Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch) (39 page)

             
Joey’s father turned to Nick and Bryan and extended his hand to both of them in turn, "You remember me.  Rob Rockland, Joey's father.  It's good to see you again.  Welcome to Wyoming."  He hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Do you mind my asking?  How did you find us?"

             
Bryan grinned. "We asked in town how to get here."

             
Rob seemed incredulous.  "Someone in our town told you, strangers, how to get here?"

             
Bryan laughed and looked slightly sheepish.  "He was a fan of mine."

             
"How did you get past the guys in the guard house?"

             
This time it was Nick who grinned.  "Uh, well, they were fans of mine."

             
Rossen was watching their exchange as Rob shook his head and laughed.  "So much for homeland security.  Come on in and sit down.  Meet the family.  After dinner we'll go out and pull your car out of the ditch."  Nick and Bryan went in and sat down in the great room with Rob and Treyne, while one went back down the hall and another went back out the door.  The dark one leaned against the counter next to Rossen to spectate.

             
It wasn't two minutes later that the garage door opened and Joey and Kit came in.  Joey set her bags down and turned to close the door while Kit came straight into the kitchen to put her arm around Rossen's waist as he held the baby. She put her face close to his neck to give her daughter a gentle kiss. 

Nick was watching all this from the couch and
Rossen raised his head to see his eyes upon them as he said, "Uh, Kit.  You and Joey have company."  She looked up at him questioning, and he nodded toward the great room.  She followed his nod and then looked back at Rossen.  Their eyes met and held for a full second before she advanced into the room to greet them. 

             
Rossen took the baby and walked down the hall to disappear around a bend and Nick looked up into Kit's eyes as he stood to greet her.  He wasn't sure what he saw there, but he knew it wasn't the same look he'd just seen her give Rossen as she came in the door.  The gentle touch she'd given as she leaned in to him to give her daughter a kiss had been subtle, but she'd never once touched Nick like that in all the time he'd known her. 

What he'd suspected all along was blatantly obvious to him, even if it wasn't to
Rossen, and it filleted his heart even as he realized he was glad it was someone who undoubtedly treated her the way she deserved to be treated.  He hadn't missed the long look that hung between them.  He didn't understand what was going on here, but he thought Rossen was a fool if he let her get away.                   

             
   Nick's silent figuring was interrupted when Joey's mother, Naomi, and two young women came in the same door the others had all come through.  One of the young women was blonde and beautiful, and one was small and dark and beautiful.  He had to wonder how many more people belonged to this family as Naomi walked toward them with her hands out and a welcoming smile on her face.

             
Three hours later, his car was safely out of the ditch, he’d hesitantly held Kit’s baby, and they'd joined the family at the largest table he'd ever seen for an unbelievably delicious family dinner.  Naomi had been flat out offended when they'd gone to leave and had insisted they stay and have Thanksgiving dinner with the family the next day. 

Nick didn't think he'd ever been quite so sweetly mothered before
, and he knew he'd never been around a family like this one.  He could understand now what Kit had been trying to tell him that night when she said that coming to live with the Rocklands had changed her life.  The happy spirit here was almost palpable and he'd never seen anything like the friendships that were obviously so tight within this family.  Rob and Naomi had been unreal and he remembered Kit saying their relationship was the coolest thing she'd ever seen.  Watching them, Nick knew that Kit had been right again.  He honestly could picture these two being happy and faithful to each other forever.

             
One thing Nick was still somewhat confused about was the strange relationship Kit and Rossen were caught up in.  They were extremely close.  Anyone with half a brain could see that, but they weren't acting like a happy couple, at least not overtly. 

             
Later that night, when he finally had the chance to talk to Kit alone, he asked her right out about him, "So what's up with you and Rossen?  Why do you even go out with me when you come to LA, when you feel the way you do about him?"

             
Kit looked at him with a level gaze, not even flustered at his question.  "Rossen is my best friend, but we don't date, ever.  So why should I not go out with a very attractive man who asks me?"

             
Nick returned her honest look, trying not to show how disappointed he was to know for sure that her heart was fully engaged with someone other than himself.  "I didn't say you shouldn't accept dates.  I asked why you do when you already know you're in love with someone else."

             
Kit sighed. "Who has all the answers to questions like that in this life, Nick?  If I didn't go out, would that change anything except that I'd be lonely and discouraged?  I've never tried to lead you on.  I've always been honest with you, and I do enjoy being with you. I still hope we can go out again.  I can't help the way I feel about Rossen anymore than I can change the fact that he thinks that at eighteen, I'm ridiculously young.  I think deep down he feels the same way about me that I feel about him, but I can still imagine myself growing old alone, because in some twisted, chivalrous way, he feels like my settling down this young, or with someone that much older than me isn't right."  She looked suddenly tired and he felt guilty for asking her such a tough question.

             
She got up and came over to him to hug him as he stood by the fireplace.  "I'm sorry for not falling in love with you, Nick.  It's just not something you consciously decide.  Please forgive me.  Maybe someday when I'm older and wiser, I'll have a better handle on all this.  Right now, I'm a hopeless failure in the romance department.”  She yawned and said, “If you don't mind, I'm going to bed.  It's been a bit of a hectic week.  Do you have everything you need?"

             
He hugged her back, with his cheek against her hair.  "You always apologize when it's me who should be sorry.  I have everything I need.  Go to bed and I'll see you in the morning."  He kissed her gently on the forehead and pushed her away.

