Package Deal (31 page)

“I miss him so much. I do. He was the best thing that ever happened to me and Lacy.” She lifted her head and met Connie’s gaze. “I messed it up. I didn’t trust him.” Hating herself, she admitted, “I called the police on him Tuesday.”

She sat still as a statue, holding Connie’s gaze, waiting for the woman’s shocked response. It never came.

“I know,” Connie replied in a hushed voice. “Steve’s been in here needing a friend, too.”

Kelly groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead. “Oh, God. He hates me, and I don’t blame him. Did he tell you everything?”

“Pretty much. He doesn’t hate you though. The man loves you. You know that, just like you know that’s why your distrust hurt him so badly. So what are you going to do about it?”

Kelly chewed on her lower lip, not knowing what to do. Tears ran into her mouth. She wiped her nose with the napkin.

“I’ll be right back.” Connie got up and disappeared into the kitchen, giving Kelly a minute to think.

What was she going to do? She missed Steve, but he’d be crazy to take her back. Besides, how could either one of them ever be one hundred percent certain she wouldn’t flip out again? Was she even capable of trusting anyone? So far, she’d failed miserably, but she reminded herself she’d forgiven Jill and been willing to give her a second chance. Maybe there was hope for her yet.

Connie came back with French toast, an egg and a glass pitcher of maple syrup. She set the plate in front of Kelly. “So, honey, it’s time you decided just how you and that baby of yours want to spend the rest of your lives. Trusting or not trusting. Alone or with a man who loves you both.”

She sat down in the booth across from Kelly, squaring off with her. “The world isn’t a perfect place.” She reached out and took Kelly’s hands in her own. “It can be painful and a lot of work, and we can make a conscious choice to either let it get us or refuse to bow to it. It’s a choice each one of us makes every day. You aren’t alone. Pain and suffering is universal, honey. It isn’t a matter of trust or disappointment. We’ve all got some bad stuff in our past. It’s up to you what you do with it, how you live your life from here on. You gotta be willing to accept life’s ups and downs, good and bad.”

Connie paused, thinking for a minute. “I’ll tell you though, it’s a whole lot nicer spending your life with someone you love than going through the lows alone.”

Kelly had listened quietly and now reached out and covered Connie’s hands with her own. “You’re right. Connie, I think you’re one of the smartest women I know.” She sighed, released Connie’s hands and leaned back in the booth, ashamed of all the self-pity she’d allowed herself. For the first time in years, she saw things clearly.

“Thanks, Connie. You’re the best.” She smiled, rekindling the inner warmth that had been missing since her trip to Tampa.

Connie smiled. “So, what else can I help you with?”

“I hate to even ask, but could you baby-sit? I need to cover the shuttle launch at seven thirty in the morning, then I’ve got to go to work, and tomorrow night I’m taking on my ex-husband, something which I hope will help me put a lot of this crap behind me. Unfortunately, I haven’t been here long enough to have a weekend babysitter, or I’d never ask you.”

“I’d love to.”

“It would be all day and into the evening. I hate to ask anyone…”

Connie wrote her phone number and address on a napkin and pushed it across the table to Kelly. “Sure, hon, but only if I get to be one of the bridesmaids.”

Kelly laughed and reached over and gave her a hug.

Chapter Thirty-Six

T
he prospect of meeting her ex-husband evoked the same emotions as sitting down with an auditor from the IRS. Kelly pulled into the parking lot of the Groggy Pelican and switched off her headlights. She sat paralyzed behind the wheel, dread gathering in her throat. Four long years had passed since she’d sat down with Ken, and two had passed since they’d even talked. But tonight she’d agreed to do just that, armed with the knowledge of his unscrupulous plan to seduce her into changing her mind about the lawsuit.

It had been a long day. Up at five, she’d dropped Lacy at Connie’s house and had driven to the Cape where she’d picked up her press package and been herded to the spectator stands to watch the shuttle launch.

The morning had been glorious. A gentle wind blew inland from the Atlantic, and the azure sky spread out crystal clear above them, perfect for the launch. The air had bristled with anticipation. When the countdown ended, the rocket boosters roared, spewing flames and smoke, thrusting the shuttle skyward in one of the most spectacular propulsions ever witnessed by mankind. The experience left her speechless.

A hushed silence hovered over the crowd until the fear of failure was no longer a threat. A victorious cheer filled the air. Although brief, the launch was one of the most exhilarating sights Kelly had ever witnessed. It was a shame the space shuttle program was ending.

During her visit to the Kennedy Space Center, she hadn’t run into Steve, but she had caught herself several times searching the faces in the crowd hoping—and maybe fearing—she might spot him. The distractions around her helped dilute her disappointment however, and she’d driven back to Daytona with Connie’s words of wisdom rattling around in her head.

Back at the newspaper, she’d hammered out her story of the launch, submitting it an hour before deadline. Now, she wasn’t sure if she had the strength to face Ken’s manipulations, but it was too late for second thoughts. She had agreed to meet him, and she was already fifteen minutes late. No one kept Ken Pearson waiting without hearing about it.

She spotted him through the soft candlelight and crossed to his table. The tense lines of irritation vanished from his brow, and he plastered a syrupy smile over his gleaming white teeth.

Incredibly handsome, as always.

The restaurant’s dim lighting deepened the planes of his angular face and softened the conceited gleam in his gray eyes.

