Love Under Two Kendalls Part 8

Rarely did Adam give in to the restlessness that sometimes plagued him. When he'd been younger, he'd roamed. He'd gone to college in Waco, as a lot of his cousins had done. But then he'd spent a couple of years just seeing what was out there. He'd spent time in Maine and Alaska-both unlikely destinations for a bred-and-born Texan. But he'd had a thirst for discovery, and nothing to tie him to home.

In this he and Jake were like souls. Jake had done his share of wandering, as well, and had been less eager to return to the bosom of his family than had Adam.

Adam had happily come home to l.u.s.ty, of course, because it was home. It had been his center all along, and until now he couldn't imagine himself living anywhere else.

But things had changed. Now Ginny was his home, and he knew he'd happily go wherever she wanted to live.

He knew Jake well enough to know his brother felt the same way.

The sun awoke, glistening on the ocean. From his position on the deck, he could see two lone souls walking the beach. As he relaxed against one of the deck posts and sipped his coffee, a jeep drove into sight, slowly making its way along the sand, driving north to south.

He was glad to see the borough police patrolling the area. If they were going to stay much more than a few days, it likely would be wise to pay them a visit. Then he thought of Maggie, and the very possible fact that Deke Walters knew about the woman. If that b.a.s.t.a.r.d couldn't find Ginny, would he recall her only relative? Would he be frustrated enough to reach out this far? Adam didn't really think so, but he wouldn't take that chance.

Movement behind him told him Jake was awake. Just as he'd left the door to their room open when he'd stepped outside, they'd left the doors between their room and Ginny's open, too. As he himself had done, he watched Jake go through that door. He'd check on their family, just as Adam had done, before pouring himself a cup of coffee.

When Jake came back into view, Adam met his gaze and Jake nodded.

Adam had been shaken to his core last night. He'd known their woman wasn't very experienced, s.e.xually. But he never would have guessed the depth of her innocence.

She'd fallen asleep between them on the sofa, and it had been an internal battle for both of them to tuck her into her own bed, instead of one of theirs.

Chivalry was h.e.l.l.

"They're facing each other, with almost identical expressions of peace on their faces. They look cute as h.e.l.l." Jake joined him at the deck railing, mug of coffee in hand.

"I'll take a walk in a few so I can check in with Jasper." Adam didn't want Ginny to overhear him. Not that he intended to keep any details from her. He just didn't want to take her out of her vacation mode first thing in the morning. They were half a continent away from that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Walters and the trouble he represented. Adam wanted to keep things that way for a while, at least.

"While you're out you might go hunting for a grocery store."

"Good idea. It would be nice to be able to make them both breakfast."

"It would. I find the air here has increased my appet.i.te."

Adam chuckled. "For food, too?" He caught Jake's quick grin in his peripheral.

"After you come back, I'll take a walk. Check in with Melvin. I want to ask him to reach out to any colleague he may have in this area. When we leave, I don't want to leave Maggie unprotected. Just in case."

"I was thinking the same thing." Adam would never take for granted the close bond he shared with Jake. He recalled some of the talks they'd had with their fathers, about what it meant to be a man in l.u.s.ty. He guessed this was just the sort of situation that menage relations.h.i.+ps were tailor-made for. Even though he and Jake usually thought along identical lines, it helped sharing the responsibility of protecting their family. Two brains were better than one.

Between them they should be able to cover all the bases.

"Of course you were." Jake turned his back on the ocean and leaned against the deck rail. "If she decides she doesn't want to go back to Texas, I'm fine with that. I could handle the Trust from anywhere until we get one of the cousins to take it over."

Adam opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. He'd heard a step inside. Turning, he smiled when he saw Ginny, looking warm and sleep rumpled, headed their way.

"Good morning, baby." He opened his arms, and she walked into them. He hugged her, inhaling her scent. His c.o.c.k began to harden, and he used every bit of his control to prevent it from poking at her.

