Grabbing my phone, I answer it quickly. “Jocko?”
Lena is laughing in the background. Some of the tension drifts out of me, but I can’t afford to let my vigilance go completely.
“Relax. It’s good news. I’ve just had word that Sergey has been picked up by Interpol.”
I let out a long breath, relief moving through me. “The fucking idiot. How did he get himself into that situation?”
“I think you wrecked something in him when you told him no. I think it’s the first time he’s ever heard it. If you can believe it he got shitfaced and started a fight at a local bar, and the local police had no option but to pick him up. His men have already fled and he’s going to be extradited and tried for all his international crimes, the stuff he was too insulated for back in the States. But the bottom line is… he’s gone, and we can go home. You can go home.”
I look at my woman, so gorgeous as she sits up in her bed, her dark hair spilling around her and tempting me to leap on her all over again. Hot fire rushes through me at Jocko’s words – home, a family, a future with my woman.
But then Lena’s laughter hits me again.
“What’s so funny?” I ask.
“There’s a medieval show at the silent city. Lena’s having the time of her life.”
I swallow and my stomach rolls, more dark thoughts moving through me now. “That’s good. I want her to be happy.”
Because pretty soon she’s going to be anything but, I don’t add.
“Alright. See you soon.”
I hang up and tell Kelly the news, watching as her face goes through the same emotions I just did. From happy to hopeful and then to apprehensive, it all crashes into her, as the full magnitude of the news slams into her.
“So you can come back to the States?” she asks quietly.
I drop down onto the bed and pull her close to me, kissing the top of her head, smelling our sex and her shampoo and her just-Kelly scent, the most perfect one there is. “Yes.”
“We can have a life together.”
“Yes, and it’s going to be the best goddamn life there’s ever been,” I tell her.
“But first…”
I swallow as something grim moves through me, darkening the moment, as though a rancid cloud is cloaking the glittering Maltese sun.
“We have to tell Lena.” I sigh heavily. “There’s no way around it. We can’t spend the rest of our lives living in secret.”
I smooth my hand over her belly, sure I can feel our child in there, our future.
“Especially not when you get pregnant.”
“Yeah.” Kelly laughs, but there’s an unhinged quality to it, as though inside she’s spinning as frantically as I am. “I guess that’d be pretty hard to explain.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kelly
The three of us sit on the roof, surrounding the small table, with Lena on one side and me and Kane on the other. Part of me thinks about sprinting for the door and running through the house, trying my best to disappear from this moment so I don’t have to think about what we’re facing.
Lena looks between us with her eyebrows knitted, narrowing her eyes, and yet she’s still got that little half-smile on her face. It’s the one I recognize well – the optimistic part of her that always refuses to let life beat her down, no matter what happens.
“So… is there any reason you wanted to talk or are we just going to sit here like weirdos?” Lena says, over our silence.
I giggle, lightening my mood from a fraction of a moment even as the momentousness of what we have to do hits me.
“Lena, we need to tell you something.” I take a deep breath, steadying myself. “But before we do, I want to say I love you, kay? I love you and you’re my best friend and I’m sorry for lying to you.”
She reaches over the table and takes my hand when a sob threatens to escape. I can’t stop the tears as she curls her fingers around mine, holding on tightly, transmitting all the love and devotion she’s always had for me.
It makes the betrayal so much worse, so much more meaningful, with this reminder of how supportive she’s always been.
“It’s okay, Kelly,” she says. “Please don’t cry. Whatever it is, it’s okay.”
“It’s not.” I sob, unable to fight the full force of the sadness. “When you find out—”
“Are you two together?” Lena asks, sitting back and folding her arms. Her gaze flitting between her father and me. “Because that’s how this seems. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The only news you’d both need to tell me.”
“Lena…” I stutter.
“Kelly, I know you’ve had a crush on him for a long time.”
I gasp, bringing my hand up to cover my mouth. “You do?” I whisper between my fingers.
Her lips twitch in a smile, giving me hope. But then her mouth twists into a grimace which takes it all away. “I found your notebook when we were like twelve, Kelly. Plus I saw the way you looked at him growing up. Honestly, it wouldn’t have meant anything to me if you told me. I wouldn’t have cared. But you never did, so I figured you wanted to keep it private. That was fine by me.”
The magnitude of her words slams into me, as I reach up and rubs tears from my cheeks. “I thought you’d hate me if you ever found out.”
Lena shakes her head. “Kelly, I could never hate you.”
“You were right, Lena,” Kane says from beside me. His voice is deep and rumbling, as heavy with emotion as mine is, except he’s not crying. “When you said we’re together. We are.”
“And what does that mean?” A warble enters Lena’s voice as she stares at her father, at the man of my dreams. “I don’t understand how you’ve been missing for the past three years but you two are together. And don’t give me any talk about it being a fling.”
She raises her hand when Kane moves to interrupt, a fierce look in her eyes. “Dad, I’m not done.”
I glance at Kane to find a sheepish smirk on his face, and despite the circumstances, I almost laugh.
