A month before hers. “So she’s eleven weeks along?”
He threw her a look of surprise. “Good math, Beth. Yeah. She’ll be twelve weeks on Tuesday. And we want to start telling people, but, man, I wanted to ask her to marry me first.”
“I know you’ll figure something out, and I’ll have my eyes and ears open,” she assured him. “I’m going to need help on this place, but I know that’s not the kind of work you want.”
“You’re right. I want a long-term, secure job. I’ll help you if you need it, but it looks like I might have to take on the firefighter for that job.” He gave her a quizzical look. “Talk about a blast from the past, huh? Kenny Cavanaugh.”
She smiled at the name she’d used when they were dating in high school. “Yeah.”
“You mooned over that guy.”
“I recall you actually mooned him when he showed up to take me out once.”
RJ cracked up. “From the top of the steps. Man, that was epic. Josie just about plotzed.”
They shared a long look and a wistful smile. “Good times, RJ. Except I really wanted to kill you.”
“Many times, I imagine. So, what’s going on with him? I recall that relationship went down in flames, if you’ll excuse the bad pun. Was he here when the flood happened overnight?”
“No. I was alone, but…”
“But what?” he asked.
“But…” She heard the door of a truck and knew the water remediation guys had arrived. “I’m probably going to be staying with him for a few days while this place dries up.”
He lifted a brow. “Want some brotherly advice?”
“If you tell me he’s just seeing me to drum up some kind of retribution against Dad for what happened to his father, I’ll slap you. Because he is not, believe me.”
“That’s not the advice I was going to give. I’m no expert on that history and don’t even care about it. I do have good advice for you, though.”
“What?”
He leaned close to whisper, “Use protection.”
Too late.
* * *
Seeing his Cape Coral home through Beth’s eyes, Ken felt an unexpected mix of pride and scrutiny. The three-bedroom house certainly wasn’t grand and likely wasn’t decorated to her renovation-worthy standards, but at her slight gasp when she walked into the living room and looked out to the wide canal and dock at the edge of his property, he knew he had her approval.
“My personal playground,” he said with a laugh, knowing what his weathered dock—home to a sixteen-foot outboard, a Jet Ski, a few kayaks, some paddleboards, and a whole mess of fishing gear—must look like to her.
“Heavenly,” she said, surprising him as she walked through the living room and went straight to the sliders to look past the patio and tiny pool to the gem of a backyard. “It’s straight out of the Keys.”
“That’s what I always think.”
“I’m turned around.” She pointed down the straight canal that ended at his house, connecting in a T to another waterway. “East or west?”
“That’s east and will take you right to the Caloosahatchee River.”
She turned, surprised. “You can get to Mimosa Key by boat?”
“Easily. It’s a nice two-hour ride if you have the time to go that way.”
“Fun.” Her eyes lit up.
“We’ll take the Boston Whaler tonight on that sunset cruise I promised.”
“I’d love that.” She finally tore her gaze from the water view and glanced around at his humble bachelor pad. “This is really nice, Ken. How long have you lived here?”
“Five years. I moved in right after…” His divorce. “When I was single again.”
She eyed him with the curiosity of a woman who couldn’t hide her interest in his ex, then suddenly shook her head as if talking herself out of it. “Would you mind showing me around and letting me”—she gestured toward herself—“wash off the flood?”
As much as he wanted to steer her right to his bedroom in the back of the house, he took her to the one he’d set up as a guest room, which also had a small bathroom with a shower.
“Thanks,” she said, tossing her bag on the double bed. “I have some calls to return, too, so I might be a while.”
Of course she wanted time alone, and a chance to get used to the place. “Sure. I’m going to shower, too, and run over to the station and pick up Sally. You can just chill and get comfortable. Are you hungry? I can make lunch when I get back.”
She sighed. “I’m always hungry,” she admitted.
“Then you’re at the right place, because I love to eat. And cook. Is there anything you can’t have?” His gaze dropped automatically to her stomach.
“I’m trying to eat healthy. No alcohol, obviously.”
“Anything you crave?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, and he could have sworn he saw a little spark in them, and a hint of color rose to her cheeks. “Not yet, but I’ll let you know when you have to make a run for pickles and ice cream.”
He smiled and took a step closer, his whole body humming with a sense of anticipation and optimism. He had so much hope that this could work out really, really well. “It’s going to be okay, Beth,” he said, working to temper that enthusiasm, because he knew it scared the daylights out of her.
“Oh, I know. The house will dry.”
He just stared at her. “I don’t mean the house.”
“I know. But I can’t be sure anything is going to be okay until it is.” She touched her stomach. “When I fell this morning, it scared me.”
It scared him, too. “What did the doctor say?”
“Nothing to worry about. I should let her know if there’s any pain, and I promise there hasn’t been so much as a twinge. I hate feeling fragile.” She brushed her hair back like she could push the admission away. “Pregnancy doesn’t make a woman breakable, but after last time and knowing that my tubes being tied puts my baby at some risk, I’m skittish.”
