Chapter 13
Thirteen
Kevin cooked a turkey that turned out sort of dry. His sons would eat anything, so he wasn’t too worried about impressing them. No, he was far more concerned about making sure Chelsea had a nice dinner.
She brought mashed potatoes and apple pie and wore a pale pink sweater that clung to her breasts. Her long blonde hair, which was usually braided for work, was loose around her shoulders. What in the world was a goddess like her doing with a schlep like him?
“Nice apron,” she said, her eyes taking a slow, lazy trip down the front of him, making him thankful for the apron.
“You’re not allowed to look at me like that today.”
“My apologies.”
“Ah, fuck it.” He put his arm around her and was kissing her senseless when Riley walked into the kitchen, clearing his throat to let them know he was there. Kevin withdrew from the kiss, noting the way she diverted her eyes as her face flushed with embarrassment.
“Sorry.” Riley got a beer from the fridge, cracked it open and went into the living room.
Chelsea glared at him. “You’re not allowed to do that,” she hissed. “Not here.”
“Sorry.”
“You are not.”
“No, I’m really not. They need to get used to seeing me kiss you.”
“Baby steps, Kev.”
“Which one of us is the shrink, anyway?”
Chelsea stirred the gravy he had simmering on the stovetop. “Sometimes I wonder.”
Placing his hands on her hips, he leaned into her to check the other pans.
“Get that thing off me.”
“You like that thing.”
“Kevin!”
“What time are we eating, Dad?” Finn asked as he made his first appearance of the day. Neither of his sons had been there when he got home last night. He had no idea what time they’d rolled in. Finn’s dark hair was standing on end, and his blue eyes were rimmed with red, signs of a hangover.
“Half an hour or so. Rough night?”
“Fun night.”
“You remember Chelsea, right?”
“Sure,” Finn said. “How you doing?”
“I’m good,” Chelsea said. “Merry Christmas.”
“Yeah, same to you.” He escaped to the living room with his brother.
“Awkward,” Chelsea whispered.
Kevin began to question the wisdom of inviting Chelsea to join them for their first Christmas since he and Deb had split up. Maybe it was too soon to expect his sons to welcome his girlfriend, or whatever she was, into their home away from home for a holiday.
Since it was far too late to turn back, he decided to make the most of it. “Everything’s ready.” He gestured to the table he’d set earlier.
“It looks really nice,” Chelsea said, taking in the table and the tree he’d put up to try to make the holiday festive.
His sons weren’t feeling the Christmas spirit, but Kevin was determined to get through the day as best they could. They sat down to dinner, and the boys dove into the food, eating like they hadn’t been fed in a month. Chelsea picked at the food on her plate, pushing the turkey around in the gravy.
“Did you get a chance to talk to your family today?” he asked her.
“I talked to my mom and stepfather this morning and my brother this afternoon. My niece and nephew told me every present Santa brought them.”
Kevin was ashamed to realize he hadn’t known she had a brother, niece or nephew. He wanted to know if her father was still alive, but he couldn’t ask that now. “How old are the kids?”
“Three and five.”
“I remember those days,” he said, glancing at Riley and Finn.
“Mom called,” Finn said.
“Oh. Good. How’s she doing?”
“Fine. She’s home by herself today.”
Kevin had to bite his tongue to keep from saying that was what she’d wanted when she ended their marriage. “So she’s at the house?”
“Uh-huh.”
That was news to Kevin, who’d been told on her way out the door that he could have the house she never wanted to see again.
Riley polished off a second plate and stood. “I’ll do the dishes.”
“I don’t mind doing them, son. Take the day off.” They’d been working long hours to help Mac finish the addition at Seamus and Carolina’s house in time for the holidays.
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.”
“Okay. I’m going to go meet some friends for a beer.”
“I’ll come with you.” Finn rose, plate in hand, to follow his brother.
“I’ll see you at Uncle Mac’s later?” Kevin asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Riley said.
“Me, too,” Finn added.
The front door closed behind them, and silence fell upon the house. Kevin released a deep breath that he’d been holding and noted Chelsea watching him from across the table, wineglass dangling between her fingers. “Sorry about that.”
“Nothing to apologize for.”
“They’re not usually so… quiet.”
“Doesn’t matter how old you are when your parents split up. It’s always hard.”
Kevin topped off her glass with more wine. “How old were you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Ouch. Senior year?”
