Читать книгу Back to You - Lauren Dane - Страница 10

CHAPTER FOUR

KENSEY, SINGING AT the top of her lungs “Me and Bobby McGee”—the kid had taste—came downstairs and when she caught sight of Stacey, she stopped singing to shriek Stacey’s name as she launched herself at their visitor.

Stacey, laughing, hugged Kensey tight, kissing each cheek before putting her back down. “Good to see you, peaches.”

“Did you hear that Maddie’s appendix got bursted? She got surgery and Daddy promised her a new bike. But then she made him promise to get me one, too. Which I thought was pretty nice of her to share.”

Stacey’s gaze met Kelly’s for a brief moment. Amusement lit her eyes.

By the time Kelly slid a plate of eggs and toast to Kensey, Vaughan had arrived, also bringing coffee, along with a box of doughnuts.

He came up short at the sight of Stacey at the island, seated next to Kensey.

“Morning, Kelly.” He turned to Stacey and lifted a hand in greeting. “Stacey.”

At first it had been weird, becoming such close friends with the attorney who handled her divorce. But it had been years since then and it wasn’t so odd anymore.

Vaughan bent to hug Kensey, who grinned at her dad. “Auntie Stacey came over to have potato salad sandwiches for breakfast. She’s been in Manhattan at our other house. I told her she could have my room but she likes Mom’s room best.”

“Her bed is bigger. My feet hang off the end of your bed.” Stacey stood, clearing away some dishes as she did. “I do wear your clothes when I’m there, though, baby.” She winked.

Kensey put her hands over her mouth and laughed.

“Have you eaten? The fridge is full of stuff left over from yesterday but I can scramble you a few eggs if you’d rather,” Kelly asked him.

His wariness eased away as his smile deepened, took root and made her slightly dizzy. “I’m going to have a doughnut with some coffee and see where I go from there. My parents went home last night but they called me twenty minutes ago and said they were leaving the ranch.”

“They’re welcome here after we handle Maddie’s discharge.” Hopefully for a short period of time. Maddie would need rest and quiet, not a house full of her relatives.

“Much appreciated. I figure everyone can come by here, see that Maddie is safely tucked in and happy and then they’ll all go. I asked my brothers to stay home today. They’d like to visit her this week sometime, but I’ll coordinate that with you first.”

Kelly eyed him carefully. That was pretty thoughtful of him, and of them. “Of course. She loves to see her uncles, you know that. She can’t stop talking about Mary and Damien’s baby and how they’ll have a new cousin to play with.”

Kensey cleared her dishes and danced past her parents. About 70 percent of the time, their youngest child didn’t bother to walk or skip or run to get around; she pranced and leaped; she shimmied and pirouetted. Kensey had been a dancer even before she could walk. “Auntie Stacey, will you fix my hair?”

Stacey nodded. “Yes, that would be awesome.” Hand in hand, the two headed back upstairs, leaving Vaughan and Kelly alone.

* * *

“HOW DO YOU want to do this?” Vaughan asked her. “I’d like it if it could be just you and me at the hospital. Okay?”

“No Sharon and Michael?”

He shook his head. “No Ross, either.”

She gave him a look, suspicion at the edges. “Why?”

“I want to be a little selfish, okay? I want to be the one who carries her in from the car. The one to bring her to her bed so you can tuck her in.” He paused. “Please?” Vaughan knew Ross spent more time with his daughters than he did. But he’d decided the night before to end that. To not only win his family back, but to deserve them, too.

Kelly blew out a breath. “All right. It’s a fair request. As long as it’s just you and I.”

Licking his lips, Vaughan searched for the right words. “I’m sorry about a lot of things. I wasn’t specific yesterday and I can’t really be right now. But I’m working on it. I made so many mistakes. I promise you my mother will behave. But she’ll do it from here. They already promised they wouldn’t stay a long time. They appreciate your being so welcoming to them.”

The rift between his mother and the mother of his children had come from him. It had grown to epic proportions and then settled into painfully precise civility.

