“You know, kid, I’ve had about all of your attitude that I can take. If you’re not having fun by the time I count to three, I’m tossing you in the bay.”
Madison scoffed. “Yeah, right.”
“One.”
She scrambled to her feet. “You’re not going to toss me into the bay. That water is cold.”
“Two.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Three.”
Madison shrieked and started running with Jack hot on her heels. She tried a couple of fancy twists and turns, but he quickly caught her and tossed her over his shoulder.
Screaming, Madison pounded his back as he strode toward the water.
“Kelley! Make him put me down!” Madison ordered.
Kelley got to her feet for a better view but did nothing more than give Madison a helpless shrug. Jack was doing what Kelley had been contemplating doing with Madison since she’d joined them out there.
“You wouldn’t dare throw me—”
“No?” Jack asked as he got to the edge of land. “Just watch.”
With a little jerk, he repositioned her so he had her in his arms, cradled like a baby.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Madison repeated.
He dared.
She was out over the water when she screamed, terror in her voice, “I can’t swim!”
Jack’s harsh curse filled the air before he hurled himself from the bank, hitting the water almost at the same time Madison did, intent on rescuing her.
Madison’s laughter echoed around them as she kicked away from him and swam to shore. “Sucker!”
She scrambled up the embankment. Jason and Ryker were lying on the ground, laughing, holding their stomachs, rolling back and forth.
“Oh, that was great,” Serena said, chuckling.
“You’re gonna pay for that, kid!” Jack threatened, but his voice held no heat. “You guys, stop laughing, or you’re next.”
Madison turned around, trudging backward. “Jerk!”
“You had fun, though, didn’t you?” Jack called after her as he began to make his way up the embankment.
“You wish! I’m going to take a shower and use all the hot water.” She quickened her step, reached the lounge chair, and snagged her towel.
“Madison, are you all right?” Kelley asked.
“Sure.” She was smiling brightly. “He is such a jerk. I am going to use all the hot water. He can shiver all afternoon, and I’m not going to feel a bit guilty.”
Watching in amazement as a seemingly happy Madison ran to the house, Kelley picked up the towel she’d been lying on. The least she could do was offer it to Jack. The beach house only had one shower, and Madison would use all the hot water.
Shaking her head, she walked to Jack. “I don’t know how you did that, but you actually had her smiling.”
“I don’t put up with her BS.”
He started to peel off his drenched T-shirt, revealing toned muscles inch by inch. What a fine specimen of maleness he was. His arms bunched as he wrung out his shirt.
“Little brat will use all the hot water, though.” He nodded toward the towel Kelley was holding. “I’ll switch with you.”
“Oh.” She laughed self-consciously, embarrassed she’d been caught staring at him. “That’s why I brought it over.”
He dried his chest and arms, dipped to get to his back. Something appeared on his left shoulder and disappeared.
“What was that?” Kelley asked.
He stilled. “What? Oh, nothing.” He returned to drying himself off.
She shook her head and moved closer. “No, I saw something. Was that a tattoo?”
“It’s nothing. Something I got when I was in the army.”
She hadn’t noticed before because they’d been in the shadows, and she realized now that he’d always remained facing her. She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, having her own secrets that she preferred to keep in the dark, but now she wondered if he’d done it on purpose. “Jack, let me see your back.”
“I said—”
“Let me see.”
With a deep sigh, he turned slightly, presenting her with his left shoulder, and she immediately understood why he hadn’t wanted her to see it. She trailed her finger over her name inscribed within a heart—split down the middle with jagged edges.
“It must have hurt,” she said quietly, not certain if she was referring to getting the tattoo or the broken heart.
“I don’t even remember getting it. I got drunk one night, woke up the next morning, and there it was.”
She eased back until she could hold his gaze. “Does the broken heart represent yours or mine?”
“Does it matter?”
“I suppose not. Stephanie must not have been too pleased with it.”
