“I—I do.” Once the words were out there, she couldn’t hold back the flood that followed. “He’s good to me and good for me. Every moment we’re together is different, and yet I feel like it’s all the way it was meant to go and it just keeps getting better as time goes on.”
A flash of something crossed Lunette’s face. Kenzi was instantly contrite for gushing. “Sorry. I just finally feel like I found the guy who was meant for me.”
“I think I know how you feel.”
“You do?” Kenzi scooted closer. Perhaps the changes in her sister weren’t because of a desire to stop drinking, but because love had entered her life. That would be wonderful. Lunette had so much to give the world if she had the right motivation. And what better motivation than love? “Who?”
“Clyde.”
“What?!” Kenzi crossed the pillow between them and landed right next to Lunette. “Speak very slowly.”
Lunette trilled a laugh. “We’ve been talking since the birthday party. He wants to give our family a try.”
There were so many things wrong with that sentence.
“He’s invited Hattie and me to London. I want to go.”
So. Many. Things. Wrong.
Kenzi blurted her most compelling argument. “But he’s a cheater.”
“He’s different.”
“Since when?” The man she’d encountered at the birthday party was the same guy who had stomped on her heart and taken advantage of her sister.
Lunette’s lips pinched together. “Everything’s been arranged.”
Kenzi’s whole being cried out for her to stop this. But no matter how much it hurt, she didn’t have a legal leg to stand on. Unless she had Lunette declared unfit as a parent. But then what judge would rule against the woman sitting on the couch wearing a designer jumpsuit and looking as if she possessed the composure of Cleopatra?
“When?” she asked in defeat.
“Tomorrow.”
Kenzi was on her feet. “I can’t sit here and act like I condone this. Clyde is a snake. Once a snake, always a snake. And you’re taking Hattie away from people who love and care for her, and the only home she’s ever known.”
“You took her to the farm.”
“For a visit while youdried out.”
Lunette’s eyes went cold. “We’re leaving. You can say your goodbyes to Hattie in the morning.”
Kenzi’s eyes dropped to Lunette’s shaking hands. She was barely holding it together. How would she be able to stay sober when Clyde began pecking at her daft American ways?
Kenzi sprinted from the room, running all the way to her wing, where she threw herself into Nash’s arms in the kitchen. She held tight and then tighter still, burying her face in his chest just as the tears started in earnest.
“What is it?” Nash stroked her hair and kissed her head.
She gasped out the whole sorted story and then moaned, “I’m losing Hattie. If I’d have known this was our last weekend together, I would have spent every minute with her. And Lunette can’t wait to get away from me.”
“You can’t force her to see what you see in Clyde.”
“I know, but why him?”
“He’s Hattie’s father.”
“He’s no more her father than I am.”
“He’s a little more her father …” Nash gave her a rogue smile.
