Remy and Lane Complete Series Box Set

Chapter 4-1

Chapter 4

With Kate, Lane finished moving Braden’s Santa gifts into the cargo hold of his Jeep. She also had two large tubes of gift wrap that she tucked in, too. “Just in case you guys don’t have any on hand,” she explained.

Lane liked Kate. When he first met her, he had been afraid that he wouldn’t. After what happened with Reggie, Lane had trouble trusting women around a man he was dating, and an ex-wife? He expected to sit through the lunch Remy had arranged for them with a heart full of seething rage and jealousy. This woman had slept with Remy, had borne him a child. Lane wanted to hate her.

But he couldn’t. Kate had a wonderful, throaty laugh and a self-depreciating sense of humor. When their young waiter was obviously hitting on her, Remy pointed out, “He likes you.”

Kate just laughed and said, “Yeah, because I remind him of his mother.”

It helped that Lane had overheard some of the nice things Kate had said about him to Remy. Later, when the two were in their car heading back to work, Lane ventured, “I can see why you guys are still such good friends. She’s wonderful.”

“She is,” Remy agreed. “Just not with me.”

Now, in Kate’s garage, Lane closed the back hatch on his Jeep and gave her a proper hug. “Remy says you’re going on a cruise,” he said, making small talk. “It should be a lot of fun.”

“I think so,” Kate admitted. “But Mike gets motion sickness, so why he picked something like this, I don’t know.”

“Motion sickness?” Lane cried with a laugh. “Wasn’t the cruise his idea?”

Kate rolled her eyes. “You know men and their toys. He swears he doesn’t get seasick, just airsick and carsick, like there’s a difference. Doesn’t matter. I have enough Dramamine packed to last us a month.”

Easing an arm through Lane’s, she guided him to the small set of steps leading into the house. She walked slowly, as if she wanted a moment or two alone with Lane, and he matched his steps to hers. He suspected she had something on her mind that she wanted to say. He wondered if she was going to ask him not to be intimate with Remy when Braden was around. As if she had to say anything about that. Lane wasn’t one for public displays of affection; he would be loving with Remy, as he always was, but he wasn’t about to run around the cabin naked chasing after his man if they had company.

After a moment, Kate quietly asked, “Is this a huge inconvenience for you two?”

“What, you mean your son?” Lane shook his head, frowning. “No, no. Well, Remy’s a little put out but it’s fine, I promise.”

“Remy’s mad because I’ve ruined his plans,” Kate said. “He actually picked a date to introduce you to Braden, did he tell you that? An exact date in May, planned down to the minute.”

Lane smiled. “Yeah. May tenth. He likes to be prepared.”

“He goes a little overboard sometimes,” Kate admitted. “It’s my fault, I know. He wasn’t always this bad. But then Braden came along, completely by accident, and we got married for the baby’s sake—none of that was in his plans. He’s been trying to get back control of his life ever since.”

“Tell me a bit about Braden,” Lane said.

Kate stopped and leaned back against the front panel of the Jeep. “He’s eight,” she said, as if that explained everything. She extracted her arm from Lane’s and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans for warmth. “Sometimes he’s the best little boy in the entire world, and sometimes he’s a beast.”

With a laugh, Lane leaned against the passenger window and smiled down at her. “At least you’re more honest than Remy. He says Braden’s awesome.”

“He is awesome, don’t get me wrong.” Kate blew a stray curl out of her eyes, then shook her head to brush it aside. “But he can be a pill. I’m not sure how he’s going to take you, to be honest.”

“I’m a great guy,” Lane joked. “What’s not to love?”

Kate grinned. “I know, I know, but Mike’s great, too, and Braden refused to even look at him the first time we were all together. Anything Mike said to him was a waste of breath. Braden was pretty pissed when I started dating—in his own perfect little world, Mommy and Daddy would live together happily ever after, and he wouldn’t have to divide his time or his attention between us.”

Lane nodded. “Yeah, well, this sort of thing can be pretty hard on kids.” Personally, though, he was glad Remy and Kate weren’t together. If they were still married, Lane wouldn’t be with Remy, and wouldn’t be so damn happy with his life.

“If he gets pissy with you, just give him time,” Kate cautioned. “He doesn’t know about…you and Remy. I mean, I haven’t told him you’re…you know…”

“Gay?” Lane smirked. “You know you can say it out loud. It isn’t a bad word. I won’t get offended.”

“Yeah, well, he’s eight,” Kate reminded him. “Any word that even remotely smacks of s*x, he gets all ‘oooooh’ about. I called one of his video games asinine the other day and you’d have thought his eyes were going to pop right out of his head.”

Lane laughed. He remembered his own childhood well, and had been much the same way as a kid. Who wasn’t? He used to keep words like asinine and secular written down on a piece of paper he kept folded up in his pocket. When he and his friends got together, they would hide out of sight of their parents and read the words to each other, lingering over the naughtiness of each.

“So yeah, I haven’t told him,” Kate continued. “It isn’t really my place. If he hears me say his father is gay, he might think I’m being malicious or mean. You say it isn’t a bad word, but it still is for some kids. It’s a derogatory term they use to put each other down, and I just don’t know how to say it in a way that won’t get Braden upset.”

Lane had expected to find Braden already knew about them. If not, at least he would know Remy was gay. How else did they explain their divorce to their son? But that was too personal a question to ask his lover’s ex-wife, so he kept quiet.

A few moments later, Kate sighed and pushed away from the car. Taking Lane’s hand, she led him to the stairs heading inside. “I don’t know how he’ll take you, to be honest,” she said. “He was mad at Mike because he thought I was trying to give him a new daddy. But you’re obviously not a replacement mom. So this is brand new territory for us all.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Lane assured her. “It’s Christmas, after all. A time for miracles, and all that crap.”

At the top step, Kate turned and grimaced at him. “I just hope I haven’t ruined your holiday. I know it’s such short notice, but Mike surprised me and I really, really need this. I need to get away, I need to not be a mother for like, two seconds, you know? It sounds bad, but—”

“No, not at all.” Lane rubbed her back, consoling. “We all need a break now and then. Things will be great, you’ll see.”