When she lifted her face, he kissed her, a soft good-morning kiss, a down payment on more intimacies to come. She eased back, and he released her, pleased when she reached for Jake and gave him an identical greeting.

"I fell asleep on the sofa between you last night, didn't I?"

"Mmm, yes, you did. Not ten minutes into the movie." Adam had felt her drop off. A few minutes after they'd come in from the deck, she'd gone into her room to change into something more comfortable and had come back in her cotton nightgown and robe and announced she wanted to watch television.

They'd found a movie channel, one playing a cla.s.sic movie from the fifties, and had settled down to enjoy it.

Ginny hadn't even made it to the first commercial.

"And you tucked me in. Just like you did Benny."

Adam laughed. "Oh, no, baby. Not at all in the same way we tucked in our boy."

"Someday we'll figure out a way to let you know just how much willpower it took for us to see you safely into your own bed last night," Jake said.

"I look forward to it."

He saw enough heat in Ginny's eyes to understand that, as much as he and Jake wanted her, she wanted them, too.

That was a fine beginning, all things considered.

"I said you were a lucky woman. I think I'll say it again, and mean it this time."

Ginny looked up over her shoulder and smiled at Maggie. "You didn't mean it the first time?"

"Well, I did, but for a totally different reason." She gestured to the edge of the water, and the three males playing with a Frisbee in the sand. "Everything I've ever heard had me believing that men generally don't care for other men's children. But those two big, burly men love your son, and he loves them right back."

Ginny turned to look at the way the three of them played together. It struck her as a little odd that Maggie had been able to see, straight off, what had taken her a long time to admit to herself.

"Yes." Ginny shook her head slowly. "They do love Benny, and they're his heroes. I am lucky, aren't I? I never could have imagined them, you know?"

"Because there are two of them?"

"No, because until I met them, people had only ever been indifferent to me, or they were just interested in their own selves. When you're young, and single, and you have a child, most folks write you off as trash." Ginny shook her head. "That sounds cynical, and I hate that, but that was my reality. And then I landed in l.u.s.ty, Texas, and everything changed for me."

Maggie sat down next to her on the blanket. "I'm going to have to visit this l.u.s.ty, Texas of yours."

"It's a good place."

"I know you're likely going back there soon. And that's all right. I think l.u.s.ty is your place."

Ginny turned to Maggie, but didn't really know what to say to her. Nothing in her life to date had taught her how to have a friend who was also a relative.

She thought of all the women she knew in l.u.s.ty. They were friends and related in so many ways it plum made her head spin.

Then she noticed a look of longing in her aunt's eyes. "Is Wildwood your place?"

"I'm not sure. It's always been my home. I was born here, went to school here. My mother is buried here."

"You have the inn," Ginny said. "You've made a place, and a life, with your own brain and your own two hands. That's something to be proud of. I always worked and paid my way. But I never had a mind to have a business, to create something like that-to make my own place."

"That's not true. You've made a home for Benny. He's happy, polite, and smart, and that's because of you. From where I'm sitting, that's a h.e.l.l of a lot more important, and more vital, than owing an aging inn."

Ginny thought about Maggie's words hours later. The day had become very mild. After a picnic lunch enjoyed on the beach, and even more rambunctious play including a long walk, Benny was having an afternoon nap. He'd fallen asleep on one of the two blankets Ginny had laid out on the sand for them. A little astounded she wasn't snuggled up beside her son-the ocean air really was getting to her, too-she instead found herself leaning back against Jake, with Adam close beside her.

A few other folks had taken advantage of the bright suns.h.i.+ne and warm temperatures to enjoy the sand and surf. No one swam. It was still too cool for that even, Maggie had said, by New Jersey standards. But people sat in beach chairs with their sun umbrellas, reading, or just enjoying the view.

Ginny loved the peace of this moment. She didn't feel she had to do anything or be anything. She loved just sharing the sound of the surf with Adam and Jake.

"Oh." She'd looked up, out to sea. The sight of a large white s.h.i.+p, slowly sailing past, caught her attention.

