Chapter 4

Danny repeatedly stabbed her cheesecake as she picked apart her one millionth date. It was the same thing each time. There was always something wrong with them. They were always too fat or too skinny, too much muscle or not enough, ugly or too pretty. Reno told her that the reason she was picky was because she already knew what or whom she wanted. Danny was convinced it was their appearance. Right now, the man sitting across from her had too much nose and not enough face. He laughed as if he was having a bout of whooping cough. And his palms: they were sweaty and slimy, and reminded her of the frog DJ had put in her dress when they were little. The worst part was, he liked carrot cake. Who would eat a vegetable in a dessert? There was obviously something wrong with him.

“Hey!” Danny put her hand on his, trying to silence him. She wondered if she needed a sign that said “it’s my turn to talk.” Danny quickly drew her hand away when she saw the stars quickly taking shape in his eyes. “No,” she muttered.

“What do you mean?” He reached for her hand and Danny pushed the chair back, creating as much distance as possible.

“Listen, you are probably a great guy. And there is a girl out there who will find your obsession with cats endearing. That girl isn’t me.” Danny stood up, patted his hand, and began to leave. “I got this,” she said as she waved her purse in the air.

“No, wait!” He jumped up to his feet, grabbing Danny’s hand and forcing her against his body. “Are you sure we don’t have a chance?”

“Definitely.” Danny tried to push back but he held on tighter.

“But why? We are meant to be. My mother read our horoscopes.” The guy looked past her, a pleading gaze in his eyes.

When Danny turned around to see what he was staring at, she spotted a lethargic woman, standing at the corner, looking just as heartbroken as her date. This is new. Danny had never been on a mother-son tag-team date before. It was weird. Really weird.

“Uhm…” A mama’s boy was a definite no-no. Danny peeled his hands off one by one. Using his distraction with his mother to her advantage, Danny spun around, ready to make her escape, when she ran into a wall of muscles, knocking herself to the ground. And true to his nature, date number one million was on his hands and knees by her side, dusting her off. Danny spotted his mother rushing toward them. She scrambled back. The last thing she wanted was for the woman to fall and for Danny to be what caught her. It was like a rhino coming for her, but just before mother-dear got anywhere near her, a hand reached down, grabbed hold of Danny, and pulled her to her feet. The Good Samaritan shielded her as mother-dear went barrelling into her son and a table full of customers.

“Oh-no!” Danny gasped.

“Do you always cause trouble wherever you go, Danny?”

Danny squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that when she opened them, he wouldn’t be there.

“Danny?”

That voice, even when he’d walked away from her, it had stayed behind, haunting her endlessly. Danny wondered if she were to push past him and run for the door, if she didn’t look at his face, could she pretend that she hadn’t literally run into him?

“Danny, are you okay?”

Danny opened her eyes. She was staring at his strong chest. Her fingers itched where they lay next to his beating heart. Danny yanked her hands behind her back, trying to act like his one, very strong arm wasn’t around her waist.

“I’m fine,” she croaked out. She cleared her throat and trying to sound peppy she repeated herself. “I am fine. Great, actually.”

“Then why won’t you look at me?” Kit asked.

Why? Is he crazy! The second I look into those blue-grey eyes, I’m a goner. “Because I am looking at them.” Danny pointed to where her date and his mother lay, tangled in with the other patrons, covered in cake and milkshake. When her date started to get up, Danny’s feet began to move. She pushed past Kit and out the door. Apparently, her body was weak against Kit, but when it came to other guys, it worked fine.

Danny ran faster when she heard the heavy thud of feet coming after her. Whoever was chasing her went past her. Danny stopped when she saw it was Kit. She would have probably continued running, but she was winded, and he was faster, so escaping was futile.

“I thought you were going to make me chase you home?” Kit smiled.

Danny was determined to keep her eyes anywhere, everywhere but his lips. “I moved.”

“I know. I don’t work at the club anymore, either.” Danny began chewing on her thumb, only to have Kit pull it away. “I decided to go into interior decorating full time.”

“Can we talk?”

“I thought that was what we were doing?”

“No, I mean, can we talk somewhere else? Preferably away from your date and his mother.”

“Danny!”

She turned around and saw them coming for her. Danny grabbed Kit’s hand and ran across the street, apologizing each time someone honked their horn at her.

