He lifted one shoulder in a half-ass shrug. “Just don’t feel good.”
She reached out to feel his forehead, but he flinched away from her. Great. They’d already had to have the sometimes even single mothers get to have a life now and then talk once. Looked like they were going to have it again.
Her bedroom door opening and then the bathroom door closing sounded unnaturally loud. She’d been hoping maybe Ryan would go back to sleep, or at least stay in bed until Dean was gone.
And, speaking of her ex-husband, she didn’t miss the look he gave her, though she refrained from either returning the look or flipping him the bird, since their son was in the room. But he’d been married to Jody for almost six years, had two kids with her and was disgustingly happy. What was it to him if his ex-wife had a man in her bed?
It was something to him, judging by the waves of attitude rolling off him. Maybe it wasn’t just the man that was the problem. Maybe it was the fact it was Ryan. But, again, not his business. Dean needed to go home to his wife and other kids.
“Thanks for bringing him home,” she said, trying to make it an obvious dismissal. “I’ll let you know if it turns into anything serious.”
He either didn’t take the hint or chose to ignore it.
“I’m going to my room.” Without looking at either of them, Nick went to his room and slammed his door. Not a good sign, since that was one rule he almost never broke.
“You think this sets a good example for our son?” Dean asked.
She couldn’t believe he’d said it. The anger was instant, burning the back of her throat like acid indigestion. And there was no way she was going to stand there and take it.
“Since the first time I met Jody, she was coming down that very same hallway, pulling her clothes on while you tried to tell me it wasn’t what I thought, while our son stood there and watched—you can kiss my ass.” She pointed to the door. “You can also get the hell out of my house.”
He was instantly contrite, as was his way. “Lauren, look—”
“Get out of my house. Now.”
“I’ll call you when you’ve calmed down and we can talk about this,” he said on his way to the door.
“You and I are not talking about this. Ever. It’s none of your business.”
He paused for a second at the threshold and gave her a wry smile. “I guess he got what he wanted. Kowalskis always do.”
He was gone before she could come up with a response, not that one was really necessary. But she was still standing there, staring at the closed door, when Ryan walked up beside her.
“I should probably go.”
She nodded. “Sorry about this. I guess this is a little messier than you’re used to.”
He cupped the back of her neck in his hand and she closed her eyes. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah. Nick will calm down and I don’t really give a damn what Dean has to say.”
“I hate leaving while you’re upset. Especially since it’s my fault.”
She tilted her head to look up into his face. “It’s not your fault. It’s just...my life.”
He kissed her, still cradling her neck. “Call me when things calm down, okay?”
“I’ll try.” The look on her son’s face flashed across her mind. “I have to make sure Nick’s okay, you know?”
“I’ll wait.” He kissed her again, then he left and it was time to deal with her son.
Nick was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling when she knocked and walked in. He looked a lot more angry than sick, and she braced herself before sitting on the edge of the bed. No doubt this was going to be awkward and painful for both of them.
“How are you feeling?” When he didn’t respond right away, she forced herself to be patient. “Your dad said you were sick.”
“Yeah, sick of being there.”
Lauren sighed. “So you ruined your dad’s vacation and cut it half a day short because you were bored? He said you were all having a great time.”
“No, he and Jody were having a great time. I only got to go riding one time and we had the kids so it was all like ten miles an hour. Dad said he’d take me out again, but he didn’t. They just left me with the kids so they could go riding alone. Last night they were so late I was worried about them and I had to feed the kids and put them to bed and Adrienne wouldn’t stop crying. Then, this morning, after she made breakfast, he said they were going for a ride again, and I said I felt sick. It just sorta popped out of my mouth.”
“Do they ask you to watch Alex and Adrienne a lot?”
“Just like all the time. And they don’t really ask. They just tell me they’re going out and leave.”
“I can talk to your dad about it, if you want.” As soon as she could talk to her ex without destroying the years of goodwill she’d established for Nick’s sake, despite having every reason to hate his stepmother. “But I think you should be the one to do it.”
“Whatever.”
“You’re sixteen. You should be able to have a discussion with your dad without me being in between.”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “I’ll try.”
“So you’re not really sick, so on to the next thing.” She picked at the hem of her sweatshirt, wishing she knew what to say.
“We’ve had this talk before, Mom. You’re an adult, he’s an adult, blah blah blah. Whatever.”
“Someday—”
“Yeah, someday I’ll understand. I remember that part of the speech.”
“Watch your tone,” she snapped.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “So, is this what you do on the weekends?”
His tone was okay, but she didn’t care for the question. “That’s none of your business. But, no, I very rarely...have a man over.”
Nick kept staring at the ceiling, but he was bobbing his foot, tapping his toes against the air. “So he’s, like, special, then?”
That was a loaded question if she’d ever heard one, and she had no idea how to answer it. She didn’t want her son thinking she was having indiscriminate, champagne-fueled sex, but she also didn’t want him thinking there was something special between her and Ryan. She didn’t even know what was between her and Ryan and she’d lost the opportunity to get a feel for it this morning when their time together came to such an abrupt end.
