Chapter 8
As soon as they were in the truck, Myla asked Kyle, “Daddy? Are we going to live with Miss Gina?”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, honey, but we’re going to work on it to see what works and what doesn’t.”
“Okay. I like her. She’s nice.”
“Yes. She is.”
Her dolls absorbed her attention for a minute or two before, out of the blue, she asked, “Do you guys kiss and stuff like that?”
Be honest with her, Kyle heard a voice in his head say. “Yes. We do. It’s the way we show each other how we feel.”
That answer didn’t seem to bother her. “And how do you feel? About Miss Gina, I mean.”
“I feel very good about her.”
“No, I mean are you in love with her, like the prince and Cinderella, or people on TV? Like getting married in love with her?”
“We don’t know yet. We just started dating. We need to get to know each other better.”
“She’s nice.”
“Yes.”
“And she’s pretty.”
“Yes.”
“Do you like her?”
“Yes.”
“Does she like you?”
“Yes.” He was getting a bit tickled at her questioning.
“When you kiss her, do you get a funny feeling like gerbils running around inside your tummy?”
Where the hell did THAT come from? he wondered, trying hard not to laugh. “Honestly, yes. Yes, I do. Weird but wonderful.”
“You said you need to get to know each other.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, if you know all that, what else do you need to know, Daddy? Because it sounds to me like you know everything you need to know already.”
Leave it to my six-year-old daughter to boil the whole damn thing down, Kyle thought with a smile.
One look at her sweet, smooth face, not a wrinkle of care in sight, told him there was no emotion in what she was saying, just the facts as she saw them.
To her, it should be simple. Myla was right.
In the grand scheme of things, he already knew everything he needed to know.
Gina was quickly capturing his heart, and it appeared he was snaring hers.
Sure, they had details they needed to work out, but he was confident that they were both levelheaded enough to do that.
Myla liked Gina. He liked Hadley and Briley, regardless of Hadley’s bristly, early-teen personality. What else was there that he needed to know? In his way of thinking, absolutely nothing.
She didn’t care what anyone thought—Gina loved Kyle’s little house.
It had a cozy, homey feel that wasn’t present in the polished marble and varnished mahogany of hers.
Instead of the professional decorating her parents had given her as a Christmas gift, his was filled with objects that had meaning, either to him or to Becky, and that made them special.
Of course, she could’ve felt threatened by the ghost of Becky Miller, but she didn’t. If Kyle could ever love her like he’d loved Becky, still loved Becky, that would be more love than Gina had ever known from a man. “Mom?”
Hadley’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Yeah, honey?”
“How much farther?”
“Not far. The road is right up here on the left. It’s really not that far, Had.”
The girl frowned as she stared at her phone screen. “Seems like a million miles.” Gripe, gripe, gripe. That’s all her daughter seemed to do.
Briley, on the other hand, was reading something. “What’s so engrossing?” she asked.
“It’s a story about a guy who takes a trip and when he comes back, it’s like his life never existed. Nobody in his family knows him, his girlfriend doesn’t know him, nobody. It’s weird.”
“That’s a strange story!”
“Yeah, but it’s interesting. I’m not sure yet, but I think he fell through a portal or something.” Ah. Science fiction. He’d always loved it.
“Okay, here we are,” Gina announced as she turned off the little county road onto a smaller one. As soon as the car rounded a curve, the house came into view.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hadley mumbled.
“What?”
“That’s where he lives?”
Gina was shocked at her tone of voice. “What do you mean? It’s a nice house.”
“It’s so … small.” Hadley’s upper lip curled up, a sure sign of her disgust.
“It’s a very nice place. Very cozy and homey. Come on.”
The front door opened before they could even reach it and an over-excited Myla came bounding out.
“Hi! You’re here! Daddy, they’re here!” she screamed back toward the house, then ran straight to Hadley and hugged the girl around the thighs.
To Gina’s irritation, Hadley patted Myla on the head like a dog.
As soon as she turned loose of Hadley, she ran straight to Gina.
“Miss Gina! Come inside, come inside! Your boy can come too,” she said, dragging Gina toward the house, the child’s dark curls bobbing the entire way.
She didn’t think she’d ever seen anything as cute as Myla.
“Hey! There you are!” Kyle sang out as soon as she cleared the kitchen doorway, and he dropped the spoon he was holding into the rest and crossed the room to give her a kiss.
It wasn’t a passionate thing, but rather a kiss that told her he’d missed her and he was glad she was there.
His hands rubbed up and down her back as he held her.
“It’s almost finished. Want to show the kids around? ”
“Sure. Myla, will you help me show Hadley and Briley around?”
