Destiny (13 page)

He tugged on her hair, giving her warning, but her fingernails dug into his thigh and her other hand suddenly wrapped around the base of his shaft, pumping him with her fingers while she drew on the tip with her mouth. When he came, she was there until the end, milking every last bit of moisture and pleasure from his body.

Aftershocks still wracked him when she rose to her feet. Eyes gleaming, she stripped quickly, tossing her pants over his on the floor. And then she straddled him, arching her back, rocking her pelvis, making sure their bodies collided at just the right spot. He clasped her hips and held her in place, pumping his hips upward until she came, screaming his name.

Kelly woke up the next morning and Nash was gone,
a note on her pillow in his place.
The night was as special as you are. See you later.
She laid her head down and smelled his masculine scent embedded in her sheets, a reminder of all they’d done last night. Once on the couch, twice in bed. At least they’d slept in between, she thought wryly.

She dressed in nice sweats and sneakers. Though she told herself she was accommodating her work in the dusty back room, she was also accommodating her sore, tired body. Every time she moved, she remembered something else that made her smile. Nash’s hard body entering hers, his masculine scent, his arms wrapped around her as she slept.

She felt closer to him than to anyone before, so close she was beginning to think Annie was right and she needed to level with him about her past and the problems looming in her future.

Annie. Before she headed to the coffee shop this morning, she put in a call to her friend, hoping she’d meet Kelly at Cuppa Café. Though Kelly had spoken to Richard directly only once since his surgery, she liked to check in periodically with his wife or daughter. He was progressing nicely.

But Kelly hadn’t heard from Annie in a few days and she wanted to make sure her friend was holding up under the strain. She also wanted to find out how her date with Joe had gone.

Kelly dialed and the phone rang and rang and rang. She was just about to hang up when she heard Annie’s voice.

“Hello?” Annie asked, sounding as if she’d just been woken from a deep sleep.

“Annie? It’s Kelly. Did I wake you?”

“It’s okay,” she said, the standard answer when you don’t want the person on the other end of the line to feel bad.

“Why don’t you call me back?” Kelly suggested, though she was concerned that Annie was asleep so late in the morning.

“No, I can talk. I just haven’t been feeling well, so I slept in.”

“Is there anything I can do? Bring lunch? Dinner?” Kelly propped a hip against the kitchen counter, already thinking about where she’d go to pick up meals.

“No, thank you, but I have everything I need,” Annie said.

Kelly narrowed her gaze, wondering if Annie would exaggerate just so she wouldn’t be a burden. “How are you taking care of yourself?”

Kelly knew Annie’s mother must be busy at the hospital with Richard, and from the sound of her voice Annie was too weak to do much for herself.

Annie remained silent for a second, but the answer had dawned on Kelly as soon as she’d voiced the question. “Joe’s over, isn’t he?” Kelly asked.

Annie sighed. “Not right now, he isn’t.”

“But he’s the one coming by and helping you!”

“How did you know?” Annie asked, sounding brighter if still weak.

“Umm…” Kelly bit the inside of her cheek. “I was going to mention this to you at some point, just so you had a heads-up. Nash had a gut feeling something was wrong, so he drove by your house early yesterday.”

“He didn’t come in,” Annie said, sounding tired and confused.

“Because he saw Joe leaving.”

“Oh my God. Did he freak?” Annie asked.

Kelly gripped the phone tighter in her hand. “Depends on your definition of freak. Let’s just say it was an eye-opener and he’s okay with it. More than okay.”

“Really? You’re sure? As in you’re not trying to make me feel better or not upset me when I’m sick?”

Despite herself, Kelly laughed. “No, none of the above.” In fact, Kelly remembered everything about Nash’s admission yesterday—from his surprise to the realization that he truly didn’t care if Annie had a man in her life, to how he’d rushed right over and made love to Kelly on a table in the back room.

“Oh, that’s great. I’m so relieved.” Annie paused. “I’m sure you were too.”

