Kurt would have given anything to have been able to take Jane up on her drink offer tonight. His steps slowed as he approached the door to his apartment. He wouldn't go back on his promise to Sarah to meet with their father, but he couldn't deny that he was hoping a work emergency would cut it short. His sister was an incurable optimist, and he knew she had the best of intentions, but the rift between him and their father wasn't one that could be fixed. Not after what that bastard had done. Had tried to do.
Hopefully, Sarah would realize that soon and end this pointless crusade to bring them back together. Kurt sighed as he walked inside and dropped his keys on the table by the door. His father and Sarah were seated at the dining room table, but his father stood as he approached. "Hello, son."
He attempted to embrace him, but Kurt stepped back. "Hello, Bill," he said coldly. The days when he would call this man dad were long gone. He wouldn't compromise his principles to appease his sister, no matter how close to death their father was. But he wouldn't do anything to tarnish his memory in her eyes either. Even if he hadn't promised not to do that, the truth was irrelevant at this point.
"Kurt," Sarah pleaded softly. She couldn't understand her brother's unrelenting hatred for their dad. They'd both been affected by his alcoholism, but she had been the one to suffer the most, and she had managed to lay the past aside and forge a relationship with him. Adding to her frustration was the fact that she suspected that despite his denials, her dad knew exactly what had led to their estrangement but stubbornly continued to deny any knowledge of it. How did he expect her to make peace between them in the short time he had left when he wouldn't tell her what had caused the rift in the first place?
"It's good to see you again," Bill said with a weak smile as Kurt took the seat next to Sarah. He'd had doubts that his son would even show up to this meeting, so he hadn't given too much thought to what he would say. Judging from Kurt's stony glare, that lack of preparation was not going to work in his favor.
"I came to this meeting out of respect for Sarah," Kurt said stiffly. "Not because I had any desire to see you again. So why don't you just say your piece, and go?" He'd mourned the loss of the father he thought he had years ago, right along with his mom. The pain of his actual death would pale in comparison to the hurt he had heaped on them with his emotional abandonment and abuse. At least in his book. Not to mention . . .
"Kurt!" Sarah said sharply. Their dad was an invited guest here, and he had agreed to hear him out. The least he could do was be civil as he did so.
"It's okay, Sarah," Bill said, throwing her a long-suffering look that made Kurt's blood boil. His father had his innocent victim act down to an art form. Heck, he would have been fooled if he hadn't seen with his own two eyes what the man really was. "I understand Kurt is upset with me, and he has every right to be. I wasn't there for the two of you the way you deserved when you needed me most."
His father knew good and well that wasn't what had kept them apart all these years, but Kurt let it slide. This meeting would be over all the quicker if he continued to feign ignorance and shirk responsibility for his actions. "Yeah, well, I stopped needing you a long time ago. So why are you here now?"
"I'd like for us to let bygones be bygones," Bill told him. "To be a family again for what little time I've got left. Sarah mentioned that Taylor's back in your life, and you seemed to be working through your issues with her. I was hoping if you were willing to do that for her, after all she put you through, you'd be willing to extend me the same courtesy. I'll even apologize to her if you'd like."
"Not a chance," Kurt told him coldly. There was no way in hell he was letting his father within a mile of her ever again. The one advantage he could see to her amnesia was that she couldn't remember what he had done.
"Apologize? To Taylor?" Sarah frowned. "For what? What does she have to do with this? Dad?" she asked when Bill's gaze fell to the table as her eyes searched his. "What are you talking about? What did you do?" Her voice rose an octave on the last word. She glanced at Kurt, but he continued to regard their father in stony silence, clearly determined to make him own up to his own misdeeds.
"Dad?" she asked again, her voice little more than a whisper as a dreadful suspicion crossed her mind. "Tell me."
