The You I've Come To Know (A Mother's Love Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  THE YOU I’VE COME TO KNOW | Alison Kent

  Praise for THE YOU I'VE COME TO KNOW

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Reader Letter

  More Books by the Author

  Copyright

  Sign up for Alison Kent's Mailing List

  THE YOU I’VE COME TO KNOW

  Alison Kent

  Praise for THE YOU I'VE COME TO KNOW

  “The journey is worth the price of admission with this wonder-filled readable book.” — Edward B., Goodreads reviewer

  “This story was the sweetest way to find love and family. Alison Kent certainly has a way with words and touching her reader right in the feels.” — Savana L., Goodreads reviewer

  “WOW!!! What a wonderful love story. The depth of the story was outstanding. I wasn't ready for it to end.” — Mary H., Amazon reviewer

  Dedication

  Thanks to Transworld's ninth-floor crew for being such good sports. Enjoy your cameos.

  Thanks to the women of GEnie—Khrys and Barbara especially—for setting me straight on baby things and broken legs.

  Thanks to Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins for Adore and the incredible “Daphne Descends.”

  Thanks most of all to my own personal stuntman/scene blocker/idea guy/research assistant who also cooks and cleans and has the patience of a saint. I couldn’t do any of this without you.

  Chapter One

  JOEL WOLFSLEY HAD A THING about eyes.

  He’d seen ’em scared: gang-tough teenage eyes watching life bleed from their own bodies to the pavement beneath them.

  He’d seen ’em wild: doped-up junkie eyes, strung out and flying high on a one-way, last time trip. He’d seen ’em lie: backing up bald-faced, through the teeth, full of “It wasn’t me, Officer, I swear you got the wrong guy” stories.

  But none of those eyes had the kick of the big baby-blues facing him now. He was a goner. He knew it. Backed into a wall. No partner to cover his ass. Beyond the point where cunning and wits were enough to save his hide. He should’ve been ready for this. Should’ve known the time would come when his one admitted weakness would be his undoing.

  Because Detective Joel, the Big Bad Wolf, Wolfsley was a sucker for his sisters.

  All four of them had used that brotherly weakness to their advantage at one time or another. They’d even sided against him on more than one occasion, representing quadruply unfair four-to-one odds. This time it was sister number one who’d arrived on his front porch. She had both barrels loaded.

  The first round squirmed from her mother’s arms into her uncle’s one-elbow, hooked-around-the-middle hold. The ten-month-old gurgles and giggles and Bambi-brown eyes, were making it hard for Joel to say no.

  “I don’t know, Jen,” he began for the third time before his sister hurried to make up his mind.

  “Leigh won’t be a bit of trouble, will you, Punkin?” Jennifer Collins tickled her daughter’s chubby chin. The baby hung like a potato sack over Joel’s shoulder. “You’ll be a sweet girl for Uncle Joel this evening, won’t you? So Mommy can go see Daddy for a few days?”

  Joel watched his distracted sister turn and busy herself checking Leigh’s diaper bag, muttering as she ticked off baby wipes and baby powder, diapers and formula. He shared a sideways glance with the baby, rubbing his nose against hers. A stream of drool dribbled from her four-toothed grin to his chest.

  “Way to go, Scout,” Joel teased, hefting the baby back to his side and frowning down at her impishly innocent face. “And my best T-shirt, too.”

  Jennifer whirled around and was back at Joel’s side before he could blink. “Did she spit up? She just had a bottle. I should’ve warned you.”

  “C’mon, Jen. Lighten up.” Basket-case hysteria wasn’t Jen’s style, even when she was doing her best sister-to-big-brother sweet-talkin’. He didn’t like seeing her this bent out of shape. “A little spit never hurt a guy.”

  The heel of her hand pressed to her forehead, Jennifer took a deep breath, blew it out slowly and smiled up at her brother. Then she fired the second round of ammunition. “Sorry, Joel. It’s just that I haven’t seen Rob in a month. If I miss this chance, I swear I’m going to come unglued.”

  His sister’s marriage to Robert Collins was the exact relationship Joel would wish for had he any intention of marrying. He didn’t, which only made him want the best for those fortunate enough to share what Jen and Rob shared.

  “All that’s left in the van is the playpen and the Exersaucer,” Jennifer was saying, pushing back a cascade of red-gold curls with one hand, the other resting on her hip as she scanned the room Joel had decorated in a minimalist style of early bachelor. “Let me get those and you’ll be all set. Leigh should go down around seven.”

  Joel nodded and nipped at Leigh’s tiny fingers as she probed behind his lips for his tongue. When he looked up from the baby and back at his sister, he found Jennifer checking her watch as if she had no idea why she was looking.

  “Mom and Dad should’ve been back by now.” Distraction left her voice shaken. “I called the lake house yesterday and left a message. No one answered when I tried again this afternoon. They must be on their way home. Cell reception between here and there is crap, but I left a voice mail for both of them. I left another message on their machine at the house so they’ll know you have Leigh. They ought to be here by ten at the latest to pick her up.”

