Читать книгу His-and-Hers Family - Helen Lacey - Страница 9

“So, what’s she like?”

Wyatt had barely walked into the main house at Waradoon late the following afternoon when his mother corralled him with the question. He dropped his keys on the hall stand. “She’s nice.”

“Nice?” Janet Harper’s silvery brows rose swiftly. “That’s all?”

In no mood for the third degree, Wyatt uncharacteristically ignored his mother and headed for the big kitchen at the rear of the house. He grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and tossed the lid in the trash.

“Yeah … nice,” he said when he spotted his mother ten feet behind him, with her hands firmly on her hips.

“Have you agreed for her to meet Cecily?”

It hadn’t been a difficult decision. He instinctively knew Fiona was a good person. Despite also knowing she was holding something back, his concerns were minimal. It was unrealistic to think she’d simply lay her life open because he wanted answers. He could wait. In time he’d know everything about her. He’d make sure of it. “Eventually. Once I’ve talked with Cecily about it.”

“She’ll be home from her riding lesson soon. And full of questions. She’s almost jumping out of her skin over this.” Janet’s voice dropped an octave. “I hope this woman doesn’t—”

“She has a name,” he said quietly. “And don’t stress—you’ll like Fiona.”

Wyatt wished he didn’t like her as much as he did. He’d spent the past twenty-four hours thinking of little else.

And the fact I wanted to kiss her last night.

“Fiona,” his mother echoed, and he quickly got his thoughts back on track. “Yes. And she’s nice. So you keep saying.”

Wyatt frowned. His mother had way too much intuition for his liking. “Stop smiling.”

“I trust your judgment,” she said and sat at the long table. “If you say she’s nice, I’m sure she’s exactly that. You’ll do what’s right for Cecily and the family. You always do.”

Did he? He certainly hadn’t when he’d jumped into his relationship with Yvette. He’d invited her into his family and paid the price. But Wyatt understood the meaning of his mother’s words. He had every intention of ensuring Cecily’s well-being. And he wanted to protect Fiona, too. As for the family, they were all curious about Cecily’s birth mother, especially his sisters. He certainly wasn’t about to unleash them on an unsuspecting Fiona.

“Uncle Wyatt! You’re here!”

Cecily stood in the doorway dressed in her riding garb, and he was amazed how much she looked like her mother. Not her mother. That was Karen. Her birth mother.

She raced across the room and landed against him with a resounding thud.

He hugged her tightly. “Hey, kid, good to see you.”

“You, too,” she said on a rushed breath. “So, tell me everything. Did you see her, did you talk to her, does she want to meet me?”

“Yes, yes and yes.”

Cecily’s eyes filled with moisture. “Really? I can meet her. I can talk to her?”

Wyatt nodded. He knew Cecily was eager, but he also knew he needed to show caution and get her to take things slowly. “She’s going to write to you. Once she’s done that, you can make up your mind about what you want to do.”

Cecily pulled back and straightened her shoulders. “I already know what I want, Uncle Wyatt. I want to meet her. And soon.”

She gave a determined sniff and left the room to change and attend to her homework.

“I told you she was keen.”

Cecily wanted to meet her birth mother. Fiona wanted to reconnect with the child she’d given up. If it worked out, everyone would be happy. But if not, Wyatt could see the potential for disaster.

“You know,” his mother said in that way that meant he was supposed to listen, “you could take some time off and take Cecily to see her. It might be easier for Cecily to meet her birth mother away from Waradoon. I’m sure Miss Walsh would feel overwhelmed to come here with all of us hanging around, if that’s what you were planning.”

He wasn’t planning anything. The logistics had been on the back burner. But bring her to Waradoon? Wyatt’s focus had been on getting to know Fiona before he made any decisions.

And now that I know her, I can’t get her out of my mind ….

He paid his mother attention again. “You mean take Cecily to Crystal Point?”

“Why not? How long has it been since you’ve taken a vacation? And you know how Cecily loves the beach.” Janet raised her brows. “It might do you some good, too.”

He didn’t miss the dig. “I don’t need a vacation.”

