The Ties That Bind (2 page)

Connie laid a cup of coffee in front of Lisa. She glanced up and smiled at her best friend. “Thanks.”

“You look like you need it. Just like you need this vacation.”

Lisa dragged a hand through her hair. “Yeah. I do need it. Both the coffee and the vacation.”

“Kayla leaves in three weeks. Beth said the schedule is open. I’ve already talked to a travel agent.”

“This is all so sudden.”

“Not everything in life needs a six-month plan, Lisa. Just go with it.”

She sighed. “I don’t know, Connie. I don’t have tropical wear.”

“We’ll go shopping.”

“We don’t have flights.”

“My cousin is a travel agent. One phone call and I’ll get her working on a deal for us.”

“Where would we go?”

“I hear Saint Thomas is nice.”

She shivered, sank into the thought of turquoise water, sunny beaches, and time to do absolutely nothing. “God, that sounds like the Garden of Eden right now.”

“One whole week. That’s seven whole days you won’t be mooning over Kayla being gone and you alone in this house by yourself.”

She glared at Connie. “You, my friend, know me all too well.”

Connie winked, her green eyes sparkling with mischief. “That’s the truth.”

“I’m not going there to find a man. The last thing I need is some disastrous vacation romance.”

Connie leaned back in the chair, taking her cup of coffee and cradling it between her hands. “Lisa, you’re thirty-four years old, gorgeous, with a body I’d kill for. When was the last time you had sex?”

She gave Connie a blank stare. “I don’t remember. I’m sure it was sometime this millennium.”

Connie shook her head. “Oh, fuck. Be sure to pack condoms.”

“Jesus, Connie.”

“Honey, I’m thirty pounds overweight, ten years older than you, and divorced three times, and I get way more sex than you do. There’s something wrong with that picture.”

“Your kids are both off on their own.”

“Bad excuse.”

Lisa lifted her chin. “It is not. I couldn’t very well bring men back to the house with my kid here.”

“There are hotels. And what about when Kayla was staying at Rick’s?”

Well, hell. She shrugged. “Good guys are hard to find.”

“Not that hard. And maybe you’re still carrying a seriously flaming torch for your ex-husband.”

“I am not.”

Connie rolled her eyes. “Honey, if any one of my exes looked or acted like Rick Mitchell, I’d never have divorced him, and I’d be jumping his seriously sexy bones every chance I could. I don’t know why you and Rick don’t fuck each other blind whenever you can.”

The thought of it heated her. She so didn’t need those visuals in her head right now. “Our relationship isn’t like that. We’re friends.”

Connie snorted. “Bullshit. I see the way you look at him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Those big brown eyes of yours just eat him up every time he walks into the room.”

Denial hovered on her lips, but Connie knew her too well. She laid her head in her hands. “God. Is it that obvious?”

“Uh, yeah. To me it is anyway.”

“Shit. I didn’t mean for it to be. I don’t want it to be. Oh, Connie, I want to have a life. I want to move on. I don’t want to be dependent on Rick. I don’t want to feel what I still feel for him. It’s not right. Not after all this time.”

She hated the tears that welled in her eyes. They made her feel weak and helpless, and she hadn’t been weak and helpless in a very long time.

But Connie understood. Thank God for friends. Connie laid her hand over Lisa’s. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Rick is the type of man most woman would slit another woman’s throat to have. He’s one in a million.”

“I know,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “But he’s not
mine anymore. Hasn’t been for years. And you heard him tonight. He’s met someone.”

Connie couldn’t look at her. “So it seems.”

“Which means I have to let him go.”

“Then let’s have a vacation.”

Lisa nodded, determination firing her blood. “You’re right. It’s time I grabbed my own happiness.”

“Now you’re talkin’. So are you in?”

Why the hell not? The alternative was growing old alone, feeling sorry for herself, and becoming a pathetic woman holding on to the past. No way was she going to allow that to happen. She swiped away the tears and grinned. “Hell yes, I’m in.”

Wen hopped out of Rick’s car with a rapid-fire thanks. Kayla told her to get in line and she’d be there in a sec.

“Dad?” She twisted in the front seat to face him. He knew she’d want to talk after what went down at Lisa’s.

“Yeah?”

“Are we doing the right thing? To Mom, I mean.”

“Are you having second thoughts? Because we can put a stop to it. All you have to do is say so.”

She shook her head. “No. This is the right thing. You and Mom belong together.”

Rick leaned back against the seat. “I’ve always thought so.” He turned so that Kayla could see his eyes, could read the honesty in them. “I love your mom, Kay. I never stopped.”

Kay’s eyes brimmed with tears. At that moment she looked so much like her mother it was uncanny. They both wore their emotions on their faces.

“I know you do, Dad. That’s why I think this is the right thing. Sneaky,” she said, letting that characteristic Kayla-giggle slip in, “but it’s the only way to shock her into facing reality.”

“I don’t know about that. You and Connie are more devious than me. I prefer the direct approach.”

“Oh, come on. You know our idea has merit. You, Mom, stuck together for a week in a tropical paradise. It’s your chance to talk to her, to convince her the two of you should try again.”

“She’ll be pissed.” And he wouldn’t put it past her to hop right back on the plane and fly home.

Kayla shrugged. “She’ll get over it. Who could resist the lure of the Caribbean? Warm sand, tropical breezes, all that hot sex…”

“Kayla,” he warned, wondering when his baby girl had grown up and become a woman of the world.

“Dad,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re both consenting adults. Even if the thought of you two…doing it…makes me want to hurl.” She let her tongue unfurl and hang out her mouth, making the icky face that made him laugh.

“Gee. Thanks. That’s so romantic.”

She snorted. “I gotta go. Hopefully Connie is twisting her arm as we speak. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, see if Connie managed to convince her.”

