Hard Break (Deadlines & Diamonds, #5) by Morgan Kearns Page A

ten weeks. What kind of wife did that make her?
    “Kayla ?”
    She blinked, brin ging Ian into focus. “Yeah.”
    He didn’t have to sa y a word. Her mood had changed so quickly, she’d given herself whiplash.
    “I shouldn’t be feeling…happy , Ian. I should—”
    “You should just do the best you can.” Ian took her hand in his. He was so warm, his hands huge. “If you feel like laughing, laugh. Crying, cry. Screaming, scream. It’s okay to feel, Kayla. Leon died. You didn’t.”
    Before she realized what she’d done her hand retreated from Ian’s face, her palm stinging. The motion probably surprised him, but he didn’t pull any of the what’s-that-for? He nodded, tipped his head.
    “I’ll see you later.” He turned away from her and strode toward the front door.
    She really needed to get a Bitch of the Year sash to go with her attitude. “Ian,” his name came out as a plea, “wait.”
    He stopped, but didn’t turn around.
    “I’m sorry.”
    His wide back got even wider with his deep breath. “That seems to be your theme song.” Another breath. “Goodnight, Kayla.”
    With no excuse good enough, she let him go, cringing when the front door closed. At some point a For Sale sign would pop up in his front yard and she wouldn’t blame him a bit. The kids would miss him like crazy. Truth was, so would she. But Ian was a big boy and he’d manage his life the way he saw fit.
    “Ian lied.”
    She tore her gaze from the very uninteresting front door to let it settle on her wide awake son. “What?”
    He sat up in his impromptu bed, his spine straight. “Ian totally had a date tonight. Some girl named Denali.”
    “What?”
    “He called her and told her something had come up. Me and Pene, we were the something. He lied. When he told you he didn’t have any plans tonight. He lied. Does that make you mad?”
    Yeah, it did. More than mad, actually. It made her heart ache. For all of Ian’s goodness, his selflessness, she’d slapped him. “I’m sure he had a good reason for lying, Chase.”
    “Yeah, like he didn’t want you to know about Denali,” he added a snort to emphasize the girl’s name.
    “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care one way or the other that we know about Denali.”
    Chase rolled his eyes. “Don’t you care?”
    “No. Why should I—”
    “Aren’t you jealous?”
    For the second time tonight Kayla started to laugh. This time it didn’t surprise her. This laugh made her sides hurt. Her jealous of some faceless girl occupying Ian’s time? It was about time. The guy needed a little hottie on his arm, someone to be his one and only. Kayla’d had that chance and lost it. She didn’t begrudge Ian his.
    “No, Chase. I’m not jealous of Denali.” She sat down next to her son on the couch.
    “But he’s your Ian.”
    She smiled and ran a hand over her son’s cropped b lond hair. “That was your dad’s way of teasing me. Nothing more. Ian isn’t mine any more than I’m Ian’s.”
    “ I like Ian.”
    “I like Ian, too, but he’s got a life beyond us.”
    “We need him.”
    The truth of his statement made her intestines slither. “We can get along without him. We don’t need anybody but each other.”
    “Mom.” His you’re-full-of-it glare nearly had her bursting into hysterics. “Where would we have been if Ian had been on that stupid date tonight?”
    “You a nd Pene would have been in the emergency room with me and your sister. It’d have been just fine.”
    “And boring.”
    “And boring. But we can do it ourselves.” She wondered who she was trying to convince. If he bought it, she might try selling ocean front property on the Strip.
    He didn’t. “Whatever, Mom. I’m going to bed.” He stood, gathered his blanket and pillow. “Goodnight, Mom. I love you.”
    “I love you, too, bud.” He leaned down and she kissed his cheek.
    Sitting in the dark, silence surrounding her, Kayla thought about her life. How quickly karma swung around to bite her