Kara Lennox - The Good Father

Jane abandoned her packing and cleared a place for herself on the coffee table across from him. They were close, but not touching.

“The problem is Kaylee.”

Max’s eyes filled with panic, and he ripped the tape off his mouth. “Oh, God, she’s not sick, is she?”

“No. But this morning, after she saw us…well, she’s ready for you to move in permanently and be her daddy.”

Jane expected some sort of panic reaction from Max, but instead his face softened. “Oh.”

“I tried to explain the situation, but you can’t reason with an almost-four-year-old.”

“What happened? Did she throw a tantrum or what?”

“I could have handled that. But it was worse. She was…bereft. That’s the only word I can use to explain it. She cried, but quietly. It was the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed, worse than seeing her fall and scrape her knee. Even worse than watching Scott walk away from her in that restaurant like she meant nothing to him.”

Max looked almost bereft himself. “We’re breaking up?”

“I don’t want to, believe me. But-”

“So is the answer that you just won’t have a social life?”

“I can have a social life,” she argued.

“Sure. Of course. And maybe you can date men that Kaylee doesn’t like so well, ones who ignore her and consider her a pest, so she won’t get attached.”

“Max, please. You’re not making this any easier.”

“I don’t intend to make it easy. I intend to make it damn difficult for you to walk out of my life. Have you really thought about what you’re doing?”

“I’ve thought of nothing else. I don’t see any other choice.”

Max stood up and headed for the door. But he didn’t leave. He opened the hatch, took a couple of deep breaths. Jane just sat there helplessly.

Finally he closed the hatch and turned to face her again. “Look, if you really feel you don’t want to see me outside of work, that’s one thing, but you don’t have to leave the Remington Agency. I promised you our seeing each other wouldn’t interfere with your job, and it won’t.”

“Yes, it will,” she said, her voice ringing with resignation. “You know it will. I don’t think I could see you day in and day out and just pretend to be friends. We can’t go backward.”

Jane’s eyes filled with tears, and she buried her face in her hands.

Max closed the distance between them with two steps, and she prayed he wouldn’t try to comfort her. But apparently comfort wasn’t what he had in mind.

“Jane Selwyn, I never took you for a quitter. One of the reasons I hired you was because of your gumption. The way you attack problems and just go for what you want-it’s a rare quality. It’s also one of the reasons I fell in love with you.”

Jane’s world tilted on its axis for a brief moment. She was so startled her tears stopped abruptly and she peeked through her fingers up at Max. Had he really just said what she thought he said?

But yes, she could see it there in his eyes, the love shining through.

He sat back down in the chair across from her. “There’s an easy solution to this whole thing, and I can’t believe you didn’t see it. We’ll get married.”

“What?”

“It’s perfect. Kaylee wants me to be her daddy, I’ll be her daddy.”

“But…but…” Oh, my God. Jane sprang up from her chair. She needed to move, to pace, but every direction she stepped there was another box or piece of furniture. Boat cabins were no good for pacing.

“You have a problem with this?” he asked, as if he’d just brought her a coffee with too much cream rather than confidently declaring they should spend the rest of their lives together.

“You can’t just go around marrying someone because their kid wants you as a daddy!” she exploded. “There are a million reasons we can’t get married. I just got divorced. You’re my boss. You’re a confirmed bachelor-”

“Who says?”

“You. At the Hotel Alexander. You said you didn’t like dating single moms angling for marriage. Then you said it again, after we made love the first time. You told me you weren’t ready to settle down.”

“I was in denial. I was scared by how deeply I was starting to care for you. None of it was true.”

“But, Max…marriage? What about all those women?”

He looked puzzled. “What women?”

“Your little black book is bulging with them. You’re going to give that up?”

He reached into his jacket, extracting the worn leather address book. “This? You want to know how much all those other women mean to me? I’ll show you.” He got up and headed outdoors.

Jane followed. “Max, what are you doing?”

He walked all the way to the Princess II ’s stern, then wound up like a baseball pitcher and hurled the book into the bay.

“Max! You had business contacts in there, too.”

He turned and smiled at her as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “The important ones are on computer.” But then he turned serious. “There would be only one reason in the world why we shouldn’t get married, and that’s if you don’t love me. Do you love me, Jane?”

She nodded, afraid to speak.

“Then, seriously, will you marry me? ’Cause I’m not kidding around here. We are good together. All of us-you, me, Kaylee. I’ll try to be the best husband and father I know how to be. And since I know you don’t like the idea of marrying the boss, I have a solution for that, too.”

“You’re firing me?”

Max slapped a hand to his forehead. “Jane, for God’s sake, I’m not going to fire you. I actually came over here with a very different proposal in mind, a business proposal. I want to make you a partner in the agency. An equal, 50-50 partner. I want to change the name to Remington & Selwyn. You’ve already invested a significant amount of money in the-Oh.”

Jane was suddenly dizzy, and she sank onto one of the padded benches. “What?”

“I just realized where the money came from. You sold your boat. Damn it, Jane, you just march right back in there and unpack. We’ll buy it back.”

“With what? Max, it’s a done deal. I wanted to sell the Princess II. I believe in you and the Remington Agency. It was a sound investment.”

Finally he smiled at her. “See, you’re already thinking like a partner. You’ve been functioning like one almost since the beginning. You’re involved in decision-making and key meetings. Frankly, I’m not sure we can survive without you. So what do you think?”

Jane pursed her lips, appearing to give it serious thought. “I think it would be too expensive to change the name of the agency. That would mean a new logo, new legal papers to file, all new stationery…”

Max looked at her quizzically.

“I think,” Jane continued, “it would just be easier if I changed my name to Remington.”

Max smiled again, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. “Cheeky. That’s what I thought of you the day you tried to guilt me into a job. Cheeky girl.” But when he swept her into his arms, there was nothing amusing about his kiss. He kissed her long and hard until Jane was so limp she could have melted over the side of the boat.

When they were both in danger of fainting from oxygen deprivation, he pulled back just enough so he could look her in the eye. “I want to hear you say it.”

She knew immediately what he meant. “I love you, Max, and I enthusiastically accept all proposals.”

“Mommy!” Kaylee had apparently seen their car coming, because she bolted out the front door of the Sunsetter B and B before Jane and Max could reach the front porch.

Jane dropped her purse and leaned down to scoop up her little girl, hugging her and covering her face with kisses. Her honeymoon with Max-all of five days-was the longest she and Kaylee had ever been separated.