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“But no one does the white-knight routine better than your big brother.”
“True,” he agreed. “But in this case, I think it might actually have been Georgia and her kids who saved him. Matt had a really hard time after the divorce.”
Kelly’s nod confirmed that she was aware of those details. “Sounds like Matt and Georgia were lucky to find one another, that each was exactly what the other was looking for, even if neither of them realized it.”
“They do seem perfect for one another, and Matt absolutely dotes on her kids.” of course, Jack’s oldest brother had always wanted a family of his own.
“He would,” she agreed. “Although a lot of men wouldn’t want to take on the responsibility of someone else’s child.”
He didn’t miss that she’d said child and not children, and he suspected that she wasn’t thinking of Matt and Georgia now but of another situation—possibly even her own. And he wondered if she spoke from experience, if she’d been alone since her divorce, reluctant to get involved again for fear that another man wouldn’t accept her daughter.
But he didn’t ask, because it was none of his business. They’d had a brief fling that was ancient history—he had no right to pry into her personal life now.
Except that the history between them continued to haunt his dreams, even after thirteen years. And even more so since he’d learned of her intention to return to Pinehurst.
He still didn’t know what had precipitated the move, or what Kelly’s daughter thought about her decision. He couldn’t imagine that it was easy for a kid to be uprooted from everything that was familiar and moved clear across the country.
He glanced in the rearview mirror again. Kelly’s daughter was a beautiful girl, with long, dark hair just like her mother—aside from the purple streaks, of course. Her eyes were a similar shape, too, and fringed with long, sooty lashes. But the color of her eyes was different. Kelly’s eyes were the warm, golden color of aged whiskey; Ava’s were a clear, emerald green.
He stole another glance, trying to figure out what it was about the child that made him uneasy.
“I guess Ava will be attending Parkdale,” he said now.
“That’s the plan,” Kelly agreed. “I just hope she’s lucky enough to make the kind of friends that I made at school there.”
“It must have been difficult for her, leaving Seattle.”
“It would have been more difficult if we’d stayed.”
It was a surprising revelation from a woman who had previously volunteered no information about her reason for the move across the country. But she didn’t say anything else, and though he was curious, he didn’t press for any details.
Instead, as they passed the elementary school, he said, “You’ll be happy to know that Mrs. Vanderheide finally retired a couple years ago.”
She smiled. “That is good news—at least for Ava.”
“And for all future generations of seventh graders,” he agreed. “Which was proven by the fact that almost all of Pinehurst turned out for her retirement party at the school. She thought they were all there to celebrate her forty years of teaching, but I think everyone just wanted to make sure that she really was retiring.”
The sensuous sound of her soft chuckle heated his blood.
Ancient history, he reminded himself again.
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and turned onto Larkspur Drive, grateful the journey was almost at its end.
“This is it,” he said, pulling into a wide asphalt driveway beside the two-story saltbox-style house. He noticed that there were lights on at both the front and back doors— no doubt Matt’s wife wanted the place to look warm and welcoming, and it did.
“Georgia said she would leave a key in the mailbox,” he told Kelly now. “She also wanted you to know that they had a cleaning company come in yesterday to give the whole house a thorough once-over and that she was in today to inspect and put clean sheets on the beds.”
“I’ll have to remember to thank her for that,” she said. “Because right now, I’m tired enough to fall face down on any horizontal surface.”
He shifted into park and glanced in the rearview mirror again. “Apparently your daughter doesn’t need to be horizontal.”
Kelly turned to look at Ava, who had fallen asleep with her head against the window. Since the days when she could carry her slumbering child were likely long gone, he wasn’t surprised when she reached back to tap the girl’s shoulder. “Wake up, Ava. We’re home.”
He was surprised by her use of the word home, and he frowned as it echoed in his head. It seemed strange to him that, after being gone for more than fifteen years, Kelly would still refer to Pinehurst as home. He hadn’t known if this was a temporary relocation or a permanent move, and he refused to admit that it mattered. He could have asked Luke, of course. No doubt his brother was privy to all of the details of her plans. But asking Luke anything about Kelly when he’d been so careful not to mention her name for so long would undoubtedly trigger more questions that Jack wasn’t prepared to answer.
There was little he didn’t share with his brothers, but the fact that he’d spent a wild weekend with Kelly Cooper was a secret he’d kept for thirteen years—and one that he had no intention of revealing now.