  Joel watched his sister tick off her list of who, what, when, where, and why. The one thing she’d left off mentioning was Leigh’s regular sitter. “What about Terri? You couldn’t get hold of her? You know I don’t mind sitting with Scout here but... Criminy, Jen. Don’t cry.”

  Jennifer looked upward and blinked hard. “Dammit, Joel. If my mascara runs I’m going to kill you.”

  And by the look in her eyes, she was exactly that desperate. None of his sisters ever minced words or resorted to the unquestionable power of female tears. If Jen was this close to crying, she’d reached the end of her rope. He wasn’t about to be her hangman.

  Time to ease the noose he seemed to have inadvertently tightened. He shook his head and lightly chuckled, which caused Leigh to giggle, which brought a watery smile back to Jennifer’s face.

  “Better.” He stroked a finger down his sister’s nose. She rewarded him with a more solidly confident smile. Ah, yes. That was his Jennifer. He matched her grin. “Now, go get the saucer thing and playpen before you forget—or I change my mind.”

  Jennifer stood on tiptoe to give him a hug. “Oh, Joel, you’re the best.” She stepped back, straightened her bright gold sweater. “You know I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t desperate. I didn’t even know Rob was coming until he called yesterday from his flight to New York. He’ll be in the States a week before it’s back to Afghanistan.”

  Jennifer’s expression reflected the wistful longing of her sigh. “There hasn’t been time to make half the arrangements I need to.
I just wish I could take Leigh with me, but the pediatrician said no air travel with her ears like this. She’s got another appointment to see him on Monday. Terri or Mom will get her there.”

  Joel’s protective instincts kicked in. “I’ll make sure there’s a cruiser in the neighborhood to keep an eye on the house. What about the mail and newspapers?”

  She nodded. “I did get that taken care of. Howie Jr. is going to pick up both every day, mow the yard tomorrow after school and feed and water Shadow. He was pretty jazzed about the chance to make a few bucks.”

  No doubt. Joel was familiar with the fifteen-year-old son of his sister’s neighbor—more familiar than Jennifer probably realized. Responsibility was a good thing for any teen. A great thing for this one in particular. Now Joel would get the chance to see if Howie had learned his lesson during those sixty hours of community service.

  “I’ll give Howie a call in a couple of days. Make sure he’s really working for that paycheck.”

  “You mean you’re going to put the fear of the Big Bad Wolf into the poor boy.” Digging her keys from the black hole of her woven bag, Jennifer shook her head and gave Joel a sisterly critical tsk-tsk. “You can’t quit working even for a minute, can you?”

  “No, ma’am,” Joel answered, hoisting Leigh above his head to the airborne baby’s squeals of delight. “Gotta whip these whelps into shape early. Let ’em know who’s in charge.”

  “You’re a ruthlessly honorable man, Detective Wolfsley,” Jennifer said, faking a terrible Deep South drawl and a swoon. “Why, I feel as safe as a little ol’ bug in a rug knowing I’m protected by the likes of your big teeth.”

  “The better to eat you with, my dear.” He growled and blew a quick raspberry on Leigh’s tummy, exposed beneath the frilly ruffles of her white dress. Turning a wolf’s predatory eye on Jennifer, he lifted a brow. “Playpen. Saucer. Now. Then get your butt in gear before you miss your flight.”

  She didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. She raced out the door, returned in less than two minutes with the equipment, managed final instructions and cooing goodbyes to her daughter in the next five, then she was out the door again.

  Thirty seconds later, she’d backed her minivan down the crushed-shell drive and disappeared into the shadows of the tall pines on either side of the long road.

  Joel stood in the open doorway and watched her go. He was really going to have to talk to his sister about that lead foot, he noted, as the cloud of dust raised by her mad dash settled. Shaking his head, he went inside, pulled the door closed, and turned to Leigh.

  “Well, Scout. It’s just you and me,” he said, addressing the now wriggling baby who had tired of her uncle’s charms and was ready to see the world. Or at least what in the world of his house she could get into from a height of two feet.

  He set her down on her semi-steady feet, cringed when she overcompensated for a wobbly right step with a way too long left, then watched her take off toward the kitchen at the same speed her mother had used to rocket out of his drive minutes ago.

  Snagging his cane from where he’d hooked it over the front doorknob, he swung his knee-high walking cast forward and took off after her, thinking he’d be lucky to catch her before she’d unloaded all his kitchen cabinets.

  The munchkin definitely had him in the speed department these days.

  THREE HOURS LATER, Joel lay propped in the corner of his navy leather sofa with Leigh fast asleep on his chest. His parents still weren’t home. Calls to friends at the lake as well as to neighbors near their Northwest Houston home left Joel as clueless as before he’d picked up the phone.

  Sister number two, Carolyn, lived in Chicago with her husband who traded stocks on the floor of the exchange. She hadn’t spoken to their parents since a quick call on Good Friday the weekend before.

  “You know Mom and Dad,” she’d told Joel from her car en route from the office of her interior design firm where she’d been working late.

  “If they left the lake house early like Jennifer said, that gave them time to go antiquing on the way home. No doubt they ended up halfway to Oklahoma and decided to spend the night. I’m sure they’ll be home tomorrow.”

