Marrying Kate Read Online Free PDF Page B

as they all climbed into the car. Something wasn’t right but once again, now wasn’t the time or the place to discuss it.
    They made a trip to the mall to buy Bry his shoes and then stopped for pizza on the way home. It was almost seven by the time they pulled into the driveway. The kids tumbled out of the car and into the house.
    “ Head on up for baths, guys,” Kate instructed. She carried a sleepy Dani on one hip and herded the other three up the stairs. Jared followed with their purchases from the mall and Dani’s diaper bag.
    It seemed to take forever to get the kids bathed and to get story time and prayers done. Kate was still settling Dani when Jared drifted down the hallway, drawn to the master suite. He knew he shouldn’t go in because it was Kate’s room now , but he couldn’t stop himself from turning the handle and stepping inside.
    Expecting to be greeted by the soft scent of Kate’s perfume, Jared jerked back when the same staleness he’d smelled in his own place greeted him. He flicked on the light and glanced around the room. It was like a step back in time. Blankets lay rumpled on the unmade bed. Jen’s silky nightgown lay across the foot of it, tangled with the sweatpants Steve always wore to bed.
    Jared could almost imagine what had happened. They’d stayed in bed to cuddle and had ended up running late. Jen had left the bedroom in uncharacteristic messiness, never to return to clean it up.
    He sensed Kate as she walked into the room behind him. “Why did you just close up this room?”
    “ I didn’t know what to do with their things. I came in here once to try and pack stuff away, but I felt as if I had no right. Like I was a stranger pawing through their things.” Kate walked to the dresser and ran her fingers over it leaving trails of shining wood through the dust. “I didn’t need the room so I just decided to leave it for now.”
    “ Of course you have a right to be here, Kate. You’re Jen’s sister.” Jared watched as she walked around the room, lightly touching things. The lamp, the desk, the bed.
    “ I may have been related by blood, but we were never close like sisters should be. I didn’t think she’d want me here, in her house, in her room, with her children.”
    “ Why would you say that?” Jared asked, shocked at what she was revealing. “She never felt that way about you.”
    “ So why were you named guardian? Why not me? Or if not just me, why not both of us?”
    Jared heard the wealth of hurt in her words and longed to ease her pain. “When we discussed the guardianship, Steve and Jen never thought anything would happen to them until they were old and gray. When they named me, we all hoped I’d never really have to take on the role. But if the worst had happened, they figured you were so focused on your career that having to take the responsibility of four children would be too much. That it would be a burden you wouldn’t want.”
    “ Why does everyone think that?” Kate looked at him then, pain blazing from her eyes. “Why does everyone assume that I have no interest in a family or children? Do I come across as an unfeeling lump of clay?
    “ You know something, Jared, all I ever wanted to be was a wife and a mother. I knew I had tons of love to give a man and our children, if I could just find the right man. The only problem was, I was smart. Whenever I talked to my dad about not furthering my education, he would give me a lecture on how a mind was a terrible thing to waste. I owed it to humanity to use my intelligence for something more than having babies.
    “ I watched others have it all, marriage and a career, but I just couldn’t imagine being able to give my best to both. My dad was so determined that I would do better helping to find a cure for cancer or some other disease than to have a family. He was always an all or nothing sort of person where I was concerned. Either I gave my all to my studies and my career or have a family but he loaded