AllFreeNovel
Share Us
7
Kate satat the table in the great room, her gaze pulled from her computer to the view beyond the wall of glass. She’d been trying to work every day while Declan and Nick staked out the house where they thought Neil was hiding, but it was hard to concentrate with so much beauty stretched out beforeher.
Their first morning in the house, she’d woken up to a brooding sky, clouds rolling in from a steely sea that stretched as far as she could see. The deck off the second-floor master bedroom had been a pleasant surprise, along with another wall of glass that seemed to continue from the great room on the firstfloor.
She’d immediately opened the glass doors, oblivious to the chill in the air, drawn to the sweeping view like a moth to aflame.
The impact hadn’t lessened in the three days they’d been in the house. She still found herself staring through the window or standing out on one of the house’s many decks and balconies with no idea how long she’d been there, and that was even more true now that they’d settled into a routine that left her alone in the house for long periods oftime.
She’d gone into town with Declan their first full day to stock up on supplies, and Declan and Nick had spent the rest of the day cataloguing the surveillance equipment they’d brought with them. The next day, they’d started their stakeout of the house where they believed Neil was hiding while Ronan reported from Reykjavík on Leifsson'smovements.
That had left Kate to hold down the house, and she’d settled in with her laptop and her cell phone, fighting exhaustion from the jet lag and trying to concentrate on the work she could do from afar. Her assistant, Tyrell, was on the case, feeding her the information she needed, and Aiden was in close contact, texting her withupdates.
She was enjoying the break from her routine in spite of the circumstances. She was itching to explore, but after a stern rebuke from Declan when she’d taken a walk to the water their second day, that was pretty much out of the question when he wasn’taround.
She bristled at the memory: walking back up the hill to the house, her face tingling with cold, salt on her lips from the sea spray, only to find Declan heading down to meet her, his face a mask offury.
It had been stupid. He’d told her not to go anywhere, but the house was so isolated she’d assumed a walk within sight of it was okay. Still, she’d dug in her heels when they’d argued, chafing against the confines of his rules even as the little voice in her head reminded her that she’d agreed tothem.
Finally, she’d apologized and promised not to do it again. She couldn’t stand the worry in his eyes. And anyway, she’d been in thewrong.
They were still learning to navigate their often competing needs — her need to be independent, Declan’s need to play the role of protector — and she wondered if this was how the problems had started with her parents: small arguments one or the other of them conceded to makenice.
Did all that conceding, all that comprising, eat away at them, building resentment until her mother had had the affair withNeil?
Was that how it would be with Kate and Declan? An endless stream of negotiation that would eat away at their happiness? Was that how love was supposed to be? Not the heady, nothing-else-matters euphoria she’d read about in books — that she’d felt with Declan in college — but a lifetime of compromise and commitment that tested even the most fatedlovers?
She was jarred from her thoughts by the ringing of her phone. She reached for it, happiness warring with worry when she saw her mom’s name on the screen. She’d learned after Griffin’s birth that it was a lifelong side effect of being a parent: she would never again be away from her son and not worry about him on somelevel.
And that was without the added tension between Kate and hermom.
“Hi, Mom. Everythingokay?”
“Everything’s fine, honey. Griff just wanted to talk to you before school and since you're four hours ahead I figured you’d be up,” her momsaid.
Kate put the phone on speaker and stood to stretch. “I’ve been up forhours.”
“Well, I hope you’re taking some time off too. Might as well take advantage of the change inscenery.”
Kate let her eyes travel to the horizon of the sea. Her mom knew why they’d gone to Iceland, but Kate had kept the details to a minimum. There was no way to tell her mom that she couldn’t leave the house without worryingher.
“A bit,” Kate said. “It’s so beautifulhere.”
“I’ve heard that. Is itcold?”
The tension in Kate’s shoulders loosened. This was safe territory. Weather. Scenery. Anything but her mom’s affair and Beth’s paternity and the lie that had been her parents’marriage.
“It’s getting cold. Like Boston in the fall but more gray,” Katesaid.
“Is it dreary?” her momasked.
“Not like you’d expect. More… moody.” She heard Griffin talking in the background. “Can I talk tohim?”
“Ofcourse.”
Kate waited through the sounds of the phone being shuffled from her mom to Griff, smiling as she imagined the morning scene at the house inMarblehead.
“Hi, Mommy! Guesswhat?”
