Xander grinned. “He’s probably got another minute or five recovery time, but I’m sure we can make good use of that span.”
Heart full to bursting, Kennedy bent to frame his face between her palms. “I love you, Xander.”
He sobered. “Are we okay?”
She considered the question. Moving past the truth of what had happened to split them up didn’t mean ignoring it. But as hurtful as his reaction had been…he’d had a lot less time to come to terms with it than she had. She sure as hell wasn’t going to hold that against him.
“I think there’s probably going to be some adjustment. You were right when you said we’re different now than we used to be. But I think we don’t just start fresh either. We build on the foundation of the old—something new and stronger. But I want this. I want you.”
“Then I’d say we’re more than okay.”
His hands curved around her ass, and they spent the rest of the night proving his confidence was well justified.
~*~
“Back again, huh?” Pru smirked at him as she pulled the door wider to let him into the house, but there was no malice in it.
“Best coffee in town,” Xander declared easily, heading straight for the kitchen in what had become a routine over the past week.
“Right, it’s the coffee,” Pru said. “I’ll pretend to believe that.”
Kennedy rose from the table when he came into the room, moving straight into his arms. “Morning.” Her voice was rough, her body pliant and sleepy against his. Not surprising since she’d been getting up to see him before he went on shift. That meant barely more than five hours of sleep last night. He knew, because he’d followed her home around two. And that just made him think about everything they’d done when she got off her shift at Elvira’s. His cock twitched.
Pressing a kiss to Kennedy’s temple, he moved to the coffee pot for his alleged reason for being here. It wasn’t an entire lie. Sleep had been happening in chunks for the past week. He finished his shift and took a nap until she got off work. They spent a few hours together. Then he got another few hours of shut eye. Kennedy, he knew, would go back to bed for a couple hours after he left for work and Pru took Ari to school. It was an odd schedule, but right now it was working for them.
Xander carried his coffee to the table, sliding onto the long bench beside Kennedy, who snuggled in, her head on his shoulder, eyes drooping.
Ari lifted a brow. “I don’t know why you don’t just pick somebody’s house and stay there.”
Kennedy popped an eye open. “Huh?”
“Either spend the night at his place or have Xander come here. It’s not like you’re fooling anybody sneaking in at two in the morning. You’d both get more sleep that way.”
Pru hid a smile in her own coffee. “They didn’t fool anybody in high school either.”
Heat crept up the back of Xander’s neck.
Kennedy appeared unconcerned. “I’ll have you know, I am not sneaking. One doesn’t have to sneak at twenty-eight. He doesn’t stay here because your social worker would frown on it. And I don’t stay there because, if I did, I wouldn’t make it up in time to see your shining face before you head out to school. Since I work odd hours, I wouldn’t get to see you otherwise, except on my days off. So, really, I’m enduring the lack of sleep for you, hermanita.”
“Your sacrifice is noted and appreciated.” Ari forked up more eggs. “Not sure what Maggie will think of it, though.”
Kennedy opened the eyes that had drifted shut again. “Maggie?”
“I hadn’t had a chance to tell you,” Pru said. “She called last night to say she’s coming back on the red eye tonight.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know yet. A few days anyway. She’s supposed to get in tomorrow morning.”
At that Kennedy sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Xander knew she’d been working on her business plan in the limited downtime she wasn’t spending with him. He wanted to ask if she’d be ready in time, but she hadn’t told Pru yet, and he didn’t want to spoil the surprise.
Pru checked the clock. “Finish up your breakfast and get your teeth brushed, kiddo. Time to head to school.”
Ari finished shoveling in her breakfast and sprinted from the room.
“Out of the mouths of babes, huh?” Pru asked.
“I’m not sure how I feel about her being that astute,” Xander admitted.
“A fencepost would know what’s going on with you two. But seriously, I am happy for you. Especially so after finding out about—well.”
Xander scowled.
Kennedy squeezed his arm, setting her chin on his shoulder. “It’s done. Let it go.”
“I’ve got to see him today. We’ve got a department briefing I can’t miss.”
“Frankly, I’m impressed you managed to avoid him for this long. Do you know what you’re going to say?”
“I’ve already said what I’m going to say on the matter.” Xander was more concerned with what his father might say, what additional justification he might attempt to offer. If Buck honestly tried to say he’d been in the right, Xander wasn’t sure he could be held responsible for his response.
“Then, for now, go in, do the job, get out.”
She made it sound so easy. But it was going to take him a whole lot longer to come to terms with his father’s betrayal.
Ari came back into the kitchen. “Ready. If we go now, they might have time to canoodle before Xander has to leave for work.”
Kennedy hurled a piece of toast at her. “You’re not too old to ground, you know.”
“Do you even know what canoodling is?” Xander asked.
“I assume it involves sucking face.”
“Ooookay.” Pru spun Ari around and shoved her toward the door. “We’re going. Xander, have a good day. Kennedy, I’ll probably see you before you leave for work. My client schedule is on the desk.”
“Make good choices!” Ari called cheerfully from the foyer.
Kennedy snorted and the front door shut behind them.
