Raye Morgan - Single Mum Seeking... - A Daddy for Her Sons / Marriage for Her Baby / Single Mom Seeks...

“But why would...?” Her face cleared. “Brad!”

Connor nodded. “That’s my guess.”

She sank into a chair. “Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe that. Brad sent him to spy on me.”

“And to sabotage your business, I would guess.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Why didn’t I think of that? I knew there was something fishy about the way he kept showing up.” She looked up at Connor. “I should have known.”

But Connor was still thinking things over. “Okay, I’m ready to believe that was Brad at work. So the question is, what else has he been meddling in?”

She thought for a moment, then put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, my gosh.” She grabbed his hand and held it tightly. “Connor, I don’t know this for sure, but I was told that Brad tried to get them to disallow my license. Right at the beginning.”

He lowered himself into the chair beside her, still holding her hand. “Why would he do that?”

“Well, he never wanted me to keep this house. He thought I ought to move to the mainland and get an apartment, put the kids in day care and get a regular job. He sort of acted like he thought I was trying to extort money from him by doing anything else.”

His face was cold as granite. “Tell me more.”

“It took a while to get started. At first, I didn’t have any of the right equipment. I used every penny I got from Brad to help pay for the commercial oven, but I still needed to buy a three-unit sink and the special refrigeration I needed. When he found out what I was doing, he was furious.”

“And stopped giving you money,” he guessed.

She nodded. “Pretty much. Which only made it more important that I find a way to grow my business.” She laced her fingers with his.

“You know, you hit a place where you can either move forward, or settle for something less, and get stuck in that great big nowhere land.” She sighed. “In order to get to where I might make some actual profit, I had to take the chance. I needed funding. So...”

She met his gaze and looked guilty. “So, yes, I took out a loan so that I could finish buying the supplies I needed.”

“What did you use to get a loan? The house?”

She nodded. “That’s why it’s so scary that this house is still underwater and they won’t give me a mortgage modification.”

“You’ve tried?”

“Countless times.”

“You’re in a tight spot.”

She nodded. “I’m standing at the edge of the cliff, you mean. And the ground is starting to crumble under my feet.”

His free hand took her chin and lifted her face toward his, then he leaned in and kissed her softly. “I’ll catch you,” he said, his voice husky. “I’m here, Jill. I won’t let you hit the rocks.”

She smiled, loving his generous spirit, but not really believing his words. How could he stop the chain of events that seemed to be overwhelming her? It wasn’t likely. They’d had a good day yesterday and he’d made that possible. But goodwill—and cake sales—could only go so far. Every step forward seemed to bring on two steps back. She was beginning to lose hope.

He hesitated, then shook his head and drew back from her. “Okay, here’s what I don’t understand. This just really gets to me. Why do you let Brad still be such a huge part of your life?”

“I...I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. You’re divorced. He’s not even giving you the money you should be getting for the kids. He doesn’t want anything to do with the children.” He frowned, searching her eyes. “Why let him affect you in any way? Why maintain any ties at all?”

She blinked. It was hard to put this in words. How to explain how alone she felt in the world? In some ways, Brad was still her only lifeline. It was too scary to cut that off.

“The only real, legal ties we still have is the business,” she said instead of trying to explain her emotional connection to her past. “I still own fifteen percent of it.”

He nodded. He knew that. “Do you have a voting position on the board?”

She shrugged. “I’m not really sure if I do or not. I think I’m supposed to but I’ve never tried to use it. I suppose I should ask a lawyer.”

“At the very least.”

“The only reason I keep it, to tell you the truth, is that emotionally, I just can’t give up on it yet. It’s still a part of my life, a part of my past, all those years we spent building it into the enterprise it is today.”

He nodded. Did that answer the question? Her ties to Brad were still too strong. But were they that way from fear...or love? Hard to pull those two apart for analysis. And the answer to that meant everything.

Connor was so angry inside, both at Brad and at himself, he couldn’t stay near her for now. Instead he went out and walked down to the ferry and then around the quaint little village and back again. He finally had something he wanted to say to Brad, but when he tried calling him, he found his old pal had turned the tables, and now he wasn’t taking calls from Connor.

Voice mail was his only recourse. He waited for the beep.

“Hey, Brad. I just wanted to let you know that I know the health inspector is a phony. He’s someone who works for you. If he comes here again, I’ll have him arrested for impersonating a government employee.

“About those shares. If you really want them so badly, why don’t you come and ask her for them like a man? Why don’t you face her? And why don’t you offer her something real? You never know what might happen.

“In the meantime, other than that, leave Jill alone. Go live your own life and forget about hers.”

He clicked off and tried to tame the rage that roiled in him. Jill didn’t deserve any of this. He only hoped she would let him stay here to help her get out from under all this. He knew she couldn’t get Brad out of her system, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. He didn’t care about his own emotional involvement anymore. So, he was probably going to get his heart broken. So what? His love for Jill was too strong to try to deny any longer. And all he wanted was what was good for her. He had to stay.

When he walked into the house, he heard Jill singing in the kitchen. He had to stop for a moment and listen, marveling at her. What was she, some kind of angel? Whatever—she was everything he knew he wanted. And would probably never have.

“Hey,” he told her as he came up behind her, putting his arms around her. She leaned back into him and smiled. “I’m getting pretty funky in these clothes,” he said. “I think I’ll run into town and get some fresh things from the hotel room. Can I bring anything back for you?”

She turned in his embrace and kissed him. “Just bring yourself back. That’s all I need,” she said.

He kissed her again and the kiss deepened. The way he felt about her grew every time he touched her. Right now, it seemed like fireworks going off in his chest. This was the way he wished it could always be.

* * *

Jill stood at the sliding glass door looking out at the grassy hill that was her backyard. Connor was outside playing with the twins, chasing them up and down the hill, laughing, picking up one and then the other to whirl about and land gently again. Her heart was full of bittersweet joy. Tears trembled in her eyes.

If only Brad could be this way. If he really met the boys, if he tried to get to know them, wouldn’t he realize how wonderful they were? Wouldn’t he have to love them? Wouldn’t that make everything better?

As she watched, Connor fell, iron-cross style, into a huge bed of leaves, and the boys raced each other to jump on top of him. She could hear the laughter from where she was behind glass and it answered her own questions.

No. Brad would never love the boys, because he didn’t want to. He wouldn’t let himself. It was time she faced facts.