Winter Vows, page 34
“What are you growling under your breath about?” Trish asked him, cornering him before he could even get the refrigerator door open.
He frowned at her. “Don’t these people know when to go home?”
“They just want Kelsey to know they care.”
“They can tell her that tomorrow. She’s beat.” His sister studied him knowingly. “You’re awfully protective of her. Do I detect more than a casual interest in her well-being?”
“The man’s a goner,” Jeb chimed in, joining them. “I doubt he’s known which way was up since he met her.”
Dylan glowered at his brother. “Watch it. I can have you on an oil rig in some very distant ocean with just one little hint to Dad.”
“First you want to chain me to a desk, then you want to risk my neck on a rig. Make up your mind, big brother. I’m getting conflicting messages here.”
“Bottom line, I’m looking for revenge,” Dylan warned him. “Watch your step.”
“It’s not me you want revenge against,” Jeb protested. He winked at their sister. “He’d like to wring Paul James’s scrawny neck and he can’t. It’s got him frustrated.” He cast an innocent look at Dylan. “Tell me again about how the man got the jump on you and tied you to a shower rod back in that motel.”
“Okay, that’s it,” Dylan said. “It’s the oil rig.”
He deliberately glanced around the kitchen. “Where’s my cell phone? I’m calling Dad.”
Before he could place the call, Kelsey stepped into the kitchen and Dylan’s pulse leapt into overdrive and all thoughts of revenge against either her ex-husband or his brother fled. He wanted very badly to haul her into his arms, but he didn’t have the right. Not yet. And not in front of his nosy sister and meddlesome brother.
“What are you guys in here fussing and feuding about?” Kelsey asked. “I could hear you in the other room. Is this the Delacourt means of communicating?”
“Pretty much,” Trish reported cheerfully. “Jeb’s taunting Dylan, so Dylan’s threatening to have Dad send him off to an oil rig. It’s the usual stuff. Now that you’re here to referee, I think I’ll call it a night.”
Dylan glanced pointedly at his brother. “You going with her?”
Jeb deliberately stayed right where he was. “I hadn’t planned to.”
“Change your plans,” Dylan said grimly.
Jeb touched a lingering kiss to Kelsey’s cheek that had Dylan seeing red.
“Guess I’ve got to run,” Jeb told her. “Don’t let big brother here bully you, the way he does us.”
“Not a chance,” Kelsey told him.
“If you need any tips on handling him, call me. I know all his dirty little secrets.”
Kelsey chuckled, then gave Dylan a speculative once-over. “I had no idea you had any dirty little secrets.”
“None worth mentioning,” Dylan assured her, then scowled at his brother and sister. “Weren’t you leaving?”
When Jeb and Trish were gone, Dylan shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her. “I wouldn’t even try to bully you, you know.”
She laughed. “Sure you would. I’m not dumb enough not to know it’s your nature to bully the people you care about.” She studied him thoughtfully. “And you strike me as smart enough to know that it won’t work with me.”
“Duly noted.” He nodded toward the living room. “Still mobbed in there?”
“It’s thinning down some.”
“Want me to clear the rest of them out?”
“No, I’m fine. I just can’t seem to take my eyes off of Bobby for more than a second. I forced myself to come in here, just so I could break the pattern before it became a habit. Even at three, he’d hate me hovering.”
Dylan stepped closer, crowding her. “And here I thought you came into the kitchen to see me.”
She laughed again and Dylan realized how little reason she’d had for laughter in the last few days and what a pleasure it was to hear the sound of it.
“You’re just a bonus,” she told him.
Dylan met her gaze evenly, saw the laughter die on her lips, then the fire of desire in her eyes.
“Do you know how badly I want to kiss you right now?” he asked.
She swallowed hard before answering. “I have an inkling.” Her chin rose a notch. “What are you going to do about it?”
The feisty tone made his pulse hum. “Why, Doc, I think you’re actually flirting with me. In fact, that almost sounded like a challenge. Is that possible?”
“Try me.”
Dylan kept his hands jammed in his pockets as he lowered his head until his lips skimmed lightly over hers. Even so, he felt the shudder that washed through her. It was only a faint imitation of the one that rocked him when she leaned into the kiss, deepened it.
“Oh, baby,” he murmured, “I have wanted this for so long.”
“We’ve only known each other a few days,” she reminded him before her breath hitched on a sigh.
“Forever,” he corrected.
His arms went around her then and his mouth moved over hers, tasting, savoring, possessing. Heat spread through him with the speed and intensity of a flash fire.
With the one tiny little part of his brain that was still functioning he recognized this as a bad idea. It wasn’t the time or the place to go into a passiongenerated meltdown. In the aftermath of Bobby’s rescue, Kelsey couldn’t be thinking clearly, so it was up to him to do it.
In just a minute, he promised himself as he dipped his head for one more kiss. She had recently had a sip of wine and her lips were still cool, still bore its fruity taste. He doubted he would ever touch a glass of Chardonnay again without thinking of this moment.
