His Long-Lost Family

by Brenda Harlen

  But now, she knew that there was nothing she wanted more. To marry the man that she loved, the father of her child, to be a family—it was everything.

  He flipped open the lid and her heart jolted again.

  “It’s stunning.”

  “Ava helped me pick it out,” he told her.

  “You took Ava shopping for an engagement ring?”

  “I wanted a second opinion,” he said reasonably. “And I couldn’t think of anyone whose opinion would matter more to either of us than our daughter’s.”

  “You were right,” she murmured. “And she has impeccable taste.”

  “You like it?”

  She didn’t have any words to tell him what the ring meant to her—not because of its shape or size, but because it proved that he loved her enough to make a commitment to her. So she kissed him. Long and slow and deep.

  It wasn’t until Jack started unfastening her blouse and she wondered why she’d even bothered to put clothes on that she suddenly remembered the reason.

  She pulled away from him abruptly. “We have to get Ava.”

  Jack sighed with obvious reluctance. “Do you really think the Lamontagnes would mind if we were just a little bit late?”

  “As much as I’m sure Ava had a fabulous time, I think she’s probably anxious to get home.”

  But as it happened, Laurel’s mom called Kelly’s cell while they were en route and asked if Ava could stay for a little bit longer. Apparently the girls had stayed up late (as Kelly had expected) and slept late (which she had not anticipated), so their plans to go bowling in the morning had been pushed back—if that was okay.

  Of course Kelly said that it was. But since they were already out of the house, Jackson decided to stop by his condo to pick up some legal texts that he wanted to review for an upcoming trial.

  The first thing Kelly noticed when she stepped through the door was the shoes. There was no way she could have missed them. The sling-backs with skyscraper heels were like a bloodred stain in the middle of his ivory carpet.

  Before her brain could even wrap around the implications, a throaty feminine purr came from down the hall. From his bedroom. “Jackson?”

  * * *

  Jack didn’t know how to interpret Kelly’s shocked expression. Was it shocked disbelief? Or shocked disappointment? He could only imagine what she was thinking. He knew it hadn’t been easy for her to overlook his wild past, to believe that he’d changed. And now that past had reared its ugly head and was threatening to destroy his only chance at happiness.

  “Kelly—” He heard the desperate plea in his own voice. “I swear to you, this is not what you’re thinking.”

  The shock that had been so evident only a minute before had been carefully masked so that her face was expressionless now. And her voice, when she spoke, was calm. “I’m thinking there’s a woman in your bed.”

  He shook his head, because he didn’t want it to be true. “If there is, she wasn’t invited,” he promised.

  Kelly didn’t respond, but she made her way down the hall, following the trail of discarded undergarments. She picked up stockings, a tiny wisp that might have been panties, a matching bra, a dress. He followed in her path, feeling helpless and desperate and—when he saw Norah in his bed—absolutely furious.

  He knew it looked bad. Hell, he couldn’t imagine any scene that might look worse. And it was immediately apparent to him that this was a scene carefully staged by Norah for maximum effect.

  He didn’t think her plan had been for anything more complicated than seduction. She couldn’t have planned to sabotage his relationship with Kelly because she had no way of knowing that he would bring her to his condo.

  When Norah saw Kelly standing in the doorway, the widening of her eyes confirmed her surprise. She’d obviously expected him to be alone. But she recovered quickly, and the slow, satisfied smile that curved her lips proved that she didn’t give a damn who got hurt as long as she got what she wanted.

  He wasn’t gullible enough to believe that she really wanted him. Maybe she’d considered that they would have some fun together and be lovers for a while, and if he’d gone along with her plan, that likely would have been the end of it. But Jack had resisted her advances, and she apparently wasn’t going to tolerate any man resisting her.

  But Norah’s motives and machinations were the least of his concerns right now. All that mattered to him was Kelly. He’d been the happiest man in the world when she agreed to marry him. Now, he felt as if his happiness was slipping through his fingers, like grains of sand in an hourglass.

  Dammit, she’d said that she loved him. He would have thought that love would be accompanied by at least a little bit of faith, but he could read nothing in her eyes. He held her gaze, silently begging her to trust him, to believe him, to love him enough. He wanted to plead with her; he was willing to beg. But in that moment he realized that if she didn’t trust him enough to know that he loved her too much to even think about another woman when he was with her, then they didn’t have any kind of foundation to build a future together.

  Kelly didn’t say anything to him, but she carried the pile of clothing she’d collected to the bed and dumped it on top of the covers. “Get dressed and get out.”

