A Family Come True (6 page)

Looked as if she was going to have to come up with an alternate plan for the evening.

“If you come with me it would give you time to figure out what happens next. Maybe talk to a lawyer. Have you done that yet?”

“No. I should have, I know, but when he vanished off the face of the earth, it kind of slid down the priority list.”

He nodded. “You need legal advice, and we need to decide what to do when Xander shows up expecting to see us as a couple. Since I was already planning to go home—”

“Not until Thursday.”

He shrugged. “So I’ll go a day early. My mother will be ecstatic. At the time, saying that you were coming along seemed like the best solution.”

“Hmm.” It seemed pretty caveman to her, but, she had to admit, it was nice to know he’d been trying to help.

“Besides,” he added so casually that her skin prickled in warning, “your grandmother is there, and she would love to see Cady.”

She’d always known that renting to the grandson of her grandmother’s best friend would come back to bite her someday.

“Did Nonny pay Moxie to make you say that?”

“Get real, Darce. You could use some time. I’m going to Comeback Cove anyway. And Helene would give her eyeteeth to have you and Cady under her roof for a few nights.”

Did he have to sound so reasonable? Getting pissed off at him would be so much more satisfying than understanding him.

Except he had a point.

She dipped a chip into the salsa, focused on creating the perfect blend of tomato, onion and peppers. It took a lot of effort.

“You gonna eat that or hang it in an art gallery?”

She glared. “Don’t interrupt my stalling tactic to discuss your stalling tactic.”

His laugh, low and reassuring, was like having someone pour warm water over her—soothing and welcome and oh so comforting.

“I know your intentions are good.” She swirled the chip through the salsa again. “But going to Comeback Cove? That seems extreme.”

“What’s so extreme about it? One phone call, a few hours packing, a few more to drive, and there ya go. Instant breathing space. You have time to sort things through, and when we come back, you’ll be ready to do...whatever you decide is right. But you won’t be making it up as you go anymore.”

He had a point. Again.

“I don’t want to upset Cady’s schedule. She’s already wonked with this tooth. I think she needs to stick to familiar places and faces right now.”

“Good point. But you know sometimes a distraction is all she needs to get herself back on track.”

Must he always be right?

“What about work? You’re not off tomorrow, and I’m swamped.”

“Everyone’s out of my office tomorrow anyway. Training. As for you—” his eye roll would have made a teenager proud “—you work from home, remember? Take your laptop with you.”

“And how much will I get done without being able to drop Cady at day care? I know she’s only there part-time, but I get a heck of a lot done in those three hours.”

“Hello? Doting grandmother?”

Damn him. “But...Ian, look. You have a close family. It’s nothing for you to call and say, ‘Hi, Mom. Change of plans. I’m coming home early.’ It’s not like that for me and Nonny.” At least it hadn’t been lately.

“Actually,” he began, but then gave an impatient sort of shake. “Whatever. It was just a suggestion.”

“Wait a minute. Actually what?”

“Nothing that matters right now. You would really rather stay here?”

“Yes, I would rather stay here.” At least, rather than go to Comeback Cove. “What are you hiding?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. You’re hiding something and you know it.” About his family? Or was it the ex?

Nonny had alluded to some issue back when she’d called to ask Darcy to rent to him. At that point, Darcy had simply wanted someone to keep the grass cut and the house safe when she was traveling for her job as personal assistant to her mother—something that used to happen a lot, since Sylvie juggled careers as an actress, an author and a coach at the Stratford Festival. All that had mattered at that point was that he be polite, solvent and not inclined toward murder. The fact that he was one of the North brothers—part of the big, noisy crew that had both terrified and fascinated her on her childhood visits to the Cove—had been a happy bonus.

It wasn’t until he’d been around for a while that Nonny had mentioned a broken engagement. It was only in the past few months that Ian himself had said anything about it, and then only an occasional, casual reference—“Taylor and I went there”—the way he would talk about an old friend. Never any details. And try though Darcy might, she had never been able to get Nonny to spill. It was Ian’s story to share, she’d insisted.

Damn her moral code.

