by Robyn Grady
Teagan asked, “Where was the baby?”
“With me, asleep in her playpen.”
“And the full-time nanny my father pays for?”
“Eloise sacked her earlier today.”
Wynn set his fists low on his hips. “What happened next?”
“I got up to help Ellie,” Kyle said, “but she pulled back, fell and—” He smacked his head to demonstrate. “The ambulance only took a few minutes.”
The doctor appeared again. “The family can go through. The baby is with her parents now.”
The doctor provided a room number. As she walked off, Kyle started after her.
Dex blocked his way. “Sorry. She said family.”
Eloise’s lover’s face turned dark and hard. His hands clenched but he obviously thought better of starting anything, particularly with all three brothers ready to take him on if need be.
Leaving Kyle behind, they all found the room and edged inside. When Teagan saw Eloise, she winced. Eloise’s eyes were puffy and bruised. The amount of bandage wound around her head was daunting. But no one asked how she was. Instead they gravitated to their father’s side. Guthrie was holding the baby.
Eloise sounded groggy. Whiny. Still sloshed.
“I’m sorry...so sorry...”
Teagan had always let her stepmother’s questionable behavior slide. She’d never wanted to cause or add to any ill feelings. This time Eloise had gone too far.
Teagan felt her nostrils flare as she growled, “You disgust me.”
Eloise’s swollen eyes widened. “Tea, sweetie, don’t say that. I can’t take that kinda talk.”
Keeping her eyes on the baby, Teagan held up a hand. “I’m only thinking about Honey and Tate now.”
Eloise tried to sit up. “Well, Honey’s not hurt, is she?”
“Next time, she could be,” Dex said.
“You’re forgettin’—” Eloise’s chin rose “—I’m that child’s mama.”
Feeling ill, Teagan groaned. “You don’t deserve to be.”
Standing behind her, Jacob held Teagan’s shoulders—his touch warm, strong and supportive. But she hadn’t forgotten his earlier comments, which made crystal clear his opinion of her family. His questions had helped drive that earlier conversation off a cliff. If you were in charge, Professor Vennard, what would be your first command? How would you begin to turn it around?
And she had more to worry about now.
Eloise’s eyes welled up as she sank back onto the pillow. “I just feel so lost. So afraid. I don’t know what to do.”
“Here’s a start,” Wynn said. “Give up the bottle.”
As a tear ran down her cheek, Eloise begged Guthrie. “I want to change. I want to be a better mother.” Her voice cracked. “I need to be a better wife.”
“You’ve said that before.” Guthrie shook his head. “This can’t go on.”
“No. No, it can’t.” Eloise closed her eyes and held her bandaged brow like she was trying to remember. “You wanted me to go to rehab. I’m ready. Ready tonight. Right now.”
Honey was wide awake, her big blue eyes darting between each of their faces as if she were trying to keep up with the conversation. Teagan wanted to tell her, You’ll never have to worry again. We’ll protect you from now on, I promise.
“It’s not that easy anymore,” Guthrie told his wife. “The authorities are involved now.”
Eloise began to sob, maybe for real, maybe for show. “One more chance. Oh, Guthrie. I want to go home.”
Cole had a question. “What about the man who brought you here? What will Kyle Scafe have to say about that?”
“Well, Kyle will just have to understand.” She reached out an arm, fingers splayed wide. “Bring Honey to me. I want to tell her I’m sorry.”
Guthrie hesitated before his mouth tightened and he moved over to the bed. Teagan felt for her father. He had to protect his children. To do that, he needed to keep them away from their mother. Come Monday, she knew he would file for full custody. From then on, any visits with Eloise would be supervised.
As Eloise fawned over Honey and her husband, the others turned to leave them alone.
Someone stood blocking the doorway.
“Is Ellie all right?” Kyle asked, trying to see into the room. “I heard crying.”
Cole crowded the man back. “I’m sure Eloise will be fine.”
Kyle tried again to see past the wall of Hunter brothers. “I need to see Ellie. Just a minute or two.”
Dex held up a hand. “Buddy, you need to leave.”
Kyle took a moment before stepping back. When the brothers were out of the way, however, the ex-military man lunged into the room.
“Kyle!” Eloise’s mouth trembled with an uncertain smile. “I didn’t know you were still here.”
Kyle’s head went back. “Where the hell else would I be?”
As Guthrie handed the baby to Teagan, a nurse, who had obviously heard the commotion, trounced in.
“Okay.” She pointed at the doorway. “Everyone needs to leave now.”
But Kyle wouldn’t budge. He was staring at Eloise, slowly shaking his head as he murmured, “I’m not leaving, Ellie. I’m not.”
Wynn tried to make the man see reason. “Let’s not make a scene. Think of the baby.”
Kyle only wanted to hear from Eloise. His expression was so pained, he looked as if his insides were being ripped out. “You’re not going back to him, are you?”
“You need to go.” When the nurse put her hand on Kyle’s arm, he flung her off and said again, low but also firm, “Ellie, you can’t go back.”
Eloise waved her hand in the air dismissively. “We’ll talk later. Listen to the lady. You need to go now.”
