Sensing fireworks, Kristy decided to leave it at that.
Connor looked at the twins. “What about you two ladies?” he asked genially. “Do you have any homework?”
They both nodded and looked reluctant to get started on it. “We have a math work sheet to do,” Sally said.
“Yeah, and I don’t think our daddy can help us anymore,” Sally confessed with a tentative glance at Kristy. “I think our mommy wants us to learn it all by ourselves.”
Connor looked at Kristy.
She nodded, doing her best to hide her mounting feelings of inadequacy as a mother. Obviously, her talk with the twins hadn’t accomplished all that she had wanted. If it had, her girls wouldn’t be staring at her as if she hadn’t just ripped them from their home and all their friends and moved them to another state, plus taken away their daddy, too.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t explain to them all the reasons why she had needed such a change. That was definitely too much for them to handle.
Sally looked at Kristy. “May we be excused so we can show Connor what we got to do?”
“Yeah, maybe he can help us.” Susie’s face shone with enthusiasm.
Well, that was better than calling on a dear departed father, and pretending he was still here to do those kinds of things, she guessed. If Connor was willing, anyway.
He smiled, obviously ready for any challenge that came his way. “I would be delighted to assist two beautiful and extremely intelligent young ladies,” he said, indulging in a courtly bow from the waist that made both Susie and Sally giggle. He held out a hand to each of them. “Just lead the way….”
“THANKS FOR HELPING THEM with their math,” Kristy said two hours later, after the twins had been tucked into bed. This was the first moment she’d had alone with Connor since dinner. And now that the twins were asleep—and Harry and Winnifred nowhere to be seen—Kristy wanted a chance to bring Connor up to speed, so he’d understand where her girls were in this recovery process, such as it was.
“I was glad to be of service,” Connor said cheerfully.
“You like kids, don’t you?”
“That apparent, is it?”
When Kristy nodded appreciatively, he continued, “I thought by now I’d have several of my own.”
“But it hasn’t happened.”
“No. Although…” he met and held her eyes, a gentle smile curving his sensual lips “…I’m still hopeful it will.”
It was easy to imagine him tenderly caring for his own kids. Kristy knew he was not the kind of man who would ever be too busy to see to their needs. His children, she was certain, would always feel very loved and accepted for who and what they were. She looked deep into his eyes. “I think you’ll make a good father.”
“Thank you.”
Silence fell between them. Kristy didn’t know how to broach the subject she wanted to talk about. But as if he was reading her mind, Connor turned to her, a concerned light in his eyes. “About what the girls said earlier, at dinner, about their father,” he began.
Obviously, Kristy thought, studying the compassion on his face as he sought to understand, Connor had been able to tell the twins’ reference to their late father had upset her, too. “I suppose I should explain,” she said awkwardly as she stepped out onto the covered porch that ran the length of the lodge, and gestured for him to follow.
After charging to her rescue both this morning and this evening, and helping her out all day, he had earned the right to know the full story. And she needed a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to lean on tonight. Because he was acting as if he wanted to be the man in her life, the man her girls turned to also, Kristy found herself ready and willing to confide in him.
In a low voice, she filled him in on what her daughters had told her out on the dunes that afternoon, while Connor had been helping Harry strip beds inside the lodge. He listened to her attentively. Once again, Kristy was amazed by the compassion and tenderness in his eyes.
“Sounds like they really miss their dad,” he finally observed, leaning a shoulder against a post.
Kristy perched on the railing that rimmed the piazza and turned to face him. “I’m sure they do,” she said sadly, swallowing around the growing knot of emotion in her throat. Bitterness she had worked long and hard to erase welled up inside her. “Unfortunately, that’s nothing new.”
Hands thrust in the pockets of his jeans, Connor remarked, “How so?”
Kristy glanced over at him, aware that the impossible was happening. She and Connor were well on their way to becoming not just business adversaries, but friends. Aware that she had never really talked about the problems within her marriage to anyone, never wanted to until now, Kristy continued in a low, halting voice. “Like all surgeons, Lance worked extremely long hours, and was usually gone well before the girls got up in the morning, and not home until several hours after they were asleep. He was with the girls at most two or three hours every week. Sometimes a lot less than that.”