She clearly didn’t agree and pulled no punches in telling him so. “Your father had his first heart attack when he was forty-two because he worked too hard. I don’t want to see that happen to you. There’s more to life than Harper Engineering.”

Wyatt knew what was coming. He needed a life. He needed a wife. But that wasn’t going to happen.

“The business will be—”

“Fine,” she assured him. “Alessio will be there,” she said of his brother-in-law and right-hand man. “Take a few weeks and—”

“A few weeks?” Wyatt stared at his mother. “I can’t do that.”

“Sure you can,” she said and smiled. “School breaks up soon for two weeks. I don’t think pulling Cecily out of classes for an extra week would hurt her.”

A few weeks in Crystal Point? Cecily would jump at the opportunity, he was sure. And Fiona … would she agreed to whatever he suggested if it meant having the chance to reconnect with her daughter?

I’m just not sure I should be spending three weeks around Fiona Walsh.

But other than sending Cecily to Crystal Point alone, which he would never do, or invite Fiona to Waradoon, which he wasn’t sure she’d agree to, what option did he have?

“So it’s all arranged?” Fiona asked her friend Evie Dunn.

“Yep,” Evie replied. “They’re booked to arrive on Saturday and are staying for nearly three weeks.” Evie’s black brows rose sharply. “You know, I’ve told you this at least four times already.”

She knew that. But she wanted to hear it again. And again. Her daughter was coming to meet her. My daughter is coming here.

The reality was both exciting and terrifying.

Cecily had read the letter Fiona had sent via her uncle and had quickly replied with an email, including photographs, and Fiona had choked back tears as she’d read her daughter’s words. They’d been heartfelt and full of courage.

Fiona found herself holding her breath. “I know … just checking.”

“Good thing we had that cancellation,” Evie said.

Evie’s bed-and-breakfast, Dunn Inn, was a popular retreat in the small town and usually had full occupancy. The cancellation of guests meant that two rooms were available, and Fiona couldn’t have been happier.

“You’re gonna be loco by the time they get here,” Callie said and passed Fiona a drink. It was Friday night and the art class in Evie’s studio was over. Two other participants had bailed ten minutes earlier, and it left Fiona sharing a drink with Callie, Evie and Evie’s younger sister, Mary-Jayne Preston. They liked to think of it as Friday night cocktails, but with Evie only three months away from having a baby, they made do with peach iced tea instead of alcohol. Only Mary-Jayne, or M.J. as she was called, complained. Fiona was happy to keep her mind buzzing.

“So, he’s hot? The uncle?” M.J. asked in her usual boots-and-all manner.

“Yep. Hotter than Hades.” It was Callie, who was married to Evie and M. J.’s older brother, Noah, who replied. “The original tall, dark and handsome.”

Fiona sipped her tea. She wasn’t going to think about Wyatt. Definitely not.

“And single?” M. J.’s eyes popped wide. “From a wealthy family and running a successful business? Interesting.”

Fiona pushed aside the niggling resentment forming in her blood. It shouldn’t matter to her that another woman might find Wyatt attractive … but it did. If she dared summon the courage, she would admit the truth—that she was nervous about seeing him again.

He’d emailed her with details of their upcoming visit, and Fiona knew she’d read, and then reread, each of his messages more times than was sensible. But Wyatt was hard to ignore, even through something as bland as an email or text message. Of course, there was nothing even remotely personal in his messages. They were only about Cecily. Which was what she wanted, right?

His indifference gave her the opportunity to focus on her daughter. She learned about Cecily’s school, her friends, her beloved horse, Banjo, and the family who clearly adored her. Talking with her daughter seemed so natural and not awkward, like she had imagined for so many years.

Awkward she saved for Wyatt. And the stretched nerves she took with herself everywhere she went—she saved them for him, too. And the fluttering in her belly whenever she thought about his blue eyes and perfectly sexy smile.

“Earth to Fiona?”

She snapped her thoughts back to the moment and discovered her three friends staring at her with raised brows and widened eyes. “I was thinking about Cecily,” she said and took a drink.

“You sighed,” M.J. told her. “Loudly.”

“I cleared my throat,” she said in defense. “So, who’s up for more iced tea?”

