Ryan spoke, but so low she couldn’t understand what he’d said. Tyler must have come home with him. No problem as he was like a second son to her, but Ryan usually called to ask first. She wondered why he hadn’t tonight.
The moment her son and his guest stepped into the living room, she knew why her son hadn’t called.
“Daniel.”
Dressed in jeans, T-shirt, and a beat-up leather jacket, Daniel looked fabulous. And he was standing in her living room next to a younger image of himself—Ryan.
Had she not been sitting down she surely would have fainted.
“Mom, I…” Ryan looked at Daniel a bit helplessly, and the understanding that passed between them spoke volumes. The weight of the moment and what their exchange meant settled on Kimberly.
Ryan had been talking with Daniel.
“How long?” she squeaked out, trying to keep the accusation from her voice, to ignore the fact she was wearing only thin cotton pajamas and Daniel’s gaze was traveling over her curled-up form. Tingles of awareness pricked her skin, while anger raged inside her. She fought her reaction to Daniel, focusing on her anger to keep her pain at bay.
Ryan had every right to talk with his father, but why hadn’t he told her? Irrational as her thoughts were, she felt betrayed.
“The week after you left Boston,” Daniel answered, placing his hand on Ryan’s shoulder as their son glanced back and forth between them.
“How?” she bit out, trying to curb her anger and betrayal for Ryan’s sake.
“I called Ryan’s cell phone.”
“How did you get his number?”
Placing his hands in his jeans pockets, Daniel shrugged. “It’s not difficult to get someone’s cell number if you know who to ask.”
Had someone at Cardico given him that information?
She bit her lower lip, trying to decipher what all this meant, why Daniel was standing in her living room, looking as comfortable as could be with Ryan.
“How long have you been in town?” she asked, full of suspicion.
“I flew in last Friday.”
“Last Friday?” Kimberly gulped. Ryan had spent last weekend with Tyler.
Only he hadn’t. He’d been with Daniel. And every night since.
Ryan had lied to her.
She turned betrayed eyes on her son. “You’ve not been to Tyler’s at all this week, have you?”
Ryan winced, and she struggled to get her emotions under control. She’d put him in this situation, created this monstrosity that left him feeling like he couldn’t be with Daniel without lying to her. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to see Daniel, to spend time with his father. And yet pain sliced through her.
“Mom, I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You having lied to me hurts.” She reminded herself she’d set the motions into play fifteen years ago that had led to this moment, to this sense of shattered trust. “I wouldn’t have stopped you from seeing Daniel.”
Ryan stepped toward her, then paused. He stared at her, looking uncertain what to say, and she hated the unfamiliar awkwardness between them.
“I asked Ryan not to tell you that I’d contacted him, Kimberly.”
She narrowed her gaze at Daniel and focused all her emotions into her fury at him. “You asked my son to lie to me? How dare you?”
“Our son,” he firmly reminded her.
“Oh, and teaching him to lie to his mother is your first fatherly duty?” she lashed out. An entire week. No wonder Ryan hadn’t been able to look her in the eye.