Bill's eyes were red-rimmed as he met his daughter's gaze once more. "You have to understand, Sarah. I was drunk all the time back then. I wasn't thinking clearly, or I never would have . . . I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Sarah demanded. "Tell me. Tell me what you did. I deserve to know." Kurt should have come clean years ago. She appreciated his attempts to try to protect her, but keeping her in the dark had never been the right way to do that. She deserved to make up her own mind.
"I came on to Taylor," Bill confessed. "The year after she and Kurt got married. I—"
"And by came on to her, he means tried to force himself on her," Kurt interrupted harshly as Sarah gasped. He saw no reason to keep silent any longer since the old bastard had confessed; he wasn't about to let him minimize what he had done. "And no doubt would have succeeded, if I hadn't happened to come home from college early that day." Taylor had known some self-defense moves, but his father had lulled her into a false sense of security by offering to help her carry the groceries inside and by the time she realized the danger she was in, it had been too late: her slight form had been no match for his father's bulk once he had her pinned. "I walked in to find him on top of her on the couch."
Fortunately, he had arrived before it had gone any further than that, but Taylor had had nightmares for months afterwards. All too often, he had found himself coming in to wake her from them and spending the remainder of the night in her bed holding her because she was too frightened to go back to sleep alone. That had become a special brand of hell once he acknowledged his growing feelings for her.
"No . . ." Sarah's eyes were filled with a mixture of tears and contempt as she looked at the man she had always loved despite his many shortcomings. "Dad . . . how could you? Taylor loved you like a daughter. She was Kurt's wife."
"Like I said . . . I was drunk at the time," Bill said defensively. "And it's not as if she was really Kurt's wife at the time. I'm not stupid. I know the two of them only got married to keep her out of foster care."
"The point is, I married her," Kurt retorted with barely restrained fury. "So she was absolutely my wife. I may not have been sleeping with her then, but I did love her." And knowing how close his father had come to being her unwilling first had given him nightmares. It had comforted him just as much as it had Taylor to be able to hold her close on those nights when her bad dreams caused her to cry out. Because his own had awakened him just as often.
"And she broke your heart," Bill shot back, knowing he was digging a deeper hole for himself but unable to stop. "Just like I said she would. I even told that government guy that when he came around asking questions a couple months before she left you."
"What are you talking about?" Kurt's eyes blazed hotly as he met his father's gaze. "What government guy? What agency was he with? What kind of questions was he asking?"
Bill shrugged. "I don't remember his name, or if he said what agency he worked for." He'd been fairly drunk that day as well. "But he was definitely a government employee. Typical self-righteous asshole in a cheap suit." He cast his son a pointed glance. "He pretended to be interested in you and Taylor, but what he really wanted to know about was Emma. What I knew about her life before she moved to Clearfield, stuff like that."
"And I'm sure you were more than happy to fill him in," Kurt said icily. Not that his father had actually known much, but that undoubtedly hadn't stopped him from speculating. "I don't suppose it ever occurred to you to fill me in on what was going on."
"And how would I have done that?" Bill asked sharply. "You'd cut off contact with me years ago, you and Taylor both, and even Sarah only spoke to me occasionally at that point. By the time she did call, I had forgotten all about it. Besides, I didn't know that anything was going on. Whatever this guy's interest in Emma Shaw, she had been dead for years by that point. What difference would it have made?
Perhaps none. But his gut was telling him differently, that this visit so close to Taylor's disappearance was significant. Or perhaps . . . Kurt's eyes narrowed as he studied his father. "And you made no attempt to see or speak with Taylor afterwards?" Given his current uncertainty about Taylor's motives for ending their marriage and his father's actions in the past, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that something he had said or done had caused her to run.
"I never saw or spoke to Taylor again after that day at the house," Bill hastily assured Kurt. "You made it very clear what would happen to me if I did." After he had blackened his eye and thrown several punches that left him aching for days. And then added insult to injury by literally tossing him out of the house on his ass.
Kurt nodded. His father was worthless scum, in his opinion, but he believed him in this instance. Mostly because he hadn't known where they were living at that time, and he was too drunk and lazy to make the effort to find them. Especially knowing doing so could land him in jail. "Could you describe this man to a sketch artist?"
