The Time in Between

by Kristen Ashley

Including the looks department.

  I’d had the most handsome man I’d ever met fall in love with me.

  And he’d done it the way he’d done it.

  And I’d returned that completely.

  You just didn’t recover from that.

  So although I’d obviously seen attractive men since then (and dated a few of them), I’d never seen any that had made me go still.

  Until right then.

  The black-haired man grabbed Janie under her arms and lifted her, to which she let out a squeal of pure delight. He swung her out, then in, and she wrapped her legs around his flat stomach, her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss on the mouth.

  He wrapped one arm around her bottom, one around her back and kept smiling down at her.

  I wasn’t sure because I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I had a feeling my mouth was hanging open.

  And maybe a little drool was coming out.

  Coert and I were totally having a little girl.

  Totally.

  Absolutely.

  “Jesus, what’s in the water around here?” Shannon muttered (loudly, since I heard it and she was at another table).

  “Please don’t think thoughts that will require me asking for a divorce,” Daly teased.

  “Wait until you see Mick.”

  This was said in my ear, and I jerked my eyes away from the man who was now walking toward us, his light-blue eyes aimed at me, and looked at Coert, who was pulling his face out of my hair.

  I caught sight of a pair of familiar hazel eyes that would never fail to dazzle me.

  No.

  Much better.

  Much.

  Still.

  Janie had said Uncle Jake.

  Oh my God.

  That was Coert’s friend Jake.

  “Is Mickey better?” I asked Coert.

  “I don’t know. I’m a guy. But Liz said Mickey was the only man she’d ever leave her husband for. Jake’s a boxer and he owns the local strip club. But Mick, he’s a boxer and he’s a volunteer firefighter.”

  “My,” I breathed.

  “I see dinner is gonna be interesting,” Coert replied.

  I came out of my daze to see Coert grinning at me, not angry or even annoyed at my reaction.

  I got closer to him.

  “You’re the most handsome man I’ve known and slept with,” I shared in a whisper.

  Coert’s shoulders started shaking and his lips also moved. “Well, glad I got that last distinction.”

  A deep rumbling voice came at us. “Coert, man, good to see you.”

  I tipped my head back, back, and back some more and stared into those blue eyes.

  “Daddy! Look! Uncle Jake is here!” Janie cried.

  “I see, cupcake,” Coert murmured, and I felt him shifting to get out of the picnic table.

  “You’re Cady,” Jake told me.

  At that moment, with those eyes on me, I couldn’t confirm that information.

  Fortunately, Jake’s blue eyes didn’t have the same effect on Coert as they did on me.

  “Yeah, bud, this is Cady,” he answered for me.

  Jake shifted Janie to his hip like she was a toddler, not a five-year-old, and held a large hand out to me.

  I lifted mine and put it in his, remembering my brief meeting with his wife and thinking this man was incredibly good looking.

  But he was rough.

  She looked like she’d walk out of the kitchen shop to fold into a limousine and might pass out at the thought of a burger from Tink’s.

  He looked like he’d have not one thing to do with a woman who’d turn her nose up at the deliciousness of Tink’s (Coert had not been wrong, I wasn’t even finished with my burger and I wanted another one).

  At any other time, this would give me pause about the Elijah/Verity situation.

  But at that time, I had to think about it later.

  “Yes, Cady. Um, I’m Cady. Sorry,” I mumbled, feeling his fingers close firm but not tight around mine before he let me go.

  I scrambled out of the picnic table and Jake and Coert moved away to give me room.

  When I got up, Coert’s fingers wrapped around mine.

  This was the decision made at breakfast that morning. We’d been careful about how we were around Janie at Christmas. We’d talked about it Christmas Eve.

  Coert didn’t want her confused later when we started to show more affection for each other but he didn’t want it in her face at first.

  It was a delicate balance.

  Now, he felt the time was right to give her stronger hints.

  Holding hands.

  Pecks of the lips.

  Sitting beside each other at picnic tables.

