“That’ll be fine.” He turned to leave, then stopped and looked at her again. “I’m really sorry, Katie. About everything.”
She flushed and now it was her turn to be uncomfortable. Blast Rafe King for putting her in this position. “It wasn’t your doing.”
“It was, in a way,” he insisted, apparently unwilling to let it go that easily. “You know, Rafe’s actually a good guy.”
“Of course you’d say that,” she told him with a sad smile. “You work for him.”
“I do,” Joe argued, animation coming into his face at last as he tried to defend his employer. “And that’s why I’m in a position to know just what kind of man he is. You can tell a lot about a person in the way they treat the people around them. Rafe’s not an easy man, but he’s a fair one.”
“To whom?” Only moments ago, she’d been feeling sympathetic toward Joe since Rafe had put him in such an awkward position. But now, outrage began to bristle inside her. “Was it fair to lie to me? To force you to go along with the lie?”
Joe scowled and scrubbed one hand over his jaw. “No, it wasn’t. But he was paying off his bet to me, so I think we should cut him some slack. Not all employers would have had the spine to honor the debt like that.”
“Honor?” A burst of laughter shot from Katie’s throat.
“Yeah,” he said flatly. “Honor. I don’t know what happened between you two and I don’t want to know. But I can tell you that Rafe’s not a man who goes out of his way to treat people badly.”
“Just a happy accident, then?” she sniped and instantly regretted it when Joe winced. Honestly, why was she taking her anger and hurt out on him? He hadn’t done anything to her beyond supporting Rafe’s lies. It was Rafe who had set everything in motion. Rafe who had slept with her and still lied to her. Rafe who had let her believe that something amazing was coming to life between them, all the time knowing that it was a sham.
Katie struggled for control and found it. Forcing a smile she didn’t feel, she said, “Joe, why don’t we just call this a draw and agree not to talk about Rafe King?”
A moment or two passed when it looked as though he might argue with her. But at last, Joe nodded in surrender. “That’s fine, then. I’ll just let you get back to work and go see if I can help the boys finish up any faster.”
She watched him go, then took a deep breath and tried to push Rafe from her mind. Again.
Naturally, it didn’t work.
It had been almost a week since he’d last seen Katie Charles.
Rafe felt like a caged man. He was trapped in his own memories of her no matter what he did to try to shake them loose. Her image haunted his dreams, and awake, he couldn’t seem to keep thoughts of her at bay. Didn’t matter where he was or what he did, Katie was never more than a thought away.
Hell, he’d even considered calling one of the women he knew, to dive back into his life. Get back in the normal swing of things. But damned if he’d been able to make himself do it. No, he had a charity event he had to go to in a few days, but until then, he wasn’t going out.
Didn’t have the patience to put up with any of the women he knew and wasn’t interested in finding someone new.
He just wanted to be alone. But not by himself. Which didn’t make sense even to him.
He had tried holing up in his suite at the hotel, locking himself away with only his racing brain to keep him company. But the hotel rooms felt sterile, impersonal, and the echoing emptiness had pounded on him until he thought he might lose what was left of his mind.
So here he sat, trying to focus on inventory and supply sheets while images of Katie taunted him. To make matters worse, there was Sean. The problem with coming into King Construction offices, Rafe told himself, was that he couldn’t really avoid his brothers.
“What is your problem?” Sean asked.
“I’m fine,” Rafe insisted, keeping his head down, his gaze on the paperwork scattered across his desk. “Just get off my back, all right?”
Sean laughed. “Trust me when I say, I’d love to. But you’re making everyone around here nuts. When Janice was doing some phone work for me, she begged me to get you out of the office.”
That’s great, he thought. Always before, Rafe had kept his personal and business lives separate. Now though, it seemed his lousy attitude was bleeding into the office. Hell, maybe he should take some time off. But if he did that, his mind would have far too much time to think about Katie. So whether his assistant was happy about it or not, he wasn’t going anywhere.
Rafe scowled and looked up to watch his brother stroll around the perimeter of his office. When Sean stopped at a shelf and plucked a signed baseball off its pedestal, Rafe grumbled, “Put that down.” When he complied, Rafe demanded, “Why is my assistant doing work for you anyway? Don’t you have your own? What happened to Kelly?”
Sighing, Sean walked over and perched on the edge of Rafe’s desk. “She eloped last weekend.”
“That’s the third assistant you’ve lost this year, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I’ve got to stop hiring the pretty ones,” Sean mused. “Inevitably, they run off and get married and leave me swinging in the wind.”
“Well, call the temp agency and get someone in here. Just leave Janice alone.”
“Funny,” Sean said, his eyes narrowing as he watched Rafe thoughtfully, “she’d rather work for me these days.”
Disgusted, Rafe muttered, “Yeah, well, she doesn’t.”