“Sounds hard for you,” Connor said, respect glimmering in his gray eyes.
It had been, Kristy recalled stoically. For her and the girls. Kristy had had to be both mother and father to them, most of the time. And worse than that had been the loneliness, the fact that Lance had never had time for her, for their marriage, either.
Warming to the quiet acceptance in Connor’s low voice, Kristy continued hoarsely, “I tried to make Lance see that although the girls were very little, they still needed a lot more than that. And so, for that matter, did he, because this was the only childhood they were ever going to have.”
Connor reached across the space separating them and covered Kristy’s hand with his. “Did it change things?”
“No,” she admitted, even as she absorbed the comforting warmth. “Lance never did slow down, never did spend much time with them. Not even at the end, when his life was in danger,” she recollected.
Connor’s brow furrowed and his eyes searched hers. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged as her thoughts turned to one of the memories she had been running from when she left North Carolina. She extricated her hand from his. “Lance had a very stressful lifestyle. Too little sleep, no exercise, too many meals grabbed on the run. He also had a family history of heart disease.”
Connor scowled. “And that didn’t prompt him to take better care of himself? If for no other reason than to be around for you and the girls?”
Kristy compressed her lips ruefully. If only Lance had thought like Connor did! “Like most doctors, Lance felt that because he was in medicine, he was invulnerable, immune to all that. But he wasn’t.” Restless, she stood up, began to pace the length of the piazza. “A couple of weeks before he died, he began having chest pains.”
Connor followed her to the end of the porch, well away from the lobby doors. He stood in the pale yellow glow of the porch light, concern sharpening the handsome planes of his face. “You must’ve been frantic.”
Kristy folded her arms in front of her and did her best to keep a lid on her lingering anger and resentment. She glanced at Connor, admitting unhappily, “I didn’t know about it.” When he quirked a brow in disbelief, she continued relating her sad tale matter-of-factly. “He didn’t want to tell me. Probably because he knew I would’ve insisted he have right away the double bypass surgery his cardiologist was recommending. Instead, Lance decided to do things his way and wait until he had performed another month of surgeries he had scheduled. Only problem was, he wasn’t strong enough. And after a particularly grueling round of back-to-back emergency surgeries he had a massive heart attack and died, leaving me a widow and my two daughters without a father.”
Connor tucked a hand beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. “You’re angry,” he observed softly.
“Yes, and I probably always will be.” Kristy paused, leaning into his warm, compelling touch. “Do you blame me?”
Chapter Six
Connor had had his own share of life’s disappointments.
But becoming bitter or resentful had never been an option for him, maybe because he had seen firsthand, in his own family, how destructive such emotions could be. So instead, he had worked hard on finding a way to reconcile everyone, because only in harmony, he had found, were people ever truly happy.
“That explains why the girls are holding on to Lance’s memory so hard,” he said. “They still want and need a father’s presence in their lives.”
“Except he can’t come back,” Kristy stated, turning her eyes to the ocean waves rolling into shore. Moonlight glistened on the water and a warm breeze was blowing. If not for the subject matter, it would have been a romantic setting, indeed, Connor thought. But Kristy’s mind was on heartbreak from her past, not the future, with him or anyone else.
“Even so,” he said gently, “your girls have something not every child has. The knowledge that their father loved them and wanted the best for them.”
Connor hadn’t had that. His father had regarded him and his sisters as pawns on a chessboard, to be moved around at his advantage, and forgotten and discarded when he had no use for them. Richard Templeton had treated his wife the same way. Unfortunately, it had taken Connor’s mother, Charlotte, most of her adult years to realize that, and then take action to free herself for a life of love, respect and hope again. Connor admired the courage his mother had shown recently. Even as he still wished there had been some way to repair or reverse the damage his father had done with his selfish actions. Because the Templeton family unit would never be whole again. Connor, his mother and sisters lived on one side of the Atlantic, his father on the other, with any contact between them cursory at best. And sadly, that was the way his dad wanted it.