Kyle’s pale eyes were glistening. “You don’t love him. You’ve told me that a thousand times.” Then he turned his attention to Guthrie. His voice was thick, on the verge of breaking. “You need to be out of her life.”
Guthrie backed up. “Calm down, son.”
“You just won’t go!”
“I’m getting security,” Cole said.
But as he turned, Kyle exploded and sucker punched Cole from behind. At the same time, Dex caught Cole as he fell forward. Wynn, who was at the door, called out for security, then shot back into the room to help his father. Jacob got there first.
He grabbed Kyle from behind. As the man swung around, Jacob jabbed him low and hard in the ribs. When Kyle doubled over, Jacob delivered a swift uppercut to the jaw. Kyle was stumbling back when two security men shot inside the room.
As the uniformed men each grabbed an arm, Kyle shook his head and, appearing dazed again, looked around. Then he drew in a breath, straightened to his full height and made an announcement.
“I want a lawyer.”
Seventeen
“Sorry to bother you guys so early,” Wynn said, stepping inside the guesthouse the next morning, “but I figure you’d want to know. Kyle Scafe confessed to the attempts on Dad’s life.”
All the breath left Teagan’s lungs at the same time Jacob put a bracing arm around her. She was shaking.
“Thank God, thank God, it’s finally over.”
The previous evening, fingers had been pointed at Milo Vennard and then at Sebastian. But after Kyle had asked for a lawyer at the hospital, people began to seriously wonder. Later, gathered back at the Hunter estate, everyone had talked into the early hours. The general consensus was that Eloise’s live-in lover was a far more likely suspect, and they’d been right.
“Something else.” Wynn arched a brow. “Kyle thinks he’s Honey’s father.”
Teagan held her sick stomach. “So the affair’s been going on a while.”
“Apparently there was a one-night stand. Eloise didn’t want to see him again, but Kyle grew more and more obsessed. He
started out wanting to scare Dad. Some macho crap about needing to prove to Eloise what a weak man she’d married. They only got back together when Eloise and Dad separated.”
Jacob asked, “How did he organize the explosion at the wedding?”
“He got friendly with the DJ before the event and managed to slip the device in with the equipment. Brandon’s looking into how that could have happened on his watch.” Wynn sucked in air between his teeth. “I would like to know, too.”
“Let’s just be grateful more harm wasn’t done,” Teagan said.
Whenever she thought of how close Tate had come to being caught in those flames, she got goose bumps.
Wynn stuck his hand into his pocket. “Another thing. Dad’s taking a paternity test. Not that it will make any difference. Kyle Scafe will be put away for a very long time and those results will remain private.”
“And Honey,” Teagan said, “will stay with us.”
From the day Honey was born, she had fallen in love with that little girl. Paternity results could never change that. Honey was family and always would be.
Wynn smiled at his sister. “Grace and I are heading off today to see friends who couldn’t make the party. We’ll be back later in the week,” he said, wrapping up the conversation.
“I’m flying out tomorrow,” Jacob said.
Wynn studied the other man and put out his hand. “Thanks for helping out last night. I thought Kyle might break your jaw. You ended up almost breaking his. You must’ve taken self-defense lessons.”
Accepting Wynn’s hand, Jacob admitted, “Every day for the first fourteen years of my life.”
When she and Jacob were alone again, Teagan moved to the window view. Looking out at the harbor, she hugged herself tight.
“Dad will really need support now.” More than ever.
Jacob joined her. “More visits home?”
“I’ve been thinking. I’m going to put the gym on the market. Come back here to live for a while.”
Jacob looked at her like she’d said she’d eaten razor blades for lunch. “Back to Australia? Half a world away?”
“It’s not half a world away to me. I lived here most of my life.”
“You said you didn’t like your life.”
Uh, no. “I said I wanted to do my own thing. Now I want to do that in Sydney rather than Seattle.”
Their gazes were still locked when Jacob’s phone pinged.
“You should get that,” she said.
“We’re talking.”
She raised a brow. “Read the message.”
He hesitated before digging out his phone. As his eyes shut tight and he seemed to curl into himself, Teagan watched the color drain from his face.
“What happened?” She gripped his arm. “Jacob, what’s wrong?”
“That was the paternity testing company. The results...they’re positive. The baby’s mine.” His shoulders pulled back as he sucked in a sharp breath and peered into her eyes. “I’m a father.”
Teagan’s mouth dropped open. She’d known this was a possibility, but deep down she’d believed those results would be negative. Clearly, Jacob had felt the same way.
So what did she do now? Congratulate him? Saying sorry didn’t fit.
Jacob was staring off...looking ahead.
“It’s weird,” he said. “I’ve only ever seen photos, but these past weeks I’ve thought so much about how my life would change if he actually were mine. I’d be watching him grow into a man, guiding him along the way. Making sure he gets a solid education. Being there at his wedding. But I honestly didn’t think it would turn out like that.”
Jacob looked so thrown. Who wouldn’t be? Still, Teagan couldn’t help but wish this revelation belonged to her...that someone had passed on the news that she was a parent.
“He’s a lucky boy to have you and the Rawsons behind him.”
