Page 5 of Tempted at Thoroughbred Lake

“It’s not,” Ruby immediately argued, volleying her gaze between their kids. She was in Mom mode now, and Brennan stepped by her side to present a united front.

“It’s not,” Brennan echoed. “You’re eighteen, and you’re heading to college. You are heading to college,” he said, making sure it wasn’t a question.

“Of course, we’re going to UT,” Vivian said, giving the abbreviation for University of Texas. She snuggled even closer to Seth. “Instead of living in the dorms, we’re getting a place together. There are plenty of apartments not too far from campus, and it’ll be cheaper in the long run,” she quickly added, clearly hoping that would win over the parents.

It wouldn’t.

“You’re eighteen,” Brennan pointed out again.

“You can’t say that’s too young to get married, because that’s how old you were when you married Mom,” Seth argued.

“Yeah, and look how bad that turned out,” Brennan snapped.

Of course, he instantly regretted throwing that in Seth’s face. Even if it was the truth, it wasn’t something a son wanted to hear. Still, he had to say or do something to fix this.

“You could get an annulment for now,” Brennan suggested. “And then you can get married after you finish college.” They’d still be young, but those four years would make a big difference at avoiding a bad turnout.

“Yes, an annulment,” Ruby said, jumping right on that bandwagon. “It doesn’t matter about the money you’d save with sharing an apartment. The dorm would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both of you.”

Experiences that both Ruby and he had missed because they’d become parents before they’d been legally old enough to drink.

Seth sighed and shook his head. Vivian, however, went in a different direction with her reaction. Tears filled her eyes and began to spill down her cheeks.

“We want you to be happy for us,” Vivian muttered.

“We will be happy if you wait until you’re old enough to get married,” Ruby fired right back.

Clearly, that went nowhere whatsoever in convincing their offspring. Vivian and Seth held on tighter to each other. “We’re old enough to get married now,” Vivian insisted. “And we are married. We don’t want to wait to be with each other.” She paused, her bottom lip trembling a little. “Not after what happened to Jordy.”

Brennan had been wondering if that was playing into this. Jordy was a classmate who’d had the misfortune to be diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and after a long battle, he’d died. Both Vivian and Seth had been friends with Jordy since kindergarten, so it had hit them pretty hard. It’d hit Brennan hard, too, knowing that someone’s life could turn on a dime.

Brennan sighed. “What happened to Jordy was awful,” he agreed, “but you can’t make life decisions based on that.”

“Sure we can.” Seth said that so fast that he had been clearly ready with this particular point of the argument. “We’re not going to waste another minute of our lives.” He paused, slid glances between Ruby and him. “And you shouldn’t, either.”

“Agreed,” Vivian quickly added. “It’s obvious you two have had a thing for each other for years, and you’ve stayed apart because of some old water under a very old bridge.”

Apparently, Vivian’sobservationstunned Ruby as much as it did Brennan, because neither of them said anything. However, they did look at each other. One quick look that still managed to have the usual kick of heat whenever their eyes met. It was because of that heat that Brennan couldn’t argue with what their kids had just said. Ruby and he had, indeed, had a thing for each other for years.

A scalding hot thing.

And there was that “old water, old bridge” stuff holding them back. That, and Ruby probably wasn’t sure she wanted to hand over her heart to him again so it could get crushed. She had a right to feel that way after all the heart-crushing he’d done to her way back when.

After some long “stunned to silence” moments, Ruby finally cleared her throat and managed to speak. “What I feel or don’t feel for Brennan has nothing to do with what’s going on now. You two should wait before you dive into marriage.”

Vivian lifted her chin in what Brennan had no trouble interpreting as a defiant gesture. “Well, we didn’t wait. We’ve already dived in and you’re both just going to have to accept it.”

With that ultimatum delivered and with her chin still aimed plenty high, Vivian took hold of Seth’s hand, and they headed out of the room. Seconds later, Brennan heard the front door slam. He debated going after them, but he couldn’t figure out anything he could say that wouldn’t just make them dig in their heels even harder. Besides, he had to take a moment to try to wrap his mind around this.

“Crap,” Ruby snarled, and pressing her hands to both sides of her head, she anchored her back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor.

Obviously, she needed to do some mind-wrapping around this as well. She didn’t start muttering things likewhat the heck are we going to do?Nor did Ruby mention anything about that old attraction and hurt that Seth and Vivian had thrown in their faces. Neither did Brennan. However, he did follow suit, and on a long sigh, he sat down on the floor next to Ruby.

“This is about Jordy,” Brennan restated.

Ruby made an immediate sound of agreement. “Our kids think getting married will help with that. It won’t,” she said without any doubts.

Brennan didn’t have any doubts, either. Their kids were eighteen and needed to focus on college or getting training that would lead to jobs.

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