Kitabı oku: «A Lawman for Christmas», sayfa 2

Chapter Three

“He seems like a very nice man,” Kate commented to Kelsey.

Morgan had helped Kate out of the wheelchair that the hospital’s insurance policy required for all inpatients leaving the premises, then gently eased her into her daughter’s car. True to his word, the young policeman followed behind them as Kelsey drove her home.

Kelsey lifted one shoulder in a dismissive half shrug. “He’s okay for a policeman.”

She glanced up into her rearview mirror. If she was hoping that he’d taken off instead of following them, she was disappointed. In true law enforcement style, Donnelly drove a sensible distance behind them.

Kelsey sped up.

So did he.

She had a gut feeling that Officer Morgan Donnelly was not an easy man to shake.

She couldn’t really put into words why, but the fact that he trailed behind them annoyed her. Kelsey knew she was unreasonable, that the policeman had been extremely accommodating and made things easy for her. She should be grateful.

But policemen as a species were not really high on her approval list right now. Not since she’d broken up with Dan. Moreover, she wasn’t exactly in the best of moods. For one thing, she was still shaken up by having to rush to the hospital, not knowing what to expect when she got there. For another, the news of her mother’s current delicate condition had completely thrown her for a loop.

If one of her brothers had told her that they were expecting, she would have been instantly overjoyed. This was something else again. It would take getting used to.

Kelsey could feel her mother’s gaze.

Glancing briefly to her right, Kelsey asked, “What?”

“Since when do you have something against policemen?” Kate asked.

Ordinarily, her life was an open book. She and her mother were more than family—they were friends and she valued her mother’s insight and judgment. But this had been a very personal hurt. Because she hadn’t wanted to endure her brothers’ teasing, not to mention their questions, no one had even known she was seeing Dan at the time. And afterward, when she’d felt like an idiot because Dan had been stringing her along, well, she didn’t feel like sharing that, either.

It definitely wasn’t a topic she wanted to raise now.

Kelsey shook her head. “Mom, I don’t want to waste time talking about policemen.”

Kate smiled. “What do you want to waste time talking about?”

“I don’t want to waste time at all—” Kelsey realized that her voice was tense. But then, this wasn’t an everyday situation. Stopping at a stoplight at an intersection, she slanted another look at her mother. “Mom, what are you going to do?”

Clearly puzzled by the question, Kate asked, “About?”

“World peace,” Kelsey retorted, her tension getting the best of her. And then she flushed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be so flip. About the baby, Mom. What are you going to do about the baby?”

Her mother never hesitated. “Start eating healthier, exercising more. And giving up that glass of wine I always have with your father at dinner.” The light turned green and Kelsey pressed down on the gas pedal. There was just the slightest shift in her mother’s voice as she asked, “What else would I do?”

How in heaven’s name do you ask your mother if she was considering an alternative to giving birth? For one of the few times in her life, Kelsey felt tongue-tied. Taking a breath, she forced herself to forge ahead.

The words came out haltingly. “Well, I thought maybe, because you’re not twenty-four anymore…”

Reading between the lines, Kate took pity on her. “I know how old I am, Kelsey. And the doctor says I’m definitely healthy enough to go the distance.”

Yes, her mother was healthy and energetic and all those good things. But having a baby was a life-altering decision. Her mother had to know that. “What about after the distance? This doesn’t just end with delivery.”

Kate made no attempt to hide her amusement. “Are you under the impression that you’re telling me something I don’t know, Kelsey? I don’t have that short a memory, sweetheart.”

Kelsey hadn’t meant to sound insulting. Because her mother was with her, she slowed down rather than raced through a yellow light. “No, of course not, it’s just that—that I’m worried.”

Kate patted her hand just as the light turned green again. “Don’t be. This baby thing threw me for a loop, too, but I’m already getting used to it. It’ll mean changes, but it’ll also mean that I get to hear a sweet little voice say ‘Mama’ again.”

“I can call you Mama again if you want,” Kelsey volunteered as she took the on-ramp to the northbound freeway. “What about the diapers and the sleepless nights and the cost?”

In Kate’s mind, the reward was a great deal more than the sacrifice. “What about the love?” she countered.

Kelsey spared her mother a quizzical glance. “Five of us loving you—not counting Dad—isn’t enough?”

