Kane

by Douglas, Cheryl

  “I don’t know how you can forgive him,” he said, his jaw muscle jumping. “But that’s your call, not mine.”

  “You still want me to turn him in, don’t you?”

  “Again, your call, not mine.”

  It didn’t take a psychic to see he was furious at the idea of letting Brendan get away with what he did. “I know he needs help. If he doesn’t get it, he might put himself or someone else in danger again. I don’t want that on my conscience, so I’ve decided to give him an ultimatum.”

  “What kind of ultimatum?” he asked warily.

  “Either he gets the help he needs, in an inpatient facility with professionals who get to decide when and if he leaves, or I’ll turn him into the police.”

  Kane took a deep breath. “If that’s the way you want to handle it.”

  “You don’t approve?” I didn’t want to challenge him, but he was right about this being my decision.

  “He broke the law. For me, there is no gray area. He deserves to go to jail.”

  “But can you support my decision to offer him a choice?” I was almost afraid to ask, but I knew I had to. “Or is that a deal breaker for you?”

  “I’d never try to tell you what to do. That’s not the kind of guy I am.”

  “Good.” When he stared at me, I licked my dry lips. “So, um, where do we go from here?”

  He pulled up the desk chair, turning it around so he could straddle it. He was close enough to touch, but he’d placed a barrier between us in the form of wooden slats. Resting his arms on the backrest, he said, “Maybe you should tell me what you want.”

  “I want what I’ve always wanted—you.” I rested my hand on his forearm. “I know you may not believe this right now, but there was really only one reason I didn’t tell you about what happened with Brendan—fear.”

  “You thought I’d turn him in.” He sighed. “Which is what I’m legally obligated to do. I swore to uphold the law, and I take that promise seriously.”

  “But you’d break the rules for me?” I asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. I had no right to expect anything from him.

  “I’d do just about anything for you. You should know that.” I smiled, but instead of returning it, he looked away. “You said something about fear preventing you from telling me the truth. What were you afraid of?”

  “Losing you.” I didn’t wear vulnerability well, never had, but I had to try it on for size if our relationship had a prayer of working. “We were finally figuring out how we felt about each other, and I was afraid the whole Brendan thing would just drive a wedge between us.”

  He scrubbed his face with his hands, looking weary.

  “Which I guess it has, huh?”

  “You should have come home,” he said, his eyes settling on my suitcases. “That’s where your stuff belongs. Not here.”

  My heart leapt, hoping that was an invitation cloaked in annoyance. “I wasn’t sure I’d be welcome. After the way you left Nashville—”

  “I was an idiot for leaving like that. I cursed myself all the way home.”

  “You had every right to leave. In your position, I probably would have done the same thing.”

  “That’s just it—we can’t do that anymore. If we want to stay married, we have to agree we’re in it for the long haul.”

  I was taken aback by the vehemence in his voice. I half-expected him to demand a blood oath.

  “Does this have something to do with your parents?” I asked softly, instinctively knowing it did.

  “The old man always ran out on her when things got tough. He’d lose his job and drink his sorrows away for days. He’d lose the rent money in a poker game and go on a bender with his buddies, sometimes for days or weeks. We wouldn’t know if he was dead or alive. My brothers and I stopped caring eventually, but Mom didn’t. She never stopped caring about him. Seb, Ryker, and I shared the room right next to hers, and we’d hear her cry herself to sleep without him.”

  “I’m sorry.” I knew nothing could take that painful memory away from him, but I also knew he wasn’t the same man his father was. He hadn’t run away from me. He’d taken the time he needed, hopefully to gain some clarity.

  “I swore I’d never do that, walk out on my wife when she needed me.”

  I wouldn’t let him beat himself up for my mistake. After running my hands through his hair, I closed my palms around his handsome face. “This whole marriage thing is still pretty new to both of us. We’re figuring things out, one day at a time, but we’re bound to make mistakes, right?”

  “I guess so.”

