CHAPTER 10
“Tessa has a boyfriend who drinks.” Ares words were ground out through gritted teeth.
“Yes.”
Kelsey squeezed his arm, softly saying, “Go on,” to Kathy. “Was he harming her?”
“No. He was complaining that the game had started and Mom wouldn’t change the channel because she was watching an
entertainment show.” She looked at Ares. “It was you and your wife giving a tour of this home.”
“She’s not my wife anymore,” Ares revealed flatly. “We’re getting divorced.”
Kathy’s face dropped. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” His voice was hard and emotionless.
Yet Kelsey saw through the walls he’d put up and knew that, right now, the best thing would be to move past his troubles with Keira and stay focused on his three family members who had so suddenly appeared. “Did your mother say something about Ares?”
“It was him.” Kathy almost snarled the last word. “Paul—that’s her boyfriend—claimed Tyler was a dead ringer for the guy on the TV.” She looked at Ares. “For you.”
“Your mother didn’t deny it?”
“Tyler and I, we were just going to laugh it off. But she got this look on her face when Paul started in on her.”
“Tell us about it,” Kelsey urged her. “Was it shock? Guilt?”
“Fear,” Kathy said softly. “She looked absolutely terrified. She hadn’t thought any of us would pick up on the similarities, but Paul
immediately got in her face. Asking stuff like ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘Who is he?’ and ‘He’s even got the same last name.’”
“It doesn’t appear you like this Paul very much,” Kelsey noted, just as she would have with one of her patients.
Kathy shook her head, her hair falling across her face for a moment. “He’s horrible.”
“How long has she been seeing him?” Ares words were barely more than a growl.
“About a year.” His sister sagged back slightly in the chair. “When we were growing up, she never dated anyone. She didn’t start
until after we graduated high school. And she’s only had maybe two or three boyfriends since then. But they’re always a little—” She
made a face. “—off, I guess. Rougher kinds of guys. But Paul.” She narrowed her eyes. “He’s just plain mean.”
Ares expression turned stony. If they’d been alone, Kelsey would have talked him down from the ledge, helped him face the
emotions assaulting him as he was forced to acknowledge the parallels to his own life with his mom and dad. Unfortunately, it would
have to come later, when they were alone. Because she wasn’t leaving until they talked things through. Not about the kiss—that
would have to wait for another day. But she wouldn’t let his emotions about his parents fester inside him, especially piling on top of
Keira’s betrayal. He must feel like he’d been hit by a tire iron right about now.
“So he was getting up in your mom’s face,” she pressed Kathy. “And then?”
“She caved.” Kathy’s eyes went soft with apology. “She admitted you were her son from before Tyler and I were born. I swear she’d never talked about you before. All she’d ever said was that our father was a bad man and we were way better off without him.”
Ares nostrils flared. “He was a bad man.”
God, to hear his existence and his childhood written off so flatly. Maybe she’d been wrong to press for all the information. Maybe they should wait for a better time, a calmer moment.
But before she could hit the pause button, Ares asked, “Did Paul hit her?”
“No. But he grabbed her arm and held on really tight, saying she had to contact you. The dollar signs were flashing in his eyes.” Kathy’s hands were the ones fisting now. “Tyler kicked him out when we saw the red marks on her arm. They turned into bruises later. We told him not to come back.”
“Good for you,” Ares said softly, with something close to relish. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “What do you need from me? It sounds like you and Tyler took care of the issue.”
“That’s the problem. He didn’t stay away.” Kathy grimaced in disgust. “He told Mom how sorry he was for his behavior, blamed it on the fact that he’d just gotten laid off and he was having a hard time.”
“Just a bunch of excuses.” Ares voice had an edge of steel sharp enough to slice.
“No one should ever get physical,” Kelsey agreed.
With a nod, Kathy said, “Now that Tyler and I are both living in San Diego, we can’t be around all the time to protect her. We’ve been doing our best to try to deal with Paul and the situation, but we can’t help feeling we’re in over our heads.” Her eyes were beseeching. “She was terrified to come here. She thought you’d reject her. But I know how badly she wanted to see you, even though she was afraid.”
