Tangled Hearts

‘Not in class, anyway,’ he drawled.

‘Neither would I,’ she mocked, as the two of them walked side by side across the beach towards her home that overlooked the sea. It was more of a cottage than a house, with three small bedrooms and a bathroom above the sitting-room and kitchen. She knew that Jason and his father lived in a house in Malibu, for she had excitedly read Amanda’s glowing description of the house and swimming-pool when her sister first moved in there with Garrett Kingham over sixteen years ago, and it had sounded like a wonderful place to the impressionable ten-year-old she had been then. She was sure the cottage would seem very small to Jason in comparison; Amanda had certainly been dismayed by the smallness of it on the few occasions she had come home for a visit after her marriage. But it had been Sarah’s home all her life, and she loved it.

‘It isn’t just the way you’re dressed.’ Jason still frowned. ‘You don’t look old enough to be a teacher.’

She gave him a teasing look. ‘I’ve never yet been mistaken for one of my pupils!’ She pushed open the cottage door, stacking all her equipment in a tiny room off the hallway. ‘Have you eaten or can I get you something now?’ She looked at her nephew expectantly.

‘I’ve eaten,’ he shruggingly refused, looking around him interestedly. ‘Thank you,’ he added awkwardly as she continued to look at him. ‘Maybe you are a teacher after all,’ he said ruefully.

‘Maybe I am,’ she nodded, eyes twinkling deeply blue. ‘How about a drink?’

‘Coke?’

‘If that’s what you’d like.’ She led the way to the kitchen at the side of the cottage, the outside wall of the room dominated by a large window so that the beach and sea were still visible. ‘Sit down.’ She indicated the bar-stools that were tucked tidily under the breakfast bar in front of the window. ‘Have you come far?’ she asked conversationally as she opened the refrigerator door.

He smiled, suddenly looking boyish instead of the man he had been trying to appear since his arrival. ‘You’re persistent, aren’t you?’ He took the can of Coke, ignoring the glass, sipping thirstily from the can.

‘And you’re evasive,’ Sarah frowned.

‘Do you think my grandfather will be much longer?’ he asked curiously.

If he had been one of her pupils evading an answer in this way she would have known how to handle him, but he was the nephew she hadn’t seen for ten years, and she was so pleased to have him here that she didn’t want him to leave again because she had probed too deeply too fast. No doubt he would tell them what he wanted to, in time. But one thing she was already sure of: his father didn’t know where he was, and knowing Garrett Kingham as she did she knew he was sure to be furious when he found out Jason had come to them.

‘I’m sure he’ll be home any minute now,’ she assured Jason, surprised that her father wasn’t already back. ‘Now—–’ She broke off as the front door slammed shut. ‘That will be him now.’ She smiled encouragingly at Jason as he suddenly looked nervous.

‘I thought you would still be down on the beach, Sarah,’ her father greeted her smilingly. He was short like her, his black hair liberally sprinkled with grey, his eyes a warm, twinkling blue. ‘I walked down to join you when I got back from—–’ He came to a halt in the doorway as he saw she wasn’t alone, his eyes widening with anticipation as he got a good look at their visitor. ‘Jason?’ he said half eagerly, half disbelievingly.

Jason had stood up slowly at his grandfather’s entrance, and now he wiped his hands nervously down the sides of his denims. ‘Grandad,’ he nodded abruptly, swallowing hard.

Sarah felt an emotional lump catch in her throat at the way her father’s face lit up at the sight of his only grandchild. He had talked a lot about Jason, since he had had more time to sit and brood over the past after his retirement a year ago, and she knew how much he had missed seeing his grandchild grow up, doing all the things with him a grandfather liked to do. If only she had had children, maybe he wouldn’t have felt Jason’s loss so deeply—no, she wouldn’t dwell on what hadn’t been, like her father; she would enjoy the fact that they had Jason with them now.

‘Don’t grandads get a hug in America?’ her father teased Jason, who was waiting expectantly.

The boy moved awkwardly into his grandfather’s arms, taller than the older man by several inches, even at only fifteen. He was going to be as tall as his father one day—–Sarah’s delight faded a little as she acknowledged she was going to have to let Garrett Kingham know where his son was. And as soon as she did that, he would come and take Jason away from them again.

‘—–and so I thought you must have changed your mind,’ she heard her father say fondly.

Sarah eyed the two suspiciously as they stood apart now. ‘Changed his mind about what?’ she frowned.

‘Er—how about a cup of tea, Sarah, love?’ her father evaded.

‘Dad!’ She looked at him sternly, sure now that the two of them had been up to something she knew nothing about.

‘Let’s not argue in front of Jason when he’s come to see us after all these years—–’

‘Dad, you—–’

‘It’s like this, Aunt Sarah,’ Jason cut in, in a self-possessed voice that sounded too old for his almost sixteen years. ‘I telephoned Grandad yesterday and asked him if I could come visit the two of you.’

Now that Sarah gave it some thought she supposed she had noticed an air of excitement about her father since she got in from shopping yesterday afternoon, but she had imagined that to be because Mrs Potter from the village had called in to spend a few hours with him while she was out. Her father and Glynis Potter had been seeing a lot of each other over the last few months, and because she knew her father felt embarrassed about having a ‘girl-friend’ at his age she hadn’t ever mentioned that she knew about the two of them. Now it seemed her father had been keeping something much more serious than his friendship with Glynis from her!

