“We were scared for you, Katrina. When we heard that gun go off, we were scared.”
Good way to cut across the conversation and steal the wind from her sails. Will was impressed by the way Wesley so nimbly turned the tables.
“I know how to take care of myself.” That statement had none of the heat they’d all just witnessed.
He turned his attention away from that unfolding drama, and turned his attention on Rick Wilde.
Handcuffed, he was sitting on the ground, looking like he wasn’t sure what was going on. His attention seemed to ping-pong between the conversation taking place between the bounty hunter and the Jessops, and the actions of the feds around him.
They weren’t wearing their agency jackets, but Will figured no one could mistake Peter, Eli or Jeremiah for what they were.
Their movements around the area Wilde had occupied appeared careful—likely as they were essentially in a crime scene, and they didn’t want to muck up any of the evidence.
“Peter mentioned you had a moment.” Adam came over, but his words were addressed to Jacqui. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She leaned against Will, and took Norm’s hand in hers. “Yes, I’m all right. That gunshot—it brought it all back to me. And I remembered.”
“You saw Merk getting shot, didn’t you?”
Jacqui’s eyes widened. “Yes, how did you know?”
“When I read the report, and then spoke to Robert about your being unconscious, and then awakening with no memory, it was the one explanation that made the most sense to me.” His smile looked sad. “Either taking a life, or seeing one taken graphically, can be a hell of a thing to experience.”
“Just before it happened, someone outside the window told me, ‘don’t look.’ I didn’t understand.” She closed her eyes, then opened them again. “They blew his head off. I actually saw his head explode. Even though by then I hated him—he’d hit me more than a few times…” Jacqui stopped, as if she didn’t know where to go from there.
“Even though you hated him, he was someone you’d known, someone who, at least nominally, had been in a father-role in your life.” Adam nodded slowly. “And you were only a child.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Asa! Come on, man. Are we going to get to the next scene, or what?”
Wilde had spoken, drawing everyone’s attention. Since the handcuffed fugitive was staring straight at Adam, he’d clearly been the one spoken the actor had to.
“Asa?”
“Asa Phelps. The director of Razor’s Edge.”
It was as if Wilde didn’t even hear Paul Jessop’s words. Wilde was still focused on Adam as if he was the director of the movie.
Will nearly laughed when the thought occurred to him that, in point of fact, he was—at least the director of this particular scene.
Adam looked from the screenwriters, to the actor, and then he scanned the barn. Everyone was looking at him, waiting.
He closed his eyes, shook his head, and sighed. Opening his eyes once more, Will thought there was more than humor on the man’s face.
“Oh, what the hell,” Adam said. “Good job, Ricky. Cut! That’s a wrap.”
And for this particular scene in all their lives, it really was.
Chapter 21
“And the headache?” Dr. Jessop asked.
Jacqui gave Robert Jessop a half grin. It didn’t surprise her he’d ask, but it did that it was his question that brought something so obvious to her own attention.
“I didn’t really notice until just now, but when I came to out there, knowing all of what had happened to me, the headache was gone.”
“Good. And how do you feel, now, knowing everything? There’s that saying, that what has been seen can never be unseen, and that’s true enough. So how are you coping, seeing a man you knew killed in front you?”
Jacqui appreciated that Robert didn’t sugarcoat the experience. “It’s kind of weird, but it seems as if, in a way, that happened…well, that it’s like it was a movie. I don’t understand it. But I don’t think I’ll be having any nightmares about it—well, unless I’m consciously deluding myself, this time.”
Robert chuckled. “No, I think because it happened so long ago, and because there’ve been years between then and now for your conflicted emotions about Merk to fade, that you’re more or less detached from what happened. That said, the mind is a funny thing sometimes. If you need to talk, I’m here. If you’d feel more comfortable with another professional, a woman, I’ll put you in touch with one.”
“Thanks. If I need to talk, I’ll come knocking on your door.”
