by Dorien Kelly
He knew he was crazy about Lisa. In terms of lovemaking pyrotechnics, last night had been the best in his life. Not to mention the most exhausting. When he’d awakened at about five, his body had been raring to go again. Finally, though, his brain had taken over and he’d let Lisa sleep. She’d looked so beautiful, so peaceful, and the longer he’d watched her, the more he’d wanted her. And so he’d stepped early into his morning routine. And then in the shower, that word had hit him: love. It wasn’t going away, but, as with everything else in his life, he’d handle it when the time was right.
With that, Kevin grabbed his coffee and went to wrestle his desk from Scott.
“Good morning,” he said to Rose as he entered the office.
“We got an e-mail from the Aldens over in McClellan Heights last night. They’d like to go ahead with us and get a contract written up.”
“They understand it’s going to be time and materials?”
“They do,” Rose affirmed.
Kevin had learned early on that a fixed-price bid when facing an old house with its multiple variables for renovation disaster didn’t work. Yes, he lost some business to other contractors. But, unlike those other contractors, he’d never flirted with bankruptcy over a poorly thought-out bid.
“Okay,” he said, not fully voicing the relief he felt. Decker Construction wouldn’t have a lean winter, after all. “I’ll give them a call later in the morning. What’s up with him?” he added, with a nod toward Scott, who was facedown, sound asleep on the desk. If he drooled on any paperwork, Kevin was going to kick his butt.
“He was there when I got in. I think he slept here,” Rose replied. “Did you two have a spat?”
Jeez, when exactly had he and his brother turned into an old, married couple, having spats? He looked at Scott, whose mouth was slightly open and hair mussed and spiky as though he was trying to single-handedly bring back the grunge rock era. He had to smile.
Love. It came in many forms, and all of them were a little rocky and a lot amazing.
Chapter Eleven
“I had an interesting call last night,” Kevin said to Lisa over the counter of Shortbread Cottage, far too many days after he’d last made love to her. Of course, in his book, one day would be far too many.
“Really, who called?” she asked, half paying attention to him and half to her work.
“Your mother.”
She nearly dropped the stack of shortbread boxes she’d been carrying.
“Easy there,” he counseled as she juggled them onto the back counter.
“Easy?” she asked when she’d swung around in his direction once again. “After telling me that my mother called you? Not possible. Why would my mother call you?”
“Apparently to share something you haven’t. It seems you have a birthday coming up.”
“It’s no big deal,” she replied shortly.
He wanted it to be, though. He doubted she’d had a real birthday celebration since before Jamie had been born.
“Maybe I could make a big deal of it?”
She shrugged. “It’s just another day.”
Suz, who had been eavesdropping from in front of the espresso machine, came over.
“Are you crazy?” she asked her boss. “You’ve got a hot guy who wants to spoil you, and you’re telling him to forget it? No wonder your mother butts into your life.”
“Suz,” Lisa said firmly. “You, along with my mother, can butt out.”
“Hopeless,” Suz proclaimed before taking off to the kitchen.
Actually, Kevin was feeling a little hopeful. Suz’s drama seemed to have given Lisa some perspective. A smile flirted with the corners of her mouth.
“So come on, birthday girl, are we going to spend the night together on Saturday?” he asked.
She shook her head. “There’s one fatal flaw to your plan. My birthday is also Halloween.”
“I have a miracle cure. Your mother has offered to take Jamie once we’re through trick-or-treating.”
She looked at him levelly. “We?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t dress up or beg.” At least not for candy. And he wasn’t too sure about the dressing up.
“You’re not doing this because my mother put you up to it, are you?”
“What kind of sway could she hold over me?”
“Mom?” She laughed. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she had a blackmail dossier on you at this point. You’re her new project, you know. She thinks you’d make me a wonderful boyfriend.”
He didn’t know about the wonderful part, but he tended to think of himself as her boyfriend. Lisa would have to decide that all on her own.
“So are we on for Saturday?” he asked.
She hesitated before answering. “If it’s really what you want.”
Kevin was beginning to feel at though he’d need his intentions tattooed on his skin before she’d believe him. He pushed aside the slight sting of annoyance and focused on her, though.
“Then we’re on. So, birthday girl, want to tell me just how old you’ll be?”
She grinned. “Younger than you, my friend.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not feeling all that old.” He could barely believe he was thirty-four. Twenty-four didn’t even sound close to the way he’d been feeling since having Lisa in his life. Damn near invincible, however, did.
“OKAY, BUDDY, DINNERTIME,” Lisa called to Jamie, who’d been playing in his room. “Trick-or-treating starts in half an hour. Once you eat, we’ll get your face on.”
Since he’d been wearing his tiger costume all day and begging to get the matching stripes painted on his face, this news should have sent him running. Instead, Lisa heard nothing in response.
“Jamie?” she called again from the kitchen doorway into the private part of their house.
“I’ll go check on him, birthday girl,” Kevin offered.
“Thanks,” she said, turning her attention back to the chicken roasting in the oven and the broccoli steaming on the range. One last, healthy meal would hit her son’s stomach before the deluge of candy and spoiling by Grammie and Grampy began.
