The red light on Kelsey’s desk phone flashed, indicating her next patient had arrived. Except that she didn’t have another patient.
Edgar Tan was her last of the day, and they still had fifteen minutes to go.
But she never interrupted a session unless it was an emergency. If need be, her receptionist would have called instead of simply
flipping on the light.
Turning her focus back to the middle-aged man in her office, she said, “How did you feel when she said that, Edgar?”
His wife had just left him for a younger man. A much younger man, to the tune of twenty years. Edgar was still sorting through his
emotions, which was one of his wife’s—ex-wife’s—complaints, that he had no emotions.
“I guess I deserve it. She always said this would happen if I didn’t change myself. And she was right.”
“Perhaps,” Kelsey suggested, “you could try thinking of it in another light. How about this?” Over the next few minutes, she detailed
an alternative to his self-destructive thinking.
Her specialty was family therapy, but she never turned away anyone in distress. Edgar was definitely in distress, even if he couldn’t
figure out exactly why. Yet.
When their remaining fifteen minutes were up, she ushered him out.
And her unscheduled patient stepped in.
“Ares.”
She threw herself into his arms. Didn’t stop to think it over. Didn’t hesitate even the slightest. She simply gave herself wholly over to
what felt right. To what she knew was right.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and when she pulled back, his expression was serious.
“Your assistant said you’re done for the day,” he said in a deep voice that rumbled through her deliciously. “But I was hoping you
could squeeze me in.”
“Of course I can.” Her heart was racing as she took a step back. Then she closed the door. And locked it. Whatever he wanted to say
to her, it was obviously something big. Important enough that he didn’t want to say it over dinner or in bed. She gestured to the
couch, then took her usual seat.
“Please,” she said ever so professionally, “tell me what I can help you with.” Was it something to do with Keira? Or his birth
mother?
He was gorgeous in a dark blue suit, white shirt, and striped tie. And more serious than she’d ever seen him as he said, “I have a
terrible confession to make.”
“This is a very safe environment. You can say absolutely anything to me without fear, Ares. Anything at all.”
His deep gaze pierced her. “I made a huge mistake nine years ago.”
Her face felt overly hot, and her pulse beat against her eardrums as he continued.
“Despite everything Sally and George did for me, there was still a part of that little boy who didn’t feel loved, who didn’t think he
deserved to be loved, who thought it was his fault that he’d been left behind. And yet I needed love so desperately that it made me
blind to what real love was.” He paused. “Right from the beginning, Keira said everything she thought I wanted to hear. Her tactics
were brilliantly insidious. Other women would only use me, she claimed, but not her. She made me believe she was the only one
who could fill my deep, dark void. Made me believe that she would never hurt me the way I’d been hurt before.”
Yes, that was Keira. Absolutely. She figured out a person’s biggest weakness and their deepest need and exploited both. “I wanted to
warn you what Keira was like,” Kelsey interjected, “but I was jealous. I knew that had to be coloring my emotions. I hoped she
might have changed. That maybe finding someone as good as you had worked a miracle.”
“Even if you had warned me, I’m not sure I would have believed you. If there’s anything worse for a guy than admitting he’s weak, I
don’t know what it would be. But it’s a fact—I was weak with her. And she knew it.”
“You’re not weak.”
“Not anymore,” he agreed, emotion swimming across his face. “Because of you. Because of your love.”
“Did you know?” Her words were soft. But she had to say them, had to know. “Did you know I loved you all this time?”
“I couldn’t let myself even think about how you felt. I didn’t believe I could ever be good enough to deserve you. Whereas with
Keira…” A muscle jumped in his cheek. “Her darkness matched mine.”
“No.” Kelsey bristled with outrage at that statement. “Nothing about your insides, nothing about who you are, matches anything about Keira.”
“I know that now.” Regret was steeped in every line on his face. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see the truth, Kelsey. To see you.”
She went to him then, tossing out the pretense of being therapist and client, because he was absolutely everything to her. “I love that
you finally see your true worth, how good you are. I love that you finally see me and my love. That I don’t have to keep my feelings
a secret from you. And that Keira can’t hurt either of us, because we won’t let her.”
He was holding her on his lap, his arms around her waist, hers around his neck, their lips close enough to touch. “You’re damned
right we won’t.” A hit of renewed fury sparked in his eyes. “Today, I kicked her out of our lives.”
Our lives. How she loved the sound of that.
“We went head to head with the lawyers. And she never stood a chance.”
“Of course she didn’t.” Her heart ached for him, though, as she guessed, “Even in battle, you were kind, weren’t you? Too kind.”
“I’m giving her the house, but it was always her house, not mine. The only room I liked was the library. Because of the time you and
I spent there together.”
She’d never forget all the precious moments she’d shared with him in that library. When she was just his friend…and he was always
so much more to her.
“I’m glad she can’t hurt you anymore.”
“I won’t let her hurt you again either. Not,” he added, “that you need me to protect you. You’re so strong, Kelsey.”
“I am.” She knew that now, with a certainty that no one and nothing could ever take away from her. “When she came to my condo,
she admitted that she knew I was in love with you all along. From the day she met you in my dorm room. She told me it only made it
better to take you for herself. To make sure I could never have you.”
“Jesus, Kelsey.” Grief and guilt welled up in him. “I was so freaking blind.”
“You just wanted to be loved.” She held his face in her hands. “But you always have been. I love you. Sally and George love you.
Your friends love you.” She wanted to tell him that Theresa loved him too, despite the way she’d hurt him. But for all his epiphanies
today, was he ready to hear that one?
“How?” He looked at her in wonder. “How can you be so different from her?”
She stroked her hands along his arms. “She was the baby, while I had to be the responsible one. She felt entitled and privileged
because my parents indulged her.” Kelsey shook her head. “Why on earth do you think I became a psychologist? To figure her out.
And to get her to change. But I couldn’t do either.”
“I know how hard that is to accept about someone in your family,” he said. “That they’re a monster who can’t be changed.”
They weren’t talking about Keira anymore, but about his father. Before she could speak, he brushed the hair back from her face and
said, “Talk to me, Kelsey. I wasn’t ready to listen before, but I am now. I want to know what you think. What you feel. With nothing
held back anymore.”
Anyone else would have made their declarations, their apologies, then happily moved on. But Ares wasn’t just anyone. He was a
brilliant, brave man. A Baddrick.
And her one true love.
She had to kiss him then. To let him know, without words, just how much he meant to her before she pushed him to go to even more
uncomfortable, raw places.
“Your epiphany about how a low sense of self-worth held you back from finding real, honest love is wonderful. The way you’ve
dealt with Keira and banished a powerful emotional vampire from your life is amazing.”
“But?”
“No buts.” She threaded her fingers through his. “How good does it feel to be free of Keira?”
“Best feeling ever.”
As much as she ached to do it, as much as it would hurt him, she had to ask, “How good do you think it would feel to forgive your
mother?”