“She couldn’t have cared less what I did. The only person who cared was a guy in my outfit whose last name was Kelley. He wasn’t real bright, and he took the tattoo to mean I was trying to make a pass at him.”
“Really?”
He hitched up a corner of his mouth. “Really.”
She placed her palm against his chest where his real heart beat. “Sometimes, Jack, I forget that maybe I wasn’t the only one who got hurt.”
He cradled her chin and circled his thumb around her mouth. “You know, we have a rule around here that if a person isn’t smiling, she gets tossed in the bay.”
She couldn’t stop herself from grinning. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Lowering his head, he whispered, “Try me. Then we could take a shower together to conserve the hot water.”
“You promised to behave,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, but I’m finding that promise difficult to keep. Maybe we could meet out under the stars tonight.”
“Maybe not,” she said, easing away from him. “Madison is a light sleeper.”
“Two or four, two or four, two or four,” Madison chanted.
Sitting at the card table, Jack shook the dice in his hand. The boys had wanted to play Monopoly. Although, at eight, they didn’t quite grasp the strategy of empire building, they understood they wanted the colors of their properties to match and lots of houses on the properties. Serena served more as their guide than a true competitor, although she was still in the game, holding on by the skin of her teeth with the ownership of all four railroads. Kelley had gotten tossed out of the game early on. Jack had never known anyone to go around the board three times without landing on any property other than the utilities. She was a magnet to Chance and Community Chest.
Madison changed her chant. “Park Place
or Board-walk.”
“Ain’t going to happen, kid,” Jack said. He tossed the dice. A pair of twos.
“Busted!” Madison yelled. She punched at the air, more animated than Jack had ever seen her. “Board-walk. Hotel. Two thousand.” She snapped her fingers. “Hand it over, dude.”
Rubbing his hands together, Jack looked at his meager pile of money and his mortgaged properties. “Looks like I’m out.”
Madison took his seven dollars and his properties and began arranging everything on her side of the table as though she were some tycoon. Jason and Riker were whispering, and Jack knew from experience they were plotting their strategy. They would form an alliance, sacrifice one for the other if they had to. It was the boys against the adults, and the adults had yet to win a game.
“There’s a new sheriff in town, boys,” Madison announced.
Chuckling, Jack got up from the table and approached Kelley. She was curled in a chair, reading.
“It’ll be dark soon,” he said. “I need to gather some driftwood for the fire we’ll build later. Want to come with me?”
With a soft smile, she held out her hand and he pulled her to her feet. On the way down the stairs, Jack grabbed a burlap sack he’d used to carry the driftwood in. He didn’t need much. They had a cord of firewood stacked against the side of the house. He shoved open the door, waited while she walked through, then follo
wed her out.
Taking her hand, he led her to the sandy road that would wind its way around to the Gulf side of the island. Strange how intimate it seemed to have their fingers threaded together, their palms pressed against each other’s. He’d always slung his arm around a girl’s shoulders, tucked her up against his side. It had always made him feel powerful, in a protective sort of way. Laying his claim, staking out his territory.
For some reason, simply holding Kelley’s hand felt incredibly right.
“So, when are you going to tell Madison about us?” he asked.
She glanced over at him. “I don’t know.”
“She’s sharp, Kelley. It’s not going to take her long to figure it out.”
“I know. I just don’t know if she’ll be happy with the news.”
“Sometimes kids aren’t happy.”
She laid her head against his arm. “I know, but my relationship with Madison is important. Things have been going much more smoothly lately, and I’d like to keep them that way for a while longer. I’m not like you, Jack. You seem to have natural parenting skills. You’re so good with the boys and Madison. You’re like the perfect father, and I’m such an inept mother.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Jack said. “You’re Madison’s sister, not her mother. You probably fixed her hair and let her borrow your makeup when you were younger. Then, suddenly, bam, you’re the one in charge, and she has a hard time seeing you as an authority figure. Whereas her relationship with me, from the get-go, has been that I’m the authority. Why do you think she calls me Sheriff?”