Callie checked her watch. “Count me out. I have to get going. I promised Noah I’d be home early.”

Fiona didn’t miss the dreamy look on her friend’s face. Callie adored her husband and four stepchildren. And with a pregnant Evie soon to marry Callie’s younger brother, Scott, the two families were now intimately linked. Sometimes, when she watched them interact and observed the friendly rivalry and obvious affection the siblings felt for one another, Fiona experienced a sharp pain in her chest.

She’d never known family. Her great-uncle Leonard had done his best to provide her with a safe home after her mother dumped her on his doorstep, but he’d been a dyed-in-the-wool bachelor with old-fashioned morals and hadn’t known how to handle a pregnant and emotionally fraught fifteen-year-old girl. He kept her fed and clothed and gave her a place to live—in his mind that was enough.

There had been no question about her keeping the baby.

The deal was done before she’d gone into labor. A married couple was taking her baby—that was all Fiona was told. The adoption would be closed. She could never contact her child.

But now I have my daughter back ….

Well, she had a chance at least.

But she knew there were going to be challenging times ahead. Cecily would have questions, and she still wasn’t sure how she would answer them. And Wyatt? She knew he’d be watching her every move and trying to discover her secrets. But even knowing that, Fiona held a seed of optimism in her heart. And when she returned to her empty little house a short while later, Fiona didn’t feel half the loneliness that normally weighed down her shoulders when she opened the front door. She felt … hope.

Purple. Or as the woman behind him said in a chirpy tone, lavender. Wyatt had never been in a room that was so pretty. As he dumped his bag by the foot of the bed, the hostess told him the room was usually used by honeymooners and couples. Cecily was happily entrenched in the smaller room next door, a much more appealing space decorated in beige and white. This was too much.

The big bed was strewn with more pillows than he’d ever seen. He couldn’t sleep in here, surrounded by flowers and purple cushions. And what the hell was the scent hitting his nose like a boxing glove every time he moved … potpourri?

“So, I’ll let you settle in,” Evie Dunn said cheerfully.

Wyatt didn’t have a chance to object. The woman walked out of the room, and seconds later Cecily bounded through the door.

She wrinkled her nose. “Uncle Wyatt, it smells like a perfume shop in here.”

That did it. “Let’s switch rooms.”

“My allergies,” she protested. “And I’ve already unpacked.”

Yeah, her three cases. One for every week they were staying in Crystal Point.

“Right, allergies.” He forgot about the sickly sweet room for a moment. “Are you ready to go?”

Cecily nodded. “Yep. I don’t know why we couldn’t meet here?”

“The hotel is better,” he said quietly. Neutral. It was what Fiona wanted.

“But Evie said we could use the front living room, and I—”

“You know the deal. Let’s go,” he said, gently cutting her off. Sometimes Cecily’s exuberance was exhausting.

“Do you think she’ll like me? Do you think she’ll be disappointed?” Cecily popped out questions at a million miles per hour. “What if she—”

“Cecily—relax. She’ll like you,” he assured his niece. “I promise. And where’s all this sudden anxiety coming from anyway? You’ve been talking on the phone and by email for two weeks now.”

“But this is face-to-face,” she said in a rush of breath. “And that’s way different.”

Yeah … way different. The tension knocking inside his chest was inexplicable. He didn’t ever get like this. But thinking about Fiona Walsh stirred his blood. And considering the circumstances, Wyatt knew it was out of the question to be attracted to her. He couldn’t afford to be sidetracked by Fiona’s pretty face and lovely curves. He’d been swept away by physical attraction before. He wasn’t about to make that same mistake again.

He only had to look at Cecily to know he had to keep his head on straight.

“You’re going to be a hit. Trust me.”

“I do, Uncle Wyatt,” she said and hugged him. “I want it all to work out so much. I want Fiona to like me, and I want to like her back, too.”

“I’m sure you will,” he assured her. “She’s nice.”

Cecily shrugged. “Well, she seems nice. But you never really know what someone is like at first.”

Wyatt heard the waver in his niece’s voice. “Cecily, are you having doubts about this?”

