Summer on Kendall Farm (3 page)

Ari smiled. Apparently, she’d hit upon the perfect solution. “I guess that’s all right.” Picking up his fork, he resumed his meal.

Kelly figured it would be lunchtime before Jason opened his eyes. She’d let him sleep. Ari was a delightful child. He had dark curly hair and eyes that were practically black. He was thin and limped slightly when he walked. Without a resemblance to Jace, Kelly thought Ari must look like his mother.

She wondered where his mother was now. Suddenly a terrible thought occurred to her. Suppose Jason had kidnapped his son and brought him here without the mother’s consent? After all, he’d shown up in the middle of the night without a place to stay and with a child. This could be trouble, she thought. And she’d had enough of that to last a lifetime.

* * *

T
HAT
WAS
THE
best dream Jace had ever had. He and Ari played on a hill. They were safe. He knew nothing would happen to them there. Father and son ran, jumped and rolled over the ground. Jace heard his son laughing. He didn’t wheeze or limp, but hung on tightly when Jace swung him around in circles. Waking, he held on to the image for a moment longer.

Opening his eyes was a shock.

He didn’t know where he was. Sitting up in bed, his thoughts rushed to Ari. Where was he? Then it came back to him. Jace remembered.

He was home.

Pushing the covers aside, he went to the bathroom’s connecting door and into the room where Ari slept. The boy was gone. The bed had been made and other than the suitcase sitting open on a bench at the end of the bed, there was no sign that his son had ever been in this room.

Jace didn’t think about his appearance until he was halfway to the door. He turned around and ran back to the guest room. This wasn’t his room. When he lived here, this had been a guest room, but it didn’t connect to the room next door and neither of them had been decorated as they were now. Where he’d slept, the walls were a light blue. The bedding on the four-poster was mainly white, but picked up the same blue wall color in subtle stripes. Jace remembered it with gray walls and heavy furniture.

Ari’s room was a light green with white molding. His bedding was yellow and the boy required a step stool to reach the mattress. Formerly, the walls had been white and the bed smaller than the queen-size that sat there now.

Pushing his legs into his pants, Jace glanced out the window and stopped. Ari was outside.

With Kelly.

They were playing with a ball. He was teaching her soccer moves. Jace stared as his son bounced the ball off his knees and feet. Then he offered the ball to Kelly and she tried to imitate his moves. Jace laughed. It was hilarious to watch her. She showed no signs of embarrassment by being shown up by a four-year-old. Her hair bounced in the morning light. Copper highlights flickered, changing color with every movement of her head. When the ball fell to the ground and Kelly missed it, she ran after it. Ari limped after her. She tripped and fell. Ari went down with her. They both laughed. Jace laughed, too.

They looked good together. Ari had asthma, but he wasn’t coughing or wheezing and he didn’t look as if his breath was labored. Jace felt relief. This confirmed it was the correct decision to bring the boy here. Although now that they didn’t have a place to stay and Jace had no job, their lives were in flux. Jace had to stay strong for them both; he’d figure something out.

First he had to find them a place to stay. This was no longer the Kendall Farm he had known. Coming back here, specifically, had been a mistake. Jace had hoped things would change.

And they had.

But not in his favor.

CHAPTER THREE

“D
AD
,” A
RI
SHOUTED
and took off running across the back porch. He threw open the screen door and launched himself into the kitchen. Even though he favored his left leg, Jace caught him as he propelled himself into his arms. The momentum of the ball of energy turned Jace completely around. “We waited a long time,” Ari said. “You were asleep. Kelly said you were tired.” He glanced at her, wobbling precariously in Jace’s arms. “We let you sleep. But we already ate. Two times.” He put up two fingers, running on with his explanation of their day.

“That’s all right, sport.” Jace kissed the boy on the top of his head. He looked at Kelly, who’d come into the kitchen behind Ari. “Thank you,” he said. “I didn’t intend to sleep the day away.”

She smiled. Jace thought she looked familiar when he saw that smile and tried to recall if he’d ever seen her before.

“We were outside playing,” Ari informed him. “I showed Kelly how to play soccer. She’s not very good.” He frowned, shaking his head, his expression very serious. “She needs to practice.” He pronounced the words very precisely.

Kelly laughed, raising her hand to cover her mouth. Something about the gesture grabbed Jace’s attention. A tiny trickle of awareness seeped inside him.

“Good morning.” He openly admired her. She was dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt that stopped at her waist. It was met by a pair of light blue shorts that showed off her long legs. Jace found his eyes traveling the distance from the running shoes on her feet to the hair she’d let fall behind her shoulders.

“It’s not morning, Dad,” Ari said and tugged on his arm. Jace realized his son had repeated the sentence.

“I know,” he commented and with a kiss to his forehead set him on his feet.

Kelly opened the refrigerator and pulled out two drink bottles of orange juice. “Can you drink from the bottle?” she asked Ari.

“Yes,” he said reaching for it.

She loosened the top. Jace heard the snap as the seal was broken. She handed it to Ari.

“Why don’t you go and drink that on the porch?” Jace suggested.

