Dixie hesitated. Long enough to give him heartburn. His surrogate mother was honest to a fault.
She shook her head slowly. “You’re not your father, Vaughn. But you do share some of his traits.”
“Like what?”
“You’ve never learned how to open yourself up to other people. Even your brother and sister have a hard time knowing you.”
“They said that?” He was startled and chagrined.
“Not in so many words. But we all worry about you, Vaughn. You’re like a superhero with deep psychological wounds. You wear the cape or the mask, or you simply hide from the world. It’s not healthy. I want more for you.”
“I think you have a wonderfully caring heart, Dixie, and I’m glad you love me enough to worry about me. But if you’re thinking that I need some big love story in order to be happy, think again. Just because Kellan and Sophie have wallowed in romance lately doesn’t mean I will. I’m here for the wedding. That’s it.”
“Fair enough.” She stood and gathered the dishes. “How was Sophie last night?”
The obvious change in subjects relieved him. “I thought I was just dropping by for a casual visit. But you know Sophie. There was a party underway. I had a few minutes with her and Kellan. Met Nigel. It was...nice.”
He couldn’t quite bring himself to mention Brie or that he was seeing her again this afternoon. Dixie would jump to conclusions, but there was nowhere to jump. Nowhere at all.
* * *
Brie closed the office for the lunch break and handed off the keys to her brand-new partner. Dr. Brody had been a veterinarian in Royal for over four decades. Since his retirement, he’d been at loose ends. When Brie had asked if he’d be willing to cover for her occasionally, Dr. Brody jumped at the chance.
He was thin and stooped, but his mind was as sharp as ever. Plus, he had a wealth of experience that could only enhance Brie’s fledgling practice. It was the perfect solution for both of them.
Brie scooted home as quickly as she could and relieved the babysitter. Danika was already down for her nap. Brie missed her daughter fiercely when she was at work, but Brie was their sole financial support. No matter how much she would have loved to be a stay-at-home mom for a few years, it wasn’t in the cards.
She eased open the bedroom door and slipped inside to watch her baby sleep. Not really a baby anymore. Danika would be two very soon. Where had the time gone?
Her daughter’s hair was pale blond like Brie’s. But the little girl had her father’s vivid green eyes. Anyone looking closely could deduce the truth easily.
Brie had realized when she returned to Royal that she would have to face Vaughn sooner or later. He didn’t live here anymore, but with his sister getting married, of course he was going to come home for a visit.
It might have been possible to avoid a confrontation for a week or ten days—long enough for him to leave town again. But Brie had known for some time now that she needed to make a concerted effort to connect father and daughter.
Vaughn didn’t want family ties or obligations. That was fine. His choice. Still, Brie had to tell him the truth.
This move back to Royal was fraught with possibilities for happiness or for heartache, but Brie was convinced it was what was best for her little family. Brie wanted Danika to grow up in the wonderful town where she had spent her own childhood. Though Brie’s parents had relocated to south Florida for their retirement, Royal would always be home. She wanted that sense of belonging for her daughter.
While Danika was still napping, Brie carried the baby monitor to the bathroom so she could shower and change. When her hair was dry and her light makeup redone, she chose black dress pants and a crimson silk blouse that lifted her spirits while suiting the weather. Royal was on the cusp of a mild winter and an early spring. Dressy black sandals gave her a couple of extra inches and completed her outfit.
Danika stirred just as her mother was ready. After a snack of applesauce and goldfish crackers, Brie dressed her daughter in a knee-length dress with short sleeves. The fabric was pale blue gingham. The white band of smocking across the upper chest incorporated a cute pattern of yellow ducks chasing brown bunnies.
Danika squirmed. The child’s boundless energy didn’t take well to hair brushing.
“Easy, baby,” Brie said, expertly catching up the fine silky-blond strands into two small pigtails and adding blue bows. “Mommy’s almost done.”
Danika giggled when Brie lifted her little skirt and tickled her bare tummy. The baby had been wearing tights all winter, but today was balmy, so Brie put the child in a diaper and sandals and nothing else but her dress.
At last, both she and her daughter were ready to go. Brie had skipped lunch. Her stomach was in knots. Anxiety. Tension.
She was doing the right thing. No question.
But how would Vaughn react?
By the time Brie strapped Danika into her car seat, and they were headed toward Magnolia Acres, her forehead was damp and her hands were almost too shaky to drive.
She hadn’t been this nervous since the day she sat in a doctor’s office and heard the news that she was going to be a mother. She’d been all alone in a little suburb outside Houston.
After quitting her job at Blackwood Hollow she had fled Royal. Though Vaughn lived in Fort Worth, he came back and forth to Royal frequently. Their breakup had been ugly—too ugly for her to be comfortable with the idea of seeing him again. She’d been convinced that she had no choice but to leave Royal and start over.
Just as she was reliving her past, a car ran a stop sign and nearly clipped her bumper. Brie took a deep breath, sat up straight and concentrated on her driving. This looming confrontation was like ripping off a Band-Aid. The anticipation was always worse than the real event. Hopefully...
