To her surprise, it was Ashley who regarded her with evident approval. “You have a very diabolical mind, little sister.” She lifted her wineglass in a toast. “I salute you.”
“Which should tell you something,” Jo said.
“What?” Ashley asked, looking perplexed.
“That the rest of you can stop worrying about me. I’m not the nitwit you take me for. I can handle Pete Catlett and anything else that comes my way.”
Her sisters exchanged a look, then grinned at her.
“You’re our baby sister. We’ll never stop worrying,” Ashley said, patting her hand. “Get used to it.”
Jo sighed. Right there in a nutshell was the primary reason she shouldn’t even consider getting mixed up with Pete—or trying to buy that house that would keep her close to her overprotective sisters.
Somehow, though, as daunting as the prospect was, it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the yearning for either one.
9
Fearing the confrontation that was bound to happen the minute he laid eyes on his ex-wife, Pete approached the ranch-style brick home he’d bought for Kelsey and his son with more than his usual trepidation. Kelsey’s moods could be unpredictable at best. This morning, she might be humble and conciliatory, given the fact that she was clearly in the wrong, but more than likely she’d be defensive and spiteful.
This should have been such a tranquil place for Davey to grow up, Pete thought with another surge of anger. The house was in a quiet residential neighbor hood with good schools nearby. It had cost more than he could afford at the time, but he’d wanted his son to have nothing but the best, and he’d been determined to be fair to Kelsey, too. Whatever else he thought of her, she would always be the mother of his son, and for that alone, he wanted to show her the respect she deserved.
Sometimes, though, she made it damn hard.
As he tried to settle his temper, he noticed that despite the money he sent her each month in alimony, none of it was apparently being spent on upkeep. The shutters needed painting and the garage door looked to be stuck halfway up.
He parked behind his ex-wife’s brand-new SUV—a car which told him exactly where her money was going—and crossed the lawn to the front door. Davey came charging out before he got there and launched himself straight at Pete with a wild whoop of excitement.
“Hey, buddy,” Pete said, laughing as he scooped the boy up and noted that his clothes were surprisingly neat for nine in the morning. Usually by now, Davey would have managed to make a mess of whatever he’d put on. “You look good.” He buried his nose in the kid’s stomach till Davey started giggling, then added, “Smell good, too.”
“Mom let me take my bath this morning instead of last night, so I’d look good when you got here. Can I go next door and play now? Mom says you guys have gotta talk or something. Grown-up stuff, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s grown-up stuff,” Pete agreed. “I can’t believe you want to play and spoil these nice, clean clothes.” He paused, leaned closer, then asked with an expression of mock horror, “What if you have to take another bath?”
Davey giggled. “I’ll be careful,” he promised.
Pete rolled his eyes at the likelihood of that. “A half hour, pal. Then you and I are going to look for supplies for whatever it is you want to make as a science project.”
“And we’re having lunch out, too, right?”
“Absolutely. Whatever you want.”
“Hamburgers and pizza,” Davey said at once.
“That might be overdoing it,” Pete said. “Think about it and pick one or the other. Now let me go in and say hello to your mom.”
Davey was about to bound off down the street to his friend’s house, but he suddenly turned and came back, his expression worried. “You and mom aren’t gonna yell, are you?”
Pete tugged his son’s baseball cap down over his eyes. “Nope.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” It was a promise he had every intention of keeping, unless Kelsey failed to listen to reason.
Apparently satisfied, Davey took off running toward the neighbor’s house. Pete watched till he went inside, then turned toward Kelsey’s. When he walked in, he could hear the noise of cartoons coming from the family room and concluded that Davey had left the set on as usual. He listened some more and finally heard the faint sounds of water running in the kitchen. He headed in that direction.
Kelsey was at the kitchen sink, her hands in soapy dishwater. She stiffened when she heard him enter.
“Hey,” Pete said, shrugging out of his jacket.
She turned slowly and he noted her unusually pale complexion and the worried expression on her face.
“I’m not going to jump down your throat again,” he assured her.
She relaxed some at that. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened,” she told him. “I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. You were right. I was wrong.”
He met her troubled gaze and reminded her, “You’ve said that before.”
“I know, but we’re living here in the land of families, and this place gets so damn lonely sometimes. I just wanted to go out with an adult for a change, instead of a carload of six-year-olds.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Pete agreed, “but Davey can’t be here by himself. Work out a deal with another mom to keep him, or find a reliable babysitter. I don’t care what you do, but I meant what I said, Kelsey. If I find out he’s here alone—and I don’t care if you’ve just gone to the store for milk—I will go to court. I don’t want to do that to him or to you, but I will. His safety is the priority here.”
She looked thoroughly rattled by his quietly spoken declaration, more disconcerted than she might have been if he’d been shouting. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
She sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, then,” she said. “I won’t do anything to make you resort to that.”
Pete prayed she’d keep that promise, but he knew from past history that the commitment could be just as fleeting as all her other promises. For now, though, he’d done all he could to warn her and to protect his son.