***

Kit didn’t eat sweets or indulge in cakes. Occasionally, like his birthday, he would take a slice. So going into the little sweet shop didn’t occur to him. That was, until he’d seen Danny through the window, her head down and, with her fork, murdering her piece of cake. He smiled. He couldn’t help it. Danny wore her emotions, her truth, on her face. So, Kit didn’t understand how oblivious her date was that he couldn’t notice she had already checked out. Kit was very sure Danny was engaging herself in a narrative about how her date sucked and what better things she could be doing at that moment.

Kit went into the shop and walked up to the display counter. He hadn’t planned on getting anything, but he had to look interested. Otherwise, theirs wouldn’t be a chance meeting; it would seem more like stalking. Kit had gone to the club only to be told that she’d quit right after his birthday bash. She didn’t live at the cottage she had before. Kit had been there a couple of times before he’d realized that Danny wasn’t going to turn up.

“Listen, you are probably a great guy…” Kit turned toward the sound of her voice.

Kit knew when the final blow to a man’s ego was about to be dealt. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy. But this was Daniela Kent. She wasn’t meant for just any guy, hell, Christian Henry was not even worthy of her.

“…there is a girl out there who will find your obsession with cats endearing. That girl isn’t me.”

From the corner of his eye, Kit watched as Danny stood up, gave the man a pat on the hand fit for a pet, and began to leave. “I got this,” she said as she waved her purse in the air.

“No, wait!” The man jumped up to his feet, grabbing Danny’s hand and forcing her against him. Kit was about to jump in. Everything in him wanted to save her. But Danny wasn’t that kind of girl. She was the type to do the saving all on her own.

“Are you sure we don’t have a chance?”

“Definitely.”

“But why? We are meant to be. My mother read our horoscopes.”

Kit didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. How the hell had Danny said yes to this date in the first place? Kit was sure that this was one of those blind-date types. Danny’s head turned toward him, but she didn’t see him. Her eyes widened and her mouth did a large O as she looked past him. Kit turned around to see a woman close to tears, desperate stage mom written all over her face. This date meant more to her than it did to her poor son.

Kit was turning back to Danny when she crashed into him, bouncing back and landing on her butt. Kit heard more than saw the mother charging in Danny’s direction. Kit reached for her and pulled her to her feet in one swoop. He held her upright and out of harm’s way as she got her bearings.

“Oh no!” Danny gasped.

“Do you always cause trouble wherever you go, Danny?”

Kit knew when someone was pretending so hard to be anywhere other than where they were at that moment. He’d seen it so many times when he was at work. It hurt him a little that she would rather pinch her eyes closed than face him. But that also told him that she wouldn’t react this way unless there were some residual feelings.

“Danny, are you okay?”

Before Kit could say anything else, Danny took off from the shop, and he chased her down the street. Danny ducked into an alley, dragging Kit with her. She leaned against the wall, panting, sweaty, and genuinely relived.

“I don’t understand.”

“What?” Danny wheezed.

“Why did you go out with him in the first place? He doesn’t seem to be your type.”

Danny pushed off the wall, a glare levelled on Kit.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“Nope, you actually hit the nail on the head. He’s not my type. Because my type is usually druggies, alcoholics, and cheating assholes with fiancées.” Danny bent over, her palms resting on her knees before pushing up and staring at him. “I’m addicted to the bad-boy types. They look good on the outside but are completely rotten on the inside.”

Danny began to walk past him, but Kit grabbed her arm. He couldn’t help but feel like that comment had been directly aimed at him. He didn’t have a substance abuse problem or any fiancées, so what exactly could she be holding against him?

“Danny—”

“Do you have a car, because I am not running home and I am definitely not going to risk standing at the curb waiting for a taxi. Mama’s boy and Mom-zilla stole all the strength I got.”

“Maybe I should check if the coast is clear?” Kit offered. He tried to downplay his excitement. Kit didn’t even have to offer the ride. This was a way he could get to know where she lived without asking outright. “They are nowhere to be seen.”

“Oh, thank God. Where is your car?”

“I actually don’t have a car. I have my bike.”

“Like a tricycle.”

“No.” He chuckled. “A motorcycle. A Ducati.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that. On second thought, I’ll wait for a taxi, or walk home,” she panted. “Yep, I’ll walk home.”