Jacob seemed to wither at the idea of telling his family. Then he took both her hands in his and searched her eyes.
“Have you thought about children, Tea? Having a family?”
Not so long ago, she hadn’t thought of anything else. But now she needed to come at the question from a more impersonal point of view.
“I think most people think about that on some level, at some time.”
“Seeing how you are with Tate and Honey... I think you’d make a great mom.”
His eyes shone in a way she hadn’t seen before. Her throat got so choked up, she wondered if she could push out the words.
“I think so, too.”
He cupped her cheek. “If you do move back home...” He smiled. “Well, we’ll just need to get inventive.”
Oh, Jacob. “It’ll take more than that.”
“Whatever it takes, because the way I feel when I’m with you...it’s the way I felt when I went to live with the Rawsons. I feel safe, Tea. I feel home. Maybe we could build on that together.”
Her stomach was tied up in knots. They’d agreed to be transparent, but she had held on to one deep, dark secret. Now she couldn’t keep it back.
“You know about my scar. That childhood accident.”
He nodded. “You fell off a bike.”
“I had so many surgeries, so much time off school. Later I was told I would never conceive.”
His eyes widened before he took a breath and nodded. “That had to be a shock.”
“It was more of a shock when I did conceive.”
“Wait. You’re saying you have a child?”
“I miscarried. The worst day of my life.” She was going to be a mom—then suddenly she wasn’t.
He didn’t hesitate. He bundled her up in his arms and murmured against her ear, “Tea... I’m so sorry.”
She soaked in the warmth and for the first time wasn’t flooded by images of blood on the bathroom floor when she thought of that night. Still, the upshot was the same. “I will never carry a baby to its full term.”
She drew away and held his gaze, waiting for a response.
“I want you to know,” he began, “that doesn’t make any difference to me. Being a father was never on my agenda. My old man was a complete douche. I hate that I have his genes. I never wanted to pass them on. I never wanted to be put in a position where I could make the same mistakes.”
Teagan was blown away—not in a good way.
“But you have passed them on. You have a son now.”
“I know. I know. I guess what I’m trying to say is... I’m totally on board with stopping at one.”
She should have breathed out a sigh of relief. It sounded like a win-win all around. And yet seeing the uncompromising gleam in his eyes only made the knots in Teagan’s stomach twist tighter.
Jacob wanted to do better than his own father had done. But if a person had never wanted a child—if he had pretty much decided to renounce every paternal bone in his body...
How on earth would this relationship between father and son end?
A voice in her head kept whispering, Maybe not so well.
Eighteen
A week later, back in Seattle, she took a call from New York. The first thing Jacob said was, “I miss you so much, baby,” and Teagan melted inside.
It felt so good to hear his voice again. It brought back how passionate and alive he made her feel. It also made her wish there was some way to fix what was missing between them. Some way to make this work.
“I had to let you know,” Jacob said, “Grant Howcroft OD’d yesterday.”
A chill crept up her spine. Howcroft was the actor who’d wanted to sue Hunter Publications for defamation over reporting on his use of drugs.
“He died?”
“No, but apparently authorities found a huge stash at his home.” Jacob paused. “Go ahead. Say, ‘I told you so.’”
“I’m just glad he
gets another chance.” She added, “And, yes, I’m happy for Wynn.”
Her brother’s reputation remained firmly intact, as it should. As she’d always known it would.
Jacob changed the subject. “So, what are you up to?”
Dragging her teeth over her lower lip, Teagan took in the scene beyond her office window where scores of enthusiastic clients were enjoying the gym’s main workout area.
“Actually, I put the gym on the market.”
“Oh. So, you’re going ahead with it then?”
“It could take a while to sell.”
She waited for him to mention her intended move back to Sydney. When he didn’t, she let it slide, too.
“How’s your dad doing?” he asked. “Have you heard?”
“With Kyle Scafe locked up until the trial, he’s feeling relieved that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder anymore.”
“And Eloise?”
“She’s in treatment, so fingers crossed there.”
Given the circumstances surrounding her stay in the hospital, hopefully Eloise would be motivated enough to turn herself around. Miracles sometimes happened; Teagan truly wanted to believe that.
“And the kids?”
“I spoke to Tate last night. He says that he loves the new nanny Dad hired, and Honey does, too, so I shouldn’t worry about them.”
Jacob chuckled. “He’s a good boy.”
Yeah. “He’s the best.”
“So, what are you doing this weekend?” His tone was purposely upbeat. “I can fly out. Or we can meet midway. How about Colorado? There’s a bluegrass fest happening. And I know a great place to stay.” He groaned like he was caught between pleasure and pain. “A week’s too damn long not to have you in my arms.”
Teagan closed her eyes. Every part of her ached to have him close again, too. She wanted his mouth covering hers, his hard heat pressing in. But these past few days she’d had more time to think things through. She felt sick to her stomach having to say it, but there was no way to sugarcoat.
She took a deep breath and forced the words out.
“Jacob, I don’t think this is going to work.”
The silence was deafening. Agonizing. It went on for so long, she wasn’t certain he was still there.