by Jen Gilroy
“What your dad did was wrong, and your mom got trapped. I expect she stayed with him because she thought she had to.” Like she’d ignored the signs Brian wasn’t who he’d seemed. Gabrielle swallowed hard. “Maybe in her family, like it was in mine, divorce was pretty much a mortal sin back then. But when you found yourself in the same situation, you had the courage to leave.”
“I didn’t leave the first time Jay cheated.” Mia crossed her arms over her chest. “But when Tiffany got pregnant, I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice, honey.” Gabrielle moved her chair closer and wrapped her arms around Mia’s hunched shoulders. “I’m talking about me, too. Brian McGuire messed up my life, and he messed up my kids’ lives. Even after all these years, he’s still messing with us. Did Nick tell you he got in touch? All of a sudden Brian wants to see his kids and get to know Amy. He’s never taken any interest in her before, but all of a sudden Amy’s the grandchild he’s longed for.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts.” Gabrielle patted Mia’s shoulder before she moved away. “Nick can do what he wants about his dad, and Cat and Georgia can too. What Brian did hasn’t hurt me in a long time, but it’s sure influenced how I live my life. It’s held me back from what I want. From here on, that has to change, starting with me going into the house to call Ward. The worst he can say is thanks but no thanks.”
She wouldn’t think about the best thing he could say. She’d been raised by her traditional mother to wait for the man to make the first move and to please and accommodate. But it was a different world, one her mother couldn’t have imagined.
“The girls will be home soon.” Mia avoided Gabrielle’s gaze. “Naomi and Ty took Emma bowling after school. Although she and Kylie had a rocky start, Emma was sad to see Kylie leave. I’ll stay out here and wait for them to give you privacy for your call.”
“Thank you.” Gabrielle’s heartbeat sped up like it always did when she thought of Ward. “You have a nice sit and think things over.”
Mia was too much like the woman she’d once been, but Gabrielle was sixty-two, and the years had flown by until she’d been stopped short and made to stare death in the face. She’d won that battle, but if she didn’t make some changes in her life soon, chances were she’d drift along, always planning to change but never actually doing so.
She took a deep breath and conjured Ward’s face, the affection in his blue eyes when he looked at her and the safety and contentment she felt with him.
“It’s only a phone call.” Mia’s mouth curved into a smile.
Except, it was a phone call that could change the rest of her life. Gabrielle pushed the doubts away. Sometimes a woman needed to take a risk. Unlike Brian, Ward was a man worth taking a risk for.
Chapter Seventeen
Jay hadn’t wasted any time. Four days later, Mia ended yet another call with Allison and set her phone on the kitchen counter. The white worktop and maple cupboards and shelves Sean had installed gleamed in the light from the window. The same light bounced off the blue glass bottles she’d collected over the years at flea markets and thrift stores.
Those bottles represented one more thing Jay had found fault with. He’d wanted everything new and modern. Mia crumpled the email she’d printed out, the words already imprinted on her brain. It was from an attorney in Dallas to notify her Jay intended to sue her for sole custody of Naomi and Emma on the grounds that she was an unfit mother.
“He wants to scare you.” Allison’s voice had been strong and decisive. “He thinks if you’re scared you’ll come back to him. He doesn’t have a shred of evidence you’re an unfit parent, and unless there’s drug addiction or abuse, sole custody arrangements are rare. Jay also travels three weeks out of four, and after how he treated you and the girls, no judge anywhere would give him sole custody.”
Mia shoved the paper into a kitchen drawer and wished she could be so sure. She looked around the bright kitchen, small but functional, like the rest of the house. Her house, the home she’d made for her family and intended to keep.
Emma’s laugh echoed from upstairs.
“No, you can’t…” Naomi’s voice was followed by a thump and more laughter.
Mia moved to the bottom of the stairs. “Girls?”
Two heads poked over the top of the banister, one dark and the other light. “Hey, Mom.” Naomi grinned at her. “Our rooms look great. Uncle Sean and Nick and his friends did an amazing job.”
