Unbreak My Heart (Childhood Sweethearts Reunited)

by Helen Scott Taylor

  Kate lifted Keiko from her car seat, shielded her under her coat from the wet, and ran to the entrance lobby.

  The health center had a vaulted roof, light and airy with fresh spring-green paint. Kate stood in line behind an elderly woman who smelled of cats, then checked in.

  The receptionist marked Kate off on her computer and asked her to fill out a temporary resident's form. Then she looked up. Her gaze slid away over Kate's shoulder, and a dreamy, faraway expression crept into her eyes.

  Kate turned to see Andre approaching with the stroller, raindrops sparkling in his dark hair. She didn't blame the woman for staring. He looked good enough to eat. He stopped beside Kate, brushed his wet hair off his forehead and gave the receptionist a dazzling smile.

  "It's getting cold out there," he said, leaning toward Kate to take Keiko. Wayward strands of damp hair flopped forward. Little tingles raced up her arm where his hands touched her skin. Her head might question her feelings for Andre, but her body knew exactly what it wanted, and it involved lots of naked skin pressed together.

  Kate dragged her attention away from him back to the woman on the other side of the reception desk. "Can you tell me how long I'll have to wait? It looks pretty busy."

  "We've had a few emergencies this morning. The doctor's running a little late."

  Andre straightened from settling Keiko in the stroller. "How late?"

  The woman glanced at her computer screen. "Just under an hour, but I'm sure she's trying to catch up."

  "Thank you," Kate said, wearily. Keiko was good when they were alone but tended to get restless around people. They went to the far end of the waiting room where it was quietest. Kate took off her wet coat, hung it over a chair to dry and sat down.

  Andre swept a hand over his damp hair. "We're having a new computer booking system installed at the Court Royal. I'd like to look in there for a few minutes, if you don't mind. I should be back before you come out." He reached down and cradled her jaw, gently angling her face up to him. "You've been very quiet this morning. Are you okay?"

  Kate shrugged.

  He smiled, but it was tight with small lines of tension around his mouth and eyes. "I said more than I intended last night. Don't take it to heart."

  "You must think those things if you said them."

  It was his turn to shrug. "We need to put the past behind us and start afresh as adults. Not hang on to what we shared as kids. People change. We've changed, or I have anyway."

  "I know," she whispered. Until last night she had regretted the changes in him and hankered after the old Andre. Now she knew the feelings she'd had for the old Andre had been based on a lie. All the while she'd thought they were perfectly suited, he'd been putting up with her clingy ways, wishing he could be free of her. So why had he given her the tiger's eye ring? She gently pushed his hand away and lowered her gaze. She would never understand men.

  Andre leaned down and gripped her shoulder, put his mouth to her ear. "Whatever you're worrying about, stop it and relax." She turned to look at him and he touched his lips to hers in a brief, sweet kiss. Her breath rushed in, bringing with it the scent of his fresh, rain-dampened skin.

  "See you soon." He headed toward the door, pausing to grab a newspaper lying on a chair and stuff it in his coat pocket. He scanned the waiting room, glanced back at her with a brief, tight smile and went out the door.

  Kate flipped though the magazines on the nearest table, but none of them interested her. She switched to people-watching. She sketched a little boy playing on the carpet nearby, then started talking to his mother and gave her the sketch.

  After twenty minutes, Andre returned with the rain cover for Keiko's stroller. He gave Kate a quick smile, said "hi", then crouched to fit it. He worked quickly, the taut lines of his body radiating tension. Each minute of silence wound Kate tighter. "What's wrong?" she asked.

  "Nothing. I was just concentrating." Andre stood, brushed the creases from his coat and checked his watch. "I'll be no longer than twenty minutes at the Court Royal."

  "Andre," Kate said as he turned to go again. She had known him too long to miss his uneasiness. Something was definitely amiss.

  "I have to go or I'll be late to pick you up." Kate watched him disappear out the door for a second time and shifted uncomfortably in her chair. A horrible sense of unease filled her.

  The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She glanced around, expecting to see one of the photographers who'd plagued her, but there were no familiar faces. She shrugged her shoulders to shake off the discomfort.

