Finding Family...and Forever?

by Southwick, Teresa

  The other woman sighed. “Guilty.”

  “The only thing you’re guilty of is being a teenager. We’ve all been young and stupid.” Justin set the tray on the coffee table and grabbed his beer. “Why don’t you sit?”

  “Are you saying I’m old?”

  “I’m saying you’re pregnant.”

  The couple took seats side by side on the full-size sofa and Justin sat on the shorter one at a right angle to them. The only place for Emma was beside him and when she put herself there, their thighs brushed. His gaze jumped to hers for a charged moment then they both quickly looked away. Camille’s shrewd expression said she hadn’t missed the exchange and the jury was still out on whether or not she approved.

  Justin cleared his throat. “I actually have Cam to thank for the fact that I’m here in Blackwater Lake.”

  Emma felt like gulping the white wine he’d given her but forced herself to sip. “Oh?”

  He nodded. “She’s been in town since January.”

  “I drew the short family straw and was given the assignment of turning a profit at Blackwater Lake Lodge. At first I thought I’d been exiled to a foreign country and the employees treated me like an alien.” She smiled at her fiancé. “Everything changed when I met Ben.”

  “His specialty is orthopedics, so she had inside information on the medical position that opened up at the clinic and passed the information on to me,” Justin explained. “I just had to wait until the building project to expand Mercy Medical Clinic was complete, then I got the job. Now Ben and I work together.”

  “Speaking of expansion,” the other man said. “Cam and I aren’t the only ones working on a family. My brother, Alex, and his fiancée, Ellie, are expecting a baby just a couple months after us.”

  “A toast to the McKnights.” Justin held up his long-neck bottle and they all touched their glasses.

  Cam leaned back and rested a hand on her baby bump. “What brought you to Blackwater Lake, Emma?”

  She should have expected the question but hadn’t. She wasn’t prepared. “Wow. Where to start.”

  Justin had not only kept her secret, he’d supported her during this confusing time. But if she told anyone else, the news could get out in a way she couldn’t control.

  She glanced at Kyle, for once wishing he would have an immediate need for a dirty-diaper change. But he was happily enthralled with unraveling his ribbon.

  “Emma came here on vacation.” Justin’s expression said he had her back. “Hawaii’s loss is Montana’s gain.”

  She was disturbed and relieved in equal parts. He’d covered for her but she’d never considered that confiding in him would compromise his honesty. Still, she couldn’t help liking him a whole lot more for the gallant gesture.

  “That’s true,” she agreed. “I’d wanted to visit Montana and settled on Blackwater Lake.”

  “She liked it so much, she decided to stay.” Justin took a drink from his beer. “It was my good fortune she did. Sylvia was leaving with or without a replacement and Emma is great with Kyle. Not to mention a seriously good cook.”

  “Really?” Cam shifted on the sofa, trying to get comfortable.

  “Absolutely. And it’s the little things she does,” he continued.

  “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Ben grinned when his friend choked as he was taking a drink.

  “If that were true,” Cam said, giving her fiancé a look, “you wouldn’t be the father of this baby. I run a hotel and cooking isn’t part of my skills set.” She met Justin’s gaze. “So tell me about the little things she does.”

  Justin thought for a moment. “Take Kyle’s birthday. The menu tonight is all about his favorites. Macaroni and cheese. Green beans.”

  “I made a chicken dish, too, for the adults,” Emma said.

  “Sounds yummy.”

  “It is.” Justin rested his forearms on his knees. “She made the birthday cake from scratch, too. And baked a little one just for him.”

  Emma picked it up from there. “He can eat it, play with it, wear it or throw it on the floor. This is his day to be the man, in his one-year-old way.”

  “Who’s cleaning up?” Ben wanted to know.

  “Me,” she said. “The parameters are broad, but I draw the line at smearing cake on the windows.”

  “Aw.” Cam’s expression went all gooey. “I’d never have thought of that.”

  “A kid is only one once.”

  “That does it.” Cam looked at Ben. “When Delaney is born, I’m stealing Emma for our nanny.”

  “Is that a girl name?” Justin grinned.

  “Yes,” the parents-to-be said together.

  Then Cam smiled and added, “When our children grow up, maybe they’ll fall in love and Kyle will propose. I’d love that because we could pick our little girl’s in-laws.”

  “You’re such a romantic,” Justin teased. “Were you always that way or is it pregnancy hormones?”

  “Some of both. And don’t think you distracted me.” She looked at Emma. “Will you consider a job offer?”

  “Never say never. But it would have to be pretty spectacular.” She smiled as Kyle held her leg and pulled himself to a standing position. “This little guy has stolen my heart.”

  She loved him; it was as simple as that. Her feelings for Justin were far more complicated. There was always the acute attraction, but more than that was his loyalty and sense of honor. She was incredibly grateful to him for compromising his truthfulness in order to protect her secret. That suddenly made it more urgent to figure out her personal situation.

  She owed it to Justin to settle her life so that he could settle his.