Chapter Two
While Kelly roused her daughter, Jack retrieved their luggage from the trunk. He took the suitcases upstairs, setting the one with Kelly’s name on it in the biggest room and her daughter’s in the room directly across the hall. A quick glance at the tag gave him pause.
He couldn’t remember the name of the guy Kelly had married, but regardless of whether or not she’d taken his name, he would have expected their child to have it. But the tag read Ava Cooper—and it made him think again about the reasons for Kelly’s divorce and her decision to move Ava so far away from Seattle.
Reminding himself that it was none of his business, he headed back down the stairs and, following the sound of voices, into the kitchen.
“You’re only asking for mushrooms because you know I don’t like them,” Kelly said.
“I’m asking for mushrooms because I do like them and that’s what I want on my pizza,” her daughter insisted.
“Well, no one else does, so we’re not getting them.”
He knew he shouldn’t get involved and he had no intention of staying, but Jack heard himself say, “I like mushrooms.”
Ava looked at her mother, her smile more than a little smug. Kelly didn’t look annoyed; she looked…unnerved. Which didn’t make any sense to him at all.
“And bacon?” Ava queried.
“And bacon,” he confirmed.
“Fine, I’ll get half with bacon and mushrooms,” Kelly relented. Then she looked at Jack. “Which means that you’re staying for pizza.”
“If you’d told me you were hungry, I could have stopped somewhere on the way from the airport,” he told her.
“I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now.”
“Then you should order from Marco’s—they deliver and they’re quick.”
He gave her the number, and while Kelly made the call, Ava ventured upstairs to check out her new room and start unpacking. After pizza was ordered, Kelly took a look around. She’d seen photos and even videos of the house before signing the lease, but she wanted to see everything up close. Jack opted to respond to some email messages on his BlackBerry while she explored.
She was back in less than ten minutes, and obviously pleased with everything she’d seen. “Lukas told me the place was furnished, but I didn’t expect it to be so well equipped. There are pots and pans and dishes and cutlery in the kitchen—and even toilet paper in each of the bathrooms. Something else I’ll have to thank Georgia for, because I didn’t think to pack any of that in my suitcase.”
“I’d be surprised if you had room,” Jack said. “Considering that you each only brought one suitcase and one carry-on.”
“I prefer to travel light, but there’s a lot more to come. It just seemed easier—and cheaper—to ship the rest rather than pay the airline fees for extra baggage.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed.
But he still had questions about her sudden decision to return to Pinehurst after so many years away. And he had an uneasy suspicion that nagged at the back of his mind. He hadn’t wanted to ask it while her daughter was in the backseat of his car—even if she had seemed oblivious to their discussion—but it was a question that needed an answer.
“I just hope it arrives on schedule,” Kelly continued her explanation about the luggage. “Because my work clothes are in that shipment and I start my new job on the fifteenth.”
“Was it the job that lured you back to Pinehurst?”
“It was the deciding factor, but I’ve been thinking about coming back for a while,” she admitted. “I wanted a fresh start for Ava and myself.”
Jack tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze.
The contact was casual, but he would have sworn that sparks flew at the brief touch of his fingertip against her skin. Judging by the way Kelly’s eyes widened, she’d felt them, too.
He dropped his hand, forced himself to remember the question he needed to ask. “Was he abusive?”
She blinked, clearly startled by the inquiry. “What? Who?”
“Your ex-husband,” he said. “Because I’ve been wracking my brain, and that’s the only reason I could imagine for taking a child three thousand miles away from her father.”
Kelly dropped her gaze and shook her head. “No, Malcolm wasn’t abusive.”
He wanted to feel relieved—he was relieved. And yet, he couldn’t let go of the suspicion that there was something more Kelly wasn’t telling him.
A suspicion that was confirmed when she looked up again and said, “And he wasn’t Ava’s father.”
Kelly held her breath, waiting for Jackson’s response to her revelation. But before he could say anything, the doorbell rang and Ava was racing down the stairs in response to the summons. “Pizza’s here!”
And that quickly, any chance of taking the conversation further was gone.
Her daughter flung open the door without first looking through the peephole to confirm that it was their food delivery. Of course, in Seattle no one could gain access to their door without first being buzzed into the building, so now that things were different they would have to have a discussion about basic safety precautions.
Or maybe not, considering that this was Pinehurst, where many of the residents didn’t even lock their doors during the day. And wasn’t that one of the reasons she’d brought her daughter here? To give her the benefits of living in a small, close-knit community. Of course, an even bigger reason stood right beside her.