“Kelly. You look great.” He pulled out the chair across from him.

She returned a cool, “Hello, Ken,” knowing it was nothing more than nerves and fatigue causing her heart to stutter.

“No, you look beautiful,” he whispered against her hair as she settled into the chair. He pushed her closer to the table.

“Cut the crap, Ken
,” she said, knowing she sounded more like Jill than herself. She would have a good laugh about it later, but right now she wasn’t amused. “I’m tired. I’ve had a long day. So let’s order and get down to business.”

Her tone was inflexible, and Ken stiffened but recovered quickly. He sat down and pulled his napkin into his lap, flashing Kelly his most gracious smile.

She wanted to gag.

He raised his wineglass to his lips and took a drink. No doubt priming his tongue for the flow of well-rehearsed lines soon to come.

“Anything you say. Actually, I’ve already ordered for us.”

“Really?” Kelly lifted one eyebrow.

“We were man and wife. Do you think a man ever forgets what the woman he loves enjoys?”

Raw sugar cane couldn’t have been sweeter, or harder to swallow. It was just like Ken to imagine he knew her, or any woman for that matter.

“Ken, you
didn’t
know what I liked when we were married, so why would you know what I like now?” It wasn’t a question she expected him to answer. “I think you’d better call the waiter over so I can change my order. I’m tired and hungry, and I’m going to eat what I want.”

Ken’s grin tightened. “Sure, Kelly. Sorry. It
was
presumptuous of me.”

He waved the waiter down, wearing the expression of someone who’d just had a size eleven shoe shoved down his throat. She guessed he’d just realized his plan might not go as well as he’d hoped. Kelly had toughened over the last few years, and she no longer resembled the sweet, eager-to-please wife he remembered.

The sharp gleam of challenge settled in his eyes. She was no stranger to
that
look and steeled herself for battle. Jill had told her his deal in Jacksonville would earn him a hefty check, large enough to pay cash for a house overlooking the water at Big Sur, which Jill claimed he wanted bad. Well, Kelly was about to spoil his real estate plans.

She reordered, ignoring the waiter’s grimace and meek complaint that the meal had already been prepared. Holding a tight rein on his temper, Ken offered to compensate the waiter for his trouble, slipped him a twenty, and gestured him away from the table, muttering a low curse about the man’s stupidity.

Kelly observed his dealings with the waiter, comparing the Ken of now to the Ken she’d married. He hadn’t changed. He was no less impatient and critical of others, she realized with little surprise. Only more polished. In a rare flash of insight, Kelly understood how young and naive she had been when they married. Her judgment then had been clouded, but now she saw Ken for who he was. She was finally able to see past the rare and compelling beauty of the man’s face.

She was wiser now and knew her judgment was sound, contrary to her doubts in the past. Ken was a jerk, and only an eighteen-year-old female with boys and schoolbooks on the brain wouldn’t see it.

Her appetite vanished. She just wanted to finish this thing, pick Lacy up from Connie’s and go home. Ken hadn’t asked about Lacy, and she hadn’t expected him to.

“As I said before, Ken, I’m tired, and you said you wanted to discuss the lawsuit.”

“Business is such a dry subject. I’d hoped we could enjoy dinner together, share some wine, and maybe get to know one another again. You may not believe it, but I’ve missed you and Lacy.”

Kelly saw red. Blood flooded into her brain, and she almost threw her plate at his thick, egotistical head.

Ken pressed back into his chair, a smug look riding his handsome features. It was insulting enough that he’d come here thinking he could sway her decision and cheat Lacy out of the only thing he had time to give her—money. But that he dared to include their daughter in his filthy seduction was parental blasphemy, and Kelly wouldn’t sit still and allow it.

She threw her napkin aside. “I don’t have time for this.” She grabbed her purse and stood up. “I find you as loathsome, arrogant, and overbearing as you were when we were married, only I didn’t have the guts then to tell you. I had some screwy idea it might have been me. You haven’t grown up in the last six years, and you never will.”

She ignored the stares from people sitting around them. “But I have. Now, I want only one thing from you, and you know what that is. So yes, let’s cut the crap, Ken.” She wouldn’t call him Pearson, because Steve had made the name sound nice, endearing, and she wouldn’t sully it on the despicable man in front of her.

There! She’d said it! Jill would applaud her. So would Connie.
 
She’d waited a long time to watch him squirm. “I’m well aware of the purpose of your trip, and I know you’re probably about to overload the bank account I helped you build.”

Ken lunged forward in his seat, his face twisted with anger. “I built my success on my own.”

“Tell it to someone who cares. I worked my rear end off to get you through school, to give you the education you needed to close that deal today, so if you say one more word, I’ll call my attorney and go after every penny you just earned. Lacy is going to need a lot of money for
her
education, and if you want to be a smart ass, I’ll make sure she gets it next month in court.”

Ken fumed. The muscles in his cheek twitched, but she knew he would hear her out. He had too much at stake not to.

Twenty minutes
later, Kelly headed home. Ken had backed down, agreeing to call his lawyer and settle out of court sometime next week. He had agreed to her terms—back child support payments, the additional five hundred a month she wanted, even reimbursement for his college costs, which she had decided to throw in because he was such an ass. She was just that mad. She held him over a barrel, and he’d agreed to it all. At last it was
over, and she’d won.