Page 89 of Second Start: Family
“Good. I know that matters a lot to you.”
“It does.”
“Vick says I think if I shut you out, then Naomi won’t get Dan.” More word-jerking. “Something about bargaining with the universe.”
“Vicky said…? I don’t know what to say about that.”
“Me, either. Kenzie—”
“You have to know Dan’s afraid of the pain of losing you, too.” Her turn for word-jerking. “I mean, in addition to his mother. That’s at least part of why he pushes you away. To protect himself from that potential loss.”
He stepped toward her. She didn’t actually step backward, but he felt as if she’d reinstated the space between them.
“I’ll think about what you just said. I will. It’s important. But just now … When I left before, Kenzie—”
“I understand. You were upset I didn’t tell you what happened. I should have. I didn’t warn you, and I’m so sorry it was used against you about Dan, when nothing’s more important than that. I do understand.”
“Do you? You understand that you should have warned me my sister-in-law’s lawyer would use what Prentiss Kevery told her, having heard it from Evan, who was looking over Dan’s shoulder at the time he looked you up? And you should have predicted the lawyer wouldn’t include the follow-up where you were exonerated?”
She blinked up at him. “I…”
“Right. And you should have told me what happened — when?”
She frowned at that. “What do you mean, when?”
“First night, when I was late for the conference and we had words, was that when you should have told me?”
“Of course not, but—”
“Stuff that happened before — to you, to me — it’ll take a while to fill in. Get up to speed. You didn’t tell me that part of your history right off. I didn’t say Annie hid things from me. Did … things behind my back.”
“Getting pregnant.”
“Yeah. Mom says Annie also cut me out with the kids. Especially as babies. Told me I wasn’t any good with them and kept everything in her hands until … until they were a little older.”
He saw that she understood Annie had been losing interest as her children grew.
He stepped forward again. This time there was no sense of her retreating.
She looked up at him.
“Now, knowing about that part of my history, maybe you can understand why I took off like I did. And me, knowing what happened back east, now I get why you didn’t want to have anything to do with a student’s father—”
“I didn’t say…”
“—two students’ father. I do understand, Kenzie. But…”
He reached one hand to bridge the gap between them, pushed her hair behind her ear, his fingers settling to the pulse point behind her ear.
He felt the rhythm of her blood, maybe he could even hear it.
She swallowed, her eyes wide and honest to his study.
“But,” he repeated, feeling the word like a rumble in his chest, “I was thinking maybe Vicky has a point about seeing where this could lead before we shut it off tight.”
“She said we’d be idiots.”
“Yeah, she did. Not real flattering. What do you think about that?”
