Fast Break (Texas Titans Holiday)

by Cheryl Douglas

  “So do I,” Bree said, clasping her aunt’s hand. “But at least we have each other and I’m so grateful for that.”

  “Me too, sweetheart.” Bella smiled. “Me too.” She carefully covered the angel in tissue again before she said, “Don’t let him make you believe he’s changed, honey. He hasn’t. He’ll say or do anything to get you back, then once he has you, it’ll start all over again. The drinking, the lies, the—”

  “I know.”

  Bree had spent too many sleepless nights trying to figure out how things veered so far off track. While her aunt claimed she’d seen the signs in the early phase of their relationship, Bree remembered a man who loved her, who was attentive and honest and communicative. It wasn’t all bad. In fact, for years it was good. He made her happy. Until he didn’t anymore.

  Bree wondered if it was the same for Kevin. Did he think they were happily married before Trena ambushed him? Was he devastated that his wife left him because he still loved her or did he just miss his son? Did he miss having someone to come home to at the end of a long day, someone to curl up with at night? That was the one thing she was still having a hard time with, sleeping alone. She heard every creak in the old house she rented and while it was a safe neighborhood, her mind still loved to play the “what if” game to torment her.

  “I know it’s hard,” Bella said softly. “The first Christmas is always the hardest. I remember when George died I didn’t even want to celebrate that year, and you know how much I love the holiday season.”

  “It’s not that I’m longing for what used to be,” Bree said, trying to put into words the emotions she’d spent the past several months trying to process. “I love the life I’m creating here with my little girl. Being home, working here with you, re-connecting with old friends, it’s everything I hoped it would be. Sure, I miss Daddy, but maybe I can talk him into coming home too. It’s not like there’s anything left for him there now that we’ve moved and he’s retired.”

  “I think it would be wonderful if William moved here,” Bella said. “I called him a few days ago, just to check in, and he sounded so excited about your visit over the holidays. I think he’s lonely without you and Ainsley.”

  “I’ll talk to him about making the move while I’m there,” Bree said. “Maybe we can even get the ball rolling, find a realtor, put the house on the market, or at least donate some of their old things.”

  “You know it’s not gonna be easy for him to give away your mama’s things, sweetie. He thinks as long as he has them, he still has a part of her.”

  Bree sighed. “I know, but he can’t hold on to the past forever, Auntie. I worry about him. I don’t want him to be alone forever and I know Mama wouldn’t have wanted that either.”

  “Everyone has to decide for themselves when it’s time to move on, sugar. When he meets the right person, he’ll know.”

  Bree knew her aunt was right. She thought back to the first time she’d met Kevin. Something deep inside told her this man was going to be an important part of her life and even though they hadn’t seen each other in years, the memories they made still gave her pleasure during her darkest and loneliest hours.

  “Auntie, what do you think I should do about Ren’s offer? Do you really think I should risk going to Kevin’s home and office?”

  “You said he has a son?” Bella asked.

  “Yeah, he’s eleven or twelve, I think.”

  “Hmm, think how sad it would be for him to go to his daddy’s house, the house he grew up in, and not even see a tree?”

  “Are you trying to guilt me into taking this job?” Bree asked, trying to keep a straight face.

  “Whatever works,” Bella said, winking.

  * * *

  Bree showed up on Rennie’s doorstep on Thanksgiving Day with a hand-made apple pie, holding Ainsley’s gloved hand.

  “Aren’t ya gonna ring the doorbell, Mama?” she asked, looking up at Bree with big blue eyes the exact same shade as Bree’s.

  “Sure,” Bree said, releasing Ainsley’s hand. She couldn’t deny she was nervous. Even though Kevin had begged off, his parents and brother were still going to be there and she didn’t know how they would react to seeing her again. She hadn’t seen Zach since she’d come back to town, but Rennie assured her he looked forward to re-connecting.

  “There you are,” Zach said, opening the door as he swept Bree into a hug. “My wife was beginning to think you’d changed your mind.”

