Scott tensed. “Go ahead.”
“It’s not about your family, it’s about Amanda and the way she was when I spoke to her.”
Scott closed his eyes. “God, Carrie, don’t let her come into this. Forget her.”
“Look at me.”
He opened his eyes.
She smiled. “I’m just looking out for Belle, remember? Please, Scott. I need to ask these questions and have you answer them so I know you better.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ve met Amanda twice, and the woman isn’t happy. From her point of view, it’s all about her child. I saw your face at the doctor’s office...I know you’re happy about Belle being yours, but still I’m scared—”
“That I’ll walk away? That I won’t be able to hack it for the long term?” Scott shook his head and frowned. “I understand why you’d think that considering what you’ve learned about me. I love women, Carrie. I’m not denying that...but I haven’t had such an overwhelming need to be with one as I have when I’m with you. And as for Belle?” He smiled, his heart beating faster. “She’s mine. Rhys was Amanda’s son and she made sure I knew that. Belle is mine and I intend giving her everything she needs.”
“Including you?” Her eyes were somber. “All of you?”
Scott swallowed, possession filling his soul. “All of me.”
She nodded and released his fingers to pick up her wineglass. She took a sip before replacing it on the table. “We haven’t time to find out things about each other like people normally do. We haven’t the luxury of twenty dates and weekend breaks away to make sure we’re a good fit. You said my staying here for a few days was about getting to know each other. Well, this is what getting to know each other looks like.”
Fear shone in her eyes that she seemed to be trying so hard to disguise with attitude.
He leaned forward and cupped her jaw. “We have time. I’m not going anywhere. Admittedly, I haven’t exactly been a saint in the past, but Amanda’s the only woman I’ve any friction with, I promise. She doesn’t want me, Carrie. She wants someone to manipulate and mold into her idea of a partner.”
Her pretty brow creased. Eventually, she nodded. “You and her little boy spent quite a bit of time—just the two of you?”
“Yes, and I didn’t sign up for that, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want children eventually. I told you from the start it was the timing of Belle that shocked me more than anything else.” He took his hand from her face and stared into her eyes, willing her to believe him. “Amanda was so busy doing what she had to do, I never got the impression she even wanted to be Rhys’s mum. What mum is happy for her date to babysit her child?”
She raised her eyebrows, her jaw hardening. “Not me.”
“See? This, between us, is entirely different. You are perfectly capable of raising Belle alone, I know that...but, from now on, I’d rather we were side by side raising her.”
She lowered her gaze to the table.
Scott took a deep breath and reached across to take her hand. He squeezed her fingers. “I’m happier than I’ve been for years, and I’ll do everything in my power to keep feeling this way for the rest of my life. How about you? Can I ever be to you what Gerard was?”
She snapped her eyes to his, a tiny pulse flickering in the shallow hollow at the base of her neck. “What?”
“I want to look after you like he did. I want you to love me as you loved him.”
Her gaze drifted over his face as Scott’s heart beat painfully. Slowly, her mouth curved with a soft smile. “I’ve never met two more different people.”
Scott closed his eyes. She loved Gerard. Loved him enough to marry him and now inferred Scott would never be anything like a man she trusted enough to look after her and Belle.
“But you’re you, Scott, and I think you’re all I ever wanted.”
He opened his eyes. She grinned at him, her eyes shimmering with tears. Smiling, Scott lifted out of his chair and leaned across the table. She met him halfway and they kissed. He poured himself into her, hoping to God she understood he was sealing his commitment to her and Belle. That he would see this through to the end, no matter what.
“Ahem.”
They jumped, separated and turned. The waiter grinned beside them. “Your appetizers, sir, madam.”
Scott looked at Carrie as they dropped sharply into their seats. “Thank you.”
He looked about the restaurant, his smile wide as hope for the future burned inside him. The waiter straightened their cutlery and glasses and laid down their plates. He walked away and Scott was just about to pick up his knife and fork when his gaze fell on a couple across the restaurant. He froze. Everything around him faded into the background as his stomach lurched with acid vengeance. He slowly curled his hand into a fist, instantaneous rage tearing through him and obliterating his previous hope and happiness.
“Scott?” Carrie’s voice filtered from a faraway distance. “What is it?”
He couldn’t look at her, couldn’t drag his gaze from the sight ahead of him. He swallowed. “My father.” His voice was a low rumble deep from his chest. “My father is having dinner with my mother right over there.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A RED MIST of anger momentarily blinded Scott as he rose from his chair, his pulse thumping. He stood stock-still and stared at the man who had dared to come back to Templeton and sit in a restaurant where any of his kids could walk in at any moment. No pre-arranged meeting, no consideration. How could his mother think this was okay?
He shot his gaze to her just as she tipped her head back and laughed like he hadn’t heard in years. When was the last time he’d heard her laugh like that?
“Scott?”
He turned. Carrie’s face was etched with concern, her cheeks flushed and her gaze darting manically from his to the table where his mother and father sat. The right thing to do was to get Carrie out of there and deal with this situation when he was alone, but the right thing was a stretch too far.