As it turned out, it wasn’t their pizza at the door—it was Lukas with his arms full of grocery bags. Setting the bags down inside the door, he swept Ava up for a big hug. “There’s my favorite girl.”
The girl in question would have been absolutely mortified by such an overt display of affection from her mother, but her cherished “uncle” got away with a lot. And Kelly suspected that the prospect of living in close proximity to Lukas was the one reason that Ava hadn’t kicked harder and screamed louder about the move.
He ruffled her hair. “What’s with the purple streaks?”
“Mom wouldn’t let me have a belly button ring.”
“Makes perfect sense to me. And speaking of your mom…”
He turned to wrap his arms around Kelly, squeezing her so tight she could hardly breathe, but it felt so good—so right—to be in his arms that tears filled her eyes.
“I missed you,” she told him now. “I never realize how much I miss you until I see you again.”
“I’m just glad that you’re finally home.” He released her with obvious reluctance and looked at his brother. “Thanks for doing the airport run.”
“When have I ever objected to picking up a beautiful woman?” Jackson asked.
Lukas chuckled. “Never.”
The knots in Kelly’s stomach returned. Was Jackson’s comment just brotherly banter or a statement to her—a reminder that she’d never meant anything more to him than any other casual pickup? And why did she even care? She hadn’t come back to Pinehurst to rekindle her relationship with Jackson but for Ava to establish a relationship with her father.
Now his words gave Kelly pause. Was he still a relentless flirt and unrepentant playboy? Because that was hardly the type of male role model that she wanted for her impressionable daughter. Or was she just looking to find fault, to justify her own actions? Since that was a question she couldn’t answer right now, she shifted her attention to Lukas instead.
“I should have figured you’d be here in time for pizza,” she said, as the delivery car pulled up in front.
“Am I?” He turned to follow her gaze and grinned. “My timing is impeccable as usual.”
As Kelly dug in her purse for money to pay for their dinner, she couldn’t help thinking his timing would have been much better if he’d been able to meet them at the airport. But she could breathe a little easier now, confident that she’d survived her first face-to-face with Jackson relatively unscathed.
She knew they had to finish their interrupted conversation at some point, but not today. Not when her heart was already feeling battered and bruised by the callous remarks of a man who probably had no idea how much he could hurt her. Instead, she gestured for Jackson to follow Ava—and the pizza—into the kitchen.
He shook his head. “I need to get going.”
“I thought you were going to stay for pizza,” Kelly said.
“I’ve got files to review for court tomorrow.”
Lukas retrieved the bags he’d dropped. “The files will still be there in half an hour,” he pointed out to his brother.
“I’m sure you guys have lots to catch up on,” Jackson said. “You don’t need me hanging around.”
“Your choice—and more pizza for me,” Lukas said with a shrug and a grin as he headed toward the kitchen.
Kelly wished she could be so nonchalant, but she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed that Jackson was leaving. She followed him to the door. “Thanks again for meeting us at the airport.”
“It wasn’t a problem,” he assured her.
Her heart was pounding so hard and fast, she was surprised he couldn’t hear it, and she had to moisten her suddenly dry lips before she could speak. “What I started to say, when we were in the kitchen, about Ava’s father—”
“It’s not really any of my business,” he said.
Actually, it is, she wanted to respond. But aloud she only said, “I want to talk to you about it. There are some things you should know.”
He frowned. “Do you have legal questions about custody?”
She wondered how he could be so oblivious—or maybe she expected too much of him. After thirteen years, he had no reason to suspect that she had news that would turn his whole life—all of their lives—upside down. And instead of being exasperated, maybe she should be grateful that he had no clue, because it meant that she could keep her secret a little bit longer.
Except that coming face-to-face with her daughter’s father, she was forced to acknowledge that thirteen years was already too long. Jackson needed to know the truth, and she needed to deal with the consequences of that revelation—whatever they might be.
“It’s nothing like that,” she said to him now. “I don’t want to talk to you as a lawyer but as a…friend.”
“Okay,” he finally said. “Why don’t you give me a call when you’re ready to talk?”
If she waited until she was ready, she knew that the conversation might not happen for another thirteen years. But she nodded. “I will. Thanks.”
“Okay,” he said again, and then he was gone.
Kelly stood for a moment, staring at the back of the door and feeling much like she imagined Pandora had felt when she’d lifted the lid of a box that should never have been opened.
