Page 98 of Mr. Dangerous

"I wasn't lying, ever. I wouldn't lietoyou."

"It was a lie of omission if you didn't tellmethen."

"Oh, Rob." There was a familiar fire in her deep brown eyes. "Don't be pedantic. I was trying to protect you. Things were so hard then for yourfamily."

"Yeah. Yeah, they were." I glanced away, although the brown-and-gold spines of my father's library seemed distant. "Why were you here that night,anyway?"

"I'm going to go supervise," Rebecca said, standing from the chair. She wiped her eyes one last time with atissue.

"Okay," I said, and let her go. Rebecca shut the door softly behind her, doubtless headed upstairs to reapply her lipstick. To wipe away any evidence of weakness like any Delaneywould.

"Do you believe me?" Kateasked.

"I don'tunderstandthis."

She met my gaze for a few long seconds before she looked away. "That's not what Iasked."

"Tell me about that night," I said, because I didn't want to answer her question. "Start with why youwerehere."

"So I'm one of your oldest friends and I have to prove that what I'm saying to youistrue?"

"Yes," I saidcrisply.

She shook her head, a disbelieving smile on her perfect red lips. "All right, Rob. Well, I don't know if you remember the details of that month. We were off-again, in the endless rounds of Rob-and-Kate. And I couldn'tstandit."

It looked like it hurt Kate to admit all that, but she was composed anyway. “I had been out with Mary Beth and her boyfriend and watching them together made me keep thinking about us. I felt lonely for you. I was driving my Jetta home and I endeduphere."

The details sounded right. Mary Beth had been Kate's best friend; Kate had gotten a Jetta for her sixteenth birthday. We'd all teased her because she wanted a convertible and her father found the safest possible convertible for his little princess. I knew I should be processing the sadness of Kate’s admission,I felt lonely for you, but I was focused on thefacts.

"Rebecca invited me in, said you weren't there. You were late at swim practice. I was embarrassed, I was going to go, but you know how she is. She loves to giveadvice."

"I know," I said. “Iknow.”

"Especially to girls," she said. "She is a font of love advice. As you might expect for someone married four times,right?"

"Five, now. The Tuscanymisadventure."

"Oh. I guess we've all fallen out oftouch."

I was trying to remember that day. All that I remembered now was the news crews that had parked in front of the house that night, and waking up in the morning to Mitch making coffee. Mitch was red-eyed and refused to talk; he’d taken the coffee and a box of cereal away to his study. I had known things were bad when my father’s lawyer, Mr. Bevor, crossed the entryway and disappeared into thestudy.

Then it clicked. I remembered the afternoon, before I came home, before the swam of news media and the chaos and the sound of my father crying down the hall while I lay sleeplessinbed.

Swim practice. Naomi and I had been volun-told to switch the lines at the end of practice, resetting them for the open swim hours that night. I'd tackled Naomi into the water, the two of us enveloped by white bubbles for a second of peace, then surfacing in each other’s arms. It had been much like the way I’d played in the ocean waves with grown-up Naomi, pressing my nose against hers, droplets of water warming between our bodies. I felt an ache remembering the boyish happiness of that afternoon. I’d come home both excited and with a sense of consternation; I was so comfortable with girls usually, and yet I couldn't figure out how to kiss Naomi for thefirsttime.

That was why I hadn't been home when Katearrived.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," I said. "I wish I'd seen my dadmyself."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she said. "I was trying to protect you, Rob. It was a mistake. But I wasseventeen."

"I know." I thought about how I would have responded, the desire to clear my father's name blooming powerfully. I knew that I would have done anything, no matter how stupid, if I'd believed there was hope for Mitch Delaney then. "I was seventeen too. I would have made mistakesmyself."

"I was standing in the kitchen with your grandmother. She made tea for us both and told me about how she fell in love with one of her husbands, I don't remember which one. And your father came in. He wasn't drunk. Notonebit."

"But why wouldn't he fight to clearhisname?"

"I think Rebecca is right. I think he was protectingsomeone."

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