Back to You

by Lauren Dane

  His father’s face darkened. “Do not speak to your mother in that tone or I will make sure it never happens again.”

  Vaughan sighed. “I apologize. I’m not going out of my way to be disrespectful. I’m trying to make this a place I can bring my family. And right now I can’t.”

  “Which is your own fault,” his father said.

  “Most of it, yes. And it doesn’t even matter because the damage has been done and I’m here asking you if you can make an effort to be kind to Kelly so I can bring her back and make her a part of this life, too.”

  “You made me into the shrewish mother-in-law.” His mom shook her head slowly. “She was the first and maybe I didn’t react well.” She snorted. “No ‘maybe’ about it. I was defensive and I jumped to conclusions and then when you split it let me project all that at her instead of you. You were a terrible husband, Vaughan. Which means that I was a terrible mother.”

  “What?” This was why he’d avoided this topic for so long. He was making everyone upset now. “This isn’t about you being a terrible mother. I’m not saying that. I never would say that. You’re a great mother. But you misjudged her and I let it go on and now that has made a big problem.”

  “She hates us.”

  “The thing is, Mom, I don’t think so at all. She wants to belong. I can’t do it all, though. Damien, Paddy and Ezra are trying, which is great. But I really need you and Dad to open the ranch and your hearts to her the way you have everyone else. I know it won’t be instant, but it needs to happen or I can’t be here. Do you understand?”

  “She’d make you choose?”

  “I’m choosing. Me. I’m trying to be a better husband. If you make me choose between Kelly and this family, I’ll choose Kelly and the girls. I don’t want to. I love you. I love this place. I want to raise my kids on this land and with their cousins. But I can’t if my wife is treated differently. Especially over something she never did.”

  “You don’t have to choose. We were wrong. We know that. But a lot of things have happened over the years. It’s not going to be immediate, or easy,” his mother said. “Damn it, boy. You know how much I hate being wrong.”

  Vaughan wisely did not smile. She hated having to eat crow and she was going to. He’d have to deal with a payment for it, he knew.

  But right then she was saying everything he could have hoped for. “It won’t be easy, no. But she wants it. Just give her a chance.”

  “Why don’t the four of you come over for dinner the night of Tuesday’s gallery launch? As a first step it’s not too big, but it’s a first step.”

  There was hope in his heart. Like this could actually be resolved and get better. “I’ll talk to her. Be sure it works with the schedule, but I think it’s doable. Thanks, Mom.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. Just a reminder that I’m going to have to apologize. You know I hate that part.” She glared at him.

  “Yeah, me too, Mom, me too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  KELLY HAD LOVED New York City from the first. She’d been young, but not naive. By that point in her life she’d lived in three countries and several states so it hadn’t been as daunting as it might have been for someone else.

  It was all color and noise. Smells of the very best on earth and their polar opposite. The subway gave her freedom and she’d taken it. Taken it to escape Rebecca’s constant scrutiny and judgment as Kelly had wandered all over.

  And she’d loved this condo from the moment she and Vaughan had stepped from the elevator into the foyer. Walls of windows looked out over Central Park. A silly extravagance it had felt at the time. Certainly an extravagance given its cost. But he’d given it to her as a wedding present.

  And during the divorce, he’d signed it over to her. At the time it had felt more like a repudiation of what they’d had together, but now, years later, she could see it differently.

  Maddie and Kensey had learned to walk and crawl on the hardwood floors. Despite her sadness at her divorce, this home had always given her happy memories.

  She waved at the doorman as they entered the lobby.

  “Hello there, Hurley family!”

  “Andrew, how are you tonight?” Kelly asked as she waited for him to check the box where she may have mail or packages. And she had both.

  Vaughan took them.

  “Andrew, this is Vaughan. He’s Maddie and Kensey’s dad. He’ll be with us this week. Vaughan, this is Andrew. He’s amazing and knows where all the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants are in the city. If you’re nice to him, he shares his wisdom.”

  Andrew blushed after Vaughan shook his hand hello. “Ah now, Ms. Hurley. Stop. Always glad to have you and your girls in the house. All that pretty makes everyone a little kinder.” He winked at Kensey, who gave him a high five.

  They headed up, Vaughan smiling, making her wonder just what he was up to.

  Once the doors opened and they stepped into the front entry, Vaughan sucked in a breath and walked into the main living space.

  “You’ve really made this place into a showcase,” he said.

  “It’s a comfortable house with a spectacular view in a fantastic neighborhood. I can’t complain in any way.” She didn’t thank him, because she’d long since given him credit for it. Sure his money bought it, but after that, he wandered off and did his own thing. This was her home. Ridiculously luxurious or not.

  But she liked him in it.

  It had always felt as if he needed to be there. And as she put her things down and the girls headed to their room, Kelly watched Vaughan move around in the space.

  “Come on up to the bedroom. I’ll give you some space in the dresser and closet.”

  He took her hand and grabbed the overnight bag she’d carried upstairs. “Oh, so you’ll share with me here? I must be a pretty fantastic lay for you to share your closet space,” he said in an undertone.

