The Chase (24 page)

“Aren’t they one and the same?”

“No.” Elec shook his head and stood up. “They’re not. Not at all. And I’m going to let you think about that while I make my daughter go change out of this dress.”

“You want me to do a fucking Sudoku while you’re at it? I’m not big on puzzles.”

“Then don’t make life one.”

Evan shook his head at his brother. “Thanks, Mr. Miyagi.” God, his brother got married and started raising kids and thought he was full of wisdom. If Elec tried to get him to wax his car, he was leaving.

“Hunter Jean Briggs!” Tamara’s horrified voice came hurtling out of the back door.

Oops. Evan tried to look innocent, shrugging his shoulders at his sister-in-law.

Elec was already walking across the grass. “I’m on it, babe. Don’t worry about it.”

Tamara slid the patio door shut behind her and shook her head. “That girl attracts trouble like roadkill does vultures. And she has Elec wrapped around her finger.”

“I think you have him wrapped around your finger as well, Mrs. Monroe.”

She grinned at him. “Yeah, maybe. But it goes both ways.”

“So the marriage thing is working out for you?” He knew it was, he just wanted to hear it said out loud, have validation that someone was happy.

“Splendidly. You should try it sometime.”

“I wouldn’t mind doing that.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Wow. I didn’t expect you to actually say that.”

“I never said I was anti-marriage.” Well, he might have, but that was just his sour grapes talking.

“Well, well, well . . . it seems Kendall Holbrook is quite a woman if she has you admitting that marriage doesn’t totally suck.”

But Evan shook his head. “Don’t go hanging paper bells for Kendall and me. That’s not going to happen.”

“Why not? Did you honestly think I would be marrying your brother? Did you think that Suzanne and Ryder would get back together and be having a baby? That Ty and Imogen, total opposites, would be planning their fall wedding?” She crossed her arms and rubbed them against the cool air. “You and Kendall make way more sense as a couple than any of us do.”

“It’s complicated,” he told her. It was.

And hell if he really knew why.

He just knew that nightly phone calls and a stolen kiss here and there weren’t cutting it for him.

“YOU’RE
so good with the kids,” Kendall’s mom said, beaming at her as she bounced her niece on her knee. “You really should have one of your own.”

Her mother was subtle as usual.

“Kind of hard to race Daytona with a pregnant belly, Mom.”

Giving a long-suffering sigh, her mother passed the platter of ham past Kendall. “It’s just not natural.”

She couldn’t help herself; she rolled her eyes at her mom. “Thanks.”

“Oh, leave her alone,” her sister Kaylynn said from across the table. “I think it’s awesome that Kendall is doing what she loves and she’s hugely successful. More women should have the guts to go for their dreams.”

“Didn’t you go for your dreams?” her mother asked. “You have everything you every wanted—a career as a nurse and a lovely family. Kendall doesn’t have any of that.”

“I’m still sitting here, Mom. If you’re going to insult me, maybe it would be nice if you went into the kitchen to do it.”

Her mother gave a contrite look. “Well, I’m sorry.”

She wasn’t, not really, and most days Kendall let it roll off her. But she’d been feeling out of sorts for the last week. Hiding her relationship with Evan was challenging, and sucked some of the joy out of it. It was nerve-wracking thinking she might get caught and have to deal with the career consequences of that.

It was just so frustrating that someone who made her so damn happy was the very man she wasn’t supposed to be with according to the boss. They loved each other. They’d even said it out loud. Once you did that, you were supposed to get to walk around making everyone else sick with the gushy looks on your faces and by the way you spent every living breathing minute together.

You weren’t supposed to be apart on a day meant for family.

Now sitting here alone and listening to her mother describe all the things she was missing in life was the last thing on earth she needed. Doubts were plaguing her from every direction and she didn’t like the feeling at all.

“But you’re denying yourself so much, sweetheart. I mean, you haven’t even had a boyfriend in several years. Think of all you’re missing.”

Wanting to bring a halt to the conversation, Kendall hit on a perfect way to appall her mother, especially since every adult family member was seated around the table. “Don’t worry, I’m still having sex. I don’t need a boyfriend to do that.”

Her brother-in-law guffawed. Her father set his fork down with a clank. Her sisters both looked amused.

And her mother looked like horns had shot out of Kendall’s head. “Kendall! Good Lord, I can’t believe you said that in front of the baby.”

Little Jocelyn was six months old and didn’t even know where her nose was. Kendall doubted she was being potentially scarred or morally compromised.

“Well, I wouldn’t have to if you would just give it a rest.” For some reason, Kendall actually felt her lip starting to tremble. Dear Lord, she was going to
cry
. She hadn’t cried since she didn’t know when. Maybe since she and Evan had broken up ten years ago. “Can’t you just respect my choices? Can’t you be happy that I’m happy? Can’t you just be proud of me instead of disappointed and embarrassed?”

There was a lengthy pause as everyone stared at her in shock.

Kendall swallowed hard, fighting emotion.

Her father frowned. “No one is embarrassed of you. Of course we’re proud of you. We just never expected you’d be successful as a driver.”

Carefully handing her niece to her sister, Kendall tossed her napkin on the table. “I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that Mom has always thought I was a gender-challenged nut job, or that you encouraged me to race cars, and then when I got serious and thought I could do it, you acted like I was insane. You gave me this dream, and then you took it away.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Her father just stared at her, his ruddy complexion growing redder as anger started to mingle with his confusion. “I always encouraged you to drive, even when I thought it was a dead end. And I have to say you’re sounding pretty damn ungrateful, young lady. We worked hard to have the money for you to indulge your obsession with cars when you were a kid.”