Her mother’s laugh was warm, reassuring, as if she sensed the ambivalent feelings Kelsey was going through.

“There’s always room for more, Kelsey. Always room for more. A mother’s love is infinite. It’s not a pie with only so much to go around so that if you slice it seven ways instead of six, there’ll be less for everyone.” Kate shifted in her seat for a better view of her daughter. “I’ll still love everyone the same way, Kelsey. There’ll just be one more at the table, that’s all.”

She was grateful to her mother for not saying that this was ultimately not her business to meddle in. But then, both her parents had made all of them feel that they were a unit, not parents and children or worse, individual strangers. In her family’s case, although individuality was encouraged, at bottom it was a case of one for all, all for one.

And she needed to get behind this newest phase, Kelsey told herself sternly.

There was sympathy in Kelsey’s voice as she asked, “Then you’re okay with this, Mom? With being pregnant, I mean?”

“I am wonderful with this,” her mother assured her. Her eyes danced as she said, “Children keep you young.”

For the first time since she’d rushed out of the school, Kelsey laughed. “I thought you said that children give you gray hair.”

“That, too,” Kate acknowledged. “But gray hair happens at any age. I had an aunt who started going gray at twenty-five. And the dividends are so wonderful. Look at you,” she added to make her point.

“You’re not afraid?” Kelsey asked, thinking of how she would have reacted if she were in her mother’s shoes.

Kate let out a long breath. A great many emotions shifted through her. Joy was foremost, but other emotions, as well. “I’m terrified.”

“Terrified?” Kelsey looked at her, then back at the road. How could her mother be happy and terrified at the same time? “You certainly don’t act it.”

Kate was nothing if not honest. It was the cornerstone of her relationship with everyone in her family. That and love.

“Doesn’t mean I’m not. The prospect of bringing a new life into the world is always terrifying. Will he or she be healthy? Will I do a good job raising him or her—”

Kelsey stopped her. “Seriously?” she asked incredulously.

“Seriously,” Kate responded.

How could her mother possibly even spend half a second wondering? “Mom, you’ve got to be the world’s greatest mother. You know that.”

“What I might know and what the baby thinks are two very different things.” Kate closed her eyes, momentarily slipping back into the past. “Remember when you packed up your storybooks and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, determined to run away from home because you were so angry at me?”

Kelsey had forgotten all about that until just now. The memory evoked a nostalgic laugh.

“I remember,” she said with feeling. “You took Trevor’s side against mine.” She recalled how hurt she’d felt. Running away had been her only way to retaliate. She was convinced her mother would come searching for her, tears streaming down her face. After a sufficient amount of time, she would have forgiven her mother’s transgression and returned.

God, had she ever been that young? Kelsey wondered.

“I mediated, I didn’t take sides,” Kate corrected. “And you were a little bully,” she added with great affection. “You kept hitting him because you knew he wouldn’t hit you back.”

Kelsey shook her head. If anyone should have run away from home, it was her mother. “How did you put up with all that?”

The answer was simple. “Love makes everything easier to deal with.”

“I guess,” Kelsey murmured.

She’d never had that in her own life. Oh, she loved her parents and her brothers dearly, and she was even getting there with her new sisters-in-law. But as far as eventually having her own life partner, someone who would be there at her side until the end of time, Kelsey sincerely doubted that would ever happen.

At the moment, she was still working on trying to be okay with that scenario. So far she wasn’t having all that much luck. But eventually, she’d get used to it, she promised herself.

Kate took a deep breath as Kelsey pulled the car up into the driveway. In a way, she was mentally bracing herself for what lay ahead. She turned to her daughter. “I’m counting on you to be there for me when I tell your father about the baby, you know.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Kelsey assured her, turning off the ignition. “I’ll bring the smelling salts.” She saw her mother looking at her, arching one very expressive eyebrow. “You’ve got to admit this is going to hit him like a bombshell.”

“Not a bombshell,” Kate protested, softening the description. “Maybe a little like getting caught in an unexpected summer downpour.”

“If you say so. Hey, wait, let me help you,” Kelsey cried as her mother opened the passenger door and began to get out.

