Created In Fire (Art of Love Series) (7 page)

Yes
, Maggie thought. It was time for some hard truths to be faced by both her and the man she still loved despite all he’d put her through as a woman.

After she watched Michael’s car completely disappear, Margaret Addison marched back out to the yard where her husband and son were rehashing what had happened, trying to paint their contributions to it with a better brush.

“Ethan, you need to stop being a hypocrite,” Maggie said, lifting her chin and staring at the man she had been married to all her life. “I was seven months along with Kevin before you would marry me and claim your child. How could you make your daughter feel so bad with the father of her child bravely standing beside her?”

“What?” Kevin asked, bouncing his still crying son on his hip while his gaze went between his parents. “You two weren’t married when I was conceived? Dad—is that true?”

“Margaret, all of that is old history,” Ethan said, shocked that she’d brought up something so terrible in front of the children after keeping it their secret for all these years.

Maggie lifted her chin and met her husband’s disappointed gaze head on. “History repeated itself today, Ethan, except the father of Carlene’s baby didn’t try to pretend it wasn’t his child.”

“Maggie, why are you bringing this up now? You said you forgave me,” he said, gut-deep disappointment evident in his tone.

Maggie nodded. “And I had for many years, Ethan. All the hurt came back today, which tells me that despite God’s grace to you in your life, you haven’t really changed your heart. I was your wife before there was ever a ring on my finger or a piece of paper between us. Did we create Kevin out of our love or didn’t we?”

Ethan stared at the ground at his wife’s feet. “You were always the only woman for me. You know what I did was about my parents, not about you.”

“All I’m asking you right now is if you think we created Kevin out of the love that was between us back then,” Maggie demanded, meeting his gaze directly.

Her legs were shaking and her palms were damp as Maggie faced the man who had hurt her but eventually married her. Ethan had been a reluctant husband and father for the whole first two years of their marriage. She had forgiven him, but she was never going to be able to pretend it hadn’t been a fact. Michael Larson’s declaration of his child as a gift was more than Ethan had ever said to her about any of their children.

She gave thanks for the strength that was holding her up and allowing her to speak freely at last.

“Think carefully about your answer to my question, Ethan. It’s more important than you realize,” Maggie warned.

“Margaret, please—we’re all upset about Carrie. We’ll discuss this later,” Ethan said firmly, his tone the one he always used to establish order out of their chaotic life. “There’s no reason to talk about our private matters in front of Kevin’s family or the girls.”

“Fine. Have it your way. You can discuss it later with the walls of an empty house. In all our years together, I’ve never once heard you be nearly as supportive to me as Michael Larson was just now to Carlene,” Maggie said, shaking her head and the tears from her voice. “As the faithful mother of your children, I deserve an answer now.”

All Ethan could do was stare in shock. Maggie had never spoken to him so strongly or harshly—well, not in a good number of years. He looked at Kevin, who was staring off across the yard, refusing to meet his gaze. Darla and Alison were paying too much attention.

“I don’t see what I did today that was so wrong,” he said finally. “I have a right to speak my mind to my own daughter, don’t I?”

“Michael Larson loves your daughter, more than she loves him back from what I could tell. He’s going to have a hard time taking care of a woman who has such a poor opinion about the kindness of men. Maybe you need some time alone so your heart can be convicted by the truth,” Maggie said, turning and walking back toward the house.

If Ethan couldn’t see how his actions affected their hurting daughter, Maggie thought, it was no wonder he’d never understood how he had hurt her.

“Wait—Maggie. We created Kevin out of love. Of course we did,” Ethan said, rushing the words out. “I know I didn’t do the right thing by you back then. I’ve always regretted acting so wrongly—you know that.”

Maggie couldn’t leave him, Ethan thought. He couldn’t believe that after all this time, and all they had been through, that his wife would just walk away from their life. There really wasn’t any other woman for him. He’d found that out the hard way.