  Chapter Six

  Justin couldn’t believe that Halloween was only two weeks away. “I’m really glad you talked me into coming to the pumpkin patch.”

  “I didn’t talk you into anything,” Emma retorted. “It was merely a suggestion and you seized the moment to start Flint-family traditions. And rightly so.”

  It was a clear but chilly night as Justin pushed Kyle’s stroller on the dirt path past the bales of hay and displays of ghosts, witches and zombies. It was all set up in a field just a couple streets over from Main, where, in about six weeks, there would be Christmas trees.

  “Well, someone was talked into something.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, right, that was me talking you into coming along with us.”

  He wasn’t sure why it was any more important than helping him shop for a jacket or being part of his son’s first birthday celebration, but it was. So he made sure she was here.

  “Make fun if you feel better.” Her chin lifted a notch and just made her look cuter with her cream-colored, pom-pom-topped knit hat. Her hands were shoved into the pockets of a puffy pink jacket as they walked past a fun house and its weird chain-rattling sounds, thumps and screams.

  “I’m not making fun. Just giving credit where credit is due.” He glanced at her, and his fingers tingled with the urge to run them through all that shiny brown hair tumbling down from underneath her hat.

  “It really wasn’t a creditworthy situation,” she protested. “Halloween is coming and I saw a flyer at the grocery store. Every kid should have a pumpkin and make a project of carving it. Never too early to start traditions.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. The thing is, I get busy with work, and stuff like this could slide under my radar if not for you.”

  The path was crowded with people; there was excitement in the air. Children were chasing each other and some had their faces painted with pumpkins, bats or scarecrows. Adults followed their kids, called out to slow them down if they got too far ahead.

  Justin wanted Kyle to be a part of this but wasn’t good at being aware when it was going on. He wasn’t sexist, but events like face paint
ing and haunted houses fell into the female sphere of expertise. Since he got so easily wrapped up in a demanding job, Emma was necessary for balance in his son’s life.

  He was a single father raising a child alone.

  He glanced at her and the overhead spotlights showed her frown. It was an ongoing struggle to keep her from seeing that he wanted her more every day. Maybe that leaked out in what he’d just said. If not for her...

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Then why are you making that face?”

  She met his gaze, her expression wiped clean of any emotion. “What face?”

  “The one you were making before going deliberately blank.”

  He studied the smooth skin on her forehead where the frown had been and the realization came out of the blue as it so often did. She was so beautiful that sometimes it was like a punch to the gut. And he couldn’t let her know.

  “Look, Emma, I know faces. It’s my job. So come clean. What’s bothering you? If I did something...”

  “No. Gosh, no, Justin.” Their shoulders brushed and for a moment she put her hand on his arm. “It’s not about you. I was just remembering my mother bringing me to pick out a pumpkin. Every year, I think, until I went to college.”

  He figured she meant the woman who’d kidnapped her. “Not a good memory?”

  “Just the opposite. It was wonderful.” The frown was back. “But because I had them with her, Michelle and Alan didn’t have them with their daughter.”

  Justin wondered if she realized she was talking about herself in the third person. She was still conflicted about her loyalty to the woman she loved, the same one who’d done a horrible thing and hurt a lot of people, including Emma. And because Emma made Kyle’s life practically perfect, Justin sometimes forgot that she had an agenda that wasn’t necessarily compatible with his.

  He stopped the stroller and put a hand on her arm. Troubled brown eyes held his own. “I’m going to tell you three things that you probably already know. But it never hurts to hear them out loud.”

  “Okay.” It looked as if she was bracing herself.

  “Number one—what happened isn’t your fault. Next—it officially sucks what happened to you. Finally, and most important, you don’t need to figure things out tonight.”

  The corners of her mouth curved up just a fraction, but as the words sank in she smiled and it was beautiful to see. Like a sunny day after a storm.

  “You’re right.” She nodded emphatically. “Now who should get credit where credit is due?”

  “Shucks, ma’am—”

  She laughed and shook her head at the silliness. “If Beverly Hills could only see you now.”

  Before she could finish the thought, Kyle let out a wail at the same time he was doing his best Houdini imitation, trying to get free of the stroller belt holding him in. When his efforts didn’t work, the verbal complaints escalated to a pitch that would make a dog cringe.

  “Better get moving,” he said.

  “I’m with you.”

  Justin pushed forward, but the little boy didn’t let up and the protest got louder, which hadn’t seemed possible. He started leaning to the side, trying to get out.

  “He’s so over the stroller,” Emma said. “I think he needs a break.”

  They stopped beside several huge crates filled with pumpkins for sale. “This seems like a good place.”

  “I agree.” Emma unbelted the little boy and lifted him out, but he didn’t want to be held, either. He whined and tried to wiggle out of her hold.

  Justin wouldn’t complain if she was holding him. Her arms were a place he’d imagined being too many times to count, but he had a completely different perspective on the issue.

  Emma looked at him, the corner of her full bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Okay, don’t do a father freak-out about where I’m about to put him. There’s grass here. I’m just going to set him on the ground, give him a little space.”

