Old Dog New Tricks

by Roxanne St Claire

  “Goldie,” she said, heading toward the wide hall and living room. “Who is losing it.”

  “No, that’s…someone at the front door.”

  A hard, insistent pounding at a door had them both rushing around the corner, the two earsplitting sounds of Goldie’s out of control bark and a furious knocking at the door making it impossible to even talk.

  “Open the damn door!” a man bellowed from outside.

  “Who’s that?” Daniel asked.

  “Oh my God.”

  He barely heard Katie’s whisper as he strode to the door and flipped the lock, only able to see the shadow of a man behind the leaded glass.

  “Open the door right now! I know you’re in there, Mom!”

  Mom? Which of her boys…

  “Oh my God, it’s Nick.”

  What? Daniel dragged open the heavy mahogany door without a second’s hesitation to come face-to-face with a man who was his size and height, with dark hair and eyes that were both foreign and familiar.

  This was Nick? His son? His firstborn? Unless—

  His fist came at Daniel so fast he barely registered until knuckles cracked his jaw and sent him reeling backward.

  White lights popped in his head, and before he took his next breath, the hall started to fill, Liam leading the charge, jumping on Nick, and pulling him back, Shane on the other side, and Aidan coming in to close ranks.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” Liam demanded.

  Nick scowled. “Who are you?” he asked.

  “I’m his son,” Liam said, gripping the other man’s collar.

  Nick snorted. “Get in line, pal, ’cause so am I.”

  Everyone went speechless. For a long, stunned moment of shock, the only sound was Goldie’s incessant, demanding bark, then chaos broke with questions, demands, gasps, and…

  Daniel turned to Katie in the living room. Leaning against the empty wall where pictures of his perfect life had once hung, she stared at Nick as tears poured over cheeks he’d just kissed.

  “I know everything.” Nick ground out the words, sizable shoulders rising and falling with ragged breaths. “Everything.”

  That’s what the text meant. Nick…knew.

  Nick took a few steps forward, coming face-to-face with Daniel, meeting him inch for inch, eyeball to eyeball. “I don’t care what it says on some piece of paper. I don’t care what science says. You will never be my father as long as I’m alive and after I’m dead.”

  Daniel rubbed his chin and held the younger man’s gaze, vaguely aware of the eyes full of confusion, distrust, dismay, and questions pinned on him from three families that had gathered to celebrate, only to find out…

  Like this.

  “Nick, I understand—”

  “You don’t understand anything.” Lightning bolts of fury cracked in his dark eyes, his voice low and controlled and barely audible over Goldie’s barks behind him. “But I understand you’re sleeping with my mother. Again.” He jutted a square jaw as if daring Daniel to deny it. “My brothers and I text. One of them mentioned your name…a name I was already painfully familiar with when I got my results from that DNA site.” He threw a look over his shoulder at his younger brothers. “So I guess I’m not surprised that I pulled in here today to see a Santorini’s catering truck in the driveway.”

  “Listen, son.” Daniel reached out his hand, only to have Nick knock it away.

  “Do not ever, ever call me that. You are a shadow of my father. A dismal, pathetic, miserable—”

  “Stop it!” Katie launched forward, her face soaked with tears. “You don’t know him. You don’t know anything about him.”

  “And I don’t want to.”

  “Nick! Give us a chance to explain. Take a breath and listen before you—”

  “I’ve taken my breaths, Mom. I breathed when the results came back. I breathed when I took leave and spent two days flying back. And I breathed all the way over here to find you.” He glared at Daniel. “And tell you to go straight to hell, you son of a bitch. Is that clear?”

  “Hey!” Liam was on him again, fire in his eyes, as he whipped Nick around and pulled back to prepare a punch.

  “Stop.” Daniel grabbed Liam’s arm before it launched and used his other hand to quiet everyone, except Goldie, who’d become frenzied with the conflict.

  “Please,” Katie said on a sob. “Please, all of you. Let us try to explain.”

