Page 121 of Recipe for Rivals

“Totally fair. You aren’t an adult yet, so I get to make your eating decisions.”

His scowl deepened. “Dad would let us have ice cream.”

Dad also wouldn’t have to deal with the repercussions of that choice, I thought. I was pretty sure Ben was remembering a different, less health-conscious version of his father. “Well, you’re stuck with me.”

“Forever,” Ben muttered.

Alice went quiet, looking up at her brother.

“Hop in bed,” I said to her, then climbed up on the bottom rung of the ladder to be eye-level with Ben. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He rolled over to face the wall.

My stomach clenched. “Is this about why you don’t want to talk to your dad on the phone?”

“Maybe.”

I clutched the edge of the bed rail, then inhaled. “Ben, what happened?”

He was silent. I waited until he was ready to talk, because I knew the power of silence. Finally, after so long I’d convinced myself he wasn’t going to tell me, he sighed. “Dad’s new baby is going to be a boy, and he won’t need me anymore.”

My entire body went cold. “What new baby?”

“Kristen’s baby.”

Oh. My. Gosh. I tried to keep calm, to pretend this wasn’t filling me with all sorts of weird feelings. The blasé way he’d said Kristen’s name, like he expected me to know who she was, belied a level of intimacy between Carter’s new girlfriend and my kids that I didn’t like. “When did you learn about this?”

Stupid question. Probably weeks ago when he’d stopped talking to his dad. Everything was clicking into place. Why she’d moved in with him so quickly. Why Carter had been so cagey lately. Why he would have been able to take them back to New York if I chose to stay here, because now he had built-in babysitting. Suddenly, the possibility that he could have dragged them away that night hit me with a fresh wave of terror. If he was starting a new family and wanted these two to be part of it, how could I stop him?

With a veiled threat of legal action and my knowledge that he made way more money than he was somehow able to report. That had been what saved us.

But right now, my little boy needed reassurance. I swallowed my anger and brushed his messy blond hair from his face. “Love doesn’t divide, Ben. It grows. Someday, I hope to get married again, and when we welcome another little baby to this family, do you think it will mean I have to give all of my love to him or her?”

He sat up, his little brow furrowed, blond hair messy. “No, but you and Dad are different.”

Of course we were, and because children are little emotional geniuses, he could sense that even if he couldn’t understand it. “He shows it in different ways, but he doesn’t love you any less.A new baby won’t change how he feels about you, okay?” At least that much was true. Carter wasn’t a very attentive dad, but he wasn’t a monster. He would probably always have this level of disconnect, new baby or not.

“Who are you going to marry, Mommy?” Alice asked, making me flinch.

I leaned down to see her lying in bed, Peaches under the covers beside her. “I don’t know yet.”

“But it won’t be Chad,” Alice said with conviction.

“No, it won’t be Chad.” I fought a smile. “I think I might like to try dating Dusty, though, if you both think that’s okay.”

“Yes!” Alice squealed. “Then we’ll have a kitty.”

Priorities.

I nodded and turned my attention back to Ben. “What do you think?”

“It would be okay with me,” Ben said, peering at me through narrowed eyes. “But if you have any more babies, do I have to share a room with them, too?”

“Babies always sleep with the parents in the beginning,” I told him. “Then I’ll probably have to put him or her in bed with you. We don’t have any other space. You could share your blankets, though, right?”

Ben gave me a wry smile. “You can’t trick me, Mom. Dusty would build the baby its own bed.”

His quiet confidence smashed into me, stealing my breath. How easily heknewhow Dusty would handle that dilemma made my heart soar to the moon and back. The difference between the men, and the difference in Ben’s perception of them, boiled down to their actions—what they’d proven to us time and again. Carter couldn’t be relied on; Dusty could.

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