Victoria Pade – The Marine Makes His Match (страница 7)
“Sounds good to me. The sooner the better.”
“Then I’ll call and tell him. And maybe we can save Jack from exile.”
She’d repacked her suture kit by then and—still without a glance in his direction—she told him she wanted to peek in on the colonel one last time before she left.
The colonel was asleep with her glasses on and her book resting on her chin, so Kinsey silently went into the room to remove both, managing not to disturb her patient in the process.
Sutter was waiting for her when she returned to the kitchen, his shirt on again but only one button fastened.
Kinsey tried not to look, instead noting that he’d replaced the sling, too, which told her that he still needed it. “The colonel is asleep,” she informed him. “So unless you need anything else—”
“I don’t.”
“Then I’ll get going and let you rest, too.”
She leaned down to pet Jack where he was trying hard to open a cupboard door with his nose. “You rest, too, Jack, because you’re in for a big day tomorrow.”
Sutter surprised her by walking her to her car.
“Feel free to park in the driveway. Nearest to the house,” he said as they reached her small sedan at the curb and she unlocked her door. “If I need to get out I can use the far side.”
“Okay,” she said, appreciating that he was trying to save her a few steps.
She tossed her purse and bag and suture kit across the console into the passenger seat and then glanced over the car’s roof to Sutter. “You have my number—don’t hesitate to call anytime during the night if there’s any problem or you have any question—this is round-the-clock care even if I don’t live in.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“Just in case,” she persisted, recognizing in herself a certain unfathomable lack of eagerness to leave.
But then Sutter said, “See you tomorrow,” giving her no other option.
Kinsey nodded and got behind her steering wheel, closing her car door behind her.
But as she put the key in the ignition, she glanced in Sutter’s direction once more, thinking to catch sight of him returning to the house. Instead he was merely taking slow steps backward. Slow enough that her view was of his belly button just above the waistband of his slacks. His very sexy belly button there amid those rock-hard abs.
And up went her temperature all over again before she turned on the engine, put the car in gear and hit the gas.
Telling herself to get away as fast as she could.
“Oh, Conor, finally! I’ve been worried,” Kinsey said when she connected for a video chat with her oldest brother on Friday morning. She’d been up since five waiting to hear from him. It was almost eight. “Is Declan all right?”
Declan was another of her brothers and a twin with her brother Liam. The twins were the middle children—older than Kinsey, younger than Conor.
Three weeks earlier Declan had been badly wounded when the Humvee he was driving in Afghanistan went over a hidden bomb. He’d undergone an initial emergency trauma surgery in Afghanistan, then been transferred to a hospital in Germany for more surgery this morning.
Conor was a navy doctor but couldn’t treat family. So he’d taken leave to oversee Declan’s care and travel with him.
“It was touch and go for a while,” Conor admitted. “That’s why I’m late getting to you—the surgery went on longer than expected. But he did okay and he’s not going to lose the leg!”
“Thank God,” Kinsey muttered, breathing a sigh of relief.
“I was just with him in recovery and I got him to move his toes, so it looks like everything is working,” Conor continued. “They recasted his hand when we first got here and he’s starting to be able to use his fingers. The rest of the bumps and bruises and cuts are under control now, too, and I think he’s going to come out of this okay. The good news is that he’ll be sent stateside to recuperate and rehab, and I’ve put in for reassignment to go with him—that means you could have two of us there for a while.”
A while...
That was all she ever got with any of them.
“For how long?” she asked without showing her feelings.
“Can’t say. But we’ll be there, both of us in the states. Bethesda—”
“Maryland. Hardly right next door to Denver.”
“Right. But you can meet us there. And once Declan is doing well enough to be on his own a little, I can get to you. Eventually even Declan will probably be able to travel and maybe stay with you so you can help with some of his physical therapy.”
Kinsey nodded, knowing what her brother was getting at before he said it.
“This is a time for us to pull in—focus on each other and deal with our situations. So don’t stir up that whole Camden mess,” he added, just as she’d been expecting. “We don’t need the complication right now.”
