Broken Vows (Domestic Discipline Romance)

by Mariella Starr

  "Sometimes there isn't a choice," Mila said tartly.

  "That's the truth," Kevin agreed. "Here, Alma, hold these while I get the truck." He handed the hospital volunteer an armful of flowers.

  "Don't mind Alma," Kevin said when he escorted Mila and helped her into the cab of the truck. "She has been around forever."

  "She probably has seen a lot of changes in her lifetime," Mila said.

  "Anything you need before we leave town?"

  "No, I think I have everything. I only want to go home."

  "Home it is, but I have to make one stop first." He pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store. "Anything you need from here?"

  "Yogurt, probably bread and milk, and… goodness everything in my refrigerator has probably gone bad."

  "Your new refrigerator was not even plugged in until yesterday. I stocked it, but I will get you some yogurt. I never thought of it," Kevin admitted. "Jenny lost her salad makings due to freezing and I want to replace them. I notice she is big on salads. Stay put, I will leave the truck running for the heat."

  Kevin was back several minutes later with two large bags. He stowed them and drove Mila home, guiding her to the guesthouse where she was welcomed by Jenny and Josh.

  He delivered the fresh produce to Jenny, hung around for a few hours, and then disappeared into the main house to work with his cousins on the last of the heavy-duty work in the kitchen. He also had some trim work to do, but he would do it by himself.

  Later in the afternoon, he saw Mila slowly making her way across the decking to her part of the house. He put down his tools and followed.

  He found her in the baby's room, crying.

  "Hey, if you don't like it we can change it."

  "I love it," Mila said wiping at her tears. "It's perfect. Jenny said you had a surprise for me here. I never expected this."

  "That's why it is called a surprise. You had a tough time of it, and I couldn't let you come back here to a mess."

  "You redid everything, and it's beautiful."

  "Yeah, well, you still have some stuff to do," grumbled Kevin. "You know hanging pictures, buying do-dads and things women like to have around. My sister Sharon furnished the kitchen, but I told her to keep it minimal, so you could add what you wanted."

  Mila selected a stuffed airplane from the crib and hugged it. "You were with me. From beginning to end, you were with me, and you did all this. I can't thank you enough."

  "I didn't do it for thanks," Kevin said, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her towards him. "I did it because I like you. I know the timing stinks, Mila. Bad timing or not, though, I am here for you. When you are ready, and if you are interested, I will be here." He bent and kissed her lightly on the lips.

  "Now, don't fight with me, and I will walk you back to the guesthouse. You have the female weepies, I know women get them after having babies, but I hate to see a pretty girl cry. You need to be off your feet and resting."

  Chapter 12

  Josh put the last of his toiletries into his travel bag and handed it to Emmie to zip. He was packing, with his daughter's help, for a two to a four-day trip to Montrose. There were details he needed to review face-to-face with his new partners in Peak Designs. They had a lot of decisions to make.

  He and Jenny were being extra careful around Emmie. She had handled their going away on the ski trip very well. This was his first trip away from home leaving all of them behind. For several days he and Jenny had talked openly about his business trip including Emmie in their conversations as reassurance that he was returning. He explained to his daughter he had to leave before the next storm hit, as they were expecting it to start at nightfall and to last for several days. He had even warned her he might not be able to call her if it was snowing in the mountains.

  Emmie had always been a quiet child although, when she spoke, her language skills were well above her age development. She had terrified and shamed them when she lost her voice. Their separation had frightened her so much she had retreated into silence. He didn't want to do anything that would frighten her again. She was finally coming out of her silence. He and Jenny agreed it was their responsibility to do whatever it took to make her feel loved and secure.

  Jenny was teaching Emmie at home. The idea of putting their child on a school bus for a forty-minute ride on mountainous roads scared both of them. Instead, they researched homeschooling when they discovered it was a popular alternative in the west.