***

Danny stared into space as she thought about her chance encounter with Kit the day before. It was embarrassing, his having been a witness to the date that crashed and burned. What was even more mortifying was that she’d waited for him to turn his back before she’d run away from him. There was no other way about it; she’d had to escape. Two seconds with the man and it was as if not a day had passed since their moonlight rendezvous at the beach. She couldn’t allow those emotions to continue, especially since Kit was engaged or married. Danny hadn’t come ’round to asking about Meredith. And even if she had, how would she explain how she knew about his fiancée?

Danny sat in her interior design showroom, wondering what would have happened if she had gone home with Kit. She wondered if he would have told her about Meredith, or better yet, told her the wedding had been called off. She wished there was a way she could find out without asking directly.

“Danny!”

“Sara!” Danny replied in the same singsong voice her assistant used. Danny didn’t understand Sara, but there seemed to be an everlasting rainbow over her head. The girl was never in a foul mood and was always so optimistic. It was tiring for everyone around her. “What is it? Has Mr. Samora come in?”

“Remember, he said you should call him Solomon.” Sara winked.

“Yes, and the next thing he will be asking me to call him is Daddy, in the bedroom.” Danny shivered in disgust.

Danny had seen everything the world had available for single girls, and she didn’t like it. If it wasn’t mama’s boys, it was rich, egotistical men who thought they could get away with anything because they were rich. But then, Solomon wasn’t that bad, when she thought about it. He approached courting the wrong way. He expected women to fawn all over him because he had money. However, money wasn’t an attractive asset to a girl who’d grown up with plenty of it. Danny was looking for something else in a man. Particularly, one who could drive her heart erratic, the same way Kit did.

Maybe that was her problem. She was working so hard to replace Kit with a copycat that she completely didn’t see what made the other guys special. Danny nodded to herself, sure that she had found the diagnosis to her problem and confident of the treatment. “Sara, you have been setting me up on dates. Unsuccessful ones.”

“It takes time. You have to kiss a few frogs before you find your Prince Charming.”

“Okay, I am willing to give one more of your frogs a chance.”

“Number nineteen might be the one.”

“That’s what you said about number seven.”

“Okay.” Sara gave a guilty smile. “Well, number nineteen is in the office waiting for you. He is tall, blond, with beautiful blue-grey eyes.”

Run! Danny’s head screamed. Sure, there were about a million men that fit the description, but something told Danny that it was Kit. Danny’s purse and car keys were in the office. She would have to walk home again. Are you going to run away from every guy that fits the description?

Yes! It was a firm and resounding answer.

And Danny had no idea why Kit had come back here in the first place.

She turned toward the exit, determined to run away from him the second time in as many days. She didn’t like how weak he made her feel or how crazy with need she was whenever he was around or when she thought about him. He was like her personal drug, synthesized just to drive her to the edge of her sanity. As she was about to step out the door, someone called her name. His voice was as familiar to her as the back of her hand. Danny dashed out the door, pretending not to have heard him. Her six-inch stilettos made it impossible for her to run, so when he came chasing after her, yelling her name in the street, she had to stop.

Danny turned to face him, a fake surprised look on her face. “Oh my God, Kit, it’s you.”

“Did you think it was another of your crazy dates?” He jogged to her, but the lazy grin on his face didn’t look like a man who had been running. Well, with his physique, she wasn’t surprised that a short jog didn’t have him panting.

“So, what’s up?” Danny had to command her body not to move as he approached her, not toward him and not away from him. She didn’t want to give him the slightest clue that he had any sort of effect on her.

“You disappeared yesterday.” Kit was still smiling at her, breaking down the walls that she had quickly erected around her heart, one brick at a time.

“I don’t like motorcycles.”

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “I got that, when you snuck away the second, I turned my back.”

Danny’s chest heaved as her breath choked her. Kit was coming closer and closer, showing no signs of stopping. Her eyes became fixed on his arm as it rose from his side, his fingers inches from her face. Danny pretended to sneeze, immediately moving her face away from his touch. It wasn’t the best idea, but the only one she could come up with.

“Are you okay?” Kit asked as he rushed to her.

Danny jumped back and fake-sneezed once more. “I’m contagious. I don’t want to get you sick.”

“I don’t care about that.” Concern marred his face and that only made Danny want him more. “Let’s go to the hospital.”

Danny could see it already, the doctor standing there, a chart in his hand and the truth on his tongue. Sir, she seems to be suffering from pretender-citis and denial-rexia as a result from how she feels about you. “Ah…no! That’s not necessary. I’ll go home and rest.”