  “Cady’s giving Daddy and me a whole ’nother family!” Janie declared, and Jake’s head turned to her, my eyes shot to her and I felt Coert come alert at my side. “There’s a lot of them,” she carried on. “There’s Dexter and Corbin over there.”

  She was twisted in Jake’s arm and pointing.

  “They’re sitting with Bea, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Daly. And Elijah.” She looked back to Jake. “He’s new,” she declared authoritatively. She twisted to another table. “And that’s Uncle Mike and Aunt Pam and Ellie and Verity and Riley there.”

  Her hand was bobbing as she pointed from person to person. Each person she pointed to lifted a hand or a chin or sent a smile Jake’s way to indicate who she was referring to.

  “And that’s Uncle Pat and Melanie.” She slapped a hand on Jake’s cheek, something that made his (very wide) chest start shaking as he pulled his full lips in to stop himself from laughing, and she got close to whisper loudly, “She’s my new best friend.” She let him go and kept on, “And Aunt Kath and you met Cady and then there’s Daddy!”

  When she finished, Jake allowed himself to grin at her but the grin changed speculative when his eyes slid to Coert.

  “So things are goin’ well,” he muttered.

  “Yup,” Coert agreed.

  Kath burst out laughing.

  She did a little choking through it when Jake looked at her but recovered enough to say, “Would you like to join us?”

  “Thanks but can’t. My boy’s up from college and he wants his fill of things from home without leavin’ his real home, so I’m pickin’ up some grub and takin’ it back to my family,” Jake answered.

  “Too bad,” Pam murmured.

  Mike shook his head, his gaze searching for sympathy coming to rest on—I could jump for joy—Coert.

  “But hear I’ll see you women at dinner next Sunday?” Jake asked.

  “Oh yes, definitely,” Shannon said.

  “Be there with bells on,” Pam chimed in.

  “Abso-freaking-lutely,” Kath declared.

  “You do know it isn’t ‘what happens in Magdalene stays in Magdalene,’ don’t you?” Pat asked Kath.

  Kath shrugged.

  I giggled.

  Jake looked to me with a grin playing at his mouth.

  I stopped giggling.

  Coert burst out laughing and Jake’s smile got huge again.

  “What’s funny?” Janie asked.

  “I’ll show you a picture of Uncle Jake as he is right now in thirty years and remind you of this moment, cupcake,” Coert replied then reached out and took his daughter, plonking her on his hip in the same manner Jake had handled her.

  Oh yes.

  Definitely having another little girl.

  “But for now, we need to let Uncle Jake get food back to Josie, Con, Amber and Ethan,” Coert finished.

  “Con’s home?” she exclaimed.

  “Sure is, honey,” Jake told her. “Get your dad to bring you over before he goes back to school, yeah?”

  “Yeah!” she agreed.

  “Cady,” Jake dipped his chin to me then looked through the tables, “folks, good to meet you.”

  There were a lot of “you too,” and “enjoy your evening,” and such, but I took a step toward him, getting his attenti
on back.

  “It’s really great to meet you. Really great to meet one of Coert’s good friends.”

  And it was considering this was the first real friend of Coert’s I’d ever met.

  In response he stuck his hand out again and I took it again. But this time, when his fingers closed firm around mine, he kept hold of them.

  “Pleased you’re in Magdalene, Cady. High time I see a good man happy.”

  His eyes held mine and I pressed my lips together and squeezed his hand hard (so he could feel it, in case he was made of steel or something) and nodded.

  “See you soon,” I told him.

  “You bet,” he replied.

  We let go, he clapped Coert on the shoulder, tipped his chin down to the family and moved to the window where you ordered food.

  “Go back to your seat, Janie,” Coert ordered gently, and I looked to them to see he was setting her on her feet.

  “Okay, Daddy,” she agreed easily then skipped around the table.

  Coert let me sit down and then he climbed in and we went back to our food.

  “I’m feeling a shopping trip coming on,” Kath declared. “Is there a Nordstrom around here? You said this place we’re going to for dinner with the Magdalene Welcome Wagon is fancy. I’ve decided I need a new dress.”