Bill shook his head slowly. "I doubt it. That was a long time ago, and the guy wore a hat and sunglasses the whole time. And like I said, I was—"
"Drunk," Kurt finished for him. "Yeah. I get it." It sounded as if the man had made a deliberate effort to obscure his identity, but it was frustrating that yet another potential lead had just as quickly turned into a dead end.
"What difference does it make?" Bill demanded. "Emma Shaw is dead. Taylor may be back in your life now, but it doesn't change the fact that she left you for another man. How can you forgive her for her transgression, but still hold mine against me?"
Sarah had been quiet through much of this discussion, but she couldn't let that slide. "Are you seriously comparing Taylor's committing adultery with your attempting to rape her?" she burst out. Taylor's actions were reprehensible, sure, but they couldn't even begin to compare with what her father had done. She had been little more than a child at the time, albeit technically a married one.
"Of course not," Bill muttered shamefacedly, hastily backing down in the face of Sarah's outrage. The last thing he could afford was to alienate the one living relative he had who would still speak to him. He didn't want to die alone.
"Good," Kurt said in a hard voice. "Because as far as I've been able to determine, there was no other man. It's looking more and more likely that that was just a cover story to keep me from ever looking for her. She disappeared without a trace the moment the divorce was finalized." He leaned forward, fixing his father with a steely glare. "And if I find out you were in any way responsible for that, you'd better pray the cancer has already killed you, because god help me, I don't care how long you have left, I will find a way to lock your ass up. Are we clear on that?"
"Crystal," Bill said quietly, his hopes of a reconciliation with Kurt going up in smoke. Well, he'd always known it was a longshot. "But just for the record, I had nothing to do with it. And I am truly sorry for the pain I caused you and her. I hope you can both find it in your hearts to forgive me someday." He turned to his daughter. "Sarah—"
"I think you'd better just go for now, Dad," Sarah told him. "I'll call you when I'm ready to talk." If she was ever ready to talk. She didn't speak again until the door closed behind him. "Kurt . . ." She hardly knew what to say to her brother. "You really think there's a chance Taylor didn't . . . cheat on you?"
Kurt sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "More than a chance. I'm ninety-nine percent certain of it. You know what my first reaction was when I read her letter? That it was a joke." If only he had listened to that gut instinct then. "You said the same thing when I told you. That it went against everything we'd ever known of Taylor." He couldn't believe that he had allowed his jealousy to so blind him to the truth before him. To the very character of the woman he had loved more than life itself."
"So why do you think she did it then?" Sarah asked softly. "I mean, if you're right, I get that she must have thought she was protecting us from something, but do you think it had to do with Emma's past, or did she somehow get mixed up in something she shouldn't? What could have been so bad that she would choose to confess to adultery rather than come to you for help? I know she loved you, and you're a cop, for god's sake. It just doesn't make sense."
"Welcome to my world," Kurt said with a rueful smile. "Every rock we turn over just leads to more questions and no answers." He sighed, and it sounded like it came from the heels of his shoes. "I don't know what to do any more, Sarah."
"Kurt . . ." Sarah's heart ached for her brother, and she covered his hand with hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. "As an extremely biased observer, can I give you some less-than-impartial advice?"
Kurt couldn't help but chuckle at her words. "After that lead-in, I'd be disappointed if you didn't." Not that his refusal would have stopped her anyway.
"You can't turn back the hands of time, Kurt," Sarah told him softly. "You'll only be setting yourself up for disappointment if you try."
Kurt's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean . . ." Sarah struggled to order her thoughts. "It's pretty clear to me that you still have feelings for Ta—Jane, and I think you're smart enough to have realized that as well. But as much as I didn't like it at first, you did the right thing agreeing to her request not to be called Taylor. Because physically she is, obviously, but mentally, emotionally . . . In some ways, she may seem like the Taylor we knew and loved, but in reality . . . she's still largely a stranger at this point. And even if she regained her memories tomorrow, it doesn't mean she'd morph back into her old self.
