It's All Relative (64 page)

M
illie sighed in irritation as she returned the phone to the nightstand. She loved her son, but she strongly disagreed with how he was handling this situation. Sending Kai thousands of miles away, to place him directly in the path of his biological father—a man that he didn’t even know
was
his biological father—seemed cruel to Millie. If Kai had to be told, and Millie really didn’t see why he ever had to be told, then Nate should sit him down and talk to him himself. That seemed a far wiser choice.

But that wasn’t the decision her son was making. He and his ex-wife had already called and made arrangements with the man who used to be Nate’s friend and colleague. Somehow, the pair had convinced the man to give Kai a job. Kai didn’t know it, but Monday morning he’d be walking into the office of the person who carried the other half of his genes. While Millie didn’t agree with Nate and Leilani’s choice, she was staying out of it, and hoping beyond hope that Kai remained ignorant. Sometimes truth mattered. Other times, it only stung.

Millie flinched as an ache in her hip went straight up her spine. The pain wasn’t too bad, but the occasional wrong movement did send a twinge through her. Glancing at the door again, she wondered where her two grandkids had run off to. Their reaction to each other had sure seemed weird. She’d been so sure they would instantly connect once they’d met, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but then again, kids today often mystified her.

Millie wondered if her own mystifying child was hoping Kai would take one look at his real father and instantly know the truth. Well, “real” father simply in the sense that he had been responsible for creating Kai. The man Kai had become…well that was entirely because of her son.

Sympathetic regret washed through Millie as she thought about how Nate had learned about Kai. He hadn’t been aware of his wife’s infidelity when they’d been trying for a child. It was years later, when Kai had just entered his teen years that the harlot had admitted the truth to him…admitted that she didn’t know who had fathered Kai. Millie had no love for the woman. Not anymore, not after she’d ripped her son’s heart out. But Kai loved her and Millie was careful to keep her feelings about the subject to herself.

Not able to stand not knowing who Kai belonged to, Nate had secretly tested him. When the test came back, and he saw in black and white that he had no blood connection to the boy, he’d immediately divorced his wife. It had been a move that Millie had wholeheartedly supported. And in another move Millie had supported, and had been immensely proud of Nate for, he’d never stopped being a father to Kai. Lesser men would have rejected the child as well as the wife, but not her son. His affection and love for Kai had never faltered, and the truth of Kai’s paternity had never gone farther than Millie, her son, and her son’s unfaithful ex-wife.

Until now. Until the lie had finally worn Nate down.

Shifting on the stiff bed, Millie ran a hand through her silver hair; her gnarled knuckles betrayed the age she didn’t feel. Again, she hoped her son changed his mind about Kai knowing the truth. What good would possibly come out of it? Kai would only feel differently about both of his parents and be irreversibly thrust into the life of a complete stranger. A person Millie hadn’t even bothered to check out, even though he lived here in Denver. In her mind, the man was just as guilty of poor morality as Kai’s mother. Kai might not be blood to her, but he was so much more like her son than either of his biological parents. Kai had a habit of making sound decisions. She was very proud of him.

Almost as if on cue, the door opened and her grandson walked through it. She smiled at his exotic beauty and held a hand out for him. He smiled back and walked over to her. Jessica walked in a couple of steps behind him, intently watching his back. Her eyes shifted to the floor when Kai glanced back at her. Millie scrunched her brows. Odd. They almost seemed…embarrassed? Millie was curious for a moment, but then she shrugged and let it go. Who knew what was going on in the minds of young ones, these days?

Kai sat on the edge of the bed and gripped her bony fingers with his warm ones. “Gran, are you feeling okay? Do you need anything?”

Millie laughed and patted his hand. “I’m fine, dear. They’re taking good care of me here. I’ll think they’ll keep me for a few days, just to watch over me.” She grunted in annoyance and rolled her eyes. “It’s completely unnecessary. I could hop on a horse if I needed to. I could swing dance, if I had a good partner.” She patted Kai’s hand and raised an eyebrow at him.

He laughed and rubbed her knuckle with his thumb. “Maybe when you’re better, Gran.”

Jessica laughed softly as she sat in a chair next to the bed. Sounding remorseful, she placed her hand on Millie’s arm and said, “I’m so sorry I was late this morning, Grams.” She shook her head, like she felt personally responsible for Millie’s fall.

Kai seemed apologetic, as well. “Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t come by sooner. I was running a little slow this morning.” He looked at Jessica oddly and Millie noticed her granddaughter’s face flush with color. Very odd.

Millie glanced between the two of them. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m a grown woman. I don’t need the two of you fretting over me, like I’m some invalid. I slipped. Happens every day. Probably happens to the two of you on occasion.” She watched them both grin and roll their eyes, locking gazes with each other before twisting back to look at her. With a slight twist of her thin lips, she added, “I don’t mind you both coming to visit me, but I can take care of myself.”

Kai smiled, then leaned forward and kissed her head. “All right, Gran.”

Jessica sighed as she watched him, then patted Millie’s arm. “Okay, Grams.” Shrugging her shoulders, she asked, “What can we do for you then?”

Millie watched the two cast secret glances when the other wasn’t looking. Not liking the odd feeling she could sense between them, she decided to use their mutual guilt over her accident to her advantage. Hiding her inner smile, she quite seriously said, “Jessica Marie, my dear, why don’t you and Kai go through my place and get rid of that old furniture for me. I was thinking about having the church come take it, but since Kai probably needs some stuff, maybe he could take it for me?”

Kai immediately started shaking his head. “Oh, Gran, no, you don’t have to—”

She cut him off. “Nonsense. You must need something. Do you even have a bed yet?”

