Caleb cut his gaze from Shay, and there was no mistaking his unhappiness, or the sudden icy chill in the air.
“Caleb—” she began, trying to make things right, but he cut her off, answering Sharon instead.
“On my way,” he called, leaving Shay without another glance. The instant Caleb was within Sharon’s reach, Sharon grabbed him and hugged him. “It was the best two weeks of my life. Thank you, Caleb.”
Shay watched Caleb’s face as he hugged her mother. His eyes were shut, but his jaw was tense, the handsomely rugged lines of his face strained. Because of her, she thought guiltily. But when he pulled back to look at Sharon, he smiled, and it transformed his features, as if the harshness of moments before had never existed. “I can’t wait to hear all about the trip,” he said.
A grumble followed by a rant of cursing came from the doorway. Shay’s father had made it to the house but not happily. Sharon grimaced. “You better help. He’s an old man, Caleb. He really might float away.”
Caleb chuckled and went to do as ordered. Shay rushed forward and hugged her mother, leaning back to ask, “So Italy was amazing?”
“A fairy tale,” she said. “I still can’t believe Caleb did that for us.” She waved at Shay, already walking. “Come to the kitchen and let me show you what I brought you.”
Fifteen minutes later, Shay’s mother was talking a million miles an hour, with wine and all kinds of cookbooks, and yummy treats for Shay, Caleb and Kent. And Shay wanted to hear it all, she wanted to be excited with her mother. A hard thing to do, between Caleb’s being upset with her and the dread over telling her parents about Kent. Shay’s stomach was churning, the memory of the IHOP brunch she and Caleb had indulged in earlier in the day ever present, and not nearly as pleasant now as it had been to eat.
In the next room, Shay could hear Bob telling Caleb about the trip, talking more than she thought she’d heard her father talk in years. All this happiness and excitement, and Shay and Caleb were about to twist them in knots. And soon. It had to be soon or Kent would arrive and they wouldn’t be ready for him.
As if he’d been reading her mind, Caleb appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. “Sharon,” he said, “Shay and I have something we need to sit down and discuss with you and Bob.” He paused, but his tone had been grave, his expression stark as he added, “Before Kent gets here.”
Sharon set down the package of pasta in her hand. “Oh, my. Is everything okay?”
Shay touched her mother’s back. “It’s fine,” she said, and offered a reassuring smile. “We just need to have a little family problem-solving powwow,” she said. “Something we didn’t want to hit you with the day you came home, but unfortunately, it’s necessary.”
Once they were all gathered around the coffee table—Shay and her mother on the couch, Caleb and her father in the leather chairs across from them—Shay glanced at Caleb, and he explained what had happened with Kent. Then, as planned, Shay showed her parents some brochures for a treatment facility she’d checked out for Kent, and explained what she felt, professionally, needed to be done. She’d consulted several peers, as this was personal, and she wanted to be sure she was objective.
Neither of her parents said much as Shay and Caleb talked. Shay sat back, hands on her legs, and said, “When he gets here, we’d like to talk to him. Use the power of a family intervention to insist he get help.”
Sharon covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Shay hugged her, her gaze seeking Caleb’s. “Sharon,” Caleb offered, “Kent is safe. We just want to keep him that way. And if he keeps gambling like this, there’s going to come a point where I can’t bail him out.”
“You’ll get every damn dime back,” Bob said, his voice crackling with emotion masked by out-of-character anger. “If I have to pay you myself.”
Caleb reached over and patted Bob’s shoulder. “I don’t want your money. I don’t give a damn about the money. I care about Kent. These men he’s involved with are not people you mess with.”
“When can he check into this place?” Sharon asked urgently. “I want him locked away someplace safe. Can he go tonight?”
Shay and Caleb exchanged a look. They had agreement on the treatment facility. That was a major step in the right direction. “He needs time to arrange things with his work and his insurance, and they can’t get him in for two weeks anyway. Not at this facility, which is not only close, in the Hill Country, but well-respected. We’ll just have to keep an eye on him the next two weeks and make sure he doesn’t go running up another debt.”