Liv sat forward, the thought that this was going to take longer than she’d anticipated causing an ache in her temple. “That sounds complicated. Polly had no biological family, so how long until the girls could leave with me?” she asked, trying to keep her words steady.
Ana-Maria’s voice was gentle. “Assuming your custody application was successful, approximately a month or two.”
“And, in the meantime, what will happen to Phoebe and Zoë? Do they remain with Markus or come to me?”
“As I said, the social worker at the hospital has some concerns about the unusual nature of this case and doesn’t want the children in an unsettled environment. If there’s a significant dispute about custody, we could place them with a foster family.”
“No!”
They’d spoken as one, with Markus’s response as forceful as Liv’s desperate one, and she turned in shock to look at him.
Sparks flew from his chestnut irises—eyes Liv had fallen into a million times, eyes that knew her.
She couldn’t bear to think of someone else looking after Phoebe and Zoë. If there’d been someone who’d fought for her as a child, she’d never have ended up on her own. She’d been exceptionally lucky and had two wonderful years with one foster family when she was fourteen, but then their circumstances had changed and she’d had to go back into state care. Polly had never found a real home either. These babies were so little and defenseless, and they needed to be with people who loved them now.
“You have another solution?” Ana-Maria’s soft gaze swung from Liv to Markus and back again. “Something to guarantee their stability?”
“They can live with me, and Markus could visit whenever he wanted,” Liv said immediately. “I’ll have them until this is sorted out. We’ll make it work.”
She leaned forward again, willing Ana-Maria to say she could have Phoebe and Zoë for the next four weeks.
“With respect, Ms. Bailey, you’re not a blood relation, nor a Cypriot citizen, and a hotel room will not provide the sort of environment the babies require.”
“They can stay with me,” Markus said. “I’ve had them since they were born. They have everything they need where they are, I know their routine, and Olivia would always be welcome in my home.”
His last words caused a hum in Liv’s chest, and trying to ignore it, she swung her gaze to Ana-Maria to wait for her decision.
The social worker drummed a pencil on her desk as she looked first at Liv, then Markus. “I can see you both feel strongly about this situation. I’ll leave you alone for five minutes, in which time I’d like you to come up with a plan for how custody and visitation would work in the interim, otherwise . . . Well, you know the alternative.”
When the door clicked shut behind her, Markus stood, pulled his suit jacket off and placed it over the back of his chair, before shrugging his shoulders. “They can’t go to strangers,” he said, avoiding her eyes which still smoldered from their connection minutes ago. “We can’t let that happen. I’ve begun bonding with them and you—” He trailed off, but the determined look was back.
Not only was he intent on protecting Phoebe and Zoë until he knew they were safe, but he was concerned about bonding as well.
Liv hadn’t considered bonding.
Maybe they could agree on something, work together and be a family for the time it took to determine custody.
“We must make it work,” he said as he dug a strong hand through his shiny black waves. “You’re in a hotel. No place for newborn twins. They need warmth, fresh air . . . stability.” His look was loaded with innuendo.
“I could hire a house for a month, set it up as I would at home,” she said. “I wouldn’t be working if I was with them for the next few weeks, and they’d spend their whole time with me.” Her heart thumped.
He shook his head. “But it wouldn’t be fair to the girls, transporting them backward and forward. They’d be unsettled.”
She stopped talking. Her suggestions were futile. It was no use. Of course, Phoebe and Zoë should stay with him for now.
“You’re welcome to visit any time,” he said quietly, looking at her with such intensity it knocked her emotionally backward. “You could spend whole days at my home if you’d like.”
She swallowed as every reason why that was a terrible idea raced through her brain. In the same house with the man whose touch she’d once loved—the same touch she’d ached for and dreamed of the last two years? The man who’d been everything to her before she’d realized a future with him—with his children—would be impossible?
“I’ll take the girls to my beach house at Aphrodite’s Rock,” he continued. “There’s more room, so I can work from home at night, and we could care for Phoebe and Zoë during the day. Together.”
For a minute, the beauty of that image settled in her mind before, with heart-crunching sadness, the truth struck her. He wanted to watch her with the girls, ensure she was capable of being the parent she’d told him she could be, before he’d give them up.
He didn’t trust her. Didn’t trust she’d make a commitment and stick with it. And that simple knowledge killed something deep inside.
He spoke with precision, shattering her comforting dreams with his practical reality. “Bottom line? We both want what’s best for Phoebe and Zoë. Agreed?”
She nodded. Her throat was so thick the words wouldn’t come, but he was right. The babies, it was all about the babies now, not Liv and Markus.
“The best thing for them is to be in one place surrounded by people who care about them and see their needs as paramount.”
She blinked. “Right.”
If only she could resist the urge to look at him, could turn away, could feel—or at least pretend—indifference. He wanted to watch her, but only to know if she was finally capable of settling down and giving in to love.
He was right to still want to keep Phoebe and Zoë protected, and even if the physical closeness to him destroyed her emotionally, it would mean she could really bond with the girls in the eyes of the court and show she was the right parent for them.