“So, how are you?” he asked. “Everything else okay?”
Her hands trembled slightly, but she nodded. “Great. What about you? Is everything good back home?”
“It’s been busy,” he told her. “I got several houses started and under roof this fall, so my crew’s been working on the interiors now that the weather’s a little rough out there.”
“Anybody ask about me?” she inquired.
She sounded so wistful, Pete wished he honestly could say yes, but the truth was that most people in the town who knew both of them had taken his side in the divorce. They asked about Davey regularly, but any mention of Kelsey was likely to draw scowls, if not disdainful comments. Fortunately, they all knew better than to react that way when his son was around. He saw no point in telling her that, though.
“Sure,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “You grew up there. Your name’s bound to come up. People want to know how you’re doing.”
“What do you tell them?”
“That you’re happy living in Richmond.” He studied her intently. “You are happy, aren’t you? This is what you wanted, after all.”
Her cheeks flushed a bit at the reminder and for an instant he thought she might tell him the truth, for once, but then her pride apparently kicked in and she forced an obviously phoney smile. “I love it. Even here in ‘Familyville,’ it’s better than that hick town any day.”
“That’s how I thought you felt,” he said. “Though if you were ever to change your mind and decide you want to come home, we could get you a place down there. You know what it would mean to me to have Davey close by.”
“Forget it,” she said fiercely, either out of pride or some stubborn determination to keep him separated from his son. “You couldn’t pay me enough to get me back there.”
“Whatever,” Pete said
with a sigh. “Look, I’d better go next door and get Davey. Any particular time you want me to bring him back here?”
“Suit yourself,” she said with unmistakable bitterness. “You’re the one who insisted on coming today.”
Pete told himself not to rise to the bait. “Then I guess I’ll see you later. I’ll have him back around five. I might stick around for an hour or so to help him with this science thing he’s dreamed up.”
His announcement was greeted with silence as Kelsey turned her back on him and went back to washing dishes. He stared at her with regret, then walked away.
Just once, he thought as he left the house, he wished that they could attain a level of civility and maintain it throughout his visit. It never failed, though, that something would set her off and the contact would turn, if not into an argument, then at least into a cold war of sorts.
It struck him then that his ex-wife was simply one of those people who would never be truly happy. She’d gotten exactly what she wanted with the divorce, custody of their son and this house in Richmond, but she still wasn’t satisfied. It seemed likely she never would be, and that struck him as unbearably sad.
“So, can we, Dad?” Davey pleaded as Pete turned into the empty driveway at the house just before five o’clock.
Trying not to overreact to the obvious evidence that Kelsey had taken off, Pete forced his attention to his son. “Can we do what?”
“Weren’t you listening?” Davey asked, his exasperation plain.
“Obviously not as well as I should have been,” Pete told him, reaching over to muss up his hair. He’d lost his baseball cap somewhere along the way and his gloves. He probably would have left his jacket behind, too, but Pete had seen that on the floor under their table at the hamburger joint where they’d had lunch a few hours earlier. Pete had grabbed it before they left.
“I was asking if we could play a video game before you go home,” Davey repeated.
“Sure, but what about that whole science thing you were so anxious to get into? We bought a whole bag full of stuff for that.”
“Next time,” Davey pleaded. “This game is so awesome. I want to show you.”
“Okay, pal, a video game it is. Now grab that stuff from the backseat and I’ll get the pizza.” He’d bought a large one for dinner, thinking they would be sharing it with Kelsey.
They hadn’t agreed to that, he reminded himself as he went inside. He couldn’t get all worked up over her not being here. She was bound to be back soon. She knew he was bringing Davey back at five, because he’d told her.
But by the time he and Davey had eaten and played the video game for over an hour, there was still no sign of Kelsey. He sent his son off to take a bath and get ready for bed, then dialed Kelsey’s cell phone number. She didn’t pick up.
When Davey finally came padding downstairs, his hair standing up in damp spikes, his feet bare and his pajamas inside out, Pete had to bite back a grin. At least the kid had tried.
“Where’s Mom?”
“I have no idea, buddy. She didn’t leave a note.”
Worry immediately creased his son’s brow. “You’re not going to go, are you?”
“No way. Come on. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll tuck you in. You can read me a bedtime story.”
Davey giggled. “You’re supposed to read it to me. I don’t know enough words yet.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Pete said. “I’d forgotten how it worked. You’re so smart I figured you’d know a bunch of words by now. Maybe you could show me the ones you do know.”
Davey nodded eagerly. “I could do that.”
Upstairs, he picked a book from the stack beside his bed, then crawled in and scooted over to make room for Pete.
With his kid snuggled up next to him, Pete almost forgot about his exasperation with Kelsey. He’d missed nights like this. They were far too rare.
Together they read the story, but by the last page Davey’s eyes were drifting shut. Pete closed the book, slipped off the bed, then pressed a kiss to Davey’s forehead. “’Night, son.”
