25. Green Light

25

GREEN LIGHT

“ J umping you hadn’t been my intent when I asked if I could come over earlier,” he said when they were driving to her parents’ house.

“I know,” she said. “But we need to take advantage of things while we can.”

Michael hated it when she said things like that.

Not that he thought she was pining for more time with him. Just that it was a reminder that they didn’t have much time together.

He was hoping for that to change soon.

Ty was happy with Kelly. Said she was nice and he wouldn’t mind seeing her again.

That wasn’t a green light for Kelly to be there every night. Nor stay the night yet either.

But it was enough that he was hoping the three of them could spend some time together this weekend doing something fun.

The fact that his parents met Kelly and he was meeting her parents meant things were getting more serious. He was going to talk to her about it not being such a secret at work.

If they weren’t afraid of people finding things out, they could try for lunch now and again too. He could swing over to the pub to meet her. But to do that, they’d have to be out in the open.

“I’m trying,” he said. “Speaking of that…maybe if more people knew about us, we could go out more.”

“More people like who?” she asked.

Not what he wanted to hear. The hesitation in her voice.

“Do you want to keep this a secret?”

“No,” she said. She ran her hand on his thigh. “Don’t think that. Not for a minute. I’m just asking a question.”

“I thought if people at work knew we were dating then I could stop over to meet you. But if you’d rather not, that is fine too.”

She smiled at him. “Cade knows. When he comes back to work I expect him to say something to me. I’m assuming Alex knows by now.”

“She does,” he said. His cousin had brought it up briefly on the visit he had with Ty to see the baby, but nothing more.

“We can try getting it out there more,” she said. “I think Cade is coming in this week at some point.”

“He should be,” he said. “At least Alex said that when I talked to her last night. She shouldn’t be working, but you know she can’t step away.”

“I’ve talked to Cade a few times, but it’s only been about work and in an email or text.”

“Let’s see if we can do something with Ty this weekend if you’re willing. Then go from there. I’m not saying we have to make this big announcement to anyone.”

She laughed. “Once Jolene finds out, everyone will know. It will be for the best I think. She’ll try to get in the middle of it. Are you sure you’re ready for that?”

“She won’t bug me,” he said. “She might bug you. So that is a question I think needs to be addressed from your end.”

“I’ll be fine. Cade will interfere or Ella will. I’m not worried. I can hold my own. This is between us and no one else. I don’t want people getting in the middle of us. Our timeline is ours and no one else’s. There are more important things we need to focus on.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Like making sure Ty is comfortable with it all. I’m not going to start coming over all the time. Nor staying there. It has to happen organically so that it feels as if he has some say or is part of it.”

“And that is why it’s so easy to love you,” he said.

“You know, Michael, you’re a sweetheart.”

“I’m not sure too many people have ever said that to me before,” he said.

“Because you didn’t let them see it.”

“They weren’t the right people or it wasn’t the right time,” he said. “I don’t know the answer to it and I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“No,” she said. “It doesn’t. You’re not nervous about meeting my parents like I was yours, are you?”

“Not really,” he said. “Do I need to be? You told me they know about Ty and the situation around it.”

He wasn’t sure of the exact details that Kelly shared with her parents about his relationship with Electra. He trusted her to be discreet. But there wasn’t much he could do about it either.

The facts were the facts and it was his life.

He liked to think he was handling it the best way he could.

“They know what they need to know,” she said. “My parents also know that you know about Brian. To them, that meant you were important to me. I don’t tell anyone about that.”

It made him feel good to hear that.

It didn’t take long to get to the house she grew up in.

“How close did Brian live to you?” he asked. He wasn’t sure why he thought of that just now, but since Kelly and Brian went to school together from the start, he had to live somewhat close he was assuming.

“About a mile away. I could walk over there a lot and did when we were younger. Or he walked here. Trust me, no one in his family is looking for the other now. They don’t talk to me.”

“Still to this day?” he asked.

“No. Things were said that were hurtful in the end. Things they did too. I know they were grieving. So was I. It was a bad situation and we’ve all moved on.”

He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that, but he wasn’t there and in his eyes, there wasn’t anything Kelly would have done or did that he’d been told for Brian’s parents to be upset with her.

It just had to be grief as she’d said.

They got out of his SUV and went to the front door, Kelly opening it and walking in.

The living room was to the side and her parents both stood up and walked toward him.