“Maggie—we always said we didn’t want the kids to make our same mistakes. That’s why we were so hard on Kevin when he was in college. And it worked, Maggie. Kevin married a good woman and has settled down to have a good family.”

“From what I can tell, neither Kevin nor Carlene are making the same mistakes we did,” Maggie said flatly. “They’re making their own mistakes, Ethan. Sometimes they just look similar to ours. But I am completely convinced Carlene’s current situation is not a mistake. Instead, I think it’s her finally getting it right after those wrong two men. That baby is a gift that put her on the right path. Michael Larson loves her enough to protect her, even from you.”

Maggie took a few steps back toward him. She wanted Ethan to love his children unconditionally, even if he never got to that point with her.

“Carlene needs her father, Ethan. She needs you to stop being hard and be good to her. Either you find it in your heart to go to her now and promise her love and support, or I’m leaving. You used up your full quota of my understanding in our relationship. I don’t care who knows about it now, and that includes our children.”

On a roll now, Maggie rounded on her son. Neither her love nor his wife’s had softened her son much. She had let Ethan browbeat the boy, and now Kevin was dishing out what he had learned.

“You’ve turned out to be an angrier version of your father, Kevin. I pity Crystal for having to deal with that temper of yours. Your father has been a hard man to live with, and sometimes love wasn’t enough to make things tolerable. If you want to make this right, march yourself over to the man who had the guts not to punch you back today and apologize for hitting him. You owe your sister an apology as well.”

“Carlene’s situation is not my fault,” Kevin said, defending himself.

“No, but you didn’t make it any better by cowardly hitting the father of her child when he wasn’t even looking. But fine—don’t go. Crystal got to see what you’re really like today. You want to lose your wife too? You’re well on your way to being your father’s son in that regard as well. Even good women get tired of crying all the time. I know because I’m done with it,” Maggie said, giving Crystal a hard look before pivoting and striding back toward the house.

This time she didn’t look back at either man. She was tired of being good to people who hurt her, Maggie decided. So she wasn’t going to be anymore.

Darla and Alison took off after their mother, flanking her as she sniffled her way back across the yard. When she went into the house without a glance at the mess on the patio, they stopped to clean it up.

Darla laughed softly as she carefully gathered the broken pieces of glasses and a tea pitcher her mother had always loved. “Mom’s going to miss this pitcher. She brought out the good one to impress Michael I bet.”

Alison shook her head and urged her laughing sister to lower her voice. “I’m not surprised about Mom being pregnant before she and Dad married. That happened a lot back then. Do you think Mom would really leave Dad now?”

“Who knows? I never even knew Mom could get so mad at him,” Darla said sincerely, wondering why she wasn’t more appalled. She supposed it was because part of her thought the fight was way overdue. “I guess I’m glad to see Mom has a backbone. I thought Carrie was the only woman in this family with that kind of nerve. If Carrie hadn’t been so sick, she’d have gotten into Dad’s face more. Hard to believe she’s having a baby.”

“Well, I can see Dad being upset at her, but Kevin was being a jerk. Michael was too worried about Carrie to hit Kevin back today. She’s lucky to have a guy who’s not afraid of Dad and Kevin,” Alison said.

“Yes, she is. Want to see how brave our guys are? I’ll bring my boyfriend to Carrie’s wedding if you bring yours,” Darla said, laughing again.

“Let’s see what Dad and Kevin do first about apologizing. If they come around for Carrie, I might get braver,” Alison whispered.

They laughed and plotted as they finished cleaning up the mess.

Chapter 5

When they got home, Michael walked Carrie to the bedroom and made sure she was safely propped on pillows before he left to get her some soda. He was willing to try anything to keep Carrie from fainting. It was giving him nightmares to think she could be at work or anywhere and suddenly drop like a stone with no one to catch her.

He came back with some soda and retrieved her medicine from the bathroom.

Carrie swallowed the pills and patted the bed beside her.