"Think about it, Kurt," she added gently as he started to protest. "Neither of us is the same person we were nine years ago either, and if you were to get back together with Jane, you couldn't expect that relationship to be the same either. That wouldn't be fair to either one of you." In some ways, Jane would be like the second wife of a widower who had placed the memory of his first on a pedestal, only instead of competing against a dead woman, she would be battling against an earlier, more perfect version of herself. "What you've been through has caused you to change and grow as people, and because of that, whatever relationship you develop will have to evolve as well."
Kurt opened his mouth several times before he could trust himself to speak. "So are you saying . . . Do you think I should just . . . ignore these feelings?" Given all that had happened between them, events Jane was still unaware of, perhaps it was better that they just stayed friends this time around. Besides, he wasn't sure that he could bear the potential heartbreak a second time.
"Not at all," Sarah surprised him by saying. "I've watched you try to move on for years, and you've never quite gotten over Taylor, Kurt. And judging by the way she looked at you the night she came over for dinner, she's developing feelings for you as well. I just don't want you to jump into a relationship with her expecting it to be some mythical continuation of the happily-ever-after you guys had going. It will be different, but that doesn't mean it can't be just as good, or even better."
"What about you?" Kurt asked. "Taylor hurt you as well. How would you feel if I were to . . . if we were to get together again?"
"Are you kidding?" Sarah chuckled. "This is going to sound like a total contradiction of everything I just said, but that would be a fairy-tale ending for me. Your guys' marriage was the gold standard I judged all my relationships by, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still a little envious of what the two of you had. I think that's one of the reasons I've been so angry at Taylor for so long. Because she didn't just break your heart, she threw away something amazing, a love that comes along once in a lifetime if you're lucky. But I think maybe . . . maybe in your case, you'll get that chance twice. If you decide you want it, that is. And I could not be more thrilled for you." She hugged him fiercely. "I love you, Kurt."
"I love you too, sis," Kurt told her. "And whether or not Taylor and I ever get back together, I'm sure you'll find your own Prince Charming one of these days soon." He hoped so anyway. He didn't know anyone who deserved happiness more than his sister.
Now he just had to figure out what his own future held. Sarah's words lingered on his mind the remainder of the night, and he was still thinking about what she'd said as he got dressed for work in the morning. He would be lying if he said the potential of a future with Taylor didn't make his heart quicken, but he also recognized that there were far more obstacles in their path than his sister realized.
First and foremost, Jane was a victim. And not only a victim, but a pawn in a plot they hadn't begun to understand yet, a plot that seemed designed to expose corruption at the highest levels of their government. He'd already been reprimanded for letting his feelings trump his professionalism, and with good reason. His own role in this plot was equally murky.
As were Taylor's motives for leaving him. He might believe that she'd had a motive other than the one she professed for ending their marriage, but he had no proof of that. To the contrary, he had concrete evidence in her own words that she was an adulterer. And it hurt like hell to know that she had likely chosen to make him believe that rather than trust him with the truth. They had been a team; whatever had gone wrong in her life, they should have faced it as such.
Not to mention, Jane still had no idea who he really was to her. Who he thought he might like to be again. No, the two of them wouldn't be updating their Facebook statuses to In a relationship anytime soon.
But that didn't stop him from envisioning the day when they could. And it certainly didn't help that today's case required them to go undercover as a married couple. Complicating matters even further was the fact that the US Marshal assigned to the case was yet another ex-girlfriend. An ex-girlfriend who quickly made it clear that she wouldn't mind rekindling their romance.
Kurt was still struggling to come up with a response to Allie's proposition when Jane rounded the corner, and his mouth went dry as Allie faded from view, his mouth going dry as the sight of Jane in that form-fitting dress catapulted him back in time thirteen years.