  “You do all right.” She winked.

  They went up as she called out to Kensey and Maddie to change into pajamas.

  “They make this trip often enough they have it down.” Kelly pushed open the double doors leading to the master suite. A room she often escaped to at the end of long workdays.

  “Wow. This is magazine worthy.”

  “I did a campaign for Sensei Ross. He included design services in my payment. This was all him and his partner.”

  The room was laid out in blacks, whites and grays with the occasional pop of blues and greens.

  She pointed to the closet. “There were dressers built in when we bought the place, remember? You can take the tall set of drawers. Right now it’s mainly empty.”

  She kicked off her shoes and changed from her flying clothes into pajamas of her own.

  The girls came in, launching themselves into her bed and she joined them, snuggling as they waited for Vaughan.

  “Holy cow, we’ve been invaded!” Vaughan came to join them and the sweetness, the rightness, made tears threaten.

  “I’m hungry,” Kensey said.

  “I think we can probably fix that.” Kelly rolled from her bed and they all headed to the kitchen.

  * * *

  VAUGHAN HAD TAKEN Maddie and Kensey to Central Park and then to lunch while Kelly had handled some stuff at the store and then went off to a series of meetings.

  They were due to reconnect with her in just a few minutes so he and the girls had cabbed over to her at the boutique, and that’s when he realized the little chameleon set into the bags and other store wrapping was the same one from her tattoo.

  It wasn’t an entirely pleasant thing because it meant he’d underestimated her on pretty much every level. She worked damned hard to build a business that would support her and their daughters. And she did it successfully.

  And gave their daughters a great ex
ample of what you could do if you put your mind to it and kept at it.

  He’d been texting his parents pictures all day, wanting them to see Kelly and what she did through the lens of what they already knew. How fantastic their granddaughters were. That was the key, he felt, to bringing his mother around.

  Mother to mother.

  When he’d left the ranch the day before, he’d had a very strong sense that his mother would really think about everything he’d said. His mom was fierce, hell yes. Always in defense of her family. Kelly had triggered that—rightly or wrongly—from the start.

  His mother was also, to her core, loving. Smart. Vaughan trusted she’d find a way to make things right.

  In the meantime, he’d continue to have his brothers and their women in his and Kelly’s life. The fact that she was already friends with Tuesday was a positive. It gave them opportunities to hang out and get more comfortable.

  He hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to Kelly in detail about any of the stuff that had happened the day before but he’d spoken with the girls and had arranged for their regular sitter to come over that night so he could take Kelly out to dinner.

  “Can I help you?” One of the employees came over. He smiled, flirting an automatic reaction.

  “Thanks, but no. I’m waiting for Kelly. We’re supposed to meet her here.” He tipped his chin to Maddie and Kensey.

  The look she’d been wearing cooled immediately. “Oh. You’re him. She’s here. Just came in through the back.”

  He laughed. “I don’t know if I should be flattered or insulted.”

  She gave him a long up and down and then shrugged. “Little of both. You do make pretty kids, though.”

  “We really do.”

  “Mommy! We had so many dumplings at lunchtime.” Maddie ran over to Kelly, who emerged from the back.

  Vaughan froze in place at the sight.

  The woman he’d been talking to snorted a laugh. “You dumped that. Damn, that must suck.”

  Kelly had been working so she looked every inch the part. Model, businesswoman, lover of fashion.

  He’d gotten used to her in a ponytail, or even how she dressed when she worked at her Portland store. Put together and beautiful, definitely. Sexy as fuck the night they’d gone out to dinner.

  This version was pretty similar to the one he’d first seen.

  “The first time I saw her she wore a dress a lot like the one she has on.” This time, too, she showed a great deal of leg. Which was good because she had fantastic legs.

  She caught sight of Vaughan and smiled. “I did a resort wear thing for sunglasses and sandals. Got to keep the clothes.”

  Her hair had been pulled from her face, but was free in the back and hung in a riot of curls.

  “Did you get the curls, too? Will those stay?” Kensey petted Kelly’s hair.

  “No, baby. Sorry. They made this with curlers, a ton of product and then a curling rod. I felt bad for the hair people because it took so long.”

  “I like it.” Vaughan managed to tear himself free and join them. “You and I have a dinner date. The sitter will arrive in about ninety minutes so we should get going.”

  Her smile brightened about a hundredfold. “Sounds good. I still have the car they sent for me earlier. It’s circling around.” Kelly said her goodbyes and they headed back to the apartment.

  * * *

  KELLY WAS GLAD her makeup looked so fantastic because it suited the dress Kami had given her just a few hours prior. She switched out the headband for a set of pretty pins with red enamel accents.

  The dress was done in various tones of gold with the tiniest oxblood-red thread accent at the waist. It wasn’t a dress that played coy at all. The front had a keyhole neckline that dipped low enough that a bra would be impractical. Thank heavens the dress was made for her specifically, because on anyone else, a wrong twist might mean a wardrobe malfunction.

