Kate took her time in town. She stopped in at the diner for a huge breakfast and three cups of coffee while she read a novel. She shopped along the main street, choosing a pretty scarf pin for Kendall, a pair of earrings for Adrienne and a very handsome tie for Dix. She then bought a ridiculously huge coffee mug with a moose on it for Leah. She’d give it to her friend, pretend she loved it and wait to see how much effort it took Leah to respond as if it were a fabulous gift.
A few hours later, she finally made her way to the tiny grocery store, stocked up on the basics, grabbed some freshly made lemon curd to go with the French bread she’d make for Dix the following morning when Pickles had cleared off. By the time she headed back to the house, her anger had fled.
She noticed though that Eve’s Volvo was still in the drive. It would be dark soon, which did not bode well for her leaving because Kate was quite sure the queen of all misery couldn’t bear to drive in the dark with her precious wee special self.
Dix met her on the porch, another thing that didn’t bode well. His smile was tight and the tension wafted from him as he kissed her and popped the back of the SUV open to get to the grocery bags.
‘You were gone a while.’ He hugged her tight and she breathed him in. He kissed her, his mouth owning her just the way she liked most. He tasted like oranges and coffee.
‘Mmm, you taste sexy. I worked off all my mad. It took time and some retail therapy.’
‘You’re going to get it all back, I’m afraid.’
He leant against the car and told her about how Eve had set up dates with the girls to prevent her exile. She absolutely understood why he couldn’t make her leave then. Kate respected the fact that he didn’t want to harm his girls and the devastation she saw in him was real. She knew it had to have really hurt him to see Eve unmasked that way.
‘I’m sorry. Sorry that you had to see her that way.’
He looked surprised. ‘You’re not mad?’
‘Not at you. There aren’t words for her. But not at you. You’re in a hard place. I understand that. But I’m really not happy at the prospect of another three days with her until they leave before New Year’s Eve.’
Her phone rang just then, ‘Salt Shaker’. Leah.
‘Take her call. Tell her I said hello. I’ll bring the bags in.’
4
‘I HAVE TO get out of here.’ Leah paced the narrow strip of bare floor between the twin bed and high polished dresser. The comforter, a quilt neatly sewn with blocks cut from T-shirts emblazoned with school names, sports teams and concerts, brushed her thigh as she passed. She went to the window to look out, and pressed her forehead to the frosted glass.
‘Uh oh. Mama Bear too much to handle?’ Kate sounded appropriately sympathetic.
If she only knew.
‘No. Not at all. Caroline’s been great.’ Leah twisted to peer down to the driveway, ploughed clear of the feet of snow covering the rest of the yard. ‘But, Christ, Kate …’
‘What?’ Kate’s voice went from sympathetic to concerned. ‘What’s going on?’
‘His dad,’ Leah said in a low voice, with a glance towards the open door.
‘He’s an asshole?’
‘No. God, no.’ Leah shook her head and twisted the iPhone in her palm, switching hands. She sat on the bed, for a moment, then got up almost at once, too twitchy to relax.
She’d come up here with an armful of sheets and towels, ostensibly to help Caroline with putting away the laundry. In reality, she’d needed a place to get away from Caroline’s sunny, bright smile and constant stream of chatter, and the basement room she was sharing with Brandon wasn’t going to work. Not after what she’d found when she was putting away a pile of his socks and shorts, freshly washed, dried and folded by Mama Dearest.
‘Dude, you’re totally freaking me out. Tell me they’re not fattening you up for sacrifice or something, please!’
Leah laughed, grateful for her friend’s drama. ‘No. They’ve been great. All of them. His mom’s really, really sweet, and his dad …’
‘You. Are. Killing me. What?’
‘He’s hot,’ Leah whispered, looking again out the window where Brandon and his father, both incredibly and stupidly bare-chested, even though it had to be below freezing outside, were playing a game of one-on-one basketball.
‘Hmm.’ Kate chuckled. ‘Well, are you surprised?’
‘He’s seriously hot,’ Leah said. ‘And not old. He’s way too young to be a dad, Kate, to be my dad, anyway. Shit.’
‘He hasn’t hit on you, has he?’ Kate sounded suspicious.
‘No.’
Bill Long, in fact, probably had never hit on any woman since he’d met his wife. The love between them would have been sickly sweet if it hadn’t been so unselfconscious. So sincere. And, Leah had to admit, enviable.
‘Brandon’s dad is what I imagine he’ll be like at the same age,’ Leah said quietly. She heard a muffled sound through the glass and watched her lover – fuck, her boyfriend – no point in denying that’s what he was –