“I thought she did it to irritate you.”
“Some of that, too, I’m sure. But the day she calls me Jack is the day I’m in trouble. I’ll have lost my power over her.”
“I think it’s more than what she calls you. I think she has a grudging respect for you.”
He glanced over at her. “What about you?”
She lifted her gaze to his. “I’ve always had respect for you, Jack. No grudging to it. I’ll admit the respect has grown. Now, when I see you with Jason, I’m so impressed with the way you handle him. I always thought abused children were supposed to be abusers.”
“I was neglected, not abused.”
“Neglect is a form of abuse. You’re kidding yourself if you think it isn’t. I took a couple of psych courses myself, you know.”
They’d reached the main stretch of shoreline where the waves washed over the sand. The breeze picked up with no dunes to act as buffer. It brought the scent of the sea, not always pleasant but reminiscent of life.
He looked off toward the horizon, where the sun was beginning to set.
“She wouldn’t hold him, Kelley.” He turned and faced her. “Stephanie. After Jason was born. She wouldn’t hold him. How can you not hold a baby?”
She squeezed his hand. “You held him.”
He nodded. “I was so afraid I’d break him, but he’d look at me with those unblinking dark eyes. There was trust in those eyes, and at the time, it was more powerful than love. He made me feel invincible.” He held her gaze. “I really tried to make it work with Stephanie.”
Tears sprang into her eyes, and she blinked them back. “I’m glad you did. I’m just sorry it didn’t work out.”
“I’m not. She had these moods—they were a bitch. The doctors said she was depressed. Nothing I did seemed to make her happy. Maybe she was bipolar. I don’t know. The day she packed up, I thought I should have felt the burden of being a single parent. Instead, I just felt relieved. Strange, huh? To feel relieved because someone walks out on you?”
“I think Stephanie was a fool.”
Maybe they were all fools. He picked up a seashell and hurled it into the sea. Some things were easier to say when he wasn’t looking at the person. “I never forgot you, Kelley.”
All he heard was the roar of the ocean and the whisper of the wind. Then he felt her arms coming around him. She slid around to face him and lifted her gaze to his. “I never forgot you, either, Jack. I tried. God knows, I tried.”
Gathering her in his arms, he kissed her. The past was behind them. He was beginning to have hope for the future.
Chapter 16
Kelley sat on a blanket on the ground with her feet tucked up beneath her, trying to remember the last time she’d felt so relaxed or at peace. The cooling wind blew at her back, and the low fire danced in front of her, warming her hands, roasting her marshmallow.
Madison sat beside her, and even she seemed content. Jack sat within easy reach, his arms bracketing Jason as they roasted two marshmallows on one straightened coat hanger. They were so at ease, so comfortable, that she knew without a doubt that they’d done this often. On the other side of them, Serena and Riker were in the same position.
The boys had simply climbed onto their laps, without prodding, without asking, as though it were an understood ritual.
The sight caused an ache to form within Kelley’s chest for moments she’d never had with Madison. Jack was right. She’d shifted from being Madison’s sister to being her mother without the foundation that type of bond required.
Was it any wonder they were constantly butting heads, trying to understand the dynamics of their new relationship? She found herself feeling ashamed that Jack was a far better father than she’d ever be a mother.
She wondered if the heat she saw in his eyes every time he looked at her would cool if she told him why she found dealing with Madison to be such a struggle. Or would he offer to lighten her burden? She was unworthy of him for so many reasons—the main reason nestled within his lap.
“That’s perfect, Dad,” Jason said as he and Jack studied the browned marshmallows.
“Let ’em cool off a bit,” Jack reminded him, as he did every time they finished toasting their dessert.
Kelley could hardly take her eyes off them. They could have been a Norman Rockwell painting, and she thought she’d remember this night for as long as she lived. The serenity. The perfection. A father and son who obviously adored each other.
