“No. You loving me and me loving you won’t make it okay. We still have to put our kids first. They think they’re in love, too, and we can’t downplay their feelings just because we’ve discovered ours. Just think of how it will look. The father loves the mother and the daughter loves the son. How dysfunctional can that be?”
His frown deepened. “So what are you suggesting? That we wait to see what becomes of our kids’ romance before seeking our own? Well, I don’t plan to do that. If you love me, and I mean truly love me, you’ll know that we’ll work things out together. But you have to be willing to step out on love and believe it.”
She bowed her head and took a deep breath and then she looked back at him. “No, it won’t work, Chance. Please try to understand. There are times in life when sacrifices have to be made.”
“Well, if you’re willing to let your love for me be the sacrificial lamb then it must not be the real thing, Kylie, because I can’t think of anything that will ever stop me from loving you and wanting a committed relationship with you.”
Without saying anything else he walked out of the room, and moments later Kylie heard the door slam shut behind him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“MOM?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
Kylie pulled two bottles of apple juice out of the refrigerator before turning to her daughter. “I’m okay, sweetheart. What makes you think I’m not?”
Tiffany lifted one shoulder in a dainty shrug. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. Every since you picked me up from the airport yesterday you’ve been quiet.”
“Well, I guess I have a lot on my mind, but I’m okay.”
“Why are you still wearing that scarf? You usually don’t wear scarves.”
Kylie’s hand automatically went to the scarf around her neck, the one she was wearing to hide the two hickeys that Chance had placed there. “My throat had gotten sort of scratchy with the changing of the weather, I guess. I thought I’d take all precautions. The last thing I need to catch is a cold.”
“But you’re wearing it in the house.”
Kylie gave Tiffany a pointed look. “I’m aware of where I am Tiffany. Is wearing a scarf in the house a crime?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Okay, then.”
The kitchen got silent and Kylie regretted having gotten upset with Tiffany when she was only showing her concern. With a mantle of guilt on her shoulders, Kylie crossed the room and sat down at the table opposite her daughter. “Hey, how about you and I go to a movie this weekend?” she asked, trying to reclaim the easy camaraderie they’d started recently, at least before this past weekend.
Tiffany smiled. “Oh, that’ll be neat. Will it be okay to invite Marcus and his dad?”
Kylie’s body tensed with her daughter’s question. The last person she wanted to be around this weekend was Chance. “I was hoping we could make it a girls’ thing. We could even invite Lena to come with us.”
“That sounds like fun, Mom, but I was hoping I could get to see Marcus this weekend.”
“Didn’t you see him at school today?”
“Yes.”
“And won’t you see him again tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“And the next day and the day after?”
“Yes, Mom, but you and Mr. Steele promised that we could have supervised outings and it’s been almost three weeks since we went camping.”
Kylie sighed. A part of her regretted having made that promise but at the time both she and Chance had known it was the best thing to keep the budding romance between their offspring under control. “Okay, then I’ll take the both of you. There’s no need to bother Chance this weekend and—”
“Mom, if you take us, it’ll seem as if you’re babysitting us. If both you and Mr. Steele go then it will be a foursome and it won’t be so obvious that you’re there to spy on us.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. “I’d be there as a chaperone, Tiffany.”
“Same difference.”