He hated knowing Kelly had to be wary of an attack from his mother. Sharon Hurley wanted to protect her family so she’d reacted defensively from the start.

She’d never given Kelly a chance, and their split had only made things worse.

Kelly shook her head. “I don’t want to go into that right now. I have enough to manage at the moment.”

“Fair enough.” Vaughan finished the second doughnut and dusted the sugar from his hands. “One more thing. I know it’s going to take a week to two weeks for Maddie to recover totally. I’d like to be around as she recuperates. I want to be with them both more. I’ve missed a lot. I don’t want to... I’m here and this is what dads should be for. I’ll stay in my place in Portland and commute here. Help with school and stuff. I know you work at your store while the girls are in school so I can be here while you do that. I want, very much, to be a better, more involved father. I want them both to count on me to make things better.”

He wanted her to have that, too.

Vaughan took in the way the sun hit her back, the gold in her hair gleaming in the light. She wore it up in a ponytail. Not wearing much makeup, she was casual in jeans and a bright blue shirt and sandals. And yet she made it elegant. Something about her always made him think about expensive champagne. She seemed to sizzle on his tongue and then wisp away.

He knew she smelled of the same perfume she’d worn since he met her. Chanel No. 5.

Their daughters had her tall, blonde looks. Blue eyes, though closer to the green of Vaughan’s than their mother’s deep ocean blue. They had the same grace Kelly carried herself with.

Kelly spoke again, catching his attention. “Maddie would really love that. Both girls would love having you around more. But your condo is nearly as far away—given traffic—as your place at the ranch is.” She twisted her ring a moment. “If you really want to do this, I have a guest room with a bathroom attached. You can stay there for the next few weeks.”

“Really?” Being here would put him close to them. He wouldn’t go to bed every night in another place, hoping for a phone call to update him. He’d be there for them. All three of them. He could help and get to know Kelly all over again and hopefully prove that he’d changed while he was at it.

“Yeah, of course.” She nodded.

“That would be great. Thank you so much. Really. This means a lot.”

He hugged her and stepped back after he sniffed her hair.

“I can cook fairly well so I can help with breakfast, too.”

“Baby steps, Vaughan. Let’s just go bit by bit.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

She cocked her head and looked him over. “Depends on the issue.”

He frowned. He wanted to argue, but he couldn’t. He had no ground to stand on because he had failed her. He’d have to prove himself.

“Fair enough.”

* * *

“WELL, LOOKS LIKE I’ve missed some stuff,” Ross said as he came into the kitchen. His tone had a lot of anger and tension in it, which meant what? That he was mad about Vaughan in general or that he’d eavesdropped?

“Good morning to you, too. What stuff?”

“You have a new lodger, I see.” Ross gave a jerk of his head, indicating Vaughan.

This was a sort of angry she hadn’t seen in Ross before. Terse. Clearly agitated. It wasn’t as if he’d walked in on them doing anything untoward at all.

“We do. Vaughan is going to stay in the guest room while Maddie recovers.” Kelly decided to just ignore his snit and move on.

Everyone shifted, uncomfortable, and Kelly stood there, staring at them both. Her life used to be a lot more simple.

“Is there a problem?” Vaughan asked Ross.

Kelly hit her enough point. “Why are you asking him? This is my house.”

Both men looked to her, surprised. As if they were shocked she had an opinion about something happening in her own damned kitchen.

Kensey and Stacey came downstairs before anything else broke out.

Kelly dried her hands. “I’m going upstairs to finish getting ready. We can ride to the hospital together, Vaughan.” She bent to kiss Kensey, who had already caught sight of her dad and headed his way.

Ross followed her up the stairs and into her room. Ross was nearly perfect, but his anger tended to be passive-aggressive and she realized she had no energy to play along. This was extra annoying and she wasn’t interested. If he wanted to say something he needed to do it without some big pouty game.

He sighed dramatically a few times but she pretended he was one of the girls and ignored it while she changed into a nicer shirt.

Ruthlessly, she only allowed herself enough time at the mirror to make sure the ponytail she’d redone was neat.

