Kate Thomas - Daddy By Design?

Now, flirting he could do. “I’ve got eyes. I can see. You’re gorgeous.”

“And you’re too kind.”

“Never.” He fisted his hand protectively around her phone number. He told himself he wouldn’t keep it. It wasn’t right. She was just emotional right now and had that hero-worship thing going. By tomorrow, she’d probably regret giving her number to him, a grease monkey in a dangerous profession. “Well, Mrs. Cavanaugh, I’ve got to be going.” He forced cheer into his voice. “I think I might drop by the viewing window to peek in at your little girl and then I’ve got to get back to my hotel. It’s late and there’s a plane with my name on it leaving early tomorrow morning. You and your daughter take care now, ya hear?”

“I hear,” she said.

He met her gaze. Trey feared she could see right into his heart and could see what he didn’t want her to know…that already, in only a matter of hours after meeting her, he didn’t like the thought of having no part in her life. But when she spoke again, her voice was tinged with finality. “Goodbye, Mr. Trey Cooper.”

IN THE LAVISH NURSERY of the huge and elegant Atlanta showcase home she’d lived in with Richard, Cinda sat playing with six-month-old Chelsi. The phone rang. Every nerve ending in Cinda’s body jumped. This was ridiculous, and she knew it. If the man hadn’t called her in the past six months, what made her think he’d choose today to do it? But she’d seen in the paper this morning that the Jude Barrett racing team was back home in Atlanta. That meant Trey Cooper was, too, and could call if he wanted to.

But he hadn’t. So obviously, he didn’t want to. That knowledge didn’t keep Cinda from waiting, her heart thumping heavily, as Major Clovis answered it in the next room. She could hear the older woman talking but couldn’t hear what she said. Cinda held her breath. Could this finally be him?

Come on, Cinda, her conscience railed at her. This is really a bad crush you have here. You’d think that after six months without a call, you’d be over him. And what about you? You can’t call? You looked up his number in the phone book, but you haven’t used it. So get over it. But she couldn’t. He’d been this nice, handsome guy who’d stood by her during her worst possible moment. So maybe she just had a bad case of hero worship. Maybe. She tried not to look desperately up at her regimentally formal assistant/nurse/social secretary who entered the nursery with the cordless phone in her hand.

The afternoon’s late-June sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains at the windows across the room. Major Irene Clovis—a no-nonsense older woman with severely short gray hair—walked in and out of sun and shadow as she approached her employer. “Hate to ruin your day, ma’am, but it’s The Real Mrs. Cavanaugh.”

Disappointment ate at Cinda. It wasn’t him. It was never him. She groaned and slumped over her legs. “Not her again, Major. Not my mother-in-law.”

“My apologies,” her unsmiling ex-Marine assistant said. “I told Dragon Lady that you’d dyed your hair and the baby’s purple and the two of you had run off with the drug-selling leader of a motorcycle gang. I further said the two of you were now known as Hell’s Belles. But she didn’t believe me.”

“I can’t imagine why not. But still, you always know just what to say, Major.” Cinda’s grimace over the caller’s identity warred with a grin that tugged at her lips. Major Clovis was the most outrageous and loyal person Cinda had ever met. She also harbored all the love and protective instincts of a lioness toward Cinda and Chelsi. “Thanks for trying.”

“Yes, ma’am. Next time, I’ll tell her you became a Buddhist monk and sold the only Cavanaugh heir to a zoo in Berlin as part of their mammalian exchange program. That ought to do it.” With that, she handed Cinda the phone, did a smart military about-face, and precision-marched toward the door.

Bemused, Cinda watched her go. When Major Clovis reached the open door, she neatly executed a left turn and disappeared from sight around a corner. No doubt she was going to torture poor Marta in the kitchen. Not because the cook had done anything wrong, but simply because the ex-military nurse could hassle her—and because the tiny Hispanic woman was terrified of her. Cinda fully expected their wary stand-off to one day erupt into a weapon-based free-for-all. She hoped she wasn’t home when it happened.

Sighing over her staff’s ongoing bilingual and multicultural altercations, Cinda put a hand over the telephone’s speaker and whispered to Chelsi. “It’s Grandma. The big scary one in New York City.”

The bright-eyed baby girl pulled a face, as if she were about to cry. “Oh, honey, I know,” Cinda sympathized, taking a chubby little hand in hers and leaning over to kiss the tiny fingers. “Everyone has that reaction. But she loves you and has your best interest at heart. How many times this week has she told me that, huh?” The baby’s expression instantly cleared.

“That’s my girl.” Then, forcing cheerfulness into her voice for her caller, Cinda spoke into the phone. “Hello, Mother Cavanaugh. How nice to hear from you. How are you?”

Sitting on the carpeted floor of the nursery and listening to her mother-in-law’s familiar opening harangue, Cinda winked at her baby, who had her own problems. Perched on her diapered bottom atop a large quilted square of colorful blanket, the blond little girl wobbled tipsily, trying to keep her balance. To Cinda’s mother’s mind, Chelsi’s controlled sitting at six months of age, while a completely normal activity in the development of babies according to the pediatrician, became the newest evidence of her daughter’s extreme intelligence and precociousness. A trait she’d inherited from Cinda’s side of the family, of course.

Cinda tuned in again to her mother-in-law in time to hear her ask a question, which Cinda promptly answered. “No, Major Clovis isn’t drunk. Or on drugs. But I didn’t hire her. Richard did. I think. Or she came with the house. One of those. Yes, I’ll speak to her about her shocking tales that upset you.” But Cinda knew she wouldn’t say a word to Major Clovis. Her shocking tales were too funny and too deserved.

The conversation moved on to the weather. “Yes, I’ve seen the weather report. We do have television in the South now. Yes, it is hot in New York City, isn’t it? I’m sure you’ll be glad to leave next week for the Hamptons. Oh, you’re too kind, but we really couldn’t join you. No we can’t. Why?” Because I flat out don’t want to. Because I’m tired of your subtle manipulation of me, your digs at my family, and your blatant disappointment that Chelsi is not a boy. “I’m afraid something’s come up down here,” was what she actually said, though, being nice but with an effort. “A thing. Yes. I told you about it.” She hadn’t. There was no thing. “The important thing with the people I told you about. Over at that place. Yes. That thing.”

Cinda silently begged her tiny daughter not to judge her mother too harshly for lying to The Real Mrs. Cavanaugh, as everyone in this household referred to the imperious blue-blooded Ruth Heston Cavanaugh. The woman allowed no one to forget her graciousness in overlooking the fact that the late Richard the Second’s only child was female. Oh, the heartbreak of it all. Now there was no one to carry on the Cavanaugh name. As if they were royalty with their own country. Okay, so they owned most of this one. Big deal.

“Oh, I don’t believe we can come after the thing is over,” Cinda quickly answered the next demand. “Chelsi has a doctor’s appointment later this month. No. Nothing’s wrong. There isn’t. I’d tell you if there were. I promise. She’s fine.” If you don’t count the fact that she’s sprouted another head and gargoyle wings. It was what she wanted to say, Major Clovis style, but didn’t.