by Lucy Lennox
“Like hell,” I growled, reaching over to scoop Pippa and her blankets from Goldie’s arms and hold her to my chest.
Hon’s eyes widened in surprise, and the purple-haired guy—Nico—did the same. Both men and Goldie looked stunned speechless at my reaction. I was usually the perfect citizen. Mister Manners and the town’s friendly doctor. But not this time. Not on the day I buried my friend and was hit with the awful fact of Pippa growing up without her.
There was no way in hell I was letting this stranger take Adriana’s baby girl. If he wanted her, he would have to go through me.
And that little emo dude had no idea what I was capable of when my heart was broken.
I turned to mumble an apology to Goldie before I jerked open the door to my truck, strapped Pippa in the baby car seat as quickly as I could, and peeled out of the lot.
Chapter 3
Nico
I stood there staring at the back of the dark truck as it sped out of the lot.
What the hell had just happened?
I felt like I was in a daze. Like everything that had happened since listening to that voice mail two nights before had been a hallucination. I’d flown in on the red-eye that morning and rented a car to make it to the service just in time. I’d snuck into the back row of the church and just tried to keep my head down. I was still in deep denial about everything.
When the baby’s cries had rung out through the church, I’d jumped, knocking some kind of brass platter to the stone floor in a horrible racket. It felt like the entire group of mourners turned to stare at me. As if I hadn’t already attracted enough attention in the entire town just by showing up.
It had taken every ounce of my courage to return to Hobie after the attorney had given me the details of Adriana’s death the morning before.
Adriana Cristina Salerno. My older sister by three years. The sister I’d tried looking up to before I’d left all those years before but who’d repeatedly let me down.
I’d slunk out of the pew and out the back door of the church. I hadn’t been able to take it anymore. Too many memories of Sunday services, sitting up straight and trying to stay awake during the incessant incantations of the priest’s rituals. I’d sworn to myself I’d never set foot in another church as long as I lived, and up until then, I’d been able to keep that promise.
By the time I’d made it to my rental car in the parking lot, my hands were shaking so hard I would have done anything for a shot of tequila. Instead, I crossed my arms on the frame across the top of the driver’s side door and leaned my forehead against them before letting out a deep sigh.
Only a few minutes later, the attorney had found me and introduced himself, pulling me back toward the churchyard to meet the baby. Adriana’s baby. My sister’s baby.
My baby now.
Well, at least until I could find a way to sign away my rights to her and find her a good set of adoptive parents. Mr. Baptiste had assured me over the phone that there was a wonderful young family ready to adopt her. I just needed to come to town long enough to sign the appropriate paperwork and facilitate the dispensation of the rest of Adriana’s assets, including her house and the bakery she owned in town.
When the attorney had called out to a tall man and older woman, he explained that the older woman was the baby’s current foster parent and the man was the town’s family doctor.
“He was also Adriana’s friend,” Mr. Baptiste said quietly before the man himself stepped close enough to be introduced.
Weston Wilde. But not exactly the same West I’d had a secret crush on as a young teen.
This West was tall, at least five inches taller than I was, and tight with muscle that didn’t quite fit the clean-cut suit he wore. His thick blond hair curled deliciously with waves that begged for fingers in them. Light green eyes bore into me, and I felt my balls tighten inappropriately. I studied the man for another split second before looking up at the deep blue sky and mentally shooting God the bird.
Really, motherfucker? You’re really going to dangle a guy like that in front of me in the middle of all this bullshit? Couldn’t he have lost his hair by now or some shit?
What a fucking joke.
He was, of course, perfect—he’d aged beautifully with laugh lines next to his eyes that took the tiniest edge off his otherwise aggressively masculine face. He was a fashion magazine’s take on a cowboy.
The man’s face was etched out of goddamned man stone. Like Charlton Heston and Robert Redford got together to chisel a man’s man out of desert man granite and came up with this manly version of—
“Like hell,” I heard him snap. I blinked and tried desperately to replay what could have happened while I was busy fantasizing about man stuff.
Before I could figure out what the hell was going on, he’d loaded up an arm full of pink blankets and sped off.
“Um,” I began.
“Oh heavens,” the older lady muttered.
“Dammit.” The attorney sighed.
“He’ll be at—” the woman began.
“Yep,” Mr. Baptiste said gently. “Hop in, Goldie. Nico, why don’t you follow me in your car?”
After only a short drive through the little town, I saw the attorney’s vehicle pull into a long, familiar driveway surrounded by tall fir trees. My foot slammed on the brakes before I had a chance to make the turn in after him.
My mother’s place.
The shit shack I’d grown up in until I left home at age fifteen. I took a deep breath and resigned myself to the memories that were sure to flood me when I came around the corner to see the ramshackle trailer.
As I inched down the driveway, I realized how much more wooded the lot had become in my absence. Trees grew together across the narrow drive to form a shaded canopy, and I took a moment to brace myself for the sight of the shabby, brown box I’d spent my childhood in.