Finally, Ross met her as she came back into the bedroom from her closet. “He’s here too much.”

“Vaughan? The guy whose kid is in the hospital?”

“He doesn’t give a shit about them. He wants to use them to get close to you. They’re tools to him.” It was such a hateful, wrong thing to say she physically took a step back. Ross noted her reaction and sighed, agitation in the sound.

“That sort of thing demeans you, me and Vaughan, too. Whatever his faults, he absolutely does care about them. He’s supposed to be here when they need him, and the things you just said really piss me off.”

“You didn’t even ask me if he could stay here.”

“Uh. No, I didn’t. Mainly because I didn’t know about it until this morning. He told me he was going to stay in Portland while Maddie was healing up and that he wanted to be helpful with the girls. Am I supposed to say no? That’s a haul for him. I have a big house. His children live here. It made sense to offer.” And she didn’t need to run it by him! He hung out with his ex and her family all the time.

“I’m uncomfortable with him being here.”

Kelly didn’t want him uncomfortable. Or upset or sad or any of that. “Why?” She sat on the edge of the bed.

“He’s your ex-husband.”

“You sleep at your ex-wife’s house at least four times a year. You hang out with her and her family every weekend.”

“That’s different.”

“Why is that?” She hated to keep asking why, but she just wasn’t getting his deal when he did the same thing.

“My kids are there!”

“And mine are here.”

“I don’t want him staying here. And you do.” He said it like he’d never imagined such a thing.

“Well, we aren’t going to agree on everything.” She needed to break the engagement. She should say it right then. It wasn’t fair to either of them. But she had enough drama right then. She just wanted to get her kid home from the hospital. And as annoyed as she was, there was no call to be hurtful. When she broke it off it didn’t need to happen in a house where Vaughan was.

“If you let him stay here we can’t be together. It’s me or him.” Ross couldn’t have known it, but he’d tossed the ultimatum out in a way nearly identical to Vaughan, when he’d tossed out his go ahead and divorce me then if you’re so unhappy eight years ago.

Well, that just made her mad all over again. “You had your ex-wife stay at your house for three weeks when she got a nose job. And she has family in town. I never said a single thing about that.” Though, boy, she’d wanted to a few times. His ex-wife was one of those superhelpless types. He was constantly fixing things at her house. If her internet went down she called him about it. For three weeks she’d camped in Ross’s bedroom while Ross slept in the guest room and paid for daytime help when for heaven’s sake she’d had a nose job, not a liver transplant.

But this was the mother of his children, and Kelly had trusted him to make the choices he thought were best for his kids. And he wasn’t doing that for her.

“That was different. She needed me. He doesn’t need you. You don’t need him. You and the girls are better off without him and his influence anyway.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Influence?” Kelly asked.

“He’s not good for the girls. They need to spend less time with him, not more. Inviting him into your home doesn’t fit those goals.”

“Whose goals are those?”

“Naturally, when we marry, I’ll adopt the girls. Once he can’t have you anymore he’ll lose interest anyway.”

Kelly went very cold. “You know my story and you’d actually suggest I hold my children away from their dad? Are you kidding me?”

“I’ll be their father. That’s for the best. Can’t you see that? I’ll take Kensey for the day and you can tell him he can’t stay here when he goes to the hospital with you. I’m not like your father. I’ll take care of them. I’ll protect them from harm. He will only bring pain.”

She tried to find words but ended up looking like a goldfish as she kept opening and closing her mouth. “You can’t possibly be serious. Where is all this coming from?” It was absurd.

“Don’t you think I can see how he watches you? He lives the kind of life that’s wrong for you. He cheated on you. He doesn’t value you.”

She blew out a breath, trying to find patience but she was nearing the end of her rope. “Ross, I didn’t know you felt this way.”

“Well, you do now. I’m sorry I have to insist, but that’s how it is. I’ll tell him if you feel uncomfortable doing it.” He crossed his arms over his chest as if the matter was settled.