“Better she work for me than quit. And until you lighten up, nobody wants anything to do with you. So why don’t you just tell me what’s going on?”
“Work,” Rafe said flatly, his gaze giving nothing away as he glared at his brother. “You should try it.”
“Just so you know? The whole ‘King Glare’ thing doesn’t work on me. I can do it too, remember?”
Rafe tossed his pen to the desktop and, giving into the irritation flooding his system, jumped out of his chair as if he couldn’t bear to sit still any longer. Turning his back on his brother, he stared out the window at the spread of sunlit ocean before him. There were a few sailboats out on the water today and in the distance, fishermen lined the pier. Gray clouds gathered on the horizon and the wind whipped the waves into choppy whitecaps.
“So,” Sean asked again, “what’s going on?”
He glanced back over his shoulder. He knew his younger brother wouldn’t go away until he got some answers. An
d a part of Rafe wanted to say it all out loud anyway, so he blurted, “Found out which King hurt Katie.”
“Yeah? Who?”
“Cordell.”
“Should have thought of him,” Sean mused with a nod. “He goes through women faster than Jesse used to.”
At mention of their now-married cousin, Rafe almost smiled. As a former professional surfer, Jesse King’s reputation with the ladies had been staggering. Of course, that was before he married Bella and became a father.
“How’d you find out who it was?”
Rafe muttered an oath and looked at Sean. “Ran into Cordell when I took Katie to dinner.”
“Ouch.” Sean nodded thoughtfully, clearly understanding the situation.
“Yeah. That about covers it.” Pushing one hand through his hair, Rafe looked back at the ocean and said, “It all happened pretty fast. I punched him. Then he told Katie who I was. Then she left.”
“And you let her go.”
Swiveling his head around, he glared at Sean again. “What was I supposed to do? Hold her captive?”
“Or talk to her?”
“She was through talking,” Rafe assured him, remembering the look in her eyes as she faced him down. He’d seen the pain glittering brightly in tears she hadn’t let fall. He’d heard the betrayal in her voice and felt the sharp sting of his own lies catching up with him.
“So that’s it?” Sean asked.
“That’s it.” Deliberately, Rafe turned his back on the view, ignored his brother and took a seat behind his desk again. Picking up his pen, he stared blindly at the supply sheets.
“Can’t believe you’re going to let her get away.”
“I didn’t let her do anything,” Rafe muttered, still not looking up at Sean. “Katie makes her own decisions. And now she has more reason than ever to hate the Kings. Most especially, me.”
Blowing out a breath, Sean stood up but didn’t leave. “And you’re okay with that?”
“Of course I am,” Rafe lied and mentally congratulated himself on just how good he was getting at it. “I always intended to walk away from her, Sean. It just happened a little faster than I’d planned.”
God, that was a lie, too.
“Right.” Sean slapped one hand down on top of the papers, forcing Rafe to look up at him.
“Butt out, Sean,” he ground out.
“Hell no,” his brother said, frustration simmering in the air between them. “You’re not usually a stupid guy, Rafe. But this time, you’re being an idiot.”
No, he wasn’t. Katie didn’t want to see him and he couldn’t blame her. Besides, it was better this way. If she was mad at him, she wouldn’t stay hurt for long. She’d get over it. So would he. He was no good at love and he knew it. Better he hurt her now than destroy her later.
“Thanks for the input.” Rafe peeled Sean’s hand off the papers. “Now go away.”
“If you don’t go after her,” Sean said quietly, “you’ll regret it.”
Rafe already regretted it. Enough that his soul felt as if it was withering and his heart could barely summon the energy to beat.
“I’ve had regrets before,” he finally said. “Let’s remember Leslie.”
“Uh-huh. Speaking of your ex…I hear you hired her husband.”
Rafe sighed. Yes, he had hired John. And he was forced to admit that he might not have if he hadn’t met Katie. Being with her had allowed him to face his own past. And the talk with Leslie had been eye-opening enough that he’d been able to reach out to an old friend. Maybe he and John would actually be close again someday.
If they were, that too would be laid at Katie’s feet. Her optimism and rosy outlook on life had affected him more than he would have thought possible. Rafe shifted in his chair. He didn’t want to talk about any of this. Hell, he didn’t want to talk at all.
“So the question is,” Sean continued, oblivious to the fact that Rafe wanted him gone, “why is it you can make peace with John and Leslie, but you won’t go see the woman you’re crazy about?”
Several silent, tense seconds passed before Rafe finally asked, “Are you going to leave? Or do I have to?”
“I’ll go,” Sean said amiably. “But that won’t solve your problem for you.”
“Yeah?” Rafe countered. “What will?”
Sean laughed at him and shook his head as he opened the door. “You already know the answer to that, Rafe. You just don’t want to admit it.”
Twelve
“It’s really gorgeous, honey,” Emily O’Hara said as she walked through the completely remodeled kitchen. “I love the floor and the counters are just beautiful.”
