Ties That Bind by Kathryn Shay Page B

hands were shaking and she felt ill. How could this have happened to her life?
    Reese stopped, forcing Kate to halt, too. “Of course you should have. Sofie needs to come face-to-face with her problems with us.”
    “With me.
    “No, Kate. You don’t see it, but she’s mad at me, too.”
    “She hugged you and wouldn’t come near me.”
    “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”
    His kindness brought tears to her eyes. She’d forgotten how they’d always tapped into each other’s softer side. Since they’d split, she’d squelched that part of herself and wondered if he had, too.
    A tear trickled down her cheek. Disgusted, she swiped it away.
    He said, “Don’t cry.”
    “I…” She sniffed. “I just can’t believe that’s my little girl. Scrawny as hell. Hair out of a fright flick. And an attitude that’s impossible.” When Reese didn’t respond, his face a mask of pain, she asked, “How did this happen to our baby?”
    His hands fisted at his sides. “When your world caves in, and you hurt so much, you strike out at the nearest target. Or the people who caused it.”
    Kate watched him stare out at the field.
    “I did. When we divorced.” His voice was gritty with the admission.
    “You did?”
    His piercing green gaze locked on her. “Yeah, didn’t you?” His tone was accusatory.
    “Yes, I just didn’t know you did.”
    “You were my world, Kate.”
    Because she was hurting, and because being with him made her confront what she’d lost, she conjured facts that made the spilt happen in the first place. “Not quite. What we had wasn’t enough. You wanted more.”
    “I wanted another child.” His words were curt, and the snap of them made her think he was coming from the same place as she.
    “Things went bad before you started singing that tune.”
    He sighed. “Sometimes, you know, I can’t figure out how.”
    “The competition started wearing on us.”
    “We thrived on that competition from day one.”
    “No, it got to be too much. We couldn’t deal with it any longer.”
    “I—”
    Just then the whistle blew for the start of the match. She straightened. “Let’s go sit. I hate rehashing this.”
    “Good idea.” He strode ahead of her, and they found a place on the bleachers.
    Kate watched her little girl warm up. She watched her take her position on the field. She watched her gear up for the hundred meter dash. And she watched her come in seventh.
    “Jesus, what’s the matter with her?” Reese asked. “She’s slow and breathing hard.”
    “This is so not her.”
    They said the same thing after the two hundred yard dash and the five hundred meter relay. Sofie performed terribly. It was so unlike the star athlete she’d always been.
    “Damn it…she’s pale and exhausted, and obviously isn’t sleeping. Something’s going on.” Reese stared out the field, then pointed off to the side. “Kate, look.”
    Sofie jogged over to the sidelines, opposite of where they sat.
    If parents could paint of picture of the worst candidate to court their daughter, the guy Sofie ran to was it. He was too old for her. He wore a leather coat, even though the weather didn’t call for it. And he was smoking a cigarette. Kate bet they’d find tattoos and piercings if they were up close.
    “Oh, my God,” she said when the guy leaned down and gave Sofie a very adult kiss.
    “Great.” Reese yanked off his hat and threw it on the ground. “Another thing to deal with. Damn it, is nothing going to go right with this kid again?”
    Kate didn’t respond to that query. She was feeling even more like a terrible mother. Though Reese had often seen her at her worst, this was taking the cake.
    o0o
    WHEN SOFIE BOUNDED downstairs after getting cleaned up, Reese groaned, then rose from where he sat on the couch in the common room of the Connor Prep dorm. Kate had gone to use the ladies’ room, thank God. He crossed directly to his daughter.
    Kissing her on the forehead, he made sure his tone was