North Star - The Complete Series Box Set

by Tracey Ward

  “Jenna,” Sorcha said happily, pulling me out of my rage. She opened her arms to me and I stepped into the warm embrace. “It’s been grand havin’ ya here, darlin’. Ya have to come back to visit soon.”

  “Of course we will. Thank you so much for having us.”

  “Always. Ya always have a home here with us, do ya hear me, Kellen?” she asked meaningfully over my shoulder.

  I stepped out of the way for Kellen to hug her as well, nodding his head and grinning. “I hear you, Sorcha. I’ll be back, I swear it.”

  “Christmas. We want you for Christmas.”

  “We’ll make it happen.”

  “Grand.” She kissed his cheek and patted his shoulder, tears in her eyes that she stoically kept free from her voice. “And ya send us photographs of the wedding.”

  “Of course.”

  Sean said similar goodbyes, more hugs and kisses went around, and then Mason was there in the driveway ready to take us into The Pale. The rest of the family had made their goodbyes last night at dinner; even Grania. She and Kellen hadn’t said much to each other but there was no anger between them. Only a sort of grudging respect and a whole lot of distance, none of which I understood but I didn’t concern myself with it either. Kellen was a grown-ass man. He could handle his own business.

  I was quiet on the way to the airport, choosing to sit comfortably in the cramped backseat of Mason’s small car listening to the boys go on about boxing and music, watching the windows fog and blur the world outside. It was raining again. Ireland rained us in and it would rain us out, and I wished I could bottle the scent and take it with me home to California where we’d no doubt head into a drought this summer and forest fires would sprout like weeds in the desert. Kellen would be called in. He’d find a job this year, I had no doubt about it, and he’d go to work fighting fires full time.

  That thought left me cold, shivering against the doorframe and pulling my coat tighter around myself. I felt the bulk of the cell phone tucked in my pocket, dead and useless, and my stomach flipped with worry.

  I was a quivering mass of raw nerves by the time we reached the airport.

  Mason gave us each a hug, me a kiss on the cheek, and wished us safe travels. He said something in Gaelic, Kellen repeated it back with a chuckle, and I stood there nervous and stupid as they unloaded my bag from the trunk.

  “We’ll check in and head for a coffee shop,” Kellen assured me. He didn’t need to ask what my problem was. He knew me well enough to know. “They’ll have a power outlet. You can charge the phone there.”

  I grinned at him appreciatively. “Thanks, Kellen.”

  “No problem. We’ll get it sorted out.”

  The line to check in took forever because that was how international travel was, but luckily once we were through customs it was a breeze to find a café with an open charging port. The phone didn’t even have enough juice to turn on while plugged into the wall so I sat with Kellen and a cup of coffee, twitching my foot sporadically while we waited.

  “What if she says no?” he asked me easily, taking a sip of his drink.

  “It won’t matter. I already married you, remember? A few times.”

  He smiled and nodded, looking away and not believing a word of it. He knew my relationship with Laney. He knew how much she meant to me even when she hurt me and he understood that I couldn’t walk away the way he did. I wouldn’t want to.

  I also knew I wouldn’t give him up for her. I’d ride this storm for as long as she raged it and someday when she calmed and ran out of steam things would change. They’d get better, easier. Someday she’d get married and Kellen and I would be absolved. We’d be free.

  Like prisoners finally pardoned.

  I groaned roughly. My body fell forward until my face was pressed to the bleach scented table top and I breathed against it, covering it with fog.

  Kellen reached out and rubbed my shoulders firmly, loosening the tension between the blades on my back and into my neck. The base of my scalp. It felt amazing. He was amazing and I felt like a shit for being so weak when it came to Laney. But if anyone appreciate needing time, asking for patient and understanding, it was Kellen, and that’s what he gave there in that café. Time, patience, silent support, and the greatest shoulder rub I’d ever had in my life.

  After a while he leaned forward and kissed the back of my neck. “It’s charged.”

  I sat up slowly, throwing my hair over my head and out of my face. The phone was turning on, finally powered enough to function. I waited with trepidation but also a growing annoyance. Not with Laney or the phone, but with myself.

  “I’d tell her tough shit,” I said to Kellen, looking up from the phone. His eyes met mine impassively. “If she tells me no, and she probably will even though no one has asked her permission, I’ll tell her tough shit. This is my life. Our life and it’s not her call how we live it or when.”

  Kellen watched me silently for a few seconds, his eyes searching mine. I didn’t blink. I didn’t flinch or falter.

  Finally he nodded once. “Okay.”

  “Okay.”

  We watched each other silently as we waited for the phone to power up. I heard it go through its opening screen. Beep when it was ready for its first command. It was only when it dinged with a new voicemail notification that I looked away.

  I saw the clock first and realized that we were running low on time. Kellen stood to throw our cups away and when he made it back I had gotten into the voicemail.

  There were a lot of them.

  “Whoa,” I muttered.

  “What?”

  “There are six voicemails on here.”

  “Some could be your dad’s from work.”

  “He checks it remotely.” I keyed in the security code he gave me and started listening.