He could feel himself growing hard, his erection as urgent and demanding as a randy teenager’s, as hot and heavy as a man’s. He knew he had to stop before he lost his last fragile thread of control.
Sighing, he pulled back, then stared into Kelsey’s dazed eyes.
“Oh, my,” she murmured, resting her forehead against his chest. “I’ve been married. I’m a doctor. I’ve read all the anatomy and human sexuality books. I understand how this works, but it has never, never, felt like this before.”
Dylan grinned, nearly gave in to the temptation to swell right up with male pride. He had the sense not to delude himself that this was entirely personal, though. “Darlin’, under the circumstances, what with all this adrenaline that’s been pumping today, any man could have made your head reel.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Trust me.”
“I do,” she said at once. “Just not about that.”
“We’ll try it again in a few days and see what you think.”
Still frowning, she drew in a deep breath and gave him a curt nod. “I’ll be looking forward to it,” she said in a prim, businesslike tone that made him want to ravish her right then and there.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” he muttered under his breath. This was dangerous turf, especially for two people who had a whole lot of thinking to do.
“Don’t go,” she pleaded. “Everyone will leave soon. Bobby will go to bed. I’m way too wired to sleep. I could use the company.”
He scanned her face looking for evidence of just what she wanted the company for.
As if she’d read his mind, she smiled. “Just to talk, Dylan.”
He nodded. “I can do that.”
But it was going to be a whole lot harder than she could possibly guess.
* * *
Kelsey knew that Dylan was struggling with himself, that he wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him. She also recognized the danger in wanting something so badly under the circumstances. She certainly wasn’t thinking clearly. Too much had happened in the last few days.
Still, she was reluctant to let him leave, even more reluctant to be alone with her thoughts. Her promise to do nothing more than talk had been made in haste, born of desperation. However, maybe by the time everyone else had gone home, after she’d tucked Bobby into his bed, she would have cooled down enough to stick to it.
“I’d better get in there and start saying goodbye. Maybe they’ll take the hint,” she said.
“You go. I’ll hang out in here for a bit,” Dylan said as he grabbed a beer from the refrigerator.
She walked back into the living room, scanning it for signs of Bobby. When she didn’t spot him at once, her heart slammed against her ribs. She moved through the living room, then ran up the stairs to check his bedroom. He wasn’t there, either. By the time she came back downstairs, her pulse was racing.
“Bobby! Where are you? Lizzy, Sharon Lynn, have either of you seen Bobby?”
Her shout brought Dylan from the kitchen.
“What is it?”
“I can’t find Bobby,” she said, nearing hysteria. Lizzy rushed over, grabbed her in a tight hug. “Kelsey, it’s okay. He’s just outside with the other kids. They’re playing hide-and-seek in the backyard.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, her breathing not yet returning to normal.
“I’ll check,” Dylan said at once.
She was right on his heels. “I’ll go with you.”
He took her hand and she immediately felt calmer. But only when she spotted Bobby racing after Lizzy’s son did her heartbeat slow. She sank down onto the top step and put her hands over her face. “Dear God, will I ever get past this?”
“Of course you will,” Dylan said. “It’s only been a few hours, darlin’. Nobody gets over having their kid taken that fast. Stop beating yourself up over a perfectly normal reaction.”
She heard Bobby’s laughter as he and some of the others tackled Jamey and began tickling him till he pleaded for mercy.
“How can it be so easy for him?” she wondered. “It’s as if he hasn’t even been away.”
“All he knew was that he was away with his dad,” Dylan reminded her. “He didn’t know there was anything really wrong with that. Now he’s just falling back into his usual routine. Be grateful, Kelsey. You wouldn’t have wanted him to be traumatized by what happened.”
“Of course not.”
Bobby spotted her just then and ran across the yard. He flung his arms around her. “Mommy, I love you.”
Surprised by the impulsive and increasingly rare gesture, Kelsey squeezed him back, then forced herself to let go. Only after he was out of earshot did she whisper, “I love you, too, baby.”
She allowed her shoulder to brush Dylan’s as they sat on the back steps watching the kids play. He slid an arm around her waist, gave her a reassuring squeeze, then released her.
“They grow up so fast,” she observed eventually. “One minute they’re babies, the next they’re all but grown...or think they are. Bobby’s only three, but already I can feel the time flying by.”
Only after her comment was greeted with total silence did she realize the impact it must have had on Dylan. She touched his cheek. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s true. They do grow up way too fast. When I think of what I’ve missed with Shane, it makes me a little crazy. No more, though,” he said with quiet resolve. “I’m not going to miss the rest of it.”
She snuggled more tightly against his side, satisfied for the moment with no more contact between them than that. “Tell me what you remember most about him.”
“What a tough little guy he was,” he said at once. “There were some bigger kids in the neighborhood, but as soon as he could walk he wanted to play with them. He would fall down, get right back up and run even harder. He was the same way with his brothers.”
Kelsey stared at him in surprise. “You mean his stepbrothers?”
“Technically, yes, but that’s not how he thinks of them.”