  "Excuse me." A middle-aged man had come in and sat a few chairs away from her. He angled his newspaper toward the stroller. "That's Dan Crowther's baby, isn't it?"

  Kate's breath jabbed painfully. How did this man know about Keiko? Unless he'd witnessed her chaotic arrival at Andre's hotel. "Do you work at the Caspian?"

  "No." His face softened in an apologetic smile. "Sorry if I startled you, luv." He held up his newspaper. "I was reading about you and your baby." While Kate's horrified gaze fixed on the wet tabloid paper, the man rambled on amiably. "I don't watch his program, myself. Not my sort of thing. But my daughter loves it. She wants to be a model. She talked about writing to Dan to ask if he could help her. Any chance you might pass on the letter? I'm not sure about the idea of her modeling myself, but my wife, she keeps encouraging Laura—"

  "I'm not with Dan anymore." Kate interrupted him. "Can I see the article?"

  "Sure." He leaned across the empty chairs and, heart pounding, she grabbed the crumpled newspaper. "Your picture's on page six."

  Kate's sketchbook slipped off her lap and thudded to the floor, but she ignored it. Throat so tight she could barely swallow, she stared at the photograph of Keiko in her baby sling on Kate's chest, one of the pictures taken when she arrived at the Caspian. How dare they invade her and Keiko's privacy like this? The newspaper trembled in her hands. She should have grabbed the cameras and smashed them on the ground.

  Her gaze skittered between the other two smaller photographs, one of her and Dan arguing outside his flat and another of a stick-thin model. Reigning in her instinct to shred the newspaper and stamp it into the floor, she read the article. Dan's new model girlfriend was also pregnant according to the reporter. Perhaps that news would draw attention away from Keiko. A flow of relief eased her breathing slightly. By the time Kate neared the end of the piece her heart rate had nearly returned to normal. The article wasn't as bad as she'd feared and nobody would recognize Keiko from the photo.

  Then she reached the final paragraph and Andre's name leapt off the page at her. She read the quote attributed to him, confirming Dan was Keiko's father and her vision blurred. She re-read the quote, willing it to be a mistake. Had Andre gone behind her back? No! She couldn't believe he'd do that to her. She scanned the page frantically looking for the byline. Jerry Markham's name reared up from the paper like a snake. She jerked back and put her hand over her mouth. Andre had betrayed her to Jerry Markham.

  A low chime echoed around the cavernous room like the toll of doom. "Kate Frost to room six," said a crackly voice.

  She must move, must get through this. It took all her determination to drag her gaze away from the damning quote. She folded the paper, and got to her feet. Black dots danced before her eyes. She dragged in enough air to give her a voice. "May I keep this?" she asked the man who'd loaned her the newspaper.

  "Yes, sure. I'd finished reading it anyway."

  "Thanks." Kate stuffed the paper in her bag and walked along the corridor to the consulting room.

  She felt like a zombie. Her body was present but her consciousness had curled up in a dark cave in the back of her mind. The female doctor asked her some questions. Kate opened her mouth and words came out. The doctor examined her. Kate stared at the ceiling and remembered the red-headed photographer laughing at her. The doctor asked her if she knew why her blood pressure was so high. Kate stared at the wall and remembered Andre smiling and slapping Jerry Markham
on the back. The doctor pronounced her fit. She stood up and left.

  Why had Andre talked? He'd promised he wouldn't tell anyone about Dan.

  Kate walked through the waiting room and seeing no sign of Andre she buttoned up her coat, sealed down the stroller's rain cover and headed outside. She needed to move, to feel the wind in her face, to blow away the anger and confusion.

  Instinctively she turned away from the town toward the sea. She walked fast, struggling to wheel the stroller up the steep hill against the rain. She reached the top panting, gasping the cold salty air. The wind twisted and buffeted up over the cliff, nearly knocking her off her feet.

  She managed to push Keiko along a footpath to a wooden bench overlooking the sea and slumped down on the seat, her angry energy suddenly gone as if someone had thrown a switch. She stared numbly as dark curtains of rain swept across the steely, surging water.