“We’re not running off to Vegas, if that’s what you mean,” she said, trying for lighthearted. He didn’t look amused. “Honestly, I don’t know if he’s special yet.”
“Let me know when you figure it out,” he said, and then he rolled onto his stomach and turned his face away from her.
She took that as her cue he’d had all the talk about mom’s sex life he could stand, and she left him to brood in peace. If she’d known spending a night with Ryan would lead to so much drama, she might have passed.
Then she stretched, feeling that delicious soreness in neglected muscles, and smiled. Spending the night with Ryan had been worth the drama and she’d do it again. But after being rudely awakened by her son and ex-husband, she wasn’t sure Ryan felt the same.
Eventually she’d work up the courage to call him and find out.
* * *
Ryan sat in Rose’s car at the end of what looked like a veritable parking lot. Even subtracting the cars and trucks that belonged to family staying at the lodge, he’d be lucky if he got everybody’s vehicles back to their rightful owners before the game started.
Assuming he ever got out of the car.
There was no way in hell he could get through that house without being seen. There would be Kowalskis in the front room and Kowalskis in the hallway and Kowalskis in the dining room. And Rosie and Aunt Mary would be in the kitchen, so sneaking in the back door was out.
The knock on his window made him jump and Josh grinn
ed as Ryan hit the button to lower it. “Your absence has already been noted.”
“I’ll tell them I got up early and went out for...something.”
“In the same clothes you wore last night?”
Good point. He looked at the flannel shirt his brother was wearing over a T-shirt. Flannel wasn’t usually his style, but he was desperate. “Give me your shirt.”
“Hell no.”
“I’ll give you fifty bucks for it.”
“Give me your truck.”
“Kiss my ass.”
Josh shrugged. “Then put on your dancing shoes because you’re about to face the music.”
“Some brother you are.”
“Because you are my brother, I’ll give you the heads-up on the betting pool.”
Ryan drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “What betting pool?”
“Whether you went home with Hailey or Lauren.”
“Hailey? They think I spent the night with Hailey Genest?”
“You have to admit, she’s smokin’ hot and she doesn’t have a kid.”
“She’s got nothing on Lauren.”
“That’s money in my pocket. I knew it was Lauren. So did Liz and Rosie.”
“Rosie bet on who I spent the night with?”
“Hell, Rosie and Aunt Mary have a side bet going.” Josh slapped the side of the car. “We won’t be having Aunt Mary’s lasagna for supper now, by the way. It’ll be Rosie’s shepherd’s pie.”
“I’m not going in there.”
“Chickenshit.”
Worst morning-after ever. Ryan dropped his forehead onto the steering wheel, resisting the urge to do it again and again. All he’d wanted to do was wake up with Lauren in his arms. Maybe take a long, lazy shower together. Have some breakfast. Instead, he got a moody teenager, a pissed ex-husband, a baby brother who thought he was funny and his entire family waiting to watch his walk of shame. Plus, Aunt Mary made a killer lasagna and they wouldn’t be getting any.
Screw it. He couldn’t sit in the car all day. With Josh laughing at him, he walked in through the front door and looked around. Most of the family looked back and it was only a minute before Rose and Aunt Mary popped in from the kitchen.
“I hear we’re having shepherd’s pie for dinner,” he said, and then he walked up the stairs to take a shower, ignoring the outburst of whispers below. At least he knew that while his family would give him crap about this at every possible opportunity, it wouldn’t go any further than that. What happened in the family, stayed in the family. Usually.
Once he was safely behind the locked bathroom door, he turned the shower on as hot as he could stand it and prayed the rest of the family had left enough in the ancient tank to rinse off the soap lather.
Letting the hot water pound his muscles, Ryan leaned his head against the shower wall and closed his eyes. Despite the decidedly shitty morning-after, he wouldn’t change anything about his night with Lauren. It had blown every fantasy he’d ever had right out of the water.
Well, he’d change their first dance because it bugged him he’d let her think he didn’t want her. If he could, he’d go back and dance with her the way he’d wanted to, and screw what anybody else thought.
All he could do now was hope she called him. Not that he wouldn’t reach out if too much time went by, but he really wanted her to call him, because her morning-after had been messier than his and he needed to give her time to straighten it out.
By the time he went back downstairs, the family had gotten over their fascination with his sex life. Either that, or the presence of the kids kept them from butting into his business some more. Whichever it was, at least they were done talking about it for the moment.
“Who’s going to help me get those cars back to where they belong before the game starts?” he asked after he’d downed a couple cups of coffee.
“Everybody seemed to show up while you were in the shower,” Rose told him. “Most folks have two vehicles, so they drove over and picked them up. A few called and they’re going to come by later. I think the only person who doesn’t have a ride over is Hailey Genest, so I told her you’d drop it off in a little bit.”
“I’ll follow you over,” Josh said.