  Jenna, honey, it’s Mom. Hey, I just wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing. How’s the trip going? Make sure to take lots of pictures of Kellen with his family. We’re dying to see them. We miss you. Have fun, you two! Give him our love and tell him how excited we are about the engagement! Love you.”

  I smiled, skipping to the next one.

  “I’m guessing that one wasn’t Laney,” Kellen commented dryly.

  “No. My mom. She wanted to know how we were doing and remind us how excited they are a—oh, hold on!”

  Jenna, call me back.

  I frowned, deleting the message.

  “That one was definitely Laney,” Kellen observed.

  “Yeah. It was short. Just said to call her.”

  Jenna, seriously, call me immediately. Tonight!

  I went to the fourth message.

  What the hell, Jenna? I’m supposed to be mad at you, bitch! Not the other way around. Call. Me.

  Are you kidding me? Are you serious? What the fuck?! Call me!

  Hey, hope you’re having a great time on your vacation with Dickbag. Such a great time that you’re totally abandoning me when I fucking need you! CALL ME!

  A crease had formed between Kellen’s brows, tight and annoyed. He could hear the messages through the phone’s speaker getting progressively louder. The last one, however, was different. Jarringly so.

  Jenna, Laney said pathetically, stopping to sniff. Please, please call me back. I’m so freaked out. I’m not mad. I don’t care about you and Kellen. I need your help. Please.

  “Oh shit.”

  “What?”

  The intercom over us came alive. It was the first boarding call for our flight.

  “She was crying in the last one,” I explained in a hurry, dialing her number. “She was really upset. She said she didn’t care about you and I and that she was freaked out about something and needs my help. She—dammit!” I cursed the phone as Laney’s voicemail picked up.

  “Jenna, we gotta move,” Kellen reminded me. He grabbed both of our bags and started rolling them out of the café.

  “I know. I know. Just let me leave this message.” I waited for the beep and spoke quick
ly into the phone, standing up to follow Kellen. “Hey, Lane, it’s me. I’m sorry. I wasn’t ignoring your calls. The stupid phone died and I didn’t know it. Not until just now and we’re getting on our flight and I’ll be in the air for like eight hours. But call me. Either on this phone in the next few minutes or leave me a message on my cell and let me know what’s going on. I’m worried about you. I love you. Bye.”

  We boarded the flight with plenty of time to spare but the phone never rang. Finally we were taking off and I had to shut it down again.

  I didn’t sleep a wink on the entire flight home.

  When we landed I had my cell phone in my hand before the wheels were all on the ground. Kellen sat patiently and silently beside me, pulling out his own phone and powering it up. I glared at him when I heard his beep first.

  “What?” he chuckled. “It’s not a race.”

  “We have the same provider. How are you getting service and I’m not yet.”

  “My phone is better.” He smiled to himself as he read a text, then he frowned. “Huh.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a message from Tim. He signed me up for a tournament.”

  “He does that all the time.”

  “Yeah, but this one has a championship out of state.”

  “It’s a big one?”

  “A huge one.”

  “Where’s the final bout?”

  He put down his phone and leveled me in his gaze. “Las fucking Vegas.”

  I balked. “No!”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s insane. When?”

  “When is the first bout or when is the championship?”

  “Both.”

  He looked back to his phone. “First bout is next week. Championship is…three months. In March.”

  “Is it at one of the hotels?”

  “No,” he laughed. “It’s not that big of a fight. It’ll be at a local gym but definitely one of the better ones. Probably one where some of the local pros train.”

  My phone finally pinged, grabbing my attention. “You’re gonna do it right?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Text message from Sam. Text from Callum. Sam. Callum. What the hell was happening here? I’d have to sort it out later.

  “You’re doing it,” I told Kellen.

  There it was! Text from Laney.

  Call me when you land.

  “There’s no saying I’ll make it to the championship.”

  I gave him a dubious look. “Are you for real?”

  He shrugged. “I might make it.”

  I continued to stare at him.

  “Fine, I’ll probably make it.”

  “It’s perfect timing. We were just saying you need to visit your dad. This is fate talking to you, telling you to do this.”

  “I think it’s mostly you and Ben telling me that.”

  “I was more convincing though. You gotta give me that.”

  He grinned. “You were very convincing. In fact, I think we need to argue about this at home.”

  I felt my cheeks burn as my blood flowed hot through my veins. “We’ll have a very heated discussion.”

  “The neighbors will complain.”

  “Yours or mine.”

  He hesitated, his face clouding. “Do you think it’s time to do something about that?”

  “Not much we can do about the neighbors besides move.”

  “That’s what I mean. Let’s move. You leave your place, I’m dying to leave mine, and we’ll move in together.”

  My boiling blood turned tepid. “You want to get a place together?”

  “I want to buy a house together.”

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. Shaken from this bombshell. The man who couldn’t commit to anything or anyone had put a ring on my finger only a week ago, broken all his boundaries to make love to me like a dying man devouring his last meal, and now he wanted to buy a house with me.

  I was going to get vertigo from the myriad of changes happening in my world.

  And then my phone rang.