"Remind me again why I agreed to do this?" Kurt asked Sarah only half-jokingly as he resisted the urge to tug at the bow tie she had just adjusted.
"Because you love your wife?" she teased back, only half in jest herself. Kurt might still think his feelings for Taylor were entirely platonic, but she'd seen his eyes on her when he thought no one was looking, and she knew better. And it was obvious to her that Taylor reciprocated those feelings as well. Her faux sister-in-law was going to become her sister-in-law for real one of these days, and she could not be more excited for the two of them. Or herself, for getting a front row seat to watch it happen.
Hopefully tonight would jumpstart that process, before these two knuckleheads made the mistake of getting divorced. She couldn't wait to see Kurt's face when he caught sight of Taylor in the prom dress the two of them had spent days picking out. "Relax," she advised, swatting his hand away as he reached for his bow tie again. "Just look at this as good practice for going undercover when you're a federal agent someday."
"Practice," Kurt repeated dubiously. "Right." As if a night surrounded by awkward, annoying adolescents would prepare him for what he would face out there on the streets. He'd really been hoping Taylor would opt out of this just as she had her junior prom, but he had instantly vetoed her suggestion that she could go with a group of friends. She was his wife, and he would be damned before he would allow her to dance with any of the gawky boys he had caught eyeing him enviously on his infrequent visits to the school.
He might not want to go back to high school, but he wasn't so old that he couldn't remember the thrill of this night, and he had spared no expense to make it special for her. He wanted it to be a night that she would remember for the rest of her life. Movement at the top of the stairs caught his attention, and his jaw dropped as he got his first glimpse of Taylor.
He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen his tomboy wife in a dress, their wedding day among them, but even that momentous occasion paled in comparison to the vision currently descending the stairs before him. She was wearing a lace beaded black dress that hugged her curves in all the right places and offered just the barest glimpse of her cleavage, her hair and makeup done by Sarah's expert hand. He was even more tongue-tied now than he had been when he first saw his date for his own senior prom.
"Ah," Allie said, turning to see what had put that thunderstruck look on Kurt's face. "I get it." She scoffed at his weak attempts at denial as they started toward Jane, unable to contain a pang of envy. She couldn't recall seeing him ever once looking at her like that. Jane was a lucky woman.
Jane's cheeks turned pink at Kurt's intense perusal, and she pointed at her neck, glancing down for a moment before meeting his eyes once more. "Umm . . . Tattoos sort of ruin the whole undercover thing, so they covered them with makeup." Kurt continued to gaze at her without speaking, and she cleared her throat nervously. "I feel ridiculous in this dress." Somehow she didn't think attire like this had ever featured prominently in her wardrobe.
Kurt finally found his voice. "That is not the word that I would use."
Kurt was staring at her like she'd grown two heads, and Taylor resisted the urge to bolt back up the stairs and change back into her usual attire. She had been hoping that this night might help him to see her as the woman she was becoming rather than the tomboy he had palled around with all his life, but she was already beginning to second-guess that decision. They'd already been living together for years, and he had never once showed any romantic interest. In fact, that had probably been the kiss of death to any that he might have had. He had certainly gotten an up-close-and-personal view to all her shortcomings. She forced herself to continue descending the stairs until she stood in front of him. "Please tell me I don't look like a complete idiot in this dress."
Sarah nudged him when he didn't immediately respond. "What? No. No!" Kurt repeated more emphatically. "That's not . . . You don't . . ." He took a deep breath to get his racing heart under control and started over. "I wouldn't say that at all."
"What would you say?" Taylor asked shyly, hardly able to breathe as he reached for her hand and slipped the corsage he had bought her onto her wrist.
"Beautiful," he told her as he slipped an arm around her waist, posing for a quick picture before they headed for the door. "You look absolutely beautiful."