  “You. I can handle that she’s half gaga over you,” Pat said bluntly to Coert, leaning into the table to look across me to do it. “You belong to you-know-who so I can handle that because I know she’s half messing with me and the other half I can ignore. Dwayne Johnson’s better-looking partner from his last action movie . . .” he jerked his head toward Jake, “not so much.”

  Coert chuckled.

  I wrapped a hand around his thigh and laughed softly.

  “Can I go shopping with you and Cady, Aunt Kathy?” Janie, sitting between Kath and Melanie across from us, asked.

  Kath glanced at Coert but said to Janie, “I don’t know, honey. We’ll talk to your dad about it later. Okay?”

  “Sure,” she replied, settled in her seat with a wiggle and went back to her burger that was at about mouth level since they didn’t have booster seats at Tinker’s.

  “Can I go, Auntie Kathy?” Melanie asked.

  “We’ll talk about that later too, sweetie,” Kath answered.

  “Just to say, there’s no Nordstrom anywhere near here,” Coert told them.

  “Dire,” Kath muttered. “Well then, time to fire up the Internet. Overnight shipping.”

  “Kill me,” Pat begged.

  More chuckles from Coert (and me) and everyone resumed eating but I said to Janie, “We’ll look at pretty dresses on the computer when we get back to the lighthouse. Does that sound good?”

  “Can we do it in the room up top with all the windows?” she asked excitedly with her mouth full.

  “Chew, baby, and swallow then talk,” Coert murmured low.

  She chewed fast, swallowed too soon and her eyes got big because of it.

  I ignored all that, including the off-the-scales cute factor, thankful the Wi-Fi reached the observation room, and said, “Definitely.”

  “Yay,” she replied and took another bite of burger.

  Coert bumped my leg with his own.

  I resisted resting my head on his shoulder.

  “I’m gettin’ another burger, anyone want anything?” Elijah, who’d been corralled into coming with us by the kids since he’d driven up as we were getting ready to roll out, asked.

  He’d said no at first but he was too soft-hearted. So when Ellie and Melanie started begging, he’d given in but followed us there because he’d had to take a quick shower after work.

  Verity had not been excited about this but she’d kept silent.

  Almost totally.

  Elijah’s offer prompted a cacophony of kids asking parents if they could have more food to which the parents responded and then, for some reason, Elijah looked to Verity.

  “Wanna help me, Verry?” he asked softly.

  “Oh my,” I whispered.

  “Oh boy,” Kath whispered.

  “Hmm,” Coert hummed.

  “Freakin’ great,” Pat muttered dryly.

  “I . . . all right,” Verity told the table then got up from that table and stood still, not moving until she realized Elijah wasn’t moving either because he wanted her to precede him.

  Then she started with a jolt and stared at the floor all the way to the window.

  I leaned immediately into the table and, sotto voce, asked Kath, “When did she become Verry?”

  Kath leaned into the table and told me, “I’ve no idea. That’s the first I heard that.”

  “Do you think he thought on this over Christmas?” I queried.

  Kath’s voice was rising when she repeated, “I’ve no idea.” She quietened herself and went on, “I hope so. He’s so cute and he so, so sweet. I mean, did you see how he caved when Melanie and Ellie were begging him to come? I almost propositioned him for Verity.”

  “You do know you’re talking about my daughter,” Pat declared.

  Kath’s gaze cut to her husband. “I do since I was there when we made her.”

  Coert chuckled again.

  “What are you guys talking about?” Janie asked in a loud hushed voice.

  I put a finger to my lips and took it away, whispering, “Girls’ secret. Right now, we have to keep it very, very quiet. I’ll tell you when we look at dresses on the computer later. Deal?”

  Her eyes grew huge and her head nodded fast and she replied reverently, “Deal.”

  “Can I hear too, Auntie Cady?” Melanie asked.

  “Of course, baby,” I answered.

  Melanie smiled at me.

  I winked at her.