  “Hello?” I answered weakly, still staring at Kellen.

  He stared steadily back. He was serious. He meant it. He wanted this. And I knew I wanted it too.

  I smiled at him and when he smiled back I couldn’t imagine a better feeling than being there with him.

  “Jenna!”

  “Laney,” I blurted, snapping to attention. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

  I was met with silence and immediately my smile began to fade. I knew she was there. I could hear her on the other end, her breathing soft and a little erratic.

  “What’s wrong?” I nudged her gently.

  She sniffled and forced a shaky laugh. “Nothing. Oh my God, nothing. How are you? How was Ireland?”

  “You’re crying.”

  “It’s nothing,” she insisted, her voice growing loud and almost angry in volume, but there was a desperation to it. She was struggling for bravado and coming up short. “How’s Dickbag? Is he good? Did he meet his family?”

  “Laney. What is it?”

  She paused, her breath hiccupping over the line before going silent, but when she broke that silence she didn’t just break it. She shattered it.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Kellen

  I knocked on the door to the Monroe mansion, tugging at my tie and trying to quickly straighten my appearance. That alone felt weird – knocking on the door of a house that I had a key to. That I’d let myself into like I lived there for the better part of a decade. But today was the first time I was going inside since I’d walked out over a year ago when Laney and I broke up for the final time.

  This would be the second of Laney’s engagement parties that I’d been forced into a suit for. The first had been my own, one of the biggest mistakes of my life to date, and now this one. Jenna and I hadn’t met the guy Laney was marrying. All I knew about him was that he worked at her dad’s law firm, they’d been dating for over six months, and he’d knocked her up. Now three weeks after finding out she was pregnant Laney was in a rush to get married before she started to show because appearances mattered to her more than anything else. It made me wonder about the guy. If he was rich and good looking she would have been flaunting him around town, shoving him in everyone’s face the way she used to do with me. Either he was poor or ugly or both, but whatever her reasons for hiding him she had to get over them and fast. We were meeting the unlucky guy tonight.

  The fact that I was invited at all was shocking. And weird. I wish she had said I wasn’t allowed, but according to Jenna she really did seem to be over her anger about Jenna and I dating. She knew we were engaged and while she’d asked us to postpone announcing ours until she could throw her party and celebrate hers, she didn’t have a problem with it. Laney was getting married so now everyone was allowed to get married. She was in love so we all should be. She was moving forward at full speed and she was taking all of us with her.

  It was imperialist bullshit.

  It was pure Laney.

  Jenna opened the door, her face flushed and her eyes scanning my appearance.

  “You’re late,” she scolded mildly, reaching for my tie.

  “I’m good, how are you?”

  She laughed. “I’m good, Kellen. How are you?”

  “Uncomfortable.”

  “Join the club.”

  I looked her over as she moved from my tie to my suit jacket, flattening the lapels. Her hair was piled high on her head, showing off her long neck and small, dangling earrings. They were basic – black stones instead of diamonds that matched the long, thin strand of stones around her neck that hung over her dark gray dress. It was modest, simple. I knew immediately that it was her mom’s influence, but no matter how much Karen had undoubtedly pushed for her to cover up, Jenna was sleeveless. Her tattoos were bursting with life over her skin, set off by the gray color of the dress. She was a walking work of art.

  “Yo
u look beautiful,” I told her deeply.

  She paused to smile at me. “Thank you. So do you.”

  “Are you really okay?”

  “More or less. I’m tired. I’ve been busy.”

  “Planning a wedding isn’t easy.”

  “It could be.”

  “Not this one.”

  She scrunched her nose. “No. Not this one. And I’m sorry about missing the match today. That sucked, but we got stuck at the caterers and there was no escaping.”

  “No, it’s fine. It was a lock. Nothing more than sparring.”

  “Two down, one to go.”

  “Yay,” I cheered unenthusiastically.

  Jenna yanked on my tie playfully. “Brighten up, would you? It’s a party.”

  “One more win and I’ll be back in Vegas sharing air with my shitbox dad. I’m not celebrating that. That or this shotgun wedding.”

  “Well,” Jenna sighed, pushing the door closed behind me, “this should be fun.”

  I grabbed her around the waist as she went to walk past me and pulled her close. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I’ll be good. I promise.”

  “You said that in Ireland.”

  “And I delivered.”

  “No, you didn’t. You bitched out your grandma.”

  I frowned. “Not my grandma and how did you know that?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Sorcha.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Maybe. Know-it-all.”

  I let her go, stepping back to stuff my hands in my pants pockets. It would wrinkle the suit but I did not give one solid shit about it. “I didn’t bitch her out. I told her in no uncertain terms that I didn’t need her advice.”

  “Well, if that was your version of being good maybe you could try a different angle today.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Not talking at all would probably be best.”

  I stepped around her toward the kitchen. “Drinking would be better.”

  “One beer.”

  I laughed. “That’s cute. Where are you hiding it?”

  “Hiding what?” she asked innocently.

  I turned in the pristine, white kitchen covered in hors d'oeuvres trays and champagne bottles. “The tequila.”