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“Kathie, I don’t care what anybody thinks anymore. I know I used to, but I’m over it. I care about Ben and my family, and maybe the church ladies, a little bit, just because I want them to like me and think I’m right for Ben, because I know how much they all love him. But that’s it, I swear.”
“Well, I still don’t want anybody to think you kicked me out of town,” Kathie said. “So I thought if I just came back for a little while, and people saw us together and happy, they’d know that’s not true.”
“Okay.” That worked for Kate. Anything that got her sister back and had them spending time together, worked for Kate.
“And Joe didn’t want to tell me, but…I guess everybody hates him now!”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d go that far….”
“Everybody blames him for what happened. Not me. Him. He said they all think he dumped me, after…you know, making trouble between you and him, and you and me. That he dumped me when everybody found out about it, and I was so devastated, I left town.”
“I guess it’s possible. I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve heard every rumor in the world about the whole thing, and I just try not to listen anymore.” Kate would have said again it didn’t matter to her, but like her brother, she wanted her sister to come back to stay.
She wasn’t going to be as bad as her brother, was she?
No jaw breaking and no threats, but still as bad in her own way. Like being ready to let her sister believe anything to keep Kathie here?
“It wasn’t Joe’s fault,” Kathie insisted. “Honest, it wasn’t. It was me. All of it was me.”
Kate didn’t believe that for a second. After thinking about it for a long, long time, she chose to believe that two of the people she knew best in the world had, completely unexpectedly, developed real feelings for each other, which might have been a real problem for her if, in the middle of the whole thing, she hadn’t found the love of her life.
So whatever had happened between her sister and her ex-fiancé was completely okay with her now. She just couldn’t seem to convince Kathie of that, no matter how hard she tried. Mostly, Kathie wouldn’t even let her bring up the subject. She wanted her sister here, and she wanted her happy, and one thing Kate had figured out was that Kathie and Joe both seemed miserable without each other.
Which wasn’t okay with Kate at all.
So, Kathie was worried about people blaming and hating Joe for whatever had happened between the two of them?
“Well…I don’t know what you can do about that,” Kate said carefully, in case there was something and it was something that would keep her sister in town, where she belonged.
“That’s why I came back,” her sister said. “To show everybody that you’re not mad at me and that you didn’t kick me out of town.”
“Okay,” Kate said. That was fine with her. That was very good.
“And to show everybody that Joe didn’t dump me,” Kate said. “I dumped him.”
“You dumped him?” Kate asked. Why would her sister dump Joe, if Joe was the one she truly wanted?
“Okay, I didn’t really dump him. I mean, he was never mine to dump. He and I were just…” Kathie’s face turned beet red. “I don’t know what we were. Stupid, I guess. I was just stupid and selfish and confused, and once everyone found out last fall, I just couldn’t stand to be here, with everybody knowing and talking about us. So, I have a plan.”
Kate nodded very carefully. “What plan?”
“If it’s okay with you, I mean, I’m going to pretend to see Joe for a few weeks….”
Her sister waited…for Kate to object? “Okay,” Kate said.
“And then I’m going to dump him, so people won’t blame him for the whole thing anymore. So he won’t be the bad guy.”
“Joe asked you to come back to town to pretend to date him, then dump him, so that people would stop blaming him for dumping you?” Kate asked.
“No! He would never do that. I don’t think he even meant to tell me. It just slipped out, but once I knew, I had to try to fix things, because it wasn’t right for people to blame you and him when it was all my fault,” her sister explained.
Okay.
That kind of made sense, but only because Kate knew her sister so well.
Joe had been threatened within an inch of his life and forced to go see Kathie, and then, when he tried to talk her into coming back, as ordered, something had gone wrong, and he’d ended up giving her the impression that everyone in town blamed Joe and Kate for Kathie’s decision to leave, and Kathie was here to make sure everyone blamed her instead?
Not what Joe intended, Kate was sure, but it had gotten her sister to come back. Once Kathie saw a problem that she believed she’d created, she wouldn’t give up until she fixed things.
And Kathie could only fix things from here in town.
Kate weighed her options carefully. If she protested that she wasn’t mad at her sister at all, that it was fine with her if Kathie and Joe fell madly in love, and that she didn’t care what anyone in town thought of any of that, Kathie might not stay and try to fix things.
And she really wanted Kathie to stay, no matter what the reason.
Maybe Kate was as bad as her brother.
“Well…that sounds like a good plan,” Kate said, feeling guilty about it but happy. It sounded like a plan that would keep her sister in town for weeks at least, forever if Kate had anything to say about it.
“Still mad?” Ben asked, coming up behind Kate in the kitchen and putting his arms around her.
“Maybe.”
He kissed her cheek, then nuzzled her neck. “Come on. It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Only if she’s in love with him,” Kate said.
“In love with him?” Ben turned her around in his arms.
“Yes,” Kate said, letting him draw her against him, her head tucked against his chest. “Think about it. She’s in love with him, and he just let her leave after our wedding. Probably because his head was still spinning from everything that had happened and because he was still trying to make sense of it and failing miserably. Joe doesn’t change his mind easily. He doesn’t change his plans, either. It would take him some time to figure everything out, and she left so fast, thinking he didn’t care about her at all, that it was some crazy fluke.”
“Okay, but—”
“I don’t think it was a fluke to Kathie. I think she’s in love with him, and now look what’s happened. Her brother and her new brother-in-law went to the man she loves, who she thinks doesn’t love her, and threatened to break his jaw if he didn’t go see her and get her to come back to town.”
“But…if she’s in love with him, doesn’t she want to see him again?”