“Well, I guess we’re busted,” Xander said. “By a thirteen year old, no less.”
“I’m a lot less bothered by that than the fact that apparently my mother was aware of our love life.”
Xander froze in utter horror as he imagined Joan Reynolds crossing her arms, giving him The Eyebrow, and asking exactly what his intentions were toward her daughter. “Oh God.”
“She—”
He held up a hand. “No, stop. Leave me with whatever delusions I have left. If people know what we did in that hay loft, I don’t wanna know about it.”
“Fair enough.”
“She’s gonna be a real ball buster. Ari, I mean.”
“She is. And she’s going to have to be hella inventive to get away with anything because, between the four of us, and everyone else who came through here, we’ve seen or done pretty much everything.”
Xander rose and took his empty coffee cup to the sink. “Are you ready for Maggie to know about your plan for the inn?”
“No, but it seems I’ve got about twenty-four hours to get there. Fortunately, that set of test bedding I wanted came in yesterday. I managed to sneak it upstairs, while Pru was with a client. Can I get you to help me shove furniture to the middle of the room before you head out?”
He’d rather test the bedding. “My muscles are yours to command.” He pulled her into his arms, then ran his hands down over her ass.
Kennedy pursed her lips. “We don’t have time for that level of canoodling. More’s the pity. But I’ll see you when I get off tonight. Help me do this, then go to work. Protect and serve. Don’t kill your dad. They don’t offer sufficient conjugal visits in prison.”
Because he knew she was trying to lighten the mood, he worked up a smile. “There’s a motivation.”
She rose on her toes and brushed her lips over his in a lingering kiss that had him wishing he could set his own hours.
“Tonight,” he brea
thed.
“Tonight.”
Xander had himself under control by the time he made it to the station. He’d spent minimal time there the past week, coming in after hours to complete reports, update files. The moment he walked in, everybody stopped talking.
“Morning.”
Clyde Parker, the other Stone County Deputy, opened his mouth, but before he could blurt out whatever fool thing had crossed his mind, Leanne dug an elbow into his gut.
“Hi, Xander,” she said.
Jarvis nodded. “Mornin’.”
“We’re, um, just about ready to start the briefing.” Essie chewed her lip, which left a hot pink smudge on her teeth.
Nobody knew how to act. And why should they? Chances were this place was on the verge of World War III.
Xander crossed over to his desk, depositing his service weapon in the lock box in the bottom drawer. No reason to walk in there armed. This was a professional meeting.
The door to his father’s office opened, and Buck called a gruff, “Let’s get this thing started.”
Everybody filed in. Xander took a position on the far side of the office, well out of Buck’s reach. Not that he expected the old man to take a swing at him, but he wanted to remove temptation. His dad gave him a long look, face inscrutable, before launching into the briefing. Xander listened, took notes as necessary. He answered questions asked of him and generally maintained a professional demeanor for the duration of the meeting. It was a reasonable facsimile of a normal day.
Every single person in the room knew it wasn’t a normal day.
Xander had no idea what details Essie and Leanne may have shared with the others. They all gossiped like a bunch of teenage girls most of the time, so he was willing to bet everything that was on file and at least some of Essie’s personal recollections. Certainly they all knew he’d stormed out to confront his father and that he’d been avoiding Buck ever since.
But the détente couldn’t last.
As the meeting reached its natural conclusion, Buck dismissed everybody. “Xander, I need to talk to you about the county fair. The mayor’s wanting to change the parade route this year.”
It was a weak excuse and everyone knew it, but Xander knew he couldn’t put this off forever. So he stayed put as his coworkers left the office. Essie was the last one out. The door shut behind her with a quiet click that might as well have been the hammer of a gun.
“The fair’s not until June,” Xander said.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about the fair.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you have to say.”
“How the hell am I supposed to apologize if you keep avoiding me?”
“Apologize? Really? You think you can fix this with an apology?”
“It’d be a start.”
“Drop in the bucket, Dad. Do you even know what you’re apologizing for? Or is it just that you’re sorry you got caught?” A new thought occurred to him. “You’re up for re-election this year. Imagine what your constituents would have to say about such a flagrant abuse of power.”
Buck went pale. “It was a mistake.”
“A mistake? Copying down an address wrong from a driver’s license is a mistake. Transposing the numbers for clocked speed on a ticket is a mistake. Failing to properly mirandize a suspect in custody and emotionally blackmailing her for personal reasons is a gross misuse of the badge. Do you know what you did to her? Because it wasn’t just sending her away from me. You gave her an impossible choice. You damaged her relationship with her sisters, with her mother. She barely got to see Joan over the past decade because you made her too scared to ever come home. And now Joan’s dead and she can’t ever get that relationship back.”
“She didn’t have to leave the country—”
“Don’t you dare. She left because if she’d been anywhere stateside, I would’ve found her. She left because you made her think that if she so much as breathed wrong, you’d destroy her relationship with her family and arrest her on a felony. If anybody deserves an apology and restitution, it’s Kennedy. I hope you do try. You owe her that. And I hope she spits in your face. Because you deserve that. See, I’ve clarified for her all the lies you told, all the little manipulations of the truth. She’s not running scared anymore. She’s here to stay. With me. So you’d best get used to it.”