             
Ten minutes later, when Rossen came in and sat down in the recliner across from him, Nick was surprised that he honestly kind of liked this guy.  He knew Rossen had Kit's heart, but he was just such a good guy he was hard to even be jealous of.  They sat in relatively comfortable silence for a few minutes, until finally Nick said, "She's a lot of woman to keep pushing away."

             
Rossen leaned his head back and closed his eyes.  His voice was tired when he answered, "She's an eighteen year old girl, Nick."

             
His quiet answer made Nick feel a bit like an old letch for just a moment, until he thought about Kit and how mature and strong and talented she was.  "She is young, but she's not a child, Rossen.  She’s strong and smart and incredibly well grounded.  She’s all woman and no one has the right to make her life's big decisions for her, not even when we think we're meddling for her own good." 

             
                            ****

Nick got up and walk
ed out of the room to leave Rossen behind him wrestling with the huge weight of the bombshell that had been dropped in his lap.  Was that what he’d been doing?   Taking away the agency of a grown woman? 

             
On his way to bed a few minutes later, Rossen stopped at Kit's bedroom door.  He'd brought Mimi's crib up and put it in Kit's room for the long weekend and he missed the baby as well as being completely mixed up emotionally about Kit.  The door was ajar and he pushed it open silently, just wanting to check on the two of them before he retired for the night, but Kit wasn't in bed.   She was standing in the dark in her white robe looking out the window at the snowy mountains.  He walked into the room to stand beside her. 

             
Neither of them said a word, and after a second or two, she took a half step to lean her head against his shoulder.  Maybe they didn't have all the answers, but just for tonight, this was enough.

              Nick and Bryan left on Friday afternoon.  Nick had sought Rossen out that morning to double check on Kit’s security, and had been absolutely forthright when he told Rossen he wanted to marry her and adopt Mimi and move them to LA to stay.  He'd ended with, "You need to understand that I'm going to do everything in my power to make her want to be with me and forget she’s in love with you.  I have to be honest."

             
Rossen hadn't known whether to smile or hit him as he replied, "I can understand that." They shook hands and Nick walked away.  You had to admire the guy.

             
He was in his office when they loaded their bags out to the little black sports car, and was looking out the window when Kit walked Nick out and gave him a hug.  Slade came in and was standing beside him as he watched Nick bend to kiss her goodbye.  It was like a one two punch when Slade turned to him and said, "I hope you get over this white knight thing you have before he's raising your daughter seven hundred miles away."

             
Rossen turned to look at him and Slade continued, "Come on Rossen, your theory of letting her finish growing up was commendable, but you don't have the right to force her to do anything.  And if you don't soon let her make some of the big choices she wants to make, you're going to regret it for the rest of eternity.  The old adage, ‘If you love something set it free, and if it comes back to you it's yours, and if it doesn't, it never was.’ doesn't have an addendum just for you that says ‘and even if it does, you can't have it.’  She's eighteen, not seven and she's had far more than her fair share of walking those hard miles.  Cut her some slack.  I'm telling you, if you don't, you're gonna regret it more bitterly than you've ever imagined, for the rest of forever."

             
"What are you saying, Slade?"

             
Slade made a disgusted sound.  "I'm saying your girl just kissed a guy she doesn't particularly care about, just before he climbed into a Maserati to drive away.  And if I don't miss my guess, that was just after he’d asked her to marry him.  Again.  Rossen, what she really wants is to stay here and be with you.  Are you honestly too much of a bonehead to see that in her eyes?"

             
Rossen turned to look out the window again with a sigh.  "Maybe I am." 

             
Slade walked back out the door.

Chapter 24

             
Monday morning Rossen and Mimi helped Kit pack her bag into the back seat of her car, and he searched her eyes before she drove away.  For days he'd been trying to figure out what he should be doing in his life as far as she was concerned, and he was more mixed up than ever.  When she looked back at him with those startling blues, he honestly didn't know what she wanted from him, and he was confused as to what was still in her best interest at this point. 

She didn't cry when she left
, and he walked back into the house wondering if she was slipping away from him.  She only had two more weeks of school before the end of the semester.  Maybe over the long Christmas break he could figure out what to do.  He knew he couldn't live like this for much longer.  He went in and called Treyne’s cell phone to remind him to make sure she had someone with her all the time.

             
That night before he went to bed, Mimi was at his feet in his room, playing with the little girl she saw in the full length mirror.  After a few minutes she'd plastered it with her tiny, slobbery hands, but she was having a great time giggling at the little girl reflected there.  He put her down in her crib and went to his own bed thinking about what Slade had said about Nick raising his daughter. 

Deep in the night he woke up from a dream that devastated him when he became fully awake and understood what it was.  Mimi was a beautiful child of eight or ten years old and she was still there playing in his mirror, talking to the girl reflected there.  When she looked up at him, she asked, "Daddy, why do I still have to play all by myself?"  He got out of bed to go and stand by her crib and look down at her sleeping so peacefully there in the dark.  He knelt beside his bed praying for wisdom and peace, to know best how to take care of this beautiful, sweet, little daughter.

              It wasn't even a week later that he was working quietly in his office with Mimi Star playing there beside him in the playpen, when a song came on the radio about a little girl dancing at her parents’ wedding.  It told of how the band that was performing, watched this little girl celebrate because her dad was finally marrying her mom.  Rossen listened and watched Mimi and had never felt so guilty in his life.