  Didn't Andre understand that Jerry Markham and his kind had made her life a misery? Now they had been rewarded for their behavior and her privacy invaded.

  Had Jerry tricked Andre? She couldn't think of any other reason for him to give the journalist what he wanted. Unless Jerry Markham had made up the quote. But he wouldn't sell many stories if he were caught fabricating them.

  Gulls driven inland by the bad weather wheeled overhead, sparring with each other. She shivered. Wet hair plastered her face. The smart maroon raincoat, a Caspian uniform coat Andre had given her, was now soaked.

  Keiko stirred inside her little plastic cocoon, grumbling and sucking her fist. Kate needed to head back. Staring out to sea did her no good, provided no answers, not even a moment of peace. Now wet and cold, she returned to the road and started down the hill toward town.

  A car pulled in behind her and she turned to see Andre leap out. The wind took the car door and slammed it closed. "Kate!" he called and jogged over to her. "You had me worried. I waited at the surgery for a while, then realized you'd already left. Are you okay?" He steadied the stroller with a strong hand on the handle as the wind gusted.

  "No," Kate replied.

  "What's wrong? Did the doctor find a problem?"

  Kate shook her head.

  Rain dripped down Andre's face and he wiped it away. "Let's get you inside. Then you can tell me." He took charge of the stroller, unclipping the car seat part and getting it into the vehicle out of the deluge before folding up the wheeled section.

  Kate watched him. How could this man who seemed so caring have gone behind her back to Jerry Markham?

  "Kat, get in before you catch your death." Andre shut Keiko's door and returned to Kate, urging her toward the car with a firm hand on her shoulder. Once the heater was blasting, he helped her out of her wet coat and tossed it in the back.

  "Okay." He swiveled in his seat to face her. "What's happened? And don't say ‘nothing’ because you've got that look on your face."

  "What look?"

  "The 'me against the world' look."

  She withdrew further into her shell like an anemone in a rock pool prodded by a thoughtless finger. In the past she'd have said what she thought, but after last night she was wary of revealing her emotions and vulnerability. Andre might start thinking she was a burden again and send her packing.

  Fine lines of tension fanned out from his eyes and bracketed his mouth. "You know you can talk to me."

  "I used to think I could." Kate turned away and stared out the side window at the long grass whipped around by the wind. This issue was so much more than the question of him speaking to Jerry without her consent. This illustrated his whole attitude to her.

  "Kate! Tell me what's happened," he snapped, his patience failing.

  Why was he yelling at her? He was the one who'd done something wrong. His dark hair was damp and disheveled, his brown eyes frantic, searching hers. Before last night she'd have been pleased by his show of concern. Now she didn't know what she thought or felt. Andre had knocked her off balance with his nocturnal revelations, undermined the very foundation of her world. "I saw the newspaper."

  He turned away and wiped his sleeve over his wet face, masking his expression. When he glanced back, his cheeks were flushed with bright spots of color. "Which newspaper?"

  She watched his expression, feeling detached, like an outsider. "Look in my bag."

  He snagged her bag off the floor in the back, pulled out the soggy newspaper and unfolded it.

  "Page six," she said.

  After a tussle with the wet paper in the confines of the car, he found the place. Jaw rigid, he scanned the article.

  Keiko snuffled and started to cry in short nasal bursts. The sound pulled Kate out of her stupor. She reached back and stroked Keiko's foot to comfort her. She glanced at the newspaper, at the picture of Keiko's sweet, trusting face and threads of anger wove through her numb mind. "Is that quote of yours genuine?"

  Andre's breath hissed out. He scrunched the paper against the steering wheel, leaned his forehead on his clenched fists. "Yes."

  "So you talked to Jerry after you'd promised me you wouldn't?"

  "I didn't set out to talk to him. It happened by accident. He was staying at the Court Royal and…" Andre's words trailed off and he shook his head. "The details don't matter, Kat." He straightened, turned to face her. "I wanted to get Jerry and the others off your back, off the island. Now they have their story they'll leave. You won't have to see them again. Isn't that what you wanted?"