  One of Norah’s perfectly arched brows lifted. “Who the hell are you?”

  “I’m Jackson’s lover, the mother of his child, and the woman he’s going to marry. And you have three seconds to get your clothes on and get out of here before I toss you into the hall buck naked.”

  Something in her tone must have convinced Norah that she meant what she said, because she gathered up the pile of clothes and retreated to the bathroom.

  “Kelly—”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this until she’s gone.”

  “Okay,” he agreed.

  He didn’t think it took Norah much more than the allotted three seconds to get dressed, but it seemed like forever. Three interminable seconds in which his life hung in the balance.

  When she came out of the bathroom, she looked chastened but unrepentant, and she didn’t look at him but at Kelly. “I figured the ‘Jack-pot’ was worth a gamble.” She smiled at her own joke, shrugged.

  “Was it worth going to jail?” Jack wanted to know. “Because right now, I’m tempted to call the cops to have you booked for breaking and entering.”

  She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “It’s not breaking and entering when you have a key.”

  “And where in hell did you get a key?”

  The fury in his voice must have registered, because she quickly explained. “I have a key to Marcy’s apartment, and I knew that she had a key to yours. I was at her place to return a jacket I borrowed when I saw your car pull into the parking lot, and I thought...I guess I thought wrong.”

  “Where’s the key now?” he asked.

  She handed it over and walked out the door.

  Kelly turned and followed the other woman’s path to the living room. She stood at the window, her arms folded across her chest, her expression still blank.

  “Talk to me, please,” Jack said to her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “My head is spinning, and the image of that woman naked in your bed isn’t likely to fade anytime soon.”

  Before he could consider a response to that, she switched mental gears and asked, “Who’s Marcy and why did she have a key?”

  “Marcy is my neighbor across the hall. S
he’s a real estate agent but she works mostly from home. A couple of months ago, her fax machine broke and she asked if she could borrow mine. She was in and out a lot to use the machine, so I gave her a key in case she needed access to it when I wasn’t home. She got her machine fixed, but I never thought to get the key back.”

  “Why would she give the key to Miss Scarlet?”

  “She wouldn’t have,” he answered without hesitation. “Marcy and Norah might be friends, but Marcy would never cross that line.”

  “But Norah would take it, because she knows how to get what she wants.”

  He nodded, impressed by the accuracy of her assessment.

  “I don’t know how I feel about the fact that women always seem to be throwing themselves at you,” she admitted to him now.

  “I think you should take into consideration the fact that I’m not catching any of them. That I don’t want anyone but you.”

  “I’m trying to.”

  “You do know that she set this whole scene?”

  She nodded, and the tightness around his chest finally eased.

  “No doubts?”

  “I never would have agreed to marry you if I didn’t love you and trust you,” she told him. “Absolutely and completely.”

  It was a testament of trust, a leap of faith, and exactly what he needed to hear. He reached for her now, sliding his arms around her waist and drawing her close.

  “You did tell Norah that you’re the woman I’m going to marry,” he recalled. “But you never actually said yes.”

  And he’d been so distracted by her kiss, he hadn’t thought about it at the time. It was only as they were leaving her place that he saw the box on the bed and he realized she hadn’t given him a chance to put the ring on her finger. He’d grabbed it and shoved it in his pocket, but he took it out now and opened the lid.

  “You never actually asked the question,” she countered.

  “Kelly Cooper, will you—”

  “Yes.”

  His brows lifted. “Impatient,” he said, even as he slid the ring on her finger.

  “Excuse me?”

  “If we’re cataloguing faults, that’s one of yours.”

  “I waited more than thirteen years for this ring,” she told him. “I’d say that demonstrates an incredible amount of patience.”

  “Okay, maybe not impatient.”

  He lifted her hand and kissed the knuckle of her third finger, just above the ring he’d placed there. Then he kissed her—sealing the promise they’d just made to one another.

  When he finally eased his lips from hers, Kelly said, “Go find whatever books you need so we can go and get our daughter.”

  He sighed. “Bossy.”

  She laughed.

  “I should probably warn you,” Jack said, as he gathered the books together. “When Ava and I were shopping for rings, she had some very definite opinions—and some very specific expectations.”

  “About what?” she asked warily.

  “Expanding our family.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “Did you promise her a puppy?”

  “Actually, I think she’s got her eye on Puss and Boots now,” he said. “But she wants a little brother or sister even more.”

  Her heart bumped against her ribs.

