Honor Unraveled (12 page)

“This is not normal. I’ve never done it before. I told you I didn’t feel good this morning.”

“Yes, you did. And now we see why.” He activated his comm unit. “Greer—”

“No! Don’t tell anyone about this!” Casey complained from behind the stall wall.

“Go, Kit,”
Greer answered.

“Send someone after Ivy. I need her back here ASAP.”

“Roger that. Everything okay?”

“Um. No. Yes. No. Just get her here.
Stat
.”
 

“Copy that.”

“Mom’ll be on her way back shortly,” he said to Casey, who was sitting on the toilet behind the door of one of the bathroom stalls. “I can go get Mrs. Jackson to help you.”

“No. No one. Only Mom.”

“Honey, let me take you up to your room. You can wait for Mom there.”

A commotion sounded outside the locker room door.
Shit
. He hoped the whole team didn’t pile in here. He heard muffled voices. He turned on a faucet, trying to drown out the noise they were making. He didn’t want Casey any more upset than she was already. He went to the door and cracked it open. Val and Kelan stood there.

“’S’goin’ on, Kit?” Val asked.

“Dad! No!”

Kit made a face. He was a man caught between a typhoon and a twister. If he didn’t tell the guys what was happening, they’d never leave it alone. And if he did tell them, Casey might never talk to him again. “Um. Nothing.”

“So…why did you need Ivy?” Kelan asked.

“It’s personal. It’s all good.” Kit sent a look back at Casey’s stall. “I think.” He stepped outside and pulled the door behind him. “She got her period.”

“Oh. Ohhh,” Kelan said, rocking back on the heels of his feet. “Yeah. Well, I’ll go keep an eye out for Ivy.” He pivoted and hurried to the door. Freaking coward.

Val laughed. “You need a hand?”

“What the fuck do I do?”

“Take her up to her room. She can’t be comfortable in there. Look, Kit, girls everywhere go through this. Don’t make a big deal about it.”

“Yeah, but it’s a fuckload of blood.”

“Give her a washcloth to clean herself up with, put her in a robe, then carry her out of there. I’ll go clear the way so you don’t run into anyone.”

“Okay. Good. Yeah. We’ll do that.” He reached out, setting a hand on Val’s shoulder before he could turn away. “Thanks, man.”

“Congrats, my friend. Your little girl is a little less little today.” He turned away, but paused by the pool door. “I’m going to the store. We need red meat and spinach and broccoli.”

Kit made a face. “What do you do with that?”

“Eat it. She needs iron. Maybe I’ll get some liver. And chocolate. We’re going to celebrate tonight!”

Kit went back into the dragon’s lair, a.k.a. the locker room. He turned the faucet to hot and soaked a washcloth. “How you doin’, baby?”

“I need Mom, Dad.”

“I know. She’s on her way. I’m gonna hand you a washcloth. Get yourself cleaned up a bit. Then wrap up in the towel I’m handing you and pull this robe on.” He draped everything over the stall door. “When you’re decent, open up. I’ll carry you up to the house, ’kay?”

“I bled through my shorts. Everything has blood on it.”

“Well, honey, that’s what happens. I bet Mom went through this.”

“I wish I were a guy.”

“We have our own trials.”

“Like what?”

“Learning to fight. Protecting our families.”

“You’re teaching me to fight. I can do that. I shoulda been a guy. If I were, I wouldn’t have to deal with this mess.”

“If you were a guy, you’d never know what it’s like to be a mom. You could guess, but I doubt your wildest imagination would even come close to reality. Not that you’re going to be in any hurry to, you know, discover those things. Just that there’s a payoff down the road. ’S’all I’m saying.”

The towel disappeared from the top of the door. The bathrobe followed a minute later. “Mom was only four years older than I am when she got pregnant with me.”
 

Right. Not a topic he was comfortable talking about. “True. I was only five and a half years older than you when that happened. But that’s not going to happen to you.”
Because I would seriously kill any motherfucker who did that to her.