He'd told her he would be the envy of every guy there, and he had been, Kurt recalled as they stepped into the elevator. Just as he was sure he would be at this gala today. He turned to Jane as the doors slid closed, but couldn't quite meet her eyes. "Now the couple were wearing wedding rings, so . . ." He fingered the small metal band as he held it up, feeling more than seeing it catch Jane's eye as well before their gazes connected once more.
"Oh, right, yeah. Of course." Jane held out her hand, and Kurt gently slid the circlet into place on her ring finger. With this ring, I thee wed. The words echoed so loudly in his brain he could almost hear himself speaking them.
Jane stared down at the wedding band on her finger as it triggered a memory of herself in bed with the man with the tree tattoo, gazing pensively at a diamond ring. Her brow furrowed. Had she been engaged? She was just opening her mouth to ask Kurt if he knew when the elevator doors opened, and the moment was lost.
Before they could even get inside the gala, a man recognized Kurt's pin, and after checking that they had the tickets, he directed them to follow him. Jane did her best to stay calm as they slid into the unfamiliar limo, but once they had surrendered their cell phones, she reached for Kurt's hand, telling herself that she was staying in character, but really needing the comfort of his touch to keep her nerves at bay. Despite her confident assurances that she could pull this off, this was brand new territory for her, and she was thankful she had him by her side to keep her grounded.
Kurt started as Taylor took his hand as the limo approached the fancy restaurant in the neighboring town where he'd made reservations. It had been an unspoken but clearly understood rule between them since they got married that they would limit even the most innocuous of romantic touches to the times when they were in the public eye and it was absolutely necessary. Which meant a great deal of it later tonight, which he was looking forward to and dreading in equal measure, but he hadn't steeled himself for that yet. He resisted the urge to snatch his hand back. "Taylor—"
"I wanted to thank you," Taylor said softly as she looked over at Kurt. "For going with me to the prom, and taking me out to dinner, and . . . everything you've done for me these past couple years. I know I haven't always been as grateful as I should have been, and you'd probably rather be going anywhere else, but I'm really glad it's you with me tonight." She leaned over and kissed a stunned Kurt on the cheek before he could respond.
"You're very welcome, Taylor," Kurt told her when he finally found his voice. "And there is nowhere else I'd rather be tonight." Or any night. They'd had a rocky start after Emma's death, but the two of them had persevered until they sorted through their differences, and now they worked together as a well-oiled team. Their marriage might be in name only, but he'd be hard-pressed to find a life partner that suited him better—or that he had more in common with. If he hadn't promised Emma he wouldn't take advantage of the situation, he would be doing everything in his power right now to convince Taylor to make their arrangement permanent. To give their marriage a real chance.
Kurt held onto Jane's hand firmly throughout the helicopter ride, sensing she needed the reassurance, and when they landed, he gently lifted her down, staying close by her side as several armed security guards approached. One of them patted him down quickly, but he took his time checking Jane for weapons, and a muscle in Kurt's jaw ticked as he allowed his hands to linger on her longer than was necessary. "Enough." The man didn't heed his warning. "I said enough!" he snarled as he shoved the man away from her.
"Hey!" Jane said as Kurt grappled with the man. "Hey! It's fine. It's fine. Please. Let him do his job," she told Kurt with a pointed look.
"I don't like him touching you," Kurt growled.
"And I don't like you touching him," Jane responded as the security guards cleared them and directed them toward the house. "What the hell was that about?" she hissed to Kurt as they walked.
"You're my wife," Kurt reminded an irate Taylor as the two of them watched the young man who had been foolish enough to ask her to dance within his earshot scurry away. He didn't know why she was so irritated. Anyone who would give up that easily wasn't worthy of her, and she would probably never see him again once she graduated anyway. Really, he had done her a favor. "And I'm the only man you'll be dancing with tonight."
Taylor bit back the sarcastic retort that automatically sprang to her lips as irritation quickly turned to triumph at the flash of jealousy in Kurt's eyes. This was what she had wanted, after all. For him to recognize that she was no longer the little girl who had fearlessly tagged along with him, but a woman worthy of his attention. His interest. She could hardly complain when she got exactly the results she'd been hoping for. "Fine then." She looped an arm around his waist and smiled up at him as provocatively as she knew how. "Let's dance . . . hubby."