“Kelsey, I’m perfectly able to—”

Her mother didn’t get a chance to finish. Morgan had pulled his car up behind them and was now at the passenger side of Kelsey’s vehicle. Placing his hand beneath her elbow, he was gently helping Kate out of the vehicle.

Kate smiled her gratitude as she gained her feet. “Thank you, Morgan.”

“My pleasure, Kate.”

He said it as if he meant it. What was the man’s angle? Kelsey couldn’t help wondering. Why was he being so accommodating?

“Once you’re settled in,” Morgan continued, “your daughter and I will get your car.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Kelsey protested. She couldn’t ask her brothers for help, but there were other people she could summon. “I’ve got friends I can call—”

“I’m sure you do,” he said, cutting her off. “But I like seeing things through. It won’t take long,” he promised, addressing Kate again. “Besides, I’ll be off duty soon.”

Kelsey eyed him a little uncertainly. “I don’t know much about being a cop,” Kelsey admitted, “but don’t you have to sign out or something?”

“Don’t worry about ‘or something,’” he told her. “I’ve got it covered. For all intents and purposes, I’m all yours.”

Kelsey was about to quip “Lucky me” but stopped herself at the last minute when she realized that Morgan was no longer talking to her. Her mother was the recipient of the “I’m all yours” comment.

“This is all very nice of you,” Kate protested, “but don’t you have something else you should be doing?”

Morgan shook his head. “Not at the moment. This all comes under the heading of ‘protect and serve.’” He slanted a look in her direction.

The man was obviously anxious to get going, Kelsey surmised. “Do you need anything before we go, Mom? Maybe you should lie down. I can take you up—”

Kate placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “I’m pregnant, Kelsey, not fragile. I’ll be fine, trust me.” Dropping her hands, Kate fished out a set of keys from her purse and held them out to her. “Here, you’ll be needing these.”

Kelsey merely smiled and accepted the keys. This wasn’t the time to tell her mother that she knew how to hotwire a car, having learned how from one of the boys she’d dated while in high school. A boy who, once her brothers got wind of him and his reputation, never showed up at the house again. When it came to outsiders, her brothers had been fiercely protective of her. They still were.

“I’ll be back soon, Mom,” she promised, brushing a kiss against her mother’s cheek.

“Don’t forget, Kelsey, you’re having dinner here tonight,” Kate reminded her.

“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away,” Kelsey promised.

Kate turned toward the departing policeman. “You’re invited, too, Morgan.”

Kelsey stared at her mother, speechless.

The invitation took Morgan by surprise, as well. It was a couple of moments before he found his tongue. “Thanks, but I’ve got plans.”

He hadn’t, but in his judgment, this evening would be tough enough for the woman without making her husband share it with some total stranger.

Kate inclined her head, accepting his answer. “Some other time then, perhaps.”

“Some other time,” he echoed.

Morgan understood the worth of a line like that. It might have actually been uttered in the belief that “some other time” would happen, but he knew it wouldn’t. The woman’s gratitude, which had prompted her to tender the invitation in the first place, would quickly fade as she returned to her routine and the need to make the invitation a reality would fade along with it.

Still, it was a nice gesture, Morgan thought, following the attractive woman’s equally attractive daughter outside.

“She’s a nice woman, your mother,” Morgan said, finally breaking the silence that had followed them into his squad car. The silence had spilled out throughout the vehicle and accompanied them for the first five minutes of the trip. It threatened to continue indefinitely.

“She is,” Kelsey agreed. “Mom is one of a kind.” She shifted in her seat, curious. “How long were you following her?”

Morgan glanced at her before looking back at the road. “Excuse me?”

“You said you saw her weaving erratically in the lane. How long were you following her? A minute? Two? Three?”

Morgan shrugged. “A minute, maybe two. I turned on Harvard where it intersected University Drive. Your mother had just driven by.”

“And when you turned on your siren, she crashed into the bushes?” Kelsey asked.

Morgan knew where the young woman was going with this. She probably thought that his following her mother had made her nervous and that she’d hit the bushes because of him, not because she’d fainted. But Kelsey was wrong.

“I hadn’t turned on my siren—or my lights yet,” he added. He’d witnessed other accidents that hadn’t turned out nearly as well. “All in all, your mother’s a very lucky woman.”

“Mom likes to call it the luck of the Irish,” she told him.

