Stranger in the Moonlight (Edilean 7)

“Does your brother see you as an adult?”

“Not at all,” Kim said.

“So what happened today while I was in the diner?”

“I met with your Mrs. Pendergast.”

Travis was silent for a moment. “Now you’re shocking me. What did Penny have to say?”

“She doesn’t know your father is here. She—”

“No, wait. Tell me from the beginning. How she contacted you, what she said, you did, every word of it and don’t leave anything out.”

Slowly, Kim began to go over what happened. She started with the chairs and how she moved hers.

Chuckling, Travis hugged her and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth. “Good girl! I’m proud of you.”

Kim liked his kiss so much that she returned it, but both of them wanted—needed—to talk about what she’d been told.

She started on the easier things, what she thought was least likely to upset Travis. She told him of how Russell was conceived. When Travis didn’t reply, she said, “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I am, actually, but in an opposite way from what you mean. The scuttlebutt around the office is that Dad and Penny were lovers for years. The surprise is that it was just once.”

“A one time that produced a child.”

“Big, ugly kid at that,” Travis said, and Kim heard affection in his voice. “What else? And what are you holding back?”

“Will you let me tell the story in my own time?”

“I think I have, haven’t I?” he said softly.

Turning, she looked at him, her eyes asking what he meant.

“I didn’t take over.”

“You mean like you did with Dave?” she asked.

“I . . .” He hesitated, as what he had to say was difficult for him. “I’m afraid I have more of my father in me than I want. When I took over Borman Catering, I was high-handed, and as you told me, I didn’t believe that you could handle something like that on your own. I apologize. I’m not going to do that again. I’m not going to step in and take over your life, but I do think that if we’re going to make this work that we need to do things together. As a pair, a team. I’m here and I can listen. Maybe if you tell me what is bothering you, together the two of us, can find a solution.” He grinned. “That said . . . I admit that I have never been told off by anyone as you did. I had to check my eyebrows to make sure you hadn’t singed them off.”

“I wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes you were and I deserved it.”

She snuggled back into his arms. “So this time . . .”

“This time I sat back and let you handle it on your own, and that wasn’t easy for me. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to let Russell know what I thought of the way he was smirking at you.”

“Your brother.”

“Yeah,” Travis said with a little catch in his voice. “Odd thought, that one. Okay, so tell me more.”

Kim took a breath. “You’re not going to like this part.”

“That means it’s about Dad.”

“Yes, it is,” Kim said and began telling him Randall Maxwell’s point of view of Travis’s childhood. He didn’t speak during the whole time and when she finished, Kim looked at him.

“I’d guessed some of it,” he said. “Not that Dad would ever admit to me that he was bullied by anyone. My guess is that his mouth got him in trouble. He tends to order everyone around, and he was probably the same as a kid.”