Daddy's Girls (73)

    “Are you sorry?” he whispered afterward, terrified she’d be furious and make him leave.

“No, I just love you,” she said, and he pulled her tighter again, and lay glued to her, holding her.

“What’ll we tell the kids?” he asked, worried.

“Just that. That we love each other.” She was calm and happy and felt as though she had come home when he did.

“Do you want me to leave before they wake up?” He wanted to respect her boundaries, whatever they were. He didn’t want to lose her again. It had been the worst six months of his life.

“No, I want to make love to you again,” she whispered back, and he laughed in the dark.

“Thank God I drove home from Tahoe,” he said, and she knew how true that was. She’d been planning to call the lawyer and file for divorce on Monday, and now she was falling in love with him all over again. If he hadn’t driven home, she wouldn’t have slept with him, and this would never have happened. There was no telling about timing, or destiny. No predicting the heartbreaks, or if hearts could be mended. All she knew was that she still loved him. She had her answer. It had taken her six months to figure it out. And now she had.





Chapter 17


Peter moved back in the weekend after New Year’s. The children were ecstatic. Their parents explained it as simply as they could, that they hoped they had worked out their problems and wanted to stay married.

Peter knew that Caroline was giving him another chance, and he was determined not to blow it. His punishment and eternal reminder was that he hated the color of her new bedroom, but he didn’t say a word about it. She loved it. It had been her first act of independence from him. And he found with time that she had changed. She wasn’t as trusting or as quiet. She spoke her mind now, was more confident, and had her own ideas. She no longer apologized for their differences. She was proud of them.

She had called Kate to tell her as soon as he moved back in, and she was happy for her, if it was what she wanted.

“It is. But he’s on probation, probably for the next forty years. I may give him a break for the last ten.”

Kate laughed.

    Caroline told Peter that she was taking the children to London to see Gemma in February during ski week, and if he cheated on her, she would divorce him immediately. He swore he would never cheat on her again. And she sent an email to Gemma that he was back.

Gemma was loving Africa and what they were shooting on location. She had emailed both of her sisters that the cast was fantastic, the smartest, most interesting, best actors she had ever worked with, and the director was amazing. They were going back to London the first week in February, and she was going to L.A. in March for a few days, and wanted to introduce the director to them. She wanted to invite him to the ranch for the weekend.

Caroline called Kate immediately. They had both gotten the same email.

“Do you think she’s sleeping with him?” Kate asked her.

“I hope not. She always moves too fast, and if she screws it up, they’ll throw her off the show.”

“She’s too smart for that,” Kate reassured her.

They were both right. She wasn’t going to jeopardize her career for a romance, or a night of great sex. She hadn’t slept with Rufus, but four weeks after they had arrived in Africa, after working together intensely, he had told her he was in love with her. She was too. And she was refusing to sleep with him. She told him she wanted to move slowly and not do anything stupid that she’d regret. They were inseparable, and had had some remarkable experiences, following the animals, filming episodes for the show, going out at dawn together to revel in the magic of Africa. It had been unforgettable.

He had to go to L.A. in March for some business meetings, and wanted her to go with him, and she wanted him to meet her family. She had never done that before either. Her lovers came and went without introductions, and her sisters read about them in the tabloids, not in emails from Gemma.

    They picked the weekend that worked for Rufus, and Caroline promised to go to Santa Ynez with Peter and the children. Before that, Caroline was going to London for ski week in late February, when they were back from Zimbabwe.

“What if they hate me?” Rufus said to Gemma one night, while they sat on the porch of the hotel, long after everyone else had gone to bed. They had to be up in a few hours, and could hear the elephants trumpeting in the distance. It was the music of Africa which they had both come to love, and was the background sound to their late night conversations, where they talked about everything they cared about and hoped. He couldn’t believe that she wouldn’t sleep with him, and neither could she. She had never done that before, but she wanted it to be different with him, because she was different now.

“They’re not going to hate you, they’re going to love you,” she said about her family. She wanted him to see the ranch because it was part of her history. And meet her sisters, and her mother.

He wanted her to move in with him in London, but she wanted to take her time about that too. She didn’t want to spoil anything by moving too fast.

By the time they left Africa at the beginning of February, they were almost soldered to each other, and knew everything about each other. He could almost sense her instinctually, and he was the most sensitive director she’d ever worked with, and a huge talent, and he thought the same of her.