The Time in Between by Kristen Ashley
He forced his body to move and looked at her.
Kim took in his face.
Then on a wry grin, she said, “Let me guess. Cady’s recipe.”
It wasn’t, exactly.
It was their recipe.
Something he made every Christmas since that first, he thought, because he was a moron and he was torturing himself. Now he knew it was to spend time with Cady even if he didn’t have her. But regardless, since Janie had been born and could chew real food, it had taken on another meaning as it was her favorite breakfast.
“Kim,” he said softly.
She shrugged. “I promise I’m not lying when I say that it’s good to have the blanks filled in. And just to say, Coert, I thought that French toast came from Darcy. You’re a man who can cook but you’re no Emeril, and you never failed to make a face when I had Food Network on. So I always figured they came from somewhere and that somewhere had girl parts.”
“Some were Darcy’s too,” he told her carefully.
She tipped her head to the side and righted it in a nonverbal, So?
He quirked his lips at her. “And now I got some of yours as well.”
“You can make my inside-out burgers for her,” Kim declared.
Coert didn’t know how to take that until she finished, her eyes lighting.
“But don’t tell her they aren’t mine like I didn’t want you to know they aren’t mine. They’re Guy Fieri’s.”
“Crushed to know that, Kim,” he teased.
Her eyes stayed lit. “Always your favorites.”
“Just to say, I didn’t make a face when ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ was on. Now I know why.”
She laughed.
“Cinnamon, caramel French toast?” he asked quietly.
“Absolutely,” she said firmly.
He studied her, totally having a lock on how he felt about how hard she was trying to put things right between them.
And she should know it.
“You can’t know how much it means to me, you being this cool,” he told her, still going quiet.
“And you can’t know how happy I am that you’re happy, Coert. You’re a tough guy but you also can’t hide you’re a sensitive guy, so I’m guessing you’re sensing that this isn’t quite easy. But that doesn’t make what I said less true.”
“You got my gratitude for it, Kim.”
“Anyway,” she turned to a cupboard to pull down a bowl, “I’ll one day find another hot guy and make him cinnamon, caramel French toast and claim it all for my own.”
Coert burst out laughing.
She shot a big smile at him over her shoulder.
“What’s funny?” Janie shouted, coming to a skidding stop on Kim’s floors, mermaid tail gone (unfortunately, his girl couldn’t swim up the stairs), now only wearing her thick purple socks and pink jammies with dancing snowmen on them.
“Your momma, cupcake,” Coert replied. “Now come over here and help me make French toast while your mom makes you cocoa.”
“’Kay!” she cried and dashed to him.
They made a mess of Kim’s kitchen.
Later, they helped her clean up.
Kath
“Jesus, is she gonna come out of her skin?”
Kath turned from the sink where she was tidying up some Christmas dinner prep utensils to her husband who’d come up at her side.
They’d done presents and breakfast all gathered around the tree in Cady’s living room at the lighthouse.
Now all the kids were scattered to the winds.
But the women and men were at the studio where they’d pulled back the furniture in the living room, put in some sawhorses and topped them with plywood Elijah had procured for them. They’d topped that with tablecloths and covered it with the stoneware and glassware from two different houses. This was so they could all have Christmas dinner together by the glow of the tree Cady and Elijah had put up before they’d arrived.
Cady’s friends Walt and Amanda had brought over folding chairs on Christmas Eve’s eve so they were all set, cooking Christmas dinner for fifteen in two different kitchens.
Since dinner wasn’t until three and it was just past one, and the birds were in the oven, the prep work was just completed, Kath looked over her shoulder and saw Cady nervously readjusting the bright Christmas crackers that were on every plate.
This was, as far as Kath could count, the fourth time she’d done that in the last fifteen minutes.
And in the mere seconds that Kath watched her, Cady’s eyes went to the window at the back of the studio twice.
The window that faced the front of the property where the gate was.
Needless to say, Coert and Janie were going to arrive imminently.
“Did I do the right thing?” Pat asked under his breath.
Kath looked from her sister to her husband.
“Yes,” she answered.
“She’s a nervous wreck,” Pat muttered.
“She’s excited,” Kath returned.
He jerked his head behind him. “That’s not excitement. She’s freaking out.”
“She’s going to meet the love of her life’s daughter in T minus about two minutes.”
Or meet her again, this time (hopefully) without bursting into tears.
Pat glanced over his shoulder, whispering, “But she’s great with kids.”
“You know this is different,” Kath told him.
He looked to her. “How?”
Men.
Clueless.
“Okay, so if things go right this time, she’s gonna help raise that child, Kathy,” Pat stated. “But she’s done the same with seven of them. And she sees what they’ve become. She has to know she’s played a part in that.”
“Nothing can go wrong with this,” Kath shared.
“It won’t go wrong. She’s Cady. That little girl is gonna fall in love with her in about T minus two minutes,” Pat returned.
“Nothing can go wrong with this,” Kath repeated. “Because everything that was important went wrong before in a huge way so now they need everything, absolutely everything, Pat, but especially the important things, and this is the most important of all . . . they need them to go right.”
