An unexpected smile caught hold of her lips. “Why would I want to avoid discussing it when it was so much fun?” she asked, and grabbed hold of his tie once more.
Her moist lips shimmered, beckoning to him as did her renewed interest, and he shoved his hands into his pants pockets. Easier to keep them to himself that way.
“Kelly! We’re waiting!” Tess called impatiently, interrupting them again and reminding him of why he had to keep his distance from Kelly from now on.
“Coming!” Kelly called over her shoulder, before meeting Nash’s gaze. “Looks like you got a reprieve.” A mischievous twinkle lit her gaze.
A sparkle he found infectious. She had spunk, confidence, and an independent spirit he admired. His ex-wife had been as opposite of Kelly as he could imagine, more sweet and in need of being taken care of. Kelly could obviously hold her own.
And Nash didn’t plan on giving her the upper hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied.
She patted his cheek. “Keep telling yourself that.”
He would. For as long as it took to convince himself this woman would only cause him and his need to have a relationship with Tess boatloads of trouble.
*
Kelly Moss stood at the bottom of the circular stairs in the house that was nothing short of a mansion and yelled up at her sister. “Tess, let’s go! If you want to have time for breakfast before school, get yourself downstairs now!” It was the third time she’d called up in the last five minutes.
“I said I’m coming!” came Tess’s grumpy reply.
Ethan and Faith had left yesterday morning for their honeymoon, one week on the beautiful, secluded island of Turks and Caicos, where they had their own villa complete with private butler. Talk about living the life, Kelly thought. Hers wasn’t so bad either, since she got to stay in this huge house with her own housekeeper while they were gone.
Tess’s door slammed loudly, startling Kelly back to reality as her sister came storming out of her room, then stomping down the stairs.
The old days, when Kelly had been raising Tess alone and doing a god-awful job at it came rushing back, and Kelly clenched her fists. “What’s wrong?” Kelly only hoped it was something easily fixable, not a problem that would lead Tess to turn back to running wild.
“This!” Tess gestured to the school uniform she wore, a navy pleated skirt, white-collared shirt and kneesocks. “I hate it.”
Kelly knew better than to say it was better than the all-black outfits the teenager used to wear, including the old army surplus jacket and combat boots. “You’ll get used to it.”
Tess passed by Kelly and headed for the kitchen. “It’s been a month and I still hate it.”
The clothes or the school? Kelly wondered as she followed behind her sister. “Is it the skirt? Because you didn’t mind the dress you wore at the wedding.” In fact, she’d looked like a beautiful young lady.
“It’s the fact that I have to wear it. I hate being told what to do.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Kelly muttered, having been Tess’s primary caregiver for longer than she could remember.
“I heard that.”
Kelly grinned. Tess really had come a long way, thanks to Ethan Barron. Kelly shuddered to think of what might have happened if she hadn’t taken drastic steps.
Both Tess and Kelly’s mother, Leah Moss, had been a weak woman, too dependent on men and incapable of raising Tess. She’d been different when Kelly was young or maybe that’s how she wanted to remember her. Or maybe it had been Kelly’s father’s influence that had made Leah different.
Kelly would never know because her father had died of a heart attack when she was twelve. And Leah had immediately gone in search of another man to take his place. Her choice was a poor one. Leah struck up an affair with her married boss, Mark Barron. Yet despite how wrong it was, for Kelly, her mother’s years as his mistress had been stable ones, including the period after Tess was born. But with Mark Barron’s passing ten years ago, Leah had spiraled downward, and both Kelly and Tess suffered as a result.
She’d immediately packed up and moved them to a seedy part of New York City, far from their home in Tomlin’s Cove, the neighboring town to Serendipity. Leah said she wanted them to start over. In reality, their mother had wanted an easy place to search for another lover to take care of her. But Leah never found her next white knight, turning to alcohol and a never-ending rotation of disgusting men instead.
Since Tess had only been four years old at the time, a sixteen-year-old Kelly had become the adult, juggling high school, then part-time college with jobs and raising Tess. Fortunately, her mother had moved them into a boarding house with a kindly older woman who’d helped Kelly too.
But last year, their mother had run off with some guy, abandoning her youngest daughter, and something in Tess had broken. Angry and hurt, she’d turned into a belligerent, rebellious teenager, hanging out with the wrong crowd, smoking, drinking, and ultimately getting arrested. Desperate, Kelly
had turned to the only person she remembered from their years in Tomlin’s Cove, Richard Kane, a lawyer in Serendipity who’d put her in touch with Ethan Barron.
Kelly’s heart shattered as she basically deposited her baby sister on a stranger’s doorstep and ordered him to step up as her brother. But it was that, Kelly sensed, or heaven knew where Tess would end up. So here she was months later, starting her life over but still rushing Tess out for school, she thought, grateful things were finally looking up.
She and Tess ate a quick breakfast, after which Kelly dropped off Tess and headed to work. Another thing for which she owed Richard Kane, her job, working for him as a paralegal, in downtown Serendipity.