  “Hey, Zach,” Bree said, laughing as she tried to balance the pie behind his back. “It’s so good to see you again.”

  “And this little princess must be Ainsley,” he said, bending down so they were eye level.

  “Where’s Moni?” Ainsley asked, revealing a gap-toothed grin. “We’re gonna play Barbies.”

  “Ainsley,” Bree said, smoothing a hand over her daughter’s glossy blonde curls. “All in good time. Don’t you want to thank Mr. Foster for inviting us to dinner?”

  “Thank you, Mr. Foster,” she said solemnly.

  Zach laughed before tweaking her upturned nose. “You can call me Zach. Mr. Foster is my father.”

  Ainsley tipped her head, looking confused. “But aren’t you Mr. Foster, too?”

  “Sure, I am,” he said, ruffling her hair as he stood. “But my friends call me Zach and since you’re my friend now, you can call me Zach, too.”

  “Okay.” She grinned, showing the shallow dimples in her chubby cheeks. “Moni said you’re a baseball player.”

  “I am.” Zach smiled. “You like baseball?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Nu-uh. I like to dance.”

  Bree covered her face with a gloved hand, trying to hide her smile. “No one said you can’t like baseball and dance, sweetheart.”

  “Don’t worry,” Zach said, reaching for Ainsley’s hand. “You don’t have to like baseball to be my friend.”

  A black Maserati pulled up in the driveway and Bree’s heart sank when she spotted the driver. Oh God. Kevin. “I thought he was out of town,” Bree whispered, hoping her daughter couldn’t pick up on her sudden tension.

  “He was supposed to be,” Zach said, frowning. “He must’ve changed his mind at the last minute.” He waved his free hand when Kevin jumped out of the car. “Hey, man, this is a nice surprise.”

  “Yeah, I thought—” He stopped dead in his tracks. “Bree?”

  Bree couldn’t breathe much less respond, but that didn’t stop him from advancing.

  “Oh my God, what are you doing here?” He stopped in front of her, looking down at her with a million questions in his eyes. “I didn’t even know you were back in town.” It took a moment for him to notice Ainsley, but when he did, he asked, “Your daughter?”

  Bree still couldn’t find her voice.

  “I’m Ainsley,” she said, looking Kevin up and down. “Who’re you?”

  “This is my brother, Kevin,” Zach said.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Ainsley,” Kevin said, bending at the waist to offer her his hand. “Wow, you look just like your mama.”

  “Everyone says that,” she said, smiling. “My daddy has dark hair and eyes. I don’t think I look like him.”

  At the mention of Ainsley’s father, Kevin’s eyes darkened and he turned his attention back to Bree. “Is your husband here?”

  “No,” she said finally, finding even the single word a challenge.

  Bree knew she should explain they were separated, but Zach rescued her by offering to take Ainsley inside so she could play with his daughter.

  Bree smiled at Zach when he took the pie from her and mouthed, “Good luck,” behind his brother’s back.

  “I’m sorry to intrude on your holiday with your family,” Bree said, twisting her hands. “I didn’t think you’d be here. If I’d known—”

  “You wouldn’t have come.” He waved at a neighbor walking a black Lab, as though he was looking for a distraction. “Have long have you been back in town?”

  “A few months.” She
knew she had to explain about Lyle before he jumped to the wrong conclusions about her marital status. “I came home when I decided to leave my husband. My aunt offered me a job at her antique store and—”

  “Hold on a minute,” he said, holding his hand up. “You left your husband? And brought your daughter here? Does he ever get to see her?”

  That wasn’t the reaction she’d been expecting when she told him she was unattached. Not that she expected him to still be interested, especially after the way they left things, but it would have been nice to know he cared more about her feelings than her ex’s. “I’m taking Ainsley back at Christmas to spend some time with him.”

  “Did you purposely move so far away so that he wouldn’t be able to see her? Do you think that’s fair to either one of them?”