That got in there, Kath knew, because she saw the light dawn in her husband’s eyes.
Because he was clueless, but cute, and cuter since he was worried about Cady, she leaned up on her toes and touched her mouth to his.
As Pat was wont to do, the second she did, his arm curled around her to pull her closer.
Before she could return the favor, they both heard a strange noise come from the living room.
They looked there to see Cady running toward the front door, Shannon and Daly, in that room with her staring after her.
Kath and Pat moved to the opening to the living room to see Cady at the door, yanking on her coat, her dog dancing around her legs.
They felt Pam, who’d been working at the opposite counter, come up beside them just as Cady looked their way.
“He’s here,” she whispered, her face lit with a happiness so extreme, Kath actually had to blink against its brightness.
Then Cady was out the door, having closed it behind her, keeping Midnight in.
“Let out the dog, Pat,” Kath ordered.
“What?” Pat asked.
“We gotta let out Midnight,” Pam murmured, moving herself to do it and moving quickly.
Midnight danced around her, sensing she was going to get what she wanted, and when she got what she wanted, she raced out behind her momma.
Mike came in right after her, returning from taking out the trash, his face a scowl.
He knew Cady’s man was there.
Kath didn’t give that a second thought as they all moved to the window to see a big, silver Chevy Silverado parked at the edge of the garage beside one of their snow dusted Denalis, the tall, handsome Coert Yeager walking around the side toward the studio.
He was holding the hand of an adorable lit
The little girl was walking forward with her daddy but looking behind her at Corbin.
Until Midnight bounced through the snow excitedly, pausing only momentarily to sniff an approaching Cady as she passed her, and the little girl looked around.
And it was love at first sight.
Love at first sight for a little girl and a German shepherd who would be her dog and only hers for the rest of that dog’s life.
Kath knew this because Midnight knocked Coert’s little girl into the snow, and although Coert moved to separate them at first, they could hear her peals of laughter as Midnight danced around her, snuffling and giving her doggie kisses everywhere and Janie tried all she could to get her arms around the excited pup. Snow churned all around them and Corbin, Riley, Cady and Coert stood around watching dog and child disappear in clouds of white.
“Good call on Midnight,” Pat mumbled.
Kath chuckled.
“Christ, that dog’s gonna bury the kid,” Mike, joining them from behind, muttered.
Kath glanced up at her brother-in-law to see his eyes trained out the window.
His jaw was set hard and Kath glanced back to see Coert’s face had disappeared in Cady’s hair.
He was either talking in her ear or kissing her neck, Kath couldn’t tell.
But she could see Cady leaned against him, her arm around his waist, his around her shoulders, her head turned toward him, chin dipped down, but that was all she could see.
It didn’t matter. The way they were standing so naturally together in their casual embrace, that focus they had on each other, it spoke volumes.
“You’re not gonna be a dick.”
Kath turned from her awesome view when she heard her husband order this firmly in the big brother voice he had not broken himself from using even if he was fifty-three and his brothers were closing in on that number right behind him.
“Pat,” Kath warned.
“I’m not gonna be a dick,” Mike spat.
“Mike,” Pam warned.
“Oh my God! Do you see the cuteness outside?” Shannon cried from her place probably at the window in the living room.
She dashed into the kitchen to join them.
Daly followed his wife more sedately.
All eyes went back to the window to see Coert was now hunkered low, righting a snow-covered, still clearly giggling Janie while Cady was squatted down too, trying to hold back a still licking and snuffling, snow covered Midnight.
“Okay, goin’ on record that that dude has got it going on,” Daly noted. “Dogs, baby daughters, and all that’s happening, and in about thirty second he’s got time to make Cady’s face look like that? Shit. Boys, we may need lessons.”
“You do all right,” Shannon told him.
“Thanks, darlin’,” Daly replied. “But ‘all right’ isn’t exactly a crowning achievement.”
Shannon giggled.
With Shannon and Daly joining them, they crowded closer together around the window and watched as Coert dusted the snow off his daughter and Midnight started licking Cady, with Janie smiling at Cady before Midnight’s excitement got the better of Cady and she landed on her ass in the snow with Midnight snuffling her.
Riley and Corbin waded in, as did Coert, the boys holding Midnight back and Coert pulling Cady out of the snow.
At this point, both Cady and Janie were giggling at each other.
“Christ, it’s like a Hallmark movie,” Mike muttered.
“Shut up, Mike,” Daly muttered back.
Kath felt Pam lean into her.
“I think it just got super dusty in here,” Pam whispered.
Kath felt her pain. What she was witnessing outside was suddenly wobbling.
Coert said something that made Corbin and Riley laugh, and Coert grinned at them and clapped Riley on the back.
Riley, head tilted back staring up at the handsome sheriff, slid visibly right into hero worship.
Cady reached out her hand to Janie, and Janie hesitated not one second to take it.
Shannon sniffled.
Kath felt her husband’s arm slide around her waist and then she felt her side pulled tight into his front.