Ari moved out the back door and Jace waited until his son was seated on the porch steps before addressing Kelly. She, too, was watching Ari. He didn’t know how to begin to say what he needed to say.

“He’s a wonderful child,” she said.

“I’m very proud of him.” He could tell she had questions about Ari. It was obvious by Ari’s black eyes and curly dark hair that none of Jace’s features were present in him. “Go ahead, ask.”

“Ask what?”

“Ask about Ari’s adoption,” he said.

“He’s adopted?”

Jace saw her shoulders drop as if she were relieved. “Does that make a difference?” He raised his eyebrows skeptically.

She came up in front of the counter that separated them. “I’m ashamed to admit what I was thinking.”

“And what was that?” Jace braced himself for some prejudicial comment. He’d seen people react to the two of them before.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?”

“What?” He didn’t follow her thought patterns.

She shook her head quickly. “Of course, you wouldn’t. I used to live a couple of miles from here.”

“You did?” Was that why he felt he’d seen her before?

“In Short Hills,” she told him.

Suddenly, it dawned on him what and where Short Hill was. It was a poor area, run-down, with low-income housing and a lot of crime, a place where people double-and triple-locked doors that a good puff of wind could blow down. Anyone with an address there was immediately judged as a drunk or criminal. Jace now understood her logic. She wasn’t judging Ari’s paternity.

“I used to come by here on my way home from school,” Kelly said. “I saw you a few times, but of course, your reputation was known even in Short Hills.”

He swallowed, remembering the rebellious young man he’d once been. He had good reason, but there was no need to burden her with it. “I’m no longer that person.”

“I understand. I’m a different person from the little girl who used to live in Short Hills. When I left there, I moved to New York. If Short Hills didn’t teach me self-protection, the city did.

“I thought you’d kidnapped Ari and fled Colombia. And that I was now harboring a fugitive.”

Jace stared at her for a long moment. Then a bubble of laughter pushed into this throat and he smiled. Unable to stop it, the laughter poured from him. She smiled a little in response, but didn’t join him in the merriment that gripped him. He didn’t tell her what he’d been thinking.

“I suppose, from your point of view, it might look like that.” He could hardly get the sentence out. It was absurd that he’d kidnapped Ari. Ari came into his life due to crazy circumstances and there was nothing else he could do short of abandoning the child.

Adopting a child wasn’t ever his first instinct, though now that he had Ari, he hated being apart from him, even for a moment.

“Well, what was it like then?”

She was a hard cookie, Jace thought. Sure she had grown up in a rough area, but he bet he could match her experience for experience. Jace shook his head.

“I have all our important papers in the car. I’ll get them if you want to see them.”

He turned to go.

“That won’t be necessary,” she said, halting him in his tracks. “Does he know?” She glanced at Ari, still sitting outside.

“He knows. He doesn’t remember his parents. His father abandoned them when Ari was born. His mother worked in a cocaine factory.”

Kelly gasped.

Jace watched her. “I didn’t know her, didn’t know there was a cocaine factory until later. I’d seen her once or twice, but we’d never spoken.”

Just as she’d done last night, she opened the refrigerator and pulled out the makings of a meal.

“Would you like breakfast or lunch?” she asked.

“You don’t have to cook for me.”

“I know,” she said. “But you’ve traveled for two days and slept for the better part of another, I assume you’re hungry.”

“Isn’t there a cook, a housekeeper? When my father was alive, there was a full staff to take care of the place.”

“Things have changed,” she said flatly. “Now, breakfast or lunch?”

“I think we need to talk,” he said.

“Lunch,” she answered.

Unlike last night, when she’d made him a sandwich, today she pulled a tray out of the refrigerator and popped it into the oven. Then she forked spaghetti onto a plate, added sauce and placed it in the microwave.

“Ari, time to wash your hands.” She called him from the screen door. Her voice was soft and sweet and again Jace thought there was something familiar about her. He chalked it up to the red hair and pushed the thought aside.

Opening the oven door, she pulled out the tray, which he could see now contained garlic bread. The bell rang on the microwave signaling it had completed its flash-heating of food. Soon the three of them were seated at the table with piping hot garlic bread, salads and steaming plates of pasta.

Ari ate hungrily, shoveling food into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

“Slow down, Ari,” Jace cautioned.

“This is really good,” he said, swallowing an amount that was too large for his mouth. “It’s nothing like yours.”

Kelly laughed. “I guess we both get insulted today.”

“Can I say that?” Ari looked at Jace.

“Say what?”

“Insulted? Is it a bad word?”

“It’s not a bad word, but you need to know when to use it,” Jace explained. “So for now, don’t say it.”

With a nod, he went back to his meal. Jace looked up at Kelly. Her gaze was soft as she stared at him. Jace had seen those eyes before. He glanced down at his food. What he had to tell her was hard enough. With her looking at him like that, it was too much.

“Dad, this isn’t a hotel, is it?” Ari’s mind jumped like lightning from subject to subject. “It doesn’t look like the other hotel.”

“This isn’t a hotel, Ari.”

“Our apartment at home wasn’t this old.”