  Coert’s arm came around me from behind, his hand at my opposite hip, pads of his fingers digging in briefly, then it disappeared.

  I guessed that meant he was pleased at how things were going with Janie.

  He wasn’t the only one.

  The world revolved around those eyes.

  His.

  And Janie’s.

  Yes, I wanted a little girl.

  One that looked just like her sister.

  Jake said another farewell as he walked out carrying three stuffed-full bags of food.

  Verity and Elijah came back with two trays piled high with food.

  She was still silent.

  Elijah was shooting glances at her.

  This meant I was shooting glances, or targeted with the same from Kathy.

  We ate.

  We went home.

  And the girls (sans Verity, who headed to the studio since the boys were camped out in front of the TV or the fire on the first floor, the latter including Elijah) headed up to the observation room.

  “So that’s where it’s at,” I declared.

  I was sitting on the bench in the observation room with Janie tucked in my side, my laptop on her legs (precisely, on one of her thighs and on one of Melanie’s, Melanie sitting next to her).

  They were clicking through Nordstrom online like only children born in the computer age could do, in other words, expertly.

  I kept talking.

  “And we have to be really nice to Verity because Elijah is very sweet so she’s chosen well. But he doesn’t want to hurt her and we should help him out with that. He also might like her but not think the time is right. So we just have to be super quiet about it and super supportive to them both and wait and see what happens.”

  “Verity likes everyone,” Bea muttered from where she sat with Ellie on the floor at her feet, her fingers in Ellie’s hair, French braiding it.

  At fourteen, Bea, too, had lived through a variety of Verity’s boyfriends.

  “Bea,” Shannon said warningly.

  “Well she does,” Bea replied. “I’m not being mean. I’m just saying she’s always got some crush on some boy.”

  “That might be true but if you’re paying attention, Elijah’s a little different,” Shannon ret
urned. “And anyway, no matter what a girl’s going through, her girls need to see her through it no matter how they feel about it.”

  “This is very true,” Pam agreed.

  “Elijah is different,” Ellie piped up. “He’s taller than all those other guys. And he’s a man and they were stupid boys. And I like his belly!”

  I grinned at Shannon.

  “So Elijah and Verity are like you and Daddy.”

  I stopped grinning at Shannon, whose eyes I saw grow large before I gave my attention to Janie, who’d spoken.

  I tried not to make it sound strangled, but it sounded mostly strangled when I asked, “Sorry, Janie?”

  She was still focused on the computer. “Elijah and Verity are like you and Daddy before you started making pies and Daddy started buying presents and you and Daddy started holding hands and stuff.”

  I was holding my breath so it was Pam that came to the rescue, asking carefully, “What do you mean by that, Janie?”

  Janie gave a little girl shrug and clicked on a sparkly dress that was way too fancy for The Eaves, and I’d never been to The Eaves, I just knew it was because it might be way too fancy for the Oscars.

  “Back at the ice cream shop, Cady saw Daddy and she got all funny and ran away. And Daddy got all funny when she got all funny, like if he didn’t have me he’da run after her. But after he took me to the station, he did, to make sure Cady was okay. Like what Elijah did when he asked Verity to help him get burgers. He likes her and knows she likes him and the time isn’t right but he wants to make sure she’s okay. But he just likes her because the whole time we were eating burgers, he kept looking at her and you don’t look at someone all the time if you just want to be sure they’re okay. You look at them all the time if you like them. Like Daddy looks at Cady all the time. Except now they both know they like each other.”

  My gaze drifted to Kath who immediately mouthed, “Holy crap.”

  No one, Coert, Janie or I, had brought up the ice cream parlor incident.

  Coert had advised me on Christmas Eve we would handle it should she bring it up but let it lie if she didn’t, because that would indicate she forgot about it or felt he’d dealt with it at the time in a way she had moved beyond.

  Apparently, it was Janie who had dealt with it but in her own way.

  It was just that her way was extraordinary.

  I heard clicking on the laptop and Janie spoke again so I dropped my eyes back to her.