“You could say that.” The details weren’t something Kelly would share with anyone, especially Nash’s ex. “So? You and Joe? What happened to the woman who didn’t want to be taken care of?” Kelly teased.

“She’s weak and she caved.” Annie laughed. “He showed up for our date and I’d forgotten all about it! Then I practically passed out in his arms, and when I woke up the next morning, he was still there. Next to me. In bed.”

Kelly squealed along with her, thrilled Annie had someone like Joe in her life.

“But I still don’t want him to be with me out of pity. Or because he thinks I need someone to take care of me.”

“No man comes back out of pity,” she assured Annie. Besides, Kelly had seen the look in Joe’s eyes when he watched her. The man had it bad.

“Well, to make certain he knows
me
or at least the me I want to be when I’m not laid up in bed, I want to plan a surprise for him. One that will make up for me forgetting the date and thank him for being there.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Something he won’t expect, though.”

“Sounds like he’s a lucky man,” Kelly said, laughing. “When is this happening?”

Annie’s groan echoed through the phone lines. “I wish I knew. I have to get better first.”

They talked a few minutes more about her father’s condition and Kelly hung up, promising to check on Annie later.

Right now she needed to work. She left home, stopped for coffee, and settled into the back room of the office. She took a long sip of her morning coffee and pulled out the first box to sort through. Her plan was to make sure that each file was labeled and placed in a new, sturdy box, marked by year.

Time passed quickly. When her legs began to ache, she glanced at her watch and realized she’d started at nine and now it was almost twelve thirty. She glanced at the open box and realized if she went through the last few files, she could finish this carton and at least start a new box later on.

She pulled out the remaining files, checked the name on the label, blinked, and checked it again.

Barron
.

Kelly’s breath caught in her throat. Like she’d done to all the files before this one, she flipped through the pages to make sure all the papers belonged to the same case. But she couldn’t stop herself from reading through things more slowly.

Richard had been the district attorney of Serendipity and had stepped down just after Ethan’s arrest, going into private practice. He’d wanted to help the kids he’d been putting away. As he explained to Kelly, he’d seen something of himself in those teens, having been a hell-raiser in his youth. Most of the case files she’d looked at had been of downtown kids who’d gotten into trouble and needed help. Since Richard’s real money came from his father’s real estate business, he was able to concentrate a good deal of his legal practice on pro bono work, which Kelly admired.

Apparently the Barron brothers had been clients of a sort. Though Nash told her he’d had Richard to look out for him, she hadn’t known details. Now they were in front of her. She hesitated, only to remind herself she hadn’t thought twice about looking at files before.

Drawing a deep breath, she opened the file and began reading. By the time she was finished, Kelly was thrown by all she’d learned, most of which she didn’t think even Nash was aware of. Information she knew would change how Nash viewed life from now on.

Nash’s first task this morning was to promote Bill
Manfredi, from associate to junior partner. As Nash expected, an enthusiastic and grateful Bill accepted the offer, and Nash knew they’d both benefit by the change. With someone else in the office who had a stake in things, the solo stress Nash carried around with him was already easing.

An hour later, Kelly called and asked him to come over immediately. She wasn’t prone to hysterics, but she did sound extremely wound up, so he dropped everything he was working on and drove over to Richard’s office.

As soon as he stepped inside, he became hyperaware of Kelly; her scent, her essence, and of course the memories of what they’d done in that back room. He shook his head, reminding himself he wasn’t here for sex, no matter how suddenly primed his body was.

“Kelly?” he called out.

“In the back.”

He headed to the file room and found her waiting for him, her hand on a stack of legal files.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She drummed her fingers on the stack of documents, then finally met his gaze. “Richard asked you to help out on anything I was doing in the office, right?”

“Right. Is there something you’re having trouble with?” He took off his jacket and laid it over a stack of files.

She shook her head. “I’ve actually put current work on hold and I’m archiving old files.”

He frowned. She couldn’t possibly need his help on those.