Kai’s tan face lost a little color as his eyes locked onto Jessica’s. Millie noticed that odd tension again, but had no idea why they seemed to have it. She hoped that forcing them to spend a little time together would ease the feeling between them. Right now, all Kai had here in Denver was her and Jessica Marie, and he didn’t know it yet, but if Nate’s plans for Kai came to pass, he was going to need the support of his family. And regardless of what their blood said, Kai
was
family and she would never treat him differently.

Since the two of them had gone deathly quiet, Millie took the silence as an admission that he did need help. Turning her attention to Jessica, she matter-of-factly stated, “Clean out the spare bedroom. I have no need for anything in there right now.”

Jessica, looking even paler than Kai, nodded. “Okay, Grandma.”

Kai looked down and then over at Jessica on the chair. Giving her an odd smile, he shrugged and said, “I guess I could use your help after all.”

(Cut scene #3. This is at the end of chapter 6, after Mason meets Kai for the very first time.)

M
ason Thomas watched his…son leave the lab. He straightened and ran a hand through his hair, then down his face. He hadn’t believed Kai’s mother at first, when she’d broken the news to him earlier this year. He’d absolutely refused to believe it. But staring at the boy, the resemblance was unmistakable. Not in the coloring, that was all his mother—deep brown skin, dark as night hair—but the eyes, he’d only seen that shade in the mirror before. It was startling to see them on another human being.

Kai had seemed equally taken aback by him, but Mason knew he didn’t suspect the truth yet. He’d had several conversations with Kai’s mother on the matter. Mason hadn’t wanted to be the one to tell him. Surely that was something
she
could do, since she was already so close to the boy. Or maybe Nate, the man who had raised him as a son could tell him. Mason wasn’t sure why this responsibility was falling to him, now, so long after the fact. But Leilani had insisted that it had to be him who told Kai.

Nate had also called him, insisting that he finally stepped up and acted like a man. Those words had deeply stung Mason. He and Nate had been close once, almost family, but Mason had been young and foolish, and he’d let lust and passion overcome his sensibilities. Truly, that whole situation had been so unlike him. He was usually so practical about things. But Leilani had taken his breath away. Mason had had no defense against her exotic beauty, her passionate nature. They’d fallen in love, seduced each other, and carried on a secret affair, right under the nose of her husband.

When she’d gotten pregnant, Mason had been sure the child was his. She’d insisted the child was Nate’s, and had completely and utterly broken things off with him. Crushed, he’d fled Hawaii and come to Denver, to start again. Leilani had let him believe for over twenty-three years that the child she’d born hadn’t been his. Even when her marriage had dissolved, she still hadn’t broken the news to Mason. That fact hurt more than he’d expected it to.

Sitting on the edge of the table, Mason watched his hands start to shake. He had no idea what to do now. He’d never married, never had children. His life had been dedicated to his work, and he didn’t have time for a fully-grown son to land on his doorstep. Running his trembling hand over his mouth several times, Mason thought back to that initial contact with Leilani, months ago, when she’d finally told him the truth about Kai’s paternity.

Mason had been at home, winding down for the day with a glass of wine on his deck when the phone had rung. Walking back to the house, he’d frowned at seeing the strange, long distance number…

“Hello?”

“Mason?” The feminine voice in his ear was unmistakable.

“Leilani? It’s been ages…” His voice trailed off as the old ache began to resurface.

Her voice tittered. “Yes, yes it has, hasn’t it?””

Setting his glass down, he swallowed a heavy lump. “Why are you…? It’s not that I don’t like hearing from you, but, why…?”

Her voice was nervous. “I feel horrible asking, but I need you to do something for me.”

Mason tensed. Leilani never asked him to do anything. She’d never asked him to stay, never asked him to take her away from her husband, never seemed to think much of him at all. “What?” he cautiously asked.

“It’s my son…Kai.” She paused and a ball of buried anger resurfaced in Mason’s chest. The son who had torn them apart, who had given her an irrefutable reason to never leave her husband.

“What about him?” he asked.

She sighed, and her voice suddenly sounded about twenty years older. “I lied to you, Mason. He’s yours. He’s always been yours.”

Mason furrowed his brow, not understanding. “What do you mean he’s mine?”

He heard Leilani exhale a harsh breath into the phone. “You know exactly what I mean. He’s your biological child. You helped me conceive him. You are half of who he is.
You
are his father.”

Mason sputtered, then laughed. “You expect me to believe that? After you swore up and down that he was Nate’s? After I left…and you let me?”

Her voice was heated when she responded. “Yes, you left! You overreacted to a brief moment of weakness on my part, and you bolted! I did what I could with what I was left with! What
you
left me with! How was I supposed to know whose son he was? I panicked, and you didn’t stick around long enough to find out the truth. Don’t blame me because
you
ran away!”

He blinked in surprise at her sudden outburst. Apparently, she had some long buried aches too. Ones he’d never considered. “Why are you telling me this? Now?”

“Because he’s looking for a job…and he wants to go somewhere new. Nate and I thought he could join your team.”

Mason fell into a chair, again surprised. “You call me, tell me I have a son…just so I can give him a job?”

Leilani sighed again. “No. We also want you to tell him…who you are to him.”

Mason bolted out of the chair. “What? He doesn’t know?”

Leilani sniffled, like she was holding back tears. “No, and I don’t want to tell him either, but Nate is threatening to tell him if I don’t…or if you don’t.”

“Jesus, Leilani. Why are you springing this on me? I don’t need this right now! I don’t even know the kid. Thanks to you, I’ve never even met him!”

“He’s a good boy, Mason. Smart, dedicated. He’ll be a great addition to your team.”

“This isn’t about giving him a job, Leilani.” Mason sat down again, heavily, like the weight of the world was suddenly on his shoulders. “The job is his if he wants it, but I can’t tell him. That’s not something that should come from me.”