His mouth still full, Cole conceded the point by mugging comically.
“So anyway—” Landry leaned toward Nate and continued his quest for information “—am I more like my dad or you in terms of personality? ’Cause I’m not really a funny guy. I like to laugh, but I’m never the one coming up with the jokes.”
“Me, either,” Nate said. He usually left that to people with true comic ability.
“I mean, I know I look like my mom,” Landry continued earnestly. “I’ve got her hair and eye color and all that.”
“Yes, you do,” Nate said. Landry had all of Seraphina’s good qualities.
“So that doesn’t really tell us anything. It’d be easier, I guess, if I had any real memories of Lawrence, but all I’ve got are a couple of pictures my mom gave me, from when they were still together.” Landry reached into his back pocket, withdrew his wallet. He brought out two tattered color photos of Lawrence and Seraphina. They had their arms around each other in both photos, and appeared to be laughing and having a good time. “It just feels weird, not to know more about him,” the boy admitted.
Nate wanted to say it wasn’t important, but clearly it was to Landry. The teenager was searching for connection. It was only fair, Nate thought, that he do what he could to ease the pain. “I’ll see what I can dig up for you,” he promised.
A SEARCH ON YouTube that night turned up nothing on Lawrence. Ditto the Google, Yahoo and Safari Internet search engines. Frustrated, Nate went on to bed. The next day, over a working lunch, he talked to the guys about it.
“You could have Laura Tillman’s private detective agency see what they could find, if you really want to go that route,” Travis advised.
Nate trusted the guys, who were all great dads in their own right. “You think it’s a mistake to be looking backward?” he asked.
Dan, the veteran parent of teenagers, shrugged, and predicted, “If the DNA results come back that way, you won’t have a choice.”
Nate knew Dan had shepherded his own kids through their fair share of biological-parent-induced hurt. It had been excruciating—and unfair.
“In the meantime, maybe you should concentrate on answering Landry’s questions, while keeping him focused on his future with you,” Jack said, with his customary protectiveness toward family.
“You’re what he needs. And the sooner he realizes that, the better,” Grady agreed.
Nate relaxed. “I think he already is.” He related everything else that had happened in the previous few days.
“We should celebrate,” Grady said.
“And I know just the way,” Nate replied. Now all he had to do was talk Brooke into it.
“YOU WANT TO HAVE A PARTY here on Saturday?” Brooke asked, when she and Nate went in to look at the mural sketched on the dining-room wall.
Holly wanted Nate’s approval before she actually started painting.
Nate studied the historical pictorial of Fort Worth, from the early days to the present, ending with the current skyline and the skyscraper that housed One Trinity River Place, home to Nate’s business.
He gave the drawing his seal of approval, then turned back to Brooke. “It’ll be sort of a home makeover slash Father’s Day celebration with all the guys and their families. And of course, I want you and Cole to be here, too.”
The enthusiasm he expected to see on Brooke’s face was nowhere to be found. “It might be kind of awkward, given the fact that Cole’s dad won’t be here.”
Nate bit back an oath. How could he have made such a blunder? Then again, considering his own family-challenged upbringing, how could he not? Nate exhaled slowly, wondering how to get out of this. “I’m sorry…. I didn’t think about that.” The last thing he wanted to do was resurrect Cole’s grief.
Brooke paused, as if having second thoughts. “The truth is—we never did much to celebrate that particular holiday. It wasn’t one Seamus put much stock in. Let me ask Cole, see how he feels.” She slipped off to do so before Nate could protest.
He went back to studying the mural, then walked through the entire first floor of the mansion. Soft, earth-toned hues were on all the walls. Warm rugs livened up the wide plank floors. Comfortable furniture and fun, family-oriented accessories abounded. There were flowers in the front hall. A bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter. And little touches that said Brooke everywhere he looked.
She returned, a jubilant expression on her face. “Cole wants to attend the party, and so does Landry.”
“Even knowing we plan to celebrate Father’s Day?” Nate asked.