“You women better get your shit together. That little girl walks in and you’re all bawling, this good start is gonna go up in smoke,” Mike warned.
“Shut up, Mike,” Daly repeated.
Kath stopped watching Cady and Janie, hand in hand, Janie’s head tipped way back, her mouth not stopping moving, Cady’s chin dipped down, her eyes locked to the girl, a smile radiant on her face, walk toward the studio with the males following them, and she looked at her husband.
“You did the right thing,” she whispered.
That time, it was Pat that bent to touch his mouth to his wife’s.
When her husband pulled away, his eyes slid to his brother. “And you’re not gonna be a dick,” he repeated his warning.
“I’m about to be a dick by punching you in the sternum,” Mike retorted.
“Oh, great, you two in a fistfight when Cady’s hot guy and his daughter walk through the door,” Pam said sarcastically. “Perfect.”
Mike turned to his wife. “That guy’s not hot. He looks like every cop out there.”
“If that’s true, then I should have married into law enforcement, not heating and air conditioning,” Pam shot back.
Mike scowled.
“You’re not helping,” Shannon told Pam.
The door opened, they heard a dog woof and Melanie’s excited voice, “Santa came here for you too!”
“Really?” a child’s voice came at them, sounding excited and amazed.
“Yeah! The presents are under that tree,” Melanie replied as the men and women moved as one from window to the large opening to the living room.
Cady’s eyes were riveted to Janie.
Coert’s eyes immediately turned to the adults.
Janie’s eyes went to her dad.
“Can I open them, Daddy?”
Coert looked to his girl. “In a minute, cupcake. How ’bout we meet the rest of Cady’s family first, yeah?” he asked.
Oh man.
He called his cupcake-loving daughter “cupcake.”
How cute was that!
“Yeah!” Janie cried then rounded a mittened hand to the room at large. “Hi! I’m Janie!”
Kath moved forward. “Hey, Janie. I’m Kathy.”
“Aunt Kathy, Janie,” Coert murmured.
His daughter’s eyes got huge. “Aunt Kathy?”
“This is Cady’s sister,” Coert explained.
“Oh,” Janie breathed, almost preternaturally adorable with her eyes that wide.
“And I’m Uncle Pat, I guess,” Pat said, coming to stand by Kath’s side. “And that’s Uncle Mike, Aunt Pam, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Daly,” he introduced, indicating each in turn.
Janie looked through them all and then tipped her head way back to look up at Cady. “You have a super big family. Like my mommy.”
“Yes I do, sweetheart,” Cady murmured.
“Let’s get your coat off, baby,” Coert said, hunkering down next to his daughter to help her off with her coat.
After Coert extricated his girl from her gear, more introductions ensued for Janie with Cady introducing the kids, who’d all crowded in, and Coert coming forward to shake hands with the adults.
Mike wasn’t a dick.
But he wasn’t overtly welcoming.
Pat made up for it. “We’re real pleased you guys could come.”
“Thanks,” Coert replied. “We’re real pleased to be invited.”
The men locked eyes.
Something passed between them that, having a vagina, Kath would never understand, and age and the wisdom you got from it taught her years ago n
But it was Christmas. There were still gifts to be unwrapped, then cleanup to happen, food to prepare, more cleanup to endure and breakdown of the table before they could all pass out from their food comas scattered between two homes and the RV parked behind the garage that Mike and Pam had rented so they’d have more room to hang or sleep and they could all be together doing it.
So Kath announced, “Right. Santa did show here last night for one Janie Yeager and he told us we were to be sure you didn’t miss a present. So Melanie, how about you find the presents for Janie and Coert under the tree and we’ll get that sorted before we dive into cooking.”
“Daddy got presents from Santa too?” Janie breathed.
“Santa knows everybody’s a kid at heart, Janie,” Cady told her, and Janie’s dazed eyes drifted to Cady. “He always leaves something special under our tree for everyone.”
Janie looked back at her dad. “Can we have presents here every year?”
Cady’s eyes flew to Coert.
With his attention on his daughter, Coert’s handsome face went so soft, for the first time (except when she met George Clooney watching the premiere of ER), Kath questioned her commitment to Pat.
“Do not even go there,” Pat’s lips said at her ear.
She turned and grinned at him.
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
“How about we let Cady get her coat off and you settle in with everyone and Midnight for a few minutes? I gotta talk real quick to Cady’s brothers,” Coert told her.
“Oh shit,” Daly muttered from behind Kath.
Coert looked their way. “Can I have a minute, men?”
“Sure,” Pat said immediately, moving toward the hall tree where there were stacks of jackets, mittens, hats, gloves and a tangle of boots around the floor.
“Of course,” Daly said.
Mike said nothing, just headed to his coat.
Cady looked searchingly at Coert.
“It’s cool,” he murmured, touching her hip with a gloved hand before turning toward the door.
The men went through it.
Kath saw Janie watching her father leaving.
She started to open her mouth, but Cady got there before her.
“Okay, you tussled in the snow with Midnight, let’s get you warmed up. You want some hot cider? Or cocoa? Or are you hungry? A little snack before dinner?”