by Julia London
Yes, he damn sure was.
The next day he and Ruby set off on their adventure to see Jonathan. Ruby peppered him with questions on the forty-five-minute drive to Teaneck until they pulled into the drive of the old Cape Cod he and Ashley had bought a very long time ago.
He paused in the drive, peering out the windshield. Someone had painted the red brick green. He could only imagine who’d had that brilliant idea.
“All right, here we go,” he said. The words were barely out of his mouth before Ruby was out of the truck, hopscotching her way to the front door. Dax scrambled to get there before she did, grabbing up the gift he had for Jonathan.
The front door was open and the glass storm door was the only thing between them and his baby. Ruby pressed her face against the glass to see in. Dax rang the doorbell. A moment later he heard what he imagined was a thundering of thighs coming down the stairs.
“Don’t ring the doorbell!” Stephanie hissed as she came down. When she reached the door, she sighed. “Well, if it isn’t Shrek.”
Dax glared at her. “Did you gain a little pregnancy weight, too, Steph? You’re looking a little paunchy there.”
Stephanie looked as if she was going to say something but happened to see Ruby. “Who’s this?”
“I’m Ruby Kokinos,” Ruby said. “Not Coconuts. Kokinos.” Apparently she thought this was a mistake all adults made now.
“Hi, Ruby,” Stephanie said. She unlatched the door and opened it.
Ruby didn’t wait to be asked but scooted past Stephanie and into the house.
Stephanie watched Ruby with surprise as she walked over to the couch and plopped onto it. She shifted her gaze to Dax. “Dating a little young, aren’t you?”
“Shut up. She’s my neighbor’s kid. Where’s my baby?”
“Our baby is upstairs with Ashley,” Stephanie said. “But you both have to wash your hands first.” She pointed to the half bath in the hall.
“You don’t have to point. I know where it is,” Dax said. “Come on, Coconut. Hands.”
When he and Ruby had both cleaned their hands, they returned to the living area. All the furniture Dax had made was gone—probably sold dirt cheap on Craigslist—and in its place was some IKEA stuff that made him want to put his fist through the brick wall. He’d worked hard on this house. He couldn’t believe Ashley put up with this new design aesthetic.
“Come on, let’s get this over with,” Stephanie grumbled and led them up the narrow staircase to the second floor and the master bedroom.
Dax could hardly look at the bed, onto which Stephanie promptly put herself, stretching out as she smirked at him. Ashley was in the bedroom’s small sitting area. Dax had added shelves and a counter for diapers and baby things when he and Ashley had planned for this to be a nursery. They had both wanted the baby close.
Ashley was sitting in a rocking chair with Jonathan at her breast. She’d cut her hair short, like Stephanie’s, and Dax hated it. He thought of Kyra’s long black hair and her smiling eyes, and he recognized, looking at his ex-wife now, that he did not feel the twinge of regret for his old life that he usually felt around her.
“Who is this?” Ashley asked, smiling at Ruby.
“She’s my friend,” Dax said.
“My name is Ruby. I’m six,” she said.
“Wow, six, really?” Stephanie asked. “Do you and Dax go to the same school?”
Ruby laughed while Dax glared. “He’s too big to go to school. Can I look at your baby?”
“Give me just a minute,” Ashley said and took the baby from her breast. To Dax, she said, “What’s going on?”
“Ruby is my neighbor,” he said. “She’s keeping me company today.”
Ashley stood up. “Here he is,” she said and put the baby in Dax’s hands.
Dax felt a jolt of electricity go right through him. He felt it every time he held his son, like he was shaking. But he wasn’t shaking. He was just sizzling with pride and love and hope. His son was so small. So small. He had a curly patch of dark hair on his head, and he was holding a tight little fist by his face. Dax was mortified to get so misty-eyed as he gazed down at him.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” Ashley asked.
Dax was incapable of speaking and only nodded. He dipped down onto one knee so that Ruby could see him.
Ruby leaned over the baby, studying him closely. “Can I touch it?” she asked.
“It’s a he,” Dax said. “His name is Jonathan. And yes, you can touch him very gently.”