  Bree was taken aback by his anger. She knew it had nothing to do with visitation and everything to do with the resentment he still harbored toward her for breaking up with him. “I don’t think it’s any of your business. It’s up to me and Lyle to work that out.”

  “Lyle?” he spit out. “That’s your husband’s name? Lyle?”

  “Do you have a problem with that?”

  “I have a problem with this whole damn thing,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. “I don’t understand why you’re here. Why the hell did you come back to town?”

  Bree watched him slip his sunglasses up on his head and in spite of her outrage, the sight of those eyes still knocked the wind out of her. They were as blue as ever, but the faint lines fanning out from the edges reminded her they weren’t kids anymore.

  “You may recall Rennie was the one who introduced us. We’ve been friends for years. We stayed in touch even after I left town. Naturally, when I came back, I was anxious to see my old friend.”

  “Rennie knew where you were all this time?” Kevin asked, planting his hands on his hips. “She knew you were married, that you had a kid?”

  “Of course she knew.” Bree frowned at the scowl on his face. “Why?”

  “Excuse me,” he said, reaching for the door. “I need to have a word with my sister-in-law.”

  Chapter Four

  Kevin barely paused to kiss his mother’s cheek and shake his father’s hand before he made his way to the kitchen to find Rennie. “You wanna tell me what the hell you were thinking inviting her here?” Kevin demanded as he watched his sister-in-law take the sweet potatoes from the oven.

  “Oh hey, Kev.” Rennie set the glass dish down on the stovetop before leaning in to kiss Kevin’s cheek. “Zach said you were here. This is a nice surprise. I thought you were going out of town for a few days.”

  Kevin loved Rennie like a sister, but she was testing his patience and she knew it. “Why is Bree here, Ren?”

  Rennie swiped a hand across her apron. “Because she’s my friend and I invited her. Do you have a problem with that?”

  Grabbing Rennie’s forearm, he forced her to look him in the eye. “You, of all people, have to ask me that? That girl destroyed me and you invited her to break bread with us? Now? When I’m still reeling from what Trena did to me?”

  Rennie patted his cheek. “You’ve been running away from this for far too long. What better time to deal with it, Kev? You’re single again. So is she.”

  “So what?” He released Rennie’s arm when he realized his fingers may be biting into her flesh. “I’m not interested in rehashing the past.”

  “Is that why you’ve asked me half a dozen times over the years if I knew what happened to Bree?” she asked, smiling.

  “Yeah, about that,” he said, watching her turn away from him to toss the salad. “Why didn’t you tell me she’d gotten married and had a kid?”

  “It would have hurt you,” Rennie said, softly. “Even though you’d married Trena and had Danny by then, I knew you’d never really gotten over Bree.”

  “How can you say that?” he asked, trying to deny the truth. “That was a lifetime ago. I loved my wife and son.”

  Rennie turned to face him, fisting a hand on her hip. “Can you honestly tell me you loved Trena the way you loved Bree?”

  “That’s not a fair question,” he said, resisting the urge to break eye contact. “Bree was my first love. I don’t have to tell you how powerful that can be.”

  “No, you don’t,” Rennie said softly. “I moved on with my life, fell in love again, even got married. But I never stopped loving your brother. I have to wonder if you’ve ever stopped loving Bree.”

  Kevin was shocked Rennie had the nerve to ask him that after the way Bree left him. He’d lost an entire semester of school and was on the verge of developing a serious drinking problem because of her. “That’s crazy,” he said, swiping a hand through his cropped, black hair. “I wouldn’t have married Trena if I’d still been in love with Bree.”

  “There are different kinds of love,” Rennie said, carefully. “It’s true your first love is often the most intense and most difficult to forget. Sometimes the next time around we settle for a relationship that’s not quite as emotionally charged because we don’t want to get hurt again.”

  “Are you implying I settled for Trena?” Kevin rarely had reason to argue with Rennie, but she was pushing all of his buttons today.