His eyes shone with nothing but reason and logic. None of the desire from the past, none of the fire that had burned when they were together.
A knock at the door and the social worker came back in. She carried a handful of papers and wore an expression that indicated she meant business.
“I have the documentation here to put the girls into foster care, and I also have papers you could sign for a temporary custody and visitation agreement. Can I remind you that however you decide to arrange things, the court will frown on any indication of disharmony between the two of you.” She sat down and raised her pen. “So, Ms. Bailey, Mr. Panos—what’s your decision?”
Markus leaned an arm on the southern wall of his cliff-top beach house and looked out through the massive picture window across to Aphrodite’s Rock and the ever-changing Mediterranean Sea surrounding it.
A storm was brewing, and black thunderheads were rolling in from the south. Occasionally, a shaft of brilliant sunshine would illuminate a spot on the sea’s surface and turn it golden before disappearing again just as quickly.
The rapidly changing seascape mirrored his change of heart. Liv was about to appear for her first visit at his house, and he didn’t know if he was prepared.
To have her back within touching distance . . . Something he hadn’t imagined in his wildest dreams, something he’d never expected he’d have to deal with.
When he’d seen her in his office four days ago, he’d employed every trick known to man to stop the fire that sparked and gained heat through his body. He’d succeeded well enough then, but how would it feel dampening down that reaction day after day?
A car pulled into the driveway, and he turned away from the window, disgusted by his own eagerness for any sight of her.
He couldn’t deny her claim to the babies, or her desire to take them back to the States, as Polly had no relatives. When she knew the truth about thei
r paternity, she’d see her goal as unobstructed.
But he hadn’t counted on how he’d feel about Phoebe and Zoë—the swell in his chest every time he looked at them, cared for them, watched them change from day to day. At least for now, he was the parent in every way that counted, and before he agreed to Liv’s claim, he had to be sure . . .
He sat with a thump on the sleek leather couch and waited for her entrance. He heard Petro, his housekeeper, open the front door and welcome her, but he stayed exactly where he was, even picking up a thick supply contract to keep his gaze from drifting to the foyer.
“Hello, Markus.”
He stayed focused on the papers, reading the same sentence over and over. “I’ll be with you in a moment.” He wanted a minute to prepare himself, to make sure seeing her didn’t jolt him the way it had a few days ago.
The silence of the house was punctuated by the soft shush of her dress against the couch and the high whistle of wind outside. “The girls haven’t arrived yet,” he managed to say through a concrete jaw.
And when she didn’t answer, he looked up slowly.
She was a vision in red. From the soft ballet-type shoes to the floaty skirt, his gaze fed on her slim brown legs up to—
He froze.
She held a suitcase.
“You said you had plenty of room,” she said quickly. “And as you’ll be working from home, I figured that, to save you from complete exhaustion, I may as well make myself useful and help you during the day and night.”
The night.
The thought of him meeting Liv in a darkened corridor, when she was warm and mussed from sleep, assaulted his senses.
She placed the suitcase on the floor and sat in the seat opposite him. “But I need to know for sure before we go any further with this. Are the girls yours, Markus?” She rushed on, before he could answer. “I know it’ll come out when paternity tests are done, but I need to hear it from you. Especially now. Are you Phoebe and Zoë’s father?”
He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He should’ve told her the truth earlier and removed the doubts and questions he could see when she’d watched him with the girls. In hanging on to the truth, he’d been protecting Phoebe and Zoë from the Liv he’d known in the past. But what right did he have to keep it from her if she’d changed as much as she said she had? She deserved the truth.
“Polly and I were never in a relationship. I’m not Phoebe and Zoë’s father.”
Closing her eyes, she breathed deep, and he was stunned by the power of her relief as her shoulders rose then fell. In seconds, he was standing beside her chair.
“You can’t say anything to anyone,” he said, desperate for her to understand the gravity of this.
“What do you mean?” Her relief was audible in her voice as she trained her gaze on his face.
He spoke quickly, dragging a hand through his hair. “As you know, Polly was in a relationship with a guy in Italy who was violent. When she finally said she’d report him to the police, he threatened her life and the lives of the girls, so she called me to ask for some legal advice. When I knew she was heavily pregnant and possibly in danger I arranged to fly her here so she’d be safe from any threat. She went into labor two days later.”
Liv pinched the bridge of her nose as if to stem the fresh sorrow he knew would be raging through her. “I should’ve been here,” she whispered. “I wish she’d told me she was in so much trouble.” She curled and uncurled her fingers. “Go on,” she said, the words forced out.
“I arranged for private medical care and it was then the doctors realized her blood pressure was dangerously high. She asked me to arrange for the girls’ care in the event that anything went wrong.”
Liv stared at the floor—her brow furrowed, face ashen—as if trying to make sense of it all before she slowly looked up. “But Ana-Maria, the social worker. You didn’t even tell her. When we were in her office, she seemed to think things were strange, but you never told her the truth.”
