Almost Home (36 page)

"Well, that's a touching show of family loyalty,
son, but you're wasting your breath. I'm afraid it's no longer my move."

"What does that mean?"

"You better ask Mrs. Stanton."

"Mrs. Stanton? What does she have to do with
this?"

"I hope you haven't gotten too cozy and secure
thinking you're going to inherit the old homestead, son. Because it isn't going
to happen."

"Why wouldn't it?" Zach felt the anger turn
to fear as
Jackson
toyed with his lifelong dream.

"I told you, Zachary. You'll have to ask Mrs.
Stanton. You know, we didn't have to play it this way. I didn't like what you
did the other night. You could have helped me. I could have helped you. It's a
shame, really. But you had to be stubborn."

"What have you done?"

"I've simply enlightened Mrs. Stanton. Everyone
has a secret, you know. And finding it is the key to success, my boy. You'd do
well to remember that."

Zach hung up the phone on his father's taunting voice,
refusing to listen to any more vague innuendos. But he was truly shaken. What
did
Jackson
have up his sleeve? Damn him.

Zach looked over at the empty side of his bed and
dammed Katherine as well. He wished he could talk to her right now. He wished
he could share his fears with her, but she was gone. Story of his life.

Zach got up from bed, slipped on his jeans, then
walked into the living room. For a brief second he let himself think that
Katherine was in the kitchen or on the porch, but one look out his living room
window confirmed the fact that she had indeed left.

The question was why? Why leave without a word of
good-bye?

Because he hadn't said "I love you." He knew
it had to be that. She'd wanted something he couldn't give.

The phone rang again and Zach rushed to the kitchen.
He grabbed the phone hanging on the wall by the refrigerator. "Kat?"

"It's Sam. I guess I don't have to ask why you're
an hour late to work."

Zach let out a shaky breath. "I'll be down in a
few minutes."

"All right. By the way, it's probably already all
over town that J.T. had a heart attack yesterday. He's over at
Memorial
Hospital
. Mrs. Stanton just left to go
see him."

Zach leaned against the wall. "J.T. had a heart
attack?"

"That's right."

"Is it serious?"

"Don't know. Hope not. I spoke to Harry, and it's
strange, but he seemed really upset. Said he wouldn't be down to the barn today
at all. Oh, and he said to tell you to stop by after lunch. He has something he
wants to talk to you about."

"Fine. I'll be down there in a few minutes."

Zach hung up the phone and hurried into the bathroom.
He turned on the shower and jumped in before the water began to heat up. The stinging
cold water on his head and shoulders helped to wake him up. And he needed to
wake up. He needed to figure out why Katherine had stolen out like a thief in
the night, why his father had called to taunt him, and why Harry was upset
about J.T. having a heart attack when, as far as Zach knew, the two men barely
liked each other.

His mind kept rearranging the facts while he finished
dressing. The pieces of the puzzle were all there, only they didn't fit
together. He was struck by the disturbing feeling that all hell was breaking
loose in
Paradise
, and Katherine was somehow
in the middle of it.

Chapter
19

«
^
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M
ary Jo paced around
the small hospital waiting room, feeling like a caged animal. She wanted to
leave, but she couldn't. She wasn't bound by bars or locks but by personal
responsibility and loyalty to the man she'd married twenty-seven years ago.

John Thomas had had a heart attack. The doctors had
warned her that sometimes second heart attacks could follow the first and that
she needed to be prepared.

Prepared? How could she be prepared? J.T. was
forty-nine years old. He wasn't prepared to die, and she wasn't prepared to
watch him do so. As much hate as there was between them, he was still her
husband.
Her husband!

Mary Jo put a hand to her mouth, feeling like she was
going to vomit. She'd once loved this man more than life itself. And now, after
years of standing by his side through all the shameful affairs and gossip, she
wasn't prepared to just watch him die.

There was a limit to a woman's strength, and as Mary
Jo sat down on the beige couch in the waitin room, she knew she'd reached her
limit.

People in
Paradise
thought she was strong, a quiet warrior who would weather every storm. She wasn't
strong. She was weak,
and more than
any
thing she wanted a man's shoulder to rest her head on, a man's arms
to lift her up, a man's confidence to reassure her that everything would be all
right. That this time the worst would not happen.

But the only man she'd ever had in her life was J.T.,
and he'd never been good at lending comfort and support. In fact, he'd been
horrible. And she couldn't keep on pretending otherwise.

He'd hurt her over the years. Taken her love and stomped
on it. He'd done everything he could to make her hate him. And yet—God! She
didn't want him to die.

She didn't want to let go of him, even though her
conscience, her soul, told her to do exactly that. She couldn't still love him,
not after everything he'd done. To love him would be absolute proof that she
was certifiably crazy.

But as she'd waited through the long hours of the
night, she'd thought about other times, their honeymoon in Hawaii, their first
years together, the dreams they'd shared, the nights they'd talk for hours
about nothing really, just wanting to be together, to hear the sound of each
other's voice.

It had all gone wrong when they'd begun to focus on
having a baby, when they'd started to doubt and resent and blame each other for
the inability to conceive. Everything seemed to go downhill from those years of
test tubes and sex on schedule.

It was a lifetime ago that they'd been happy, but she
still remembered and wished she didn't.

