“Thank you so much. You should have seen her in the lobby of my building. I wanted the ground to swallow me up,” Kelly said. “But Vaughan was so protective. He got between us and made her go.”

“She told me about how he threatened to ruin her.”

Kelly shrugged. “He underlined that it wasn’t about his fists, but he’d make her pay with his money and power if she fucked with me again. I’ve been half expecting her to try to charge him with assault or something.”

“I’ve impressed upon her that she’s to operate as if there’s a protection order in place. She needs to avoid your building and your boutiques. I’m having some papers drawn up. An agreement that should she violate your rules she’ll be waiving all future financial support. That’ll do the trick.”

Her friend had urged Kelly to do something like an agreement with her mother for years. Stacey didn’t like it that Kelly paid her mother at all, but if she was going to, Stacey had told Kelly to at the very least cover her ass so she could use it to keep her mother in line and out of Kelly’s life.

It was long past time so the moment she arrived back in Gresham three days prior, Kelly had contacted Stacey to get her working on a legal framework to protect her family from Rebecca.

Stacey’s nose wrinkled. “She’s a piece of work. I’ll give her that. She’s outraged that you’re back with Vaughan and look so happy. I’m glad I wasn’t there or I might have punched her.”

Kelly laughed. “That’s what she wants. Then she could shake you down for a settlement.”

“I’m very happy to hear Vaughan protected you. That’s what we needed to see! After the scene how was he?” Stacey asked.

“I told him a lot about my childhood. About her and the food stuff. He was pretty cool. You were right. I should have before now. He also told his parents the whole truth. And we’re going over there for dinner this coming Wednesday before the gallery opening.”

“Wow. How does all that make you feel?”

“Valued. It makes me feel like I matter to him. That he listened and did the hard thing. He whined about how mad they got at him. But only a little.” Her father hadn’t ever stood between Rebecca and Kelly to protect her. Vaughan hadn’t with his mother, either.

But now he’d changed and was trying. Which didn’t necessarily mean she was going to hang out at the ranch with them for a week. Not at that point.

“The house is quiet when the kids are gone, huh?” Stacey asked.

“It’s not like they’ve never spent time over at the ranch.” Kelly shrugged. He’d taken Maddie and Kensey to help with harvest. Really they rode horses and played cards with Sharon and their aunt Mary, but they loved every minute and because Kelly had a bunch of stuff to handle at the Portland shop, she’d stayed behind.

She’d gone from sleeping at his side every night after putting the girls to bed to sleeping all alone in a silent house for the past three nights.

“I used to sort of like the first few days of their time with him. Being alone, not having anyone to answer to or be responsible for. I could sleep in and watch whatever I wanted on television. But I’m used to it now. I get up to work out and Vaughan isn’t here. The girls don’t come get in bed with us and demand breakfast. I keep waking up because it’s so quiet and I’m worried.” Kelly snorted.

“Anyway, he’s bringing them home tomorrow afternoon. Their manager comes into town first thing tomorrow so they go from harvest to band stuff. I told him to just stay out at the ranch. Jeremy, their manager, can stay with Vaughan and they can work. I don’t want him coming back here at three in the morning. Or having the girls sleeping at his parents’ because he’s out late with his brothers.”

“That’s good with you for real?” Stacey asked.

Kelly blew out a breath. “What am I going to do? Supervise him at all times? I can’t live that way. Having to follow his every move to keep him faithful and from making a mistake? He wants us or he doesn’t. I’m not his mother. He has to police himself. I look at all those women I knew when Vaughan and I were married and the only ones still together with their musician husbands are the couples who make one another their priority. I can’t make him do that. He has to be a big boy and monitor himself. I’m raising two kids. I don’t need to raise him, too. Anyway, I’d end up hating myself and him as well if I tried to accept anything less.”

Kelly twisted one of her rings as she thought about how true that was. Another thing she never wanted her daughters to see was their mother not being treated well by their father.

“But I’m still scared sometimes. I’d forgotten what it was like to have your man openly hit on right in front of you. I can’t offer him secret squirrel restaurants and all that exciting nightlife. I’m not exciting like that. I’m not twenty-two. My boobs haven’t been in twenty-two territory in a really long time. My God, have you seen twenty-two-year-old boobs? They’re fucking spectacular. All gravity-defying and taut. I’m not taut.”

“You’re heading into a full-blown shame spiral. Stop. Need I remind you that you’re one of the genetically gifted? Stop with the woe is me, my stunning tits aren’t as stunning as they were before I had two kids stuff. Otherwise I’ll be forced to slam your head in the fridge like in an action movie.”

Kelly sputtered a laugh. “You’re feeling sassy tonight.”