  “No.” Nick leaned closer to her. “You have to make a choice. It’s him or me. You can’t have us both.”

  Daniel almost choked, stunned by the demand, not sure he really understood. “Don’t—”

  “Stay out of it,” Nick ordered. “This is between my mother and me. Him or me?” he repeated. “Simple choice, and you have to make it. There will never be any other choice.”

  Then the only sound was Goldie, who’d replaced barking with a high-pitched whine that echoed the emotion etched on Katie’s face.

  “Oh, Nick.” She let out one long, battered sigh as if the choice made even breathing impossible.

  But really there was no choice. And even if there could be, Daniel would never force her to make one.

  You’re only as happy as your least-happy child.

  He’d never let this dear, good, wonderful woman be that unhappy. That would be selfish and wrong.

  Daniel leaned in to make his point. “I love her too much for that,” he said simply.

  Nick’s dark eyes tapered to slits of distrust and agony. “If you loved her, you wouldn’t have gotten her pregnant in the first place.”

  Daniel just closed his eyes, kicking himself for being such a complete optimistic, idealistic, blind fool. Had he really thought it would be easy? That they’d all just shrug their shoulders, throw back a few Jameson’s, and do a jig for joy?

  Fool. Blind, stupid, desperate fool.

  And had he really thought loving Katie was right? He needed no more proof of how wrong it was. He couldn’t do this to them. To her. She shouldn’t have to make such an untenable choice.

  “She’s yours, son.” He couldn’t help hitting the last word as hard as that fist had hit him.

  “Dad? Dad!”

  He didn’t know which of his kids was calling him. A few, since it sounded like Molly and Shane and Garrett, too. Did they want him to fight for her? Didn’t they see it was wrong to separate a mother from her son? He’d tell them later. Now, he wouldn’t take his eyes off Nick Santorini for one second, making sure he understood his position.

  “Grandpa, please.” Pru grabbed his arm and pulled it like she was a little girl again, desperate for his attention.

  “Not now, Pru.”

  “Dad.” Molly got right up next to him. “Something’s wrong with Rusty.”

  He jerked around at the words.

  “Really wrong.” Her face was dead-set serious, the face of a vet who knew…

  “Oh God.” Behind her, Trace and Shane were picking up Rusty, Garrett holding back a crazed, jumping Goldie.

  “I think he’s had a heart attack,” Molly said. “We have seconds. Literally.” She didn’t wait for him to answer, but followed Trace and Shane, passing Liam and Aidan on the way. “Stay with Dad,” she ordered. “And for God’s sake, remember you’re Kilcannons. Act like it.”

  In that one moment, she could have been Annie reincarnated.

  Paralyzed, Daniel watched them break into a run and felt his whole body tear in two with the need to stay here and fix this and go there and fix that. But right then, Daniel Kilcannon’s life was too shattered to fix anything.

  “Go,” Katie said softly, as if she’d read his mind. “Take care of Rusty. He needs you.”

  “So do you.”

  “I have…Nick. My family.”

  Of course she did. And that was right. He nodded and gave one more look at Nick, wondering, for a fleeting moment, if he’d ever see the man again. Maybe not. And that hurt more than his throbbing chin and his broken heart.

  Without a w
ord, he headed out. As he passed Pru, he heard her whisper, “I’ll call everyone and cancel the party, Grandpa.”

  And that, more than anything else, made a tear roll down his face as he ran across the grass to save Rusty, praying that a heart attack didn’t take his best friend away again.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  She’s yours.

  Of all the outrageous and agonizing things that had just transpired, those two words cut Katie the deepest. She backed into the blank wall, her fingernails digging into the fresh paint that she herself had applied, as if she could possibly erase the power and presence of the woman who’d come before her.

  Obviously, if Daniel was that quick to give her up, Katie had been very wrong about…everything.

  She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and focused her attention where it mattered—on the broken and battered families in front of her.

  “Let’s go,” Nick said to Cassie, Alex, and John, managing not to look at Katie at all. “Let’s all get out of here.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Alex stepped next to his brother, his much-darker eyes glinting. “No one is going anywhere until everyone in this room understands what the holy hell is going on.”