For which in return Kendall had grown up, made a living out of that obsession, and paid off her parents’ mortgage and bought her father a sixty-thousand-dollar car.

Feeling slapped, she stood up. “Never mind. I apologize for ruining dinner.”

“Where are you going?” her mother asked as she walked away from the table.

Kendall picked her purse up off the credenza, resisting the urge to shake it at her mother as proof of her femininity.

“I’m going to see my boyfriend. He digs me just the way I am.”

 

 

“I’M
not mad at you, you know,” Eve told Evan begrudgingly as they poured coffee into mugs at the breakfast bar after dinner.

Evan paused mid-pour. “Are you serious?”

“Nah. I get it. And the truth is, you and I don’t work well together.”

He couldn’t have been more shocked at her reasonable tone. “Who are you and where is my sister?”

Eve laughed, dumping a boatload of creamer into her coffee. “Shut up. But hey, it’s true. We butt heads too much to be productive and of use to each other. I hope you can find someone who you see eye to eye with.”

“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” Evan just held his coffee and stared at his sister for a second, totally caught off guard. But in a good way. “Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“You were right, you know. I do resent the fact that I didn’t have the guts to go for it, be a driver myself.”

What did he say to that? It wasn’t fair that Eve hadn’t been given the same support and encouragement as he and Elec had. “You still could, you know.”

But Eve just shrugged. “I’m too old now. It is what it is.”

Now he really felt like shit for firing her. “Look, I’m sorry for springing that on you the way I did. I should have been more tactful and discussed the fact that we were having problems with you sooner.”

“When have you and I ever discussed anything? We’d have just ended up screaming at each other.”

He laughed. “True. But I’m glad we’re cool. We have to be relatives forever.”

“Exactly. Someday our kids are going to play with each other, right?”

Never had he heard Eve mention the desire to have children. Apparently it was a hell of a day for revelations. “Yeah, in about twenty years.”

“That’s the bitch about it . . . you really can wait twenty years since there’s no expiration date on sperm. My eggs will be dried up by then if I wait.”

Evan could only handle so much revelation and contemplation in one day. “Jesus, I don’t want to talk about your eggs.” He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was a text from Kendall asking where he was.

That connection, that simple contact from her, immediately made him happy. God, he wanted to see her, be with her. All the time.

He quickly answered that he was at Elec and Tamara’s, hoping she was going to suggest they meet up later.

When he looked back up at his sister, she was grinning at him. “I know who that was from. It’s amazing, it’s like your whole face just sorts of melts in ecstasy.”

Evan frowned. She made him sound like a marshmallow. “I’m just squinting to read the screen in the sunlight.”

“Uh, the sun has set already. Please. Just try and deny it was from Kendall.”

His phone vibrated in his hand. He shouldn’t read it, not with Eve watching him, gloating. But he couldn’t resist. He wanted to know what Kendall had to say.

Evan got over letting Eve gloat. “Hey, do you think anyone would care if Kendall stopped over?” The thought of spending any time with her worked for him, even if he had to share her with his family. Hell, he wanted to show his family how great she was, how happy she made him.

Eve pursed her lips, like she was trying to prevent a laugh from spilling out. But then she just shook her head. “No, I don’t think anyone will mind at all, but you should run it by Tamara just to be courteous.”

“Good call.”

“And I want to say that while I don’t think it’s all that smart to be dating another driver, especially one who shares a sponsor, even I can’t argue with the shit-eating grin she puts on your face.”

Approval from Eve was no small feat, and Evan, despite their differences, did respect her intelligence and savvy. So he gave her a light punch on the arm and said, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Then he abandoned his coffee and went to his sister-in-law, who was loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher. “Hey, Tammy, would you mind if Kendall stopped by for a half an hour or so?”

She smiled at him. “We’d love to have her. We’re just about to cut dessert.”

Impulsively, he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “Thank you.”

“Are you kissing my wife?” Elec asked, strolling into the room with Hunter on his back. “Hey, Pete Junior, hands out of the sugar bowl.”

Their oldest child stopped, caught eating a heaping teaspoon of pure sugar straight out of the bowl.

Evan laughed and went to text Kendall in private.

“WHAT’S
with him?” Elec asked his wife, watching his brother head outside onto the patio to fiddle with his phone. “It’s not like him to be that affectionate. To anyone.”

“I think your brother is contemplating marriage.” Tamara removed the sugar bowl from her son’s hands and put it in the cupboard.

“Marriage?” Elec stared at her, dumbfounded, grabbing Hunter’s legs when she started to slide down his back. “To who?”

“Kendall, of course.”

“Marriage?” he asked again. His brother never had serious relationships. Never mentioned marriage or kids. Hell, his brother didn’t even seem to be dating Kendall in any real sort of way from what he could tell. Where the hell did Tamara get marriage from that? “Why would he marry Kendall?”

“Is she pregnant?” Hunter asked over his shoulder. Elec fought a grin, knowing that would not be well received by his wife. But damn, the kid was funny.

Tamara’s mouth dropped open. “Good Lord! I swear, Elec, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with this child. The things she says.”

“What? Suzanne’s pregnant,” Hunter pointed out. “And she and Ryder just got married.”

“That is true,” Tamara conceded. “But most people aren’t pregnant when they get married.”

“Seems like the best reason to get married to me” was Hunter’s opinion on the subject.