“Great,” Emma repeated as she waved a pink teddy. The bear she’d had since she was born, which still lived on her bed.
“Have you finished unpacking?” Mia pressed a hand to her chest as her heart filled with love for her daughters and this new life.
“Almost.” Naomi’s expression turned serious. “I still miss our old house, but now that it’s all fixed up, this one’s nice. It’s a friendly house.”
“It’ll be a happy house, too.” Although their house in Dallas had been big, with every convenience they could have wanted, it had been cold, unloved, and unhappy. The way Mia had felt for more years than she wanted to count. She jumped as the doorbell rang.
“That must be Nick,” Emma said.
On her way to the door, Mia turned and looked upstairs again. “Is there something you want to tell me, Emma Rose?”
“I texted him on Naomi’s phone. I may have said we needed help to move beds. Ouch.” She squealed as Naomi elbowed her. “What? Mom said her bed was too heavy for us to lift.”
“I also said I’d ask Uncle Sean to help us.” Mia smoothed her hair as the doorbell rang again.
She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to Nick, or how to act around him. She’d avoided him for the past few days after they’d gone out for dinner, which had been easy because he’d been working on some urgent case. So Allison had said. It wasn’t as if Mia had fished for information.
As Mia hesitated, Emma ran down the stairs and pulled open the front door. “Hey, Nick.”
“Emma.” He gave her a high five before she grabbed his hand and towed him into the hall.
“Nick.” Mia put her hands behind her back and linked her fingers together. It would be easier if he weren’t so hot, if he didn’t remind her it how it felt to be a desirable woman.
“Emma said you need help moving furniture.” He glanced into the living room. The taupe sofa had colorful pillows that echoed the colors in the abstract painting Gabrielle had given them as a housewarming present. A stalk of red hollyhocks from the garden at Harbor House was in a glass vase on the coffee table beside her mom’s piano.
“I’m sorry we bothered you.” Mia squeezed her hands tighter. “I planned to call Sean.”
Nick wore a blue polo shirt, the same color as his eyes, and a pair of worn Levi’s that invited her to touch. The jeans hugged his legs. And his ass. Which were both very fine indeed.
“No bother.” Nick grinned at Emma. “I planned to head over anyway in case you needed a hand.”
She needed his hands all right, as well as his body. Upstairs in her bedroom in the new bed she’d picked out. A bed she’d never slept in with Jay. “It sounds like you’ve been busy at work.”
“All done.” Nick’s smile widened to include Naomi, who’d followed her sister and stood behind Mia, quiet and watchful. “Since it’s your first official night in your new house now it’s all fixed up, we’ll order in. Chinese, pizza or whatever you want, my treat.” He pulled out his wallet.
“Mom?” Naomi’s voice was uncertain.
“It’s fine.” Mia made herself smile. “Pizza or Chinese, you girls choose.”
“Or we could get takeout from the diner.” Nick’s eyes twinkled. “Liz makes a great lemon meringue pie, and tonight’s the fried chicken special.”
“Mom loves lemon meringue pie and fried chicken,” Emma said, “but Dad says if she eats stuff like that she’ll get as fat as a pig.”
“Emma…I…you…that’s rude.”
“Dad did say it.” H
er daughter’s shrill treble was insistent.
“I’m sure he did, but you don’t need to repeat it. Do you understand me?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Emma bobbed her head.
Mia bit her lip. She didn’t care what Jay said or thought, and so what if she indulged in pie and fried chicken on occasion? Nick knew her so well he knew exactly what was on her list of guilty pleasures, and he’d never complained about her body.
Above Emma’s head, she caught his gaze again, but this time the teasing was gone. Without him saying a word, she knew Allison must have told him about the email from Jay’s attorney.
“The diner it is,” she said. “We can have a picnic outside. Your mom gave us a patio table and chairs she wasn’t using.”
“We have a plan.” Nick gave Emma another high five. “Do you want to walk into town with me to get the food?”