“Good. Now go on and get out of here, and make room for someone who really needs me.” He grinned when he said that, and Jacqui grinned right back.
She felt easier, and freer, than she had in years.
The other occupants of the room—her men, her father, and her Aunt Holly, were smiling, too.
They stopped out in the reception area. Her father came up to her and gave her a big hug. “I’m sorry you had to see a man die.” Then he released her and met her gaze. “But I’m glad you remembered, so you can begin to put it behind you.”
“Seeing him die wasn’t the only thing I remembered.” She licked her lips. She had a question to ask her dad, and the best way to do it was to just spit it out. “When he lived with us—during that time, did you stand me up a lot? Tell them you were coming to get me, and then not show up?”
James’ eyes went wide. “Hell, no. When he lived with you, I had the devil’s own time getting your mother to let me have you, period. I finally had to threaten her with court action. And then I guess I bungled things when we were together, because, well…” He stopped talking, and shrugged.
Jacqui closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t think you did anything wrong. He used to taunt me, that everything else in your life was far more important than me. And I believed him because he kept saying you’d be coming for me on Saturdays, but of course, you didn’t.” She inhaled a shaky breath. “And while I didn’t remember him, or what had happened to me, I remembered that—being heartbroken that you stood me up again and again. I guess I assumed it was my own true memory. I’m sorry.”
James shook his head and drew her into his arms. “Not your fault, Jacqui.” He eased back, kissed the top of her head, and released her to stand between her men. “It’s wrong of me to wish the bastard wasn’t dead so I could beat the hell out of him, but it’s true.” Her father met her gaze. “Don’t blame your mother for what Merk did, either, pumpkin. Sometimes, when we’re in love with someone—or think we are—it blinds us to their failings.”
What would her mother have said if she was here, and the situation reversed between them? The woman I knew when I was a child would have had plenty to say about James Bethune and his many failings. But she didn’t honestly know how her mother would react today, because she really hadn’t seen that much of her in the last six or so years.
Not since Monica married Skip, her third husband, and acquired that new stepson.
Jacqui couldn’t change the past, and she was done rehashing it, too. She stretched up and gave her father a kiss on his cheek.
“No, I won’t. In fact, I think it’s best for all of us if we just move forward. No looking back at all.”
“That’s a fine idea,” James said. His eyes misted, and Jacqui knew he’d taken her words for the apology they were meant to be.
The door to the clinic opened, and Samantha Kendall, followed by her husbands, all but stormed in.
“Oh, there you are!” She headed right over to Jacqui. Cupping her shoulders she examined her face, and then smiled. “You’re all right.” And then Samantha drew her into a tight hug.
The embrace took Jacqui by surprise, but she returned it full measure. Samantha released her and looked at each of her nephews in turn. “What about you two? How are you?”
“We’re fine, Aunt Samantha,” Norm said.
“Adam has Rick Wild
e in custody, and the crisis is over.” Will’s tone conveyed great relief.
Samantha snorted. “You wouldn’t think so if you’d been over at the sheriff’s office just now. Who is Katrina Lawson, and why was Adam threatening to lock her up?”
Jacqui laughed. “I’ll bet the Jessop triplets were there, too.”
“I wonder which side they were on?” Will grinned. “For or against Adam’s threat of incarceration?”
“When we left,” Preston Kendall said, “it was a split decision.”
“You’ll come to dinner tonight—all of you.” Samantha’s invitation-slash-command included Jacqui’s father and her aunt Holly, who’d been quiet after her first initial fierce hug.
“At six,” Charles Kendall said. “That will give all of you a few hours to decompress.”
Jacqui thought Will was going to decline. “We’d love to,” she said. She wanted the opportunity to get to know the other Kendalls.
“One of the main courses, of course, will be the grilling of Adam Kendall,” Taylor said, “as he failed to notify his mother about the pending police operation.”
Samantha turned to look at her husband. “You were annoyed, too, darling,” she said.
