Page 23 of Reckless Curves
Kendra had followed Connor to the kitchen. “Yeah, for air,” she called out to him.
“For air? The same piss-hot air outside?”
His eyebrows shot up when she charged out of the kitchen at him. “Watch your mouth around him! He picks up everything!”
“Okay, but where’s your air conditioner? You’re going to die of heat exhaustion,” Tom shot back.
“There’s an air conditioner in my room and I let it cool both our bedrooms. I block off the hallway with a curtain to keep the cold air back there.” Kendra lifted her chin. “I can’t afford to run two air conditioners. It’ll make my electric bill go through the roof.”
“Please let me help my son. Let’s look for a new place for you both to live. I can afford the rent and no matter what happens between us, I have a right to provide for my son,” Tom said quietly.
“It must be the heat making me so cranky.” Kendra rubbed her temple. “I want to provide for Connor as much as you do. I guess I’m scared you can provide more than me.”
Tom gritted his teeth for a moment. “This isn’t a competition…” he broke off to make sure they were alone. “I’m his father and want to help him and you. You’ve had to do too much on your own as it is.”
“Marcus has been helping too. He’ll get suspicious if I suddenly move. He’ll want to know where the money is coming from.”
“Then perhaps we should inform Marcus of our situation before he works it out for himself, because I will not deny my son, nor deny him the things he needs in life because you’re too scared or too ashamed of me.”
Tom didn’t care that Kendra had stiffened with fear and indignation. “You promised that you wouldn’t say anything!”
“Wrong. I promised nothing. I just didn’t tell Connor I’m his father, that’s all.”
Kendra glared at him. “I thought we agreed that we would work some things out before we went public with it.”
“You just assumed that I’d agreed,” Tom said.
Kendra threw up a hand. “So what? You’re blackmailing me now?”
Tom sighed. God, she could be ornery. “I’d rather think of it as guiding you to the right decision. You either let me help you and my son, or I’ll tell Marcus right away. I won’t wait forever to tell people I’m Connor’s father, but I’ll hold off for a little while if you let me help financially. It will be a few weeks before we find a place and get you moved. We should have worked out the details by then. Do we have a deal?”
Kendra’s gaze didn’t flinch. “Fine.”
“And you’ll let me date you? You’ll give a relationship with me a try?”
“I will as long as we don’t tell Connor or anyone else, he’s your son for at least one month.”
Tom couldn’t believe it. “A whole month? Why?”
Her emerald gaze turned diamond-hard. “Because I need to know that you really care about Connor. Prove it to me—and him. I don’t want to be made to look a fool.”
Her protectiveness made sense to Tom. He could understand why she’d doubt him, but waiting a whole month when he’d already lost so much time with Connor didn’t sit well with him.
Her eyes narrowed. “Well?”
As he mulled it over. It might be beneficial to wait that long. If he proved his worthiness to Kendra, maybe he could persuade her to marry him. Maybe she would agree to be his wife before they had to tell Marcus. It might soften the blow. “All right. One month, but that’s it.”
She seemed to calm a bit with his agreement until Connor came running out of the kitchen.
“Mama, I peed,” he happily announced. He’d taken off his T-shirt somewhere and stood in only his little jean shorts and pull-ups, which were now down around his ankles. “I pee-peed in da potty.”
Kendra gasped, and they both ran to the kitchen, looking around the room they searched for the “potty” that Connor had used. It didn’t take long to find it. In the corner by the refrigerator stood a small clay planter with a spider plant in it. A trail of yellow droplets led from it to the middle of the floor.
She put a hand on her forehead as Connor stood next to Tom. “He peed in the plant.”
Tom looked at Connor, who smiled at him. “Well, I guess it looks like a potty to him. It’s better than where my niece, Courtney, used to go in their old house.”
Kendra looked at him. “Where did she go?”