  Nick looked at her, along with every other person in the room. The Kilcannons and Mahoneys were silent, as though the warning from Molly had hit home.

  Finally, Gramma Finnie stepped into the middle of the room, by far the smallest adult there, but giant in her stature and respect.

  “I don’t think it takes too much explainin’,” she said. “You all know their history and can figure out what happened.”

  “How could you?” Nick ground out to Katie.

  “How could I what?”

  “How could you not know? How could you not tell me? How could you…you…take up with a man who is my biological father?”

  She let out a breath, studying him, seeing Daniel in a way she never had before, but plenty of Nico’s hot temper, too. “If you shake off your selfish moral outrage for one moment, Nick, I’ll tell you everything, which you don’t know even though you claim to.”

  He averted his gaze at the chastisement, giving her a moment to turn to the others.

  “The fact is, I’ve known this, Cassie and I have, since I first arrived in Bitter Bark. Believe me, I had no idea before that. And my dear, departed husband went to his grave thinking, as we all did, that our reunion when I left Vestal Valley College resulted in Nick’s conception. I could have easily gone my entire life with that…misconception.”

  No one smiled at the bad pun, but Gramma Finnie took a few steps closer, reaching her hand out to Katie.

  “No one blames you for the mistake, lass.”

  Her heart folded a bit, as it did every time she received this woman’s unconditional love. “Of course, I blame myself, but life went on, and quite well. Two very healthy, strong, beautiful families formed, eleven kids between us and nearly eighty combined years of happy marriage.”

  A few of the men shifted from one foot to the other, and some of the women wiped away tears, while Katie mentally reviewed Nick’s questions.

  “I told Daniel as quickly as I could, which obviously wasn’t easy,” she said. “He was rocked by the news.”

  “Why didn’t he tell us?” Liam’s question held an uncharacteristic amount of emotion, enough that she noticed he glanced around for Andi, but Katie suspected she’d whisked Christian out of the room and away from the drama.

  “We wanted one hundred percent confirmation from the company that did the analysis, and then, if correct, we were planning to tell Nick first.”

  “Then how does she know?” Nick glanced at Gramma, and behind him, a few of the Irish tempers bristled at the she, but they remained quiet.

  “If I show you a picture of my brother, laddie, you’ll know, too.” She gave the smallest, slyest smile. “There’s plenty of Brennan in your blood, whether you like it or not. I’m guessin’ not.”

  He just closed his eyes. “I don’t need to see pictures. It’s confirmed. I did my own test and got a call from the company a few days ago, and I took leave to…to…”

  “To punch his lights out,” Aidan murmured.

  “The DNA company called Daniel this afternoon,” Gramma Finnie said. “But he didn’t take the call. He didn’t want to ruin tonight’s gatherin’.”

  Shane snorted softly, the irony of Daniel’s decision not lost on any of them.

  “What else do you need to know, Nick?” Katie asked, then stopped him from answering with a raised hand. “Oh, I remember. How I ‘took up’ with this man.” She didn’t answer, but gave a wistful smile to the Kilcannons and Mahoneys, the realization that this meant she’d lost them, too, choking her up. “Friendship and a shared challenge at first,” she said. “A couple of dogs. Some magic. It’s the Dogfather recipe for…” Love. “Romance.” Her throat hitched on the last word.

  She’s yours.

  “Mom.” Cassie came right up to her and slid her arm around Katie’s waist. “You don’t owe anyone any more than this. I really think we should go and let this family, and ours, pick up the pieces in private.”

  “I need to check on Rusty,” Darcy said, stepping away. “And Dad.”

  “Good God,” Liam mumbled, spinning around. “Dad. Rusty.”

  “What the hell’s wrong with us?” Aidan took Beck’s hand. “Dad needs us.”

  They started to leave, one by one, not one demanding more information than what they had. Just…loving. Only Braden Mahoney lingered as the group started to pour out of the living room. He came closer to Katie and Cassie, no smile on his handsome face, but no judgment, either.