“Some of these date back to the nineteen eighties.”

“Okay,” Nash said, still not sure where she was headed or why he was here.

She drew a deep breath, her nervousness contagious and his palms began to sweat.

“Let’s say that I wasn’t comfortable handing you a set of files to look at for no reason connected to any current case,” Kelly said as if posing a hypothetical.

Lawyers were used to hearing those “what if ” situations all the time, but that didn’t ease his sudden anxiety.

“But,” she continued, “if I were to need your help getting through all these case files, that would be different. And if, while helping me, you happened to read through this top file to make sure everything was in order, that would be in the regular course of doing business.”

He glanced from her worried eyes to that file folder she hadn’t taken her hand off of. There was something in there she wanted him to see but was obviously worried about violating confidentiality.

“Am I right?” she asked.

He nodded, recognizing that she was leading him to something important without actually handing him the information. “Whatever is in that file and how I came by it would never come back to bite you,” he promised her, his heart beating faster, though he was still in the dark about the contents.

She blew out a deep breath. “Okay. So I’m going to step out and take a break. But I’ll be in the other room if you need me.” She eased closer and placed her hand against his cheek. “And I think you’re going to need me,” she whispered, before walking out.

More than a little uneasy and way beyond being merely curious, he picked up the folder she’d been touching and settled into a chair.

A quick glance informed him the main folder was labeled with his last name, and his stomach churned, agitated, as he opened to the first page. Ethan’s arrest and court information stared back at him. The legal disposition of his brother’s case followed. Subsequent letters and notes stapled together indicated Richard had reached out to Ethan after his release, offering to help get him settled with his brothers, find a job, and so on. But Ethan had left town and, as Nash knew too well, he and Dare became wards of the state. There was more paperwork about that too.

He flipped through some more useless information and then came the Rossman’s application to be foster parents. Nash changed from scanning to reading more carefully. Each parent had to fill out an application, and Florence’s came first in her familiar flowery script. She detailed why she wanted to be a foster parent, what she thought she could provide for a child, and then at the bottom, she requested specifically to be made a foster mother to
both Andrew (Dare) and Nash Barron
.

Nash blinked and read those words again, but they didn’t change with any subsequent read. Florence had asked for both of them. His breathing now rapid and uneven, Nash flipped to Samuel’s letter, his gaze immediately heading for the bottom part. Sure enough, he too asked to be made a foster parent to
both
Nash and Dare.

“I don’t get it,” he muttered.

He clearly remembered Richard coming to see him at a friend’s house, where Nash had been staying in the initial days after his parents’ deaths and Ethan’s departure. Dare had gone to one of his friends’ homes as well. Richard had sat Nash down and explained about the Rossmans and how they wanted to be his foster parents.

“What about Dare?” he’d asked, trying to be brave in front of Richard, who back then he’d viewed as a big bear of a man who seemed decent but who Nash didn’t know at all.

“There’s another special family who wants Dare,” Richard had explained.

“But why can’t the people taking me take him too?” Nash had persisted.

Richard’s smile had been forced. Even a sixteen-year-old Nash had recognized that.

“Sometimes people only have enough room in their hearts for one child,” Richard said.

Nash remembered those words because when he’d walked into the Rossmans’ huge home, only a small suitcase in his hand, he’d immediately wondered why the two people welcoming him didn’t have room in their hearts for his younger brother when they surely had rooms in their gigantic house.

Nauseous now, Nash kept flipping through the pages. There was information on the Garcias who’d taken Dare in and other papers that barely held Nash’s interest.

All he could focus on now was the fact that Florence and Samuel had wanted both brothers, despite the fact that he’d been told otherwise for the last ten years.

Lies and omissions,
Nash thought, disgusted and angry.
When will they end?

Twelve

Kelly paced the small width of her office, wondering
how Nash was taking the news, whether she should check on him or leave him alone to digest the information. The Rossmans had wanted to take Dare too? Even she couldn’t process the fact, given what she knew of the Barron brothers’ history.

