Page 64 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

They lapsed into a weighted silence.

“So…you two are back together, then.”

“Yep,” Xander answered.

Buck nodded, something lightening in his face. “I reckon that means we’ve gotta find a way to co-exist.” He looked to Kennedy, flummoxed. “How do we do that?”

“You love your son.” She looked up at Xander. “So do I. Why don’t we start there?”

Chapter Sixteen

“ARE YOU SURE IT’S okay if I sleep here?”

Kennedy was pretty sure if she didn’t steer him toward a bed in the next five minutes, Xander would collapse on the nearest horizontal surface. “It’s fine. Go on up to my room. I’ll be up in a little bit after I give everybody the update.”

He stroked a thumb across her cheek. “Don’t be long.”

She found a smile for him and nudged him toward the stairs. He trudged up, each step seeming to take twice as long as it should have. Kennedy hoped he managed to get his shoes off before he tumbled into bed.

Hearing voices, she headed for the kitchen.

Her sisters looked up from the table when she came into the room.

“Kennedy! You’re back.” Ari leapt up and came to hug her.

Pru followed suit. “What can I get you? Coffee? Food?”

“Nothing. I’m loaded up on crappy hospital food and coffee. I’m about to go pass out. And just so you know, Xander is sleeping here. He’s had a really rough couple of days. If anybody has a problem with that, I’ll sleep in a different bed, but he doesn’t need to be alone.”

“Of course it’s fine. How’s Buck?” Pru asked.

“He’s a tough son of a bitch. Double bypass surgery. But they say he’s going to be okay.”

“Gotta say, a massive heart attack seems like karmic payback to me.” Athena’s disembodied voice came from the iPad on the table. “Like the guilt finally got to him for what he did to you.”

Apparently Kennedy had arrived home in the middle of a family meeting. One excluding her. Again.

“I’d hate to think that,” she said.

“You’re nicer than I am. I have a much finer-tuned sense of vengeance.”

Maggie rose from the other end of the table. “Listen, Kennedy, about last night—”

Kennedy held up a hand. “Can you not? If you want to yell at me some more, fine, but it’s going to wait until I’ve had some sleep. I’ve been up for thirty hours, and I’m feeling mean.”

Maggie’s cheeks flushed. “I don’t want to yell at you. I want to talk to you. Which is what I should have done in the first place. I’m sorry.”

The sudden turnaround had Kennedy’s head spinning. Or maybe that was the lack of sleep. “Okay?”

“You want to turn the house into an inn.” It wasn’t a question.

Kennedy realized that all her notes were spread out over the kitchen table. “Where did you get those?” It was a stupid question. From her room, obviously. That was where she’d stashed them.

“Ari pulled them out after you left last night,” Pru explained.

Kennedy wished she hadn’t done that. Wished she’d had the chance to organize everything the way she’d wanted. But wishing something didn’t make it true. So she mustered up a smile of thanks for the girl, who’d only been trying to help.

Maggie laid a hand on the open binder. “You’ve put a lot of work into this.”

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