“Yes, ma’am. I can show you my room. Do you want to see it?”
Gina squeezed Myla’s hand. “I sure do. Lead the way.”
Five minutes later, they’d seen the bedrooms, Kyle’s little office, and the bathrooms. Gina wasn’t sure if Hadley was paying any attention or not.
All she’d done since they’d left the house was bury her face in that damn phone.
Gina really wanted to take her two outside and let them look around, but Kyle called out, “Dinner’s done! ”
The dining room table was a little crowded with all of them there, but it was plenty comfortable. They’d all filled their plates when Kyle asked, “So, Hadley, how was school today?”
Something flickered in her eyes, and Gina didn’t like it, even though she didn’t know what it was. “Um, it was fine.”
The room was silent for almost a minute when Briley said, “She got sent to the principal’s office.”
“How could you!” Hadley screamed at her brother, and he just grinned.
“The principal’s office? Why?” Gina asked, forgetting that Kyle and Myla were even in the room.
“Something stupid,” Hadley answered quickly, but Briley shook his head.
“She told Mr. Gallagher to go fuck himself,” the boy answered. Gina heard Kyle make a choking sound.
“Oh, that’s a very bad word. Daniel Arnot says that all the time at school and has to go to the principal’s office,” Myla announced.
Gina’s gaze swung to Briley immediately. “There’s a six-year-old in the room, young man.”
“Oh, god. Sorry. Didn’t even think. But that’s why she did the walk of shame,” he said, grinning at his sister.
Gina was pissed. “Is this true?”
“He tried to take my phone away!” Hadley whined.
“I’m going to make it easier for him, because I’m going to take it away myself.” What the hell was wrong with her daughter? That kind of shit just wasn’t going to fly.
“No! You can’t take my phone!”
“I can take it if I need to. It’s on my package and I paid for it,” Gina barked back. Hadley started to jump up from her seat but Gina yelled, “Sit down!”
“I can’t believe you told on me!” the girl screamed at her brother. “After all the times I’ve had your back for drinking after the ball games.”
Gina stared at him in disbelief. “Is this true?”
Briley blushed bright red. “Uh, maybe a beer once.”
“Oh, that’s not true and you know it!” Hadley screamed. “You and Tucker Henderson get plastered after every game!”
“Not after every game!” Briley yelled back.
“Oh my lord, I don’t believe this. I really don’t believe this.
The two of you …” Her heart was pounding out of control and her head was splitting.
How could she have missed all that? Briley and Hadley were still screaming at each other, and when she checked to see Myla’s reaction, the little girl was staring at them like they’d all lost their minds.
Didn’t help that she was pretty sure they had.
From out of nowhere, a deep voice said, “Okay, everybody shut up. This second.”
Briley and Hadley’s heads swiveled instantly toward the end of the table, and Gina’s did too. With her heart still hammering against her ribs, she whispered, “Kyle, I’m so sorry that—”
He held up a hand to quiet her and the humiliation she felt was huge. Great. It’s over before it had a chance to begin, she thought as tears pooled in her lower lids. But he surprised her when he opened his mouth. “Hadley, hand your phone to your mother.”
“What?”
“I said, hand your phone to your mother.”
“You don’t get to tell me—”
“You’re in my home. You’ll do as I say. It’s your mother’s phone, and she’s been kind enough to loan it to you, but you’ve abused the privilege.
Matter of fact, until this war started, you hadn’t said two words the whole time you’ve been here.
You didn’t even speak to me when you came in, just stared at that thing.
A few days without an electronic device shoved in your face will do you some good.
” Hadley’s mouth fell open and she turned to stare at Gina.
“You heard what the gentleman said. Hand me the phone,” Gina echoed. As soon as Hadley handed it to her, she switched it off and stuffed it in her back pocket.
“Briley?”
The boy looked up at Kyle, his face pale and drawn. “Yes, sir?”
“When’s the next ball game?”
“What? Uh, wha—”
“The next ball game. When is it?”
“Um, it’s Friday night, but—”
“I’ll be going with you.”
“No. I mean, that’s kind of you to offer, but I don’t need—”
“Apparently you do if you can’t behave yourself when you’re there, so I’m going to take the peer pressure off you and you won’t have to worry about what everybody else thinks. It’ll be all my fault. Got it?” Kyle’s fingers were tented, his elbows resting on the table, and his face was totally calm.
“I don’t think that’s fair.”
One of Kyle’s eyebrows shot up, and Gina didn’t think she’d ever seen anything so sexy. “Oh? And what’s not fair about it?”
“Well, um, my friends, they’ll, uh, they’ll think I’m—”