“No,” Taylor corrected. “I was mad as hell.” Then he grinned at Jacqui and her men. “It’ll be an entertaining repast, to say the least.”
“Adam’s being grilled? We’re so there,” Norm said. He grinned and rubbed his hands together.
“Thanks, Aunt Samantha.” Will kissed her cheek. “Thanks for coming over to check on Jacqui.”
“I was checking on you, too, William. You and Norman are family, after all.”
Will’s face colored slightly. “Yes, ma’am, we are. Thanks for checking on us, too.”
Jacqui knew that was the heart of the definition of family here in Lusty. And she thought their take on the sacred institution was just about perfect.
* * * *
It was a larger and much fuller table than usual. Aside from his aunt and uncles, Jacqui and Norm and himself, they were joined by Holly, Alan, and Duncan and Jacqui’s father James, Peter, Jordan and Tracy and their son Cam, Adam, Jake, Ginny and their sons Ben, and the two year old twins, Marty and Nicky. Tamara was flanked by her husbands, Morgan and Henry.
This family gets any bigger, all dinners are going to have to become buffets.
Yet despite the large number gathered in the dining room of the New House, the occasion felt very homey.
“Adam! You really said that?” Tamara Kendall’s mouth hung agape as she stared at her brother-in-law, her expression clearly disbelieving. “You said, ‘cut, it’s a wrap?’”
Will and Norm were both grinning. It hadn’t taken them too many Sunday dinners here in the bosom of the Kendall family of Lusty, Texas to figure out there was a fine art to these affairs. He and Norm had tossed a coin to see which one of them would get to share that little gem with the family.
Will loved his parents, no question about it. He loved his uncles and aunts in New York, without reservation. But these people here were no less his family and he loved them all just as much.
Aunt Samantha’s cup was strategically placed in front of her mouth—but Will figured by the gleam in her eyes that she was on the verge of laughing.
Adam, to his credit, took his sister-in-law’s teasing in stride—after having sent Norm the obligatory threatening glare for having outed him. “Yes, Tam, I did. Y’all have been after me to go with the flow more, and that’s exactly what I did.” He laughed. “And I have to say, it worked, too. For some reason, those words settled Wilde right down.”
Tamara shook her head, and then stopped. Her eyes crossed, as if the simple gesture had made her dizzy. And then a somewhat green caste crossed her face, and she quickly excused herself.
Will saw the look of concern on everyone’s faces—everyone except the two who should be worried the most—her husbands, Morgan and Henry.
“Is she all right?” Jacqui addressed that question to Morgan, who sat across from her.
“I’m sure she’s fine.” He lifted another forkful of food to his mouth.
“How do you know that, since you’re sitting right here, and your wife is all alone in the bathroom?” Samantha asked that question in the same tone she might use to inquire about the weather, or some other banal topic. Really, Will heard only interest in her tone.
Her sons, however, must have heard something else entirely. Samantha’s husbands sat stone-faced, four Kendall men snickered, while Morgan and Henry immediately put down their forks, and excused themselves.
Samantha smirked. Her husbands, all three of them, just shook their heads and then chuckled.
“I must say, kitten, you did an exemplary job raising our sons.” Preston looked very pleased. “Your lessons have certainly held, and your influence lives on.”
“Thank you, darling. I’ve always maintained there’s no sense in doing a job, unless you do it right.”
It didn’t take long for Tamara to return with her husbands. Of course, Morgan and Henry both saw that Tamara was seated before they resumed their own chairs.
Samantha nodded to her sons—a maternal kind of “well done” that Will thought could have been a duplicate of one of his mother’s own gestures.
Then she turned her attention on her reseated daughter-in-law. “Henry was the one who gave me morning sickness in the evenings instead of the mornings,” she said. “So I’m not surprised.”
Tamara turned to Henry. “So I can blame you for this?”
“Now, itty, we decided not to think about that, remember? Morgan and I are fathers together.” Henry was laughing and she mock punched him. Then she turned to the rest of the company, every one of whom had gone silent.