Katie should have been cooing over her finished kitchen too, but somehow she couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for it. Heck, in the two days since the crew left, she hadn’t even made a single batch of cookies in her shiny new stove.
Her gaze swept the remodeled room, trying to see it as Nana was, from the slate gray tiles to the pearlized blue granite counters to the dark blue walls and she felt…nothing. It was all perfect and it meant…nothing.
“All right, sweetie,” her grandmother said, coming up to give her a brief, comforting hug. “You’ve got the kitchen of your dreams, but you’re standing there looking as if you just found out cookies had been banned. Tell me what’s wrong.”
The tears that Katie had been holding at bay for days crested again and before she could stop them, one or two trailed down her cheeks. Her heart ached and it felt as though there were a boulder sitting on her chest. She could hardly draw a breath without wheezing. “Oh, Nana, everything’s wrong.”
“Honey…” The older woman sighed and steered Katie across the room. An ancient, round pedestal table and captain chairs sat before the wide window where sunlight splashed and curtains danced in a soft wind. Emily pushed her granddaughter into one of the chairs, then sat down beside her. “Talk to me.”
Where to start? Katie wondered. With the fact that she was in love with a man she didn’t really know? That she’d allowed herself to get bamboozled by the King family? Again? Or should she just admit that she wasn’t getting over it this time? That she would never get over it? That she couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t eat, she didn’t even want to bake anymore. And that was saying something. She just couldn’t bring herself to care about anything but the gaping hole in her own heart.
“It’s Rafe,” she said, slumping back into her chair. “He lied to me.”
“I know.”
“What?” Katie blinked at her grandmother and waited for an explanation. But the older woman just sat there in the sunlight, smiling benevolently. “How? What? How?”
Emily reached over, patted Katie’s hand, then sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I know his real name is Rafe King, if that’s what you’re talking about.”
“Well, yeah, it is.”
“Do you want tea? We should have some tea.”
“I don’t want tea,” Katie said, stopping her grandmother before the woman could get up. “I want some answers. You know about Rafe? For how long?”
She waved one hand dismissively. “Oh, I knew the minute you introduced us.”
“How?” Katie just stared at her in rapt confusion. “Do you have some kind of inner lie radar that I didn’t get?”
“No, and I don’t think I’d want it, either. Sometimes lies can be a good thing,” Emily said, her gaze locked on Katie.
“Lying is not a good thing. You’re the one who taught me that, remember?”
Again, Emily waved a hand, effectively wiping away that little nugget of so-called wisdom. “That was different. You were ten. Now you’re an adult and surely you’ve learned that sometimes a small, harmless lie is far better than a hurtful truth.”
“This lie wasn’t harmless,” Katie argued, remembering the sting of betrayal when she’d discovered Rafe’s game. “And you still haven’t told me how you knew who he was.”
“If you read popular magazines once in a while, you would have known
him too,” Nana said with a huff. “There’s always one King or another’s picture in there. I recognized Rafe from a picture taken at a movie premiere.”
“A premiere.” Katie shook her head and felt her heart drop through the floor. He was used to dating actresses and going to fabulous parties. Oh, he must have gotten such a laugh from the spur-of-the-moment barbecue in her backyard.
Annoyance flickered into anger and soon that hot little bubble of fury was frothing into real rage. “I can’t believe it. He must have thought I was an idiot for not recognizing him.” She paused for a glare at her grandmother. “And why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because,” Emily said. “You needed your life shaken up a little. Besides, he’s a cutie-patootie and you can’t hang all of the Kings for what one of them did.”
“Two of them now,” Katie reminded her.
“All right, yes, Rafe’s not looking too good at the moment,” Emily admitted. “But did you give him a chance to explain?”
“Oh, he explained. I was a bet gone wrong.”
“Katie…”
She shook her head and held up both hands. “No, Nana, there’s no excuse for what he did. He lied to me and that’s it.”
“I lied to you too, sweetie,” her grandmother pointed out in a small voice.
Sighing, Katie said, “Yeah, but you didn’t do it to hurt me.”
“No, I didn’t. And maybe that wasn’t Rafe’s intention, either.”
“We’ll never know, will we?” Katie muttered, as anger seeped away into the wide black hole she seemed to be carrying around inside her these days.
“You could find out if you’d stop hiding away in your house and go see him.” Emily frowned and looked at her steadily. “Are you really going to become a hermit while he’s out having a good time?”
That caught her attention quickly enough. Rafe was having a good time? Where? And a moment later the more important question—with who?—leaped into mind.
“What do you mean?” Katie asked, voice tight.
Her nana sighed again and reached for the morning paper, still folded and unopened on the kitchen table. “Honestly, Katie, if you paid a little more attention to current events…”
King’s Million-Dollar Secret Page 14