Only, when I came around the final curve, what I saw wasn’t what I remembered. Instead of the shit shack, I saw a tidy, light pink cottage with a wide front porch complete with a couple of rocking chairs and hanging ferns. The ferns were like a punch to the gut because I knew Adriana had to have bought them herself before she died.
The house looked nothing like I would have pictured my sister living in. At least the Adriana I remembered from years before. That woman had been hard, dark, and brooding. It didn’t make any sense.
I parked my car in the wide gravel parking area to the side of the house and took a moment to look around and orient myself. The small cottage took up much more room than the trailer that had been there before, but in the distance I could still see glimpses of the shining blue water of Lake Hobie through the trees.
Sure enough, the dark pickup truck we’d been hoping to spot was parked closest to the house, and Mr. Baptiste and Mrs. Banks were stepping out of the attorney’s vehicle. I joined them as they approached the front door and rang the bell.
“He’s probably out back on the swing,” the older woman said softly.
The swing. They couldn’t mean the tire swing that had been there when I was a child. That thing had been on its last legs years ago. I hopped back off the porch and made my way around back, seeing immediately the swing she’d referred to. It hung from the same enormous oak branch the old tire swing had been attached to, but now it was made of a smooth, wide board hanging from strong, thick ropes.
Just as the woman had suspected, West sat on the swing with the baby in his arms. At some point, he’d lost the suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his white button-down shirt and was leaning over, whispering and pressing kisses to the baby’s head. Despite the fact he’d basically stolen my niece from right under my nose, something about the scene made my heart hurt. Clearly he loved the little girl. Was it possible he was the baby’s father? If so, why hadn’t he taken custody of her?
West’s head snapped up as he sensed me approaching, and his eyes narrowed when he realized who I was. I was at a loss as to what to say to him. I didn’t want to appear wea
k—to allow him or anyone else in that shit town to think I wasn’t capable of handling my family situation.
“Who’s the father?” I asked, nodding in the direction of the bundle in his arms. Might as well get the important part out of the way. If he was the father, maybe this had been a wasted trip and I could get back to San Francisco and my regular life there.
He looked at me but didn’t speak, so I continued. “Why isn’t there a dad in the picture?”
West seemed to choose his words carefully before replying. “The baby doesn’t have a father.”
Ah. So that’s how it was. Some kind of random-hookup deal. Now that fit more in line with the Adriana I’d known.
“I see.”
“What does that mean?” he snapped.
I felt my eyes widen in surprise at his defensiveness. “Just that I understand now why I’m the one who got custody of her.”
“You’re not keeping her,” he said. It was a statement, not a question, and it got my hackles up immediately.
“I’ll do whatever the fuck I want to, asshole,” I barked. “Hand her over.”
The time for niceties was gone, as if it had ever been there in the first place. I’d be damned if I was going to let some holier-than-thou Dr. Perfect tell me what I was and wasn’t going to do with my sister’s baby.
His eyes narrowed to angry slits, and he held the bundle closer to his chest. “I’ll hand her over to you when hell freezes, jackass.” His voice was a low, thunderous growl, and it brought goose bumps up all over my skin.
Suddenly I had the ridiculous mental image of two rams going at it—butting heads over and over again and ending up with nothing but sore heads. I couldn’t help but laugh, which, of course, just pissed the man off even more.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked. “Your sister is dead, your niece is an orphan, and you’re laughing?”
“Yes, I’m laughing. Because you don’t have a fucking leg to stand on in this, and you know it. And I sure as shit don’t need to explain myself to you. You have no idea how I feel about losing my sister. Matter of fact, you don’t know me at all.”
West’s nostrils flared, and he hissed his response. “I know that when she was seventeen years old and fell off a boat, she screamed your name. I know that when she was eighteen and her stepfather refused to pay for a girl to go to college, she wished you were there to help change his mind. I know that after she gave birth to Pippa, the first thing she said was that the baby had your crazy-ass ears.” He looked at me in defiance, never taking his sparkling green eyes off me. “I know these things because I was here. And you weren’t.”
My heart felt like it was going to break into a thousand pieces all over again. Adriana needing me didn’t make sense. The sister I’d left hadn’t needed me for anything. And West mentioning a stepfather I’d never really had knocked the breath out of my chest. But I wasn’t about to let that asshole have the satisfaction of seeing me cry. So I clenched my teeth and balled my fists to hold it all in.
“You don’t know shit. If she called out my name after falling off a boat, it’s because she pushed me off one when I was fourteen and must have fucking learned how shitty that was. And if she wanted to go to fucking college, she could have fought tooth and nail to pay for it herself like I had to. So fuck you for thinking you know a goddamned thing about me and my sister.”
West’s face seemed to soften in surprise, but he still held the baby close to his chest.
“I’d like to meet my niece. Please,” I said as evenly as possible. Something inside was clawing at me, pressing me forward to get my hands on the one remaining link between me and my family.
I saw West’s jaw tighten, but he stood up and loosened his hold on the bundle so he could reveal her to me—not to hand her to me but to let me get a glimpse of her.