“No. It wasn’t. This house is very old, constructed so long ago, even I wasn’t around when it was built.”

Ari continued eating. Kelly liked their banter, but she didn’t join in the conversation.

Ari finished eating and quickly stood up. “May I go?” he asked. “I want to play some more.”

Jace looked at Kelly. She nodded.

“Stay close to the house,” he said. “This is a big farm. I don’t want you getting lost.”

“I won’t,” he said and rushed out the door and down the back steps. Jace could see he was happy here. He was still in the explorer mode. Everything was new, different and exciting for him. He hadn’t had time to get homesick yet.

“I apologize,” Kelly said.

“For what?” Jace brought his attention back to her.

“For my thoughts. Obviously, you and Ari have a special relationship. And he’s not a kidnapped child.”

“Apology accepted.”

“Now, you wanted to talk about something,” she said. She crossed her arms on the end of the table and gave him her full attention. “Talk.”

“I want my home back.”

* * *

K
ELLY
HAD
DEALT
with difficult clients before. She’d worked for a marketing firm in New York City and everyone at the firm thought they were more important than anyone else. Among other things, she’d learned to steel her features. She remained where she was, refusing to show how upset she was over Jace’s statement. His eyes were clear and there was no joke in his comment. He was serious.

“I’m afraid that is not an option,” she said calmly. “The house was sold and the deed duly recorded. You can check the county records if you wish. The courthouse is—” She didn’t get any further.

“I know where the courthouse is,” he snapped.

“Don’t speak to me like that, Jason.” She intentionally used his given name, hoping it brought her point home. “I bought this property free and clear. Your brother had run it into the ground, selling off anything and everything he could. He hadn’t paid the taxes in more years than your son is old. I came along and saved it. And I am spending everything I can beg, borrow or steal to make it a going operation. So don’t come in here and tell me you’re planning to force me out. It isn’t going to happen.” She took a breath. “I offered you one night’s lodging. Well, you’ve had it. You can pack your things and move on. You are no longer welcome here.”

Kelly stood up and took her coffee cup to the sink.

“Kelly. You misunderstood me.”

She turned around. Jace was now standing within feet of where she was.

“Your words seemed pretty clear to me.” Kelly understood that he was back-peddling. What did he expect her reaction to be? Should she just curl up and let him take away everything she’d done in the past two years? She was preparing to open the house to the public and take income from the tours. Sometime in the future, she’d bring back the horses and build a racetrack. Every penny she had was invested in this farm. She had to succeed. Failure was not an option. Not this time.

“I’d like to keep an eye on Ari. Would you mind if we took a walk outside?”

“Okay.”

Falling in step, they began to walk, going to the back porch and watching Ari as he played hide and seek with the open barn door.

“Is he all right over there?” Jace asked.

Kelly heard the fatherly concern in his voice. She thought of her own father. With all his faults, he loved his daughter.

“We’ve already renovated the barn.”

“We?”

“My cousin and her husband and I do most of the work. It’s hard and we’re slow, but it saves us a lot of labor costs.”

“You and two other people are working the Kendall?”

She spread her hands. “We’re all there is.” The barn had been in particularly bad condition when Kelly had taken over the property. An engineering study told her it was structurally sound. The house was livable, although it needed a lot of upgrading. Kelly moved in and asked her cousin and her husband to help her out with the renovations. Drew, her cousin’s husband, owned a construction company and she was indebted to him for life.

“Tell me how you came to buy the Kendall?” he asked.

“The cousin who helps me, Mira, and her husband, Drew, let me know about the property before the for sale sign went up. He knew I always loved it. I immediately called and arranged to tour the place.” She glanced at Jace. Jace had his gaze on his son. “It didn’t matter what state it was in. I was determined to make it mine.”

“Why?”

Kelly surveyed the area. The May weather had turned the grass emerald green. She remembered when it was high enough to hide her five-foot-five frame and coarse enough to leave cuts and bruises on her arms and legs. Now she could look clear across the vista.

“I grew up not far from here.”

“Short Hills, you said.”

“When I was still in school I used to get off the school bus and climb onto the fence just to watch the horses.”

Jace snapped his fingers. “The redhead,” he said. “I saw you there a few times. You were only a child.”

She was older than she looked, but she didn’t say that.

“You weren’t here often,” she said.

He frowned, but waited for her to continue.

“I know your dad sent you to boarding school. I thought it must be a wonderful place to go to school, but I didn’t see how you could bear to leave the Kendall.”

“It wasn’t my choice,” he admitted.

Kelly knew that. Gossip spread easily around Windsor Heights then and now. Some she’d met since buying the Kendall had told her stories of the Kendall family. It wasn’t always pleasant.

“You haven’t told me why you love it here,” Jace said.

Her throat closed and she had to swallow the emotion that rose in her. “I’ve always felt I was part of this land. And that this is where I was supposed to be. When I bought it, it needed a lot of work. And I mean a lot. But I loved doing it. I loved seeing it come back to the glory it once had. I want to make it into a showplace. And every floor I restore, every nail I use to repair something is part of me going into the history of this place.”

“But you’re not a Kendall.”