Eli put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his side as her mother turned and walked away.
Her father looked between them awkwardly before he squeezed Kay’s arm. “I’m sorry, pumpkin.”
She pulled him into a quick hug. It wasn’t his fault that she and her mother couldn’t get along. “I’m sorry too, Daddy. Go ahead and follow her. You’ll never hear the end of it otherwise.”
Eli rubbed her arm as they watched them go. “She’ll come around. You’ve never stood up to her before. I think she’ll need a little recovery time before she learns to deal with it. But I’m proud of you.”
Kay hugged him back, his words reassuring her. She hated to think of having a rift with her mother, but she’d finally learned that others could only treat her the way she allowed them to treat her. She’d been through so much lately. She was proud of how far she’d come, and she wasn’t accepting put-downs anymore.
From anyone.
“Can we get out of here?”
Eli looked back at the cluster of agents behind them. “Gladly. I’ve had enough of this scene to last a lifetime.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
OVER THE NEXT few weeks, Elliott learned the true meaning of family. After a long discussion with Kaylee about it, he’d decided to tell them the truth. Family was about people who accepted you, warts and all. He’d been afraid of their reaction to his failings, but in the end, they’d rallied around him in a way that humbled him.
Mara had gotten a recommendation from her friend Danny for an attorney who specialized in criminal law. It turned out Agent Harris had counted on Eli not being aware of all his rights. Since he’d never been formally charged with anything, his new lawyer was going over the details of his case carefully to see what obligations he had, if any, to continue being involved in the FBI’s case.
Now that it was all over and he had some distance from the situation, he realized he was happy to help out. However, if he did, it would be because he wanted to, not because of a threat hanging over his head. His lawyer thought he had reason to be optimistic, and he felt lighter than he had in years.
“Do you want another biscuit, Eli?”
He looked up to see his mother offering him a plate of homemade rolls. His stomach growled and he grabbed another one off the plate. His mother had insisted he stay at their house when he moved back to town. It seemed that after years of him being absent, she wasn’t ready to let him out of her sight yet.
“Thanks, Mom. You don’t have to cook all this food every day.”
She beamed at him. “I like cooking for my boys. I haven’t had enough chances to feed you lately. I’m not sure where I went wrong that only Nicholas absorbed my cooking lessons. The rest of you are a fire hazard in the kitchen. Although now that you have Kay, I know you won’t starve. She’ll take good care of you.”
“We’ll take good care of each other.” He glanced behind him instinctively to where Kay was sitting on the couch with Ridley.
Ever since the day of the shootout, she’d been right by his side as he’d taken every step in his new life. She’d come with him to the lawyer’s office. She’d ridden up to headquarters for meetings so he could turn over control of the day-to-day operations to his vice president, George Callahan.
“She thinks that I should talk to you. About that day in the barn. When I was seventeen,” he clarified.
Julia’s face paled slightly. He covered her hand with his and squeezed. “I’m sorry, Mom. I hate to bring up something so painful, but I need to talk about it. How it affected me.”
“All right.” She squeezed his hand back gently.
“I was really angry,” he admitted. It had taken a lot of introspection for him to come to terms with that.
“At me?” Julia’s voice wavered slightly.
“Yeah. A little. I shouldn’t have been, but I was confused. I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t press charges. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to pay. I think that’s why I joined the Circle. It was stupid, but I felt like I was helping someone. Even if I couldn’t help you.”
Julia sighed. “I am so sorry for… a lot of things. But Eli, things are so much more complicated than you know. It’s not what you think. It’s just… not what you think.”
Eli saw it in her eyes then and suddenly didn’t want to take the conversation any further. “You don’t owe me any explanations, Mom. I just wanted you to know that I’m here if you ever need me. A really smart woman is helping me see that it’s time to move on. I’m excited about the future for the first time in a long time.”
“She’s good for you.” Julia stood and kissed him on top of his head before picking up the plate of leftover biscuits.
He walked over to Kaylee and sat next to her on the couch. He pulled her into his arms and she purred and snuggled up next to him.
“You two are just so cute.” Ridley sniffled. “I’m so glad you found each other and now you’re so happy,” she said and looked at Eli. “And I’m so happy.”
Jackson appeared. “What did you do to my wife? I finally got her to stop crying.”
Ridley waved her hand at him. “I’m not crying. I’m just misty-eyed, that’s all. Leave a girl and her hormones in peace.”
Eli breathed in the scent of Kaylee’s hair and held her close. They’d spent a lot of time together over the past few weeks and now he couldn’t imagine how he’d lived so long without her. Now that he wasn’t working sixteen-hour days, he could see just how barren his life had been before she and Hope had barged into his house and heart and brought them both to light.