“Not if she thinks it’s hopeless and the only reason he came to get her is because he didn’t want his jaw broken into sixteen pieces. Then, it’s just humiliating to have to be here with him, thinking he couldn’t care less about her.”
“Oh. Okay. I get it now.”
Yes, now, he got it.
Poor Kathie.
Chapter Three
Kathie’s younger sister, Kim, threw open the door and squealed when she got home from a late day at school and saw Kathie standing there. The next thing Kathie knew, they were in each other’s arms. Kim was practically bouncing with joy and squeezing her so tight.
Kathie was so relieved she nearly cried right then and there.
“I can’t believe it!” Kim said over and over again. “I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”
Then Kim was almost crying, too.
“Really. Not ever. The longer you stayed away, the more worried I got. I didn’t think we’d all ever be together again, and I couldn’t stand that idea. I just couldn’t stand it!”
“I know,” Kathie said, her bottom lip trembling.
It had been the worst thing. The absolute worst, right after thinking they all must hate her for what she’d done to her beloved older sister. Thinking that they’d never be a family again, the way they always had been. That she’d be completely cut off from them, and that it was something she deserved…it had been horrible.
She feared she still deserved it, but couldn’t help but think it was so incredibly wonderful to be home, no matter what the circumstances.
“So, it’s all over, right?” Kim asked, nearly begging. “You’re back. To stay. Right?”
“I don’t know,” Kathie said, watching her sister’s face fall into disbelief.
She hadn’t thought about this—about how hard it would be on Kim to have her back and think everything would go back to normal, when all Kathie was doing was trying to fix the mess she’d made as best she could and then disappear again.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? This town is your home. This is where you belong!”
“I know. I just…I’ve never really lived anywhere else, except when I was at college,” Kathie tried. She’d never been the adventurous sort. She was the quiet one. Jax was the charmer. Kate, the smart one, and Kim the beauty. Kathie was the mouse. All she’d ever wanted was to feel safe, right here in Magnolia Falls, in the midst of her loving family, but she had to say something to try to explain herself. “I mean, there’s a whole world out there. You know that. You love to travel. There might be all sorts of places I’d love to live.”
Kim looked unconvinced. She looked hurt, and maybe even mad. Kim who was never mad at her.
“I have to try, you know?”
“No. I don’t know,” Kim complained. “Don’t you love us anymore? Don’t you miss us?”
“Of course, I do.”
“You’re supposed to be getting over everything,” Kim argued. “So that everything can get back to normal.”
“I want that,” Kathie insisted.
Oh, God, she wanted it.
She just didn’t think it was possible.
“It was awful when you left,” her sister said, sitting down on the sofa. “Terrible. It was the worst thing. Mom was gone, and then you were gone, and I just kept thinking, who’s going to disappear next? For months, everybody else kept saying you were bound to come home soon, that you wouldn’t be able to stay away. Not me. I kept thinking, who’s going to leave next?”
“Oh, Kimmie. I’m so sorry!”
One more thing to add to her list of sins against her family.
She took her sister into her arms and held on tight.
Kimmie had been a baby when their father died. She had no memories of him at all, just pictures and the stories they all told her about him. And she’d still been in college when their mother died. Because she was so young, Kathie and her brother and sister had tried harder for Kim than anyone else to make sure she felt safe and secure, a part of a strong, loving family.
But Kathie had just left, not even thinking of how her younger sister would feel about it. Kathie had thought she was trying to save the rest of them by leaving. But Kim just saw it as losing one more person in an ever-dwindling family circle.
Kathie had done even more damage than she thought.
Kim hardly spoke to her the rest of the night. She went to bed early, got up early and left. The school year still wasn’t over in Magnolia Falls, and Kim taught art at the elementary school.
Kathie hid in their apartment for three solid hours, then had to call herself all forms of the word coward just to get herself to go outside and risk seeing anyone she knew.
It was spring in Magnolia Falls, warm and sunny, very, very green, everything smelling fresh and new.
If only Kathie could have started all over again, just wound back the clock, what would she do?
Never fall for Joe. Never have some silly, schoolgirl crush in the first place or have it and get over it, completely, ages ago, like other girls did, so that no one would ever be hurt or ever have to know.
But she couldn’t do that.
Which meant she had to do the next best thing.
She had to fix this as best she could. Make people see that it wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t her sister’s. Move on with the plan, and then get away from here again, even if it killed her this time.
She’d taken the time to fix her hair, put on a bit of makeup and dress in her favorite jeans and a bright yellow top, trying to look as good as she could and not have anyone guess how terrible she felt, how scared, how ashamed, how sad.
She was going to march into the center of town, into the bank where Joe worked and go to lunch with him, in full sight of everyone there, on the street and in the Corner Café, a hotbed of gossip dead-center in town.
Time to get moving with the Joe-didn’t-dump-Kathie-and-Joe-isn’t-the-bad-guy plan.
Which meant she had to look happy to see him, and he had to look happy to see her. Kathie was afraid that might be a problem, so she pulled out her cell phone and called the bank, asking for him.
“May I say who’s calling?” the receptionist asked politely.
Kathie was pretty sure it was Stacy Morganstern, who used to be on the same peewee football cheerleading squad as Kim.
“Stacy? It’s Kathie.”
Stacy gasped. “Kathie Cassidy?”
“Yes.”
“You’re back in town? I hadn’t heard!”
“Just got in last night,” Kathie said. “How are you?”
“Well…fine. Just fine. How are you?”
“Great.”
“Where have you been? Everyone was so worried, and then no one knew, and—”
“Teaching. I was teaching. A temporary position in North Carolina, but it’s over now. Joe brought me home yesterday.”
