Laughing, Stacey lured Kelly from her tree house and they headed inside.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

IT WASN’T THAT Vaughan disliked Stacey. She had an easy, genuine affection for his daughters, which he approved of mightily. She and Kelly were close, like sisters. And, as Vaughan knew the power of that sort of connection, he approved of that, too.

But Stacey knew all his dirty laundry. And it was hard not to feel embarrassed about it every time he saw her. She’d sat across from him and his attorney during their divorce and as the ugliness of the entire situation got worse and more of what he’d done came out, his attorney had gone on the attack and things had been said that Vaughan very much regretted.

That it happened in full view of Kelly’s best friend, that the knowledge of his smallest moments was in her gaze sometimes, was hard to get past.

But she was part of this family, a family he was also working to be part of, so it meant trying to get to know this person who was so important to his kids and to Kelly.

And she’d given him a chance to romance Kelly and came over to babysit the kids while he did it.

“I really appreciate your doing this,” he said to Stacey as they got ready to leave.

“It’s never a chore to hang out with Miss Madness and her partner in crime, Master K.”

Kensey and Maddie thought this hilarious as they hugged Stacey.

“What movie are we going to watch?” Maddie asked.

“First there’s homework to check, I hear. Then we watch movies. None of them will be Frozen.”

“Aww, why not?” Kensey asked.

“Because I’ve seen it with you guys about eight thousand times already. I’m good with Elsa and Anna for like, the next forty years or so.”

“Or until you have kids,” Kelly said as she entered the room. “There’ll always be a Frozen of some sort.”

Damn.

Vaughan couldn’t do more than stand there and stare at Kelly, who looked fantastic in a short dress in all sorts of blues. Long, long legs showed, ending with sparkling stilettos.

It wasn’t as if he forgot what she looked like. But when she pulled out all the stops getting dressed up it could be like looking at the sun.

“You look beautiful,” he said, trying not to appear as stunned as he was.

She blushed. “Thanks. You, too. Always did clean up nice, Hurley.” Kelly winked and he offered his arm.

“You two have fun. Yes, I’ll put them to bed at nine.” Stacey’s look made Kelly laugh.

They kissed their daughters and headed out on their first date in a decade.

Or, they would have if his mother hadn’t been on the front doorstep, her hand raised to knock.

“Mom.” Vaughan hugged her. “What’s up? Is everything okay?”

Sharon held up some bags. “A few things for the girls. I was out shopping for the baby.” Her smile went so deep and happy. Vaughan missed seeing her more often. “You don’t think I’d forget my girls, do you?”

Kelly stepped aside, motioning his mother into the house. “Hi, Sharon. They’re in the living room with Stacey. They’ll love seeing you. Go on through.”

“Oh. Are you going out? I figured that you’d be home because it was a school night.”

Kelly stiffened and Vaughan sighed. “Yes, we’re going out to dinner.”

“I gave them my dinner reservations at a lovely, dark, romantic restaurant. These two need time alone.” Stacey’s smile was pleasant enough as she came through to the entry where he and Kelly had been standing with Sharon.

But she came to a halt next to Kelly, clearly there to defend. Things were tense and he hated it.

“I like to spend all the time I can with my goddaughters. They just ran upstairs to put their homework away.” Stacey gave Kelly a little push out the door. “See you two later on. Don’t be late for dinner. Have fun, now. Sharon and I will be just fine with spaghetti.”

Kelly shook her head. “It’s fine. You can take your reservation back. You have time. I have a closet full of clothes.”

No way was he giving up dinner alone with Kelly. She’d taken time with her outfit. He wanted to look nice, too. Wanted to have this romantic few hours. She’d been a little withdrawn over the weekend after that scene at the carnival.

“That would be totally silly.” Stacey pushed herself past Vaughan and Sharon and led Kelly out into the driveway. Vaughan took that opportunity to steer his mother farther into the house.

“Why is she upset now?” Sharon turned on him, keeping her voice low.

“Why are you so dead set on disliking her? What’s with the crack about school nights?”

“How is that a crack? I asked a question.”

“If your mother-in-law said something like that to you, how would you have taken it?”

“I’m not her mother-in-law anymore. Unless you’ve done something stupid without telling anyone. Have you?”

“Marrying Kelly again wouldn’t be stupid.”

His mother’s right eyebrow slid up. He hadn’t seen that expression in years. “There’s a lot going on you haven’t talked to your family about. You want to correct that?” she asked.

He heard the thunder of feet as the girls made their way across the second-floor gallery, heading to the stairs. “I can’t do this right now. Maddie and Kensey are coming back downstairs and if they had any idea of this situation between you and their mother they’d be really upset. We need to talk. I haven’t always...” He stopped himself. Now wasn’t the time to confess anything. He had a pissed off ex-wife in the driveway and his mother in his hall with two kids under twelve about to flip out with excitement that not only was Stacey there, but Nana was, too.