“Sit for a minute,” she ordered softly.

Michael sat, but kept his distance from her. “Don’t worry about apologizing again for today, Carrie. It truly didn’t bother me. We surprised your parents and they reacted poorly. It won’t help matters for us to act as crazy as they did.”

“Michael, they’re always like that. Today they were especially awful, and my brother even hit you. Why are you making excuses for them?” Carrie asked.

“It beats believing your father and brother are assholes,” Michael said honestly, trying to tease and failing. “I’d rather think they’re just looking at things wrong and might at some point come around to seeing how amazing you are to be dealing with all this.”

“You’re extending a lot of loyalty to a woman who’s been pretty mean to you herself,” Carrie said, trying to get through her own apology before she dissolved into tears. “No one would blame you for being mad at me too.”

“Nah—I don’t want to be mad at my future wife. Besides, you have more redeeming qualities than your father or brother,” Michael said, grinning.

Carrie snorted. “Not really. I can be just as hard hearted as Dad or Kevin. I probably haven’t exchanged two civil words with those men since I was Alison’s age. Usually I end up in a yelling contest with them until Mom and Crystal start crying. It was hell to watch you dealing with them today while I just stood there too sick to defend myself or you. I’m sorry.”

Michael tucked her hair back behind her ears. “They’re your family, Carrie—bad in some respects and good in others, don’t you think? I was mad at Mom for leaving Dad for a long time. When I saw Dad suffer, it made me even more upset. I was cold and unfriendly when she came around to visit. It took me a year, but I finally saw that my parents divorced because they had to and that it had been a really hard decision for them.”

“Yes, but the members of your family don’t
physically
fight each other,” Carrie said.

“Sure they do. You broke up a physical fight, remember?” Michael asked, gaining a snicker from her. “Granted—that was the only fight in recent history. My stepmother is a very physical woman.”

“You don’t seem mad at your parents anymore,” Carrie told him. “Are you really okay with them now?”

“I’m going to give you my Dr. Shane Larson answer. My part as their child is to accept their decision to end their marriage, but I have to work on it, even at my age, because it still hurts,” Michael said. “I work on it because I love them and they love me.”

“I could tell there were passionate disagreements about things the first time I saw your whole family interacting together,” Carrie said, smiling sadly. “It was bit intimidating listening to everyone bickering, but I could tell there was love too.”

Michael smiled back. “I think your father loves you—in fact, I’m pretty sure he does. So it makes perfect sense to keep trying to get him to come around. On the other hand, I may still have to beat the crap out of your brother for hitting me. If you want, I’ll try to do it when you’re not around.”

Carrie laughed then, mostly because she knew Michael meant it. “Oh, I think I would seriously enjoy watching you beat up Kevin. I’ve always wanted to myself. He’s—he’s worse than Dad in some ways because he’s willing to physically fight anyone, not just members of our family. I still can’t believe he hit you. Now you know why I made sure my sisters moved hours and hours away from all that craziness.”

“Yeah. They held your brother down pretty good to help me. I’d say you’ve had a lot of influence on them,” Michael said, laughing. “I’ve seen you get between battling men at work.”

“That’s different. At work I just—,” Carrie began, but lost her train of thought when his dark gaze fixed itself to hers.

Michael had such a way of focusing on just the thing he was interested in at the moment. It was a very, very appealing trait when all that attention was focused just on her, she admitted.

“Still waiting for you to finish your thought, babe,” Michael said, laughing as Carrie’s eyes drifted closed. “That medicine kicks your butt every time.”

“Yes—it does. Michael, I just want you to know you’re the closest thing to a knight in shining armor I’ve ever had,” Carrie said.

“You don’t have to flatter me out of gratitude,” Michael told her, running a hand over her hair. “I’m happy to slay a few family dragons for you. Not because you’re weak—I know the woman you really are. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll return the favor and slay a few for me. You can start with Shane.”