She shrugged, evidently as surprised as he was. “Especially knowing that, they both said. They think it’s awesome you’re going to be a dad, too.”
Contentment flowed through Nate. “So Landry is finally getting used to the idea of me adopting him?”
Brooke nodded in approval. “Seeing Jessalyn happy in her new place seems to have given him permission to move on, too.”
“Then I guess there’s just one more question to be asked. Will you stay through the weekend and cohost the party with me?”
Chapter Twelve
“If it was just me,” Brooke said, “I’d have no problem saying yes. But I have Cole and you have Landry to consider.”
Once again, she had the strong intuition that Nate wanted to kiss her. Senses reeling, she stepped back.
He shoved his hands into his back pockets and rocked toward her. His expression was as steady and resolute as his voice. “I think they’d be okay with it.”
“More than okay if things work out,” Brooke conceded. She shifted her attention away from his washboard abs, what she knew was hidden behind his fly. “The problem is—” she forced her attention upward, to the handsome contours of Nate’s face “—what if they don’t?”
“Borrowing trouble?”
She shot him a get-with-the-program-before-we’re-both-in-big-trouble look. “Being realistic. I’m getting ready to move back to my place. And you’re coming up with ways to keep me—and Cole—here at least one more day.” And while it was flattering, unexpected, and oh so romantic, it was also completely impractical.
Unless, of course, they wanted everyone, even the boys, to know they had a thing for each other, and she didn’t…not just yet.
“Can you blame me?” Nate held her gaze with his mesmerizing blue eyes, making her feel all hot and bothered inside. Slowly, a smile bloomed on his lips. “Life has been so much better since you arrived.”
For me, too. “It’s still not a prudent move to make.” And she had let the fantasy of what could be guide her once before, into a hasty marriage that had fallen far short of expectation. For all their sakes, she didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
“You and I are going to work out for the long haul, Brooke.”
She so wanted to believe it. As if he knew that, Nate bent his head and kissed her sweetly. Longing swept through her, along with the intense feelings she had for him. She moaned, knowing that if they kept this up she wouldn’t sleep all night, but lie awake wanting him. And she couldn’t have that, either. Not when she had so many responsibilities to fulfill. She pressed her palms to his chest, wishing, at least for now, it was just the two of them. “Nate…”
He kissed her again, slowly, lingeringly. Then he swept his fingers through her hair and gazed deep into her eyes. “Just tell me you’ll think about it,” he urged softly, scoring his thumb across her lower lip with a tenderness that almost undid her completely.
“All right. But that’s all I’m doing right now,” she told him sternly. “Mulling it over.”
He smiled and kissed her again, feeling victorious. “Good enough.”
Aware that it was getting late, Brooke said good-night to Nate and went down to the caretaker’s cottage.
Cole and Landry were where she had left them a few minutes before. Both were huddled on the couch in front of Cole’s laptop computer, looking at the photos of their visit to the amusement park the previous weekend.
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“I thought you guys were going to hit the shower,” Brooke murmured.
“In a minute, Mom.” Cole waved her over to join them. “Isn’t this a great picture of Nate?”
Brooke perched on the back of the sofa behind them and studied the photo on-screen. Nate was standing in front of the last roller coaster they had ridden that day, his arms around Landry and Cole. All three of them were a little sunburned and windblown. The happiness they had been feeling was palpable. “I remember taking that one,” she murmured.
“Here’s one of you and us.” Landry scrolled to the next image.
Brooke had been clowning around with both kids, hands framing her face, as if in a silent movie scream of fake terror as she lingered in front of the entrance to a kiddie ride that wouldn’t have scared a six-year-old. Landry and Cole were both laughing and grinning from ear to ear.
“That was a really good day,” Landry said softly. “One of the best I’ve ever had.”
“For me, too,” Cole murmured.
“It was for all of us.” Brooke placed a comforting hand on a shoulder of each boy.