She carefully laid her finger on the baby’s cheek, and the baby squirmed. “He’s supersoft.”
Dax smiled and stood up. “Stephanie, would you take Ruby downstairs?”
“To do what?” Stephanie asked, sounding annoyed.
“Steph, honey, will you?” Ashley asked sweetly. Dax’s stomach turned—that’s the way she used to speak to him.
“Fine,” Stephanie groused and got off the bed. “Come on, kid.”
Dax had the fleeting thought that next time he’d have Ruby make Stephanie some cookies. They would be perfect for her.
As they went out, he heard Ruby ask if they had a swing.
“Not yet,” Stephanie answered. “But we’re going to get one soon. I’ll show you where we will put it.”
Dax and Ashley were alone for the first time in months. He gazed at the woman he’d once loved. She didn’t look the same anymore. She looked like another woman entirely.
Ashley smiled at him. “I can’t believe it, we finally made a baby,” she said and stroked Jonathan’s crown. “You made a beautiful son, Dax.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. He didn’t think he had so much to do with it, but rather that God had smiled on him—Jonathan was the most perfect baby he’d ever seen. He stroked his little cheek, then gave him his pinkie to suck. “I want to be part of his life, Ashley,” he blurted.
“I know,” she said.
“No, I mean in a big way. Not just some part-time gig.”
“Really? That’s wonderful,” she said and put her hand on his arm. “I’m grateful for that. I want him to know his father. Will you stay at Lake Haven? Or will you come back to Teaneck?”
“I don’t know,” he said, looking at Jonathan’s cherubic little face. “I have to figure things out, but I’ll make it work somehow.”
“We’ll make it work,” she said.
“What about Numbnuts?” he asked, jerking his head in the direction of the bed.
“Dax,” she said disapprovingly. “Stephanie will be fine with it.”
Dax gave her a dubious look.
“Okay, she won’t be fine with it,” Ashley admitted sheepishly. “But she understands—she’ll make it work, too.”
“How can you be so sure of that?”
Ashley smiled serenely. “Because she loves me and she loves Jonathan. She wants what is best for the both of us.”
Dax supposed that was at least one thing he had in common with Stephanie. But it was the only thing.
He and Ruby stayed another half hour. Stephanie walked them out when they left. She stood on the stoop, her hands shoved in her pockets. “So I guess you’ll be back,” she said.
“Yep.”
“I knew it,” she muttered. “Okay, well, I don’t want to hear a word about this house, Dax Bishop. I know you did everything, but I’ve got some skills, too.”
Dax laughed. “No, you don’t.”
“Doesn’t matter what you think. We bought you out.”
“I won’t say a word.” He extended his hand to her in a gesture that surprised even him.
Stephanie grabbed it in a strong grip and shook it. “You know, Dax, I wish that—”
“Don’t,” Dax said. He didn’t want to hear any platitudes from her, no can’t we all just get along bullshit. He would never get over the fact that his coworker had gone behind his back and pursued his wife.
“You don’t know what I was going to say,” she said.
“I don’t want to know. We’ve
got a kid now, Stephanie. Let’s not speak about the past and move forward. Deal?”
Stephanie shrugged. “Deal.”
Kyra was up to her elbows in workbooks when Dax and Ruby arrived home. Dax was starving and offered to take them for burgers. They drove into East Beach, to his favorite burger joint. They sat outside on wooden picnic tables, and while Ruby rattled off every detail of their excursion—including how many red cars they saw—Dax imagined Jonathan at six years old, wiggling around in a seat, ketchup on his face, glowing with the excitement of an outing.
He didn’t know how he was going to be a dad in a crowded parental unit, but he knew, as he sat there watching Ruby, that he wanted it more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life.
He and Kyra and the coconut spent that weekend together, swimming in the lake, giving Otto a much-needed bath, and best of all, lolling around in bed Sunday morning while Ruby slept.
On Monday Kyra took Ruby to see Dr. Green in Black Springs while Dax drove to Teaneck to see Jonathan. When they met up later, Kyra was all smiles. “Dr. Green says he’s ninety-five percent sure it’s the absence epilepsy and it’s no big deal. But we’re having some tests next week to confirm.”