And since it was her birthday, Lisa was going to allow herself a little spoiling of her own, too. Later in the evening, after Jamie was with his grandparents, she and Kevin were heading down to Malloy’s Pub to meet up with Courtney and Scott. It was to be her first official date as Kevin’s girlfriend, or whatever the heck she was. After that, all she wanted for her birthday was a long night in Kevin’s arms.
Kevin reappeared in the kitchen. The smile she gave him faded as she took in his serious expression.
“I think you’d better come with me,” he said.
“Jamie…?”
He nodded.
Not good.
She followed him back to Jamie’s room. Her son lay curled up on top of his bed, knees nearly to chest and eyes closed.
“Hey, sweetie, what is it?” she said as she approached.
“Tummy hurts,” he replied in a little voice.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on his forehead.
“He’s burning up,” she said to Kevin.
“I know. He felt hot to me, too.”
She glanced over at him, surprised that he’d thought to do that.
“Hey, I’m not totally clueless,” he said. “I had a mom.”
She looked back at Jamie, who was still curled up as tight as a little tiger-striped shrimp. There would be no trick-or-treating tonight, not that she thought her son was even in the shape to care.
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry you don’t feel good,” she said. “Let’s get you in your pajamas.” She was going for more than comfort. The tiger costume was one piece, which wouldn’t work on a sick little boy.
“No,” he said.
She bent close and kissed his forehead. “But we have to.”
“No!”
Lisa winced. At least his voice remained in fine form.
“Sorry, but here goes…”
> It seemed that passive resistance was a built-in form of protest in a four-year-old. Jamie went limp. Though it wasn’t easy, she finally got him out of the costume and into his pj’s. And then he started crying in earnest. Between that and the total lack of color in his face, she knew that messy events were about to begin.
“Could you grab the wastebasket from the bathroom?” she softly asked Kevin.
He left, and Jamie started crying harder. Lisa made an executive decision.
“Come on,” she said.
Lisa scooped him up, but her maternal instincts had kicked in moments too late. They didn’t even make it from the bedroom before he was sick.
Though her attention was focused on Jamie, she thought she heard Kevin mutter a low “Oh, man.” She couldn’t blame him. The damage was pretty extensive.
“What can I do to help?” Kevin asked as she carried Jamie into the bathroom.
“Thanks, but nothing,” she said. “I’ve got it handled.”
No way would she ask him to address the mess in the bedroom. Being her semiboyfriend didn’t put him on cleanup patrol.
“Right,” he said.
He’d sounded a little annoyed, but Lisa didn’t have time to focus on him.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you fixed up,” she said to her son as she lowered the lid on the commode and then sat him down. Lisa wiped his face with a warm washcloth and reassured him the best she could that he’d feel better now that his tummy was empty. Jamie wasn’t buying in. One sniffle led to another, and then to full-out tears again.
“I’m sorry, Mommy,” he wailed between sobs.
“Oh, honey, you couldn’t help it. Everything’s okay. No one’s mad at you or anything.”
“But I wanna be a tiger. I don’t wanna be si-i-i-ck!”
“Once you’re feeling better, we’ll have our own special tiger day,” she assured him.
“With candy?”
“Sure,” she replied, ignoring her own roiling stomach. How could he even think of candy at a time like this?
By the time she emerged from the bathroom with Jamie, Kevin had made a nest on the couch, with both Jamie’s pillow and favorite blanket.
“Settle him here,” he said to Lisa. “Then we’ll deal with the rest of it together.”
He’d put such emphasis on the last word that she saw no point in arguing. But this felt so strange; she’d never had much help before.
“Look in the bottom of the linen closet outside my bedroom,” she said as she got Jamie tucked in. “You’ll find a pail, spray carpet cleaner and rags. Just leave them in the bedroom for me.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want the television on?” she asked Jamie.
Eyes closed, he nodded. Lisa switched on a children’s channel. She hoped that the sound would lull him the rest of the way to sleep. She sat there with him for a few minutes, until she was sure he had settled. Then she joined Kevin in the bedroom, where she found him on all fours, rag in hand.
“Hey, you didn’t have to start cleaning.”
He looked up at her and smiled. “This just didn’t seem like a job for birthday girl.”
“Let’s at least finish this together,” she offered.
“How about you go back out there with Jamie, which is really where you want to be, anyway? I’ll get this done in no time.”
The warmth in his eyes was doing funny things to her knees.
“I have to say this is up there in the top ten of gifts I’ve ever received. Thank you…very much.” And then she went and rejoined her son.
KEVIN DIDN’T KNOW HOW much longer he was going to be able to hold it together. Now that Lisa was gone from the bedroom, at least he could release the grimace that he’d been holding back as much for his sake as hers. A hair-trigger gag reflex wasn’t among his most manly attributes, but that’s the way it was.
He shook his head as he gave the carpet a second go-over with the stain remover. This wasn’t exactly the birthday night he’d envisioned for Lisa. Though he hadn’t told her, he’d had Courtney give him a list of people Lisa might want to see on her birthday, then asked them all to come over to Malloy’s for a surprise gathering. Now the surprise would be sprung on Courtney, who was going to have to do some quick calling for him.
