CHAPTER 16

 

“Let me get this straight,” Cate planted her hands on her hips. “It’s all over the internet that Kian and I have allegedly made a sex tape and you want me to go on national TV on Saturday night and dance to “Sex Bomb” by Tom Jones. Are you seriously out of your freaking mind?”

Cate hadn’t spoken to Ruby since she’d found out that it was her and Nico on the tape. When Nico had called back, he’d said that Ruby was too upset to come to the phone.

She couldn’t believe that Declan, the producers or whoever had picked that song thought that it was a joke? It didn’t matter if it was Cate or Ruby on that tape. They weren’t fame-hungry starlets who’d knowingly filmed themselves having sex and then oops, accidentally released it hoping to get more publicity. Somebody had secretly filmed Ruby at her most intimate and was now threatening to reveal the footage to everybody who had an internet connection. How would they feel if it was their wives, their sisters, their daughters who had been violated like that?

Cate slung her dance bag over her shoulder. “Wait! Where are you going?” Declan asked.

“I will quit the competition,” Cate hissed, “before I dance to that song. You can either give me a call when you’ve got a different song or…” She looked around at the studio, “I guess this is goodbye.”

“I think I’ve just quit Stepping Out,” Cate said to Kian as she drove home from the gym.

When she got home, Sierra was having a nap and Nate was just about to feed Mateo his lunch. “I can do that,” Cate insisted. “Why don’t you take the afternoon off? I know you’ve got that big competition coming up.”

“Hey, little man,” Cate put the plate down in front of her son. “What have you been doing today?”

Mateo looked behind Cate, “where’s Daddy?”

“He’s at work, sweetheart.” She tried to engage Mateo in conversation while he finished his lunch but he was definitely punishing her for being away so much with Stepping Out.

Mateo had finished his lunch and Cate was loading up the dishwasher when Sierra woke up from her nap. “Come on,” she reached for Mateo’s hand, “let’s go and see your sister.”

“Mama, can I have a brother next?” Mateo asked as they walked up the stairs.

Cate side-stepped his question; she wasn’t ready to explain to her young son that he wouldn’t be having any more brothers or sisters. She hadn’t fully accepted it herself. “Sisters are fun too.”

At least Sierra was happy to see Cate; she giggled and excitedly waved her arms and legs. “Oh dear,” Cate sniffed as she picked her up. “Somebody needs their nappy changed.”

“Mats, can you go and fetch your shoes and coat. I thought we could go for a walk before we pick Lola up from school.” She hoped that she could score some much-needed points with her young son by taking him down to the front to watch the ferryboats.

“Mama,” Mateo tugged Cate towards the metal railings. “What’s that?”

Large strands of dark red, orange and purple with bulb-shaped ends and orange “hair” had washed up on the shores. Cate knelt down next to her young son and pulled out her phone. “I think it’s something called bull kelp, sweetheart. It’s the fastest growing seaweed species on Earth and can grow up to two hundred feet in length.” Mateo’s eyes widened. “When there’s lots of bull kelp together, it provides shelter for birds, otters, fish and lots of other animals in the sound. It can also help to stop the beach from being washed away.”

“Can we take a photo of them?” Mateo asked.

“Of course,” Cate laughed. She took several photos and then showed them to her son, “what do you think about those? Are they OK?”

“If you like the water, young man,” an older man with a coarse black beard stopped behind them. “We could always use more volunteers on our marine clean-up team.”

He explained that litter and things like plastic and Styrofoam hurt thousands of animals every year. “Isn’t he a little young?” Cate asked. She didn’t want to get her little boy’s hopes up.

“As long as he has an adult with him, he’ll be fine. Our clean-ups are open to everyone. We provide everything you’ll need – trash bags, grabbers and gloves and we’ll help you get rid of the litter when you’ve finished.”

“When’s your next clean-up?” Cate asked. She was excited that it was something she and Mateo could do together. The man must have suddenly recognised her from Stepping Out because he frowned, “there is one requirement though; you have to be willing to get dirty. It’s not a place for fancy clothes and false nails.”