Besides, Vaughn wouldn’t want anything more than a cursory relationship with little Danika. He might offer to write a check for child support. Brie would decline, and her responsibility to inform him would be over.
By the time she reached Magnolia Acres, her pulse was racing. Fortunately, Danika played happily with books in the back seat. She already spoke multiple words and short sentences and was picking up additional language skills every day.
Would Vaughn be impressed with his daughter? Or was fatherhood going to be nothing more than an inconvenience to him? Brie braced herself for the fact that he might simply be uninterested.
That would be the worst blow of all...
She bypassed the turn to the main house and headed for the guest quarters. The clock on the dash read three minutes before two. A rental car in the driveway told her that Vaughn had returned from his earlier plans with his sister.
After checking her reflection in the visor mirror and smoothing her hair, she got out and freed Danika from her car seat. “Showtime, sweet baby. Please be on your best behavior.” The child might not understand the seriousness of the situation, but hopefully she would be in her usual good mood.
Brie balanced her daughter on her hip, hefting the bag against her other side. The diaper bag went everywhere with them. It held toys and snacks and extra clothing, and it was easy to tuck her small purse inside. She didn’t relish arriving on Vaughn’s doorstep burdened down with the huge navy-and-white tote, but it wouldn’t be smart to leave it.
Was Vaughn watching them out the window? A trickle of sweat rolled down Brie’s spine. Her mouth was so dry she wondered if she would be able to speak.
She had rehearsed this speech a hundred times over the past two years. Now that the moment had come, her mind was blank.
At the door, she set down the diaper bag and cuddled Danika for moral support. Then she rang the bell.
Vaughn answered almost immediately. He was wearing dark khakis with a cream dress shirt and a fashionable tie, navy with tiny gold medallions. His navy sport coat looked wildly expensive.
“Hel
lo, Vaughn.” She spoke first, because his gaze had skidded over Brie and locked on the baby.
When Vaughn didn’t say anything, her heartbeat lurched and thudded wildly. “This is Danika. Your daughter. I call her Nika for short.”
Still, he was silent. As she watched anxiously, every ounce of color drained from his face, only to be replaced with two dark slashes of red on his cheekbones. She saw his Adam’s apple flex visibly as he swallowed.
For a second, his incredulous gaze snapped back to meet Brie’s, but then immediately he focused on Danika again. He didn’t reach for the little girl. He didn’t move. He simply stared.
At last, when the silent standoff seemed as if it would never end, he shot a piercing glance at Brie. An angry, in fact furious, stare. “You didn’t think I had the right to know?”
“Whoa, whoa, back up the truck,” Brie hissed, trying not to upset her daughter. “I tried to tell you. Several times. But apparently, you changed cell service providers, and I wasn’t one of the chosen few you notified.”
A flicker in his expression told her he remembered. “We had a data breach at work. The tech guys started all my team over from scratch with new phones. But you could have called the office. The main line. That number was no secret, Brie.”
“I did,” she insisted. “At least half a dozen times. Twice, I even got through to your administrative assistant. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? Begging her to connect me to your line. I told her it was a personal matter. But apparently you’ve trained her to be very efficient when it comes to protecting your privacy.”
“Well, hell...”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
He seemed at a loss for words now. The situation was so novel—Vaughn Blackwood not knowing what to say—it was as if time stood still. Finally, he stepped back. “You should come in,” he muttered. “She has such fair skin. Don’t want her to get sunburned.”
As Brie leaned down to grab the bag, Vaughn intervened. “I’ve got it. You hang on to her.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Brie had been inside Dixie’s guesthouse a time or two. She found herself fiercely glad that she and Vaughn were going to have this conversation on neutral ground. A lot was at stake.
“This place isn’t childproofed,” he said, looking around the room, his expression still half-dazed.
“I’ll watch her. She’ll be fine. Maybe you and I could sit on the sofa. That way she can play at the coffee table. I’ll need the diaper bag, though.”
When she said the word diaper, she was pretty sure Vaughn’s eyes glazed over again. Brie took out a small set of colorful stacking cups, Danika’s favorite soft baby doll and a sippy cup of water.
With interesting distractions, the little girl was happy to stand at the table while her mother sat down opposite the strange man. Now they mimicked a real family—the two grown-ups on either end of the sofa and the child in the middle.
Vaughn raked a hand through his hair, laughing softly, though without any real humor. “I thought you wanted to borrow money.”
Brie’s eyes widened. “Why would I want money?”
“For the new veterinary practice?”
The way one of his eyebrows went up reminded her of a dozen arguments they’d had over the year and a half they had dated. With Brie working at his father’s ranch and Vaughn based mainly in the Dallas/Forth Worth area, their affair had been full of obstacles from the beginning. Brie had been willing to fight her way past all of them—at least at first. Back when she’d thought there might be a future for them together.
The first time they made love, Vaughn had spread a quilt in the hayloft and coaxed her into spending most of the night with him. It had been intimate and wildly romantic. Too bad it had all been for show.
“I don’t need your money,” she said, perhaps a little too sharply. “My parents invested a modest sum in my practice, and I qualified for a small business loan. The clinic is doing fine.”