She quickly shook her head. “No … just nerves, I guess.”

He didn’t doubt Fiona would be feeling the same apprehension. “We can go home anytime you want. Just say the word.”

“I don’t want to go home,” she replied. “Not yet. I want to try and see if we can be … I dunno … friends maybe.”

Wyatt admired Cecily’s maturity. But he’d make sure he was on hand if the pressure became too much for her young shoulders. “Okay. Then let’s go.”

He herded her out of the bedroom and down the hall. The drive into town took fifteen minutes, and by the time he parked the rental car and took the lift from the basement car park, they were only a few minutes away from their meeting time.

He settled Cecily in the foyer, on the same leather sofa where he’d met with Fiona a couple of weeks earlier. The place was quiet, and he was glad they’d have privacy and not be crowded out by the familiar faces of Fiona’s friends, like at the B and B.

“Uncle Wyatt?”

He shifted his attention back to the moment. “Yeah, kid?”

Cecily’s voice dripped with anticipation. “Is that her?”

He turned, and sure enough, Fiona was walking through the hotel doors. He hadn’t forgotten how pretty she was, and seeing her again only confirmed that the sensation rumbling through his chest was attraction. She wore a green dress and her strawberry blond hair flowed loose around her shoulders. Lovely.

When she came toward them, his blood seemed to stop pumping in his veins. She stood before them, all eyes and expectation as she looked at Cecily, then him, then Cecily again.

“Hi,” she said softly.

Wyatt answered quietly. “Hello, Fiona.”

This is one of those moments, he thought, when worlds collide. Fiona’s world, his world, now forever joined by the young girl who stood by his side, stepping back and forth nervously on her heels.

“Hello, Cecily.”

His niece took a moment, as though unsure about speaking to the woman who had given her life. Wyatt knew she wasn’t really scared. Cecily wanted this. And Fiona … he made out caution and uncertainty and plain old happiness in her blue-gray eyes. It was uncanny how alike they were. Same hair, same complexion, same spirited temper.

“Um … hi,” Cecily said quietly. “Thanks for coming.”

Fiona stepped a little closer, and Wyatt wished he could harness all his strength for a second and give it to her, so this moment could pass easily between them.

“I’m really glad you wanted to meet me … and … found me,” Fiona said a little uncomfortably.

“Well, it was Uncle Wyatt who actually found you,” Cecily replied with a small smile.

Fiona looked at him, and the tightness in his chest expanded.

“I know he did,” she said, then faltered a little before she spoke again. “So, how was your trip?”

“Good,” Cecily replied. “Uncle Wyatt let me have the window seat.”

Fiona laughed softly, and the sound vibrated through him. She looked nervous, and he discreetly touched Cecily’s arm, urging her forward. It was awkward for a moment, until Fiona smiled again and opened her arms slightly. Cecily stepped forward, and within seconds mother and daughter were together, hugging close, clearly emotional. Wyatt watched their exchange and swallowed the lump tightening his throat.

Fiona looked at him over Cecily’s shoulder and smiled. Tears hung on her lashes and her eyes grew huge. Seeing her so vulnerable, so raw with joy and glowing with a kind of radiant happiness, made his insides hurt. Cecily was crying, too. There was no sadness, no regret. Just new feelings, new dreams, new hope.

And he knew instinctively he’d made the right decision in coming to Crystal Point. It was right for Cecily to meet her birth mother. All he had to do was get a handle on the growing attraction he had for Fiona.

Easy … yeah … right.

Fiona experienced such acute and all-consuming love as she held her daughter in her arms for only the second time in her life. Images of the baby cruelly snatched away within minutes of her birth, which up until this moment were the only memories she had, suddenly faded.

She looks like me ….

Wyatt was right.

Wyatt …

Her heart rolled over as she looked at him. So tall and strong and handsome. It seemed right having him near. It gave her strength knowing he was only steps away. His closeness gave her courage to hold on to Cecily and let all her pent-up feelings rise to the surface.

“Let’s sit down,” she suggested and linked her arm through her daughter’s.

“Why don’t I leave you two alone for a while?” Wyatt said once they reached the sofa.

