“Sounds like you were being groomed,” Brianna commented.
Now wasn’t the time to talk about family money, not when he could see that Brianna had clearly come up the hard way—and was still struggling.
Connor gave her his standard go-to reply. “Only to be good people and to work hard.”
Again she caught herself envying him and the upbringing he’d had. The childhood he’d lived.
When his eyes met hers, she hid her feelings and smiled her approval. “Both very admirable qualities.”
Chapter Eight
Connor had barely finished reading the notations in a quarter of the folders that Brianna had given him when his concentration was suddenly interrupted.
This time it wasn’t because the sounds of a pint-size World War Three was breaking out somewhere in the house.
This particular interruption was an up close and personal one and came in the form of one Ava Susan Childress. That was how Brianna addressed her daughter in exasperation when the latter strode into her office and in a loud, intrusive voice asked her, “Are you finished with him yet?”
Startled—her children were supposed to be playing out in the yard—Brianna cried, “Ava Susan Childress, where are your manners? We don’t ask questions like that,” Brianna insisted.
Undaunted, her daughter actually looked rather upset over being unceremoniously called out on the carpet and admonished in this fashion. Cocking her small, silky dark brown head, she focused her bright blue eyes accusingly at her mother.
“Well, I did. I wanted to know if you were finished with him so he could tell us another story. It was for Axel, too,” the little girl added, as if that should make everything all right. “He wanted to hear another story, too.”
Brianna flashed an apologetic look toward the private investigator. As usual, her children had managed to embarrass her.
“I’m sorry about this,” she told Connor.
Amused by the little girl’s straightforward approach, he brushed off Brianna’s apology.
“No need to be sorry,” Connor assured her. The truth was, he was getting a kick out of all this. “I’ve never been in demand by members of the short person set before,” he said with a grin.
Ava was trying hard to understand. “Does that mean he can go with me?” she wanted to know.
Axel appeared in the doorway. For once he was there to back up his sister instead of disputing every word she had to say.
“Mr. Fortunado doesn’t take orders from me,” Brianna informed her son and daughter. “He’s here strictly as my client.”
Connor saw the way the two children’s faces fell. He looked from one to the other. They looked too young to know the meaning of the word client, so he asked Ava and Axel what they thought.
His eyes studied their expressions. “Do you know what the word client means?”
“Yeah,” Ava answered. She slanted a grudging look toward her mother. “It means the person’s important and we have to leave them alone.” She ended with a rather dramatic sigh.
“Yeah, alone,” Axel echoed, sticking out his lower lip and pouting.
“I see,” Connor responded, looking at them thoughtfully. “Well, I’m not that kind of a client,” he told them.
Hope instantly lit up the two small faces and they smiled.
“What kind of client are you?” Axel wanted to know.
“The kind that likes to take breaks so that he can tell two really great little people stories they want to hear,” Connor answered, struggling not to laugh.
Ava’s grin grew twice as large as it had when he’d first walked in today. “You mean like us?” she asked her new hero eagerly.
“Exactly like you,” Connor replied.
Although it warmed Brianna’s heart to see Connor being so nice to her children, it was a source of concern, as well. Ava and Axel had both taken to this man in an incredibly short amount of time, so short that it didn’t even seem as if it was possible—except that they had.
Therein lay the problem. She didn’t want her children getting used to having this man around because the moment he got all the information he was after, Connor would be gone, and Ava and Axel wouldn’t be able to understand why he wasn’t coming back anymore. They were sure to take it personally, she thought. They’d think it was because of something they had done.
She didn’t want that happening.
It was one of the reasons she didn’t date. The fact was, she wouldn’t be dating for one, she’d actually be dating for three, and her children’s feelings meant everything to her.
Looking at Connor over their heads now, Brianna’s voice sounded a little strained as she told him, “You know you really don’t have to do this.”
He thought she was trying to ease him out of what she probably felt was an imposition by her children. He didn’t see it as an imposition, though.
“That’s okay, I don’t mind,” Connor told her. He was already trying to think of a story that he could tell the duo.
Ava and Axel somehow seemed to have surrounded him even though he was still just sitting at the desk. Their combined presence had a way of being overwhelming.
“No, really,” Brianna emphasized, her eyes meeting his. “You don’t have to do this.”
Something in her tone caught Connor’s attention and he tried to read between the lines, but failed. Transparency was not one of her strong suits, Connor thought.
So he decided to go the simple route and just ask her outright. “Are you saying that you don’t want me to tell them a story?”
“Mama,” Ava wailed in disappointment. She wanted to hear the story that Connor had to tell whatever it turned out to be.
Not to be left out, Axel joined in and cried in a loud voice, “Mom!”
With Connor clearly on their side, she knew she was outnumbered. Brianna retreated and surrendered. She was not about to be the bad guy today.
“Never mind,” she told Connor, waving away the whole thing. “I just didn’t want you to feel you were being guilted into anything.”
