Drawn Deeper (23 page)

“What money?” she said, her tone icy and disgusted. “Do you know how much rehab costs?”

I felt the tension in the arm Kyle had around me. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his chest.

“It’s all right,” I whispered. “I’m here.”

I heard the sound of the door opening and closing, and then, silence.

Kyle exhaled deeply and leaned against the kitchen counter, looking shell-shocked.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “I don’t . . . I can’t fucking believe she came back here. For one point two million, I thought she’d be partying on some island for the next several years.”

“You paid her more than a million dollars?”

“I had to.” He shrugged. “I had to buy out her equity in the house and my retirement, plus a lump sum of alimony. It would have been two million, but Reed got it down with a one-time cash payment up front.”

“Holy crap. That’s a hell of a lot of money.”

“I make good money. I’ll recover.”

“I know, but . . .” I looked up at the ceiling, feeling helpless. “I just don’t understand how she can come back here and be so horrible to you after . . . everything.”

“That’s Kim. She lives in a world that revolves entirely around her.”

He pushed off the counter and walked across the room, hands locked behind his neck again. “I don’t know how to handle this. The boys are
finally
in a good place emotionally. She could ruin that so damn fast.”

“I’m so sorry.”

The doorbell sounded, and Kyle met my eyes across the room, looking somber. “The cops.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry about all this, Mer. You shouldn’t have to deal with any of it.”

I shook my head. “You shouldn’t, either. Let’s just take things one step at a time, okay? First, the police report.”

He nodded and turned for the door, then looked at me over his shoulder. “Will you call Reed and tell him I need him or Mason to go get the boys from camp? I can’t risk her finding out they’re there and going to get them.”

“Sure.”

I took out my phone and looked up the number to Reed’s office. I already knew this phone call wouldn’t be awkward at all. There were much more important things at stake now.

Kyle

I’d never felt anger like this before. Though I hadn’t missed boxing much since giving it up when I graduated medical school, it was all I wanted to do right now.

The urge to pound this rage out in a physical way, until I was too exhausted to feel it anymore, was strong.

“Do you want me to go?” Meredith asked me.

I turned to her, and some of the anger softened. She was visibly shaken, her brow creased and her arms crossed protectively over her chest. It was hard to decide what had been the worst for her about the past hour—being seen naked by my ex-wife while we were fucking, Kim’s bitchy comments toward her, or our experience recounting the whole thing to the cops.

“No,” I said, putting my arms around her. “Not unless you want to go. I’m so sorry, Mer.”

“It’s not your fault.”

I sighed heavily, wishing I were intuitive enough to read her state of mind right now. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. Still kind of shocked, I think. And just . . . I’ve got a sense of dread.”

“She won’t come between us. I won’t let it happen.”

“But . . . what if she stays in Lovely? What will that mean for you? And for the boys? What if she really doesn’t have any more money? Will you be okay with that, if the boys know she’s got nothing?”

So many questions. And they were all swirling in my mind, too.

I turned around and resumed the pacing I’d been doing earlier around the kitchen and living room.

“She has no legal claim to the boys,” I said, thinking out loud. “I have sole custody, and I have to think that, given her history, no judge would let her change that.”

“What about visitation, though?”

“It’s at my discretion.”

She sat down on the edge of the couch, resting her elbows on her knees. “Will you tell the boys she’s here?”

“I have to, yeah. I made a deal with them when she left that the three of us would always be straight with each other.”

“They’ll want to see her.”

I stared up at the ceiling, the anger building back up inside me again. “I’ll have to explain that it’s up to a judge to decide what’s best, I guess.”

“Do you think she had been drinking when she was here?”

I considered it, then shook my head. “I didn’t smell alcohol on her, and I always could before. Her balance and speech were fine . . . She was probably sober.”

“Then you might want to consider letting the boys see her for a supervised visit.”

“Fuck that. She ditched out on them and broke their hearts. I’m not risking it.”

Meredith’s hazel eyes were filled with the warmth and softness I loved about her.

“I get that,” she said. “But Kyle, she’s their mom. That’s a powerful bond. They talk to me about her occasionally, and it’s not always bad stuff they say.”

“They’ve got good hearts. They try to see the good in everyone.”

“Children love their parents, even when their parents make horrible choices and hurt them.”

I shook my head. “She doesn’t deserve that.”

“I’m just saying . . . I know this is a curveball. She went about it the wrong way, and she was a total bitch to us. But think about it from Jordan and Eric’s perspective. You could ask one of your brothers to supervise a visit with her at the park or something. I think seeing her sober and well, and knowing she cares about them, would be good for the boys.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Every time I gave the boys coins to throw in the new fountain in Lovely’s downtown square, they wished to see their mom. It hurt me to hear their little voices yearning for something so simple. But it had been out of reach for the past year.

“She’d have to submit to a breathalyzer first,” I said. “And ground rules like no mention of you or me or the visit is over.”

She nodded. “That’s reasonable.”

The knowledge that Kim was in Lovely right now was keeping me tense and edgy. My sons would be vulnerable to Kim once again.

My phone dinged with a text from Austin.