“We were going to wait, but what the heck. As you may have guessed by my hasty exit, we’re pregnant—I’m nearly at the end of the first trimester.”
“Hey! Congratulations!” Jake was the first to get up, round the table, and kiss his sister-in-law’s cheek. “I was just about convinced the old men, here, didn’t have it in them.” He shook his brother’s hands, and then stepped back to let the others join in the congratulations.
“Boy howdy, Jake Kendall, what a thing to say!” Ginny laughed, even as she made her way over to hug the expectant mother. “You’re going to be a great mom, Tamara! I’m so happy for you.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Tamara said. “In fact, I was convinced of just the opposite for a long time, and swore I’d never have any children. But living here in Lusty, and being a part of this family, I have a better idea of what it means to be a good mother, now.”
“Aunt Tam, do you think you’re going to have a boy?”
Will grinned. His cousins, so far, had shown a talent for producing male children.
“I don’t know, Ben. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Ginny sent her oldest son a soft smile. One of the first family updates he and Norm received when they arrived in Lusty was that Adam and Jake’s oldest son had asked everyone to call him “Ben,” instead of “Benny.”
“These things usually happen in waves—at least they do in Lusty. I wonder who else might be expecting?” Tracy’s question, asked innocently enough, had both her husbands snapping their attention to her. She laughed. “Relax, guys. I am not pregnant. I was just wondering. In the last couple of years, there were a fair number of births in town. Penelope, Susan, Kelsey and Ginny all had babies in 2012, then the next year it was Julia, Michelle and me.” She smiled and placed her hand on her son, Cameron’s head. Cam was contentedly eating his “trees”—pieces of broccoli, his favorite food. “Remember, Julia and I went into labor on the same night.”
“The night of Grant, Andrew and Chloe’s engagement party,” Jordan said. “The whole town ended up over at the clinic.”
“Speaking of Jessops,” Norm said, “how did the triplets make out with Ms. Lawson…and I apologize because that didn’t sound right, but I meant it in a completely G
-rated way.”
Adam laughed. He sat back from his meal, and took Ginny’s hand in his. “Someone needs to write better lines for those screenwriters, I can tell you that. Although Wesley quickly came around and stood with his brothers on her side against my plan to let her be a guest of the Town for a couple of days.”
“You weren’t seriously going to arrest her?” Jacqui sounded appalled at the idea. “She was just doing her job.”
“I know she was doing her job. I even have some sympathy for her situation and respect for her bold move. However, it would have been better if she’d cleared her plan with me, first,” Adam said. His expression turned serious. “I am the Sheriff.”
“Sometimes, and in some situations, women have the best idea—the right idea—and men are too busy being ‘in charge’ to listen to them. When that happens, sometimes, women just have to act.”
“Jacqui, this isn’t a question of male versus female. I’d have been just as pissed if any one of the guys—the trained law enforcement agents on the scene—had gone rogue.” Then Adam looked at his mother. “Sorry, Mother.”
“You shouldn’t swear, Adam,” Samantha said. “It’s a bad influence on Ben, and the rest of the children here.”
“Yes. Ma’am. I do apologize for the slip.”
Will saw the way Ben and Adam glanced at each other, and the look of commiseration from the younger Kendall to the older. Will would just bet moments like that one had helped both men, Adam and Jake, build a strong bond with their adopted son—a bond that would be reinforced in those times when Ginny would get after Ben for breaking the rules.
If he hadn’t known that Ben wasn’t his cousin’s biological son, he never would have guessed it.
“Samantha, this was a fine meal.” James sat back. He sent his gaze around the table. “And very good company. It warms me to know how y’all have taken my daughter—and my sister—into your hearts.”
“They’re family, James.” Samantha tilted her head to the side. “And so are you. It’s how Kendalls do things.”
That one sentence said it all. And when he thought about it, Will realized that expression could be, and sometimes was, said around his parent’s dinner table, too.
Love Under Two Extroverts [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 19