The Parent Pact (Book Three of The Return to Redemption Series)

by Laurie Kellogg

  “I’m sure you didn’t. I imagine it was your bruised ego talking.” Sabrina sighed and filled the carafe with water. “Apparently, tonight has been the big night for proposals.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When Ben and I sat with the kids that long weekend so Annie could surprise you, he offhandedly asked me to marry him. Tonight, he followed it up with a formal proposal and a ring.”

  “Congratulations.” Tyler wrapped his arms around his sister.

  “No.” She pushed him away. “I didn’t say yes.”

  “What? Are you demented? Ben loves you. He can give you your heart’s desire.”

  “No, he can’t. My heart’s desire isn’t something that can be bought, Tyler. Nor can Annie’s. That hovel, as you call it, is her home. It’s where she feels secure. And as Dorothy and Toto would say, ‘There’s no place like home.’ How safe do you think Annie felt at your house tonight?”

  He stared right through his sister as Annie’s words echoed in his head. Tonight proved I’m a liability to you. I can’t be happy feeling as if I’m failing you all the time.

  Sabrina was right. Annie was only twenty-three. She was terrified. And he didn’t have the vaguest idea of how to make her feel safe.

  ~*~

  Annie beat up her pillow all night, trying not to think about Tyler and how much she loved him and his daughter.

  Between drifting in and out of her tortured dreams, she’d been haunted by the way Mandy’s eyes had shone with pride yesterday while she helped get everything ready for the party. She could still feel the neck-crushing hug and sloppy kiss her angel had given her when she’d left to go stay overnight at Jennifer and Keith’s house.

  In the last few weeks, she’d come to love Tyler’s daughter nearly as much as her own son. But no matter how much Mandy needed a mother, didn’t she also needed one who could make her father happy?

  The moment the sun peeked between the blinds, Annie rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom to run the pregnancy test she’d bought the previous day.

  A few minutes later, she studied the double line and her stomach churned. Holding her hand over her abdomen, she stared at herself in the mirror, awestruck. She really was carrying Tyler’s baby. Mandy and Noah would soon be sharing a baby brother or sister.

  She waited for the feeling of dread to return, except it didn’t. All that remained was a sense of awe and wonder. She’d always wanted more children. She’d done fine raising Noah alone. She could take care of this baby by herself, too.

  Except she didn’t want to.

  She wandered out to the kitchen in a daze and went through the motions of doing the laundry and paying bills. Her lack of concentration made it all take twice as long as usual.

  At one o’clock, Mitch barked outside seconds before the bell rang. She swung the door open, and Tyler followed Noah and the dog into the house.

  “Thank you for bringing them home.”

  mouth tightened as he jerked his thumb toward the hallway and said to Noah, “Buddy, would you mind playing in your bedroom for a little while? Your mom and I need to talk.”

  Once her son skipped off, she turned her back on Tyler and strode into the tiny kitchen. “There’s nothing for us to discuss. I think we said it all last night.”

  “No, we didn’t. Or at least I didn’t say everything I needed to.” He grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. In the confined space of the work area, she had no place to escape to. “Annie, I didn’t tell you what a wonderful job you did on the party.”

  “Right.”

  “I mean it. Considering the monumental task you took on, very little went wrong. Erica always used a caterer. At your age and with your experience, I never should’ve let you put yourself under that kind of pressure the first time we entertained.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter,”—she ducked around him and fled into the dining area—“because it’s also the last time.”

  He hunched over the counter and stabbed his fingers through his hair. “Can’t you see I’m trying to apologize for what I said last night?”

  “You’ve done nothing to be sorry for. You’ve been wonderful to Noah and me.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But it’s time for me to face reality. You’d never be happy with me as your wife.”

  She cringed as his gaze drifted to the directions for the home pregnancy kit she’d left lying on the counter. He picked them up and stared at her. “What were the results?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “The hell it isn’t. If you’re pregnant, it’s my child you’re carrying.” His mouth snapped shut a moment, then his eyes narrowed to two slits. “You wouldn’t do anything to. . .”

