“We came with the Wilhelms. I knew they’d want to know their daughter was all right.”
Kay’s heart sank. “You brought my parents with you?” As soon as the words left her mouth, her mother’s face appeared amidst the crowd. She skirted around the policemen and agents, looking like she was afraid they’d contaminate her if their bodies touched.
Oh no.
“What is this I hear about you all being shot at? And where was the baby during all this?” Henrietta exclaimed as soon as she reached Kaylee’s side. She took Hope from Kay’s arms and hugged her.
Kay pulled her mother away from the crowd so everyone else wouldn’t have to hear her mom’s criticisms. “She was here, too. I had her safe in the panic room with me the whole time.”
“This is just too much. You should have just left Hope with us. You know I would have kept her. Why didn’t you call if you thought you were in this kind of danger?”
“I didn’t know we’d end up being shot at, Mom. And you know what? I don’t call or come by more often because I can’t take hearing what a screwup I am every single time. Or seeing that look on your face that shows how disappointed you are in me.”
Kaylee registered the shock on her mother’s face, but she was on a roll now and couldn’t stop. All the things she should have said over the years tumbled out in a big, jumbled rush.
“All I ever hear from you is how badly I’m ruining my life and Hope’s future. How I make stupid decisions. I know I’m an embarrassment to you. I’m doing the best I can, but it’s still scary. It would be really great to have you hold my hand and tell me that you understand and that you’re there for me.”
Her mother’s face had hardened and she handed Hope back with stiff arms. “I don’t know what I’ve ever done to deserve this. I’ve tried to be there for you, Kaylee. I really have.”
“I know you’ve tried. But you know what I really wish? All this time I wished you could stop being embarrassed by me long enough to just be my mom.”
Eli put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his side as her mother turned and walked away.
Her father looked between them awkwardly before he squeezed Kay’s arm. “I’m sorry, pumpkin.”
She pulled him into a quick hug. It wasn’t his fault that she and her mother couldn’t get along. “I’m sorry too, Daddy. Go ahead and follow her. You’ll never hear the end of it otherwise.”
Eli rubbed her arm as they watched them go. “She’ll come around. You’ve never stood up to her before. I think she’ll need a little recovery time before she learns to deal with it. But I’m proud of you.”
Kay hugged him back, his words reassuring her. She hated to think of having a rift with her mother, but she’d finally learned that others could only treat her the way she allowed them to treat her. She’d been through so much lately. She was proud of how far she’d come, and she wasn’t accepting put-downs anymore.
From anyone.
“Can we get out of here?”
Eli looked back at the cluster of agents behind them. “Gladly. I’ve had enough of this scene to last a lifetime.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
OVER THE NEXT few weeks, Elliott learned the true meaning of family. After a long discussion with Kaylee about it, he’d decided to tell them the truth. Family was about people who accepted you, warts and all. He’d been afraid of their reaction to his failings, but in the end, they’d rallied around him in a way that humbled him.
Mara had gotten a recommendation from her friend Danny for an attorney who specialized in criminal law. It turned out Agent Harris had counted on Eli not being aware of all his rights. Since he’d never been formally charged with anything, his new lawyer was going over the details of his case carefully to see what obligations he had, if any, to continue being involved in the FBI’s case.
Now that it was all over and he had some distance from the situation, he realized he was happy to help out. However, if he did, it would be because he wanted to, not because of a threat hanging over his head. His lawyer thought he had reason to be optimistic, and he felt lighter than he had in years.
“Do you want another biscuit, Eli?”
He looked up to see his mother offering him a plate of homemade rolls. His stomach growled and he grabbed another one off the plate. His mother had insisted he stay at their house when he moved back to town. It seemed that after years of him being absent, she wasn’t ready to let him out of her sight yet.
“Thanks, Mom. You don’t have to cook all this food every day.”
She beame
d at him. “I like cooking for my boys. I haven’t had enough chances to feed you lately. I’m not sure where I went wrong that only Nicholas absorbed my cooking lessons. The rest of you are a fire hazard in the kitchen. Although now that you have Kay, I know you won’t starve. She’ll take good care of you.”
“We’ll take good care of each other.” He glanced behind him instinctively to where Kay was sitting on the couch with Ridley.
Ever since the day of the shootout, she’d been right by his side as he’d taken every step in his new life. She’d come with him to the lawyer’s office. She’d ridden up to headquarters for meetings so he could turn over control of the day-to-day operations to his vice president, George Callahan.