Chapter 12 #2
I do my damndest to keep a game face on for Theo, but my kid is too smart for his own good. He knows something’s up. Hell, Deirdre and I weren’t exactly quiet in the kitchen.
He stays silent until we’re about half a mile down the road, as though there’s enough distance to be safe from his mom’s wrath. “Are you okay, Dad?”
No, I’m really fucking far from okay, Theo.
But he doesn’t need to know the details. Hell, he shouldn’t know about any of this, but here we are.
I catch his eyes in the rearview and offer up the warmest smile I can manage. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Hopefully, his mother will be too, once she settles down. When she meets Kiki, she’ll love her the same way Theo and I do.
Fuck, I hope she settles down.
A moment passes before Theo speaks again. “Are we gonna see Ms. Kiki?”
Speak of the devil.
“Not today, buddy.”
And maybe not for a while, either. The thought sits sour in my gut, because I know it’s bullshit.
Kiki would rather slit her own throat than put Theo in danger.
She adores my son. But Deirdre is his mother, and I’m not looking to turn this into a bigger war than it already is, regardless of my opinion on the matter.
So for now, I’ll play the game her way, and when she’s not raging, I’ll arrange a meeting to let Deirdre see for herself what kind of woman Kiki is. How gentle she is with everyone in her life. How loving and nurturing she is toward Theo.
After that, this whole mess will resolve itself.
It has to, right?
“Awww...” Theo’s lower lip juts out. Boy, do I know that look, but I’m cutting him off before he works himself into full-on six-year-old devastation.
“Guess where we’re going now? To see Aunt Ori and Uncle Ash.”
Just like that, my kid brightens. “Can I see Iris and Merlin, too?”
“Sure you can.”
Theo lets out an excited little yelp, his disappointment over Kiki already forgotten.
Six-year-old attention span. Hell of a thing.
About twenty minutes later, I pull up to Ori and Ash’s house. Ash is outside, tinkering on his bike.
Per my sister, he’s always messing with the damn thing. Ori claims that’s his one true love, no matter what Ash says.
But we all know that’s a lie.
That man worships the ground she walks on.
I kill the engine and glance at the sky. It was clear earlier, but now the clouds have rolled in and I get the distinct impression Mother Nature is about to be a pain in the ass.
“You going for a ride? Looks like a storm is rolling in.”
Ash straightens, wiping his hands on a rag. “Maybe, if it’s not too bad.”
“Ha!” Ori’s voice carries through the cracked front door. “As if a little rain would stop him. That man had me on that thing during a blizzard.”
Ash rolls his eyes. “I got her home safely and warmed her up properly.”
I grimace. “Too much information, man. Way too much.”
After helping Theo out of his booster seat, I steer him toward the door. “All right, little man. Aunt Ori’s inside.”
“I wanna go with you and Uncle Ash.”
“Not yet. The house is still kind of dangerous in spots, so let me check things out first. Once I know it’s all good, you can come see the place, okay?”
Before he can argue, Ori appears at the door, Iris on her hip. “I made cookies.”
Theo’s attention span pivots on a dime. “Cookies?”
Magic words.
My son disappears into the carriage house and Ash jerks his chin toward the main estate. “Come on. Let’s have a look.”
The Dean house looms over the property like something out of another lifetime. I’ve been through it a few times, and while it’s got good bones, it’ll take a fortune to bring it back to life. Ash and Ori have money, sure, but not burn-it-all-in-one-shot-on-a-house-this-size kind of money.
So we’re doing it piecemeal.
We spend the next twenty minutes discussing plans and crunching numbers. Usually, this kind of talk settles me down, but today, my head isn’t in the game.
Because even as I’m talking about replacement windows and crown molding, my brain remains in Deirdre’s kitchen, replaying every caustic, ugly insult she tossed at Kiki.
Ash and I finish up and start back toward the carriage house, the sky more menacing with each passing minute.
“Where’s your better half?” Ash asks.
It’s an innocent question, but one without a simple answer.
“I’m not seeing her tonight.” I scrub a hand over my brow, the damn headache once again making an appearance. “My ex is giving me shit. She found out who Kiki is.”
Ash’s expression shifts immediately. “Ah.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “It’s a mess.”
For a second, I think Ash is going to drop it. But he crosses his arms over his chest and sighs, his jaw tight. “I blame myself for this whole fucking situation.”
I frown at him, caught off guard. “What the hell do you mean? How are you involved?”
“I’m the idiot who introduced Kiki to that son of a bitch.”
Shit. I didn’t know that.
He pauses on the path back, turning to face me.
“Drake had everybody fooled, man. We all thought he was this respectable, classy guy. He was the fucking chief of police. That had to count for something, right? So, when he asked if I knew anyone, I set him up with Kiki. Worst decision of my damn life. I just wish you could’ve known Kiki before all this shit went down. ”
I shrug, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Kiki is amazing.”
“She is. The most loving woman in the fucking world. She used to volunteer all over town, at animal shelters, nursing homes, you name it. If someone needed help, Kiki showed up. Now half this damn town acts like tormenting her is a community service project.”
Maybe I don’t know the version of Kiki before Drake, but I know enough. How she lights up around Theo and Gus. The way she goes out of her way to make everyone around her comfortable, even when she’s falling apart inside. The way she notices and remembers all the little things.
That’s the woman I love.
The woman Deirdre wants me to forget, and I can’t do that.
“I do my best to protect her, because she doesn’t deserve any of this.” My words are bitter and cold, much like the wind whipping around us.
Ash claps a hand on my shoulder as we walk into the carriage house. “I appreciate that. I do what I can, but a few assholes still slip through now and then. Just know Kiki is one of the good ones.”
“Trust me,” Ori calls from her perch by the stove, “Eddie knows. He’s in love with her.”
Well, fuck.
Can we not have this discussion in front of Theo?
To be fair, my kid, currently covered in chocolate, seems way more interested in playing with Merlin than anything us old folks have to say.
Ori tilts her head, a knowing smile spreading across her face. “Look at you. You’re not even denying it.”
Heat crawls up the back of my neck, probably lighting my ears up like a pair of brake lights. Hell, at this point, I already blurted it out to my ex-wife. Might as well let the rest of the damn world know before Kiki does.
“Yeah, well,” I mutter, dragging a hand over my face, “she doesn’t know yet, so maybe keep it down, all right?”
Ori claps in delight. “I love that so much. I love love.”
Ash laughs, scratching at his beard. “My woman thinks everything in life is a romance novel.”
Ori lifts her chin defiantly as Ash steals a kiss. “Everything should be a romance novel.”
God help me, I want to believe she’s right.
I’ve always tried to be that guy—the one who looks for the silver lining, who believes things work out the way they’re supposed to in the end. And usually, they do. No matter how ugly life gets, I believe good people eventually catch a break.
I hope that’s true here.
Because I can’t imagine my life without Kiki in it.