He stretched long legs out in front of him. “Sorry, Darce, but when it comes to hiding things you kind of won that round.”

Busted. “Okay. I’m not one to talk. If it matters, I can’t count how many times I was tempted to tell you the truth. About Xander, I mean.”

“I believe you.” He paused. “For the record, I was kind of tweaked that you hadn’t said anything. Not that you owed me or anyone an explanation, but I thought... Anyway, having heard the whole story it makes sense. In your shoes I would have done the same thing.”

“That’s good. I’m glad.” She smiled before pouncing. “So...actually what?”

“
Actually
, I’d better call my mother and tell her I won’t be coming home for Father’s Day after all.”

“Wait— Who— What?”

He stretched his arms high overhead, reaching toward the robin’s-egg blue of the porch ceiling. “You heard me.”

“You’re not going.”

“That’s right.”

“Because of me?”

“No. Because of Xander.”

“But I told you, he never... I mean, damn it, Ian. I appreciate everything you did today, believe me, but I don’t need a babysitter. This is my mess and I will get through it.”

“I know you will.”

“So?”

“So maybe I want to hang around and see what happens.”

Oh, no. The caveman was supposed to be gone.

“What are you gonna do, Ian? Shadow me for the rest of my life in case Xander catches me all alone?”

“Nope.”

She waited. Nothing else seemed to be forthcoming.

She eyed the beer. Maybe if she shook it up and sprayed him...

“Why are you so determined to do this?”

He shrugged and grabbed the bottle—jeez, it was as if he really could read her mind—and rocked back in his chair. “Honestly? I don’t know. But it feels right.”

“Because you don’t trust Xander? Or— Wait. Do you think I’m dumb enough to get drunk and pregnant again?”

“No!”

The shock on his face reassured her. No one was that good an actor, and, having spent much of her life haunting stages waiting for her mother, she should know.

“Then what’s the problem? Ian, I’m a big girl. I don’t like this situation, but I’ll manage. I know I was a total basket case when I first had Cady, but on the whole, I’m organized, competent and reasonable. I can handle this.”

“I think that’s it.”

“What’s what?”

“I know you can handle this. Alone.” He leaned forward, quietly serious. “But what kind of friend would I be if I made you do that?”

Oh.

She had no comeback for that one. Maybe because it was so unexpected.

Maybe because she couldn’t remember the last time someone had made her feel that her happiness mattered to them.

“Make you a deal,” she said softly. “You want to be a friend to me? I’m all for that. But it’s about time I returned the favor. See, I have this suspicion that I’m not the only one who’s been dealing with things solo for too long.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means that sometimes you get this look like...” Almost like the way he had looked when she had handed Cady to him and told him she had to talk to Xander. “Like someone just pushed you over a cliff.”

He tipped the chair back. The soft creak of the rocker made her wince and wonder if she had pushed too far.

“Fine,” he said at last. “Since you’re coming with me anyway—”

“
If
I go with you,” she reminded him, though it was pretty much an auto-response. She wasn’t at all surprised when he waved it away.

“Everything will come out one way or another. You might as well hear it from me.”

He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair and stared out at the road. She gave him the time it took to eat one chip. As soon as it was gone she stretched out her foot and nudged his leg.

“You falling asleep on me, North?”

“Trying to figure out where to start.”

“Well, you know what the song says. Start at the beginning.”

“The
very
beginning,” he corrected.

“Details, details.” She bit her lip, debated and decided to go for broke. “Is it about Taylor?”

“Yeah.” But the way he drew out his reply told her there was more to it than that. “Okay.” He blew out a short breath as if readying himself for a race. “You know that I spent some time working in Tanzania.”

“Right. A year, right?”

“Not quite. Well, it was just before I came home that Taylor ended things between us.”

“So much for absence making the heart grow fonder,” she said softly.

He grimaced. “In a way that’s what happened. Me being away gave her time to realize that her heart was actually fonder of someone else.”

The word that slipped out of Darcy’s mouth was one she never would have let herself utter in front of Cady.

