What a Girl Needs (20 page)

My dad stares at Kevin and then Emily. “Well, the whole gang is here. We’re having a party?” He sticks his hand out to shake Kevin’s. “Kevin, good to see you, son.” He pumps Kevin’s hand harder than necessary. “You’re not bringing her back for good, are you?” He nods his chin toward me. “I gave her away fair and square. You knew the deal when you married her. No Ind—.”

“Don’t say it, Dad. It’s politically-incorrect.”

He chuckles. “She always was too quick for her old dad.”

“Not giving her back on your life,” Kevin says, and I’ll admit, I’m relieved to hear it. His sister’s presence has me unnerved and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Fish, Clara.” I feel ridiculous calling a grown man Fish, but it’s clear my dad doesn’t remember Emily’s name. “This is my husband Kevin and my sister-in-law, Emily.”

“How was the gun show?” my mom asks from the kitchen’s doorway. “Isn’t this delightful that Ashley, Kevin and Emily are here!” my mom trills, trying to give my dad subtle reminders as to everyone’s name.

“The gun show was terrible. You won’t let me buy what I want, so I just wandered around like the poor boy outside the movie theater without a dime.”

“You don’t need another gun,” my mom says. “Does he, Fish?”

“I wouldn’t touch that question with a ten-foot pole.”

“You could have let me buy a new scope.”

“You need a hearing aid before you get a new scope.”

“What?” my dad yells, missing the irony.

“What can I do to help?” Clara asks my mother, and I just wish all this normalcy and friendship would go away so I could ask Kevin why he’s here. More importantly, why the woman I try to avoid is here.

“Nothing at all, Clara,” my mom tells her longtime friend. “Just sit down and make yourself at home. You’ve been trudging around that rod and tackle show all day. You’re such a trooper to do that.”

“I have to talk to you,” Kevin whispers into my ear, and the sounds of the gun show talk fade. His warm gaze meets mine and it’s as though I’ve never left Philadelphia. I can hear only his deep voice, see only what he’s trying to tell me about Emily with his eyes. “Privately.”

I grip his hand tightly. “Why didn’t you call? I’ve been trying to reach you at the hospital and you never returned one of my calls.

“It’s a long story.” He looks at his sister. “Emily, will you be all right for a while?”

“I’m fine,” she says, while she stares at Fish and Clara as if they’ve been set free from an Atlanta trailer park. Something tells me Emily hasn’t spent a lot of time around people who wear camouflage. In truth, Fish and Clara could buy and sell the Novaks. They live in Napa on a giant estate overlooking acres of vineyards. Vines they only have because that’s how Fish wanted his hills landscaped. Fish just sells off the grapes to local vintners for the view he always wanted.

“Ash, you coming?” Kevin asks me, and I follow him into my old bedroom.

“Are you staying tonight? I miss sleeping beside you—I can’t sleep without knowing you’re there.”

He shakes his head. “I have surgery in the morning. I’m catching the red-eye back tonight. I got Emily a room at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto.” Kevin faces me, my hands in his, and my heart is in my throat.

I snuggle up against him. “Mmm. You smell like hospital soap still.”

“You realize you’re the only one that scent turns on,”

I grin. “Don’t forget it. I’ve missed you so much. I didn’t realize how just being next to you invigorated me. I’m so glad to see you.” Admittedly, I’m avoiding the reason he’s here. I’m not that interested in why Emily is here. I simply know it’s going to involve me in ways that my body will physically reject.

He steps backward. “But you’re suspicious.”

“Maybe a little. You never come home from work early and now you fly across the country at a moment’s notice? It’s not like you. You must admit that.” I run my hand across the stubble on his chin. “You didn’t shave before you left.”

He starts to pace the small bedroom, his eyes falling momentarily on the ill-fated deer. “Rhett’s fine. The neighbor has him.”

“Kevin, it can’t be as bad as all that.”

“It’s not that I think it’s as bad as all that. But it is bad. The point is, I’m not sure my sister is ever going to be able to manage life for herself. It dawned on me as I was flying here that once again, I was pushing off my responsibility to her onto you. I don’t want to do that, but I obviously have no idea what to do with her at this point.”