“That’s not going to happen. You’re going to get hold of yourself and realize you’re being ridiculous and saying things you don’t mean. Saying things you can’t take back,” she added. “I invited him to stay and I’m not rescinding that invitation. It would be rude. It’d give the girls a bad message. I want him to be an involved father. The girls love him. He loves them. End of story. Imagine yourself in his place. If one of your children had been in the hospital. You’d never leave their side. Which is how it’s supposed to work. Show some empathy.”

“I don’t want him here. He’s trying to take my place. If I can’t be around during this time, he’ll get all the time with Maddie. Building trust with her. I could be doing that. Experiences like that are important in creating long-term bonds in blended families.”

“I don’t think I can marry you.” In her head, it had sounded like a panicked blurted wail. Surprisingly, her voice remained calm. Once she said the words she had to fight the overwhelming urge to fall face-first on the bed with relief.

“What?” Ross paused, surprise on his handsome features.

“You’ll make someone a good husband, but I’m not for you. You’re not for me. Not in a let’s-get-married-and-merge-our-lives way.”

“I don’t understand,” he said.

“You demanded that I choose you or Vaughan. This doesn’t have anything to do with him. I’m choosing me and my children.”

“You don’t mean that. We’re good together.” Ross still didn’t get it.

Honestly, she wanted to go to the hospital, pick Maddie up and grab Kensey, running away from everyone who wanted to make all her choices.

It wasn’t that they’d been bad together. Just two days before he’d been lovely to her by showing up at the hospital. Only now she realized it was some sort of territory marking with Vaughan.

“I think we were good together, too. But not in a forever way. I’m not going to make you happy. This is going to come up over and over in our marriage. You’re not going to adopt them! They have parents and neither of us would sign away our rights to Maddie and Kensey like that. I’m frankly really disgusted that you’d ever think I’d want such a thing. Or that you’d want it. What would it do to my children to have their father sign them away as if they were property?”

She pulled off the beautiful engagement ring he’d given her three months before and put it in his palm.

“I’d have treated you like a queen. He’s going to hurt you again. That’s what men like him do. And then what will happen to your children? I hope to God they don’t take after their mother when it comes to picking losers to love.”

She knew he was hurt and striking out, but she’d had enough.

“You need to leave now before either of us says anything more. I’ll go through everything over the next two days and whatever is here I’ll bring to your house. I wish you the best and I hope after a while that we can remain friends.”

She led the way to the door, opening it and heading downstairs. She wanted him out of her house before he came out of his stupor and decided to make a scene.

Laughter came from the family room where Stacey and Kensey were playing Go Fish for probably the nineteenth time. Kelly unlocked the door to the garage and then opened the bay, letting the door to the house close behind them.

“Here.” Kelly pulled the keys to his house—for emergencies as she still always knocked when she came over to visit him—from her key ring and handed them his way. “It’s easier for you to give mine back, too. Since we’re already here and all.”

She stared at him until he handed her keys over. Near the open door to the driveway, Kelly spotted the air pump she’d borrowed for the basketball and handed it over, stepping into the open of the driveway. “This is yours.”

“You can’t just dump me like this.” He kept his voice low and Kelly wanted to keep it that way.

“I’m not dumping you. I’m ending our engagement. You clearly have some major issues with things that I’m not willing to change. You and me, that’s one thing. But this is way more than that. This is something we can’t get past and so we’ll only keep hurting one another, and that’s not what marriage should be.” It was as if someone else had taken control of her speech center. As angry and upset as she was, her daughter was inside and she couldn’t allow it to spill over into their lives.

“When you come to your senses you know where to find me. I’m sorry if I was overzealous. But I feel quite strongly. We’re all better off without Vaughan Hurley in our lives.”

“Please. Leave. I can’t believe I have to tell you this, but I won’t ever choose anyone over Madeline and Kensey. You’d expect me to put their needs and emotional well-being behind your feelings? That’s not how it works.”

Ross started to speak again but shook his head, turned and stalked to his car. She went back into the garage once he’d driven away and headed into the house.