Adam and Jake both looked to see what had snagged her interest.

"It's a cruise s.h.i.+p," Jake said.

"I know. Isn't it pretty?" She sighed in appreciation of the sight. "When I was younger, I'd see commercials on television, advertising a cruise vacation." She grinned. "To me, all the people they showed having such a wonderful time, eating, dancing, going to shows-they all looked like royalty. I used to tell myself that I might be just a foster kid, but someday, I'd go on a cruise and be somebody." Ginny laughed. "It's funny, isn't it, the things you think about when you're a kid? Boy howdy, I don't even know if I'd like sailing or not."

"But that's the joy of childhood, isn't it?" Jake asked. "You can be whatever and whoever you want, and reality be d.a.m.ned."

"Yeah." Ginny sat and watched the big white vessel move along the horizon. "I haven't thought of that in years."

The silence stretched out, a nice silence on a nice sunny day.

"Will you tell us about Benny's father?" Adam asked.

She thought back, first over the last few months when her life had become so much more than it had ever been. She'd known the brothers Kendall for more than six months, and while she'd been aware of the chemistry between them-and knew they had, too-they'd given her s.p.a.ce. They hadn't asked anything of her, not even the most basic information.

In the beginning, she hadn't wanted to give anything away. Because I was healing. Now, she wanted to share everything.

"His name is Troy Cochrane. He was some years older than me. I met him at the library, of all places." She inhaled deeply. "I left my last foster home when I was sixteen, and lied about my age to get a job cleaning. The work was mostly at nights-I was with a company that did office buildings. So early mornings were my time. My apartment was too tiny and boring to stay in, but the library, now there was a place of possibilities."

"I've noticed you have a lot of books at home," Jake said.

"I'd planned to put myself through college, as soon as I figured out what I wanted to be. In the meantime, I read. Anything and everything, but mostly what's known as cla.s.sic literature. Do you know that life is pretty much the same in some ways now as it was one hundred, two hundred years ago?"

"I guess people, at their core, don't change much," Adam said.

"Exactly." Though she didn't often waste her time thinking about what was, or what might have been, for Adam and Jake she let herself go back to that warm spring day.

"I met Troy at the library. I'd seen him there, off and on. He was handsome, well dressed, and he seemed studious. We chatted, a little here, a little there. He'd bring me coffee and we'd go for walks. We'd meet at parks or the mall, and just talk. I've always been more than a little shy. I was placed into foster care after I was taken from my mother when I was ten. Growing up as I did, with so many different homes, didn't make me very self-confident." She shrugged. Jake had begun rubbing her arms, and Adam had taken her hand in his. She'd been so alone then, but wasn't alone now.

"I was eighteen and lonely, and naive, and I never questioned why we didn't go on regular dates, or why we never went to his place. He paid attention to me, and I fell for that. I fell for him."

"Sounds to me as if the b.a.s.t.a.r.d set out to make you fall for him," Adam said. "Don't blame the teenager you were for that, baby." Adam brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it.

Just that simple gesture eased her tension and helped her to set everything into perspective. She'd always blamed herself for somehow not knowing that Troy was a louse. But how could she have known, really?

"I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant. Troy wasn't excited, he was mad as h.e.l.l-especially when I refused to get an abortion. It turned out he was already married, with two kids, and had no intention of leaving his wife, or even acknowledging the child I carried inside me as his." Ginny inhaled deeply. "After Benny was born, I contacted him, to tell him he had a son-well, maybe that was another naive mistake on my part. But I felt it was only right to give him one final chance. He never wanted anything to do with Benny, and threatened to have me arrested if I ever called him again."

"You and Benny are both better off without him," Jake said.

"You certainly are. You gave Benny your name-and all of your focus. You've nothing to be ashamed of, baby. You're one h.e.l.l of a good mother."

"Thank you." Ginny looked over at Benny. Oh, she likely would have to start calling him "Ben" in another year or so. She knew the days of open hugs and pet names would be over long before she was ready for them to be.