He flashed another smile at Brianna as Axel climbed up onto one of his knees and Ava scaled the other. “Don’t worry about me,” he told their mother. “I can handle myself.”
She highly doubted that, not when it came to her kids.
“Remember,” she told him as she crossed the threshold out of her office, “you said it, I didn’t.”
Her departure took him by surprise. “You’re leaving? Where are you going?” Connor wanted to know, calling after her. He had just assumed that Brianna would remain in the room along with her children.
“I’ve got a chicken to get into the oven,” she tossed over her shoulder, never breaking stride.
Before he could say anything more, he felt two small hands on his face, turning it so that he found himself looking down into Ava’s face rather than the doorway.
“Don’t worry, the chicken’s not alive,” she assured him in a voice that very easily could have belonged to someone four times her age.
“Yeah, Mom gets them at the store and they’re already dead,” Axel said with authority, not to be left out of the conversation.
“Tell us about your horse,” Ava prompted. “Did you put other clothes on him?”
Connor laughed. Obviously the story had left a big impression on the children. “No, my dad put an end to that pretty quick.”
Ava was very quiet for a total of five seconds, and then she told him, “We don’t have a dad. What’s it like to have one?” she asked.
“Doesn’t your dad let you play with your horse?” Axel wanted to know.
Connor thought about the annoyed look that had descended over Kenneth Fortunado’s face when he told his father that he’d turned his back on the firm and decided to become a private investigator. That, he thought, had been the face of disapproval.
“Sometimes he can be difficult,” Connor told his small audience, not really wanting to say anything derogatory about his father. He knew the man had been disappointed by the news, but in reality, it had been his decision to make.
Small, expressive eyebrows knitted themselves together over the bridge of Ava’s nose. “What’s diffy—diffy—that word you just said,” Ava finally said, giving up.
“It means that sometimes my dad doesn’t see things the way I do,” Connor explained, wanting to leave it at that.
He hadn’t reckoned on the inquisitive minds he was dealing with.
“Mama’s like that all the time,” Ava confided in a hushed voice that was a little louder than a stage whisper.
“Yeah,” Axel cried, wiggling into the conversation, “she’s always trying to get us not to do things because it makes her nervous.”
“Well, being a mom for two smart kids can be pretty hard sometimes,” Connor reminded them sympathetically. “I’m sure that your mother’s just trying to do the best she can.”
Ava apparently thought his words over before she nodded her head. “Yeah,” Ava agreed. “She does. She doesn’t even spank Axel when he’s bad.”
Rather than deny that he was bad, Axel just lumped her in with him. “You’re bad, too,” he insisted, looking pointedly at his sister. He was not about to take the blame alone.
The expression on Ava’s face was indignant. “Am not!” she cried.
Axel did not go down without a fight. “Are, too!” he retorted.
Connor was beginning to catch on. This showed every sign of escalating. Connor quickly spoke up, raising his voice above theirs.
“Hey, hold it,” he ordered. When they turned to look at him, he told them, “I don’t think either one of you are bad.”
Instead of their protesting his intrusion into their argument, Connor found himself looking down into two beaming faces.
“You don’t?” the two cried in unison.
“No, I don’t,” he replied calmly.
The best way to handle the escalating feelings was to divert attention away from the cause. So he did.
“You want to talk about bad, you should have met my brother Gavin when he was a kid. Now there was bad,” he told them with feeling, although there was no judgment attached to the words. “My mom called it being mischievous.” He laughed to himself. “But my dad just called it bad.”
“Did Gavin get a lot of time-outs?” Axel wanted to know, no doubt thinking of the way he and his sister were punished.
“Time-outs?” Connor repeated. He decided to play along. The kids didn’t need to hear every single fact that had been involved in Gavin and his upbringing. “Yeah, he got those, along with other things when he was particularly bad.”
Axel rose to his knees, balancing himself on Connor’s knee as he looked into his face. Small blue eyes probed his.
“What kind of things?” he wanted to know.
The boy made Connor think of someone who was afraid of horror movies but still wanted to go on watching to see what happened next.
“You don’t want to talk about that,” Connor told him casually. “Don’t you want to hear about Manchester?”
Ava scrunched up her pretty little face, trying to understand. Axel appeared to be totally lost.
“What’s a Man-chest-ta?” Ava asked.
Connor struggled to keep a straight face. “Manchester was my dog when I was growing up.”
“You mean like Scruffy?” Ava asked eagerly. Like her mother, the little girl had an instant affinity for anything on four legs.
Connor glanced down at the dog that was never far away from at least one of the children if not both. A mixed breed, Scruffy looked as if he was part Chihuahua, part teacup poodle, with a little of something else thrown in.
The dog barely came up to the bottom of his shin. “Oh, a lot bigger than Scruffy,” Connor told them. “Manchester was a Great Dane.”
“What made him great?” Axel wanted to know, asking the question in all seriousness. “Was it something he did?”