Dax was relieved that Kyra seemed to have packed away the guilt she’d been carrying around. She was bubbly again, digging through her backpack as she talked about the trip and what she had to do this week.
She made dinner that night, “the first of many thank-yous,” she announced. She cooked fish and made potatoes au gratin and a salad. After dinner the evening was so pleasant that they took a walk. The four of them—Otto festively attired in a pink bow—stopped in to say hello to the McCauleys. At the Caldwells’, Kyra and Dax talked to the grown-ups while Ruby and the Caldwell kids chased butterflies.
They returned home, Dax and Kyra holding hands, talking about their week, watching Ruby run with Otto, her red hair flying behind her, her pink cowboy boots lighting up with every step she took.
Dax took Otto to Number Two and fed him while Kyra put Ruby to bed. When he strolled back across the lawn, he sat on the front porch steps to watch the moon rise above the lake while he waited for Kyra.
He felt remarkably content. Remarkably. He didn’t feel that strange restless feeling he’d had before meeting Kyra. He didn’t feel anything but happiness and peace. This was what he’d always wanted. He’d never expected to find it this way, but somehow he’d stumbled into this near-perfect little family unit. The thing that would make it perfect was adding Jonathan to it.
Dax was going to make it work. He’d never been more determined about something in his life.
He didn’t hear the screen door open, thanks to his expert skills at installing a pneumatic hinge, and jumped a little when Kyra put her hand on his shoulder. She leaned over his shoulder, nibbled his earlobe, and said, “Ruby is asleep.”
She slipped her hand into his, tugged him to his feet, and led him to her bedroom. She closed the door, then pushed him down onto his back on the bed.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Sssh,” she whispered. “Don’t wake the kid.”
Dax smiled and pillowed his head and watched with rapt attention as Kyra performed a striptease for him, even swinging her bra over her head. She wasn’t a great dancer by her own admission, but that was the sexiest, most arousing dance Dax had ever seen in his life. Hell, he couldn’t imagine what she might have done to make him want her more . . . not until she climbed on top of him and kissed him. He definitely wanted her even more.
“What a great day,” she sighed.
“Better than great,” he agreed. He could hardly fathom it, but somehow, Kyra had managed to chisel her way past the hard shell he’d erected and turn him to mush.
As Dax was losing himself in her again, sliding into her body and giving himself up entirely and letting himself go completely, he thought, This is it. This is the real deal.
Nothing could come between them. He was generally not a believer in relationships blooming so quickly, but honestly, as they moved together, each of them finding their release, their hands clasped, he couldn’t see a downside. Not one.
Chapter Eighteen
On a bright morning more than a week later, Kyra kissed Ruby good-bye, waved at Dax, then got in her car, and drove to work, giggling. Giggling. She didn’t know when or why the giggling had started, but she couldn’t help herself.
She still couldn’t believe this had happened to her. She couldn’t believe that the guy next door had fallen into her lap and she was now falling for him—and hard. She was falling so hard she was going to splatter in one big, gooey, heart-shaped puddle when she landed.
Even more amazing was that Dax was falling for her. He hadn’t said it in so many words, but he’d said things like, “I’m crazy about you two, you know it?” At times she would catch him staring at her, and he would have this dreamy look in his eyes . . . oh, yes, he was totally into a broke single mom with a six-year-old who wouldn’t stop talking. This was not some one-sided, Kyra’s-desperate-again kind of relationship—this was real.
She marveled at how perfectly it was all working out, as if the love gods had arranged it all for them. Dax played with Ruby in the evenings so she could study. She cooked for him—a heretofore only passable skill that had miraculously seemed to improve, even to the point that she was contemplating asking Judgmental Megan for some recipes.
Kyra arrived at work, donned her apron, and went into the kitchen to help Deenie prepare the setups for the tables.
Kyra said hello, then as casually as she might, she asked, “Megan, could you give me that sweet potato mousse recipe? It was so good.”