She loved the compliments on the job she was doing as a mother under any circ.u.mstance. But knowing these men valued that in her made her feel particularly good about herself.

"Is your mom the reason you don't drink?" Adam asked.

It shouldn't shock her that both Adam and Jake could see beyond the walls she'd erected. They really did pay attention to her. Jake had said she was the most important person in their lives. A part of her, that cynical part, whispered "for now." She didn't think, after the life she'd led, that there would be any hope left inside of her. Yet as she sat on this blanket on a beach far from home, she knew the truth. Because of these two men, hope was exactly what was blooming inside her.

She still didn't know if she could satisfy them at all, either s.e.xually or for the long haul. She didn't know how much of her heart she really had left to give. But there were things she could give to them, and one of those things was honesty.

"I've only ever had close personal contact with two people who drank heavily, and neither one of them was worth a good d.a.m.n."

"You don't buy that 'hate the sin, love the sinner' philosophy?" Adam asked.

"Maybe for some. But for others, no. My mother had a choice when my daddy left her, and in a lot of ways it was the same choice I had when Troy told me to go to h.e.l.l. She chose alcohol, drugs, and other men. When children's services took me away from her, they offered her help. They offered to put her into rehab, so she could get clean and sober and be a mother to me. They laid it all out for her. Rehab, a place to live, training, and a job. My G.o.d, what more could anyone ask?" Ginny had to take a deep breath. All these years later, the wound of her mother's betrayal still hurt. "Earline Rose chose to say 'no thanks' and abandon me so that she could continue on in her selfish ways. Maybe there'll come a day when I can forgive her for that-for choosing herself over her responsibilities as a mother. But I'm not holding my breath any."

"Honey, you're not afraid of becoming like her, are you?" Jake's question, sounding quiet and incredulous, was final proof that these men saw deeper into her than anyone ever had.

In response, she shrugged. "There's always been that fear, right from the moment Troy Cochrane walked away from me, because I was scared, and alone, and had no idea what I would do next."

"My G.o.d." Adam ran a hand down her head, and then turned her face toward him. "Leaving Benny with Kelsey must have torn you up inside."

"When I awoke the next morning, the pain of the rape and the welts he'd given me the night before was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. Because in that moment I knew that whether I'd been motivated by selflessness or selfishness, my son was with strangers, without me. I'd ended up doing the same thing she had done, and that knowledge was enough to make me come to my senses and do what I needed to do."

"You're wrong, baby. What you did was not the same thing. Yes, you left your son with strangers. But you'd planned to leave that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, and knew the only chance you and Benny had was if you left him the way you did, with Benny protected and cared for first." Adam reached over and wiped the tears she couldn't control. "You were in an untenable position, alone, with no one to turn to. But Ginny? I believe with all my heart that things work out the way they're meant to be, in the end."

"d.a.m.n straight. All that happened so that you would wind up in l.u.s.ty just when you did. And there's one more thing, honey, and it's the biggest thing of all."

"What's that?" How could she ever have imagined there would be men who would build her up instead of tearing her down? How could she have gotten so lucky to have found them?

"You're not alone anymore." Adam leaned over and kissed her very lightly, almost, she thought, reverently. "No matter what happens between the three of us, you've become a part of l.u.s.ty. You'll never be alone again."

She thought of the place she'd come to and the people she'd met. She thought of all the relations.h.i.+ps she'd formed, and the way an entire town had not only taken her son into their hearts, but her, too. No one had ever made her feel anything but welcome, even knowing, as they did, her situation when she'd arrived.

l.u.s.ty had become home to her, the first real home she'd ever had. Deep inside where she'd been broken for so long, she felt an almost giddy lightness, and a warmth that she instinctively recognized as the mending of her soul. Maggie was right. l.u.s.ty was her place.

"Do you know what I want more than anything right now?" She heard the wistfulness in her tone, and didn't care. Why, Virginia Earline Rose, you're homesick.

"What, baby? Name it, and it's yours."

"I want us to all go home."