His body language was guarded, arms folded over his broad, masculine chest. “Then why are you here?”
She gaped at him. “Seriously? I’m here so you can meet your daughter. Is that so odd? I know this whole parenthood gig probably means less than nothing to you, but a healthy child benefits from having two parents. I don’t want her waking up one day and hating me because I never told her who you were.”
“So this is really about you and not Danika. Certainly not me.”
“God, you’re a sanctimonious jerk. Some things never change.” She inhaled sharply, reining in her temper and reminding herself she didn’t want to upset Nika. “I don’t need or expect anything from you, Vaughn Blackwood. But my baby girl carries no blame here. If she wants a daddy, I’m going to make sure she knows who he is...even if he’s an absent parent.”
“I see.”
“You can deny paternity. If you wish. But a court of law would find in favor of your daughter. Look at her eyes, Vaughn. She’s yours. Through and through. If we’re lucky, maybe she won’t have inherited your stubborn, bullheaded need to push everyone away so you can always be in control.”
Four
Vaughn’s hands were cold. His insides were a mishmash of anger and incredulity.
In control? He would have laughed wildly if the situation had been less fraught. He’d never felt less in control during his entire adult life.
One minute he’d been a dutiful brother showing up for his sister’s wedding. The next he’d been blindsided by the woman and the past he had put behind him.
He stared at the child, searching for something, anything to tell him she was his. Brie was right. The eyes were a dead giveaway. Besides, he knew Brie. She wouldn’t lie about something like this.
“How old is she?” he demanded.
“Almost two. Her birthday is coming up. You can do the math. I didn’t know I was pregnant when I left Royal. By the time I found out, I was working in Houston. At first I wasn’t going to tell you at all, because you’d been so adamant about not wanting ties. But after a few weeks, my conscience kicked in, and I felt I had to share the truth. By then, it was too late. I couldn’t reach you by phone.”
“You could have come in person,” he said stubbornly, still wanting to play the injured party.
“No. We were done. I wasn’t going to crawl to you and beg for support, either financial or emotional.”
In Brie’s eyes, he saw the pain and trauma she had experienced since they parted. But he also saw her love for her daughter. Their daughter. He pressed two fingers to his forehead. “What have you told her about me?”
Brie shrugged. “Nothing yet.”
He reached out a hand and touched the child’s hair. It was silky and soft, though not as thick as her mother’s. “Hello,” he said quietly.
Danika sidled closer to Brie and put her thumb in her mouth, her eyes wide.
“It’s okay, sweetie.” Brie petted her. “Mr. V is our friend.”
Vaughn raised an eyebrow? “Mr. V?”
“Vaughn is not easy for a toddler to say, though my daughter is super verbal. She can already name most of her alphabet letters—even if they’re out of order.”
“Why not Daddy?” He saw the flash of alarm that flitted across Brie’s expressive sky-blue eyes.
“I don’t think that’s wise,” she said quietly. “Not yet. No sense in confusing her with something that may be temporary.”
He clenched his jaw, battling a host of conflicting emotions. “I want to see her.”
“See her?” Brie’s puzzlement was evident. “She’s right in front of you.”
“I want to see her while I’m here,” he said, clarifying the notion that even now seemed foreign to him. “I want to spend time with her.”
Brie’s protective body language wasn’t hard to read. She curled an arm around her daughter’s small waist, pulling the girl
against her legs. “You told me you weren’t going to have much free time while you’re in Royal,” she snapped, her expression stormy now.
Vaughn shook his head, smiling ruefully. “You have the damnedest way of throwing my words back in my face, don’t you?”
His humor seemed to ease something in Brie. She didn’t turn warm, but she seemed less defensive. Now she was just sad and wary. “I’ll be honest, Vaughn,” she said quietly. “My hope is that I’ll eventually fall in love with a man who will want to adopt Nika. That would be best for all of us. I don’t really want her to get attached to you.”
Vaughn took the hit stoically, at least on the outside. How could he complain about Brie’s assumptions when he himself had shown absolutely zero interest in settling down?
He’d had a crappy example for a father. If genetics were any indication, Vaughn was probably more like the old man than he cared to admit. But when he looked at this tiny little girl, something cracked inside his heart. Something ached. Something hurt like hell.
He and Brie had created this quiet, precious child. Whether he wanted it or not, fatherhood had come knocking. Quite literally.
“Will she let me hold her?”
Brie gnawed her lip. “Maybe not today. But soon. She’ll warm up to you if you play with her.”
“Play?” The word was not in his repertoire, not in this innocent context.
“You know. Help her build a tower. Talk to her doll. Anything.”
He sure as hell wasn’t going to play ventriloquist with the doll. Not with Brie watching. Instead, he picked up a blue cup and an orange cup and fit them together. “Will you give me the red one?” he asked, smiling at the little girl whose eyes matched the ones Vaughn saw in the mirror every morning.
Danika wriggled free from her mother’s embrace and took a step in his direction. She studied the cups solemnly, then picked up the one he had requested. “Red,” she said proudly, handing it to him.
Too Texan To Tame (Texas Cattleman's Club: Inheritance Book 5) Page 3