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ She sighed her disappointment in him.

‘Now don’t upset yourself, Sarah,’ he soothed. ‘I couldn’t be sure Jason would really come here, and I—I didn’t want to disappoint you if he couldn’t make it after all.’

Her expression softened as she guessed he would have been the one unable to bear the disappointment if they had made preparations and then Jason hadn’t arrived. She could see it in his eyes now as he looked at Jason, knew he hadn’t been able to put it into words that Jason might visit because until he had seen Jason sitting in the kitchen waiting for him to come home, it had all seemed as if it might just be a dream.

‘Okay, you two conspirators,’ she teased. ‘What was the plan?’

‘You see,’ her father grinned at Jason, ‘didn’t I tell you she’s a good sport!’

She didn’t feel much like a ‘good sport’, not when she knew Garrett Kingham was going to be furious when he found out they had known since yesterday of Jason’s visit and hadn’t chosen to inform him. Oh, she hadn’t technically known about it, but she knew Garrett Kingham was never going to believe that.

‘I’ll make the tea,’ her father offered brightly now that the moment of danger had passed. ‘You two go and sit down in the other room.’

Their sitting-room also doubled as the room where her father designed and built models of old sailing ships, as her sewing-room, and sometimes as an art studio. Nevertheless it was clean and comfortable, and Sarah only had to move a couple of books from chairs to make room for them all to sit down.

Jason seemed more relaxed too now. ‘He’s just as I imagined he would be,’ he grinned.

Had Garrett Kingham ever looked as boyish as his son did now? she wondered. She doubted it. The younger son of Senator Kingham—the elder son Jonathan having followed in the career of his father and also become a senator in recent years—Garrett Kingham had been born with a golden spoon in his mouth, had gone to all the best schools, and then to the world-famous Harvard, before deciding to make a career for himself as a film director. He had fought family opposition, the prejudice towards him from others in the profession, to become one of the most ruthlessly successful directors Hollywood had ever known. And he hadn’t done any of it by being nice, let alone boyish!

Garrett Kingham had been twenty-three when Amanda had brought him home as her husband, but to the ten-year-old Sarah he had already seemed old, had already clawed his way half-way up the ladder of success, the hardness of his eyes letting everyone know that he clearly intended to make it the rest of the way up, no matter who got in his way. His marriage to Amanda had been one of the things that got in his way.

Her sister, much against her parents’ wishes, had gone off to Hollywood at the age of eighteen to ‘find success and happiness’. Six months later she had arrived home as Garrett Kingham’s bride and expecting his baby!

Sarah had watched as her parents did their best to welcome the worldly, cynical young man into their family, and Amanda had seemed happy enough with the way things had worked out, but Sarah couldn’t hide the fact that she didn’t like her new brother-in-law one bit. He had seemed to be looking down his aristocratic nose at them all the time, even insisting he and Amanda stay at a local hotel when there was a perfectly good third bedroom at the cottage that they could have used, that had always been Amanda’s room. Not that Garrett had seemed in the least concerned with the obvious dislike of a ten-year-old; he had ignored her where he possibly could.

No, even though Garrett had only been eight years older than Jason was now when she first met him, Sarah knew he had never been boyish, had probably never been young at all!

‘We’ve thought of you often over the years,’ she told Jason huskily.

‘You never missed a single birthday,’ he acknowledged gruffly. ‘Or Christmas.’

Although Garrett Kingham had never encouraged their interest in Jason after he took him away, they hadn’t thought he could possibly object to the small gifts they sent Jason on his birthday and at Christmas. The gifts were never returned, and several weeks later they would always receive a thank you letter from Jason. It had been the only contact they had had with him over the years.

‘Here we are.’ Her father came in with the tray of tea. ‘I brought you another Coke, Jason,’ he told him, sitting down to gaze at the boy fondly as Sarah poured the tea. ‘I always knew you would look like your father,’ he said ruefully. ‘Even as a baby you had none of the Harvey colouring.’

Jason’s expression was suddenly guarded, as if he sensed criticism.

‘I think it’s as well he inherited Garrett’s height,’ Sarah put in lightly, anxious to reassure Jason that her father hadn’t meant anything by his observation. ‘We Harveys aren’t known for our stature!’ She mocked her father’s and her own lack of inches, relieved when Jason gave a relaxed grin. ‘You never did tell me what plans the two of you had made for meeting today?’ she reintroduced casually.

Jason shrugged. ‘Dad’s in England making a film, and I thought it would be nice to come see the two of you.’

Garrett Kingham was actually in England! Sarah’s hands clenched in reaction to that piece of information. Ten years ago she had no longer been a child, and yet she had flown at Garrett Kingham like a wild thing; she hadn’t seen him since that fateful day. And she didn’t want to see him again now, although surely with Jason here that was inevitable.

‘He brought you over with him for a holiday?’ she asked interestedly.

‘Because he had to,’ Jason corrected harshly. ‘Unfortunately for him he couldn’t dump me on Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Shelley like he usually does because they’re away themselves at the moment.’