It’s so unusual to see confident, dominating Kane put in his place like that. “Sorry, Lena. Go ahead.”
“I was just going to say… I’ve noticed you two looking at each other these past few days. I thought I was going crazy at first, but then it got harder and harder to ignore. It doesn’t seem like a fling to me. Which means it’s been going on for a long time. But it can’t have been going on for that long, can it? You’ve been ‘dead’ for three years… and three years ago Kelly was…”
“Of course it hasn’t been going on since she was seventeen,” Kane snaps. “She was a kid to me back then – damn-near invisible, so invisible I didn’t even recognize her when she arrived in Malta.”
He pauses and then glances at me with that same sheepish smirk. “No offense, Kelly. I might’ve gone a little overboard.”
“It’s okay. I know what you meant.”
I lift my hand to place it on his arm and then realize mid-move what I’m doing. Letting it drop, I shake my head, as though that can take back what I just almost did.
“Is anybody going to explain?” Lena snaps. “If you haven’t been talking for the last three years—”
“We haven’t,” I say. “I thought he was dead, just like you did.”
“But that makes no sense,” she says. “When did you start this, then? How long has it been going on?”
I glance at Kane. He’s wearing a polo shirt that shows how hard every part of him is, that shows his bulging muscles. His steel hair sparkles in the sunlight and dances on his grim-set jaw.
Then he smirks, letting out a short laugh. “When did you arrive in Malta?”
“Just over a week ago,” Lena says. “Why?”
Kane inclines his head. “Then you have your answer. That’s how long it’s been going on.”
“What?” Lena gasps. “So have I got it wrong? Is this just a fling?”
“No,” Kane growls firmly. “This is much, much more than that. Kelly and I ar
e going to be together for the rest of our lives. We’re going to have a family together – she’s going to be the mother of your brothers and sisters, Lena.”
Lena sits back and lets out a long breath. “You two need to start making sense. How can any of that be true if this only started recently?”
I look at Kane and he looks at me, and then I arch my eyebrow. “Do you want to explain, or shall I?”
Lena grips the edge of the table and sits back, letting out a long breath as she shakes her head slowly. “So let me get this straight. You two fell for each other instantly, like the second you laid eyes on each other, just over a week ago?”
“Yes,” I murmur, waiting for the part where she turns vicious and hateful. And I wouldn’t even be able to blame her. She’d have every right. “When you put it like that, it sounds crazy…”
“That’s because it is crazy.” She laughs, but there’s a strange quality to it, almost like it could turn into a scream at any second. “This is just…”
I bite my lip and resist the urge to reach over and clasp onto Kane’s hand, squeezing down so I can try and feel some of his warmth and support, try and feel something to make any of this okay.
But then Lena laughs again, lighter this time.
“Dad, you’ll tell me the truth, won’t you?”
“Always,” Kane says firmly, his voice deep and confident. “I know I had to leave and I’m sorry for that, Lena. I’ll never stop being sorry for that. But that was to stop those monsters from hurting you.”
“But right now, if I ask you a question, you’ll be completely honest with me?” Lena stares hard at him, her expression firm like she’s going to say something very important. “Because I need to know. I need to be certain.”
“I promise, Lena.”
“Are you and Kelly in this for the long haul? Because that’s all that matters to me. Yeah, I won’t lie. I think it’s pretty shitty that you were sneaking around behind my back, that you kept this is a secret. But if it all happened so fast… and so much craziness has been going on. So I can sort of get it. But I need to know.”
“Forever,” Kane says, passion infusing his words, making my skin prick and tingle as warmth bubbles up inside of me. “I know it’s difficult to believe, but that’s the truth. I’m going to be with her for the rest of my life. We’re going to have a family together, all of us.”
Lena nods, neither smiling nor frowning. She’s approaching this with a calm I never could’ve foreseen. She faces me.
“And do you feel the same? Do you want the same?” she asks me.
“More than anything,” I say quickly.
I can’t stop my voice from flaring with all the love stowed inside of me, with all my hope for the future shivering through me.
“I want to be with him. I want to have children with him. But I don’t want to ruin what we have, Lena.”
“Are you saying you’d break it off if I had a problem with it?” she asks, a bite in her voice.
I flinch and sit back, as though her words have struck me, my mind turning her question this way and that as though I can make some sense of it. But I’ve lied to her enough already, and there’s no freaking way I’m going to carry on.
“I don’t think I could,” I tell her, doing my best to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry, Lena. But we tried. For days, we tried to ignore each other. But Jocko noticed our secret looks. You noticed them. It’s just so freaking difficult not to become consumed with each other. So no. I’m sorry, but I don’t think so.”
Lena holds my gaze for a while longer, giving me no indication about how she feels. But then the corners of her lips twitch and her smile spreads, wider and wider until it’s like there’s a song of joy moving through her.
“Okay.” Lena nods. “I get it now. I understand. If this is real. If this isn’t some fling—”
“No,” I say.
“No,” Kane growls at the same time. “It’s real. I promise.”