He shrugged. “It sucked, but it happens. And even though I didn’t think so at the time, we were lucky that she figured it out when she did.”

“You have a strange definition of luck.”

“Hey, lemons, lemonade. It’s over. It’s in the past. It was rough, but then it got better.”

“And yet you still miss her.” Which really shouldn’t bother her as much as it did.

“Actually, I don’t.” He raised a hand before she could give voice to any of the retorts bubbling inside her. “I know. If I’m over her, then what’s the big deal?”

“Thank you for being the one to say it. I don’t think I could have managed without more swearing.”

“Yeah, well, you might want to save the bad words for when they really matter.”

“When they really matter? What could be worse than having your fiancée leave you for someone else?”

“Easy,” he said. “When the
someone else
is your brother.”

CHAPTER FOUR

T
HE SILENCE THAT
greeted his announcement went on so long that he started to think she might have choked on her chip. When he finally made himself look—because, yeah, he hadn’t wanted to watch her face while he’d said it—he saw that her mouth was hanging open, her hand on her chest.

Maybe he should have eased into it a bit more gently.

“Oh, Ian.”

Her soft whisper hung between them. She probably needed a minute to process it. After all, it had been two years and he was only now able to talk about it.

“I never...” She huffed out a breath that sounded like equal parts disbelief and indignation. “You don’t need to tell me anything else. I shouldn’t have pushed. But, damn, that was a shitty thing to do.”

Maybe it was because he hadn’t talked about it for so long, but despite her assurance that he didn’t have to say anything, he wanted to explain. “Yeah, well, to give them credit, everybody tried their damnedest to keep it from happening. Taylor even moved to get away from Carter.”

“It was Carter?” Her laugh was short and laced with relief. “Oh, jeez. I knew you had gone to Hank’s wedding, and for a minute there, I thought—”

“Good God, Darce. I’m no martyr.”

“Thank heaven for that. So, she moved?”

“Right. He knew she was leaving, and he agreed. Everybody thought they were doing the right thing, splitting up, trying to keep it from ripping the family apart, but then Moxie put things together. From what I hear, she practically had to push Carter onto the plane herself.”

“Wait a minute. They betrayed you, and then your own grandmother— Holy crap.”

Everyone in his family had been a wreck. After all, no matter how it played out, one brother was going to end up hurt. But Darcy was the first one focused solely on him. Hearing the indignation in her voice, seeing the way her usually fluid movements were now tight and choppy—well, it was more of a comfort than he would have expected.

“Moxie was right. Not that I was a big fan of the idea when it happened, but... She said it would be worse if Carter and Taylor tried to pretend nothing had happened. Something about resentments building up.” He shrugged. “It hurt like hell, but she had a point. Once the truth was out we knew what we were dealing with.”

“Well, it must have helped to know that it couldn’t possibly get any crappier.”

“Yeah, there was that.”

She leaned back, arms crossed, watching him. “So if Taylor moved and Carter went after her, why are you living in Stratford now instead of in Comeback Cove, where you could have had the support of your family? How did you end up being the sacrificial lamb?”

“Breathe. It was my idea.”

“So much for your ‘I’m no martyr’ line.” She sat up straighter, eyes flashing. “That sucks. As does your family for letting you go.”

She wasn’t saying anything that he hadn’t thought to himself at some point. Funny, though, how much different it felt coming from her.

“Carter and Taylor said they would leave, but remember, we all worked in the family business. I had to think of what was best for Northstar Dairy, too. I had already been gone for almost a year. Everyone was used to that. It made sense for me to be the one to move. Plus,” he added, just to prove he was no candidate for sainthood, “Comeback Cove is a small town. My choices were to stay and be stared at or let them stay and, well—”

“Be the hottest gossip in decades?”

“That’s about it.”

“Good for you.”

“I’m not sure that I should be congratulated for it,” he said. “But it seemed like the best choice at the time.”

“So you decided to move, and you picked Stratford.”

“More like Helene told Moxie about you needing a tenant, and it was far enough from home that I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew, and I was up for anything that didn’t require me to do a whole lot of thinking.”