Found by Karen Kingsbury Read Free Book Online

took three heartbeats before Katy seemed to understand what he was saying.
    Then all at once she eased her hand from his and stood. She stared at him, her mouth open, then walked to the edge of the deck and gripped the railing. Gripped it as if she were trying to keep from falling.
    31
    He wanted to warn her that whatever photographers had moved in could easily see her there. But he couldn’t. He needed her reaction first, needed to know the thoughts that must have been tearing into her heart, her mind.
    After a handful of seconds she turned and faced him. “You didn’t know?”
    Her words were like daggers, and the pain in his heart doubled. Katy deserved the truth, deserved to be set free from the mess his life had become. The mess it had always been. “I had no idea.”
    “That explains it.” Her tone was resigned, as if whatever emotions were playing out in her heart she was determined to let him see just this one. “The way you were at lunch.”
    “I couldn’t tell you there.” He wanted to go to her, but he couldn’t. Not until she had time to process the news. “I’m sorry.”
    She sniffed and gave a slight rise of her chin. “What happens now? For you and Kelly, I mean?”
    Still seated, he anchored his forearms on his knees and stared at the deck. He wanted to scream or hit something. How could he have been so stupid, so careless? “She and I’ll talk tomorrow.” He lifted his eyes to hers, but her expression was guarded. Painfully so. “I’ll be there for her. I won’t be a father like …” He almost said it, almost compared himself to John Baxter, the man who had given him up. But the comparison wasn’t fair, even in a moment like this. John hadn’t had a choice. He wrung his hands. “My child will know me.”
    Katy crossed her arms. Even in the shadows her face was pale. “So … you’ll marry her?”
    Hollywood wasn’t that easy, decisions never that simple. But he understood what she was asking. Now that there was a baby involved, was he going to do the right thing? He laced his fingers together and looked at her, past the block wall and razor wire she’d put up between them. “Yes.” This was maybe even harder than the first part. “If that’s what Kelly wants.”
    32
    Katy sighed, but it sounded almost like a cry. She turned around again and faced the surf, her body frozen, thoughts silent. After a minute, he saw her shoulders tremble. The reality hit then. Here was Katy Hart, standing on his deck crying.
    Because the questions they’d had about each other, about a future together, had all just been answered.
    Dayne closed his eyes. A week earlier he’d been flipping channels on TV when he came across a strongman contest. A man with more muscles than limbs was harnessed to a city bus, straining with every step as he pulled it along behind him. Now, as Dayne blinked and stood and closed the distance between them, he felt the same way. The weight of his past was almost more than he could bear.
    He came up beside her and pressed his hip into the railing. She wasn’t sobbing, wasn’t hysterical. Rather a trail of quiet tears fell from her eyes, and her expression made her look a million miles away. He touched her shoulder. “Katy .
    . .”
    She turned to him, and something in her face changed. For the first time since he’d told her about the baby, her heart lay bare for him to see. And in that instant, Dayne knew. He knew that every time he’d ever doubted Katy’s feelings for him he’d been wrong. She was in love with him, same as he was in love with her. When it had been only their different worlds keeping them apart, she had held out hope the way he had.
    But now …
    She was shivering harder. “I… 1 should go.”
    “This isn’t what I wanted … I never planned for …”
    “I know.” She took a step back. Her eyes were dryer now, and she brushed her thumbs over the tears still on her cljeeks. “Don’t say anything, Dayne.”
    There was a rustling on the