She nodded. “And to make it even better, my dad hooked up with the mother of one of my best friends, breaking up two marriages for the price of one affair. It was a huge scandal. We were the talk of the high school.” Looking over at him, she added, “I get how your sons are feeling. Even if your breakup wasn’t a scandal, it was the end of life as they knew it. ”
“I suppose so.”
“It’s hard to see your parents moving on with other people, even if you like the other people. I adore my stepfather, but I didn’t at first. To me, he was part of the problem.”
“What changed?”
“He makes my mom really happy, happier than she’s ever been.”
“That counts for something.”
“It counts for a lot.”
“What about your dad? Is he still with the other woman?”
“Yep, they’re married and have more kids together.”
“So everyone is happy. Do you see your father?”
“Occasionally. I didn’t see him for years after it first happened.
I couldn’t bear to be in the same room with him.
About five years later, he had a massive heart attack, and we thought he was going to die.
Since then, my brother and I have tried to be a little more forgiving, but we can never forget what he did to our family. ”
After a long pause, Kevin said, “You know what kind of bums me out about my situation?”
“What’s that?”
“I feel like they’re blaming me, when she’s the one who had the affair. She’s the one who left me and wanted out of the marriage.”
“They know that. Why do you think they’re here with you rather than there with her today?”
“Hmm, I figured it was because they’re working here for the winter and it was easier to stay.”
“You sell yourself short, Kevin. They’re here because they want to be. They’ve probably known for some time that she’s back home, but they chose to stay—with you and the rest of their family.”
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens when this job at Seamus’s is done. Mac has told them he wants them to stay, but I’m not sure they will.”
“What were they doing before they came out here?”
“They work for a big construction company in Connecticut. They’re both engineers, and when things happened with Deb and me, they took leaves of absence from work to come out here for a while.”
“And it never occurred to you that they did that so they could help you through a rough time?”
“Not really,” he said with a sheepish grin. “You sure you didn’t go to medical school?”
“Nah, I’m a graduate of the school of hard knocks—and I’m a bartender. I get people, and I’ve seen them with you before we were together. It’s obvious they think the world of you.”
“Is it?” he asked, touched by her assessment.
“Yes, Kevin,” she said, laughing. “They adore you. Just give them some time and space to get used to the new reality. They’ll be fine and so will you.”
“That’s good to know.” Before he could lose his nerve, he said, “Come to my brother’s with me. You know everyone, and it’ll be fun.”
“It’s a family thing.”
“It’s a Gansett thing. Everyone is welcome. My brother loves you. He’d want you to come.”
“Your brother loves everyone.”
“True, but he’s got a soft spot for you, as you well know.”
“He’s adorable.”
“Don’t make me jealous.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”
“So you’ll come?”
“Sure, I’d love to.” She took a sip of her wine. “But only because he’s going to be there.”
It took Kevin a second to realize she was joking, and then he laughed. Today hadn’t gone as smoothly as he’d hoped, but she’d made him see that it was the first step in what would be a long journey for him and his sons as they adjusted to their new normal.
On the drive home from Alex and Jenny’s, David Lawrence relived the last six months of utter bliss with Daisy. After a couple of years spent putting his life back together from the mess he’d made of it, Daisy had come along right when he was beginning to feel normal again.
At that time, however, nothing had been normal for her. Her ex-boyfriend had beaten the hell out of her and might’ve killed her if Blaine Taylor hadn’t gotten to Daisy’s house when he did. David shuddered to think of what could’ve happened if Blaine had arrived even five minutes later.
He shuddered to think of what he would’ve missed out on with Daisy, whose sweet love had been a balm on the wounds he carried with him—most of them self-inflicted. The demise of his relationship with Janey McCarthy had nearly ruined him, not to mention the long and painful battle with lymphoma.
Those dark days were behind him now, and the most pressing thing on his mind lately was making his relationship with Daisy permanent. He’d been working for months with a jeweler on the mainland to create a one-of-a-kind ring for a one-of-a-kind woman, and he couldn’t wait to give it to her.
His Daisy was a humble, no-frills woman.
When he first met her, one of her prized possessions had been the sofa she’d found discarded by the side of the road.
She’d brought it home, reupholstered it herself and turned a piece of junk into a treasure.
Knowing she had zero expectations when it came to an engagement ring had made it that much more fun for him to design something he hoped would blow her away.