“I’ll take you.” Kit extended his hand toward her. She was meant to take it, hold on to it as he delivered her to her home.

She couldn’t.

A car hooting broke the awkward tension, allowing Danny to take a breath. Never had she thought that she would be glad to see Solomon Samora at her doorstep. Kit stood by her side as they watched the driver open the door for Solomon.

“Miss Kent,” Solomon said with a wide smile.

“Mr. Samora.”

“I asked you to call me Solomon,” he said as he walked toward them.

“You can call me Mr. Henry,” Kit said as he stepped in front of her and stretched his hand out to Solomon.

Danny couldn’t help but roll her eyes. This was such an obvious show of power. Who thought that the righteous Kit had a bit of an ego in him? The handshake lasted ten seconds too long. Danny decided to break it when Solomon got red in the face. The challenge was completely unfair. The man was practically half Kit’s size and about a foot shorter. Solomon didn’t look like he had done any hard work in his life, while hard work was a hundred percent of Kit’s DNA.

“Kit is a friend of mine—”

“Personal, very close friend,” Kit cut in.

“And Solomon is a client of mine.” Danny turned to face Kit. “Let go,” she said through clenched teeth. “I have a meeting with Solomon. Kit, I’ll see you around.”

Danny rushed Solomon into the shop before Kit had a chance to say anything.

“Danny?” Sara met them at the door, a puzzled look on her face.

Danny tugged on her non-existent collar and handed Solomon over to Sara. “Do you mind showing him the samples? I just… I just have to…breathe.” Danny rushed into her office and locked the door behind her. She sank to the ground as she struggled for breath and sanity. She recognized the symptoms immediately: denial, desire, and desperation. The three devil D’s of addiction. This time, she didn’t want cocaine or alcohol, she wanted Kit. And like any drug bad for her, she knew she couldn’t have him. However, that didn’t stop her screaming body, her greedy heart and gluttonous soul. He was someone’s husband, she thought. He was at least someone’s significant other and that someone was definitely not her.

Danny jumped, startled when the knock on the door vibrated into her back. She stood up and straightened herself up. When she opened the door, Solomon was standing on the other side of it, an over-exaggerated bouquet of red roses in his hand and a way-too-optimistic smile on his lips, which she returned with an awkward one of her own.

“So,” Danny walked past him, ignoring the flowers. She did her best to make it look like she didn’t notice them. But who was she fooling—Martians could see it. The poor rainforest that had been chopped to satisfy this man’s ego and his need to go big or go home. All Danny wanted was for him to go home. However, besides her family, Solomon was the biggest hotel developer in the United States. She needed his business if she was to look credible. Hanging on to Daddy’s good will could only take her so far. “Did you like the new fabrics for the sofas?”

Solomon held the flowers out to her.

“For me?” Even Danny could hear the fake gratitude in her tone. She hoped Solomon was too self-centered to take it as it was, and instead lie to himself that she was swooning. “You shouldn’t have. They are so beautiful. So, back to the fabrics.”

“Dinner tonight.”

That was a statement, Danny recognized. She even noticed that the words lacked the basic essentials, the request. For the love of God, has he ever asked for anything? Where was the “please” or the “may I”? God’s gift to women, huh?

“I’m sorry. I’m headed to New York tonight. The Met Gala. I would invite you, but it’s very exclusive. The who’s who of New York will be there. VIP guest list, celebrities and all.” Danny was laying it on thick. She would do it thicker if she could find a way to insult him without losing his business.

“Oh, I could take you. Then we’d have dinner on my private jet,” he grinned.

Danny smiled, nodded her head, and reined back the desire to slap that grin off his face. “No need. I’ve got my own. My friends know me as Danny, but my family knows me as Daniela Isadora Kent. The business journals call my family one of the big New York four. You’ll know my father, Dennis Kent, the investment guru? I call him Daddy.” Danny wanted to pick his jaw off the floor. She couldn’t resist the wicked urge to goad. “So, if you like the fabric samples, we will push forward. Thanks for coming in today, Mr. Samora.”

Danny watched as he trudged out of the shop, tail between his legs. Mentioning her family, she had discovered earlier on in life, was a huge turn-off to men. Unless they were the ambitious sort. It always came down to they couldn’t give her anything that she couldn’t get on her own. Well, the thing was, they only thought about material things. There were things Danny priced higher than a private jet and dinner in Paris. Honesty and support, for example. Guys just didn’t seem to get that.