  Sister number three, Moira, lived in New Mexico where she took leather and beads and shards of glass and made bizarre jewelry that had earned her a mint and a name and a permanent display in an exclusive gallery.

  “You know Mom and Dad,” she’d told Joel when he reached her in her studio. “Any chance to get away for a few days of fishing and they’ll take it. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they’re putting all that Christmas camping gear to use. I’m sure they’ll be home in a day or two.”

  His sisters. All so sure. Just like most women, he mused.

  Sister number four, Annie, lived in LA where she attended USC’s School of Cinema and Television. He hadn’t talked to her yet, though he’d left her a message between round one of feeding Leigh bananas and carrots and round two of washing what didn’t make it into her mouth down the bathtub drain.

  It was bad enough struggling in and out of the tub for his own one-legged showers. Hunkering down to Leigh’s level with one leg that didn’t want to hunker down had been a pain in the... well, everything.

  The muscles in his leg burned like an inferno. He doubted the past four hours of Olympic-caliber endurance athletics were what his doctor considered “taking it easy.” No doubt he’d hear about it during his checkup tomorrow morning.

  And hear about it ten years from now when Leigh complained that he couldn’t slide into home worth a damn with that bum leg. He’d have to remind her then that tonight’s marathon caused his leg more damage than the bullet that had torn through the muscles the month before.

  The phone rang. He pressed the handset before the chime roused the baby. “Yeah?”

  “Nice, Wolf Man. Sounds like I’m going to have to come home and give you an attitude adjustment.”

  Twenty-year-old bluster. Joel smiled. “Hey, Annie. You got Spielberg beating down your door yet?”

  “Check back with me next week. After the film festival,” Annie said, a triumphant tone to her voice.

  “All right, Li’l Sis. When do I get to see your name scroll by in the credits?”

  “If you were here, you could see it Wednesday. But since you’re not, you’ll have to wait in line with the rest of the commoners.” She laughed, oh so full of her cocky young self. “Of course, I’m sure you’ll get a full report from Mom and Dad when they get back to town.”

  Oh, hell. Joel rested his free palm on Leigh’s diapered rump and sat forward. Annie had his full attention. “You want to run that one by me again?”

  “They called me from the lake house Friday to wish me a happy birthday, which you still have not done, by the way.”

  “Aw, Annie.” Joel glanced at the addressed and stamped envelope propped on his fireplace mantel. “I didn’t forget. I just didn’t... remember.”

  “Hmm. I thought you said you’d been shot in the leg. Not the head.”

  “Funny girl,” Joel said, but his thoughts had already moved from the missed birthday to his missing parents. “Finish telling me about Mom and Dad.”

  Voices in the background called Annie’s name. “In a minute,” she yelled directly into the receiver. “Okay. When Dad called, I told him about the film festival. He and Mom decided to come see their youngest in action while they could still get in for free.”

  Joel stuck his finger to his left ear and wiggled. Annie must yell a damn good “Cut.” He moved the receiver to the right ear. “So you’re telling me they’re on their way to California?”

  “Yep. Should be here by Tuesday morning. My show is Wednesday. If they leave after that on Thursday, that would put them home by Sunday I’m sure.”

  “Jen thought they’d be home tonight.” Jen promised him they’d be home tonight. Jen was sure they’d be home tonight.

  Just like Carolyn was sure they’d gone antiquing.

  Just like Moira was sur
e they’d gone fishing.

  Joel was sure he was in big trouble.

  “You know Mom and Dad,” Annie said, an echo of the others. “They’re worse about exercising their prerogative to change their minds than a group of ten women. I have a feeling they were packed and ready to hit the road when I talked to them Friday. They just changed destination on their way out the door.”

  Annie paused at the sound of her name being called one more time. This time Joel moved the phone.

  “Sorry ’bout that. Anyway, you want me to have them give you a ring when they show?” She barely took a breath before going on. “Is that why you wanted to hear from me, other than to offer me belated birthday wishes, of course?”

  It was, but it sure didn’t matter now. “Yeah, but don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to them when they get home.”

  “Okay, well, I’ve got to go. Love you, Wolf Man,” she said and the line went dead.

  Joel pressed the disconnect and set the portable on the hardwood floor. Leigh raised her head, turned to the other cheek and snuggled her fist into her mouth—all without opening her eyes. Her breath came in tiny comforting gusts of warmth against his bare skin.

  It was ten o’clock Sunday night. Jen had already flown out of Bush Intercontinental on her way to JFK. Sisters two, three, and four all lived out of state as did Rob’s family. And Joel had to make the trek to the doctor in the morning. Leigh’s regular sitter was a high-school senior. She had classes in the morning, as did Howie Jr.

  And even if Howie were available, there was no way Joel would trust him to take care of this baby. Left in that teen’s hands, Jen’s dog, Shadow, would be lucky to eat.

  Ah, well. This was what family was about. Being there for each other. Joel enjoyed being there in time of need. Had always enjoyed being there. In fact, this was the first time he’d hesitated. If not for being laid up, he’d have said yes before Jen had even explained. But he didn’t want to let her down by not being there one hundred percent.