Davey’s blue eyes blinked open. “’Night, Dad. I love you.”
“Back at you, kid.”
After Davey drifted off again, Pete stood looking down at him, his heart filled with such aching joy he could hardly stand it. This boy was a part of him. He deserved nothing but the best, but he wasn’t getting it, not from either of his parents. And there didn’t seem to be a damn thing Pete could do to change that.
He went downstairs, poured himself a glass of milk, then settled into a chair in front of the TV to wait for his ex-wife.
His eyes repeatedly drifted closed, then snapped open at some unexpected sound, but it was well after midnight when he finally heard Kelsey at the front door.
Pete flipped off the TV and stood up. When she rounded the corner into the family room, he stepped into her path. “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded, unable to keep his temper in check.
Defiance flashed in her eyes. “Out.”
“Not good enough,” he said coldly. “You knew I was bringing Davey back at five.”
“You said you were going to stick around, so I figured there was no reason for me to be here, too,” she said.
“An hour, Kelsey. I told you I’d be here an hour or so, not till after midnight. Dammit, didn’t you hear anything I said to you earlier? Didn’t your promise mean a damn thing?”
“Davey wasn’t alone,” she reminded him. “That was the deal.”
He sighed at her twisted logic. “Is this the way it’s going to be? Do you really want things to get complicated?”
She scowled at him. “Do whatever you need to do to feel like a big man, Pete. Frankly, I don’t care.”
He knew he’d pushed his luck by insisting on coming down here today, but he intended to push it even harder. It was past time he exerted a few more of his own parental rights, rather than bending over backward to keep things calm between them. Maybe she’d eventually get the message that he was losing patience with her games and that he was going to stick to the letter of the court’s ruling, which guaranteed him a lot more time with Davey than he’d taken advantage of up till now for the sake of peace.
“Okay, then, this is what I need to do,” he told her flatly. “I’ll be back next Friday to pick Davey up from school. I’m taking him home with me for the long President’s Day weekend.”
Fear flashed in her eyes at that. “Oh, no, you’re not. That’s not one of his weekends to be with you. I didn’t fight you this time, but I will fight you on that.”
He regarded her with bemusement. “Why? It’s obvious you’d rather be doing something besides taking care of our son. Consider this a bonus break for you. Be sides, the court granted me four extended holiday visits a year. I intend to take this one.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ll find some way to use it against me. I love that kid. You’re not going to take him away from me. And I won’t let you spend time turning him against me.”
“You know I’d never do that, Kelsey,” he responded patiently. “What’s the real problem here?”
“I want him with me next weekend.”
He knew better, but he asked anyway, “Did you already have something special planned?”
“No, but—”
Pete didn’t know why he felt the need to push so hard for this, but he couldn’t seem to let it go. He cut her off. “You need a break, Kelsey. Let me give it to you. I promise I won’t hold it against you for saying yes to this. Have you ever known me to break my word?”
She looked as if she wanted to argue, but he knew she’d also started to consider what she could do with all that free time. “Okay, but just this once, right? You’re not going to start making it a habit?”
“No. We’ll stick to the schedule,” he promised. To the letter, he added mentally.
“Okay, then. I’ll let the school know you’re coming on Friday.”
They
both knew it was a halfhearted attempt to prove she was in control. Both of their names were on the school list. Pete could have picked up his son with out her permission, but he let her have her momentary feeling of power.
“Thanks. I’ll call during the week to find out when you want him back on Monday, so there’s no confusion.”
She nodded, suddenly looking oddly defeated. “Look, it’s late. Why don’t you just stay till morning? You could see Davey again before you go.”
Pete was tempted, but he’d learned a long time ago it was best not to accept Kelsey’s hospitality. The last time he had, she’d tried to crawl into bed with him. Getting her out had been awkward and unpleasant.
“I’ll be fine. I had a nap while I was waiting for you.” He pulled on his jacket and headed from the room. When he turned back, she still looked so dejected that he came back and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Take care of yourself.”
“Yeah, sure,” she murmured.
As he drove away, he realized she was standing in the shadows at the front window, staring after him. That, too, struck him as unbearably sad. It was the second time that day he’d felt a surge of pity for his ex-wife.
Pete was in an odd mood from the second he turned up on Monday morning. Once upon a time, Jo had been able to read him easily, but not this morning.
He’d arrived with another bag of those warm blueberry doughnuts, two extra large coffees and the usual lighthearted quips, but there was definitely something on his mind. There were unmistakable shadows in his eyes. To her dismay, she wanted to know what had put them there. She knew that asking would only draw her more deeply into his life, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from wondering.
Even as he was outside pounding nails into wood with more force than necessary, she watched him, startled by the anger and tension that seethed just beneath the surface. He hadn’t said why he wasn’t going on to another job site, and she hadn’t asked about that, either. Maybe he was suddenly anxious to get this one finished so he could steer clear of her. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, if that was the case.
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