“Finally, you played the Daddy card. Now maybe we will get more business here,” Sara cheered.

“Yeah, the big corporations that want to wiggle their way into an audience with my father or brothers. Plus, we will end up losing the small businesses. They are going to start thinking they can’t afford me.”

“I know you love the mom-and-pop accounts because they make you feel like what you are doing is important. But think of all the expensive stuff we can give them, from the rich guys.”

“I’m not Robin Hood.”

“Yes, I know. You are Daniela Isadora Kent. The only daughter of Dennis Kent, or as you call him, Daddy.”

Not the only daughter.

Danny smiled even though inside she hurt a little. It wasn’t her pain that she’d carried along with her for so long. It was Reno’s. She had been here for years, and she had yet to find out where their sister was.

***

Kit was stunned. This was the second time Danny had run from him. And for some reason, each time she ran, the urge to chase her grew. Kit didn’t like that there were other guys who wanted to be with her. She seemed to be completely immune to all of them, except Solomon. Kit had wanted to hang around until Solomon left. But that made him a stalker.

What did he want from Danny, anyway? Kit felt selfish, going after Danny, knowing that when the time came, he would have to tell her that he couldn’t give her what she wanted. But then, she didn’t have to know about it just yet. Kit had three months’ leave before going to back his post He was going to make the most out of it. Maybe she could be the one to change the way he looked at marriage and family. He doubted it. Kit’s weakness and strength were the same: he was set in his ways. Once he made a decision about something, it would take the hand of God to make him change his mind.

Kit would walk away this time. Sara, the ever-so-helpful assistant, had already given him Danny’s number and home address. He was going to give her a day. He would see her just before he left for New York.

Kit hung around the shop long enough to see Solomon walk out with his head hanging. I know how it feels, pal. How could he not? Indirectly, Danny had shut him down, too. Solomon might know why he’d been given the boot, but Kit had yet to find out.

Kit had given Danny a day, but when he finally went to see her, she wasn’t there. Kit went to the store only to find out that Danny had left for New York. It was easier to find out where she was if he went there. But returning was definitely a harder decision to make, considering the atmosphere he was going back to. There was no running away from who he was in New York: Christian Henry, the child who’d abandoned the family business. You’d think the press would cut him some slack, considering he was serving his country now.

Kit was apprehensive once he got to his family’s New York estate. He stood at the gate, looking at the monstrosity his mother called a masterpiece, waiting for nostalgia to hit him. But nothing. He felt like a visitor, a stranger at the house he had called home for more than twenty years. Part of him wanted to turn back and run. It was odd feeling like he didn’t belong, strange to be standing on a surface that didn’t rock, no salt in the air, just smoke, and there was no one here to salute; instead, it was him that they looked up to.

Kit didn’t argue when the butler took his bags. Kit hadn’t carried Louis Vuitton suitcases in a long time. He preferred his Navy-issued pack, but when in Rome… Kit stepped into the house and the nostalgia hadn’t hit him yet. He hoped that it would, once he had his family around him, or this trip was definitely going to be short.

“Christian!”

Kit turned toward his mother. It took him a second to respond. He was so used to being called Kit or Corporal Henry—Christian seemed to be someone else.

“Mother.” He smiled and caught her as she rushed into his arms. They had seen each other fourteen months ago. Kit hadn’t expected such an emotional reunion. If only Danny had been this receptive. Kit wondered how long it would take him to get the image of her side-swept hair—almost covering the right side of her eye, leaving the other shining like gold honey on its own, as her bold, red lips pouted at him—out of his head. Never, he guessed. “So where is everyone else?”

His mother wrapped her hands around his arm and led him into the living room. “At work, darling, where else? It’s five in the evening. Your father doesn’t show up until eleven and Christopher? I expect him to stumble in at three a.m., drunk, covered in cheap perfume and lipstick.” The matter-of-fact tone in her voice made Kit chuckle. It was good to know that nothing much had changed. “Duke, well, he is never here, and your sister the doctor, well, she is a doctor.”

“How is she doing after her accident?” Kit had never doubted his decision about joining the military until that day he’d gotten a phone call telling him his sister had been in an accident. For the first time since enlisting, he had been torn between his duty to his family versus that to his country. Kit didn’t feel any better, even after Kat had called to say she was all right. However, in her voice, Kit could hear that she needed him, especially since AJ had left for some mission. It pissed Kit off, knowing that AJ had left Kat behind to deal with the consequences of the accident. But who was he to judge? It was a pot-and-kettle situation.