I stepped forward to peek at her face. There, staring up at me, was the smallest human being that had surely ever lived. Her skin was absolute perfection, smooth, creamy white with hints of blushing pink. Her tiny plump lips were deep red, and her eyes were the same mix of green and blue I saw every time I looked in the mirror. As she turned in West’s arms to stretch, one tiny ear revealed itself from behind a fold in the blanket, and sure enough, it was a ridiculous Dumbo ear. It was too much.
I swallowed down a sob before mumbling something to the effect of, “Never mind,” and turning around to make my way quickly across the dying grass of the back lawn around to the driveway.
I could hear his voice calling from behind me as I walked away.
“Go ahead and leave, Nico. It’s what you’re good at.”
I didn’t let the tears come until I was safely back in the car on my way down the familiar driveway and out of that godforsaken town.
Chapter 4
West
I stared after him in shock. That was it? That was the sum total of his reaction to meeting Adriana’s beautiful daughter? The only person left in his fucking family—the tiny life he was now in charge of protecting? To walk away again?
Adriana had spent hours trying to convince me that Nico was a decent person worth loving, worth forgiving, but I’d never actually believed her. And there, in the back yard of Adriana’s home, I knew I’d been right. He was a heartless asshole who’d selfishly walked out on her when they needed each other most. He’d never looked back. Clearly he hadn’t grown up, and all he still cared about was himself.
I began making my way back to the house, knowing I was going to have to hand Pippa over to that selfish prick. Just the thought of leaving her in his care made acid burn in my stomach. There was no way he was capable of taking care of a newborn. No fucking way. I’d bet my entire medical practice on the fact he’d never changed a diaper or given a baby a bottle. Hell, I’d be shocked if he’d even held a baby before. What exactly was he planning on doing while the adoption process played out?
Just as I reached out to open the back door, I heard an engine turn over in the front of the house. A vehicle crunched along the drive until the sound indicated it had driven out of earshot. Who had left? Surely not the man who was supposed to take charge of Pippa. I’d fucking kill him.
As I entered the house, I could see Hon and Goldie peering out the front windows by the breakfast table.
“Did that guy seriously just leave?” I called out. They both spun to look at me, Goldie bustling over to take Pippa out of my arms and Hon nodding his head. “What the hell?”
“I think this has all been a big shock to him, West,” Hon said gently. “Nico hasn’t been back to Hobie in like fifteen years. Cut him some slack.”
“Please tell me he’s agreed to let the Warners adopt her,” I asked the attorney. “He has to.”
“He hasn’t confirmed it, but he sounded relieved when I told him about them.”
“Thank god,” I muttered, sitting down on the overstuffed sofa and running my hands through my hair. As long as the guy was willing to give Pippa the best chance at a good life, I could forgive him for being a Grade A asshole.
Goldie walked over and rubbed my shoulder, giving me the same sweet smile she’d given me at work after a tough case.
“Sweetie, why don’t you head on home and get some rest? It’s been a long day. I’ll stay here with Pippa until Nico comes back.”
“Goldie, he can’t take care of her himself. You’re not going to let him—”
She squeezed my shoulder to stop me from saying it. “I’m going to stay the night regardless. You know better than to ask if I’m going to leave this baby with someone before I’m sure he can care for her. You’re tired. Now go home, Dr. Wilde.”
I met her eyes and saw in them the stern nurse she’d been since I’d been a child playing in my grandfather’s office at the practice. Hell, she’d probably changed my own damned diapers once upon a time.
“Yes, ma’am,” I mumbled. “See you tomorrow.”
I made my way back out to my truck, taking care to remove the car seat and leave it on Adriana’s f
ront porch. I tried not to think about Nico Salerno attempting to figure out how to put it in the back of his rental car and getting it all wrong.
As I drove back the few blocks to the center of town, I noticed what looked like his rental car parked in the empty lot of the small city park off to my left. I didn’t see whether or not he was behind the wheel, and I forced myself not to look too hard for him. I couldn’t decide if I was disappointed or relieved he hadn’t left town.
Two blocks later, I pulled into my own driveway and followed it around back and into the freestanding garage behind the house. I lived above my medical practice in a great old Victorian house near the center of town. One of my grandfathers started the practice in the midseventies and passed it down to me when he retired a few years ago. Grandpa and Doc had tried to gift me the home as part of the practice, but I’d refused. Instead, I was buying it from them with monthly payments that galled them every time they noticed the deposits on their bank statements.
I knew that when the entire thing was paid off, I’d feel an immense sense of pride at owning the gorgeous home, but until then, I felt lucky enough to live and work there every day.
When I’d pulled past the small parking area for patients, I’d noticed a familiar dark SUV parked there. I got out and joined my brother Hudson who was sitting on the back stoop, checking his phone.
“Hey,” I said as I stepped past him to unlock the back door to the kitchen. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be heading back to Dallas.”
He was still dressed in the suit he’d worn to Adriana’s service, and I realized I hadn’t even stuck around long enough to thank my family for coming.
“Stopped by to see if you wanted some company,” he said, still looking at his phone as he stood to follow me in. Despite the casual tone of his voice, I could tell there was nothing casual about his offer.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Did Grandpa and Doc send you over here?”