“Ryan.” Daniel turned to the younger version of himself and placed a comforting hand on Ryan’s shoulder again. “Perhaps you should go to your room so your mother and I can talk.”
Ryan hesitated, and Daniel gave him a pointed look. “Go.”
Ryan still didn’t budge, his eyes lingering on Kimberly. Knowing the dam within her was readying to burst, she nodded. She didn’t want Ryan to see her tears.
Neither did she want to say something hurtful in anger. None of this was Ryan’s fault. Even through her hurt and fury she recognized she could only blame herself.
And Daniel. She blamed him, too. He should have called her, told her he wanted to see Ryan.
“You’re sure?” Ryan apparently didn’t want to leave her alone with Daniel. His eyes had taken on a defensive look and she knew he was battling with his budding emotions for his father and his sense of loyalty to her. She didn’t want this to be any harder for Ryan than it already was.
“Daniel’s right. We need to talk, and it would be best for that conversation to be in private.”
Ryan exchanged a look with Daniel, then nodded at Kimberly. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”
Her heart clenched at the protectiveness in his tone. Whatever had passed between Daniel and himself, Ryan was making it clear that he didn’t want her hurt. Which was all the more reason for him not to witness how deep her pain ran where Daniel was concerned.
The moment his bedroom door closed, his stereo came on, loud.
Hating that she was wearing worn cotton pajamas, Kimberly stood up and rounded on Daniel. She couldn’t stand having to look so far up at him.
“How dare you have my son deceive me?”
Daniel’s gaze didn’t waver, neither did he have the decency to look ashamed. “We needed time to get to know each other without you in the middle.”
“Without…” She stopped, his meaning slamming home. He’d come for Ryan. She narrowed her gaze, wondering how such a brilliant man could be so dense. “I wouldn’t have told you about Ryan if I was going to keep him away from you.”
“Not for the first time, you’re jumping to the wrong conclusion.” Daniel took a step toward her. “He and I needed time to work out our relationship on our own. Without meaning to, you would have impeded that.”
His words slapped her in the face. He didn’t trust her to not stand in the way of he and Ryan developing a relationship.
“No,” she denied, but perhaps he was right. She would have worried about Ryan getting hurt. She might have been overly protective and in some way delayed their bonding.
Daniel stood at the side of the living room, watching her, making her more self-conscious about the faded red pajamas Ryan had given her for Christmas a couple of years back.
Moments passed, marked only by the clicking of the mantel clock and the music from Ryan’s room.
Unable to stand the silence and his searching blue gaze, she put her hands on her hips, mostly because she needed to do something with them.
“If you expect me to say I agree with you sneaking around behind my back…” she glared “…you’re sadly mistaken. You should have told me.”
“Like you told me?” His accusation stung.
“That’s different.”
“Is it?” he asked, slowly crossing the room with confident strides. When he stood a foot from her, he stopped and stared down at her. “Tell me, Kimberly, how is it different?”
“Because I did it for you.”
He stood too close, and she couldn’t meet his eyes. Lowering her gaze only meant staring at the way he filled out his leather jacket.
“Did you?”
She glanced up, all the realizations she’d made since first seeing him in the cardiac lab the morning he’d put in Ellen Mills’s pacemaker hitting her full force.
“At first.” Kimberly swallowed, feeling weak and on the verge of tears. How could she be so angry and yet want to weep with great sadness at the same time?
“And then, later, when keeping your secret wasn’t doing it for me?” His eyes searched hers, and when she looked away he lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Tell me.”