“Then I can find a way to be happy for you both. Because the bottom line is this… I can’t lose either of you, let alone both of you. I’m pissed off that you went behind my back like I said, but I can see how difficult it must’ve been, how sudden. If you’d been sneaking around for months or years, I don’t think I could forgive you. But just over a week? Yeah, yeah, I can deal with that.”
“I’m so sorry.” I reach over the table and take her hand, squeezing it softly. “I’ll never do anything like this again.”
She giggles. “Well, duh. I only have one dad. And it sounds like you two are in it forever.”
I can’t stop myself from breaking down at her words, the tears springing into my eyes and sliding down my cheeks. Lena lets out a sob and stands, walking around the table.
Bolting to my feet, I wrap my arms around her and we hug each other tightly, both of us filled with the importance of this moment, with the gratitude of being able to remain friends. I move my hands through her hair and she squeezes tightly against me.
“Dad, get over here,” Lena says, waving over at Kane.
I turn as a smile lights up my face, and then Kane grins and swaggers over. He loops his arms around us both and we stay like that for a long time, as the Maltese sun glows down at us, as our future lays out before us like a glittering, inviting road.
“I’m so happy you don’t hate me,” I say once the hug ends, taking a step back and dabbing at my eyes.
“Kelly,” Lena says firmly. “I’ve already told you, there’s no way I could ever hate you. Ever. So get that silly thought out of your head.”
You know, one day I might be your stepmother, I almost say, but I bite the words back at the last moment. I can’t presume that Kane is going to ask me to marry him.
We haven’t even said the L-word yet.
But Lena has given us her blessing, and that’s the most important thing.
A flare of worry ignites inside of me, disturbing the moment.
What the heck are Mom and Dad going to say when they find out?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kane
“This is a lot to take on board,” Henry says.
Relief floods me when I study Kelly’s father, who’s sixty-five and twenty years older than her mother. It gives me a flurry of hope when I think about the way they glanced at each other as Kelly and I explained the situation – the love in their eyes, the implicit understanding.
Surely they can understand, can accept the age gap, the blistering beautiful fact of our relationship.
I almost laugh when the thought crashes into me. It’s so much less grim than the thoughts that used to run through my mind when I was on the run and all I could think about was the next day, the next hour, the next minute unless I went insane.
But now there’s a hope swelling inside of me, prompted by Lena’s acceptance. After we hugged and cried together, I surprised them and myself by running around the rooftop and punching the air, letting out whooping noises like I was ten years old.
And that’s how I felt, young and renewed and ready to charge into our future.
Now we’re back on the rooftop, Kelly and I sitting side by side as we stare down at the laptop. Henry and Tamara are in their garden, the sun in front of them so it rests on their faces.
Her mother’s expression is difficult to read, tight and pinched, but Henry’s becomes more and more readable as the long seconds pass.
His frown deepens and he leans forward, running a hand over his bald head. “So you’re saying you want to be my son-in-law, is that it?”
Kelly gasps at her father’s harsh tone. I glance over at her, taking in the sight of her long flowing dark lock, her full lips, and her startling bright eyes.
There’s so much love beaming from every part of her, but even now I have to look away before my carnal instincts wake up, before the never-ending howling of need becomes impossible to ignore.
“Dad, please don’t be like that.”
“Like what?” he snaps. “How do you expect me to
react? How old are you, Kane?”
“I’m forty-two, sir,” I tell him.
His expressions changes somewhat when I call him sir, as though he’s just been reminded of my military service. Either that or it’s reminded him that we’re two men talking to each other, and each of us is deserving of respect and civility.
“Do you know how old Kelly is?”
“Dad…”
“It’s a simple question,” he snaps.
“Yes, I do. She’s twenty years old,” I respond respectfully.
Some people are blind to their hypocrisy. They’ll sit in their gas-guzzling cars whilst preaching about global warming, or smoke a cigarette as they tell you all their cardio tips. I wonder if Henry is the same – blind to the fact he’s sitting next to a woman who is twenty years younger than him, just about the same gap Kelly and I share.
“Dad, surely you aren’t going to play the age card,” Kelly says, some firmness entering her voice. She waves a hand. “You and Mom are twenty years apart too.”
Henry flinches. “That may be the case, but…”
“But what, Henry?” Tamara says, placing her hand on his arm. “What can you possibly say? Yes, you don’t like it. You wish Kelly would stay single for the rest of her life. You wish she’d join a nunnery so you’d never have to admit your little girl is all grown up. Let’s face it. That’s what this is about, and the age thing is simply something you feel like you can target.”
“Tammy—”
“Don’t you Tammy me,” she goes on, wagging her finger.
Kelly looks at me with a smile touching her lips. I have to be careful to tame my own expression, lest Henry see me smiling and think I’m making fun of him. I’d never disrespect my woman’s father like that, even if the urge to smile and laugh is moving through me, especially as Tamara wags her finger like she’s trying to get rid of it.
Malta with My Best Friend's Dad: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 256) Page 11