Austin: Reed had a meeting. I got the boys. We’re at my house.

Me: Can you guys keep them there this evening? I don’t want them here if Kim comes back.

Austin: No problem. I’ll stay here just in case she comes looking.

Me: Thanks.

I looked up at Meredith. “Austin’s got the boys.”

Her shoulders relaxed with relief. “Good.”

“I need to hit the gym with Mason for a bit. Hit a heavy bag until I’m feeling less homicidal.”

She got up from the couch. “Sure, that’s a good idea.”

“No, I want you to stay. We can spend the evening together when I get back.”

She paused before responding. “I think I’m gonna go do my thing at home.”

An ominous feeling hit me right in the gut. “Why?”

“I just need some time to myself,” she said, shrugging.

She wouldn’t make eye contact with me.

“Did the things she said bother you?” I asked. “She’s vicious when she wants to be. Please don’t listen to any of that shit.”

“No, I know.” She looked down at the floor.

“Then what?” I walked over to her and tipped her chin up so I could see her eyes. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

“I just need some time to process things, I think.”

I put my hands on her shoulders. “Listen to me. I’m about to lose my shit over her showing up in my house like that and being a bitch to you—and dragging the kids back into her fucked-up orbit. And if she’s also made you feel bad or unsure about things with us, I don’t think I can handle that. I need you to know I’m with you. Completely with you.”

The corners of her lips tilted up slightly. “Kyle, it’s not that. And who knows . . . maybe she’ll leave town tomorrow, and things can go back to the way they were.”

“The way they
are
. She’s not changing a goddamn thing between you and me.”

She put a palm on my chest. “I know we have crazy good sexual chemistry, but we’re more than just that, aren’t we? You’re also my friend. That’s what you need from me right now. Support, but also . . . space. So you can focus on this stuff.”

“Shouldn’t I get to decide if I need space?”

“Well, I need some, too.”

“Fucking hell. ‘Space’ is code for ‘I’m getting the hell out of here.’”

Her eyes widened seriously. “Look, you may have some serious shit to handle in the next few weeks. She could come back. You might need a restraining order. Court dates over the kids if she won’t play nice.”

I rubbed my temple, my frustration at this situation growing by the minute.

“Yeah, I know, and I need you right now.”

“You’ve got me. But the conversations you need to have with the boys—it’s not my place to be part of those. They need you fully focused on them.”

I nodded, a new sense of helplessness creeping in with the anger. Would Meredith be here at the end of the latest Kim catastrophe? I wanted to believe she would, but I couldn’t read the future.

My ex-wife was unbalanced and, apparently, on the warpath. I’d do everything I could to shield Meredith from the fallout, but would it be enough?

Kim had taken a lot from me, bleeding me dry emotionally before our divorce. There’d been times when I seriously thought getting sole custody of my boys would require an amount of money that amounted to extortion. Once we settled and she left, I’d finally reached a point where I thought she couldn’t take anything from me ever again.

But now, with her return, I knew I’d been wrong. I faced losing Meredith, the woman I’d fallen in love with. The woman my boys adored. She’d set me free in so many ways, helping me see just how much I’d been missing until the day of our first kiss.

“I don’t want to lose you,” I said to Meredith, pulling her close to me.

“Just take care of the boys and know that I’m here. I’m always here.”

I held her tight, taking in the scent of her sweet-smelling hair and the way her breasts felt against my rib cage, warm and soft. She was as close as I’d ever come to touching perfection.

There were many unknowns in my life right now, but I was sure of one thing—losing her would break me in so many ways.

Meredith

The knock on my closed office door made me groan softly.

Really? I rarely closed my door and couldn’t believe whoever it was wouldn’t get the hint and leave me alone. I couldn’t shake the sense of melancholy I’d had since leaving Kyle’s three days earlier, and I just wanted to avoid everyone.

I got up and opened it, expecting to see one of my coworkers. But it was a uniformed deliveryman from a local flower shop.

“Meredith Hobbs?”

“That’s me.”

He handed me an enormous vase of red roses—two dozen of them mixed with greenery and baby’s breath.

“Oh . . . thanks. Um, hang on.”

I took the vase and set it on my desk, then grabbed a few dollars from my purse to tip him.

“Thanks,” he said, touching the tip of his cap before he left.

I closed the door again and went back to my desk chair. The flowers were gorgeous, and I couldn’t help smiling as I looked at them. I plucked the card from its holder and opened it.

Missing your beautiful smile.

-Kyle

It wasn’t just the message that made my heart flutter, but seeing his signature. I knew his handwriting from seeing it on notes on his refrigerator. He’d gone to the florist’s shop to send me these and had written that sweet message himself.

I ran my fingertip over the letters in his name. Just seeing it and thinking it made me a little swoony.

Kyle Lockhart had taken me completely by surprise. He had the most perfect mix of effortless charm and sex appeal imaginable. The Lockhart brothers all had the same tall, dark good looks, and they were very close, but they were all different in personality.

The youngest, Justin, was ambitious and athletic. He’d gone to college on a football scholarship and was expected to have his choice of law firms to work for when he finished his post-law school internship in St. Louis.