Her baby. He decided not to correct her. “You should be skittish, and careful. That’s why I want you here.”
She backed out away a few inches, silent.
“Which doesn’t mean I’m going to watch you like some kind of science experiment that could go awry at any second,” he added.
“I appreciate that, and that you care.”
“I do.”
“Because there’s a baby,” she said. “You care about me because there’s a baby involved.”
It was like she was trying to convince herself of that. “You don’t know that.”
“But I do. I was thinking about it driving over here. It’s all very romantic, and the betting at the station is cute, but let’s be real here.” She angled her head and gave him a look that said she most certainly did know that. “We had a one-night stand.”
“It was your call to end it at one night,” he replied softly.
“It was good sex and…fun,” she finished.
“It was great sex, and we blew past fun in the first five minutes.”
“And then the impossible happened.”
“Clearly, nothing is impossible with…” Damn it, he almost said love. “Us.”
“I’m just not ready to make this out as the greatest romance of all time.”
He honestly didn’t think he was doing that, but why did it bother her so much? “Because you won’t ever feel that way about me?” he asked.
She smiled. “Blunt, as usual.”
“Why dance around it? I want to know.”
She turned away, deliberately setting her attention to opening the tote bag. “Let me shower.”
He didn’t budge. “Beth.”
“I’m sweaty and—”
“Answer me.”
She thought for a minute, quiet. Then, “This”—she gestured from her to him and back—“is built on a faulty premise. You can’t get serious about someone because there’s a baby. Like I said, you don’t care about me, you care about the baby inside of me.
”
“I care about both.” Why did she stomp all over his optimism? Didn’t she need a dose of that as much as he did? Frustration zinged up his spine.
“But what if something happened to the baby?” she asked. “Then what?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Because nothing was going to happen to that baby. But if it did, then what?
“Exactly,” she said. With a solid hand on his chest, she moved him away. “I need some time and space.”
He stood firm for a moment, then backed away. “Take all the time and space you need.” Because when she didn’t want them anymore, he’d be waiting.
Chapter Eleven
Beth fell in love with the dock the minute she set foot on the first plank. It was wide and worn, bathed in sunshine, and clearly the center of Ken’s otherwise ordinary home. He’d spent money and time down here, and the minute she slid into an oversize Adirondack chair that looked out over the water, she wanted to stay right where she was.
And she had stayed all afternoon since they had lunch. Ken had puttered around with his boat, let her try her hand at fishing, and all the while, Sally slept by her side in the sunshine, utterly relaxed.
And Beth felt just about the same way, watching a few boats pass, catching glimpses of a dolphin leaping out of the water and the ripple of a giant manatee cruising by. The air was clean with a gentle brine on the breeze, the only sound the splash of a pelican hitting the water and the clanging of a sail mast a few docks away.
She thought about RJ, but didn’t share his news with Ken, since it wasn’t hers to share, and the fact that they weren’t talking about babies and futures was kind of lovely right at that moment.
By late afternoon, the sun had dipped behind the house, leaving the sky a hundred shades of peach and pink and the water an inviting silvery blue as Ken cranked the lift to lower the boat into the water for their cruise.
Then Beth’s utterly Zen moment was ruined by the buzz of her cell phone on the table next to her.
Out here, work and phones seemed all wrong. And this text in particular jarred her as she read the request from Dad to attend an “important meeting about the future” at his office tomorrow.
“Oh boy,” she murmured.
“What is it?” Ken asked.
“My dad has issued an official summons.”
The boat hit the water with a soft splash. “About what?”
“I have no idea.”
“It’s probably because Josie told him I was at your house the other day,” he said calmly.
“Most likely,” she said, putting the phone back on the table to take a sip of lemon water. “And he might be calling me in to issue another warning.”
He froze in the act of wrapping a tie around one of the dock posts. “What do you mean ‘another warning’?” His voice was wary. “About what?”
“You,” she said simply. “We were seen leaving the resort together the morning after the reunion, and that got reported to my father and stepmother.”
He snorted. “Welcome to Mimosa Key.”
“He came over that night and brought up, you know…what happened with your dad.”
“You mean my dad’s death.” His voice grew tight. “No euphemisms. We know what happened. So what did he say?”
“Just that I should…” She turned and squinted into the setting sun. Maybe talking about babies and the future would be easier that way. “Be careful with you.”
He stood straight and glared down at her. “What the hell does he think I’m going to do? Hurt you because he hurt me?”
“He was being a father, Ken. My father, in particular, who likes to control things.” She looked up at him. “And by things, I mean me. There’s a reason I cling to independence, you know.”
He huffed out a breath. “Well, you can tell him you’re fine. I won’t hurt you, and I won’t dredge up the past. Was that all?”
“He, uh, gave me some paperwork. About…the accident.” Which, up to this moment, she’d forgotten she had.
“Paperwork.”