“Can we get maple creemees for the walk back?” Emma slid her feet into her sneakers. “Ice cream is dairy and maple syrup is a fruit, sort of. It comes from a tree and has sugar in it. I learned that in school today.”
“I like your logic, but your mom might have a different view.” Nick laughed. “Mia, Naomi? Are you coming?”
“No.” Naomi fiddled with a strand of hair. “I still need to do some stuff in my room and call Ty.”
“Come on.” Emma hopped on one foot. “You have to come. You can call Ty on the way.”
“If you two don’t come with us, we won’t get any healthy food.” Nick raised his eyebrows.
“We’ll all come.” Mia picked up her purse from the hall table.
“Mom.” Naomi dropped her hair. “I’m sixteen. I’ve been babysitting for four years. I can stay by myself for half an hour.”
She could, but Mia wouldn’t give Jay any ammunition he could use to take the girls away. “We unpacked all weekend and today after school. We need some fresh air and exercise.”
“Moving those boxes from the basement and the garage was exercise.” Naomi grabbed her woven bag slung over the banister and stuck a pair of oversized sunglasses on her nose. “I should change and fix my hair.”
“You look fine, sweetie.” In navy capris and a white tank top, her baby looked more like a woman than a girl. “Beautiful sweet sixteen.”
“Mom.” Only a teenage girl could inject so much sarcasm into a single word, and even from behind the dark glasses, Mia didn’t miss the eye roll.
“It’s not like you’ll bump into Ty,” Emma said. “Before he kissed you good-bye yesterday, I heard him say it’s his week with his mom and stepdad in Kincaid. Then he kissed you again, right on the lips, which was disgusting.” Emma grimaced before she darted out the front door.
“You spied on us?” Naomi took her sneakers in one hand, before she ran after Emma barefoot.
“I guess that tells you everything you need to know about the friend thing Naomi and Ty have going on.” Nick still stood in the hall, and his expression was amused.
It did, except who was Mia to judge her daughter? The “friend thing” was what she was supposed to have with Nick. Which didn’t fool anybody, Naomi especially, so what kind of example was she setting?
Mia slipped her feet into her sandals and followed Nick out the door then locked it. Maybe Gabrielle was right. Maybe she should talk to Nick and tell him how she felt and what she wanted. Get what was between them out into the open, for her sake and her daughters’. Then, in addition to loving Naomi, she could better guide her and help her make good choices with Ty.
As Nick fell into step beside her, he talked about his day and asked about hers like he was interested and they were a couple. She glanced at the end of the street, where Naomi and Emma waited. Nick raised his hand and waved, and Emma waved back before she skipped toward them. Naomi followed at a saunter, too grown-up to skip.
Anybody who didn’t know would think they were a family. A mom and dad and their two girls out for a walk on a small-town Monday night.
Mia wouldn’t talk to Nick yet. She’d wait and enjoy what she had a bit longer. She was older and wiser than when she’d been with Jay. This time, she knew how to keep her heart safe.
“Are the girls asleep?” Nick turned as the patio door slid open and Mia came into the backyard. The moonlight etched the classic planes of her face above her plain white T-shirt, blue sweater, and jeans.
“Emma’s out for the count, but Naomi’s still on Facebook.” Mia pulled out a patio chair and sat. Crickets chirped and, from a house two doors down, a dog barked.
Nick looked at the sky, where the first stars glimmered. When he was a kid, his dad had bought him a telescope, and he’d spent hours looking through it. Back then he’d wanted to be an astronaut or an air force pilot, a guy who wore his country’s badge with pride. “Did you and Naomi talk?”
“Yes.” Mia’s voice was low and so sweet it made him ache deep in his gut. “She and Ty are serious about each other. No surprise there. But she’s got a good head on her shoulders, and they’re taking it slow. She knows she can talk to me.”
“Despite what Jay said, there’s no way you’re an unfit mother.”
“Allison told you?”
“Yes.” Nick squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. “There’s also no way Jay would win a sole custody suit, even though I doubt it’d ever go to court.”
“You think?”