The bathroom stall opened. His little girl looked up at him with her tear-stained face. Her wet hair was drying in ropes of blonde dreads. She was a little bit of a thing. It was terrifying to think in six short years, he’d be sending her out into the world.
 

“Well, I could get pregnant now, so I have to think about these things.”

“No, you can’t.
No
.” Kit’s brows lowered as he glared at his daughter. “Why would you say something like that to me?”

“I’m not a little girl anymore, Dad.” She moved stiffly out of the stall.

He scooped her up, pressed her tightly to his chest. “You are a little girl, honey. You’re my little girl. You hear me?” He kissed the crown of her head. “I love you. And I’m not letting any boys near you until you’re about forty.”

“Dad!”

“I mean it. Any boy who wants to date you is going to have to ask my permission first. I’m guessing I’ll reject nine out of ten. Or maybe eleven out of ten.”

Casey shook her head and giggled into his shoulder. “What about the mess in here?”

They’d reached the door into the poolroom. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll help Mom clean it up.”

“What if I bleed in this robe?”

“Who cares? It’s washable.”

She snagged his attention when she put her hand on his face. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, baby.”

“Thanks for helping me.”

He kissed her forehead. “No thanks needed. It’s my job.” He carried her out of the gym building, across the patio, into the living room, then down the hall and straight to her room. She buried her head in his neck, hiding from anyone who might see them. Val had done his work; he’d made sure everyone was scarce.

Kit set Casey on her bed, then stood back, hands on his hips. Dammit all. This was so much harder than hand-to-hand combat with a room full of WKBers. “Okay. Mom’ll be here soon. You need anything?”

“No.” She looked as if she might start crying again. Man, he wanted to bolt.

Kit nodded. “Great. Well, I’ll wait outside. If you need something, shout.” He pivoted and got the hell out of Dodge, only to pace the short length of the little sitting room outside their suite of rooms while he waited for Ivy. He was about to check back in with Greer, when he heard her hurrying in from the garage. She came around the corner, stopping when she saw him. He didn’t say anything to her. He knew she knew what had happened—he’d listened over his comm unit when Val told Angel what was going on and then to Angel telling Ivy.
 

Now he was just in the way.

He nodded at her, then walked past her.

* * *

Ivy brought a bucket of bleach spray and some cleaning utensils in an empty laundry basket down to the girls’ locker room a short while later. She stepped inside and came face to face with Kit. He was parking a mop bucket up against the wall.

Ivy indicated her cleaning supplies. “I came to clean up.”

“I already got it. How’s she doing?”

“She’s fine. It’s a shock the first time it happens. All those hormones can wreck a girl.”

He nodded and knelt by a pile of dirty clothes arranged on top of a big bath towel. Gathering the corners, he tied the opposite ends to make a tidy bundle.

“There was a lot of blood.” He looked up at Ivy. “Is it always like that?”

She shrugged. “There’s no standard in this stuff. It’s different for everyone and sometimes for every period. It probably wasn’t as much as you think.”

Kit stood up but kept his side to Ivy. He shoved a hand over his hair. “My little girl was bleeding, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do.”

“I’m glad that you were here for it. For her. She told me you talked her out of her panic. Thank you for that.”

“I think I lost ten years of my life today.”

Ivy moved a little closer to him. She set her bucket down on the sink. “There’s been a lot of firsts you missed, Kit. Her first hour, first day. The first time she pushed herself up, the first time she rolled over, the first time she said ‘Mom.’ Her first sled ride. Her first skinned knee. Her first bike ride.” She looked at him. He was as still as if bolted to the floor, watching her with an expression raw with emotion.

“With every single first she’s had, I cried that you weren’t there to see. And now, you were here for this one.” She could feel the tears coming on—just what Kit probably needed. More female hysteria. She shut her eyes, about to turn away when she was suddenly pulled against a warm chest. Strong arms banded about her. She gripped fistfuls of his T-shirt.