She would hold the memory close for a long time, and sensed they would, too.
The guys turned to her with beseeching grins. “Which brings us to our next request,” Landry drawled. “Could you do us one more tiny little favor?”
FRIDAY MORNING, Brooke and the boys overslept. By the time Nate realized everyone in the caretaker’s cottage was still asleep, and hastily woke them, it was a mad rush to get ready for camp and hurry out the door.
His calls to Brooke during the day went straight to voice mail. Ditto hers to him. He had a stop to make on the way home from work, and it was seven o’clock before he pulled in the driveway.
To his surprise, Brooke was just arriving, too.
He got out of the car and headed for hers. In the rear seat, both boys waved and then ducked down. As he neared, he saw they were both zipping up the backpacks they’d taken to camp. The expressions on their faces were choirboy innocent as they piled out of the car.
“Hi, Nate.” Cole didn’t quite meet his eyes.
Landry’s gaze focused on the ultracasual fist bump he gave Nate. “Hey, dude. What’s happening?”
Exactly what I’d like to know, Nate thought, as Brooke got out from behind the steering wheel, her cheeks a lot more pink than usual, too. “Sorry I missed all your calls today,” she said. Then, realizing they had company, and catching herself, she added, “I assume you wanted to talk about the plans for the party here tomorrow.”
“I do.” But that wasn’t why Nate had called her. He had dialed her number because he wanted to hear her voice. The intense need for connection was new to him. And yet satisfying, too.
“I guess you-all stopped and had dinner on the way home from camp,” Nate said, disappointed they wouldn’t all be eating together, as had become the custom.
“Uh…actually, no, we didn’t.” Brooke abruptly rummaged through her purse and came up with nothing, before zipping it closed again. “I just… I had a few errands to run and the boys graciously agreed to go with me,” she murmured, still averting her gaze.
Was she lying to him? Nate wondered. Or at the very least, not telling him something?
He hadn’t had a woman not look at him quite that way since Seraphina had been ducking out on him with Lawrence, behind the scenes….
“But I imagine the boys are hungry.” Brooke rambled on, as even more color flooded her high, sculpted cheeks.
“Very hungry,” they chimed in.
“You want to go out?” Nate asked, more than happy to treat them all.
Shrugs all around. Again, to Nate’s frustration, something wordless—and private—passed between Brooke and the boys. “Actually, we’ve got some stuff to do,” Cole murmured finally, taking the lead. “But—” he looked at his mom, silently pleading “—if you and Nate want to go out and get something and bring it back, that would be good.”
Brooke appeared to understand whatever Cole was telling her. “No problem,” she said. “Nate, we’ll go together. And let’s make it a steak-house night.” She named a place a good thirty minutes away.
Nate countered, “We could go to Morty’s—it’s a lot closer. If the guys are hungry.”
The boys looked at Brooke. “Uh…we can wait,” Cole said.
“Yeah, we’ll have a granola bar or something in the meantime.” Landry stuffed his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts.
Brooke’s usual admonishment not to eat too much right before dinner never came.
She smiled and, grasping Nate’s elbow, guided him in the direction she wanted him to go.
“SO WHAT’S GOING ON?” Nate asked, as he and Brooke got in the car and headed for her favorite steak place, on the other side of town.
She flashed him a look of pure confusion.
Nate didn’t buy her naivete for a moment. Drolly, he explained, “I’d say the kids were matchmaking, but they don’t know we’re together. So there has to be another reason they want us both out of the cottage for a good long while.”
She took a deep breath, her soft breasts rising and falling beneath her tailored cotton blouse. She made a show of tugging her business-casual skirt down to her knees. “Look. Obviously the boys are behaving a bit melodramatic tonight.”
“Because?”
“Because they’re kids and they’re excited about this project they’re working on.”
“For camp?” Nate persisted.
Brooke lifted a silencing palm. She wrinkled her nose into a comical expression. Chuckling, she said, “I can’t tell you anything else so you need to stop asking questions.”