The air was so thick, the silence so profound, that Kelsey swore she could actually hear the beating of Ares heart.
Her heart tore open for him. Just as it hurt for Kathy and Tyler, who were desperate to save their mother. She ached to put her hand over his chest, to ease the furious throb of his pulse.
But despite the earth-shattering kiss they’d shared, for now she was merely his psychologist sister-in-law trying to get answers. And she wouldn’t fail him.
* * *
Ares was swept up in a maelstrom of memory. His father’s fists. The smell of his rancid whiskey breath. Hiding under the bed, making himself small so he wouldn’t be noticed. His mother’s cries. The bruises on her in the morning.
Once she was gone, all the bruises had become his.
Now his mother was at it again, choosing the wrong guy. Kathy’s story took him back to that grimy neighborhood and stinking
tenement, a place he never wanted to see again in his life.
Damn straight, Tessa had to believe he would reject her. Sure, his father had been the abusive asshole. But his mother had been the
sober one who made the decision to leave.
Without her son.
Without her eldest son, anyway.
It would have been so much easier if Kathy and Tyler had simply asked for money. What they wanted—for him to watch over their
mother—was exponentially worse.
Even as his emotion threatened to choke him, it was Kelsey who calmed his raging blood enough to quell the explosion. If not for
the sweet feel of Kelsey beside him, he might have detonated like a bomb.
She was the only one who knew exactly what to say and how to say it, even during the worst of times. And she was the person he
needed most on his side right now, warm, understanding, and nonjudgmental, despite the unbearable circumstances.
Level-headed Kelsey, the woman who could talk sense under pressure.
The woman he’d kissed with a depth of passion he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Maybe ever.
The woman he felt next to him with every fiber of his being, her warmth, her gentle scent, the subtle movements of her body against
his. During the past few minutes, he’d instinctively shifted closer. He honestly didn’t know what he would have done without her.
Nor did he know how he’d ever pay her back for her help.
Just the way he didn’t have a clue how to deal with his brother and sister—and Tessa.
But a Baddrick didn’t waffle, damn it. He didn’t hide. And he definitely didn’t back down. He had to look Kathy in the eye and make
it clear that he was done with all these crazy turns his life had taken. That he was finally going to get things on track toward some
semblance of normal.
Whatever the hell that was.
Only, just as he opened his mouth to lay it all out, his stomach growled. Loud enough that Kelsey’s eyes widened.
As if a light bulb had flashed on over her head, she declared, “We should eat.”
“Eat?” Ares and his sister spoke in surprise at the same moment.
“Yes.” Kelsey smiled at Kathy, then turned her gaze on him. “And while we eat, we can get to know each other better.”
Ares knew she was absolutely right. He was on overload. And he’d learned a long time ago not to make decisions in the heat of the
moment.
“Let’s do pizza so we don’t put Mrs. M to a lot of trouble,” Kelsey said.
Keira had always treated the Mendez like servants. They were paid generously, so she thought that meant they didn’t need please and
thank you. Kelsey, however, was never without a kind word. He’d been comparing the sisters damn near every minute since he’d
returned. It struck him now that he always had.
“Anyone gluten-free, lactose intolerant, vegetarian, despise anchovies?”
Kelsey’s laundry list of pizza no-no’s brought a laugh from Kathy. “We love pizza with everything on it except the anchovies.”
Kelsey wrinkled her nose. “Nobody likes anchovies.”
“I like them,” Ares said.
“You do not,” she scoffed.
“Yes, I do.”
“Then why have we never once had anchovies on pizza?”
“Because Sally always said they smell up the whole room.”
“Sally is a very wise woman,” Kelsey said, her smile so sweet, so all-encompassing that his heart actually melted. Just as it had two
nights ago when he’d held her in his arms and kissed her with all the longing pent up inside of him.
As their back-and-forth about pizza toppings brought him down off the emotional tightrope, his gut feelings said that as long as
Kelsey was here, he just might be able to get through this crazy day in one piece.
With Kelsey by his side, maybe he could handle just about anything.