When she heard what sounded like Nash’s foot connecting with the metal trash can, she decided it was time to go back inside.

Steeling herself, she walked into the file room. “Nash?”

He turned toward her, his face a confused and angry mask. He didn’t speak or move a muscle, maintaining a stony silence.

She rubbed her hands together, uncomfortable and uncertain of what to say. She settled for “I’m sorry, but I thought you should know.”

She thought she saw a flash of gratitude in his eyes. Just as quickly any emotion was gone. “You’re the only one who thought I should know. Richard and the Rossmans lied to my face for ten years. They’d be happy to keep lying,” he muttered, his voice raw, the depths of the betrayal he was experiencing painful to hear. “So the million-dollar question is,
why
?” he asked, meeting her gaze.

A rhetorical question, they both knew.

“Are you going to tell Dare?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not until I know more. He’s been through enough,” he said, looking out for his younger brother as he always had.

Kelly smiled. She hoped Dare knew how lucky he was to be protected by this man. His loyalty and need to protect those he cared about ran so deep, he should have been the cop in the family.
A good, solid man
, she thought, not for the first time.

Yet Annie had given him up. In fact, his protective streak was the main reason she’d left. Kelly shook her head, accepting for the first time that
she
wouldn’t be the one to walk away first. Her feelings for him were too strong and way more than she wanted to look into now.

“What?” His voice recaptured her attention.

“Nothing.” If she wasn’t ready to delve deeply within herself, she wasn’t going to do it with him. Especially not now when his world had just shifted beneath him.

He narrowed his gaze. “You just shook your head like you thought of something.”

She forgot how well he read her. “I was just thinking it’s too bad you can’t talk to Richard right now. He’d be the most logical, not to mention the least emotional person, you could question.”

He straightened his shoulders. “And when he’s up to a heated conversation, that’ll be my first stop.” Nash picked up his jacket from where he’d placed it earlier.

“Where are you going?”

“To talk to Florence.”

At the mention of the woman who’d seemed so soft and caring, who so clearly loved Nash like any son she’d given birth to, Kelly felt a moment’s panic. A muscle ticked in Nash’s jaw and an accompanying vein throbbed in his left temple.

She ran her tongue over her dry lips. “Maybe you should calm down first.” Because from his jerky movements and the way tension radiated off him in palpable waves, his anger was very much at the surface and she didn’t think he should go alone.

“No. I’ve waited long enough for answers.”

“Then I’ll come with you.”

“No.”

The harsh word stopped her cold and nearly froze her heart. She instructed herself not to take it personally. She was the only target available to him at the moment.

She took a tentative step forward, but he ignored the overture and shrugged into his jacket, a determined look on his face.

“This is my problem. I lived their lie alone for years. I’ll face it the same way.” Each sentence came out clipped and biting.

“Fine,” she said, not meaning it at all but knowing she couldn’t stop him. “Go ahead. Talk to your mother. To Florence.” She waved an arm, dismissing him.

As he spun around and stormed out, Kelly bit back the urge to tell him to go easy on Florence Rossman.

Without the facts, Kelly didn’t know if the other woman deserved easy.

She stared out the doorway and her gaze fell to the file spread open on the table. What a mess. She still believed she’d done the right thing by leading Nash to the truth about his past. She only hoped she hadn’t destroyed him.

He needed someone there for him, someone who understood. He clearly didn’t want her right now and Dare was still in the dark. Which left one person who just might be able to reach past Nash’s anger and help him cope.

Hoping to God she was doing the right thing, Kelly picked up the phone.

“Why is it once you come home from vacation it feels
like you were never away?” Ethan Barron asked his wife of a little more than a week.

Faith was in the walk-in closet of their bedroom and he wasn’t sure if she even heard the question. That was okay. He only wanted a few minutes to think about anything and everything except the call he’d just received. A call that had dragged up the years he’d tried to put behind him and the truth, that he’d abandoned his brothers to a life of foster care, and the guilt that still ate away at him.

