To Be a Dad. Kate Kelly

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of the Bay of Fundy, and Paris was a million miles away.

      She stopped and peeked into the kids’ bedroom again. Angels, both of them. She could do this. There was room in her life for a third child. But that was all. Forget a husband or boyfriend. Romance? A serious career? Who had the time or energy?

      She closed the bathroom door and pulled the pregnancy test out from under the towels. The moment of truth had arrived.

      * * *

      “WHEN DID YOU turn into such a slob?”

      Good question. Dusty stuck his hands in his back pockets and rolled back on his heels. “Been a little preoccupied lately.”

      “Is that what you call it.” His older brother, Cal, shoved two empty cases of beer out of the way with the toe of his boot. “How can you live like this?”

      “I didn’t ask you up here for advice on housecleaning.”

      Cal studied his face. God only knew what he saw. Pure terror? “Has she taken the test yet?”

      “I don’t think so. Anita just went over there. She’ll call when they know. So.” He looked around his cluttered house. As usual, Cal was right. He was a pig. “Where do we begin?”

      “We?”

      “Come on. I need help. We all know that Teressa’s going to have to move out of the carriage house. It’s already too small for the three of them. I have to at least offer her a place to stay, I guess. It’s time I started fixing up the house, anyway. I’m getting tired of living like I’m at my hunting camp.”

      “Okay, let’s start here.” Cal dug his jackknife out of his pocket and sunk the blade into the wood trim around the large living room window.

      “Hey! That’s not helping,” he protested. He’d thought he’d got a great deal when he’d bought the house a few months ago, but he had a feeling he was about to find out exactly why the bungalow had sold for such a low price. Cal had tried to warn him to have the house assessed, but Dusty’s knee-jerk reaction of telling his older brother to mind his own business had kicked in and the house had been an impulse buy all the way.

      His ever-efficient brother pulled a notebook out of his jacket pocket and started writing. “The wood’s full of rot. It’s gotta go. And those carpets are gross. Some of that new click flooring would clean this room up, and it’s not expensive.” He stopped writing and smirked at his brother. “Best of all, you can install it yourself.”

      Great. How was he supposed to fit in reno work during lobster-fishing season? He was on his boat twelve hours a day because of the high tides. Collina got close to fifty-foot tides locally, five times higher than the rest of the Atlantic coast. Most ports along the bay drained out with the tide and filled up when the water rolled back in. Once he went out on the rising tide, he couldn’t return until the tide rose again. It wasn’t easy fishing on the Bay of Fundy, but it was one of the richest fishing grounds on the east coast of Canada. Plus, he’d grown up working on the bay and knew its moods and the riches beneath its surface.

      Cal gave Dusty’s shoulder a brotherly punch. “I’ll help when and where I can. So will Pops. Matter of fact, we’ll have to watch how much he does. The doc says he still has to be careful. Heart attacks at his age are no picnic. I imagine Adam will lend a hand, too.”

      Cal continued talking as he wandered into the kitchen. “This is where you’re going to need my expertise. Plywood cupboards went out with the sixties.”

      “Right.” A ball of iron settled in Dusty’s stomach as he eyed the rust stains in the old white enamel sink. “Where the hell do I start?”

      “I’ll go through the house and make a list of what needs to be done right away. If you want to get any renos done, you’re going to have to make room in here. I suggest you start carting everything out,” Cal said.

      Dusty looked around, bewildered. “Everything? I just moved in.”

      Cal took his elbow and pointed him toward the mountain of empties sitting by his kitchen door. “You moved in months ago. You’ve got to clean this crap out of here. Come on, I’ll give you a hand.”

      Dusty welcomed the straightforward work of hauling what was basically trash out of his house. Maybe he had let things get a little out of control around the house. The work prevented him from thinking about his real problem. Teressa. In one way or another, Teressa had been a problem forever.

      He was crazy about her, and he couldn’t stand her. That was maybe putting things too strongly. But she came with so many problems attached, she scared him. First, the kids, and—okay, he liked kids well enough. But man, kids that didn’t go home at the end of the day? He worked hard, and when he got home he liked to kick back, drink a few brewskies and watch a game if it was hockey season or hang out with his pals. If Teressa lived with him—and face it, she had to move somewhere because where she was now wasn’t big enough even without the baby, and if there was a baby—she wouldn’t tolerate a bunch of guys hanging around.

      He stashed an armload of empties in the back of his truck, pulled out his cell phone and checked that it was turned on. If he and Teressa had a kid he wanted to take care of it. His mom had died when he was young, but Pops had been a great dad. Still was. Not wanting to worry him, Dusty hadn’t told his father about the baby yet.

      If there was a baby.

      On top of the kids—and don’t get him started on the other fathers—there was Teressa. He sat on the tailgate of his truck and stared off into space. She was crazy sexy. If they had all these kids and babies and things, they’d never have time for sex again. That just plain sucked.

      As for getting married and building a life together? Loveless marriages worked sometimes, didn’t they? His own parents’ marriage may well have been a marriage without love. His mother had died in a car accident while running away with her lover when he was thirteen years old. It had hurt like hell knowing his mom didn’t love him enough to stay, but now, looking at the tragedy, he realized Pops must have suffered the most of all.

      If he married Teressa, and she screwed around on him because she didn’t love him, he didn’t think he could handle it. He’d always assumed he’d get married someday, preferably to a sweet woman who was crazy about him and liked having a fisherman for a husband. Teressa didn’t think much of his job or of him, or Collina as far as that went. She’d never stopped dreaming of moving away. He couldn’t imagine living anywhere but Collina and working on the water.

      The only thing they had going for them was their friendship. Teressa was a good enough friend that she didn’t mind telling him off when he needed it. Like when Pops had his heart attack and Dusty had unraveled. Teressa pointed out that it wasn’t about him and told him to grow up and think about Pops. Her little speech had been exactly what he’d needed to ground him. She almost always gave him what he seemed to need, whether it was a slap up the side of the head, or a good laugh, or the ear of a good friend.

      “Hey, bonehead. This is your mess, not mine. Get the lead out,” Cal called from the doorway of the house as he ambled toward Dusty.

      Dusty pushed away from the tailgate. “How do you suppose people have sex if there are all these kids around?”

      Cal grinned. “They don’t. Ever again.” He pounded Dusty on the back. “That’s good, considering how easily Teressa gets pregnant. I can see it now, you СКАЧАТЬ