Fiona watched as Cecily stepped toward him. “No … don’t go.”

He sent his niece a peculiar look and then glanced toward Fiona. Something shimmered between them, and Fiona suddenly longed for his reassurance. And Cecily clearly wanted him on hand. “Cecily’s right,” she said and tried not to be wounded by the fact her daughter was unsure about being alone with her. “I’d like you to stay for a while, too.” She looked at Cecily. “Okay?”

Cecily nodded. “Yes. Uncle Wyatt’s cool.”

Fiona didn’t miss the affection in Cecily’s words. She was undoubtedly attached to her uncle, who had taken over the role of parent. “I’m sure he is.”

He grinned fractionally and sat down on the other sofa. Fiona relaxed and turned all her attention to the girl sitting beside her. Cecily was remarkable, and pride, pure and simple, surged through her blood and across her skin.

This is my daughter … my child … I made this exquisite creature.

Whatever happened from this moment, Fiona knew she would treasure the memory of Cecily’s small hand clasped within hers. Regret and shame tapped at the back of her mind, but she wasn’t about to let those kinds of thoughts invade the precious moment she was sharing with her daughter.

They talked for an hour, about everyday things. Cecily asked when she could see where Fiona lived and when she could visit Titan. They talked about their dogs and Cecily’s friends.

“Nan and Pop are great,” she said excitedly. “I can’t wait for you to meet them. Auntie Rae knows everything about horses, and Auntie Ellen is so good with kids. She’s got twins and they’re really cute. She lets me help with them when I stay with her and Uncle Alessio. He’s Italian. And his family is superrich. Not that she married him for his money. He’s really good-looking, too.”

Fiona waited for Cecily to take a breath and stole a glance at Wyatt. He was smiling, silent and intense as he regarded them.

“If it’s okay with your uncle, maybe we could go see Titan this afternoon?”

“Can we, please?” Cecily begged Wyatt as she got to her feet.

He nodded. “If you like.”

“I’ll go get my boots,” her daughter said eagerly. “They’re in the car. I’ll be back in a minute,” she said once Wyatt handed over the car keys.

She left the foyer like a whirlwind and headed for the elevators.

Once she was out of sight, Fiona looked at Wyatt. “She’s incredible.”

“She certainly is,” he agreed. “A pocket dynamo. But adorable.”

“She loves her family a lot,” Fiona said without envy and ridiculously conscious of his powerful stare. “And you especially.”

“It’s mutual,” he replied. “She’s a great kid.”

She looked toward her feet. “I guess she’ll have a lot of questions?”

“Yes,” he assured her. “But she probably won’t ask them straightaway. She doesn’t want to scare you off.”

Her gaze darted upward. “I don’t scare easily.”

“Are you sure?”

His mouth twisted in such a sexy way Fiona’s breath rushed out. “Positive,” she replied and wondered if they were still talking about Cecily. The air seemed uncommonly warm.

“Cecily is smart and mature for her age. She’s had to be,” he said quietly, and Fiona picked up on the strain in his voice. “She wants you in her life—although in what capacity I’m not sure. I don’t think she quite knows herself. Meeting you is the first step. From here it’s up to you both to work out what kind of relationship you’ll have.”

“With you standing on point to make sure I don’t mess it up?”

He shrugged. “My job is to protect her. Karen trusted me with that responsibility, and I’ll do it as best I can.”

Fiona wrapped her arms around her waist and sat forward. “I won’t screw this up. And I’ll be whatever she needs me to be. There’s no question about me trying to replace her mother. But I can be her friend.”

“Yes, you can.”

She let out a breath and experienced a heady warmth deep in her belly. There was something in his expression that heightened her awareness of him on every level. It was futile to deny it—Fiona got a look from his glittering blue eyes that said he was as aware of her as she was of him.

She pushed some words out. “So, I guess considering you’re her legal guardian, we should be friends, too.”

Another look … longer, hotter. Hot enough to raise her temperature a degree or two.

“Logically. But I get the sense that whatever’s going on here,” he said, flicking a hand in the air, “hasn’t got anything to do with friendship.”

“I don’t think—”

“And everything to do with sex.”