“When I married you, I married your family. You’ve got to put up with Elmer Fudd out there hunting wabbits, I’ve got to put up with your sister.”

Kevin laughs and the green in his eyes sparkle with joy. “And my mother, but let’s not keep score. I’ll lose.” Then comes the glare of severity where I know I’m about to be hit with the truth. “I’m leaving Emily here with you. She doesn’t like to fly by herself and she needed to get out of Philadelphia. I couldn’t think of anywhere to send her where I could trust that she’d take care of herself. I promise, this is the last time I’m going to push her off on you.”

“No, it isn’t,” I tell him. “Truthfully, I’m happy for the diversion. At the moment, I couldn’t feel more useless. That’s what this trip was all about, to find out what’s next for me, and I’ve got nothing.”

“You think you need a job to be valuable to me?” Kevin comes closer and wraps me in his arms. “Ash, you just don’t seem to understand how much I love you. How I’d be lost without you and your light in my life. I trust you implicitly.” He winks at me. “Even with a credit card.”

“That
is
serious.”

“You’ve put your life on hold for my career and I know what it’s cost you, Ashley.”

I nod.
I know my husband and he’s about as wonderful as they come—except when explaining family drama
. “You’re avoiding the real subject. Spill it.”

He laughs. “No, this is related. You agreed to marry me under false pretenses. I haven’t told you something, and I’m worried about how you’ll react.”

I slide down on the futon.

“Remember when you found out I’d been engaged before?”

“In fairness, you did tell me when we were registering at Bed, Bath & Beyond for our wedding. There were some chick’s plates under your name. We should have stayed at Bloomingdale’s.”

“Well, compared to that. This is nothing!” He gives me that sideways glance, where his green eyes are at their gorgeous best. Kevin’s ideas of secrets are that he ate a cupcake and not really a muffin like he told me he did. I can’t say I’m afraid there’s a great, dark family curse in his history, but I am concerned what Emily’s problem means to our future. Emily is here. Kevin told me implicitly that he didn’t have time for this vacation. So, I’m a smart girl. I do the math. And the calculations aren’t pretty.

“I knew there was a reason you sent me here alone. It wasn’t just the study at work. I have that sixth sense.”

“You do. And it scares me sometimes.”

I lift one brow in that way that lets him know he’s in trouble.

“It turns out that my sister came to Philadelphia to see you. She was none too happy when she found me alone in the house. I’d explained to her that you wouldn’t be here, but I guess she didn’t believe me.”

“Emily came to see me? For what purpose? She didn’t have anyone’s life she might interfere with in Atlanta?”

Kevin doesn’t even comment. He’s not listening. My angry eyebrow has absolutely no effect on him. I’m totally losing my touch, and by the looks of things, perhaps even my connection where I understand him without his speaking.

“Kevin—”

He’s staring out the window. His laser-like focus is elsewhere, and it dawns on me what he has to say is serious.

“How did you know I was here and not at Kay’s or Brea’s?”

“I went there first. Kay is ticked at you, by the way. She had dinner planned and said you didn’t show up and you didn’t call.”

I shrug. “Par for the course. Just wait until she finds out what she really has to be angry about. I texted her, she just never gets her texts.”

My cell phone beeps. “Oh, on the subject of texts.” Kevin crosses his arms in front of him. “I just wanted you to know Seth’s texts to you are coming to my phone, too.”

“What?”

“The cloud, Ashley. I wasn’t spying on you. His texts came through to me.”

“I didn’t answer him,” I say guiltily.

“I know that, too, but I thought I should mention that I texted him back that even though I have taken the Hippocratic oath, that if he texted my wife again, he’d put my ‘do no harm’ promise to the test.”

I smile. “Really? You told him that?” A giggle escapes. “That’s kind of hot.” I sidle up beside him. “Very John Wayne of you.”

Kevin grimaces as he stares down at me. “You would find that sexy. It’s Seth. It’s not like I’m taking on Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson for you or anything.”

I kiss him anyway.

“Are you going to let me finish telling you why I’m here?”