  “I think you were looking for a safer love,” Rennie said. “And there’s no shame in that. I did the same thing when I left Zach. But eventually you have to stop running and hiding from the truth. Maybe fate brought you and Bree back together for a reason right now. Could be you have some unfinished business.”

  “No, we don’t. We said everything we had to say to each other years ago.”

  “If that were true, you wouldn’t be so upset about seeing her again. What’s more, you wouldn’t have been asking me about her all these years.” Rennie gripped his hand as she walked past with a steaming basket of rolls. “You have the opportunity to ask her all those questions you’ve been dying to ask, Kev. Don’t let your stupid pride get in the way.”

  * * *

  Kevin was rounding the corner when he heard lowered voices that prompted him to stop and listen.

  “It’s not often I admit to being wrong,” his father said, “but in your case, Bree, I was dead wrong.”

  “That’s nice to hear,” she said, her voice sounding strained. “Even if it is twenty years too late.”

  “I was trying to protect my son,” John said. “It’s not that I thought you weren’t good enough for him—”

  “Come on, John,” Bree cut in. “I’m not a naïve girl anymore. I’m a grown woman. I know exactly what you thought of me. My parents weren’t part of the country club crowd. We didn’t have a lot of money. As far as you were concerned, I was the hired help. Definitely not the kind of girl you wanted your son to get mixed up with.”

  Kevin flattened his body against the wall when Monica and Ainsley rushed past on their way up the stairs, praying they wouldn’t give him away. He needed to hear this, knowing it would answer questions that had been plaguing him for years.

  “That may be true,” John said, the sound of ice clinking in his glass the only noise in the brief silence. “But in hindsight I can admit that was a mistake. The woman he married, now she was a gold-digger.”

  Kevin clenched his fists, resisting the urge to storm the room and tell his father what he could do with his opinions. It wasn’t enough that he’d come between him and Bree. Now he was attacking the mother of his child as well?

  “You never have given your son enough credit,” Bree said. “He’s always been capable of making sound decisions. If he married Trena, I’m sure it was because he saw something in her that you didn’t.”

  “You haven’t met her, have you?” John asked, chuckling. “She’s a piece of work.”

  “Be that as it may,” Bree said, her voice sounding strained. “It was his decision to make, not yours.”

  “You’re a lot fierier than you used to be,” John said, sounding amused. “You were a meek little thing when you worked for me.”r />
  “Is that why you thought you could bully me?”

  “I didn’t bully you, Bree. I simply advised you to stop seeing my son if you valued your job.”

  “What’s the difference?” she asked, her voice teetering between disbelief and outrage. “You knew I couldn’t afford to lose that job. I needed that money for school.”

  “I think I taught you a valuable lesson that summer,” John said. “You should be thanking me. There are people who set the rules and people who follow. You were obviously destined to be a follower.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” Kevin demanded, careful to keep his voice level as he rounded the corner. “You had no goddamn right to assert your authority—”

  “Kevin.” John sucked in a breath as his eyes darted to Bree. “I didn’t know you were out there, son. I thought you and Zach were out back getting some firewood from the shed.”

  “I want some answers.” Kevin pointed at his father. “Start talking. Now.”

  “I, uh…” John glanced at Bree, looking lost. “I did what I thought was best,” he said, finally. “You were too damn young to be getting so serious. You had to get an education before—”

  “Cut the bullshit,” Kevin warned. “You knew I was a wreck when Bree broke up with me, yet you said nothing. How could you?” He would never forget the days and weeks following that break-up. He’d barely left the house. Eating was a challenge. Showering was too much of an effort most days. The only thing he was interested in was sleeping… which inevitably led to dreams of Bree.

  “I was your father,” John said, squaring his shoulders. “I was doing what I thought was best for you.”

  “You don’t know what’s best for me. You never did. You encouraged me to practice law, but you never once asked me what I wanted.” Kevin knew it was pointless to rehash ancient history, but this was a conversation he should have had with his father years ago.