Honor

I insisted on buying it after I went to work with your grandfather. I thought we needed to make a statement, live up to the corporate image, some such nonsense. She put up with it when you were growing up, but once you’d moved out, she started talking again about moving, getting something smaller.”
Kevin took a deep breath as he made another decision. “I want you to put it on the market. Maybe then she’ll see that I’m serious about wanting a reconciliation.”
“Dad, are you sure? I thought you loved that house.”
“I loved what I thought it represented. Turns out it’s just a house, and a lonely one at that.”
“Are you planning to stay on the Cape?”
“If I can convince your mother to stay there with me, I just may.”
Jason grinned. “You always could twist her around your little finger.”
Kevin shook his head ruefully. “No, son. You’ve got that backward. All it took was a smile and she could make me jump through hoops. Guess I’d forgotten that because in recent years I haven’t given her much to smile about.”
“Want to tell me what that means?”
He grinned at his son. “No.”
Lacey would know and that was all that mattered.
* * *
The next morning Kevin waited impatiently for Lacey’s visit. She didn’t come. She wasn’t there when he moved into a private room. Nor had she arrived by the time he got his pitiful excuse for a dinner.
When Jason arrived at seven-thirty, Kevin swallowed his pride and asked, “Have you seen your mother today?”
“No. Why? Hasn’t she been here?”
Kevin shook his head. “You don’t suppose she’s sick?”
“I’ll check on her on my way home.”
“Go now.”
“But I just got here.”
“I’ll feel better knowing that your mother is okay. Maybe the stress of the past few weeks caught up with her. That terrible flu is going around.”
Jason threw up his hands. “Okay, I’ll go, but I think you’re worrying about nothing. Dana usually talks to her during the day. I’m sure if anything were wrong she would have let me know.”
Kevin watched as Jason pulled his overcoat back on. “You’ll call me?”
“I’ll call you. Now stop worrying and eat your dinner.”
Kevin glanced at the bland scoop of mashed potatoes and the colorless chunk of chicken. “This is not dinner. It’s a form of torture dreamed up by Linc Westlake. I don’t suppose you could sneak me some of Mrs. Willis’s chicken and dumplings?” he inquired hopefully, thinking of Jason’s housekeeper’s delicious cooking.
Jason grinned at him. “I’ll check with the doctor. If he says it’s okay, I’m sure Mrs. Willis will be thrilled to make it for you. Get some rest, Dad. Don’t tire yourself out with worrying. It won’t help.”
Jason had been gone less than twenty minutes when the door opened and Lacey walked through, her expression harried.
“Hi,” she said cheerfully. “You’re looking better.”
“Where have you been?” Kevin asked, unable to control the edge in his voice.
Lacey regarded him sharply. “You sound angry.”
“Worried,” he corrected. “And if I sound worried, it’s because I was. I expected you hours ago.”
“Expected?” she echoed softly.
Kevin heard the warning note in her voice, but couldn’t keep himself from adding, “If you couldn’t get by, you should have let me know. I just sent Jason to check on you.”
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“I told you. I was worried.”
Kevin could see that Lacey was fighting her temper. She’d always been independent. No doubt she’d grown more so during their separation, when she’d been accountable to no one for her actions. She drew in a deep breath and pulled a chair close to the bed. He noticed she didn’t take off her coat, as if to indicate to him that she wasn’t here to stay.
“Kevin,” she began in that patient tone he’d heard her use on Jason when he was five and misbehaving, “I’m sure you are bored to tears in here,” she continued, “but I can’t be here every minute. I have other obligations.”
“One of those committees, I’m sure.”
The sarcastic barb brought sparks into her eyes. “May I remind you that I am on those committees because you thought it would be the thing for the wife of a Halloran to do.”
He winced. “Sorry. You’re right. Is that where you were?”
“No. As it happens, I’ve gotten involved with something else.”
Something or someone, he couldn’t help wondering. Kevin felt an ache deep inside as he realized that this was probably just one of many things he didn’t know about how Lacey spent her time.
“Tell me,” he said. He saw her slowly relax at the genuine note of interest in his voice.
“Another time,” she said. “For now, tell me how you’re feeling. You must have had a good day, since Linc moved you out of intensive care and into a private room so quickly.”
“The day’s better now that you’re here.”
Kevin reached for her hand. After a hesitation so light that only a man deeply in love with his wife would notice, she slipped her hand into his. Contentment swelled inside him and he realized with Lacey here he could sleep at last.
Later he would never be sure if Lacey’s gentle kiss was real or something he had dreamed.

Chapter Five
Over the next several days Lacey realized her feelings about Kevin’s continued rapid recovery were oddly mixed. Day by day his strength returned. It was almost as if he applied the same obsessive attention to healing that he did to everything else. It was both astonishing and reassuring to see.
Though Lacey hated herself for even thinking it, she couldn’t help wondering what would happen when he was well, when she no longer would have these hospital visits as an excuse for seeing him. The prospect of letting go for the second time daunted her. And yet there was no going back, not on the basis of a few quick promises, which were all too likely to be broken. She’d made up her mind about that.
Unfortunately, there was a troubling and unmistakable glint of determination in Kevin’s eyes every