  “I’m trying to decide whether or not I resent the freak-out remark,” he teased. “Which one of us used antiseptic wipes on a perfectly clean high chair at the Grizzly Bear Diner? Just saying...”

  “The diner is a public restaurant. Different children sit in those chairs with runny noses and heaven knows what other germs. You don’t know that it was perfectly clean,” she said as if that explained everything.

  Without another word, she set Kyle on the grass and he looked happy as could be. Immediately he crawled over to the cardboard crate and put a hand on it, for leverage to stand up.

  “Okay,” Justin said, “we might as well pick out a pumpkin now. How do you know if it’s a good one?”

  “Didn’t you ever do this with your parents?”

  “Yeah. But it was a long time ago.”

  She sighed as if he were dull as dirt. “It’s all about shape. And remember, a face is getting carved out of this.” She grabbed a plump, round one. “Faces are your business, Doctor. What would you do with this one?”

  He studied it for a few moments, then touched the widest part of the curve. “First I’d use my scalpel here and here for defined cheekbones.”

  Emma nodded her approval. “I can see that. If we use a carrot for a nose?”

  “I think that’s more a snowman thing, but let’s go with it.” He walked from one side to the other, pretending to assess. “I’d take a potato peeler to that pointy thing and try to soften the tip.”

  “Harsh.” Emma laughed, then picked up another one that was narrower, elongated. “And what about this one?”

  He glanced at Kyle, who was bouncing even though barely touching the box for balance. His little boy was essentially standing on his own. Good man.

  Then he looked back at the pumpkin. “This guy needs a chin. The forehead is a little high, but we can distract from that by drawing focus here.” He indicated the bottom. “Every guy wants a granite jaw.”

  “Every guy?” She looked at him as if assessing his chin. “I don’t think I’d change a thing if I were you.”

  In his head Justin knew she was teasing, but the rest of his body went tight and hard at the compliment. Obviously he cared too much what she thought when she looked at him. And she must have seen something on his face, because her smile slipped and she quickly looked away.

  “What do you think about this one, Kyle?” she asked, plucking a pumpkin from the pile and putting it on the ground.

  The little boy gurgled as he removed his small hand from the crate and took one step, then another without holding on to anything. He stood on his own, a little unsteadily, beside the big, orange pumpkin.

  “Did you see what I saw?” Her voice was calm, but Emma’s eyes were bright with excitement that had nothing to do with her job.

  Justin knew that because it felt as if that same thrill was on his own face. “I think he just took his first steps. What do you think?”

  She stood when the little boy braced himself on the pumpkin. “Definitely his first steps.” And then she threw herself into his arms. “Oh, my gosh, Justin. He’s walking.”

  “I know.”

  And he was excited about that, too. But damn it, Emma felt so good in his arms, pink jacket, funky hat and all. He couldn’t help himself and pulled her in tighter for full body contact. Being this close to her had him thinking about long, slow kisses in his bed. There was no question that he started breathing faster and it wasn’t his imagination that Emma was, too. He saw it when she stepped away and couldn’t look at him.

  “It’s getting cold,” she said.

  Justin hadn’t noticed. He was hot all over and wanted to do something about it.

  “We need to get Kyle home.”

  “Yeah.” His house wasn’t the neutral territory it had once been, Justin realized. Emma h
ad made it a home.

  Damn this gray area where he was living. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted a woman in his life. But she was his employee and clearly very fond of his son. Just a while ago he’d reminded himself that she had other concerns in her life beyond her job.

  She was really good at being a nanny and he’d been lucky to find her in this small town. He hated the thought of her leaving, hated that Kyle would be affected by the change. But she was an employee.

  She could be replaced.

  * * *

  The morning after the pumpkin patch Emma was tired because she hadn’t slept well. Almost kissing your boss who didn’t want to be kissed tended to keep a nanny up most of the night. Although, if she was honest, he had pulled her closer when she hugged him. His breathing had quickened, too, and what did she do with that information?

  Nothing if she wanted to keep her job.

  And today her job was about Kyle’s play group at Blackwater Lake Early Childhood Learning Center. It was located on Main, just down the street from the Grizzly Bear Diner, nestled between Tanya’s Treasures and Potter’s Ice-Cream Parlor. The class was technically Mommy and Me, but Emma figured the fact she wasn’t his biological mother didn’t matter.

  She pulled the car into the rear lot utilized by customers of all businesses that faced Main Street. Her gaze automatically went to the diner where her biological parents worked and managed their business. It weighed heavily on her that she still hadn’t made up her mind what to do, and being sleep deprived didn’t help. As Justin said, she didn’t have to decide today and gave herself permission to table the issue until she wasn’t so tired.

  Maybe there would be a sign from the universe when the time was right. Or she had to face the fact that a fear she didn’t understand was standing in her way.

  “Here we are, big guy.” Emma turned off the ignition, then exited the car. She smiled at the memory of this little heartbreaker-in-training always gravitating to little Danielle Potter, a beautiful child who was also a year old. “Maybe your little friend will be here today.”