“Don’t do this here. Let them have their meal.” Carrie’s gaze shot from him to his parents and back again. “This isn’t the place. Trust me. How about we leave? Get out of here and back to the hotel?”
His heart thumped and his hands shook. Hadn’t she heard him when he told her what his family meant to him? How his father’s disappearance splintered them and he’d spent a third of his life fighting to keep the wafer-thin glue that held them together in place?
He shook his head. “I can’t just leave. How can I not talk to him? Tell him to get the hell back to wherever it is he came from? He’s sitting there as though he belongs here, for crying out loud.” He tossed his napkin onto the table and strode across the restaurant.
The heat of Carrie’s gaze burned into his back, but he couldn’t stop, couldn’t control the need to confront the man who had walked away from his wife and children so easily...and now seemed to be able to walk back into their lives with the exact same level of ease and complete disregard.
Scott didn’t know whether his mother sensed his approach or saw him in her peripheral vision, but she turned when he was about five feet away. She immediately stood and held her hand in front of her like a shield, her eyes wide. “Scottie, wait.”
Her defensive, almost scared posture sent a stream of guilt vibrating through him. Scott ground to a halt, his chest rising and falling as his harried breaths scratched at his throat. He glared straight at the man he hadn’t laid eyes on in ten years. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
His father slowly put down his wineglass and leaned back in his seat. His blue eyes darkened to what Scott assumed was the same shade others told him could be equally as threatening in his own gaze. “I’m having a meal with your mother. My wife.” His father shot his glare around the restaurant, before turning
it on Scott and gesturing to a vacant chair beside him. “Why don’t you join us?”
Anger ebbed and flowed through him as Scott drank in every detail of the face he remembered so well. The lines around his father’s eyes and mouth were deeper, his dark brown hair peppered with more white than gray, but still the familiarity tore a pain deep in Scott’s chest. He squeezed his eyes closed, blocking any weakness and the need to know where the hell the man who should have taught him so much had been. The only thing that mattered was why he was here now. “You lost the right to call her your wife when you walked out on her.” Scott opened his eyes and glared. “What do you want from her that you couldn’t ask for in front of your daughters or me?
His father’s gaze was steady, his pallor neither flushed nor pale. The corners of his mouth lifted in an amused smile. “I don’t want anything from her that she isn’t willing to give. We’re taking this one step at a time, and if your mother wanted to include you and your sisters, I would have been fine with that. As it is, she didn’t—”
“Ask us to be involved because she doesn’t want you near us until she knows what you’re up to.”
His mother stepped forward and gripped his arm. “Scottie, stop this now. I told you I can handle this.”
Scott tried and failed to drag his eyes from his father to look at her. He shook his head and pointed a finger at him. “You thought you’d get back under her skin and in her damn heart before any of us stood a chance of showing her how insane it is to trust you again.” His body trembled with suppressed anger. “You’re a cheating waste of space. Go back to where you came from. We don’t want you here.”
His mother pinched her nails into his arm. “Look at me right now.”
Scott turned, his heart beating fast, his face hot. “This is wrong. He’s going to hurt you.”
“And if that happens, it will be my fault. Not yours.” She glanced behind him. “You’re supposed to be entertaining a beautiful girl you have real feelings for. That should be your concern right now, nothing else. Now go and sit down before she leaves.”
“Excuse me, sir. Is there a problem?” The maître d’ subtly slid in between Scott and the table where his father remained sitting. “Anything I can help with?”
Scott flicked his gaze to the maître d’, his blood running hot through his veins. “This won’t take long.” He looked at his father. “He’s just leaving.”
His father shook his head, his eyes storming with angry determination. “I’ll leave when your mother tells me to leave. I understand why you and your sisters might hate me, Scottie, but right now this is between your mum and me. Now, why don’t you go and sit with your girl? Your mum has my number and you can call me anytime you want to fight this out.” He glared. “I’m not doing this here. Not now.”
Scott locked his eyes on his father’s and curled his hands into fists at his sides. Pressure bore down on his chest as his gut burned with vengeance and protection for the people he loved most in the world. If his mother took his father back, then what?
The maitre d’ coughed. “I suggest you deal with your personal problems somewhere else, sir, rather than in full view of others who have come here to enjoy their evening.” He waved toward their table. “If you would like to return to your friend...”
Scott snapped his head around. “I will when I’m done.”
“Scott, I’m leaving.”
Carrie’s icy-cold tone slipped through his blazing hot anger and Scott turned. Her eyes flashed fire and her cheeks were red. He stood thigh-deep in a situation he had no idea how to control. Was this what love did to a man? Made him crazy? Made him lose his mind and prevent him dealing with his problems one step at a time as he always had before? He faced his mother again and his gut knotted when she brushed past him to stand beside his father. She slid her hand across the back of his chair. United.
