Making one last trip to the kitchen, Trish and Kate stopped and glanced back into the dining room where everyone they cared about was sitting around the table. Well, almost everyone.
Kate was missing David in the worst way. It had been two days since Chelsea dropped her bombshell. Two days since Kate found out about the bet.
And there had been two days of texts and voice mails from David begging her to forgive him.
“I like the table better without Richard. More elbow room,” Trish joked as she picked up the warm applesauce. But just like numerous distractions the day before, Kate had drifted off and her sister noticed. “Feeling okay?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Kate was taking the rolls off the baking tray and dropping them into a basket lined with a crisp linen napkin. “It’s been a tough go.”
“It’s going to get tougher. Getting over him isn’t going to be easy.” Trish popped a piece of ham from the cutting board into her mouth. “I can’t believe he made a bet about sleeping with you.”
“I know. I just wish I could shake the feeling that I’m not getting the whole story, you know?”
Trish pressed her hip into the counter. “What do you mean?”
“The bet thing. I don’t know what happened. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Nothing adds up. And he’s sorry. He must have apologized a hundred times by now.” She stopped and leveled her eyes at her sister. “He kept coming back for me, Trish. He won the bet, but he kept coming back for me anyway.”
Trish considered what she said. “True enough.”
“I’m taking everything this unstable, vicious girl said as gospel. Given how I feel about David, shouldn’t I listen to what he has to say?”
Taking the basket of rolls from Kate, Trish raised her eyebrows. “Welcome back.”
“What do you mean, welcome back?”
Shaking her head and smiling, Trish explained, “Let me make the corny analogy as best I can… giving David another chance is like the first time you attempted a triple in competition. There was a good chance you would land on your ass and crawl off the ice humiliated, but the possibility existed that you would stick the jump and win the whole damn thing. I think you said, ‘I won’t know unless I try.’”
Laura walked into the kitchen right as Kate was going to respond. “What’s holding you two up? Everyone is hungry.”
Kate bit her lip and looked at Trish, who raised an eyebrow. “I think you know you have to jump, Katie.”
Kate handed the pitcher of mulled cider to Laura, then made a beeline to her third floor office. “Start without me. I need to make a call.”
*
Standing in the kitchen on Christmas Day, David felt detached from the activity around him. The kids had pounced at six-thirty in the morning, dragged him downstairs, and now it was barely two o’clock and he felt like he’d been hit by a train. His sister was preparing the turkey for dinner, her husband was cleaning up the remains of some culinary adventure, and his nieces were playing with the new Barbie house he’d given them. Brandon was curled up next to the Christmas tree, asleep in a pile of wrapping paper, exhausted from all the activity. David should have been enjoying the time with his family, but he couldn’t think of anything but Kate and how she wouldn’t speak to him.
He let out a breath and his sister looked up, almost annoyed he was so distracted. He couldn’t blame her. This was supposed to be family time and his mind wasn’t in Toronto. When he felt a hand on his shoulder, David turned and saw his father, their coats in hand, motioning toward the front door.
“I need some air,” Thomas Burke said. “Come with me.”
David hesitated, but stood because he wasn’t one to deny his dad’s request. It was a gorgeous day—cold, but sunny and crisp. They walked down Rachel’s street in silence. His dad waved to neighbors coming back from church or family visits, and looked at the sky with the discerning eye of a man who’d learned to understand the weather. His father had spent years working as a fisherman in Vancouver before meeting David’s mother and settling in Alberta. Their footsteps on the sandy pavement were different, one a definite crunch-crunch, the other a slow steady shuffle. They turned into a public park and continued their walk around the man-made lake. When his father finally spoke, his words cut through the cold air like a knife.
“I think your mother would be happy I’m here with Rachel. Eh? What do you think, Dave?”
“I think she’d be relieved you were eating right for a change.”
The older man laughed. “That’s the truth. She always hounded me about that.”
“She wanted you to take care of yourself.”
“Too bad she didn’t do the same for herself, eh?”
David looked down. Remembering the progression of his mother’s cancer was difficult. It was only in the end they learned she’d known about the lump in her breast for over a year before seeking treatment. By then, it was too late. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, nothing helped.
“If I’d known, if she’d told me, I’d have taken her to someone. But she didn’t think about herself; she only thought about me and you and your sister. Hell, the damn dog got to the vet for a cut paw before your mother got to a hospital.”
“I know.” David remembered the dog and the time he cut his paw on a piece of broken glass. “Why are we talking about this?”
“Because women are never easy and they’re never predictable.” Thomas stopped and sat on a bench. “This girl of yours—what’s her name?”
“Kate. But she’s not mine.”
“But you want her to be yours? Is that why you seem like you’re a thousand miles from here?”
David sat straight against the back of the bench. “She’s been through hell, a lot of it because of me. Maybe she’s had enough and I should just leave her alone.” His father didn’t say anything, keeping his eyes focused on the lake in front of them. “I miss her, though…”
“You love her the same way I loved your mother.”
David’s head shot up. His father’s eyes, no longer focused on the lake, were warm and understanding, just like they’d been when he was a small boy. “I know we’ve had our problems, son, but I understand better than you think. It hurts way down deep, doesn’t it? Like your insides are on fire.”
David nodded. “I can’t shake it.”
“Don’t try. When you love a woman like that it never goes away, but it does sound to me that you have some work ahead.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
Thomas found an acorn on the bench that he tossed toward the lake. “If I remember, you did pretty well at that big university you went to. You’re a smart man, David. Too smart to give up on something this important.”
David hesitated, was going to speak, but stopped himself.
“Fight for her.”
“But she said—”
His father waved his hand and cut him off. “I don’t care what she said. You never do what a woman says, you do what she wants. The two aren’t necessarily the same.”
“How can you tell?” Now David was totally confused.
His father shrugged. “Beats me. Sometimes you get lucky. You’ve got a no brainer here. You love her, make her understand that. She wants you to walk through fire for her. Do it.”
David threw his head back and looked at the cover of leafless trees. “I’m scared I’m going to screw it up worse than it is.”
The older man laughed and slapped his shoulder. “Fear is part of it. If you aren’t scared shitless, what’s the point?”
His father stood.
Looking up, David felt small again. “Thanks, Dad.”
Nodding, his dad began the walk back toward Rachel’s house and David followed.
Walking through the front door was a treat for the senses. The kids were playing, Christmas music was on the stereo, and the house smelled like a mix of pine and good food. He felt better, and he’d never expected a walk with his dad to make him feel better. They’d been at odds for so long, it seemed to become habit. But David was older, and his father had mellowed. Things between them had changed.