  “I’m willing to bet if you asked Ryker, he’d tell you he and Mac made a bunch of mistakes when they were first married.”

  “I know for sure they did.” He turned his head and kissed my palm before coming away with a slight smile. “So we’re good?”

  “You tell me. I want us to be, but that has to be your call. I was the one who screwed up.”

  “I love you,” he said, leaning over the backrest to kiss me. “If you can forgive me for bailing on you, I can forgive you for not telling me about Brendan.”

  “Done.”

  Our kiss turned passionate, making a little moan escape my throat. I tried to draw him forward, nearly tipping the chair over.

  He chuckled, grabbing my shoulders. “Let’s get your stuff and get the hell out of here. We have a big old bed waiting on us at home.”

  I curled my arms around his neck, standing on my toes when he pulled me to my feet. “Home. I like the sound of that.”

  “I realized something last night, when you weren’t there.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?” I asked, peppering his scruffy jaw with kisses.

  “That house isn’t a home anymore without you.”

  “Awww, I think that might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  He rolled his eyes before smacking my behind. “Let’s get you home, Mrs. Steele. I’ve got big plans for us tonight.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Kane

  “They look so happy, don’t they?” Macy asked, smiling as the bride and groom danced past us.

  After months of meticulous planning, Riley and Brody were finally husband and wife.

  “If you ask me, they should have done what we did and tied the knot in Vegas, without all the chaos.”

  “The wedding was beautiful,” Macy said wistfully. “Everything my sister has been dreaming about since she was a little girl.”

  “Hey,” I said, tightening my grip on her waist. “We can always renew our vows in front of family and friends, if that’s what you want?” If the past months had taught me anything, it was that I would do anything to make this lady happy.

  “No,” she said, smiling at me. “I don’t need all that. I’m just glad Riley got it. It was important to her. I think she needed everyone to see Brody promise her forever before she’d let herself believe it. After everything they went through, I really can’t blame her, can you?”

  “Brody may have been a little slow on the uptake, but there’s never been a doubt in my mind those two would end up together. Brody’s lost without her. Nothing in his life made sense with her gone.”

  Macy’s face lit up when her favorite Luke Bryan song began, and she pulled me closer. “That makes two of us, because nothing in my life makes sense without you either.”

  I loved her for saying that, but I knew Macy would be just fine without me. That was why I thanked God every night that she’d decided to take a chance on me.

  “Jaci’s practically glowing, isn’t she?”

  “I’m just glad she made it through the ceremony without popping that baby out.”

  Macy laughed, slapping my chest. “The night is still young. You never know what might happen.”

  I groaned, dropping my head. “I’ve seen way too many babies born to women who couldn’t get to the hospital on time and ended up delivering on the side of the freeway. I don’t need to see that again.”

  The
sparkle in her eyes dimmed as her grip on me loosened. “You’re not anxious to see another baby being born?”

  I had no idea what I’d said or done to warrant the sudden shift in her mood, but it had been happening more often lately. I needed to call her on it when we were alone. “I’m sure we’ll be at the hospital when Jaci delivers, but it’s not like we’ll be in the room with them.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I don’t think you asked one.” What the hell was she getting so bent out of shape about?

  “I asked whether you’re anxious to see another baby being born.”

  Staring into her eyes, the bells finally started ringing in my head. But I watched her take that little pill every night. I knew she wasn’t ready yet, but as soon as she was, I’d be all over her. Not that I wasn’t already. “The next time I see a baby being born, I’m hoping it’ll be ours.”

  “In that case…” She dipped her head before lifting her watery eyes. “Don’t make any plans for… about seven and a half months from now.”

  My jaw dropped, and she giggled, letting her head rest against my chest. “Are you serious?”

  “The doctor confirmed it two days ago.”

  “Then why are you just telling me this now?” Of all the inopportune moments to learn I was going to be a father, she had to tell me right before I had to deliver a speech.

  “I was planning to wait until after the wedding, but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve been a nervous wreck worrying about how you’d react.”

