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He broke off as the phone rang, excusing himself as he went to pick it up. As he answered his call Star started to gather together her work but even though she wasn’t deliberately listening she couldn’t avoid hearing the warmly excited female voice exclaiming in a transatlantic accent, ‘Kyle, I’ve just heard that you’re coming home! That’s wonderful. You can be sure there’ll be a warm—a very warm—welcome waiting for you...’
Star could hear Kyle clearing his throat before he said quietly, ‘I’m not sure exactly what time I’ll be flying in and so—’
There was a giggle and then Star heard her saying, ‘Well, that’s OK. After all, I’ve still got my key...’
Picking up the last of her story-boards, Star gave him a bitterly corrosive glare before opening the door and walking through it.
It was obvious that some women...some relationships were exempt from his proclaimed desire for emotional commitment and intimacy. Unless...
She stopped abruptly in the outer office and frowned so horribly that Mrs Hawkins wondered uneasily just what on earth was wrong.
Unless the woman at the other end of the telephone was someone special, someone whom Kyle did want to make a full commitment to...
Well, if she was, then what the hell had he been doing in bed with her? Star wondered angrily as she stamped out of the office and headed for her car.
CHAPTER NINE
‘KYLE came round last night. He wanted to know if we had any messages for him. He’s flying out to the States today.’
‘I know,’ Star told Sally shortly in a tone that warned her that it wasn’t a subject she wanted to pursue.
But Sally either didn’t pick up on that warning or chose to ignore it, because she continued, ‘Oh, heavens, I nearly forgot—Kyle asked me to remind you that the two of you have still got to sort out a wedding present for Emily. Is there anything you want to tell me?’ she asked mock-innocently.
‘Nothing,’ Star denied.
‘I see,’ Sally commented judiciously. ‘One moment you detest the man so much that you can’t stand the sight of him, the next he’s going to Emily’s wedding with you...’
‘It was an accident... a mistake,’ Star protested crossly. ‘I told him there was no need for him to interfere, to get involved, but he wouldn’t listen and now there’s no way I can get out of going without looking... If I back out now, everyone is bound to think that it’s because I’m jealous of Emily...because she was always Dad’s favourite...’
‘You mean because she always made a point of making sure she was his favourite,’ Sally corrected her roundly. ‘I’ve never been able to understand why men are so blind to that kind of manipulation and false flattery.’
‘Haven’t you?’ Star asked her sardonically. ‘It isn’t their eyesight that’s the problem, it’s their ego.’
‘Mmm... Well, as for people thinking you’re jealous of Emily, she was always the one who was jealous of you. Why else do you think she made such a big thing of ingratiating herself with your father?’ Sally challenged her when Star started to shake her head.
‘She’s everything that I’m not—the kind of daughter that Dad always wanted. Not that it really matters now,’ she said.
‘Mum’s getting married again, by the way,’ she added, and rolled her eyes slightly as she told Sally, ‘In the Caribbean and to Brian, of all men.’
‘Brian? Oh, but he’ll be perfect for her,’ Sally enthused. ‘He’ll spoil her and look after her—and you’ll be able to stop worrying about her and don’t pretend that you don’t. I know you too well,’ Sally challenged her. ‘You know, your father really does have a lot to answer for, Star,’ she told her more gently.
‘Yeah... Me for starters,’ Star mocked back.
But Sally shook her head and continued firmly, ‘You know that wasn’t what I meant. He caused both you and your mother a lot of pain; he—’
‘Mmm...well, that’s men for you.’ Star shrugged cynically.
‘No.’ Sally corrected her, ‘That’s some men, I agree; some men are vain and egotistical and uncaring of the hurt they inflict on others, the damage they do to other people’s lives, but then so are some women. Not all men are like your father, Star,’ Sally told her. ‘Look at Chris...and James...and Brad...and Brian. Look at the way he’s gone on loving your mother—’
‘Aren’t you omitting someone from this list of supermen?’ Star asked her wryly. ‘Kyle,’ she prompted, when Sally looked puzzled. ‘Surely you weren’t going to miss an opportunity to point out to me what a truly wonderful, caring, sincere specimen of male perfection he is? If I were Chris I think I might be getting rather worried.’
