Remember Love Page 3

  "And lose my girlish figure? I don’t think so."

  They grinned at each other and Katrina marveled at Rachel’s ability to put her at ease. It was a talent she used well in her line of work.

  Rachel’s chin lifted and she jerked it towards the entrance of the restaurant. "Look who's here."

  Katrina followed Rachel’s glare and the breath wedged in her chest.

  An hour late to the reunion and women flit to him like butterflies to a flower. High school all over again. Except in high school, he'd returned the attention; that laser focus of his enchanted Katrina's fellow students. He'd told her the other girls didn't matter. That even if he smiled at a girl or carried her books, it didn't mean anything.

  Older now, she knew it had meant more than he'd admit. She'd been right to leave him at the altar before he regretted their marriage and broke away from its steel shackle. And that's what he'd done anyway. Followed her to the storage room in the old church and demanded answers. But she'd had none to give.

  Within the day, he'd left their town without a good-bye.

  She watched him as he shook hands and traded smiles, his gaze searching the room. Hunkering down, she tried to fade into the background and hoped he wouldn’t see her. A little more time to collect her thoughts, that's all she needed. Too late she realized that sitting next to Rachel was like standing next to a red flag in a room full of bulls. She groaned and straightened when Alec spotted them and, with long strides, headed over.

  "You didn’t tell me he looked so hot," Rachel said beneath her breath.

  "His hair's too long."

  "I guess he still has that rebellious streak."

  "Not really rebellious. Just wild." Katrina's hands trembled and she shoved them beneath her legs. "You like rule-breakers. Want him?"

  "Never." Rachel snorted. "I think I’ll go get a soda." Before Katrina could grab her, Rachel sauntered off.

  The air shifted as Alec’s lean body settled beside her. He was so close, so real, and no longer the flat memory that invaded her nights too often. Her heartbeat tripled.

  How could she tell him what she'd done?

  "Are we going to do anything besides eat?" He studied her profile.

  "Tonight’s formal night. Tomorrow there’ll be games and stuff like that." She was careful to keep her face forward, careful to not notice the alluring scent of dreams and hopes that accompanied him.

  "I'm sorry I surprised you yesterday."

  Taken aback, she plucked at a wrinkle in her dress. "You're fine. I, uh, never expected to see you again."

  "Why is that?" He looked over at her, and his eyes were dark in the dim lighting.

  "The way I left you." And kept your baby a secret.

  "I see." He paused, and she wondered if he really did understand, or if he said it to avoid conflict. Not that there could be much to argue about anymore. They lived separate lives. They'd grown into adulthood without each other.

  No one bothered looking back.

  Except now that he sat beside her, longing assailed her. Something about him still drew her. He’d grown better looking, the reckless look in his eyes replaced by a seriousness she couldn’t decipher. Attraction put her nerves on edge.

  Its annoying presence pushed her to speak and break the spell.

  "I've been trying to figure out why you'd come to Kat's Korner. You must've guessed I'd be there," she said.

  "Should've guessed." His gaze dropped to her lips for a moment, then returned to her eyes. In a detached voice, he said, "Your store interests me."

  Attraction fled as Katrina’s neck prickled. "Really?" The air seemed warm suddenly, suffocating. Her finger hooked the smooth collar at her throat, moved it away from her clammy skin.

  "I’ve done a lot of business besides real estate. Buying and selling. Especially small businesses."

  "What does that have to do with me?" Her hand dropped to her lap as the meaning behind his words registered. She scanned the laughing crowd around her, ignorant in their revelry, unaware that the man beside her just might have the power to destroy all she’d worked for, lived for.

  All she had left.

  No one noticed them though. The restaurant staff carried food to the buffet tables; Spicy Chicken Parmesan, shrimp nestled in creamy Alfredo. The tangy scents of dinner urged people into finding their name cards and taking their seats.

  She wished she could stand and find her seat. Leave Alec behind the same way he'd so callously left their hometown. No forwarding address. No good-bye.