“I didn’t open the envelope. I wasn’t interested. I stuck it with some old business files. Look, I accepted your apology for how and why you broke up with me all those years ago, and I don’t see any reason to dwell on it now.” Obviously, a time would come when Ken and her father would come face-to-face again, brought together by the baby growing inside her.
When that time came, she’d deal with it.
“Maybe you should read those papers,” he said.
“Why?”
“You’ll see that your father had every base covered. He proved the straps holding the generator had been inspected. We had no grounds for legal retribution, then or now. If he’s worried about that, he can relax.” He finally met her gaze. “My opinion, however, will never change. I was standing there, Beth. I saw the strap break. I saw it happen.”
His voice cracked just enough that her heart did the same thing. “Ken, I’m sorry.”
She saw him visibly shake it off, returning his attention to the boat. “So what are you going to tell him?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll see what he says. I’m definitely not ready to share the baby news. I’m not out of my first trimester yet and haven’t heard a heartbeat. I have to be sure this pregnancy is viable. I have to be.”
He stepped onto the boat, making the vessel rock. “I’ll go with you to the meeting if you want.”
Her jaw loosened. “Ken. I know you…no. You can’t do that. You can’t go to EDC offices. I would never put you through that.”
“I’m going to have to see him sometime,” he said. “When the baby’s born, birthday parties, family…things.”
How was that all going to work? She put her hand on her stomach, no answers in sight. Except that whatever happened and however it worked, it had to be good for the baby.
“Well, let’s wait on that. His message had a distinctly businesslike tone. He may want to talk about something other than us…or you. In fact, that’s far more likely, knowing my dad. He’ll slip the insidious instructions on how I should live my life in after he asks my opinion on something or tries to convince me to take over the business again.”
His head snapped up. “You wouldn’t.”
His sharp tone and the dangerous look in his eyes surprised her. “I…wasn’t planning to.” But she bristled at his reaction. “But if I wanted to, I would.”
“Beth, I have my limits.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He threw a tool on the deck with a thud. “It means you can’t run the company that…you can’t run that company.”
Was he serious? “You can’t tell me not to do that.”
“Do you want to?” It sounded as if even asking the question scared him, as if he couldn’t handle the answer.
“I haven’t wanted to because I happen to love what I do for a living.” She looked down and tugged at a loose thread on her cutoffs. “But things have changed.”
“No shit.”
She looked hard at him. “I have to consider this child’s security,” she said. “EDC is a good, healthy business that guarantees a substantial and steady income.”
She could see his shoulders tense and his jaw tighten. “I have a steady income,” he said. “Maybe it’s not as great as the owner of a big development corporation, but I can provide for our child.”
“But…I…” She exhaled. “I can’t depend on that.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because this isn’t a normal relationship, Ken. There are no guarantees. There’s no way to know what could happen in the future. I have to be sure my child has everything she needs.”
He cringed, more likely at the sentiment than the gender, angrily scooping up the tools he’d been using.
“So you think a firefighter can’t provide for a child in the manner you’re used to?”
“I haven’t thought about it,” she said, hoping the honesty in that came through. “I’m s
till figuring out how we might make this work, not our finances. But, yes, I’ve thought about my future now that I’m not alone.”
He moved a seat cushion on the boat and lifted the bench below it to store the tools. “Because I can and I will take care of our child.”
“I think it makes sense to consider all my options.”
“Running EDC is not one of them.”
Resentment punched her hard enough to make her stand. “Please don’t tell me what to do.”
He turned to face her, blinking at her tone. “I just mean—”
She pointed at him. “Don’t tell me what to do,” she repeated.
For a long moment, they stared each other down, the sun as hot as the silent clash of wills, bearing down on them. Finally, Ken sighed and brushed his hand over his hair. “How about I suggest we take a boat ride now?”
Sally pushed up with interest immediately. Her stub of a tail ticktocked rhythmically, and she gave one noisy bark.
“Those are her two favorite words.” Ken laughed. “Boat ride.”
But Beth stayed right where she was on the dock, frozen after the conversation.
Ken held out his hand to help her on board the boat. “Come on. It’ll lower your blood pressure.”
“You know…” She turned, fighting the urge to take a stand by saying no, making him go alone, and punishing him for saying the very things he knew would raise that blood pressure.
Things that made her face the fact that this baby tied them together in a way that he actually did have a right to hold an opinion about how she lived her life.
He still hadn’t lowered his hand. “Man, you’re thinking hard.”
She sighed and closed her fingers around his. “I thought I had it all figured out, this life of mine. And now…everything’s changed.”
He guided her onto the boat deck, holding her hand as she got her footing. “That’s how life is,” he said, turning from her to grab Sally by the belly and hoist her girth onto the boat with a grunt. He placed her on the deck easily, bending over to scratch her head. “There you go, Chunky Monkey.”
Beth watched the exchange, aware of the soft sigh she let out, making Ken look up at her.
“What is it?” he asked.
Barefoot at Moonrise (Barefoot Bay Timeless Book 2) Page 12