  “Well, thank you very much. If I couldn’t bring myself to do that at sixteen after being raped, how could you think I would now when the father of my baby is someone—” She bit off the rest of her retort.

  “Someone what? Someone who loves you? Someone who wants to marry you and be a father to your son?”

  “Someone I like and respect.” All at once, she felt exhausted. “Tyler, I got very little sleep last night.” She pushed him toward the living room. “I’m not up to discussing this with you right now.”

  “Fine. But we’re not through.” He yanked open the door. “I’ll be back tomorrow to pick up this conversation right where we left off. And I expect you to have something to say other than it’s none of my business. I’m not going to let you run scared.”

  After closing the door, she leaned back against it and slid to the floor, burying her face in her crossed forearms. Was she being a fool for turning down Tyler’s proposal? All he’d asked from her was to learn to fit into his world.

  He was right. If he could acquire the social polish he needed in his business, so could she. All it took was guts and desire. She glanced around her tiny living room at the frayed carpet and the worn furniture. She didn’t want to raise her children like this.

  She had to prove to him and herself that she could become the wife he needed. And if she couldn’t, her children and she would be no worse off than they were now. All she needed was the courage to risk stepping out of the water onto dry land.

  ~*~

  Only ten minutes after Tyler arrived at his office on Monday morning, Luke knocked on his door, looking like an eighteen-wheeler had run over him and dragged him six blocks.

  “Luke, what’re you doing here?”

  A wide grin spread across his friend’s unshaven face. “I wanted to see your expression when I gave you the news.”

  “What? That you’ve been living on the streets? You look like death.”

  “You don’t look so hot yourself. When’s the last time you slept?”

  “It’s been a while,” Tyler admitted.

  “Well, the duffle bags under my eyes are from working the graveyard shift and spending my days following up on our friend O’Donnell and his son.”

  “I really appreciate it.” He gestured toward an overstuffed armchair facing his desk. “Can I assume from your smile you managed to get some answers?”

  “Oh, I got a lot more than that.” Luke snorted softly as he sank onto the gray leather upholstery.

  Tyler pressed the intercom button and told Connie to hold his calls. “So?” He stared at Luke. “Spill it.”

  “I’m happy to inform you, Don Quixote, your windmill turned out to be a real live dragon. All the evidence suggests Jared O’Donnell killed Samuel Barnes, not his dad Brian.”

  He closed his eyes and drew in a shuddering breath. Apparently, Annie had been right to steer clear of Noah’s father. How was he going to tell her the man who’d raped her and abandoned her son had also murdered her dad? “Do you have enough to charge him?”

  “He’s being arraigned this morning.” Luke leaned back and propped one sneaker on the edge of the desk.

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you. How’d you prove the younger O’Donnell did it?”

  “I don’t actually have pr
oof yet. Merely circumstantial evidence. There was some blood at the scene that didn’t come from Samuel. All of the trace evidence indicated a struggle, so the supposition is that Barnes fought hard enough to wound his killer. Unfortunately, the forensic evidence was useless since they found no match through CODIS seven years ago.”

  “So how’d you figure out it was Jared without probable cause to get a warrant for his DNA?”

  “That’s why I look like I escaped from the morgue.” Luke grinned. “Jared’s dad was convicted of his involvement in the chop-shop over a year after Barnes was murdered, so Brian’s DNA profile wasn’t in CODIS during the initial investigation. Since we’d tagged the old man as a suspect, I double-checked to see if CODIS had somehow malfunctioned and failed to connect his DNA profile to Barnes’s cold case.”

  “CODIS didn’t foul up, did it?” Tyler asked, hypothesizing. “It was Jared’s blood, so naturally it wouldn’t match.”

  “You’re right,” Luke agreed, “but the comparison showed the forensic sample came from a close relative of Brian’s—which induced the judge to sign a warrant for the son’s DNA.”