  The last week had been chaotic as they dug out from the first significant snow of the season. The storm had dropped two feet of snow, followed by another six inches a day later. It was a revelation to them. The locals called it the start of winter and took it in stride. Counting the smaller snows earlier in the fall, the total accumulation was already at thirty-eight inches. He and Jenny were used to New York City and Connecticut weather, which could total as much as forty inches a year spread out over four to five months with warm periods between when the snow would melt. In the San Juan Mountains, it snowed and snowed with little expectation of a melt off until spring. Neighbors warned them to expect as much as seven to fifteen feet.

  Josh contracted with one of Kevin's cousins to ensure someone plowed their long driveway after each snowstorm. He still had not discounted the idea of buying a pick-up truck with an attachable plow. He liked the idea of a family truck more and more.

  Both he and Jenny were learning to fit into their new environment. When you lived eighteen miles from the nearest town, you could not run to a store every time you ran out of milk or toilet paper. Buying in bulk in advance was a necessity.

  Josh, Jenny, and Mila had all passed the Colorado state safety courses for gun ownership. Josh purchased a rifle, and Mila instructed him and Jenny on its use. He was a fair shot at this point. Jenny still missed the entire target about half the time. Mila was so good she was scary, in a good kind of way.

  Redesigning the Bentley property into their home was interesting and enjoyable, and he and Jenny both loved the property and the house. It would be a beautiful home for his family when they finished. He still hadn't told Jenny about his inheritance. He knew the time to tell her was imminent, he could hardly expect her to furnish the huge house to her taste without knowing everything. It wasn't that he didn't trust Jenny. He didn't trust Jenny's mother.

  Josh was excited about his trip. He excelled at designing from a basic concept and as soon as internet connections resumed after the storm, he had gotten on-line with his new partners. He and Brice had gone over every detail of the specifications for the Richfield Towers while the other two partners were busy filing the final papers for the company's incorporation.

  Josh still had concerns about the seismic reports, which had never materialized when he worked at Pugh and Barkley. He was convinced his old company was hiding something. There were two possible sites for the Richfield Towers project, but Pugh had directed them to investigate only one, and the seismic reports for that site had been sketchy.

  Brice contracted a geotechnical engineering company he had worked with before to investigate the geologic and seismic fault evaluations of both sites. Stamford, Connecticut was close to the Ramapo fault line. Everyone in the area during the earthquake of August 2011 had been shaken by it. Earthquakes were rare in New England. Most of the hundreds of millions of people living there had never experienced even a minor tremor before 2011. Many people had no idea several major faults ran along the eastern seaboard and through the Appalachian Mountains. People mistakenly thought earthquakes were only the province of California and Alaska.

  "Ready?" Jenny asked when Josh came down the stairs with his suitcase in one arm and Emmie in his other.

  "Yeah," Josh said, setting Emmie on the countertop. "Are you ready for Daddy to go away for a couple of days?"

  Emmie nodded.

  "Give me words, baby," Josh insisted.

  "I'm ready, Daddy," Emmie said. "You have to call me."

  "I will," Josh promised. "Remember, if it is
snowing outside, the phones may not work, but Daddy is still thinking of you, and I love you very much. I want you to help Mommy and Aunt Mila, and be a good girl."

  "I will be thinking of you too," whispered Josh, giving Jenny a kiss. He leaned down and tried to find a clean spot to kiss on Adam's oatmeal-covered face. "Why do I feel as if I am deserting you?"

  "The feeling will go away as soon as you start talking business," Jenny said with a grin.

  "You and Mila stick together!" Josh ordered. "I don't want either one of you stranded somewhere alone."

  "We have our dos and don'ts list," Jenny said, smiling.

  "Besides, Kevin will be here every day," added Mila, rolling her eyes. "We know you have him on guard duty along with Buddy."

  "Best guard dogs I ever had," Josh agreed as he grabbed his suitcase. Jenny followed him out the door.

  "I will call every day, morning and evening," Josh promised, slipping into the rental Jeep he was using while the Land Rover was in the shop for repairs.