“You’ve seen them together? I thought you hadn’t had any contact with him at all since you gave up custody?”
Dylan looked vaguely disconcerted that she had picked up on that. “I went by the house once, just to check on him,” he said defensively. “I needed to see for myself that he was okay.”
Somehow she found it reassuring that walking away hadn’t been easy for him. “Of course you did. Were you satisfied?”
His expression glum, he nodded. “He looked happy. They looked like a real family.”
“Was that the only time you saw him?”
“No,” he admitted. “There was one time at his preschool. Kit spotted me that day. She sent me a finger painting he had done of his family. I guess she wanted to be sure I got the message.”
“Or maybe she just wanted to reassure you that he was fine.”
“Maybe.”
“Dylan, can I ask you something?”
“Of course. After what we’ve been through the last few days, I think you’ve got a right to ask me just abut anything.”
“What was your relationship with Kit like?”
He regarded her with surprise. “Are you sure you want to hear about that?”
“Why not? You know all the gory details of my relationship with Paul.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. The truth is we never should have gotten married in the first place, even though we thought we were crazy in love with each other.”
“Why not?”
“We were complete opposites in every conceivable way. That’s probably why the attraction was so powerful, but in the end we couldn’t find a middle ground on anything. We argued over everything. She liked pasta. I liked steak. She wanted to sleep in. I liked to get up at the crack of dawn. She preferred one toothpaste. I refused to give up the one I liked. At least with two tubes, we didn’t have to fight over which way to squeeze the stuff out.”
“Sounds like the usual marital kinks that get worked out with time,” Kelsey said.
“Oh, that was the least of it. There were bigger issues, like my hours, the way I got caught up in a case and forgot about everything else. Before we had Shane, she was more tolerant of that. Afterward, she felt neglected and taken for granted and put upon. She was right. I didn’t hold up my end of the marriage. But when she divorced me, I didn’t like seeing all those faults listed on a court document, because I didn’t want to believe I was to blame for our marriage failing. I wanted to blame her, so I accused her of being selfish and unwilling to compromise. I even tossed in a few accusations about other men. It got ugly.”
“Was she seeing other men?”
He shrugged. “None I could prove, but I needed to believe that was the real reason she’d left me. I couldn’t deal with the idea that she just didn’t want me. When it didn’t take her all that long to find someone new and marry again, I was convinced I’d been right all along.”
She met his gaze evenly. “Is that really why you gave up custody of Shane? To punish yourself and her?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you sure?”
He sighed heavily. “I don’t know. Probably. I told myself it was the best thing for Shane and at the time, it probably was. Kit and I couldn’t have a civil conversation.”
“Maybe now you can,” Kelsey suggested.
“I hope so,” he said fervently.
“When will you go to see her?”
“Tomorrow. Justin took Jeb out to get my car, so I’ll be able to leave first thing in the morning.”
The thought of him leaving so soon was disconcerting. “Tomorrow?” she echoed, aware that she sounded dismayed.
He studied her intently. “Okay, Kelsey, what’s going on? Why do you sound so worried?”
“I guess I’ve just gotten used to you hanging around,” she said mildly.
Looking very pleased, he looped his arm around her shoulders and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Don’t worry, darlin’. I’ll be back. That’s a promise.”
The intensity of his gaze disconcerted her almost as badly as the thought of him leaving. She glanced away, instinctively searching among the children until she spotted Bobby. He looked worn-out, which motivated her to leave Dylan’s loose embrace.
“Okay, kids, that’s it. It’s time to call it a night.”
“Aw, Mommy, not yet,” Bobby protested.
“Yes. It’s way past your bedtime. Everyone else has day camp tomorrow, too.”
“I want to go to day camp.”
“You’re too little,” Jamey Robbins pointed out.
“Am not little,” Bobby retorted.
Dylan scooped him up before it could turn into a full-fledged battle. “Now you’re bigger than he is,” Dylan said as he settled Bobby on his shoulders.
“See,” Bobby crowed. “I’m the biggest.”
“You still can’t go to day camp,” Jamey told him and went indoors.
“Mommy,” Bobby cried plaintively. “What?”
“What’s day camp?”
Kelsey bit back a grin. Typical kid. If someone he admired had something, he wanted it, too. It didn’t matter that he didn’t even know what it was. “Day camp is a place kids go in the summer and learn stuff,” Dylan told him. “Sort of like school. If you ask me, you’re the lucky one. You get to stay home and play all day.”
“Yeah,” Bobby whooped. “I get to play!” He tugged on Dylan’s hair. “Down. Gotta go tell Jamey.”
As Bobby ran off, Kelsey chuckled. “Well, you’ve certainly given him the momentary edge. Thanks.”
Then with Dylan’s help she shooed the remaining pint-sized guests inside and matched them with their respective parents. Once the exodus started, it didn’t take long to clear the place.
“Up to bed,” she told Bobby.
He hesitated and she sensed suddenly that it wasn’t just his usual reluctance to see the day end. “What’s up, pal? Want me to come up with you?”