  “So you have evidence that places Jared at the scene. But it doesn’t clear Annie’s father from being involved, does it?”

  “No, unfortunately.” Luke sighed. “But we haven’t found anything to indicate he was mixed up in it, either. It’s my theory Annie’s dad somehow discovered Jared was involved in stealing cars, and Sam Barnes was stabbed during a scuffle.”

  “I hope for Annie’s sake you’re right.” Tyler absently straightened the stack of papers in his in-basket. “Maybe Barnes caught the kid in the act or confronted him.”

  “Exactly. I’m guessing Jared ran home to daddy, terrified, and confessed what he’d done. I think Brian staged the scene as a robbery and closed the investigation as soon as he could.”

  “I like your theory. When a man’s kid is looking at a murder conviction, I don’t imagine there’s much he wouldn’t do to save him.” Unless, of course, the man was like Tyler’s father.

  Luke stifled a yawn behind his hand. “You think that’s something? There’s even some speculation, among the guys Brian served on the force with, that he may have taken the rap for his kid in that chop-shop bust. They were never convinced of his guilt and now they’re thinking he may have served three years for Jared to protect his son from being connected to Barnes’s murder.”

  “What a dad.” Tyler snorted softly. “Cops don’t do well in prison.”

  “No, they don’t. The problem is we can’t establish motive. The defense will simply argue Jared worked at the station and cut himself. The police had enough to arrest him, but you know the DA is going to want more to indict him.”

  That was for sure. Opportunity without motive wasn’t nearly enough to build a case.

  “Can’t you put some pressure on Brian to roll over on his kid?”

  “We don’t have any leverage against him. The department has assigned a couple of detectives to try to build a stronger case. What we really need is a witness who can testify that Barnes caught on to what the kid was up to.”

  A lump the size of the clay paper weight Mandy had made for him in art class clogged Tyler’s throat, transforming his words to a hoarse whisper. “Regardless of whether they get him or not, I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

  “Marry Annie and give her son a dad he can be proud of. That’ll be thanks enough.”

  Tyler rested his elbows on the desk and held his head between his hands. “I loused up that relationship so badly I’ll be lucky if she ever talks to me again.”

  “Okay, idiot,”—Luke crossed his arms over his chest—“what’d you do?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “What’s a few more hours without sleep. Start talking.”

  He told Luke everything that’d happened at the party on Saturday night and all that had transpired between Annie and him since.

  “You fool.” Luke shook his head. “How can she believe you love her when she knows you hate everything about her life?”

  “That’s just it. She should hate her life, too. I can’t understand why anyone would be afraid of reaching for the brass ring.”

  “There are plenty of poor people in this world who’re happy simply loving each other, Tyler. When you were a kid, your father’s selfishness made you miserable—not your empty pockets. You told me one of the things you admire about Annie is her upbeat attitude. Happiness doesn’t come from having the best of everything in life. It comes from making the best of what you have.”

  “What’re you saying? It’s wrong for me to have ambition?”

  “No-o.” Luke huffed. “But quit looking back at where you came from with so much contempt. There’s no shame in being poor.”

  Annie’s words echoed in Tyler’s head. “You want this plain little fishy, but you despise my world. The thought of getting your paws damp disgusts you.”

  “I simply want to take care of my family the way my father never provided for Sabrina and me.”

  Luke didn’t say a word. Instead, he pointedly flicked a glance at the expensive watch on Tyler’s wrist.

  “It was a gift from Ben. What was I supposed to do, throw it back in his face?”

  “And he gave you the Jag and the five bedroom house, too?”

  Tyler swallowed hard. “I give a small fortune to a long list of charities every year. Is it a sin for me to live well and enjoy life?”

  “No, it’s not. It’s all about attitude, friend. The problem is that you need all of that stuff. You’re obsessed with proving to the world—or maybe only yourself—that you’re not your old man. You love Mandy, and you make sure she never goes without. You have nothing to prove to anyone.”