It was harder and harder for Connor to continue maintaining a straight face. Instead of correcting the boy and possibly hurting his feelings, Connor told Axel in all solemnity, “He always came when I called.”
“He doesn’t do that anymore?” Ava asked, looking at her hero with sympathy.
Connor smiled at her, although the smile was a little sad around the edges. Manchester had always been his favorite dog. He had been almost inconsolable when the dog died. That had been years ago.
“I’m afraid he doesn’t do anything anymore.”
“Why?” Ava wanted to know.
Axel answered the question for her. “Because he’s dead, stupid.” He turned to look at Connor. “That’s what you’re trying to say, right?”
“Not in those words, no,” Connor answered the little boy, then gently said, “And it’s not nice to call your sister stupid.”
Axel couldn’t see why that was a problem. “But she is,” he insisted.
“No, she isn’t,” Connor said kindly but firmly, “and you didn’t mean that, either, did you?” he asked the boy. He smiled at the duo. “Someday you two are going to realize that you need to have each other’s backs.”
“Why?” Ava wanted to know, looking disdainfully at her brother. “I don’t want his old back.”
Again Connor had to struggle not to laugh. “Maybe not today, but you will soon,” he said confidently. “That’s what family does,” he explained simply. “They take care of each other’s backs.”
From the look on her face, it still made no sense to Ava, although since Connor was her new hero, she seemed more than willing to be convinced.
“Do you have Gavin’s back?” she wanted to know.
He smiled at the display of curiosity. “Yes, I do.”
It was Axel’s turn to ask a question. “Does he have yours?”
Turning to the boy, Connor nodded and said seriously, “He does.”
Axel looked at his sister. It was obvious that he wasn’t happy with this latest piece of information. “Do we have to?” he wanted to know, pained.
“You’ll want to,” Connor assured him. When he saw the dubious look crossing the little boy’s face, he told him, “Trust me, you will.”
Axel frowned but it was obvious he didn’t want to oppose this new friend.
“If you say so,” the little boy responded rather reluctantly.
Brianna stuck her head into the room. Part of her was surprised that Connor hadn’t decided to bolt out of the house by now. The man had an amazing amount of patience and an incredible amount of staying power, she thought with admiration.
“You’re still alive,” she quipped, taking a step into the room.
He turned slightly to look at her. Perforce her children did, too. “You didn’t expect me to be?” he asked, amused.
“Actually, at this point I expected you to be running for your life.” With a smile, she nodded toward her children. “These two have been known to wear down concrete, and besides, this wasn’t what you signed on for. Not in any manner,” she added.
“Where did he sign, Mama?” Ava wanted to know. She wanted to know everything about this person her mother was working with.
“And what was it?” Axel asked in a louder voice, not to be outdone.
“Never mind, you two. Why don’t you go outside again and play?” she suggested. “You’ve worn Mr. Fortunado down enough for one day.”
“No, we didn’t,” Axel protested. “We didn’t wear you down, did we?” he asked Connor, obviously regarding the man as a higher court of appeal.
Connor grinned, tickled at how seriously the boy viewed what his mother had said. “You didn’t even scratch the surface,” he replied.
“See?” Axel declared, looking at hi
s mother. “We didn’t even scratch anything.”
Brianna felt drained. She decided to change the subject. She could tell that there was no winning this one.
“Dinner’ll be ready in about forty-five minutes,” she told the children. Then, looking at Connor, she added, “You’re welcome to stay if you like.”
“Yay!” Ava cried, clapping her hands. “Stay!”
“Yeah, stay!” Axel told him, adding his voice to his sister’s.
It was hard to say no after that.
Connor turned his attention toward the woman who was sharing her research results with him. “Are you sure I won’t be putting you out?”
“I wouldn’t have extended the invitation if you were,” she answered.
“Then I guess I’m staying,” he said with a boyish grin.
Both children cheered again.
Chapter Nine
A schedule of sorts slowly emerged. Over the course of the next few days, Connor came over to her house and met with Brianna a number of times.
Admittedly, the young mother of two had given him enough information to set him on the right path. He had names and locations, not Charlotte’s, but he felt that eventually, that would materialize. However, Connor still kept coming back to see her on the outside chance that there was perhaps even more that she could help him uncover.
Part of him secretly knew that what he was really doing was just coming up with excuses, giving himself reasons to continue seeing Brianna for just a little longer.
There was no question in his mind that he was attracted to her. Brianna had a rather memorable figure, even though all he had ever seen her wearing was jeans and a T-shirt. It really got to him. The amazing thing was that the woman didn’t use any makeup or glamorous clothing to make herself look beautiful. Nevertheless, she just was.
Brianna was very simply a natural beauty, he thought. A natural beauty who would most likely turn him down if he asked her out, for the same reason she’d told him that they would have to work in her house—because of the children. She’d made it quite clear without actually stating it that Axel and Ava always came first.
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