  "Stop looking so woebegone," Mila whispered to her sister when Jenny came back inside. "You will worry Emmie."

  Jenny took a deep breath. "I am spoiled. I knew he would have to go back to work at some point, but I loved having him around. Do you want to go over the furniture catalogs with me for the upstairs bedrooms? Once we get an idea of what we want, we can figure out color schemes, then I can sketch out our ideas. When Josh gets back, he can forward everything to Mr. Mitchim for the owner's review."

  "I have a better idea," Mila said taking a cloth and wiping Adam's face. "I will watch the kids while you work on your latest piece. We can go over the catalogs this evening."

  Jenny's face glowed with pleasure. "I love the new scaffolding Kevin made for me! It is so much easier to work vertically than horizontally! Do you mind?"

  "I would not have offered if I minded," Mila said with another eye roll.

  * * *

  Emmie happily hummed to herself as she played quietly in her little kitchen alcove. Mommy and Daddy were happy again. She had not heard any of the really bad words like credit card, debt, or the really awful one—divorce in a long time. She was not worried anymore that Daddy would go away and not come back. He and Mommy were always smiling now, especially in the mornings. They looked at each other many times during the day and smiled at each other. She wanted to talk to them now because they were listening again, to her and to each other. This made Emmie smile.

  * * *

  Kevin was driving out the long lane on his way home when he saw coyotes tearing at something in the snow. He stopped the truck, ordered Buddy to stay in the vehicle, and waded through the snow drifts as the scavengers disappeared from sight. He estimated he was a couple hundred feet from where Jenny had gone off the road when he saw the deer carcass partially uncovered and ripped apart by animals.

  He noticed two other worrisome things in the nearly pristine landscape—the straight-line tracks of several snowmobiles and the removal of the deer head. The trophy poachers were back. Somehow, either they had spotted the deer or heard it had been hit. He looked over his shoulder to confirm he could not see the lights of the house from this distance. Then he slid back into his truck, threw it into reverse, and dropped the snowplow blade to create a high pile of snow in front of the carcass. He could not stop scavengers from coming for the carrion, it was part of nature, but he could hide it from view if the women decided to go out in the next few days.

  He hoped Mila and Jenny would stay put since the area was expecting another storm. Everyone had been warning the women. However, while Kevin knew Josh might influence Jenny, he had no influence over either one of them. He swung his truck around and drove back to the main house. He did not like the idea of poachers having been in the area within the last four days. He was going back to talk Mila into staying with Jenny in the guesthouse. He had planned to work all week on-site during the day, anyway. Now, he had the incentive he needed to stay at night until Josh returned.

  Mila opened the door to Kevin's knock and stepped back out of the way to let him and Buddy enter. "I thought you left for the day."

  "I did, but I changed my mind," Kevin admitted. "Where is Jenny?"

  "Over in her studio working."

  "I'll be back." He went to the main house, opened the front door, and called out for Jenny.

  "Is something wrong," demanded Jenny.

  "No, nothing is wrong, but would you come back to your house for a minute."

  "Sure," Jenny answered, following him. "What's this about?"

  Once all three of them were in the guesthouse, Kevin faced the two women.

  "There has been another incident of trophy poaching on this property. I think it might have been the deer you hit a couple of days ago. Technically, I suppose it is not poaching if the deer was already dead, but I don't like the idea of strangers wandering the property, especially with Josh gone. I also found snowmobile tracks. If someone is hunting deer or elk, they are armed and potentially dangerous."

  "When will this awful hunting season end?" Jenny bemoaned.

  "At the end of next week," Kevin said. "I don't think it will stop whoever is doing the poaching. Good guys don't disobey no trespassing laws. I don't mean to scare you, but I want you to keep all the doors locked, at all times. Jenny, if you working in the main house, I want the front door locked as well as the door to the studio while you are there. I would rather you were safe than sorry. Mila, I know you just moved into your place, but I want you to come back here and stay with Jenny and the kids at night. I also don't like the idea of women staying here unprotected. If you agree, I'll bunk at your place."