  "You've helped them win."

  "It's not a question of winning or losing. It's not a game, Kat."

  "You don't have to tell me that! I'm the one they hounded."

  "Well, they won't chase you anymore. You can get on with your life."

  Kate turned to stare out the windshield, anger flexing inside. "This wasn't your decision to take."

  "Maybe not, but I only did what I've done many times before, tried to protect you. I had an opportunity to get rid of the source of your distress, so I took it."

  She cut him a scathing sideways glance and he shrugged. "Shoot me if you want. I still think I did the right thing."

  Kate closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. All her stress and heartache over the past few weeks had been for nothing, all her running and hiding pointless. She might as well have let the paparazzi take photos of Keiko the first day they came to her door. Andre had ignored her deeply held belief that she and her baby had a right to privacy and he hadn't even respected her opinion enough to warn her what he'd done.

  ***

  Kate stood under the hot shower, flipped the lid off Andre's shampoo and sniffed. The spicy fragrance made her shiver with memories of him, his kiss, his touch. She closed her eyes, turned her face into the spray, imagined him standing in the same place, rivulets of water coursing down his hard, naked body.

  Dangerous thoughts. Dangerous desires. She didn't want to think of Andre this way. She wanted to be angry with him for going against her wishes. But although his behavior made her furious, she couldn't be angry with him. If she weighed the newspaper quote against all the kind and thoughtful things he'd done for her and Keiko, the scales tipped in his favor. She shut off the water, stepped out, and wrapped herself in a fluffy white towel.

  Since the day of the doctor's visit and newspaper article, Andre had avoided her. For the last three days he'd been gone when she woke and didn't return from the hotel until late when she was in bed. She missed him terribly, and it frightened her. If the paparazzi were no longer after her, she had no reason to stay. But the thought of leaving Andre made her ache.

  The distant tone of the phone ringing in the sitting room below reached her, and she debated whether to answer it. The only person who had Andre's number was her mother, and she didn't want to be cross-examined by her mum on her relationship with Andre until she understood it herself.

  The phone buzzed insistently. Unable to ignore it, Kate wrapped the towel around her body and raced along the hall. As she reached the top stair, the ringing stopped. She rolled her eyes, swung around t
o return to the bathroom, but pulled up at the sound of Andre's voice.

  She went back to the top of the stairs and strained to hear his muffled words through the closed door. He ceased talking, and she crept down a few steps, wondering if he'd finished the call. The sitting room door at the foot of the stairs opened suddenly, light flooding the corridor. She jumped in surprise and grabbed for the handrail, narrowly avoiding an undignified landing on her bottom. Her face warmed with embarrassment at the mere thought.

  Andre stood silhouetted in the doorway, staring up at her. She clutched the top of the bath towel tightly to her chest. As his gaze slid down her body and settled on her legs, she realized it wasn't the top she should worry about.

  "Phone call for you," he said softly.

  She waited for him to turn away; instead he slipped his hands in his trouser pockets and kept watching. Trying to maintain her dignity despite feeling at a disadvantage, she descended. Before she stepped down the final two steps she halted, eye to eye with him. Wanting to say something but not sure what. Nothing felt the same between them now as if their relationship had shifted gear. She just wasn't sure if it had speeded up or gone into reverse. He stared back at her, his face an unreadable mask. Then without a word, he turned and went into the kitchen.

  She walked into the sitting room, picked up the phone, and plopped down on the sofa. "Hello."

  "You took your time," Dan said irritably.

  "Dan!" A mass of ambivalent feelings tangled inside her. Had he rung about Keiko? What would she do if he wanted to see his daughter? Was that the best thing for Keiko?

  "What the hell were you thinking?" he continued. "Talking to the press now when my whole career depends on good public opinion."

  Kate's thoughts scrambled to keep up with his angry words. "What do you mean?"

  "The TV show!"

  "What about it?"

  "Haven't you been watching?"

  The conceit of the man! "The world doesn't revolve around you."

  Dan's breath hissed into the phone. "The final vote this week is a phone-in. If you've screwed up my chances by blabbing about that baby, I'll never talk to you again."