  “I hope you don’t give up on Bitter Bark or this family,” he said. “We’ve all weathered worse.”

  Cassie looked at him and sighed. “I have no idea what’s going to happen, Braden.”

  “What’s going to happen is that we’re leaving,” John said, gesturing to the rest of the Santorinis. “All of us,” he added, narrowing his eyes at Nick. “In fact, I’ll drive with you.”

  “Okay, but first…” Katie glanced around the now empty room, her whole being longing to rush to Daniel. The need was palpable, strong, and breathtaking. She didn’t want to give him up. But—

  “Mom will drive with me,” Nick said. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  Like why he’d made her choose. “Not until I say goodbye,” she said. “I’ll meet you in the driveway, and you will wait for me as long as I damn well please.”

  Without waiting for an argument, she walked through the empty room, taking one last look at that wall, which gave her a gut punch. Oh well. She could return all those photos, and he could hang them right back up like they’d been.

  In fact, Daniel could easily slide right back into Life Before Katie.

  She’s yours.

  The words echoed as she hustled over to the small crowd gathered outside the clapboard building that housed the Waterford Farm vet offices. Some were in the small waiting room, some under the overhang that covered the porch, and Garrett stood off to the side, holding Goldie by the collar and talking to Jessie, who swayed with the baby in her arms.

  They all stopped talking as she approached, except for Goldie, who let out a noisy demand to be let go. At Katie’s nod, Garrett released her, and she ran to Katie, looking for love and, like all of them, some answers.

  She stood with the dog, taking in all the familiar faces of Daniel’s family. Shocked faces. Disappointed faces. Bewildered and uncertain and even a few sympathetic faces.

  “I’m so sorry,” she managed to say. “None of this…” She quieted Goldie with one hand and rooted for composure she didn’t feel. “You’re a wonderful family and didn’t deserve—”

  Daniel walked through the door, and everyone turned to him, silent and breathless.

  “We managed to save him,” he said on a deep and agonizing sigh.

  No cheer went up this time, probably because there was no joy in Daniel’s expression.


  “For now,” he added. “I think the chemo may have affected his heart. But he made it through this one. Barely.”

  The last word was a whisper, eliciting soft moans from almost the whole family.

  “Katie.” He took a few steps past them and down the porch to where she stood. “Can we talk?”

  She nodded as he came closer and led her toward the path they so often walked with Goldie and Rusty. In a moment, they reached one of the many benches around the property, this one well out of earshot and sight of the families they’d left behind.

  Daniel went to the bench and dropped down with a sigh, and Goldie instantly ran to him, jumped up, and put one paw on his leg. Katie held back and watched them for a moment, memorizing the sight of a man she’d fallen so hard for being comforted by a dog who’d managed to worm her way into his heart no matter how much he hadn’t wanted that to happen.

  When he rubbed his fingers along an angry bruise on his jaw, Katie came closer.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not as much as everything else,” he said dryly.

  “Oh, Daniel.” She sat on his other side. “I knew it would be tough.”

  He gave a rueful laugh. “Tough? We made a hot, holy mess.”

  “Nick made it,” she said. “We let it happen.”

  He looked at her, a stark pain she’d never seen before turning his eyes to an ice blue. “You need to go to him. He needs as much comfort as I do, maybe more. His father has died all over again, and as much as I want to help him, I…”

  “You can’t right now.”

  “He doesn’t want me.” The words sounded like they poured out from a hollow, numb heart.

  “He’s in shock, Daniel. Remember when you first found out?”

  He nodded, looking past her to the horizon. “Go to him. Explain it as best you can. Like you did with me.”

  “So you want me to leave?” she asked, unable to hide the hurt in her voice.

  “I want you to…” He turned to her, looking as if he was fighting the urge not to hold her. Sadly, he won that fight. “Be happy.”

  She had been happy. For one blissful month in his arms, she had been happy. “Do you think that’s possible?”