“She’s fine,” she said dismissively.

“I’ll go up to my room, then, get some rest before dinner.”

“Sure. It’s exactly the way you left it. I wouldn’t let them touch it.”

“Them? Who?”

“Never mind.”

Kit walked into the room and stared at everything: the plain walls, the monochrome color scheme, and finally found the nostalgia he was looking for. It might have been the privacy and the solitude that was a welcome relief. It bothered him to know that someone had tried to claim his space when he’d been gone. It was probably the only thing he could lay claim to in this house.

Kit had a dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach about dinner, and he was right. Duke and Yvonne fought under their breaths the whole time, especially when Father brought up the subject of their grandchild, and why they didn’t have visitation rights. It always seemed odd to him that Yvonne didn’t want people at her house. And if she didn’t bring little Duke to see them, they never would. Kat spent most of the time glaring at their mother. If Kit had the tolerance for their snippy tone, he would have probably asked what the matter was. However, he didn’t. Christopher drowned himself in brandy as their father listed his complaints and Christopher’s shortcomings.

Kit missed drill conversations. He would have even been more comfortable in the demolition room, taking apart or putting together a bomb that could explode in his face. He would rather be anywhere but here. And if Danny was there, it would have been an added bonus.

“So, while you have been having fun on that cruise ship, taking in the sun and the ocean smell, dad has been riding me all the time, giving me orders. I’m doing work that you should be doing,” Christopher said angrily.

Are you serious? Kit didn’t engage him. He knew how Chris could get when he was drunk. So instead, he ignored him and directed his attention to Kat. “How are you holding up?”

“Not sure yet.”

“It’s going to be okay; you’ll see.” Kit said reassuringly. Well, it was the thing to say. He had no idea how it would turn out with AJ, or her career.

“Did she tell you she changed fields? I would have been okay with a cardio-surgeon as a daughter—”

“But not an OB/GYN?” Kat cut in.

“Cardiology is second to neurosurgery—”

“So, I was still disappointing you with my initial field of choice.”

“I just don’t understand why you changed it?”

“I didn’t. I’m doing both. That’s why you see me less and why I put in more hours at the hospital,” Kat explained. “I am doing prenatal and neonatal surgeries. I’m keeping my options open. What’s wrong with having options?”

“Your baby dies, you change fields, your boyfriend leaves, then suddenly you have options that do not include the family business,” their mother said.

Kit had nothing against their mother, but the woman could be mean when she wanted to. To Kit’s knowledge, no one had talked to Kat about her miscarriage, and their mother bringing it out now just seemed to be malicious.

“Mother, leave Kat alone.” Duke’s bark silenced the room and left even Harry Senior slack jawed. “Katherine, Christian, not even Christopher have had to work for the family business. I’m there.”

“Amen,” Christopher said.

“You are basically married to it,” Yvonne added.

“Yes, well, we all find our happiness in different places. Mine is at work.” Duke drove the final nail in the coffin that held the family dinner.

Kit couldn’t figure out when, in the past fourteen months, his family had turned into enemies and his home a war zone.

“You know it’s your fault,” Christopher whispered to him before leaving the dinner table.

“I didn’t say you could be excused!” Their father bellowed.

“I didn’t ask for permission,” Christopher yelled back as he disappeared around the corner.

“Don’t forget about tomorrow night,” his mother shouted.

“Kit, do you mind walking me out?” Katherine asked.

“I’m coming, too. I have to go back to work,” Duke said.

“What about me?” Yvonne asked, hurrying to catch up.

“What about you?”

In stunned silence, Kit followed the three of them out of the house. Yvonne got into a town car and drove away. Duke didn’t even seem bothered that his wife had left without saying goodbye. They stood in the darkness, just the three of them, staring at each other.

“So,” Kit broke the ice. “Is dinner always this warm and fuzzy?”

“Stuff happened. Mom and Dad are determined to alienate us. For a moment, a year ago, I thought we could be a functional family. Anyway, I got my big and little brothers in my corner, so it’s fine.” Nothing in Katherine’s eyes said that she was fine. She had a haunted look in her eyes, and her slumped body posture screamed exhaustion.

As for Duke, he seemed to have graduated from being part robot to complete robot. “I don’t care about much anymore, just my son and work.”

Kit wondered if he had cared for anything ever before. Duke might have been oblivious to his own human emotion, but he had always been a great big brother. “So, how is the baby?”