  "It’s crossed my mind you might be interested in selling," he said.

  She straightened. Was he serious? Trying to drum up business at their reunion? She lifted a brow. "Has it now?"

  "Are you interested?"

  Oh, he was smooth. She met his curiously flat gaze. "No."

  Standing, she deliberately placed her trembling hands against her sides. Bile rose in her throat, fear twisted her stomach, but she walked away without looking back.

  She scanned the room for Rachel, spotting her at a table with a few stragglers bunched around her. Katrina forced her legs forward until she reached the table. Relief loosened her limbs when she saw her place card next to Rachel’s.

  It had been foolish to come to this dinner. The last thing she wanted was to make conversation with virtual strangers, to listen to them talk about their families and pull out pictures of their kids. Years ago, their small class had been close-knit. Now everyone had changed. She had changed.

  Hiding out in her store for the last few years, losing contact with all but her occasional customers.

  She sat slowly beside Rachel and tried to forget about feeling alone in a room full of happy strangers. She focused on the conversation she’d just escaped. Did Alec want to buy her store? Her business was too small for any kind of stocks or shareholding. She didn’t even own her building. But she was in trouble and it wouldn't be too hard for him to pressure her out somehow.

  Maybe. Could he? She should've taken the business course instead of letting Mom do it.

  Not that she thought Alec would force her hand with the store at first. When he found out about Joey though, well, grief made people do horrible things. Hadn't Mom hated the sight of her for years, all because SIDS killed her mother’s first baby? Mom never got over that.

  Abruptly, she realized Rachel was talking to her.

  "What?"

  "I said you’ve lost an earring somewhere." Rachel pointed to Katrina’s ear and flashed a pearly white grin.

  "Again?" Katrina frowned. "I’ve only had them for a month." She looked around, relieved that most of the ogling men had dispersed, food being more important at the moment than a possible date.

  She pulled the lone earring from her ear and dropped it into the little black purse hanging from her chair. A month with the same pair of earrings. That had to be a record.

  Just one more loss to add to the list.

  Mary Jane Smith walked to the microphone stationed near the buffet tables. As the former class president spoke, Katrina leaned close to Rachel and said, "I need to talk to you."

  The four classmates at their table, whose faces she didn't remember, appeared enraptured by Mary Jane’s instructions for the progression of the evening’s dinner. No one would hear her talk to Rachel.

  "I don’t think Alec knows yet," she told Rachel quietly. "For some reason no one has told him, or maybe he hasn’t been in town all that much. Anyhow, he asked if I'm interested in selling Kat's Korner."

  "What? Why would he care about your little bookstore?"

  "I don’t know. Can you look him up, maybe do a little investigating in your free time?"

  Rachel grinned. "You better believe it. Word is he’s done well for himself. Shouldn’t be too hard to find out how and what he’s all about."

  "Thanks, Rachel." Katrina felt her smile wobble. "It makes me nervous, him being here." Her gaze skittered to where he sat at a nearby table.

  Rachel covered Katrina’s hand with her own an
d squeezed gently. "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. He’ll help you get through this."

  "Kat's Korner means a lot to me."

  "Of course it does," Rachel soothed, reminding Katrina why she loved her friend so much.

  Mary Jane's voice warbled on. Katrina latched onto the sound of it, thrusting her fears down and away, to examine later. She leaned back in her chair and scanned the crowd. "Have you seen Sharon?"

  "Steve told her she couldn't come tonight." Rachel wrinkled her nose.

  "You’ve got to be kidding me. Why?"

  "Take a wild guess. He's a control freak who needs to be stopped."

  Katrina frowned. Even though nothing seemed out of the ordinary yesterday, that didn't mean things were okay. "There's nothing we can do." She said it low, so no one would hear. No need to start the gossip mill.

  "There's always something." Rachel plucked at her napkin and laid it on her lap as Mary Jane stepped down from her podium. "We need a plan."

  Waiters bustled around the room. Conversations rose in volume. Katrina didn't get to ask Rachel what kind of plan she was thinking of because the fellow students at their table struck up a conversation with her.