He was still annoyed with his youngest brother, but it made sense. If they got separated, his cousins didn’t know the way to Hailey’s house. Sean might remember, but he was keeping the kids occupied with a thumb-wrestling tournament, so Terry and Lisa wouldn’t thank Ryan for breaking that up.
Rose must have called Hailey when they left, because she was sitting on her porch when he drove into her driveway. She met him halfway while Josh let Ryan’s truck idle at the curb, and he dropped her key into her hand.
“Thanks,” she said. “A little embarrassing to need a ride home.”
“Better than Drew getting called out because you wrapped yourself—and Lauren—around a tree.”
“She got home okay, too?”
“No, I dumped her out on the curb a few miles up the road.”
She laughed. “Dumb question. What I was really asking was what happened after you dropped me off.”
“I brought her home.”
“And then...you went home?”
“Yeah.” Eventually. In the morning.
Hailey looked disappointed, but he wasn’t going to kiss and tell. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Lauren had already called her friend and filled her in, but since she hadn’t, Ryan kept his mouth shut.
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you lying to me?”
“Absolutely not.” Technically he wasn’t.
Sighing, Hailey shook her head. “Your loss. She looked hot as hell in that dress.”
She looked even hotter in the Victoria’s Secret number under the dress, but he wasn’t telling that, either.
“You have a good day, Hailey.”
“Thanks for bringing my car home.”
When Ryan reached his truck, Josh refused to get out of the driver’s seat and instead cracked the window enough so he could talk, but not enough so Ryan could reach in and choke him.
“You’ve gotten soft if you need heated leather seats, dude.”
“Get out of my seat.”
“Or what? You gonna drag me out? You can try, but I’m younger and I wasn’t up all night trying to keep a lady happy.”
“I’m sorry you have to work so hard at it. I, on the other hand, can keep my lady happy and still kick your ass up and down this street.”
He shrugged. “The fact remains, your truck is locked, your keys are in the ignition, I’m in the driver’s seat and you’re on the sidewalk.”
Muttering every curse he could think of, and combining them into interesting new combinations, Ryan walked around to the passenger side and, when he heard the lock release, climbed in.
“I’d reach over and punch you in the face, but I don’t feel like taking shit from Rosie for bruising her precious baby boy.”
Josh grinned, cranked the radio and left half the tires on the asphalt as he took off. Rather than encourage him, Ryan gritted his teeth and rode home in silence as his brother tried what seemed like every satellite radio channel. Twice.
* * *
Rose tried to keep a stiff upper lip, but she only got halfway through hugging the kids before she was leaking tears. They were a rowdy bunch, this family that had made her one of their own, but she couldn’t have loved them more. The big lodge was going to feel too quiet for a while.
She almost came undone when it came time to hug Sean. He’d been gone so long during his time in the army, she’d hardly gotten to see him more than she saw Liz, and then he’d gone and fallen in love with a woman already settled in New Hampshire. He was happy, though, and that was all that mattered.
After looking aroun
d for a second, he pulled Emma close and put an arm around each of them. “We’re not telling anybody else yet—okay, I told Ryan because he kind of guessed—but I have to tell you because you’re...our Rosie. Emma’s pregnant.”
She almost came undone, weeping all over the poor girl and then Sean. But she tried to do it discreetly because she didn’t want them to have to explain to Mary why saying goodbye was especially hard this time around.
“I’ve been waiting to knit a blanket for a grandbaby for years,” she said once she’d composed herself. Then she realized what she said and hoped Emma didn’t mind the housekeeper claiming her baby as family.
But Sean’s wife smiled and squeezed her hand. “We have plenty of room for Nana Rose to come stay for a while when he or she is born.”
Nana Rose. She liked that a lot. So much, in fact, it was a few seconds before she could find her voice. “I’ll be there.”
She forced herself to let Sean and Emma go, then moved on down the line. When she came to Mary, she squeezed extra hard. A long time ago, the woman had been nobody to Rose but her employer’s sister-in-law. Then Sarah Kowalski had died and they’d bonded while helping Frank raise his children, Rose day to day and Mary the best she could from a state away and while raising four kids of her own.
“It was a beautiful wedding,” Mary said. “And thank you for making us feel so at home. I know we can be a little overwhelming.”
“I loved having you. Honest.”
They left the way they’d come, all in a line. With the windows down, there were hands sticking out waving from all the vehicles, and Rose laughed as they pulled out of sight.
“I need a beer,” Josh said.
“I’ll join you,” Ryan added. “Love ’em, but I’m going to sit on the porch and listen to the damn crickets for a while.”
“I don’t hear any crickets.”
“Even better.”
Rose shook her head at the guys and followed Liz and Katie into the house. She only had a short time left before Ryan took Liz back to Portland to catch her plane, and it might not be long enough to ferret out what was wrong with the girl.
They went into the kitchen because that’s where the leftover chocolate cake and coffee were and took supersize helpings of both to the table. The girls talked about the wedding, but Rose had a hard time focusing on the chatter.
All He Ever Desired (The Kowalskis) Page 13