While they waited at the traffic light, Nate slanted a glance at her trim ankles and fantastically shaped calves. “Obviously you know what Cole and Landry are up to.”
“Yes.” Brooke watched the red turn to green. She gestured, indicating it was safe for him to go. “I do.”
Nate doubled-checked the road, then went through the intersection. As soon as it was safe, he pulled over and put the car in Park.
In the soft light of a summer evening, her classically beautiful features were more pronounced. In deference to the heat of the June day, she’d swept her glossy hair into a clip at the back of her head. Tendrils escaped to frame her face and neck.
Nate draped his arm along the seat, behind her head. “Then why can’t I know?” He hated being excluded. It reminded him of his youth.
Brooke released her seat belt and scooted toward him. She kissed him until all he could think and feel and want was her.
“I promise you,” she murmured eventually, pressing closer, “if you do as I ask and let the boys do what they need to do tonight, they’ll be happy campers and so will we.”
That sounded even more mysterious. But in a good way.
He relaxed as Brooke slipped back into her seat and refastened her safety belt. He couldn’t resist the merry look in her golden-brown eyes. He turned to her with a wink. “Okay, then. Your wish is my command.”
“THAT WAS A GREAT dinner!” Cole exclaimed an hour and a half later, when four steaks, nearly a dozen yeast rolls with butter, and a round of salads and desserts had been consumed. He grinned with thirteen-year-old exuberance. “Thanks, Nate.”
Landry patted his full belly, looking equally content. “Yeah, thanks.”
It still amazed Nate how much these guys could eat. They were true bottomless pits. They took so much pleasure in eating that it was a privilege supplying them with food. Particularly when Nate contrasted this evening’s meal with Landry’s first dinner at the mansion, twelve days before.
Aware that he wasn’t the only one harboring a secret that evening, Nate rose leisurely from his seat. “It’s not the only thing I have for you guys tonight.”
Although the boys hadn’t revealed what they had been working on earlier, their brows lifted in interest.
Nate walked over to his briefcase and withdrew two BlackBerry Smartphones.
He carried them over to the boys and wordlessly handed one to each, along with the instruction manuals. The teens stared at him, not understanding. “They’re all programmed and ready to go,” Nate said.
Cole’s jaw dropped. The cell phone he carried now was a basic model, with very limited capability. Landry didn’t have a phone at all.
“Of course, you can use them to make calls,” Nate told them proudly. “But you can also check your e-mail, text message, browse the Web, use the GPS, take and store photos, even transfer programs and watch them. I’ve already put in your mother’s cell phone and home numbers, and all of mine. The manuals will tell you how to add those of your friends.”
The boys continued staring at their phones in sheer amazement.
“Wow,” Cole said finally.
“I can’t believe I’ve got something like this,” Landry murmured, his eyes glimmering with moisture.
Afraid if he looked directly at Landry, he’d tear up, too, Nate turned and caught a glimpse of Brooke’s inexplicably shocked expression, and went back to his briefcase. “And I have one other thing,” he told the boys, knowing this would mean even more, at least to Landry. “I was able to get some old footage from one of the comedy clubs in town. Apparently, they tape all their open-mike nights and hold on to the video, just in case someone later becomes really famous. They had a couple of the routines Miles Lawrence did. I thought you might like to watch them.”
AT THE BOYS’ INSISTENCE, all four of them trooped up to the media room. The videos were slipped into the DVD player. They all sat down to watch.
Miles Lawrence was tall—like Nate and Landry. Handsome in a slightly disheveled, ne’er-do-well frat boy way—and hysterically funny. They were all chuckling as they watched, even Nate.
As he watched the routine about unrequited love, it was clear Landry felt comforted. When the last bit ended, he sat there a moment, silent, then murmured, “I guess I see why my mom fell so hard for him.”
Then, realizing the impact of his words, he froze in horror and turned to Nate. “Oh, man, I—”
The Mommy Proposal Page 14