Cate faked a smile. She very much looked forward to proving the condescending jerk wrong. “That sounds perfect. We’ll be there.”

As they walked back home, Mateo asked, “will Daddy or Uncle Nate come with me to clean up the beach?”

“I thought I could come with you,” Cate said. “If that’s OK? It sounds really fun.”

In the afternoon, Lola had a soccer match after school so Cate, Mateo and Sierra cheered her on from the bleachers. “Offside,” one of the other parents several rows in front of them shouted.

“Mama,” Mateo tugged on Cate’s sleeve, “what’s offside?”

“Good luck explaining that,” one of the dads a little further along the bleachers chuckled.

Cate rolled her eyes. She’d been married to a professional footballer for nearly ten years. She lifted Mateo up on to her knee. “You see that little girl with the red shirt and the braids in her hair?” Mateo nodded. “She was offside because she was closer to the goal than both the ball and the second last opponent, which was the little girl in the blue shirt with the blonde ponytail.”

“Ah, the offside rule,” Kian put his hand on Cate’s shoulder. “Hey, angel.”

“Hi,” Cate grinned. “I didn’t know you were coming to the game today?”

Kian shrugged, “I try and get to as many of Lola’s matches as I can. Traffic was a nightmare.”

After the match – Lola’s team won 4-1 – Kian suggested they go to the Taco Shack to celebrate. As they walked across the playing field to where their cars were parked, a man jumped out in front of them and started taking photos. Cate quickly looked around; the other parents had stopped and were staring at them. “Kian?”

“Keep walking,” Kian gritted his teeth. He shrugged off his jacket and draped it over the pushchair so the bright flashes wouldn’t frighten Sierra.

“Mum, I don’t like it,” Lola whimpered.

“It’s OK, sweetheart,” Cate murmured, tucking her daughter into her side. “We’re almost at the car, we’ll be safe there.”

Kian’s Range Rover had blacked-out windows so Cate urged the children to go with their dad. She would meet them back at the house.

“Drive safe,” she mouthed to Kian before she climbed into her own empty car.

It was the first time they’d had press intrusion like that since they’d moved to Seattle when Cate was five months pregnant with Sierra. It was one of the things she loved most about Seattle; that they could finally be just like any other normal family. Had the “alleged” sex tape put all of that in jeopardy?

When she got back to the house which was fortunately in a gated community and so free from paparazzi, Kian and the children were waiting for her by the front door. “Why aren’t you inside?”

“We’re going to the Taco Shack?” Mateo clapped his hands excitedly.

Cate looked at Kian, “we can’t. What about the paparazzi?”

Kian frowned. “I’m not going to let them dictate our lives, angel. I promised the children that we could go to the Taco Shack tonight so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Cate still didn’t look convinced. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll talk to Heidi. She’ll make sure that nobody disturbs us.” Heidi was the manager of the Taco Shack and one of their friends.

Heidi gave them a private booth towards the back of the Shack and Cate felt like she could relax a little. “Do you want your usual, little man?” Heidi ruffled Mateo’s hair.

“He’ll have the veggie tacos,” Kian said.

Cate raised her eyebrows, “but he always has the fish?”

Lola rolled her eyes at her brother, “yeah until last week when he suddenly realised where the fish in his tacos actually come from.”

As they walked back along the front, Cate sighed, “I can’t remember the last time we did something as simple as went out for dinner as a family. It’s so nice to be out of the Stepping Out bubble.”

“Have you heard from Declan at all?” Kian asked.

Cate shook her head. “I assume I’ll get a call from the producers at some point. I’m sure they’ll be furious with me for quitting. Have you heard from Nico?”

Kian nodded, “they want us to put out a statement saying that it isn’t us on the tape.”

Cate shook her head, “I’m not going to throw my sister under a bus, Kian. This could destroy her whole career. She’s worked too hard.”

“It’s what Ruby wants; Nico was very definite about that.” He gestured to Lola and Mateo who were walking a couple of steps ahead of them. “We’ve got a lot to protect too. Once whoever’s got the tape realises that it isn’t professional footballer Kian Warner and his wife, Stepping Out contestant Cate Warner on that tape, they might just hand it over?”