“Yes, I’ll go with you two,” Kelsey interrupted quickly. “Mel, please, help yourself to anything you want. Libby left an entire turkey dinner in the refrigerator. The microwave’s over there. Warm up a plate. I’ll be right back.”
The bastard had the nerve to grin at Alex like he was the king of this house and Alex was just a lackey.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” he warned the cocky old fart at his table. Because I’ll be back too, and then you and me are going for a one-way ride…
Briskly, Kelsey led Alex down the hall, past the saferoom where Lexie’s toys lay strewn on the carpet. “Sweetheart, I thought I asked you to pick up your playroom?” Kelsey’s brows lifted.
Alex set Lexie to her feet. She was a strong-willed little girl. She could handle whatever her mom was going to dish out. But when her pink cherub lips pinched into the cutest damned pout, Alex had to look away before he smiled or worse, laughed out loud. Her terrible twos had never manifested, but her fearsome threes were making up for that lost childhood phase.
“Uh uh, Mama,” she said quite clearly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to, and you can’t make me.”
“Are you sassing me?” Kelsey asked.
Alex wished Mel wasn’t sitting back there with his feet up and listening. Probably laughing his ass off.
Lexie whined, “But I wanna go see Bradley with Daddy, and then I’ll do my chores after I give him another kiss. Pleeeease?”
“No, sweetheart. You’ve had enough chances, but each time, you’ve ignored me. Please go sit in the time-out corner while me and Daddy have a talk.” Chores and discipline were a hard rule with Kelsey. She was sure children were ruined if raised without structure and love. Real love, the hard kind, not the soft kind that turned children into demanding, entitled monsters who thought they deserved participation trophies for showing up.
“Mommy, no!” Alex’s pride and joy stomped her little foot. “I promise I’ll do my chores, but only after I get to kiss Baby Bradley again!”
The battle lines were drawn. Alex kept his mouth shut.
Kelsey cocked her head, pointing to the little navy-blue chair in the far corner of the high-tech safe room Alex had built for his family, which Lexie believed was her playroom. “Now, young lady,” she said firmly and without a tinge of anger. “You know the rules.”
“Awww…” Lexie cried, real tears this time, the little scoundrel. “Fine then, Mama. I’m going to pick up my toys.”
“You’re too late, sweetheart. I should only have to ask you once to be a good girl. Time-out. Move it.” Again, Kelsey pointed to the corner.
With attitude, Lexie marched to the chair that was just her size, picked it up, and tossed it across the room at her mother. “I don’t wanna follow no rules no more!”
There it was, Lexie’s last full measure.
“Who do you think you are, young lady?” Kelsey asked quietly, as immoveable as the Rock of Gibraltar. That was the thing about her. She never raised her voice to her daughter, yet she never gave in, either.
For some reason that innocuous question floored Lexie. Her mouth dropped open. She came to a full stop where she stood. Those flashing eyes of hers scanned first Kelsey, then Alex. She blinked like she didn’t know what just happened. Her entire countenance changed from naughty to incredibly sad. Her bottom lip quivered. With real anguish this time, she cried, “I Lexie, Mama. Don’t you remember me? Did you forget? I Lexie!”
Alex looked up at the ceiling, trying hard not to laugh while his eyes brimmed with stinging tears of love. How could anyone forget his Lexie Rose?
“Chair,” he told his daughter, the one who would be the death of him someday. God, she was a rascal. How could Kelsey resist this precocious little angel they’d created? So what if she came with horns? She was so damned cute.
“Okay, Daddy,” she mumbled through her tears. “I’ll be a good girl now.”
If Kelsey hadn’t been standing there, he knew damned well he’d have been on his knees hugging that sassy, smarty-pants. Worse, he’d have forgiven Lexie, helped her do her chore, maybe even have done it for her. They’d both be kissing Bradley by now, maybe enjoying a root beer float with the cute little bendy straws Lexie liked. But he wasn’t, because Kelsey was the strong parent, not him. He was the slave. A total fool for the women he adored.
“We won’t be long,” Kelsey warned her daughter sternly. “If you have everything picked up by the time we get back, I have a surprise for you.”
“Okay!” Lexie cried with gusto. Man, she could turn those tears on and off at the drop of a hat. Which made Alex an even bigger fool.
Two doors down, he entered his sanctuary with Kelsey one step ahead. “You should be in bed,” he told her.
“I will as soon as Libby gets back. Promise.”
The moment he closed their bedroom door, she spun on her heels. “Can’t you see what’s going on with your dad, Alex?”
“Other than he’s lying to you, no. Mel’s a con artist, sweetheart. He’s only here because—”
“Because he’s an old man, Alex. He’s got nowhere else to go, and he’s got dementia. Maybe Alzheimer’s.”
“He’s what?”
Kelsey fell into Alex’s arms, her fingertips softly patting his collarbones under his suit jacket. “He’s nearly seventy-five, honey. He was much older than your mother when they married. I looked up their marriage certificate online when he told me that, because, well…” She shrugged. “I don’t trust him any more than you do.”
“But he slapped your ass. I saw him hit you.” Any other guy would’ve already died for that. Why not good old Mel? Seemed fair.
She tossed her head as if that mortal sin were nothing, and over Alex’s hands on her shoulders