“I know.” He fingered the inside of her wrist, and Mia trembled. “Even without Allison he wouldn’t win, but with her, it’s a no-brainer.”
“She told me she wouldn’t bill me until I get my first paycheck from the school, but even then I’m sure all this going back and forth between attorneys will cost a lot more than she said.” Tension lined her beautiful mouth.
“The firm has a family and friends discount, remember?” Nick hadn’t wanted to charge Mia anything, but knowing she wouldn’t accept, he’d fixed the billing with Allison and sworn her to secrecy.
“It’s very generous.” The chair squeaked as Mia moved closer, and Nick looped one arm around her shoulders. Above the neckline of her sweater, her skin was warm with a hint of freesia scent, and his body hardened as she ran a hand along his bare arm.
“Have you talked to Kylie yet?” He seized on a distraction, since the girls were in the house.
“A few times.” Mia leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. “I also talked to her foster mom. It will take time for Kylie to settle in, but they’re taking it one day at a time. Kylie misses you.”
“Did she say so?” He hadn’t called Kylie, afraid he’d upset her and make her think he was someone he wasn’t.
“She didn’t have to. It was more what she didn’t say. She asked about everybody, even Pixie and Shadow, but not you.”
“See, she’s forgotten all about me.” Nick’s chest constricted.
“No, it means it would hurt her too much to talk about you. She put me off when I asked if she’d talked to her foster mom and social worker about spending a weekend here. Kylie hasn’t had any adults she can count on in her life. My guess is she shuts herself off so she won’t get hurt again.” Mia studied him, her eyes soft.
Nick flinched. “I said I’d call, but I wanted to let her get settled first. If she needs anything, I told her she can call me. If she’s in something at school, I said I’d come to it.”
His throat tightened as he remembered the look on Kylie’s face as she walked away and the expression in her green eyes. The moment he’d glimpsed himself, the kid he once was who’d been determined to not let anyone know how much he cared, or how much he hurt.
“I’m not talking about new clothes, school supplies, or showing up for a few hours at a school play or sports event. I’m talking about being a part of Kylie’s life. Like a mentor or a role model, someone she can count on.”
“Me?” Nick stared at Mia. “Maybe if she was a boy, but she’s a girl and I’m not related to her.”
“She’s a child who needs stability. If I wasn’t in this mess with Jay, I’d apply to fost
er her. She’s rough around the edges, sure, but Kylie has a good heart and the potential to become a good woman.” Mia hissed out a breath. “I don’t mean you should foster her, but you have a chance to make an important difference in her life. The kind of difference I can’t make. How many good men has she known?”
Nick opened his mouth but no words came out. He wasn’t the kind of man a girl like Kylie needed.
“Whether you believe it or not, you are a good man. Trust yourself. You helped raise your sisters.”
“Kylie’s nothing like them.”
“Kylie is Kylie.” Mia’s voice turned amused. “In a lot of ways, she reminds me of you.”
“I…she…” Why was he surprised? Mia understood him in a way nobody else ever had, not even his mom.
“Sure she does. I remember you way back when.” She gave him a small smile. “If there was ever a kid with attitude, you were it. Folks around here used to say trouble was your middle name.”
And Nick had done his best to live up to it, causing trouble because it was the only way he could deal with his dad’s abandonment, as well as the gossip that followed, which took years to subside.
“Kylie isn’t trouble like I was.”
“You weren’t trouble, not really.” Mia reached for the knife and slid the pie plate closer to cut herself another piece of lemon meringue. “You had trouble in your life, and Kylie has, too. You’re the one who can help her the most because you get where she comes from.”
Nick raised his glass of soda and drained it. He might get it, but that didn’t mean he was the guy to fix it.
Mia dabbed at her mouth with a paper napkin.
“I…” He stared at her mouth, dotted in one corner with a blob of fluffy white meringue.
“What?” She patted her lips again before she set the napkin by her plate. “Talk to Kim and ask if you can spend a Saturday in Burlington to take Kylie to a movie, out for a meal, or to a sports event. Anything you do with her, she’d love.”