“Xander, I—”
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’ll do the job, but every shred of respect I have for you as a father and as Sheriff is gone. From this day forward, you’re dead to me.”
Without another word, Xander strode out.
Chapter Fourteen
KENNEDY WAS A LOT less confident about her plan than she’d let Xander believe. She wasn’t finished with the formalized proposal for the business. The necessary number crunching had taken a backseat to work and spending time with him. Given the time constraints, she didn’t think she’d be able to pull all of it together by tomorrow morning, especially since she had to work tonight to help cover the Friday night rush. But if a picture was worth a thousand words, hopefully a fully set up room would be worth more. She sent a quick series of texts to Denver, to see if she could go in late. She had a busy day ahead of her.
Figuring out how to buy paint and supplies and sneak them into the house without Pru knowing made Kennedy feel a little bit like a spy. She’d memorized Pru’s whole client schedule for the day and deliberately picked one of the third floor rooms to avoid likelihood of discovery. With a hastily scrawled note left on the kitchen counter, she told Pru she was running a quick errand, then catching up on sleep. God bless her soft-hearted sister. Pru would believe it and keep quiet and out of the way.
She thought of Xander on the drive into town. He’d been avoiding his father for more than week, and Kennedy was worried about how this would go. He wasn’t going to just forgive and forget. She knew there’d been one blow up already before he’d come to her about it, but there’d been no resolution. The fact was, they worked together and had for the better part of a decade. So either they figured some way to work things out or one of them left the job. Kennedy couldn’t see any middle ground. As they were law enforcement in Stone County, it wasn’t like there was really another option here. Xander could leave—take a job elsewhere. But he wouldn’t go without her, and she wouldn’t go because of Ari. She’d promised. Which put them between as much a rock and a hard place as the original devil’s choice Buck had given her.
Kennedy made it back to the house while Pru was with her first client of the day. She hustled upstairs with her purchases. In less than an hour, she had all the trim taped off and had poured the first glug of paint into the tray. She’d chosen a palette of soft grays and misty greens in shades that reminded her of the mountains she so loved. The dove gray walls would bring the outside in, especially on misty mornings with the sun shining through the dormer window, and the bedding she’d bought would, hopefully, make guests feel like they were napping in a mountain glen.
Her phone dinged with a text. Xander to say how the briefing went? She checked the display. But it was her boss, granting permission for her to come in late. She sent off a quick thank you, then texted Xander because she was worried about him.
His reply came back almost immediately. It’s done.
It’s done? What the hell does that mean?
But text wasn’t the way to get into it. They’d talk later. She had way too much to get done first.
Kennedy: Going into work late tonight. Can you swing by after five to help shove this furniture back in place?
Xander: Sure. Good luck.
Dipping in the roller, Kennedy got to work.
Hours later, the door swung open. Crouched down on the floor painting trim, Kennedy couldn’t hold in the squeak of surprise. Excuses jumbled in her mind, but it was Ari, not Pru.
“Wow! Who knew paint would make such a difference?”
“Quiet!” Kennedy hissed. “Come in and shut the door if you’re coming.”
Ari did as asked. “So you’re getting ready to show Maggie the idea for the inn?”
“That’s the plan. If I can get ready in time. The walls are pretty much dry, but the trim will take until much later. I think, if we’re careful, we can get the furniture back in place without messing anything up, though.”
The girl eyed the massive armoire. “I’m not sure we can move that carefully. Or quietly.”
“Xander’s coming back by to help me shift things around before I leave for work.”
“Oh, Xander.” She drew his name out in that knowing, sing-song tone only teenage girls could pull off.
Kennedy fixed her with a flat stare.
Unperturbed, Ari just grinned. “So what’s the deal with you two?”
“The deal is that I need help finishing this trim. If you’re going to interrupt me, you’re going to work.”
She grabbed a brush and plopped down on the floor beside the paint bucket.
“Don’t drip,” Kennedy cautioned.
“I won’t. So, you and Xander. Tell me the story.”
“There’s not much to tell.” There was so much to tell, but much of it wasn’t appropriate for teenage ears. “We used to be together back in high school. Now that I’m back, we’ve got a second chance, and we’re taking it.”
“Oh no, that’s not enough payoff for painting. Tell me about you back in high school.”
This Kennedy could talk about. She’d spent so long focused on the sadness and regret that this—getting to share all the good memories she had with Xander and remember how happy they’d been—it felt like a gift. “He was the star running back for the football team.” They painted and she talked, telling Ari about their love story—leaving out the steamier bits. Kennedy had no idea if Ari had a boy she liked, but no reason to give her ideas. And it was good to remember all those early days and how in love they’d been.
“Joan kept pictures of the two of you.”
“Did she?” Those hadn’t been in the travel scrapbooks. She’d have to go hunt them up later.
“It was obvious you two were nuts about each other.”
“We were.” Still are.