His father’s father had emigrated from Ireland when he was a boy. “Is your mother from there?”

“Why?” Kelsey asked guardedly.

“No reason. I just thought I detected a slight accent.”

Periodically her mother tried to lose her accent, but her father always protested, saying he really loved the slight Irish lilt in her voice.

“The same could be said about you,” Kelsey pointed out. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No,” he deadpanned, “I live in Tustin,” he said, mentioning the name of the city next to Bedford.

She frowned. He was deliberately being obtuse. “That’s not what I meant.”

Morgan dropped the act. “I know what you meant, Ms. Marlowe. I’m from Georgia originally. Now do I get to ask a question?”

“As long as you understand that I don’t have to answer if I don’t want to.” Her eyes met his. The ground rules were accepted. “Go ahead.”

“Is this chip on your shoulder something recent,” he asked amicably, “or is it some congenital thing?”

She opened her mouth to retort that it was none of his business what she had on her shoulder, but then she closed it again. She could almost hear her mother reprimanding her. And she’d be right. She was taking out her tension—and Dan’s behavior—on Donnelly. Because he’d come to her mother’s aid, he didn’t deserve this.

“I’m sorry if I’m coming across a little testy—”

He laughed shortly. “Little being a relative term here,” he interjected.

“Okay,” Kelsey backtracked, “a lot testy,” she admitted. “But nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

He glanced at her thoughtfully. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Ms. Marlowe, but ‘this’ didn’t happen to you. It happened to your mother. She’s the one you should be thinking about, not yourself.”

“I am thinking about her. About how awful it would have been if she’d been hurt.” She drew herself up, taking offense. “And just where do you get off lecturing me, Donnelly?”

“Not lecturing,” he countered mildly, “just pointing the obvious out. Your mother’s okay. A bit shaken up, but okay. That makes her one of the lucky ones.”

Something in his voice caught her attention. Donnelly wasn’t just spouting rhetoric, he was speaking from firsthand experience. Undoubtedly, as a policeman he’d seen things the average person hadn’t, and they’d left a lasting impression. He was right. She had to take a page out of her mother’s book and just focus on the positive.

Kelsey took a deep breath. She stared down at her hands. They were folded and clenched in her lap. She willed herself to relax as she tried to banish the tension gripping her.

“Yes, it does,” she acknowledged. Kelsey knew she owed this policeman a debt for being so nice to her mother. A debt she didn’t take lightly. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t even thank you for taking my mother to the hospital. You could have just called for an ambulance and gone on your way.”

“No, I couldn’t,” he answered too quickly. When he caught the confused expression on her face, he tried to shrug away his near slip. “It’s all part of that protect and serve thing I was telling you about. It’s the job,” he emphasized. Gratitude always made him feel awkward. He didn’t know how to accept it or give it.

“Protect and serve,” she repeated. “And which was this?”

A smile crept over his lips. A smile, she thought, that made him look more approachable. Not to mention sexy. She banished the last part from her mind. Policemen weren’t sexy. If anything, they were trouble.

“A little of both,” he answered.

With that, he turned the squad car onto University Drive. That was when she got her first glimpse of her mother’s vehicle. From the rear, the car looked to be all right. But then they drew closer. And Kelsey saw the front of the vehicle. It definitely wasn’t what she expected to find.

“Oh God,” she cried without fully realizing it as Morgan got closer to the car.

It was not a pretty sight.

Chapter Four

The closer they came, the further Kelsey felt her heart sink. Although the back of her mother’s car was untouched, the front was bruised, scratched and badly dented. If human, it would have easily been deemed the loser in a fight. She could just imagine what it was like under the hood.

Her mother’s car held a very special place in her heart. She’d learned how to drive in it.

Kelsey could remember her mother sitting beside her while she practiced early in the morning in a deserted parking lot. She’d felt as if she was flying when in reality she was only going eleven miles an hour.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?” she cried, staring at the vehicle.

Waiting until the road was clear, Morgan made a U-turn and guided the squad car directly behind the badly battered sedan. Kate’s car had spun out before crashing into the bushes that ran along the perimeter of the college’s athletic field.

By the time he opened his door, Kelsey had already left his squad car and was examining the damage to her mother’s vehicle.