“I’m not going to miss any other firsts, Iv. I’m here for the duration. Sorry about all the guys knowing. I was in a panic to get you and didn’t understand at first what was happening. Val’s making some kind of spinach and beef dinner. With chocolate. And liver. He said we should celebrate.”

Ivy smiled. “I know. I think he bought out the store’s stock of feminine hygiene products. She’ll be a year going through all of that.”

“I’m sorry—”

“No. It helped. All this fuss is making her feel special. I think she likes being a princess for a day.”

“She really is gonna be fine?”

Ivy nodded. “All the girls are up there with her, sharing their stories. Answering her questions. She asked me if she could wear makeup now.”

Kit looked horrified. “Makeup? As in to attract boys? No.”

Ivy laughed and went to retrieve her bucket. “Well, that’s something we can talk about later. One crisis at a time, I think.”

“You never wore any makeup when we were kids.” He grabbed the mop handle and pushed the wheeled bucket toward the door.

“I did, too!”

He sent a look over her face. “Well, why? You’re so pretty, why would you want to cover that up?”

“It’s a girl thing.”

Kit frowned and heaved a sigh. “I’m not gonna get a say in this, am I?” They parked their cleaning supplies in a broom closet. “You know I’d say I want my little girl to stay twelve forever.”

“And you know that’s not going to happen.” Ivy smiled and linked her arm with his.

Kit opened the poolroom door for her. They stepped into the hall leading to the gym building’s entrance. “She told me that she knew you were only four years older than she is when you were pregnant with her,” he said.

Ivy went still, waiting for his reaction to that.
 

“Just because we were sexually active doesn’t mean that she needs to be. I don’t want to be a grandfather in four years.”

“You know, Casey has been with me through every step of our struggle. I tried to shield her from much of the harsh reality of our lives, but she’s observant. She knew what was going on. She’s seen the fight it takes to live and how important education is. I wouldn’t ever call her a mistake. But we’ve had conversations about not making things so hard on yourself, about being careful with your choices. She’s a very bright, forthright kid. She’s going to hit those decision points. We all do. But she has something going for her that we didn’t. She has parents who love her and who are open to helping her make the right decisions.” She gave him a hard look. “But if she does screw up, I will not cut her out of my life.”

Kit smiled. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. “I hate to say it, but I understand a little more about what your dad was going through. Without a doubt, he’s a selfish bastard. But I think, in his own fucked-up way, he loved you.”

That comment stole Ivy’s breath. She pulled away from Kit. “He didn’t love me. You don’t do what he did to someone you love. You don’t send a sixteen-year-old out into the world with an infant and no way of supporting herself.”

“Yeah. He messed up—big time. But I bet he figured that out by now.” He reached for her hand. “All I’m saying is, if you ever wanted to meet up with your parents, I’d have your back.”

Ivy’s tears blurred her vision as she glared at Kit. “I can’t. I won’t. Some people are toxic, Kit. You have to let them go.”

“And some people learn from their mistakes. Some should be forgiven. Maybe you won’t know which is which with your folks until you talk to them one more time.”
 

A muscle ticked in the corner of his jaw as he looked down at her, his expression fierce. She wondered if he wasn’t talking about her parents anymore. Was he referring to himself? Or the two of them? Or her? “You know, they didn’t only lie to you. They lied to me. Both of them swore you’d never tried to get in touch with me.” She shook her head. “I’m not strong enough to deal with my parents.”

He nodded. “Okay.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead again. “It’s your call.” He stepped away, watching her as he moved backward. “I’ve got to head back to work. Use the house phone if you or Casey need me, ’kay?”

She wiped the moisture from her eyes and nodded. She stepped outside, into the breezeway between the gym building and the patio that ran the length of the back of the house. A warm breeze blew through the open woodwork. She crossed her arms as she leaned against one of the support pillars.