He’d much rather think about his wife. He still couldn’t believe the girl he’d fantasized about when he was eighteen had actually married him. The bubbly cheerleader who’d lived in the mansion that to Ethan had represented everything he’d never have, believed in the man he’d become.

Ethan shook his head, knowing he’d just been handed the opportunity to step up and be there for his siblings in a way he hadn’t in the past.

“Who was on the phone?”

Faith stepped into the room and Ethan was immediately struck by her blond beauty and the intelligence behind those gorgeous eyes.

“C’mere.”

He held out his arms and she stepped into his embrace, laying her head against his chest. “What’s wrong?” she asked him.

He wasn’t surprised she knew. Faith always knew what he needed, sometimes before he did.

“Kelly called. Nash just found out something that pretty much rocked the foundation of everything he was ever told about his past.” Ethan went on to explain what Kelly told him about the documents in Richard Kane’s office and how Nash had headed over to his adoptive mother for answers. “Kelly’s worried about him. She said he wouldn’t go to Dare with the news until he had more information, but she doesn’t think he should be alone.”

“She’s right.” Faith tipped her head back and met his gaze. “You know Nash and I didn’t get along at first…”

“You’re getting along now?” he asked sarcastically. They both knew Ethan had made a small inroad with Nash at the welcome-home party. Small was better than nothing and a hell of a lot more of an opening than he’d given Ethan before.

“Funny.” Faith chuckled. “But I see how hard he tries with Tess, and even if I think his attitude stinks, I understand where he’s coming from, and not just with you.”

“He doesn’t have the right to blame you for your father’s crimes,” Ethan said, his body going taut at the reminder of how Nash treated Faith.

“Well, his adoptive father had a heart attack and died not long after they lost a huge chunk of money in my dad’s Ponzi scheme. And as a lawyer, he personally heard the stories of so many people who lost even more than the Rossmans. And he’s been coming around.”

“Sort of,” Ethan muttered.

“Which is better than not at all.” She rose up and kissed him on the lips.

Of course she thought just like him. “I’ll go find him,” Ethan said on a groan.

“You should. But while you’re at it, don’t beat yourself up for the past or things you can’t change. You’ve come to terms with yourself. Don’t let Nash bring you back to that dark place,” Faith warned him.

He shook his head, amazed as always by her wisdom and insight. “You know the irony of it all, right? Since I came back here, all I wanted was a chance to be there for my brothers, to make it up to them.”

“And now you have that chance,” she said, too brightly.

“Yeah.” The opportunity to face down his demons, the mistakes he’d made and what his decisions had cost the brothers he loved.

What Ethan couldn’t admit out loud was the ironic and scary truth. Now that he had the opportunity he’d craved, Ethan didn’t know if he had it in him to be the brother they needed.

Nash spent twenty minutes driving around, attempting
to calm down before confronting his adoptive mother. He needed to remember that the Rossmans had taken him into their home, given him clothes, food, an education that exceeded anything in his wildest dreams, and most important, love.

But the relationship had been built on lies.

He pulled up to the house, parking his car at the same time a black car parked on the street behind him. He climbed out and realized it was his brother’s Jag.

“Ethan,” Nash muttered, greeting his brother as he exited the vehicle. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Saving you from yourself.”

“Kelly called you,” he said flatly.

“She’s worried about you.”

He would’ve expected anger that she’d sent Ethan after him. Ethan, of all people. “I know she is,” he said instead. No anger at Kelly to be found. He figured it was all burning in his gut, directed at Florence and Richard. “You know everything?”

Ethan nodded.

“Fine. I’m going in to talk to her.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Nash cocked an eyebrow. “Playing backup in case I need you, big brother?”

“It’s about time, don’t you think?” Ethan shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, his steely gaze hidden behind his sunglasses.