She leaned across the car and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Love you, Dad.”

“Love you, too, Kay.”

And in a flash, she was gone, swallowed up by the hordes of other graduates spending the night at the graduation lockup party in the high school gym. Which meant fun, games, all the food they could consume, and they’d be safe.

As he drove away, he found it hard to comprehend he was the father of a high school graduate. No, a soon-to-be college freshman. Jesus, when had he gotten old?

Fuck that. He wasn’t old. Neither was Lisa. Their lives were just beginning. And if everything worked out in the Caribbean, they’d have their second chance.

Hell of a plan. Of course, to Kayla it was all so simple. Lie to Lisa, convince her to go to the Caribbean for a vacation, but have Rick show up there instead. Then spend time together and try to recapture the magic they’d once had when they were younger.

Was that even possible? They were different people now. When
they first fell in love, they were both teenagers. They’d lived a lifetime since then, had raised a daughter. They had careers, separate lives. Yet they were never really separate, were they?

He knew Connie, knew she’d be able to talk Lisa into going on this trip. Of course, Connie wouldn’t be the one accompanying her. Rick would be going. And he owed the entire devious plan to his daughter, who thought her parents should finally consummate the passion that had always flamed between them.

She was right. There had always been fire between Lisa and him. There’d been sparks from the time he met her, even when Lisa was fourteen, when he’d known better than to touch her. But even then it had been damned hard to resist the attraction. They’d waited two years before falling into bed together. And they’d been careful, as careful as they could be when desire consumed them. But condoms weren’t the best birth control method, and when Lisa, at sixteen years old, got pregnant, they’d gotten married. They’d been in love. It had been tough. Goddamn, it had been tough. Barely twenty and struggling to work full-time and juggle college part-time, he’d suddenly also had to deal with a pregnant teenaged wife.

A wife he’d adored.

And when Kayla had been born, he’d hung the moon on his daughter. She’d been perfect, and he and Lisa had given up everything for her, determined that she’d never pay for their mistakes. But they were barely adults, didn’t know how to really love each other. Tensions had mounted as high as their bills. They were drowning. Eventually Lisa had to move back home with her parents, taking Kayla with her.

Rick hated failure, but even he had to admit that separating had been the best thing for all of them, had eased the tension between them. By the time Kayla was three, they’d known divorce was inevitable. They’d realized they weren’t ready to face an adult relationship, even though they still loved each other. They sacrificed each other to do what was right for Kayla, before they ended up tearing each other apart and Kayla in the process.

Divorcing had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. But he’d vowed never to let either of them go. He was responsible for his
child and the woman he’d vowed to love forever. He’d worked his way through college, gotten his degree, and when he’d finally gotten back on his feet, bought a house for Lisa and Kayla. Lisa hadn’t wanted it, of course, but Rick said a house was a good place for Kayla to grow up, much better than an apartment. By then Lisa was going to nursing school, and eventually Rick bought a house nearby so he could help watch Kay while Lisa was in school. When Lisa graduated and started making decent money of her own, she took over the payments of her own house. It was important to her to stand on her own two feet and not depend on Rick for everything. It was one of the things he admired most about her.

Over the years they’d developed a perfect relationship, relying on each other, as close to a real family as you could get. Kayla was secure and loved by both her parents, and Rick and Lisa settled into a cozy, comfortable relationship.

A relationship that had no passion.

It suited both of them fine for a long time, while they nurtured Kayla and built their careers. They both dated other people here and there, but it seemed like neither one of them wanted to bring another person into the family relationship they had built among the three of them. Lisa hadn’t moved on. Neither had he. It always seemed to Rick as if he and Lisa were both waiting for the time when they could be together again, only neither of them had ever mentioned it. It was like a tenuous, invisible thread between them, and both of them were afraid to do anything to break it. Even if it meant they’d do nothing at all.

No more waiting. That time was now. If they got there and she said no, then that would be it. He’d walk away with no regrets. But he’d regret it forever if he didn’t at least try to win back the woman he’d loved almost half his life.

Lisa avoided pressing her nose to the tiny window of the small two-engine plane that swooped and rolled on its way to landing at the tiny island of Saint Thomas. It was difficult, though. Butterflies the size of Tyrannosaurus rex stomped around in her stomach. She was so damned excited she wanted to leap out of the plane so she could get there faster.

The Virgin Islands. The Caribbean. She was almost there. She wished Connie could have traveled with her so she could share in the excitement, but the travel agent had to book them on separate flights. Since they had to schedule at the last minute, seats were at a premium, so Connie would be flying in later today. Lisa was fine with that. She was almost there, and that’s what counted.

The previous few weeks had passed in a blur of activity. Shopping for the trip, making travel arrangements, and seeing Kayla off on her own trip, though fortunately those details had already been dealt with months ago, clearing the way for Lisa to concentrate on her own travel plans. Kayla and Connie had insisted on dragging her shopping to buy new clothes. Her suitcase was now filled with sundresses, sandals, swimsuits, and just about anything and everything she could possibly need for this vacation. And would probably never wear again. Scandalous, sexy wear, including stuff for the evenings. And the lingerie? What were her daughter and best friend thinking? It wasn’t like she was going to be parading around half-naked for a bevy of men every night.

But at least when she looked in the mirror of her hotel room, she’d make herself blush.

Connie had insisted she go to the salon and get her hair cut and put some highlights in it. More tropical, she’d claimed. Whatever.
Brown was brown. Her hair was brown, her eyes were brown, and she was pretty much average looking. But Connie and Kayla had so much fun doing her makeover that she went along with it. Now she had chin-length hair with subtle highlights that brought out her natural auburn, and even Lisa had to admit it looked pretty darned good. The new makeup was nice, too. Restrained, but sexy. She was ready for…