Kinsey had broken the news of who their biological father was when she’d found out. All three of her brothers had had a different reaction than she had. Instead of wanting to reach out to family the way she did, they wanted to let sleeping dogs lie, certain that the Camdens would refuse to acknowledge them, leaving them—specifically her, who had put so much stock into this idea—with nothing but heartache and rejection.
“Now that you’re finished with that job that put you around them, just let it go,” Conor said.
“I don’t want to do that,” she responded, deciding not to mention that her new job put her in line for even more contact with the Camdens. That she’d struck a deal to create opportunities for it.
“Declan and I will be there!” her brother insisted. “We’re all the family you need.”
“You’ll only be here for a while,” she reminded him by repeating his words back to him.
“I know it’s been hard on you, Kins,” Conor said. “We all know it, even though you never complain. And we appreciate everything you’ve done standing in for us, not having us around to share the load with Mom and Hugh...” He shook his head. “But you have to think this through. The Camdens could already know we exist, meaning they’ve opted to pretend they don’t—”
“I never saw any hint that Livi Camden knew we’re related.”
“They could know there’s another family out there somewhere without knowing specifically who we are—do you think nobody missed all that money we’ve ended up with? That nobody ever knew it was paid to cover up a dirty little secret? A dirty little secret they don’t want to put faces and names to, let alone acknowledge? And say they don’t know we exist and you tell them. Can you see that being anything but ugly? They’ll probably call Mom a whore. And they’re the ones with the legitimate pedigree—that makes us the mutts. Is that really how you want us to be thought of? Labeled as less worthy? The Camden bastards? Is that what you want? Because we don’t.”
“They seem like nice people, Conor. Maybe it wouldn’t play out that way,” Kinsey persisted. “And even if you and Declan and Liam don’t want anything to do with the Camdens, that doesn’t mean that I can’t have anything to do with them.”
“It’s opening a can of worms, Kinsey. A huge can of worms. And I’m afraid it wouldn’t have whatever happy ending you’re hoping for. We’re the living proof that this guy was an adulterer—how well can that go over with people who want to believe the best of him?”
“But maybe no matter how it came to be, they might want to know that they have three half brothers and a half sister out in the world. The Camdens are all about family. Maybe their grandmother might like to know she has four more grandchildren...”
“Or not,” Conor said intractably. “Can’t you date or something instead? Think about building a family of your own? Something else?”
“Connecting with other brothers and sisters, our grandmother, isn’t a replacement for marriage and kids. I still want that, too. But I also want the Camdens. A grandmother. Cousins. Siblings.”
“You have brothers,” he said as if she’d forgotten.
“I haven’t been in a room with you or Declan in three years, Conor. It’s been closer to four for Liam.”
“Liam is on an elite team—”
“I know,” Kinsey said, cutting off one brother’s defense of the other. “I understand. But you have to understand where I’m coming from, too—”
“I do,” he said with some resignation, as if he’d been trying not to admit it. “It’s not just what you had to do without our help with Mom and Hugh. Now they’re gone. And if you get a flat tire you can’t call one of your big brothers to fix it.”
“I can change a flat tire and I have road service if my car breaks down, but yes! With you guys doing what you do, I sort of have family in name only—”
“Yeah, I know that’s true,” he conceded. “I know that’s it for you—day in, day out, on your own, nobody to turn to, nobody around to blow off steam to, to ask for help or an opinion or to go to dinner or a movie, no family for holidays or birthdays. Nobody to come if you end up in an emergency room. None of us for anything... Believe me, we hate that.”
“But hating it doesn’t change it. And maybe being part of the Camden family could...” Kinsey said.
Conor grimaced. “Really think about it before you reach out to them, will you? Declan and I will be in the states shortly—plan for that instead. Look forward to that for now. Maybe the three of us can even have Christmas together this year. Liam is out of reach for the time being, but when we have contact again, I’ll talk to him about putting in for leave. Maybe we could all meet at the farm, really talk this through while we pack things up there so you don’t have to do that on your own, too.”