  Katrina tuned out and picked at the shrimp Alfredo in front of her.

  During a lull in conversation, Rachel gestured to Katrina’s left. "Looks like your man might be hooking up with some old buddies."

  "He’s not my man." But she looked anyway and saw Rachel was right. Alec was smiling, looking almost relaxed. Not for long. Not if someone told him before she could.

  Katrina tried to swallow past the lump in her throat and failed. Where would she be now if she hadn’t kept Joey from him?

  There were so many curves in life, so many twists and turns that it was impossible to tell what led where, but of one thing she was certain. Had she never let fear goad her into leaving Alec at the altar, Joey might still be alive.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The reunion dragged slower than a senior citizen driving through Manatee Bay. Alec shifted in the restaurant chair.

  "Man, buddy, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you. Did well for yourself, huh? Better than Katrina has." After that odd comment, Mike Weston shook his head and gulped down more wine.

  His fifth glass, by Alec’s count. Talking with Mike was tedious, especially since he insisted on calling Alec "buddy" even though they hadn’t spoken since graduation.

  Too bad Grant Harkness was a year younger than Alec. Grant would’ve made this reunion more fun. Alec hadn’t talked to anyone besides Grant since graduation. Now he remembered why. With the exception of Mike, Alec’s former classmates were giving him a wide berth. It bothered him more than he’d like to admit, this aloofness from the people he’d grown up with.

  All because of Mr. Carmichael.

  Alec stifled a groan. The plush chair in his hotel room and his most recent issue of Forbes would be more relaxing than this farce of a reunion.

  He'd thought with the passage of time he might possibly be welcome in his hometown. Apparently not.

  But trying to make friends wasn’t on the agenda, he reminded himself.

  Business was.

  He sipped his soda thoughtfully. Despite Mike’s laidback exterior, the president of Manatee Bay National Bank had a shrewd mind that worked beneath the easy-going surface he presented to the world. Alec had been trying to pry about the financial status of businesses in town without tickling Mike’s business feelers.

  Unfortunately, Mike kept turning the conversation to Katrina.

  Alec tapped his fingers against the table. She wasn’t the focus of this trip. Despite his earlier prying, he had no intention of buying Kat’s Korner. Why would he, when the building was practically his? All he had to do was refuse to renew her lease when the time came. Still, some inner demon prodded him to ask her about selling. The look on her face had been extreme, almost bordering on anxiety. Her reaction only reinforced his initial assessment of her yesterday.

  Something bad had happened.

  He shouldn’t get involved. He was here to verify financial soundness and possibilities of profit, then sign on the dotted line for the building. That’s all he needed to do before returning to New York.

  "She banks with us, you know." Mike shoveled peas into his mouth as he spoke. "Good customer, nice lady. Everyone thinks it’s so sad what happened and all. Now she’s on her own."

  Alec kept his face blank, though curiosity stirred. "What happened?"

  Mike squinted at him, his expression almost resembling a glare. "Two deaths in the family, same time. For a while some speculated she'd die from the grief."

  A sharp pain spiked through Alec’s chest. Did this explain her strained face? "That’s horrible."

  Mike’s head cocked. "Her church helped her out some. With bills and stuff."

  "Katrina goes to church?" Alec couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice. Believing in God was something she’d always been real self-righteous about, but going to church was a whole different matter. The Katrina he'd known was too self-absorbed to care about mingling with others of "like faith".

  "And she helps out at the soup kitchen and visits the old folks’ home."

  A knot twisted in Alec’s stomach at the thought of Katrina’s losses. Who had died? As far as he knew, she only had her mom. Her dad died a few years after leaving his family.

  Alec’s attention shifted to where she sat a few tables from him. He watched her eat, saw the delicate bones of her wrist when she lifted her water for a drink. Mauve shadows tinted the skin beneath her eyes and she didn’t smile, even though the people around her laughed loudly.

