had had a call, too, but he’d let it go to voice mail. He’d been too keyed up from his clash with KC to make sense of business.
A problem he never had.
Deflating like a balloon, Jacob dropped into one of the chairs facing the desk, grateful Aiden had replaced the old leather-and-wood chairs with cozy wing backs. His brother and sister-in-law were slowly updating things in Blackstone Manor—especially the study—inch by inch scraping away the depressive stench of their grandfather’s manipulation to reveal the true beauty of a home that had stood for generations in the face of natural and man-made tribulations.
“I just don’t know how to get a handle on the problems at the mill,” Jacob said, reminding them both of the year they’d spent dealing with the saboteur. “We need to find another way of catching this guy. I mean, I’m there every day, but I’m in management. And no one’s talking to me. We need someone on the floor, someone relatable. I think that’s where the problem is.”
“Definitely can’t be either of us. See if Bateman can put you in touch with someone over there to help. He’ll know who’s trustworthy.”
“Right.” His foreman had already been very helpful. Because Jacob wasn’t capable of judging anyone at the moment. Business would give him something to focus on besides KC, just as soon as they settled on some ground rules.
Start as you mean to go on, his mother had always said. For everyone involved, that was exactly what they needed to do.
* * *
As she faced off with Jake on her front porch, KC knew she was simply delaying the inevitable, but she couldn’t stop herself from arguing just for the sake of it. “What if my mom wasn’t here to watch Carter?”
KC spoke with no real hope of making a dent in Jacob’s thinking but couldn’t resist pointing out the inconvenience he was putting everyone through. Everyone but him. She hated the push-pull of her emotions. Wanting to keep him at arm’s length, yet greedy for even a little bit of his attention. When he’d finally called after two days of silence, her heart had sped up, but she couldn’t help being contrary about his sudden demand for her to take a Sunday drive with him.
“If we’re going to do this, there will be ground rules,” he said now as he waited impatiently on her doorstep. “That means we need to talk. Alone.”
That take-charge tone shouldn’t send shivers down her arms but it did. “Yes, we should,” she conceded. “But you still could’ve given me a heads-up sooner.”
She took her time walking back to the nursery. Not that she had anything important to do on Sunday mornings. Her mother usually came over before lunch for some downtime with Carter since Lola’s wasn’t open. Sometimes KC ran a few errands. Then they had family dinner with Grandma. Asking her mother to stay with Carter for a little while was really a formality, but it also wouldn’t hurt Jacob to wait on her porch a few minutes, just for giggles and grins.
Her pokiness had her changing into jeans and pulling her hair into a ponytail, but she simply refused to hurry. He didn’t comment when she finally came outside, just held the door for her to climb into his Tahoe and closed it with a firm hand.
The contained atmosphere of Jacob’s SUV didn’t settle her nerves. The interior smelled like him—spicy and dark. If she closed her eyes and breathed deep, she could almost remember what it felt like to have that scent all over her and wish she didn’t ever have to wash it away. After all, she never knew when she might smell it again.
After she’d left, been away from him for a while, she realized how sad it was to need someone so badly and yet be relegated mostly to a physical relationship. They said men did it all the time—obviously Jake had—but KC had never felt more alone than when she was lying in his arms, wishing she was good enough for him to make her a true part of his life.
The door opened and Jacob slid into his seat with his phone pressed to his ear. “I’m on my way,” he said as he reached for his seat belt. Without explanation he stowed the phone in the center console. Then he put the Tahoe in gear and pulled out of KC’s driveway, all without telling her where they were going or what this was about.
“You said something about ground rules?” she prompted.
Jacob maintained a still silence for several minutes more, at odds with the hum of the tires on asphalt. “I’ve made it clear what I want—”
“Actually, you haven’t.”
He shot a glance at her.
“Well, you haven’t,” she insisted. “Are you trying to get Carter full-time? Not that I’d let you have custody, but still...do you want him part-time? Have you thought about how that will work, how it will affect him? Do you—?”
“Enough, KC.”
His deep frown had her second-guessing her pushiness, but she wouldn’t apologize for trying to protect her son.
“I started making demands because I was angry. Unlike you, I didn’t get to think about this, plan for this, nothing. So I reacted out of emotion.” The heavy sound of his breath was her clue to how much self-control he was exerting.
A part of her, the wounded part, wanted to push him. Make him acknowledge that she and Carter would have a big place in his life—something he hadn’t found important enough to offer her before. Another part of her wanted to see that legendary control smashed to teeny-tiny pieces.
Just the way it had when they were in bed together. But as soon as the sex had been done, he’d been back in form—charming and attentive but perfectly capable of walking away.
“We have to do what’s best for Carter,” he said, staring straight out the windshield. “So how do we do that?”
“Let me get to know you.”
“To what end? What are we striving for here, KC?” He ran a rough hand over his smooth chin. In the time she’d known him, she’d never once seen him with stubble. “Because if you think you can disappear with him if you don’t like what you learn, that’s not an option. I will always find you.”
But for all the wrong reasons. “My family is here, Jacob,” she countered. “It didn’t take me long to realize that running is not a safe, long-term option. I made a mistake—one I won’t repeat. But I’d better like what I see, because unlimited access to your son is on the line.” She shifted against the leather seat, wondering if she could back up her big words with action.
“Look,” she said. “I don’t want us to spend our time trying to guard against each other. If this is truly about Carter—” she ignored Jake’s look “—then we need to work together. I tried to do things your way before and got nowhere. So this really is all on you. Show me what you’re like out of bed so I can see where Carter and—” I. Carter and I. She cleared her throat, grateful she hadn’t finished that sentence out loud. “Where Carter fits. Prove to me that he’s in good hands with you.”
“So what is it I’m supposed to do to show you I’m a good man? Hell, even I don’t know if I’m a good father. I’ve never been one before. Is this a written exam? A field test?”
“Oh, it’s a field test, all right. No more secrets, Jacob.”
He