  On Kelly, though, it was perfect. Sexy. It showed a great deal of skin, but they’d done some sort of rub-on tan stuff earlier that day so her skin tone was warm and worked with the shades of gold in the dress.

  The shoes were the same red as the pins. She might be eleven years older than when she first met him, but she wanted him to always have that look he’d had earlier in her boutique.

  This entire outfit was her way of saying to him, don’t you ever forget this is what you have.

  Of course, when she got back downstairs as they were getting ready to leave, he’d come down wearing a fucking suit and looking good enough to eat right then and there.

  “You guys look so pretty you could be on a book!” Kensey slid past in her socks.

  His hair had been tamed back on the sides, but it threatened to do whatever it wanted. She knew in an hour or so it would be messy and yet look utterly calculated by some three-hundred-dollar haircut.

  Kelly slid a hand down his tie. “Wow. So this is your A-game, huh?”

  He grinned. “How’d I do, Legs?”

  “Love this suit. Did you have it in your suitcase?”

  “I have a place here, too. We stopped over to grab some of my clothes. You look gorgeous. For real.”

  Kelly smiled, warmed by the compliment. It was weird that he had a place in town and she didn’t really think about it until right then. But really nice he’d put his things in the closet.

  They kissed the girls and headed out.

  “What brought all this on?” she asked as they finally arrived at the restaurant.

  “When we went out to dinner and had dessert in the hotel afterward the other week, I realized I had put all this energy into the kids and our family, but not enough on Vaughan and Kelly when I’m not deep inside you.”

  “You’re saying all this to get me hot, aren’t you?” It was working.

  They went through a side door where Vaughan’s name was on a list. The host led them to an elevator and sent them up to the top after sliding a key card through a slot.

  Once they began to climb, Vaughan slid his arm around her waist, holding her close. “Did I? Get you hot?”

  Kelly kept her gaze on their reflection in the elevator doors. “The answer to that question is going to be yes in at least ninety-eight percent of the situations I’d be presented with.”

  A smile hitched his mouth up at the left. “Then that’s just a very positive by-product.”

  They were led to a table on a rooftop deck, surrounded by overflowing planters of flowers and herbs. Votive candles sat in hanging jars, dotting the space like fireflies.

  Once they’d been left alone and were perusing the menu, Vaughan spoke again. “Mary’s the one who told me about this place. She said it was quiet, private and romantic and had great food I’m supposed to take pictures for her. I wanted us to have something special. Just Kelly and Vaughan.”

  “She’s a foodie? Should have guessed, naturally when she brought like forty-five amazing dishes to the house that day.”

  “She ran a supper club for a few years. She’s done a few cookbooks now. Has a web series in development. Foodie is probably a lightweight word for it. But yes.”

  “She’s very sweet to the kids. And she was nice at the house.”

  “They’re a little busy just now. She’s due next month. But she’s told me she wants us all to come over for dinner. You’ll like her.”

  They ordered a bottle of champagne and the appetizers their server had recommended.

  Vaughan looked her over carefully. “Are you all right? There’s something you want to eat on the menu, right?”

  “Pretty much all of it. You need to get something different than I do so I can try yours. Otherwise I’ll have menu remorse. You know when you order something and like three minutes later you wish you’d ordered something else?” Kelly turned her attention from her me
nu to Vaughan’s face. “Why do you ask?”

  “You just looked a little hesitant. Like you didn’t really want anything.”

  Kelly shrugged. “I have an appearance tomorrow and several important business meetings so I have to think about everything I put in my mouth. I was doing calorie math.”

  “You look great. You’re in fantastic shape. You can have dinner without worrying.”

  Oh, she could? How nice of him to give her permission.

  He didn’t mean anything he’d said to be anything but complimentary. She tried to remember that. She didn’t want to fight with him. It was nice to be there in the evening as summer was ready to push spring out of the way.

  It was sweet of him to have brought her there. The place was one of those well-kept secrets so she didn’t need to deal with lines of fans outside with grabbing hands and all the temptation they represented.

  He was trying really hard and she needed to do the same and get the hell out of her own way.

  “So, tell me about your solo project,” Kelly asked him as a jazz trio played Cole Porter across the rooftop.

  * * *

  “THIS PLACE IS like a scene from a movie,” Vaughan said. He definitely needed to thank Mary for the suggestion and his manager Jeremy for the favor he called in to get them this table.

  “Thank you for making this happen.”

  “My solo stuff. I’ve had some ideas for a few years. I’ve tried to bring them into Sweet Hollow Ranch. This last album was an education for me. I pushed hard on things I felt strongly about. Some of it made a difference and it was good for me to learn how to step up and be more active in our creative process.”

  Food arrived, they ordered dinner and he spoke again.

  “And then the tour ended and I landed in your guest room. And all this change hit me. I started writing as a way to get it out. Like free writing, I guess. And then they were lyrics and songs.”

  “I’m thrilled for you. I hope you’ll let me hear it.”

  “I seem to recall a certain naked model sprawled in my bed as I played guitar and serenaded her more than once.”