“To be honest, I didn’t focus on the vehicle,” he told her. “I was focused on making sure your mother was all right.”

He had his priorities straight. And she was being waspish, Kelsey upbraided herself. Contrite, she nodded at him.

“Sorry. You’re right. My mother definitely matters more than a mashed-up grill,” she murmured, then circled around again to the front. The hood was pushed in, proving that the bushes were tougher than they looked. It was a miracle that her mother didn’t sustain any bad cuts or bruises.

The driver’s-side door creaked and groaned like an arthritic eighty-year-old man when she opened it. The door made even louder noises when she attempted to shut it again. It resisted complete closure.

Morgan nodded at the door. “Doesn’t sound promising,” he commented.

Sitting behind the wheel, Kelsey put her mother’s key into the ignition and turned. The engine wheezed, then coughed and sputtered before finally giving up the ghost. With an exasperated sigh, Kelsey tried again. This time, the engine remained silent. There wasn’t even a weak sputter. The third attempt was no better. Kelsey got out again.

“I’m going to have to call a tow truck,” she sighed, resigned. She looked at him. “You have any recommendations?”

“Pop the hood.”

He caught her by surprise. “What?”

“Pop the hood.” He nodded toward the driver’s side. “There should be a release right under—”

“I know where the release is,” she told him. His assumption of her ignorance annoyed her. She wasn’t one of those women whose entire knowledge about cars stopped at putting the key into the ignition.

Reaching into the car, Kelsey pulled the lever. The hood made a strange noise in response. It took Morgan a couple of minutes to free it from its latch.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Morgan didn’t answer her right away. He was busy assessing the damage and testing various connections, estimating what might be wrong with the car from the noises it had made—and some it conspicuously hadn’t—when Kelsey had turned the key.

“Checking out the engine,” he finally said just before she repeated her question. He dropped the hood back into place. “I know someone who’s pretty much of a wizard when it comes to working on cars. I can get the car towed to his place.”

“How much does this Mr.Wizard charge?” she asked.

Reaching inside the car, he removed the keys and handed them back to Kelsey. “He’s reasonable.”

“One man’s reasonable is another man’s steep,” she pointed out, moving in front of him and getting into his face.

His eyes met hers. “Trust me, your mother will be all right with it.”

Kelsey paused for a long moment, debating. Ordinarily, she would have given her mother the details and asked her what she wanted to do. But the woman had enough to deal with right now. And she supposed that a mechanic with a recommendation was better than trusting the fate of her mother’s car’s to the luck of the draw.

“Okay, give Mr. Wizard a call and ask him if he can come down to take a look at this.”

There was just the smallest hint of a smile on the patrolman’s lips. “Not necessary.”

“What, you communicate with him by telepathy?” When he didn’t answer, it suddenly hit her. “It’s you?” she asked in surprise.

“My father ran a garage. I used to help out after school,” he told her. “Turns out I had a knack for fixing things.”

“So why did you become a policeman?”

Telling her that he didn’t want to be like his father was far too intimate a revelation. Morgan merely looked at her for a long moment, then said, “Not all things that need fixing are cars.”

From the way he said it, she had a feeling that Donnelly wasn’t going to elaborate on the enigmatic statement even if she asked him to.

Her curiosity was instantly aroused.

Kelsey hated not knowing things, like the answer to a question, the end of a story or the proper response to a riddle. She really needed to know. Once she found out the answer, the almost rabid desire to obtain a response vanished.

But for the moment, her curiosity had to take a backseat to getting her mother’s car repaired. The sooner she finished up here, the sooner she could get back to the house. Her mother needed her. Needed moral support before breaking this news to the rest of the family.

Kelsey eyed the dormant vehicle. Did he intend to call a tow truck or attempt to levitate it? “So where do we go from here?”

Morgan thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve got an idea.”

It was starting to feel like she had to drag everything out of him. “Which is?”

Instead of answering her he sat down behind the steering wheel and felt around on the left side of the steering column for the hood release. Pulling it, he got out and opened the hood again. This time, it sagged immediately, refusing to remain up long enough for him to test his theory.

“I need you,” he said to Kelsey.

“Why, Officer Donnelly, we hardly know each other,” Kelsey quipped, deliberately batting her eyelashes at him.

“Cute,” he commented. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Come here.”