“Great, attached to his nanny. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Yvonne carry him. Ray seems to be more of a mother to him. I try to play with him as much as I can. But I don’t know how much he understands.”

“More than you think,” Kat said. “You may not like your wife but be a good dad. By the way, you can ask AJ’s dad to help you with a divorce.”

“Not now. I don’t have time for it. I have to go.”

Kit watched as his siblings drove off. He wondered why they kept pretending to be this happy family. Kit didn’t want to be here, and apparently, neither did his siblings. But he had promised his father that whenever he was on leave, he would attend such social occasions. He just hoped that he could last the week. Tomorrow, the Met Gala…the day after, well, with his family, who knew?

***

Danny pulled the little train on her black-embroidered nude dress as she stepped out of the stretch limo her family had arrived in. It was weird not having AJ and DJ with them. AJ was usually her date at this sort of thing, while Catalella claimed DJ’s arm. It had been a while since she had been to the Met Gala. The last time, Reno hadn’t been there with them. Now, it was Lisette attached to his side, Catalella as Danny’s date, as they walked down the red carpet and up the stairs and into the museum.

Danny didn’t want to be at the gala, but then the event fell on the same weekend as her mother’s birthday. She had missed a couple of those, on account of being in rehab and terrified of facing her past. New York was home to her, but it was also the place where her life had turned into a personal hell. She was terrified of being here, of facing her fears. But now that she was, she realized that it wasn’t as scary as she’d made it out to be. She was especially terrified of seeing Catalella. They had gone from being best friends, to acquaintances, to strangers.

Catalella got consumed with her husband Michael, and Danny with drugs. To be honest, it had been Danny who had veered away first. Tonight, they had exchanged a maximum of five words in the car. Danny couldn’t wait to jump out and escape the tension. Catalella had gone from being a bubbly girl to a robot. Of course, Danny felt guilty for not being there for her when she’d gone through her leukaemia. But DJ was there, and he’d kept Danny updated. However, it wasn’t the same.

Danny was just scanning the room when she noticed two pairs of identical, blue-grey eyes. Her first instinct was to duck and hide. But she couldn’t do that and avoid looking foolish. So instead, she hid behind her brother’s towering height.

“Who are we hiding from?” Catalella asked.

“Oh!” Danny gasped, startled. “Them.” She pointed toward Kit and Chris.

“The Henry boys? Why? They seem to be a cute couple.”

“You’ve never actually hung out with them, have you?”

“No time. Too busy with my career and forget my disaster of a marriage, and then, there was that cancer thing.”

Danny straightened as she heard the accusation in Catalella’s voice. With each word, she was saying you are guilty of being a bad friend. It was true. “I’m sorry for blowing you off when I was going through that phase in my life.”

“I tried being there for you.”

“Yes, and I was mean. And because you didn’t have my guidance, you ended up being a Mrs. Michaels.”

“Oh, God! Don’t remind me,” Catalella rolled her eyes and chuckled. “It’s the reason I am determined to be single for life.”

“That would be a shame,” Kat said.

Danny hadn’t noticed her walk up to them. However, she noticed the way Kit was undressing her with his eyes. If it were someone else, she would have probably cringed and covered herself with her hands. But it was Kit, and who was she kidding? She had wanted him since the moment she had first laid eyes on him.

“Yes, a shame. Says the woman who is engaged to the best man in the world. My brother is quite the catch.”

“I thought you broke up?” Kit asked.

“I’m not that crazy,” Kat said.

“She’s not that crazy,” Catalella and Danny said in unison.

“He is a man from a dying breed. Hardworking, loyal, kind, and a gentleman. She needs to marry him ASAP and stop letting him go all over the world unprotected,” Danny teased.

“I trust him.”

“Still, this world is full of hungry women chasing a good man,” Catalella added.

“Maybe I should call him,” Kat said before retrieving her phone from her purse and walking away.

“That wasn’t nice, ladies, making her feel insecure,” Kit said, strategically moving closer to Danny.

Danny didn’t know whether she should call him out on it or celebrate the fact that he felt the need to get closer to her.

“She wanted to call him. You could tell,” Catalella said.

“Question,” Chris finally spoke, and Danny waited for the idiocy bound to escape from his mouth. “Why is it that you two have boyish haircuts? Are you lesbians? It would totally explain Danny turning me down.”