  The imaginary mirror Luke had held up cast a poor reflection of Tyler. He was nearly as shallow as Paula Larson. He was a fool, as Luke had put it. Why hadn’t he seen this before? It wasn’t his standard of living that intimidated Annie. It was him. He’d made her feel like she had to become someone else for him to love her.

  “Annie told me she couldn’t be happy if she was failing me all the time. How do I convince her she’s not? That I love her exactly the way she is?”

  “She’ll never believe that until you prove she’s more important to you than the life you’ve carved for yourself. So the jackpot question is—is she?”

  “Absolutely.” Tyler flinched when the intercom suddenly buzzed. Reaching over to his desk, he lifted the receiver on his phone. “What is it, Connie?”

  “The school nurse is on line one. She’s calling about Noah Barnes.”

  “Thanks.” He pressed the blinking button on the phone. “This is Tyler Fitzpatrick. Is Noah sick?”

  “No, he’s been in a fight,” the nurse answered. “He begged me to call you instead of his mother. She’s the emergency contact for your daughter, so I figured it would be all right.”

  “Yes, it’s fine. Is he okay?”

  “Other than a bloody nose, he’s simply shaken up.”

  Tyler released a long breath of relief.

  “It’s the school’s policy to send kids home if they’ve been fighting. I’ll need to call Ms. Barnes to come get him.”

  For some reason, Noah didn’t want his mother involved in this. “No, please don’t do that. I can be there in half an hour. Let me talk to him before you call her.” He hung up and shrugged at Luke. “I’m sorry to cut out on you, but Noah needs me. Thank you....for everything.”

  As Luke strolled to the elevator with him, Tyler slung his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “Tell me something. How does an adrenaline addict who would take a desk job before he’d get involved with a woman know anything about relationships?”

  “It’s simple.” Luke chuckled. “A guy can’t consistently make his relationships fail unless he understands a little something about how to make one work.”

  Chapter 14

  Two sleepless nights in a row left Annie feeling as energetic as a slug.
On the way home from cleaning a client’s house, she stopped at the library, and when she arrived back at her cottage at noon, she was too exhausted to even eat lunch.

  Instead, she took a hot shower and set the alarm for two-thirty before collapsing on the bed in her bathrobe with Mitch and the books and magazines she’d borrowed. She started reading a volume on etiquette, and by the time she finished the section on introductions and proper forms of address, her head felt like a trash bag with three weeks’ worth of garbage stuffed into it.

  The main thing she’d gleaned from her studying was that everyone she’d met on Saturday night had probably considered her gauche. She never would’ve guessed it was improper to say, “I’m pleased to meet you.” According to the book, she should’ve said, “How do you do?”

  How did they do what? It didn’t even make sense. It seemed a lot nicer to say she was pleased to meet someone.

  She snapped the book closed and flopped back on her pillow, staring at the dingy water-stained ceiling. She could do this—couldn’t she?

  It might take her a few years, but Tyler and Mandy were worth whatever time it took for her to learn to fit into their lives.

  She yawned and tossed the book onto the nightstand. Unfortunately, her lessons would have to wait. The most strenuous thing she could manage at the moment was a nap.

  ~*~

  The nurse was busy talking on the phone when Tyler arrived at the school. She held her hand over the mouth piece and nodded toward the tiny room adjacent to her office. “He’s in there, Mr. Fitzpatrick, go right in.”

  A tight band squeezed his chest at the sight of Noah’s tear-streaked face and the dried blood on his upper lip. He looked so small and helpless, sitting on the vinyl-covered couch, his feet dangling, and his head downcast.

  “Hey, Buddy, I hear you were mixing it up with another boy. Want to tell me about it?”

  Noah’s lower lip quivered, and he shook his head.

  Tyler settled next to him and put his arm around him. “Could you at least tell me who you were fighting with?”