The sight was bittersweet, moments previously denied to her. She wanted to draw Madison onto her lap, hold her close—all that remained of her family—go back in time to when Madison was younger, more innocent, and wouldn’t have objected to being cuddled.
She watched as Jack popped the gooey confection into his mouth, slid his gaze over to her, and very slowly licked his finger and thumb. She had a feeling that if they hadn’t had an audience, he would have offered to let her do the licking.
“Can I have another, Dad?” Jason asked.
Jack turned his attention back to his son. “Nah, I think we’ve had enough.”
Jason groaned. Jack groaned.
“Ah, Dad.”
“Ah, bud.”
Jason snuggled more closely against Jack. “Wish we could stay here longer.”
“Can’t,” Jack said. “Got school on Monday.”
“We could play hooky.”
“I don’t think so. State law would require me to arrest myself if I let you play hooky.”
Jason groaned again. “That’s a dumb law.”
“Still, it’s the law.”
“When I grow up, I’m gonna change laws.”
“Thought you were gonna fly fighter jets.”
“That, too.”
Grinning, Jack ruffled his hair. “I don’t think you know what you’re gonna do, and that’s just fine for right now.”
“Me and Riker—”
“Riker and I—” Kelley said at the same time Jack did. He looked over at her, his grin broadening.
“Gotta watch how you talk,” Jack said. “We have an English teacher sitting here.”
“Since you were so quick to correct him, I don’t think you really need me here.”
“Oh, I need you here,” he said, his voice lowered a notch, an undercurrent and another meaning shimmering in his voice.
“Riker and me—I mean I—are going to stay up all night tonight, okay?”
“Sure,” Jack said, surprising Kelley with his answer. She’d assumed even if he didn’t adhere to a strict bedtime on the weekend, he wouldn’t be quite that lenient.
Jason leaned over and tapped Riker’s knuckles, then settled back into Jack’s lap.
“So, what now, Sheriff?” Madison asked as she tested the coolness of her blackened marshmallow. “Scary stories, campfire songs?”
“Scary stories!” both boys cried.
“I wouldn’t be able to sleep if we told scary stories,” Serena said. “But I have a new wizard story.”
“All right!” Again, the boys in unison.
As Serena began weaving her tale, Jack leaned toward Kelley and whispered, “Serena’s the storyteller.”
“Are you really going to let him stay up all night?”
He shook his head and mouthed, “Half an hour. Tops.” He tipped his head to the side and closed his eyes, indicating what he expected to happen. His son was going to fall asleep in spite of his desire to stay up all night. Then Jack opened his eyes. “I pick my battles. No sense in butting heads over something that’s a moot issue.”
The words of Serena’s story washed over her as she studied the profiles of father and son. As hard as she looked, she could see no similarities in any of their features. Jason’s dark eyes began fighting to stay awake. Dark eyes. When Jack’s were so blue. And Stephanie’s had been…an even lighter blue.
No, that couldn’t be right. She was remembering wrong.
Just as Jack had predicted, about twenty minutes into her story, Serena quieted and sighed. “J. K. Rowling, I guess I’m not.”
In the dancing firelight, Kelley could see that the boys’ eyes were closed, their jaws slack.
“Don’t take it too hard,” Jack said. “They’ve had a long day. I’ll take Jason up to the crow’s nest and come back for Riker.”
“I think I can manage if Kelley and Madison will help me get up.”
Although Jack didn’t seem to need any help, Kelley did grab his arm and give him a little support as he worked his way to his feet. Then, with Madison, she helped Serena rise.
“Wait here,” Jack ordered. “Keep an eye on the fire. I’ll be back once I tuck him in.”
Nodding, Kelley shoved her arms beneath her breasts and watched with bittersweet longing for what might have been, as Jack and Serena walked toward the beach house.
Hard loving man Page 17