Danny wanted to slap him, not because he’d called her a lesbian, but for making Catalella feel uncomfortable. Unlike Danny, Catalella had loved her hair, the curls and its length. As a teenager, she would spend hours brushing her hair. Now the chemotherapy had left her with a short, pixie look. Catalella was still beautiful, but it was obvious by the way her hand kept going to her head how insecure she felt.

“You look incredibly beautiful, Miss Ross,” Kit said earnestly.

“I’m going to go find our parents and siblings. I want to see if Reno can lead our great exodus out of this place. I’ll be over by the bar, drinking enough for the both of us until then.”

“Sure,” Danny watched as Catalella disappeared into the crowd. “Is that what you do? Counter every insult your brother delivers?”

The tingling sensations that travelled through her body made Danny aware of Kit’s hand on her elbow. He was trying to lead her away from Chris, but Chris wasn’t staying gone.

“I try. Besides, my sister told me about Catalella and her illness.”

“Anyway, thank you for that.” His eyes…Danny couldn’t help but laugh at herself. She looked away before she turned into tapioca in a lace dress. “I should go.”

“Hang out with me for a while. I have nothing in common with anyone in here, and I hate starting small talk. Well, at least until Reno—right?—leads the exodus out of here.”

“My big brother, Reno, he—”

“Kat told me about that, too.”

“Well, if Kat tells you everything about me and my family, we won’t have anything to talk about.”

“How about the weather?”

“I thought you hated small talk, and the weather subject has been exhausted as a conversation starter.” Danny laughed. It felt good, being here with him.

“Kit, look who I found,” Christopher said. For a moment, Danny had forgotten he was there. But Chris was like a bungee cord or bad Indian food; he always came back up.

“Meredith?”

To Danny’s ears, it was more of a question than an acknowledgement. She wanted to slip away right then, but Kit still had hold of her elbow. So, she stood there as heat rose from her chest to her cheeks. She was burning with shame—the other woman, caught by the wife or fiancée or whatever. Bottom line was that Kit and Meredith were something and Danny was now the other thing.

“Hi, I’m Meredith Samuels.”

“Daniela Kent.”

“Daniela,” Chris said. For some reason it didn’t roll off his tongue in the same sexy way it did Kit’s.

“So how do you know Christian?”

What was she supposed to say? I see him in my dreams. We are usually making hot, passionate love.

“I should go,” Danny whispered to Kit.

“No, stay,” Kit said firmly. “Why are you here?”

“Chris invited me.”

Danny was taken aback by the exchange. They didn’t seem like a happy couple. In fact, they didn’t seem like a happy anything. One look at Kit, and Danny could see an angry vein pop out of his neck as his jaw clenched tight.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“Meredith is my ex-girlfriend,” Kit said.

“But you told me they were getting married.” Danny angrily pointed at Chris, her voice a bit too loud for the crowd they were in.

“You said what?” Kit bellowed.

“All is fair in love and war. I was losing, so I made sure you weren’t going to get her,” Chris looked too amused with himself.

Kit took a step toward his brother, fingers balled into fists. Danny grabbed his arm to stop him. “This isn’t Pearl Harbour. No enemy forces here. Let’s go. Kit, if you don’t come with me now, I am never going to speak to you again.”

The shallow threat seemed to get through his cloud of rage. Kit took her arm and led her to the bar, where Catalella and Lisette were standing.

“No go on the exodus,” Lisette said as they got closer. “Papa apparently has more than one friend now. He’s holding Reno and your father hostage, too.”

“Our mothers are star-struck, so we won’t be leaving this place in this century,” Catalella added.

Danny noticed the looks Catalella and Lisette were giving her. Kit wasn’t a man who could be ignored and if Lisette stayed true to form, she was going to say something sexual and completely inappropriate.

“Kit and I are going to take off. Cover for me?”

“Sure,” Catalella said.

“Why? Where are you going? Are you—”

“Lisette!” Catalella cut her off. “Go. I’ll cover for you.”

“My sister, if you see her, please tell her I left,” Kit asked.

“Oh, she already left. She’s going to have cyber se—”

“Lisette!” Catalella interrupted once more. “She went to skype AJ.”

“Are you always this inappropriate?” Kit asked Lisette.

“She needs a walking sensor. Usually it’s Reno, but since he is busy, the duty falls to me,” Catalella teased.

“Let’s go?” Danny asked an amused Kit. One nod from him and they were off.