  "Is Katrina always so pale and quiet?" he asked, turning back to Mike.

  Mike looked over at her, then back to Alec. "Not really, though it seems like she has off days. The three year anniversary is coming up."

  Alec grimaced. "It must be tough for her."

  "You’re telling me," Mike answered, fleshy jaws chewing more meat. Around the mouthful he said, "Manatee Bay hadn’t seen a tragedy like that in years. If any of my kids died, I don’t know what I’d do. I can’t imagine anything worse." The smile Mike had worn all evening seemed to disappear beneath a hard stare.

  Alec’s fork stilled in midair. He set it slowly onto his plate. "Katrina had a child?"

  "Are you acting like you don’t know about this?" Shock slackened Mike’s cheeks.

  "Of course I didn’t," Alec snapped. He didn’t like the way Mike glared at him, as if the whole thing were his fault.

  Mike’s jaw fell open, then snapped shut. "Katrina’s mom and son died in a car accident. He was only seven. It hit the town pretty hard. I can’t believe you didn’t know this."

  Alec’s teeth clenched. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the image of Katrina with a child, struggled with disbelief. The thought of her building a life with another man slammed into his senses and left him reeling. "Where’s the dad? Why is she by herself?"

  "We all thought you were the father." Mike’s ruddy features slowly drained of color. "Most folks assumed you ditched her and the kid…" He cleared his throat just as his cell phone rang. "Excuse me, Alec. I need to take this." The table shuddered as he labored upwards and made an awkward exit.

  Alec felt his face settling into grim lines. He set his fork down and stood. She’d let people think he left his family? That he didn’t come to his own child’s funeral?

  Never. A memory crept through his consciousness. Third grade. Mom crying, huddled on the bathroom floor, alone, resenting her responsibility to buy him school clothes. Angry she had to spend money on him. She'd raised the bottle to her lips and from his place in the hallway, he'd vowed to never make a woman regret her child or the demands placed on her because of that child.

  No, he would never willingly leave his own son.

  Answers were falling into place, making him wish he'd sought them sooner.

  She hadn’t told him about the pregnancy because
she’d betrayed him. Made love to another man and left him slack-jawed at the altar because of it. And then had the nerve to let people think he’d ignored his responsibilities. A heavy weight settled on his chest. So now he knew. The plans he’d embraced, the desires to make amends withered beneath the new information about Katrina’s son.

  The real question was why hadn't she married the father of her child?

  *****

  "Alec is making a hasty retreat," Rachel commented, her full lips pursed.

  "He’s escaping." Katrina tried to ignore the tension in her belly. When he found out about Joey, then what would he do? Try to take her business as some sort of payback? Would he do such an immature thing? Was it even possible? Surely not.

  Rachel nudged her. "I told you not to bite the insides of your cheeks. It ruins your mouth."

  "I can’t help it." Katrina took a deep breath and deliberately relaxed her shoulders. "How much longer is this thing?"

  "We’re only eating tonight, so as long as you want, I suppose." Rachel glanced down at her glittering diamond watch. "Are you leaving now?"

  "I really should. I’ll see you later." If she hurried, she could catch up to Alec and get this over with. Her skin shrunk at the thought.

  You owe him the truth, a small voice whispered inside. But how could she explain away her selfishness, the blessing she’d cheated him of? Especially knowing how he felt about his lack of a father. Now, however, might be her only chance to tell him before he disappeared again. Sucking in a deep breath, she rushed out of the restaurant.

  Alec was just getting into his car when Katrina came out of the building. She rushed over before he could drive off. She tapped on the tinted passenger window and he rolled it down, holding up a finger as he finished talking on his cell.

  "Yes?" His voice sounded distant and Katrina tried to see past his blank gaze. She used to be able to, but now his eyes were dark holes cut into a mask of a face.

  She swallowed, mouth dry. "I wanted to talk with you."

  "Here?"

  "If that’s okay?"

  "Get in."

  "What?"

  "You want to talk? Let’s go to my place and talk."