Nash didn’t reply, brushing past him and heading up the long drive. He had enough on his mind without adding his baggage related to Ethan to the mix. Odd thing was, having Ethan behind him didn’t feel like baggage as much as… support.

Nash rang the doorbell and Florence answered. “Nash, what are you doing here?” she asked, sounding surprised but looking pleased.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Of course. Come in.” She glanced beyond him, seeing Ethan for the first time and her eyes widened in surprise.

As far as Nash knew, Ethan and Florence Rossman had never met. Their social circles wouldn’t have crossed, he thought wryly.

“This is my brother Ethan,” Nash said by way of introduction. “Ethan, this is my… This is Florence Rossman.”

Ethan stepped closer to the open door. “Nice to meet you,” he said, extending his hand.

Florence accepted the gesture. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” she asked, her confused gaze darting between them both.

“I need answers,” Nash said, his voice rough with the anger he couldn’t shake.

“I see,” she said, but she was clearly confused.

“He does need answers. But first I’d like to thank you,” Ethan said, surprising Nash. “For being there for my brother when I cou—when I wasn’t.”

In that brief instant, Nash saw the man his brother had become, and whatever walls remained crumbled to dust inside of him. Suddenly he wanted to know where Ethan had been all these years, what he’d lived through, and how he’d come out the other side.

But first… “Can we come in?” Nash asked.

Florence nodded. “Ethan, it was my pleasure, I assure you. Come,” she said, and gestured for them to enter.

Nash found himself seated in the same family room he’d been in the other night with Kelly. This time his focus was different. His gaze fell to the row of pictures on the window sill behind him.

Ethan followed his line of vision, his lips turning upward in a grin. He strode over and picked up a photo. “Is this graduation?”

“High school, college, and law school,” Florence said proudly, her fingers grazing lovingly over one picture at a time.

Nash could’ve done without the caps and gowns, but each represented a milestone in his life, one that wouldn’t have been possible without the woman standing beside him.

“Why didn’t you take Dare too?” Nash blurted out, unable to hold in the question any longer. And giving Florence one last chance to tell him the truth before he had to call her on the lie.

She stepped back unsteadily, her hand going to her throat. “Oh! I—”

“She didn’t expect the question, Nash. Let’s sit,” Ethan suggested. He placed a guiding hand on the older woman’s back and led her to the couch, where she eased herself down slowly.

His brother might want to give her a moment to compose herself but Nash burned with the need to understand. “Well?” he asked, his stare boring into hers.

“Some people… some couples… aren’t equipped to have two children.”

Some people only have enough room in their hearts for one child.

She was feeding him the same version of Richard’s tale, Nash thought, both disappointed and disgusted. And he was no longer buying it.

“No more lies.” His voice rose an uncomfortable notch. “I saw the original adoption request. You asked for us both.”

Florence trembled, obviously stunned.

But Nash wasn’t finished. He wouldn’t be, not until he had the truth. “You wanted Dare too, so why the hell didn’t you take him? Why did he end up in an overcrowded foster home on the other side of town?”

The years of sneaking food into his backpack for Dare, of making excuses for his missing clothes, came back to him, and Nash slammed his hand on the wood table in frustration.

Florence jumped, recoiling in horror.

Ethan shot Nash a warning glare.

“It’s true,” she said at last. “We wanted you both.” She glanced down at her hands as she spoke, obviously searching for the right words to make him understand.

He wasn’t convinced he ever would.

“Your father and I, we’d just lost Stuart.” Her voice broke on her son’s name. “He died when he was sixteen,” she explained to Ethan. “Long story, but when we decided the house was empty and needed teenagers running around, we put in for both of you boys.”

“Then why wasn’t he here?”

Florence raised her bowed head to meet Nash’s gaze. “You’ll have to ask your brother that question.”

Nash’s gaze swung to Ethan before he realized Florence meant Dare. “Dare knows you wanted him?”

Of all the things she could have said, that possibility hadn’t crossed his mind. The words, the news, blindsided him.