Page 37 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“Jesus!” Van shouted when he pushed back from the desk he’d been sitting at a week later while he tried to make heads or tails of the information Kyle had sent over.

He’d spent all day Saturday reading up on summaries of the hotels. What they offered, how many rooms, how many employees. There were incident reports he’d caught up on too. Everything in the past year but knew there was more.

He was happy to go to work on Sunday, then came home and read some more. He did that every day this week.

What he hadn’t done once was open up the envelope with the personal information in it from his grandfather.

Nope, not ready.

He’d admit it. He was a coward.

The battle of wills he had about reaching out to his father had been great enough that he almost put his fist through a wall.

Almost.

He stopped himself just in time.

The bastard didn’t even know his son had left the area.

He was positive if Adam Harlowe knew where he was and what was left to him, he’d see the man on his doorstep trying to make amends.

When there was a knock at his door, he got up to see who it could be.

Kelsey’s car was in the driveway. He hadn’t told her where he lived but figured she got the information from her father.

He opened the door.

“It’s a week,” she said. She looked at her watch. “Almost exactly. I got out of work early.”

Since she was in shorts and a T-shirt, he figured she’d gone home to change first.

“I take it this means you want to try to move forward with this?”

She walked past him into the foyer. “Do you?”

“Yeah,” he said. Might as well be honest. It was the one thing he’d done most of his life.

“I was going to reach out earlier. It was hard. My mother told me to give you the week. My father said not to. I had to go with my gut that you’d appreciate I followed directions.”

He snorted. “Thanks.”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect of Barry’s house. I’ve never been here before. He normally was at my parents’ house.”

He wasn’t sure why he didn’t think of this part of it. “You knew him?”

“Fairly well,” she said. “For a man his age, he was lonely.” She held her hand up. “I don’t say that for anything more than it’s a fact. What I say about Barry is what I know. Not trying to pile guilt, make judgments, or even throw excuses out there. I only know what I know.”

“Got it,” he said.

“Why don’t we start simple? How about a kiss? Don’t you want to know if the spark is still there?”

She’d been the one to pull him in the last two times. He figured the least he could do was make that move even though she’d brought it up.

He grabbed her arm and yanked her playfully into his chest. Rather than make it hot and fast, he lowered his head slowly and kissed her softly.

She didn’t rush it. She didn’t change it.

She only wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.

---