The Parent Trap(75)

Boarding school? Boarding school? Now he wanted to throw the phone against the wall.

“There’s nothing wrong with Serenity Bay. And lots of kids raised in small towns go on to have successful careers.” He stopped himself before he pointed out that she was one of them.

“At least this way I’ll be able to see her once in a while since she’s stopped taking my calls.”

That was news to him. Kate habitually checked her phone to see if her mother had called or sent a text message. Although now that he thought about it, he hadn’t noticed so much of that this week.

“When did you call? Maybe she was in class.”

“I’m perfectly well aware of the time difference and I can figure out when she’s at school. I’ve called three or four times—mornings and evenings—and she never picks up.”

Huh. Kate hadn’t mentioned that, but after their heart-to-heart on Monday evening, he had a better understanding of how she felt about her relationship with her mother.

“I wish you had called me. I would have talked to her.”

“Really? It seemed pretty obvious that you were behind this.”

She knew very well he’d never done anything of the sort, and now she was trying to use this against him? Heaven help him keep his cool.

“I have never done that, Georgette. I’ve always encouraged you to call anytime you like, and there’ve been times—” No. He wouldn’t say it. There had been times when Kate had waited to hear from her mother and he had gone out of his way to reassure her. Georgette had a lot of nerve trying to turn the tables on this, but that didn’t mean he needed to lower himself to her level.

“Well, whatever,” she said. “We shouldn’t be talking about this anyway. My lawyer told me to let him handle it.”

“We’re her parents. Of course we need to talk about this, and we should talk to Kate, too. Find out what she wants.” And they should be able to discuss this like rational human beings instead of paying lawyers money that could be better spent. Like on Kate’s college tuition.

“These are adult decisions. Kate is too young to be dragged into this.”

Seriously? Right now Kate seemed more like an adult than her mother. “You don’t think a judge will want to talk to her?”

Judges did do that, didn’t they? It hadn’t been an issue the first time because Georgette had willingly signed over full custody to him.

“I believe any judge will think I have the best solution to this problem. I can easily afford the best boarding school where she’ll be monitored twenty-four/seven instead of being left unsupervised and getting into trouble with the law.”

Now he was angry. Really, really angry. “Kate is not in trouble with the law. We had a misunderstanding, she was upset and she made a mistake. Why can’t you—”

“Jon, I really have to go. We’re on our way to a dinner party and I don’t want to keep Xavier waiting. ”

His phone went dead. He stood there a few seconds longer, pressing his forehead against the cool glass. How on earth was he going to explain this to Kate?

“Who thinks I’m in trouble with law?”

He swung around to find her standing at the island...where he’d left the court documents.

“What’s all this?” she asked.

“I didn’t expect you to be up this early.”

“The doorbell woke me up. What’s all this?” she asked again. “Was that Mom? What’s going on?”

After he had just told his ex-wife that Kate needed a chance to express her opinion on this, he couldn’t very well keep her in the dark.

“Have a seat. I’ll make breakfast and fill you in.”



SARAH FASTENED THE week’s worth of invoices with a paper clip and set them aside. Next up were yesterday’s credit card receipts, which she hadn’t had time to enter online yesterday because she’d had to pick up Casey and Kate at the school so they could have dinner and get ready for the dance. But first she needed a break from her Saturday morning paperwork.

“And another cup of coffee,” she decided.

Downstairs in the kitchen she filled her mug, rinsed the carafe, stirred cream and sugar into her coffee, and sipped some on her way back to her office. “Ahhh. Perfect.”

This would see her through the rest of the morning until it was time to get ready for work. She was halfway up the stairs when the doorbell rang. Likely someone here to see Casey, but she was out walking the dog so Sarah turned around and went down to answer it.

“Jonathan, hi. How are—” She cut herself off as soon as she saw the look on his face. “What’s wrong?”