“Mom, Dad,” she said. “This is Michael Marshall. Michael, my father, Ken, and my mother, Lydia.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” he said.

“We’ve heard a lot about you,” Lydia said. “For years but didn’t put it all together.”

“Mom,” she said. “You shouldn’t tell him that. It might go to his head.”

“I’m kind of slow,” he said. “I admit it. I’m very thankful your daughter isn’t and made the first move.”

“She bet you,” Ken said. “We heard. Typical Kelly to get someone’s attention.”

“You’re making me sound needy now,” Kelly said. “Don’t do that to me.”

He saw her grin and knew she was busting on her parents. “Kelly is the least needy person I know. She’s wonderful. I mean it. I sound like a wuss and it’s not like me to say these things, but I’m lucky to have her in my life. Not many would put up with me.”

Ken’s smile dropped. “Why is that?”

“Stop, Dad,” Kelly said. “You know he’s a single father. I’ve told you all of this. Now that I’ve met Ty, I’m sure we’ll be doing some more things together when it’s right. I understand everything going on in Michael’s life. We’re in a good place.”

“Kelly has always been super understanding and it’s burned her more than once,” Lydia said.

There was a forced smile in place, but he heard the warning loud and clear.

“Kelly is a wonderful woman. The last thing I want to do is hurt her. She’s pretty outspoken. I hope if she feels neglected or hurt, she’ll voice that to me so that I can correct it.”

“See, Mom and Dad. What other guy would say that? And yes, I will tell you, Michael, and you know that. Nothing to tell you now. Maybe I like having time to myself. No one seems to think about that.”

He hadn’t either and wondered why that might be.

It’s not that he didn’t trust her, but did she not want to spend time with him?

And when did he feel this uncertain of anything in his life other than parenthood?

“Why don’t you have a seat,” Lydia said. “Can I get you a beer? You might need it, but I promise we might have gotten all the uncomfortable things out of the way. We love our daughter just as your parents love you. You know what it’s like being a parent. You only want your children happy.”

“I do know,” he said. “But I want my significant other to be happy too.”

“I think that is all we wanted to hear,” Ken said. “Are you a baseball fan?”

Michael felt as if that was the cue to end the relationship talks and things relaxed from that point on.

“I’m sorry my parents were rougher than yours were to me,” she said. “Maybe if you brought chocolate and beer that would have softened them.”

He laughed. “I should have done that. I didn’t think of it.”

“I’m only kidding,” she said. “They liked you. I know they did. I think they had to give you a hard time on principle, but they weren’t nearly as hard as I thought they might have been.”

“I don’t ever want you to feel as if you aren’t enough with me, Kelly. I mean that.”

They were sitting in the parking lot of her complex right now. He had to pick Ty up in twenty minutes and was just dropping her off.

She reached her hand over and threaded their fingers together. “Thank you for that. I think we all feel it at times in our lives. I’ll feel it with you and most times I’ll just brush it off. I want you to never feel it with me either, but something tells me that you won’t be that way.”

“You don’t know that,” he said.

“And I like that you’d admit that now too,” she said. She leaned in and kissed him. “Go get your son and we can talk later or talk tomorrow. Just remember I love you.”

“Love you too,” he said.

“It gets easier to say it after the first time, but don’t worry, I won’t make you say it all the time. I’m not that way either. When I say it I want to have a lot of meaning behind the words, not something said on auto.”

“I like that,” he said. “I feel the same way.”

She gave him one more kiss and hopped out and he went to get his son.

When he was knocking on Electra’s door, he looked at his watch and saw he was a few minutes early.

Ty opened the door. “Hi, Dad. Mom’s in the bathroom.”

“You’re not supposed to open the door,” he said.

“I knew it was you. Mom yelled from the bathroom for me to do it.”

He wouldn’t say anything about the door not being locked. “Let’s wait for your mother before we leave.”

The bathroom door opened. “I’m right here,” Electra said. “Just getting ready to go out.”

She was in a tight red dress that didn’t cover a whole hell of a lot of her body. Not his problem. Her hair was slicked back and there was a thick coating of makeup on her face.

He wouldn’t make one comment about it either.

“Say bye to your mom.”

Ty ran over and hugged Electra and then ran back to him. “Time to go.”

“Yep, we are out of here,” he said and went back to his SUV to get his kid home to something more stable.