  As an only child herself, she’d envied the Garrett brothers the camaraderie and companionship they shared. And as much as Ava had always dreamed of having a brother or a sister, Kelly had wanted a sibling for her just as much. But she’d given up hope that it would ever happen, and now Jack was dangling the possibility in front of her—and it was even more dazzling than the diamond on her finger.

  “I could go along with that plan,” she said cautiously. “If you were in agreement.”

  “I can’t think of anything that would make me happier,” he said, with such sincerity it brought tears to her eyes. “And I promise you, here and now, if we do have another baby, I will be there every step of the way. From now until forever.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” she warned him.

  “I’m counting on it.”

  “Can I ask you a legal question?”

  “Sure.”

  “Can a lawyer fire a client?”

  “One step ahead of you on that,” he promised.

  Then he took her hand and they walked out of his condo, side by side, toward their future together.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss Lukas Garrett’s story,

  A VERY SPECIAL DELIVERY

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  THOSE ENGAGING GARRETTS!

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  Chapter One

  The lazy, hazy days of summer couldn’t get here soon enough. Well, the hazy days, anyway. No one who lived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, would describe summer as lazy. They would describe now as lazy. Relaxing. Maybe even rejuvenating.

  Not Haley Foster. She was, in fact, bored out of her ever-living skull.

  Admittedly, an odd state of being. With the hectic winter tourist season behind them and the summer season yet to arrive in full force, she should be enjoying the brief slowdown. She always had in the past. This year, though, she was...restless.

  More than that, really. She had this itchy, uncomfortable sense of waiting for something—anything—to happen. What, exactly, she didn’t have a clue. Just...something.

  And that was why she couldn’t wait for summer. The tourists would breeze in to spend their vacations white-water rafting, hiking, canoeing, or any one of the many other activities available in the area, and her sleepy town would wake again. She would be busy from sunup to sundown, and wouldn’t have the time to worry about why she felt so off.

  Sighing, she leaned back in her chair at the Beanery, the local coffee joint, and tried to pay attention to her longtime friend Suzette Solomon. They’d met earlier for a Saturday morning Spinning class. Now, they were supposed to be savoring their reward of yummy hot beverages while catching up on each other’s lives.

  Suzette was in the midst of sharing a funny story about one of her fourth-grade students, and while Haley managed to chuckle and insert a comment here and there, mostly she couldn’t pull herself out of her own head long enough to relax. Dammit! She’d really believed that an hour of hard exercise followed up by a solid dose of friend time would ease the edginess.

  She’d been wrong.

  Why was she so freaking restless? And for that matter, why did she feel as if life were passing her by? She wasn’t old, for crying out loud. At twenty-six, she had plenty of time to do anything she wanted to do. But lately, the days and the nights had seemed interminably long, and
even when she was with her family or friends, she had the inexplicable sensation of...loneliness.

  Maybe she needed to take up a new hobby. Or buy a pet. Or... When an epiphany failed to strike, she decided to place the full blame on being stuck between seasons. Had to be. Why search for a deeper meaning when the simplest answer was usually the culprit?

  Suzette cleared her throat and watched Haley expectantly, apparently waiting for some type of a response. Oh, crap. Was this a laugh, be shocked or commiserate moment? She went with a soft chuckle, hoping that would cover all possible bases.

  “Cute story, huh?” Suzette asked, ruffling her short black hair with her fingers.

  “So cute,” Haley agreed enthusiastically.

  “Yeah? What was your favorite part?”

  “Um, honestly, I don’t think I can choose a favorite. The entire story was just adorable, and really, I bet cute and adorable stuff happens every single day in your classroom.”

  “Really, Haley?” Suzette gave her a long, semi-amused look. “You’re seriously going to pretend that you didn’t zone out a good five or ten minutes ago?”

  Sighing again, Haley offered a faint smile. “I’m sorry. Was I that obvious?”

  “Obviously, or I wouldn’t have noticed.” Wrapping her hand around her coffee cup, Suzette said, “No worries, though. I know I can go on and on about my students.”

  “I like hearing about your students!” And she did. Usually. “I was thinking about how slow the days are, and how I can’t wait for summer to get here so everything can pick up again. That’s all.” Close enough to the truth. As close as she wanted to get, anyway.

  “Since when? For almost the entire winter, all I heard was how anxious you were for enough empty hours in the day to read a book, watch a movie, paint your apartment.” She arched a finely plucked eyebrow. “Go out on a few dates. Which, actually, I wanted to ask—”