‘Chris knows he doesn’t have to worry about me falling for another man,’ Sally retorted firmly. ‘When is Emily actually getting married?’ she asked.
‘Next month,’ Star told her.
‘Mmm...a September bride... Have you decided what you’re going to wear yet?’
‘I haven’t a clue,’ Star informed her in a voice that said that she didn’t really care.
‘Doing anything interesting this weekend?’ Sally asked her, changing the subject.
‘Nothing,’ Star told her. Kyle would be doing something interesting, though. Kyle would be doing something extremely interesting; at least, he would be if the owner of that husky, feminine transatlantic voice had anything to do with it.
Kyle—why on earth was she wasting her time thinking about him? And why on earth had she been so stupid as to give in to that ridiculous and unnecessary fit of panic the other morning, when, if she’d stayed, she could have proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that she had been right about him all along?
And what had he meant anyway by that comment he had made to her about doing some truth-outing of his own? What truth-outing exactly? What truth was there to come out, after all? None... None.
And of course she wasn’t missing him... Why on earth should she be? He had only been gone a matter of hours, and even if he had been gone days... months...years...it wouldn’t have made any difference—she still wouldn’t miss him, she insisted to herself several hours later as she padded barefoot around her flat and tried to convince herself that the reason she was trying to work out the time difference between here and North America was simply in case Brad should try to get in touch with her to discuss her work.
In case Brad should try to get in touch with her, she emphasised mentally for the benefit of that small, jeering, disbelieving voice which refused to let her off the hook. For no other reason.
In America Kyle opened his front door and smiled lovingly at the small, dark-haired woman who was waiting for him, opening his arms wide to receive her as she hurled herself into them.
‘And how’s my favourite big brother?’ she asked him teasingly when he finally put her down.
‘Your only big brother,’ Kyle reminded her drily.
She was the youngest of his father’s second family and a gap of over ten years separated them, but she was the closest in looks and temperament to her aunt, his stand-in mother, and he would have loved her just for that if for nothing else.
‘You’
ve lost weight,’ she accused him, ‘and you’re not smiling—not properly, with your eyes. Something’s wrong. What is it?’
‘Nothing—there’s nothing wrong,’ Kyle denied, but she shook her head.
‘Yes, there is. What is it...who is it? Who is she?’ She pounced on him with awesome female instinct, adding as she saw his face, ‘Aha, so it is someone... A woman... The woman,’ she guessed triumphantly. ‘Who is she, Kyle? Do I know her?’
‘No,’ he told her, shaking his head, and added under his breath, ‘And, the way things are looking, I doubt that you ever will.’
He hadn’t intended her to hear him but she had and now she was by his side, frowning her disapproval and her scorn of any woman fool enough not to want her adored elder brother.
‘Want to talk about it?’ she offered, but Kyle shook his head.
He had Star backed into a corner and, like any cornered creature, she was desperately looking for an escape and wildly angry with it. Perhaps the kindest thing to do would be to give her that escape. But to what? He knew that he loved her and he was pretty certain that she felt something for him—something that wasn’t just lust, even though he knew quite well that she would claim that it was.
He had a strong suspicion that her sister’s wedding could prove to be the catalyst that pushed things one way or the other, that removed the barriers between them or re-erected them and made them even stronger.
He had unashamedly badgered Sally for as much information as she could give him about Star and her relationship with the rest of her family, and most especially her father, and he thought he understood just why Star was so afraid of allowing herself to love anyone, why she couldn’t even allow herself to accept that such a concept as love could exist between a man and a woman.
Getting her to relinquish the shield of bitterness and rejection that she had forged to protect herself would be a painful process—for both of them. After all, what right did he have to interfere in her life?