Man’s interpersonal skills left something to be desired, Kelsey thought. “Do I goose-step over,” she asked, “or just shuffle?”

“Point taken.” He hadn’t meant to sound as if he was ordering her around. “Come here, please. I need you to hold up the hood while I try to get your mother’s car going long enough to drive it over to my place.”

Joining him, she put her hands under the hood and held it up for him. “Assuming that you can accomplish this mystifying feat, where will I be while you’re driving the car?”

“You’ll be the one who’s driving the car,” he corrected. “I’ll follow in the squad car.”

From where she stood, that didn’t sound too promising. Kelsey stared down at the engine. “Is it safe?”

“To follow you?” he guessed, his expression unreadable. “I don’t know yet.”

“I was referring to driving the car.”

“Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?” he quipped. And then he laughed at her surprised expression. “Don’t worry, Kelsey. I won’t put you in a car that’s about to blow up.” He went back to adjusting wires. “Too much paperwork to fill out if that happens.”

She wasn’t sure if he was pulling her leg or not. His expression certainly didn’t enlighten her any. “Nice to know you have your priorities straight.”

“I’ll do just about anything to get out of doing paperwork,” he told her absently as he experimented with another connection. Whatever he did seemed to please him. “Okay,” he said, putting his hand up next to hers beneath the hood. “Put the key into the ignition again. See if it starts now.”

Kelsey had grave doubts, but she did as he told her. Turning the key, she began tapping on the accelerator, giving the car gas. The newer models were supposed to start up without that, but her mother’s car had always been a bit temperamental.

On the third tap, the engine responded with a rumble that increased in strength.

“It’s alive,” she pronounced, imitating Dr. Frankenstein in the classic horror movie.

Instead of letting the hood fall the way he had last time, Morgan eased it down gently. “Whatever you do, don’t turn it off. I want you to drive it over to my house,” he reminded her.

“Not until you give me the address,” she answered.

He’d forgotten about that. Morgan rattled off the address. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Kelsey hesitated. “Got a better idea. You lead the way, I’ll follow. If the car dies, I’ll honk the horn to let you know.”

It made no difference to him which way they did it. He just thought she’d prefer to be out front, but her way would still allow him to call in without fear of losing sight of her. He needed to let dispatch know why he was going to be late getting the squad car back to the precinct.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Give me a second.”

Crossing back to the squad car, Morgan started the vehicle and then swung it around in front of her. It was time for her to play follow the leader, he thought, a smile curving his mouth.

“Where were you?” Kate asked when her daughter finally walked into the house.

“Busy playing musical cars with Officer Donnelly,” Kelsey quipped. “First he took me to your car—it doesn’t look happy,” she confided. “Then I followed him to his house—”

“His house?” Kate did her best not to look pleased. Nothing put Kelsey off faster than when she believed she was being manipulated. Still, Kelsey could do a lot worse than the young officer.

Kelsey tossed down her purse and straddled the arm of the sofa. “Turns out he’s a closet mechanic and will fix the car for you. He almost insisted on it. You created quite an impression on him, Mom,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, then he brought me back here.” Kelsey shrugged. “Not much of a story really.” Her voice grew more serious as she appraised her mother. “How are you feeling?”

Kate ran her hand along her extremely flat stomach, trying to smooth down the unsettling churning.

“Like I’m going to throw up.” She pressed her lips together, trying to think of other things.

Kelsey wondered if she should bring over a pail or the wastepaper basket from the kitchen. “I thought that only happened with first babies.”

Kate took in a long, cleansing breath. She longed for some tea to settle her stomach. “Seeing as how it’s been twenty-six years between pregnancies, this is practically like having a first baby.”

“For the second time around,” Kelsey commented. This whole thing was crazy, as if the world was somehow out of whack. And yet, there was this small, solid starburst of joy smack in the center of her being.

There was no denying it. She loved children almost as much as her mother did.

“But that’s not why I feel like I’m going to throw up,” Kate confided in a lowered voice, despite the fact that only the two of them were in the house.

“Oh?” And then Kelsey guessed what caused her mother’s unease. “You’re afraid of what Dad’s going to say.”

“Not say so much as feel,” Kate admitted. She twisted her fingers together. “This is a lot to spring on him.”