“Not if I can convince you to stay longer,” I purr.

“Ashley.” He gently puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me straight in the eye.

“Come on!” I stamp my foot. Really, I do. I’m not proud of it, but I stamped my foot. “You sent me away on my anniversary on someone else’s frequent flier miles. Now you’ve got the nerve to play hard to get?”

“I’m here on a mission,” he says with all the emotion of a typical engineer. He draws in a deep breath and his chest expands brusquely. “I don’t even know where to start.” He rakes his hand through his hair and once again skirts the topic at hand. “Did you learn anything while you were out here? You know, any idea what you might want to do in the future? Will you go back to being a patent attorney? Maybe you could start your own consulting business.”

“Kevin, you didn’t come out here to talk about my career aspirations. What is bothering you? Why is Emily here?”

“You know how you’re always telling me how perfect I am, and I tell you that it’s too much to live up to?”

“You are perfect for me, Kevin. You’re fun to be around, you don’t have great taste buds, so it doesn’t matter that I don’t cook very well, and you like to see me dressed well. It brings you joy to see me happy. What could be better as a husband?”

“Ashley, don’t—” He makes a guttural sound. Now he has my attention. “I found out who the father of Emily’s baby is.”

“Oh.”

“He followed her to Philadelphia.” Kevin doesn’t look pleased with this announcement. Something tells me there’s no romantic wedding in Emily’s future. She has not found the love of her life—her
Kehvin
. “Emily needs legal advice, and I know you can help her. You can find her the right lawyer in California, maybe get her a room at Kay’s house until the baby comes so she can establish residency. My parents will pay the rent, but Emily says she must go. She can’t stay in Atlanta. I know I said that I wouldn’t stick you with her problems, but she refuses to go home and—”

“Kay’s house? Residency for what? Oh Kevin, that’s not a good idea. Kay is—”

“I’ll make it up to her, Ashley. I swear I will. You must think I’m the worst kind of husband, leaving you with this, but that study is at a crucial stage, and I didn’t know what to do. She claims she can’t stay with my mom.”

Of course she does. That wouldn’t be enough drama for Emily.

“Forget that. You’re the best kind of husband, and you know it.” I wave my hand. “But I don’t understand. Did Emily invite her baby daddy to Philadelphia?”

“Don’t call him that,” Kevin says through clenched teeth. “Do you know what I go through to save wanted babies every day? This man doesn’t deserve a gold fish!”

His quiet rage stops me in my tracks. I draw back a little, as it’s completely out of his character. I watch his jaw twitch and understand that his anger roils beneath the surface. Instinctively, I understand that Emily has gotten herself into a ‘fix’ as she likes to call it.

“She ran from Atlanta. She wants to tell you the rest herself, but I felt I had to come so you knew I wasn’t just pawning off my responsibilities onto you. Emily wants you on this, not me.”

“She’s in some kind of trouble?”

“She wants to explain the rest. But will you help her get settled here, find a place to stay? Maybe that room with Kay? I’d feel better knowing she was being looked after.”

“Emily’s an adult, Kevin. She’s about to be a mother. It’s time she looked after herself, don’t you think?”

“You act like that means anything that she’s an adult. She’s a spoiled princess who has never been responsible for anything in her life. She has no idea how to do the simplest task for herself. Honestly, when we got here and needed a rental car, you would have thought I was asking her to explain quantum physics. She can plan social events and create beautiful flower bouquets. That’s it. The sum total of my sister’s life skills.”

He forgot Emily’s best skill, that she can manipulate with ease to get her way.

“Emily can’t stay with Kay. She’s dating Matt Callaway. I mean, really dating Matt Callaway, and that would be awkward to have Emily running about pregnant. Besides, I’m staying with Kay, there isn’t extra room.”

“Oh,” Kevin says. “What about Brea?”

“Brea is living with her mother. They had some kind of financial setback.”

Kevin sits on the bed with his fists pressed against his forehead. I knew Emily would become my problem. I had these dreams of grandeur, boundaries and all that, but she’s pregnant. And alone. I just need to get a job quickly—before my permanent position becomes Emily’s keeper.

‡