  I finally realized she probably still hadn’t gotten the reaction she’d been hoping for. “Mace, you’ve already given me everything I ever wanted. A baby is the icing on the cake.” I kissed her as though no one else was watching. I would have picked her up and twirled her around if I hadn’t been concerned about stealing the spotlight from the happy couple.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, her cheeks flushed when we finally broke apart. “I know we never talked about when we’d start trying, and I didn’t make this decision by myself, I swear. I just forgot to refill my prescription and ran out of pills. I doubled up the next day, but—”

  “Doesn’t matter how it happened,” I said, touching her cheek. “The only thing that matters is you’re carrying my baby.”

  “I’m scared,” she whispered. “I’ve never been very good at being the responsible one. What if I mess up our kid?”

  I chuckled before kissing her temple. “Fortunately for you, I wear responsibility like a Kevlar vest, or so I’ve been told. You can be the fun, spontaneous one who lets them have ice cream for breakfast, and I’ll be the bad guy who cracks the whip when it’s time to do homework.”

  “Oh, thank God,” she said, sinking into me. “Ice cream for breakfast I can handle.”

  I was still laughing when the MC called me to the stage to deliver my best man’s speech. I had a heartfelt speech all ready—I’d even memorized it—but after Macy’s news, it didn’t feel right anymore. I wasn’t the same man I’d been a few minutes earlier. I was going to be someone’s daddy, and I wanted to talk about love and gratitude and the future, not trials, heartache, and the past.

  I stared into my brother’s eyes when I reached the podium. I watched him lean in to kiss his wife’s cheek, and I finally understood what our mother had been talking about the last few weeks before she died. She’d told us love was the only thing that mattered, and she was right.

  Keeping the folded piece of paper in my pocket, I reached for the glass of champagne Ryker handed me. A hush fell over the large crowd.

  “I was just thinking about how proud Mom would be of the man you’ve become,” I said to Brody. “The only thing that mattered to her was that we find women who loved us every bit as much as she did, who accepted us, faults and all, and you’ve found that in Riley.”

  I smiled when my sister-in-law reached for a tissue and dabbed at her eyes, shaking a finger at me, no doubt warning me not to mess up her make-up. “I knew you guys had something special, even when you were teenagers who were supposedly too young to know what love was; anyone could see you two had found the real deal.”

  I swallowed, thinking back to how wild and stupid Brody had been, almost losing the only thing that ever meant anything to him. “You guys didn’t have an easy road to get here, but maybe you weren’t supposed to. Maybe you were faced with all those challenges to test your relationship. Now you know there’s nothing that can tear you apart.”

  I glanced at my wife, who was now sitting beside her sister, a hand on Riley’s shoulder and her eyes locked on mine. We hadn’t faced as many trials as Riley and Brody had, but I liked to think I’d been a man when I fell in love with Macy. My brother had been a boy when fate helped him find Riley.

  “You had a lot of growing up to do,” I said to Brody. “Riley understood that and gave you the freedom to become the man you chose to be, even when that meant setting you free to figure that out on your own.” I smiled at Riley. “I know that wasn’t easy for you. But it was the smartest decision you could have made. He came back ready to be the man you deserved, ready to commit to you for the rest of your lives.”

  I looked at my father, who was sitting at a table bordering the dance floor and holding his wife’s hand. “And I have no doubt he’ll be by your side every day for the rest of your lives, Riley. For the simple reason there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.”

  She smiled as she curled her hand around Brody’s neck and brought him in for a kiss.

  “You two have turned a cynic like me into a believer.” My eyes drifted to my wife. “I now know that what you have is possible for the rest of us, so thank you for that.”

  Riley curled her hand around Macy’s.

  “Please raise your glasses and join me in toasting the happy couple,” I said, raising my glass. “To the worst being behind you, the best being before you, and the rest being fodder for some great memories.” To the guests, I said, “To Riley and Brody.”

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