"You're my wife," Kurt repeated now with a pointed look, and was relieved when Jane shifted the conversation to more important matters. By the time they entered the house, they had a new game plan, and he had the irresistible urge to dance with her once more. Jane gave him the perfect opening when she asked him what they should do. "We should wait until the seller makes contact. Till then . . ." he placed his hand on the small of her back and gestured to the other couples on the dance floor, "we should try to blend in."
"No," Jane objected immediately. "I . . . I don't think I can dance." Given her aversion to dressing up, it seemed unlikely that was an activity she'd ever participated in.
Oh, she could dance. "Well . . ." Kurt drawled, "up until this morning, you couldn't speak Bulgarian. Who knows? Maybe you became a tango champion while you were gone." He knew whatever her reality had been, it hadn't been at all pleasant like that, but his words had the intended effect of putting her at ease, and she moved into his arms without a second thought, the two of them swaying to the music as rhythmically as they had all those years ago.
"So, um . . ." Jane racked her brain for something to say as Kurt studied her with the warmest look she'd seen in his eyes yet, "you and that um . . . US Marshal . . ."
"Allie," Kurt supplied.
"You looked pretty . . ." Jane hesitated, not sure what to say. Wishing she hadn't brought the subject up.
"Yeah," Kurt acknowledged. "We used to date. A little while."
She had never been more unhappy to be proved right. "Well, how little?"
Kurt bit back a smile at Jane's question. Taylor had never been one to beat around the bush when she wanted to know what was going on with him, and he'd always appreciated her directness. He was glad to see that hadn't changed. "Well . . . about a year or so," he told her as he spun her away from him and then pulled her back to his chest.
Jane was taken aback. "That's little?"
Compared to the length of time they'd been together before they'd been together, it was. Or the length of their marriage as a whole. "We weren't . . . the best at communicating." Though given how frequently his relationships failed, he had begun to think he was the reason. Then again, it had never been a problem with Taylor. He was pretty sure it wouldn't be with Jane either. Yet another point in favor of getting back together with her.
"Well, I don't even . . ." Know if there was someone special in my life, Jane started to say, before realizing that maybe she did. But it wasn't her own love life that interested her at the moment. "Have you . . . ever been married?"
Kurt froze. Guess he'd been a little too quick to admire that directness. He should have been anticipating that question, but somehow it had never occurred to him that she might ask it one day. He started to answer her honestly, before realizing if he did so, she might well put two and two together, only in this case, it wouldn't be four. Unless and until he was able to gather more information, the best thing he could do for both of them was to keep quiet. "No." The lie tasted bitter on his tongue. "Never married." He forced a lightness into his tone that he was very far from feeling as he spun her again. "I'm too choosy."
Jane smiled, but her own amusement quickly faded. "I, um . . . I've been having memories that make it seem like I might have been engaged."
It was all Kurt could do not to react as he met Jane's eyes. "What did you remember?" Surely she would have said something if the memory had been of him. Of them.
Jane shook her head slightly as she searched Kurt's gaze, hoping against hope that she would find some answers there, but not really surprised to see him looking back at her guardedly. He was too much the FBI agent to reveal anything without thinking it through carefully first. If he had any answers at all. "Moments, fragments. It all seems so far away from where I am now."
Oh, if only she knew. The answers she sought were within reach—in her very arms, in fact—and it was all Kurt could do not to blurt them out to her. He was relieved that the seller's summons prevented him from doing just that.
Rich Dotcom proved to be quite the character, but fortunately, the two of them worked together as seamlessly as partners as they had as husband and wife, and backup arrived just in the nick of time to save them. By the time they boarded the helicopter back to the city, Kurt was more certain than ever that if Taylor had left for a good reason, he wanted her back in his life on a permanent basis.
More than anything.