"Mary Jo, there you are." Leeanne Callaway
hurried through the doorway, her navy blue spike heels clattering against the
floor. Leeanne wore a slinky blue knit dress with a matching scarf, making Mary
Jo feel even more tired, more lonely, more out of whack.

"Why didn't you call me yesterday?" Leeanne
wanted to know.

Mary Jo shrugged. "I
kept thinking we'd go home any minute and it would be a false alarm."
Leeanne's gaze narrowed on Mary Jo's face, allowing her no opportunity to lie. "Is
it bad?"

"I think this one was
a warning."

"I hope J.T. takes it
seriously. What on earth happened?"

"We had a fight, a
huge, ugly fight. The next thing I knew, he was holding his chest and this
terrified look came into his eyes, like he was about to die. I've never seen
anything so horrible."

Leeanne sat down on the
couch next to her. "He'll be all right, Mary Jo. J.T.'s not that old. The
doctors will help him."

"If he dies, it will
be my fault."

"Don't be ridiculous.
If he dies of a heart attack, it's because he has been eating cheeseburgers by
the dozen and drinking beer by the keg. You didn't fill his heart with
cholesterol. You didn't block his arteries."

Mary Jo wished she could
agree with Leeanne, but J.T.'s body hadn't done him in. No, he'd been stricken
by her words, by her accusations, and by the photograph of Margaret, an image
that still burned in her brain.

"Tell me exactly what
happened," Leeanne ordered. "You need to get it out."

"It was my need to get
it out that put J.T. here in the hospital." Mary Jo paused. "I went
looking through his things. I wanted to know if he was really Katherine
Whitfield's father."

Leeanne let out a breath
and sat back on the couch. "I should have called you yesterday."

"Why?"

"Because I know J.T. is not Katherine's father."

"How could you know
that?" Mary Jo asked in amazement.

"Because yesterday
Jimmy went into
Lexington
for a business meeting. He was acting so strange about it that I followed him."

"You what?"

"I followed him to
Lexington
. I thought I'd
just turn around when I got there, but he didn't go to a bank, he went to a
house…" Her voice faltered for a moment. "He went into this run-down
little house with run-down toys on the steps and a rundown woman in the living
room." Leeanne put a hand to her mouth as if she were nauseated. "He
called her Evie. And he asked her if he was Katherine's father."

Mary Jo gasped. "But—but
that can't be. Jimmy…" She shook her head. It didn't make sense. J.T. was
the cheater, not Jimmy. "What did she say? Did she admit that he's
Katherine's father?"

"I don't know. I was
too afraid to stick around and find out." Leeanne's eyes filled with pain
and anger at herself. "I heard the question and I panicked. I ran like
hell back to my car and drove away before they knew I was there." Leeanne
shook her head. "I'm such a coward, Mary Jo. I couldn't stand there and
hear her tell him he had other children than ours."

"Oh, honey, I don't
blame you." Mary Jo put a hand on Leeanne's arm, realizing the other woman
was trembling. Leeanne had wanted to add pizzazz to her life, and she'd
certainly done that.

"This woman, this
Evie, she had other kids, babies. I suddenly started wondering if Jimmy had
another family I knew nothing about."

"That's impossible."

"Until yesterday I would have agreed with you.
But for Jimmy to ask her that question
…
well, he must have
slept with her at least once. God, Mary Jo, what am I going to do?"

"You have to talk to him."

"He didn't come home last night. He called and
left a message that he was staying the night in
Lexington
." Leeanne bit down on her
lower lip. "With her, I think. I never in my wildest imaginings thought it
would turn out like this."

Mary Jo wrapped her arms around Leeanne's thin body
and gave her a tight squeeze. "You can't jump to conclusions. You need to
talk to Jimmy."

"Mary Jo, Leeanne," Claire called to them as
she entered the waiting room with a worried look in her eyes. "How's J.T?"
She looked at their faces and put a hand to her mouth. "He's not—"

"No!" Mary Jo shook her head. "He's
holding his own. The doctors want to watch him today and tomorrow. They think
he'll be okay if he takes care of himself."

"Thank goodness. You both looked so somber, I
didn't know what to think."

Mary Jo exchanged a quick look with Leeanne. "Leeanne
is upset because there's a woman in town who thinks Jimmy might be her father."

"A woman? What woman?" Claire asked sharply.

"Katherine Whitfield," Mary Jo replied. "I
don't know if you've heard about her—"

"Katherine?" Claire's jaw dropped open. "That's
not— No, Jimmy can't be Katherine's father." She sat down in the armchair
next to the couch. "That's impossible."

Mary Jo stared at Claire in amazement. "You know
this woman? You know she's looking for her father?"

"Yes," Claire said.

"Then you must know that she suspects both Jimmy
and J.T. of being her father, being with her mother, some woman named Evelyn."

Claire shook her head. "There is no Evelyn Jones."

"Okay, now I'm confused," Leeanne said. "What
on earth are you talking about, Claire?"

"Katherine's mother made up the name Evelyn Jones
when she ran away from home," Claire said. She paused. "Her real name
was Margaret. Margaret Stanton."

Mary Jo gasped. "No." She looked over at
Leeanne, who was as stunned as she was.