Words scorched and burned his tongue. Angry, bitter words that would only wound the woman who loved her children so damn much. How could he walk away and give his father free rein to rip her heart out a second time? He’d known Carrie for a few days—no matter how much he felt he’d known her a lifetime. The choice was simple.
He faced her. “I’m not leaving, Carrie. You go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She stared. “This is a bad decision. If you don’t come with me now, there will be nothing else for us to talk about. If you don’t come with me now, you’re showing me exactly who you are.”
“I can’t leave him with her. I thought you’d understand that after everything....” He shook his head. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“No, you won’t. I am asking you to come with me now.” She glanced at his parents. “What happens between your mum and dad isn’t your choice to make. If you feel the need to do this now, in front of everyone, what does that tell you?”
He looked at her, frustration running through him. “You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you think. You love your mum and sisters. I get it. You want to be here for them, to protect and provide for them. I get it. But where does that leave me, Scott?”
“What do you—”
“I need you to be with us now. Not in weeks or months when you’ve come to terms with the changes in your family.” She glanced toward his mother and father once more. “This isn’t fair for any of us.” She snatched her purse from the table. “I’m sorry, Scott. I need more from you than this.”
His heart thundered as loss gripped him. Every moment he was with Carrie was better than the last. Every moment he looked into her eyes, the pressure lifted. He whirled away from her beautiful, powerful gaze and pinned his father with a glare Scott hoped optimized every ounce of rage burning inside him.
“Go, Carrie. This is too important.”
“Scottie, what are you doing?” His mother gripped his forearm. “Go with her. Go now. I won’t let you ruin this chance to be happy. What’s the matter with you? Your father and I are just having dinner. Do you really think I will make any serious decisions without talking to you and your sisters? Do you?” She fisted her hands on her hips. “The one person who’s made you happy for the first time in God knows how long has just walked away. If you don’t go after her, you’ll be making a bigger mistake than I ever thought possible. Do you hear me?” Tears ran over his mother’s cheeks. “Don’t risk losing her over this.”
Scott blinked and dragged his gaze from hers to the maître d’ and then around to the entire gawping restaurant.
The things that had happened, the mistakes he’d made for the last three years came hurtling back to him and hit him full force in the chest.
He’d given his family all he had, everything he was, while purposely holding further commitment to anyone else at bay. Where had that gotten him? His father here now, seemingly worming his way back into their lives. He looked at the determination in his mother’s eyes. Could he really stop their reunion from happening if this was what she wanted? And what of Bianca, Ella and Lucy? What if they wanted their dad back, too? He briefly closed his eyes as tiredness settled over him before looking at his mum.
“You’re right. I’m not letting Carrie go, Mum. She’s too important to me. I’m done here. I love you, Bianca, Ella and Lucy, but I want my own life, too. I want Carrie. You do what you have to do. I’ll always be here when you need me, but I’m letting go.”
His mother nodded and smiled. “About time. Go find her, sweetheart, before it’s too late.”
He faced his father. “As for you and me? We’re not done. Not by a long shot.”
“I didn’t expect any different from you once you found out I was talking to your mum again. I deserve everything you, your mum and your sisters throw at me.” He took a hefty gulp of his wine and the glass trembled, indicating his father’s true state. “But if you let my being back in the Cove ruin whatever you have going on wit
h that girl, you’ve given me more power than I deserve.”
Scott stared at him, as anger and resentment fought against the incoming stream of knowledge that his godforsaken father was right. He snatched his gaze to his mum. “I’ll see you at home. Alone. Do not bring him to my house. Christmas or no Christmas, it’s too soon.”
She nodded, tears glinting in her eyes. “Okay. Just go.”
Scott stormed through the restaurant, banging the door back on its hinges. Outside, he breathed deep and concentrated on cooling his anger. He ran through the thick snow for his car, his heart and mind a jumble of questions, rights and wrongs. No more living entirely for his family. No more worrying about his mother and not going after the life he wanted with every ounce of his being and every beat of his heart.
He gunned the engine and fought his frustration as the wipers lifted the snow from the windshield and the heater blasted the condensation inside. When his vision was the best he could make it, Scott slowly crawled from the parking lot. Once on the main road, he headed for The Christie Hotel, praying that’s where Carrie had gone and she would still be by the time he negotiated the panicked British public as they drove home through heavy snowfall.
* * *
CARRIE FELL THROUGH the doorway of her hotel room, her tears blinding her and her heart breaking. What she’d witnessed in Scott at the restaurant couldn’t be ignored. His anger and unresolved issues with his father still ate him from the inside out. How could he possibly embrace everything Belle had to offer if his heart and mind were still wholly committed to protecting his mother and sisters to the extent that he tried to control them and their decisions?
He’d chosen to stay where he was and not move forward.
She refused to spend her life feeling as though she had pulled Scott away from his family. His reaction at the restaurant proved he was far from ready to leave them to live their own lives and move forward with her and Belle. Tears burned. Belle deserved a father who gave all of himself to her, not one who could only spare what remained after his family’s needs had been taken care of...especially when that family consisted of adults.
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