“I can’t tell the truth. Not yet, anyway. Everything will be out in the open when the paternity results are done, and hopefully by that time, we can be sure that drunken creep is long gone.”
“You did all that for Polly?” she whispered.
Something in his chest pulled as he took the chair beside her, his hand so close he could’ve touched her if he’d dared. “Of course, I did. And now I’ve made the commitment, you must see why I need to ensure they’re safe, that all their needs will be met? Always?”
She turned to face him. “Of course, I can, Markus, and you need to know that I want exactly the same thing. When you talked about bonding yesterday, it got me thinking. No matter which of us the girls are with long term, the sooner they bond with that person, the better. You said yourself the best thing for Phoebe and Zoë is to be in one place surrounded by people who care about them.” Her rigid, unbending gaze held his. “That’s why I’m here.”
She stopped speaking and her gaze grew wary, as if expecting him to argue, to tell her no, that this wouldn’t be happening. Instead, what she said about staying here was logical, reasonable even. What he struggled to believe was that it had come from her.
“I want to see and understand every part of their day, their routine,” she continued. “And it wouldn’t be fair for me to have the good bits during the day and leave you the tough time at night.”
Surely those words weren’t spoken by the same woman who’d walked out on him, who’d just up and left when everything got too much for her? That Liv hadn’t had the capacity to stay and work things through when the going got tough.
This woman was determined.
The thought that she might’ve changed in the past two years began to unfurl, and a familiar desire took hold of his insides and pulled long and low through his core.
“And what if it doesn’t suit me, you staying here?” He was testing her, wanting to hear again that this time she was prepared to fight for something in her life. “What makes you think I haven’t got a wife who might object to another woman taking over her house?”
For just a second, her jaw slackened and her eyes grew round, but then she sat straighter. “Then I guess that would mean one of us could get some sleep while the others were feeding the girls.”
He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth at the lengths she’d go to convince him on this. This newfound passion for commitment was unsettling and . . . disturbingly attractive. “Let’s get through a day together before we go making any rash decisions.”
She sat forward, took her sunglasses from their perch on the top of her head and absently began opening and shutting one of the arms. “But whatever happens, we have to talk about a few things before our full attention is turned to the babies. You said they weren’t here yet?”
She hadn’t asked whether he did, in fact, have a wife. Did that mean she’d be unmoved if he did? Would she still be determined to carry this through? “My assistant, Eleni, is bringing the girls from my home in Nicosia. I wanted to have everything ready for them before they arrived. And I’d guessed you’d want to talk about the way this would work.”
An ever-increasing smile lit her face. “I’m still that predictable?” Her gaze finally met his, and her eyes sparked before she looked past him and stood. “This is quite some beach house.” She crossed to the window, still holding her sunglasses in her hand but now tapping them against her thigh. “What a beautiful view, although the weather’s made a rapid change. It was sunny when I left the hotel.”
“You’re looking at Aphrodite’s Rock.” He made himself stay put, needing to keep physical distance between them. “Legend says that Aphrodite was born out of the sea’s foam surrounding the rock.”
He deliberately didn’t tell her the rest.
She raised a hand above her eyes, as if looking for any evidence a goddess might’ve walked this way. “That’s why Cyprus is known as the island of love.”
As soon as she’d said the wo
rds, he wanted to back out of the intimacy of this conversation. “It’s just a legend,” he said quickly, trying to resurrect his guard that had unexpectedly slipped. “Nothing more than a fairy tale.”
She swung around then and fixed him with one of her trademark looks of brutal honesty. “Can we really make this work for four weeks, Markus?”
Her eyebrows rose in challenge, and he remembered the little arguments they’d had in the past, about nothing more important than which park to spend the afternoon in. They’d always ended the same way, those little arguments, with a million kisses and the promise of everlasting love.
She crossed her arms under her breasts and continued to stare.
He’d show her he was committed to seeing this through. He also had a plan to determine whether she’d changed, whether she had the capacity to commit herself to the girls as she claimed. But before he tested it, he wanted to hear a little more about how she imagined this would all work. “It will work if we both want it enough.”
“Markus, we can’t live under the shadow of resentment for a month. We have to put our past behind us and focus on Phoebe and Zoë.”
She’d always been so honest, far too sure of everything in the world. It was her absolute black and white approach to life that had destroyed them before.
He stood and moved toward her, breaking the pact he’d made earlier with himself about distance. “This isn’t about us, Liv. It’s about the welfare of Phoebe and Zoë. And until we can guarantee their safety and a stable future, their care is the most important thing.”
Olivia, he’d meant to keep calling her Olivia. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed.
“We can’t keep our heads in the sand, Markus. I agree that the girls’ welfare is the most important thing, but we owe it to them to be honest with each other. If we’re going to get along in the next four weeks and provide the sort of positive atmosphere we want for the babies, we need to be open.”
A Family for Good : A sweet, small town, second chance romance (Tall Dark and Driven Book 6) Page 3