The gift he’d bought Lisa, he would give her later; but that was just a thing…pretty as it was. What he’d really looked forward to was helping her reconnect with friends who’d fallen to the wayside as her days had grown more filled.
And now he was beginning to grasp how truly hectic and unpredictable a parent’s days could be. Parenting took a lot more than a tough gag reflex; it took a level of sacrifice that he might have thought about in passing, but never in depth. He was awed by what Lisa did, and just how well she did it. He’d be kidding himself if he didn’t admit that the idea of instant fatherhood made him uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure he was prepared. Scrubbing the carpet seemed to be the easy part.
Satisfied that Jamie’s room looked and smelled better, Kevin tossed the used rags, stowed the supplies, then washed his hands at the bathroom sink for a good, long time. When he was done, he rejoined Lisa in the living room. A cartoon danced silently across the television screen. Lisa raised her finger to her lips, then pointed at Jamie, who had fallen asleep. Kevin wished the little guy could stay that way until the worst of this had passed, but he knew better.
Lisa then pointed to her bedroom, where they both softly padded. Once they were inside, she closed the door partway, so they could still see Jamie, but not disturb him.
“I’m pretty sure it’s just a virus, but I don’t like the temperature he’s running,” she said softly. “I’m going to call my dad.”
“Good idea,” Kevin said. Having a doctor in the family was a definite plus.
She retrieved the cell phone from her dresser and began dialing. It occurred to Kevin that this was the first time he’d been in her bedroom. Not quite the circumstances he’d wished for, either.
“Hi, Dad,” he heard Lisa say. “You’re just the person I wanted to talk to. Jamie definitely won’t be spending the night. He’s running a temperature and vomiting. Have you seen a lot of this at the office?”
Lisa looked over at Kevin and nodded. He never thought he’d be relieved to hear that he’d just exposed himself to some vile bug. Better that, though, than the scary visions of Jamie with appendicitis or god-knew-what-else that had been running through his mind.
“I took his temp just before he fell asleep, and it’s still under one hundred,” Lisa was saying to her father.
While she answered some more questions, Kevin peeked out at Jamie. He was beginning to move restlessly, his feet pedaling off the blanket that covered him.
Kevin walked to the side of the sofa. Jamie looked up at him and whimpered.
“Going to lose it again, champ?” he asked.
“Uh-huh.”
Kevin lifted him, brought him to the bathroom, and rubbed his back while he was once again sick. When Jamie was done, he wiped his face, filled the cup that Lisa had left by the sink, and told Jamie to swish and spit…which he did with great gusto. And when all was done, Kevin gave himself a mental pat on the back for not being the next one to hang over the toilet.
He picked up the little boy, amazed at how tiny Jamie felt in his arms. How vulnerable…
“Everything okay?” Lisa asked from the doorway.
Kevin smiled. “Relatively speaking.”
“Bed or sofa?” she asked Jamie.
“Bed.” He hugged tighter to Kevin. “With my truck.”
Kevin felt honored. Rattled, out of his element and a little queasy…but so damn honored that his throat ached.
CURLED UP ON THE COUCH next to Kevin, Lisa glanced at her watch. Twelve-fifteen in the morning, and she was no longer a birthday girl. She was fine with that, since it also meant that Jamie had slept for over two hours now, with no more need to empty his poor stomach.
She tipped up her head to see if Kevin was
still awake, or if he’d had enough of the movie she’d stuck in, and was napping. His eyes were closed and his breathing regular. Sleeping, probably. She snuggled closer, taking the comfort she knew he’d freely give if he were awake.
Tonight had been pretty messy. Without him, it would have been downright awful. Kevin had even gone to the drugstore to pick up the fluid replacement drink her dad had suggested, along with a bottle of her favorite green tea.
“We have to keep the mom going, too,” he’d said.
She thought back to the few times Jamie had had health issues as an infant. James had been beyond useless; he’d been an outright impediment. It had been almost as though he’d resented the attention being taken from him. Lisa knew that wasn’t a kind thought to have, and probably one that arose more from her resentment than his actual behavior. All the same, the enduring image of her marriage would be James with his back to the two of them.
When Jamie had been tiny and had needed feeding in the middle of the night, she’d quickly learned that it was better to get her son, herself, then nurse and change him, than it was to ask for help. Those times she just couldn’t find the energy to roll from bed again and had awakened James, he’d been hostile and nasty. When she’d confronted him in the morning, he had always claimed no memory.
Tonight, Kevin had gone so far above and beyond what she’d expected that she felt nearly suspicious…and a tad guilty for feeling that way, too. Could he truly be this nice? She wanted to believe in him, but after the rocky road she’d traveled with James, she was inclined toward the theory of “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
She looked up at Kevin again, and smiled at the way his dark lashes were fanned against his cheeks. Unable to help herself, she sat up and placed a kiss along his jawline, where dark stubble had begun to grow. His eyes came open, and he smiled when he saw her.
“Hey,” she said, smiling back.
“Jamie?”