Megan’s head instantly whipped around. “Why?” she asked, eyeing her with suspicion. “Have you turned over a new leaf?”
As a matter of fact. “Maybe,” Kyra said, smiling. “Will you please just tell me how to make it? Ruby would love it.”
“I’m sure she would. It’s loaded with sugar,” Megan said with great superiority. “But I’m so thrilled your daughter will actually have some decent nutrition with that sugar, I’m tempted to make it myself and send it home with you.”
That remark would have annoyed Kyra to no end only a few short weeks ago, but she was too happy now. Megan couldn’t get to her. “Or you could give me the recipe and let me try.”
Megan peered at her as if she suspected she was being punked. But she said, “Remind me at the end of your shift.” She picked up a big bucket and disappeared into the cooler.
“Okay, that’s it,” Deenie said. “What is going on with you? You’re asking Megan for recipes? Has an alien invaded your body?”
Kyra glanced over her shoulder to make sure Megan was still in the cooler. “You really want to know?” she whispered giddily.
“Yes, I really want to know.”
“I’m seeing someone,” Kyra said.
Deenie gasped. She punched Kyra’s shoulder. “And you didn’t tell me? Give me all the details. Do I know him?”
“You know of him,” Kyra said. “It’s my neighbor, Dax.”
Deenie gasped again. “The asshole next door?”
“Did I say that?” Kyra laughed. “Yep, one and the same.”
“No way! Keep talking.”
Kyra told her everything. How he’d helped her a couple of times and she’d decided he wasn’t really an asshole. How he was really cute, and great with Ruby. How it had sort of happened after he’d brought a date here, and how everything about her life was suddenly falling into place. She’d had time to study for her real estate exam. There was the small glitch with Ruby and the seizures—Kyra had told Deenie about that earlier—but everyone said Ruby would be fine, and Kyra believed everything really would be fine.
“I don’t know, Deenie—it’s just perfect. I can’t believe it—I’ve always assumed I wouldn’t have an opportunity like this, at least not before Ruby was in college, and boom, here it is.” She beamed at her friend. “I am so happy.”
/> “Wow,” Deenie said, beaming too. “I kind of wondered after the Phil thing. I mean, I didn’t know having a kid was such a buzzkill. Not that Ruby is a buzzkill,” she quickly amended. “But you know what I mean. How is she, anyway?”
“She’s great,” Kyra said. “I took her for the tests the doctor recommended a couple of days ago.”
“What kind of tests?” Deenie asked and passed a big can of salt to Kyra so she could fill the table salt shakers.
“She had an EEG, which reads the brain waves or something like that. And an MRI and a CAT scan.”
“And?”
“And nothing,” Kyra said with a shrug. “When the test results come in, I’ll get the all clear, they’ll put her on some medicine, and that’s that. The doctor said she’ll grow out of it. And you know, I hardly think of it now. The seizures are so quick, and she never even knows it.”
“Still,” Deenie said. “Poor thing.”
Kyra nodded. “She’s such a little trooper. I am so proud of her, I’m just busting at the seams,” she said. “The worst was the EEG. Not because it hurt, but because she had to lie still for an hour and a half. Dax made her a little wooden dog, so she held onto that, and she did great. I thought the MRI and the CAT scan would freak her out, but Ruby thought it was cool. She said it was like being in a witch’s cave.” She paused and looked at Deenie. “Should I be alarmed that she thinks being in a witch’s cave is fun?”
Deenie laughed.
Kyra truly marveled at her young daughter’s poise. Ruby had done everything they’d asked of her, without complaint. But when Kyra was signing off on the last of the paperwork—and writing a check for her share of the procedure from her dwindling bank account, Ruby had tugged her shirt and had asked, “Am I sick, Mommy?”
“No,” Kyra had said. “Remember how I told you they just wanted to peek inside your head?”
“But why?”
“Because sometimes you flutter your fingers and you don’t see me.”
“I do?” Ruby asked, wrinkling her nose.
“You do. And that’s totally okay, you know. But the doctors want to make sure there aren’t any elves living in there,” she said and fluttered her fingers against Ruby’s head.