Honor

time he looked at her. She’d often seen that expression right before he or Brandon scored some business coup. Kevin was scheming and it made her very nervous. Worse, she had the sense that Jason was conspiring with him. Together, the two men she loved most in the world were formidable opponents.
“Okay, enough is enough. What are the two of you up to?” she demanded when she found them with their heads together at the end of Kevin’s first week in the hospital.
Jason looked from her to his father and back again. Guilt was written all over his face. “I’m out of here,” he said hurriedly, backing toward the door.
Hands on hips, Lacey stepped into his path. “Not so fast.”
He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “Gotta go, Mom. Dana’s waiting for me in the car.”
“She can wait another ten seconds.”
“Couldn’t you just ask Dad, if you want to know something?” he suggested hopefully. “He’s the one with all the answers.”
She glanced at Kevin and saw the old familiar twinkle in his eyes. It made her heart tumble, just as it always had. That twinkle was downright dangerous.
Lacey recalled the first time she’d seen that glint of mischief in his eyes. He’d used some super glue to seal their fifth-grade teacher’s desk drawer shut. That drawer had held their report cards. Kevin hadn’t been anxious to take his home.
Now he was scowling with mock ferocity at Jason. “Traitor,” he murmured, but there was a note of laughter in his voice.
“Bye, Mom. See you, Dad. Good luck.”
Lacey approached the bed cautiously. “Now just why would you be in need of luck?”
“I’m a sick man,” he said in a pathetically weak tone that was so obviously feigned, Lacey almost burst out laughing.
“I need luck, prayers, whatever it takes,” he added for good measure.
“Nice try,” she said.
Kevin managed to look genuinely dismayed. “You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t believe you,” she concurred. “Try again.”
“Have you seen Linc today?”
Her gaze narrowed as the first faint suspicion flickered in her mind. “What does Linc have to do with this?”
“He’s agreed to let me out of here on Sunday.”
“Kevin, that’s wonderful!” she blurted out instinctively before she caught the glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes.
“What’s the rest?” she asked slowly.
He folded his hands across his chest and inquired complacently, “What makes you think there’s anything more?”
“Oh, please. I know you. If it were a simple matter of getting out of here on Sunday, you wouldn’t look so smug.”
“Smug? I was aiming for helpless.”
“You couldn’t look helpless if you tried. Come on, spill it. What’s the rest?”
“There’s a condition to my release.”
Lacey got an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, as suspicion replaced amusement. “What condition?”
“That I have someone around to look after me.”
She ignored the return of the obvious gleam in his eyes and asked briskly, “Isn’t our housekeeper there?”
At the quick shake of his head, she very nearly moaned. He’d never liked the stiff, unyielding woman, but he’d never been willing to fire her, either. “Kevin, you haven’t fought with her, have you?”
“Actually, I had Jason send her off to visit her sister in Florida.”
“Tell her to come back. I’m sure she’d cooperate under the circumstances.”
“Afraid not.”
“Why?”
“Well, the truth of the matter is that I fired her.”
“You what?”
“I was never there, anyway,” he said defensively. “So you see, I can’t go home.”
“Then you’ll go to your father’s. Mrs. Farnsworth would love the chance to fuss over you.”
“I suppose that would work,” he said. “But you know Dad. It wouldn’t be long before he’d want to have business discussions over breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
There was more than a little truth in that, Lacey conceded reluctantly. She knew now exactly where Kevin was headed, had known all along that some version of this game would come up sooner or later. Even so, she didn’t have a ready, convincing alternative.
“Jason has room,” she said desperately.
“What about Sammy?” he countered neatly.
Obviously he’d planned this as skillfully as a master chess player, Lacey thought, trying to muster up her fading resolve as he went on.
“I’ll need peace and quiet,” Kevin added for good measure. “You can’t expect a kid that age to be on good behavior for days on end. Besides, Dana shouldn’t have to take care of a sick father-in-law when she’s trying to prepare for a baby.”
“I think she’ll have plenty of time to prepare after you’re fully recuperated,” Lacey retorted dryly.
She didn’t have a strong argument where Sammy was concerned, however. Kevin was right to be worried about Dana’s younger brother. He would probably try to engage Kevin in heated video games. With her husband’s spirit of competitiveness, he’d land right back in the hospital.
“You could be right about Sammy, though,” she admitted reluctantly. “Maybe Jason could loan you Mrs. Willis and you could just stay at home.”
“I have a better idea,” Kevin said cheerfully.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” she muttered darkly, envisioning the two of them in her cramped little apartment or, worse yet, back in their own home.
“I thought you and I could go to the Cape. It would be peaceful there this time of year.”
Peaceful? she thought, stunned by the suggestion. The two of them alone on Cape Cod? No, that wouldn’t be peaceful. It would be lunacy.
Cape Cod was where they’d made love for the very first time. Cape Cod was where he’d proposed to her. Cape Cod was where Jason had been conceived. Cape Cod was chock-full of memories. She had no intention of subjecting herself to that kind of torture.
“No,” she said adamantly, “absolutely not.”
“It would be good for us, Lacey. You have to admit that.”
Lacey felt as if the walls of the room were closing in on her. It wasn’t just the early memories. Later, nostalgic for all they had shared on Cape Cod, they had bought a house there. It was the one outrageously expensive indulgence that she had approved of totally.
They had made a pact that no business problems could ever follow them there. That