  "Is it necessary?" Mila asked.

  "Maybe not," Kevin admitted. "If Josh were here, I would go home."

  "You think we need a big strong man around to protect us?" Mila demanded.

  Kevin opened his mouth to snap back, "Hell, yes," but changed his approach on the fly. "No, I have seen you shoot and know you are capable of taking care of yourself. The issue is someone has decided this area is ripe for poaching. Until they are caught or the perimeter fence is finished, they will continue hunting illegally. If these trespassers saw Josh leave and know he's out of town, it leaves you vulnerable."

  "I don't like the sound of that," Jenny said.

  "It's not a scenario I am happy with either. The fence isn't likely to be completed for a while with these snowstorms piling in one on top of another. Again, I am not trying to scare you, but for my peace of mind, I want to stay. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me where I sleep. I'm leaving Buddy here in the guesthouse with you, too. He's not much of a watchdog, but he will definitely go on alert if someone he doesn't know comes around you or the kids."

  * * *

  Josh met his partners at the site of their new business location, a two-storied building across from what looked like a mosque, which was his first question. "Is that a mosque?"

  Brice and Bill laughed. "No, but a lot of outsiders assume it is. It is a theater built in 1929, designed with a Moorish Eastern-style including dome and minaret."

  "It doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of the town's western look, does it?" Josh said shaking his head in amusement.

  "Well, they wanted something different, something to stand out. They got it," Brice said. "We have been bouncing off the walls waiting for you. Let's get to work!"

  * * *

  Mila fixed a simple lunch for Emmie and Adam, fed them, and put them down for naps. She had never spent a lot of time around children before this, but she was finding her rhythm. She was spending more time with Emmie and Adam to give Jenny the opportunity to work on new art pieces. Besides, babysitting also provided practice for the future. For the moment, Davy was a tiny eating, sleeping, pooping machine. Still, she cherished her private moments with him. She decided to feed him before she finished fixing a meal for the adults.

  She made herself comfortable and unbuttoned her shirt, and he latched on hungrily.

  Kevin gave a qu
ick tap to the door and went inside closing the door quickly. There was a fierce wind blowing today and it was bitterly cold. He turned around with a smile to greet Mila and saw her with the baby. His eyes locked onto her breast with the nursing baby. Finally, his eyes rose to meet Mila's.

  She blushed, made no comment on his watching, but covered herself with a nursing pad.

  "Don't," Kevin said. "It is natural and beautiful."

  "It is," Mila agreed as he came over, lifted the cloth, and watched for a minute, his eyes soft and fascinated. It was quite an intimate thing to do, but she was getting used to this man's easygoing ways.

  "It's a miracle." He dropped a kiss on her lips, as he often did now when they were alone. He was gentle though, never pushing. "Is Jenny working in her studio?"

  "Yes, she has a massive piece she is working on for the gallery. Julia said she has a client from a New York Gallery, who wants first dibs on all of Jenny's work."

  "It sounds promising. I will go drag her away for a break. One of my cousins is an artist, and sometimes we have to drag her away from her work. Otherwise, she won't sleep or eat."

  "I think both Josh and Jenny are that way," Mila laughed. "I am not an artsy kind of person. God knows, I couldn't make anything as beautiful as they do."

  "I don't know about that," Kevin disagreed. "You made a beautiful baby. Little Kevin is about as perfect as it gets."

  As he went out the door, Mila blinked her eyes and tried to hold back tears. That was probably the most beautiful and sincere compliment she had ever received. She smiled and looked over toward the closed door. Kevin Carter had a way about him for sure. She traced her finger over little Kevin's face thinking she had to agree with Big Kevin, her son was perfect. As she put the baby back into his carrier, she chided herself. She wanted to call her son Davy. Big Kevin and Little Kevin… she was beginning to call them so in her head too. Kevin referred to her son as Little Kevin so often she was doing it now. As kind and sweet as he was, Kevin Carter was also a stubborn infuriating man!

  * * *