Kristy, however, wasn’t in that kind of situation, Connor knew. Yes, her husband had passed away, but she still had family who loved and supported her. She still had a chance to work things out with them, get along better, just as she had a chance to give her girls the kind of childhood they needed. She was still holding herself accountable for so very much, at least where her children’s happiness was concerned. Her marriage appeared to be another matter. She seemed to realize that she and her husband had not been as well-suited as they’d needed to be to have a happy marriage.
“In any case,” Kristy sighed, raking both her hands through the silky length of her hair, “I’m hoping the school counselor is right. That this is just a phase the twins are going through, brought on by the stress of moving here. And the counseling she is going to give them, plus the attention I plan to heap on them at home, should help them move on and embrace their life here as much as their past.”
Connor nodded encouragingly. He had always thought it was better to seize the day and immerse yourself in the present, rather than worry too much about the past, which was over, anyway. Or the future, which would likely take care of itself.
Aware that she could easily get used to having Connor around all the time, to talk to and be with, Kristy perched on the porch railing and asked, “Where are Harry and Winnifred, by the way?”
Connor sat down beside her and stretched his long legs out in front of him. He wished he could take Kristy to bed and make love to her until all the sadness and uncertainty in her eyes went away. Until she forgot the hurts and disappointments of the past and concentrated only on the future. “Winnifred went back to Charleston to pack a few bags and tell her great-aunt Eleanor she’d be staying here. Harry didn’t want her trying to lift her bags alone, so he went with her.”
Kristy bit her lower lip. “So they’ll both be residing on the premises. Not just Harry.”
“Looks like it.” She and Connor both fell silent, thinking about the ramifications—and romantic fireworks—that arrangement and the resultant proximity might bring. His mood tense but hopeful, Connor dared ask, “What about me? Given the fact I’m now working here, too—at least for the next week, according to the terms of our wager—do I get the same courtesy?”
“You can’t really want to—” Kristy broke off, self-conscious color illuminating the delicate bone structure of her face.
Connor grinned. Lazily, he anchored an arm about her waist and pulled her over so she was ensconced in the open V of his legs. “Suppose I do?” he remarked playfully as her rounded bottom settled against him.
Kristy pivoted to face him, her thighs rubbing against the inner sides of his. “Connor?”
He looked down to where her shorts had ridden up her bare legs, and struggled to contain both a groan and the rising heat in his groin. “Hmm?”
Kristy twisted some more and splayed her hands on his shoulders. “There’s not going to be a romance between us,” she warned.
Connor knew she wanted that to be the case. He, however, was more of a realist. And he knew if they were around each other even half as much as they had been today and last night, other kisses and intimate confidences, and further emotional involvement, were not only inevitable, they were desirable. The task would be to convince her of that, make her see that the two of them were undeniably, irrevocably drawn to each other, and that an attraction as electric as theirs came along once in a lifetime.
“Kiss me again, like you don’t mean it, and then I’ll believe that’s the case.”
She had time to evade him if she wanted, but she didn’t. She merely stared up at him with a look of cautious yearning and soul-deep wariness that made Connor feel all the more protective of her as he clamped an arm about her waist and ever so deliberately brought her against him. Threading a hand through the silky hair at the nape of her neck, he tilted her head back and lowered his mouth to hers. Her body was soft and warm as it molded to his length. His lips caressed hers—gently, seductively this time, with slow, gentle passion—until they parted helplessly under the onslaught, and she was meeting him stroke for stroke. Until she was moaning softly and clinging to him helplessly.
He knew she didn’t mean to kiss him back, any more than he could keep himself from kissing her, and somehow that made their desire all the sweeter. Luxuriating in the clean, fragrant scent of her, he kissed her deeply, lingeringly, as his hands swept down her body, charting her dips and curves. She made a soft, helpless sound of pleasure low in her throat, and unable to help himself, he gripped her hips with both hands and pulled her closer still, fitting her snugly against his arousal, until the need to have her and make her his was a hot, incessant ache.
Knowing this had to either move to a bedroom—now—or end, and that she wasn’t ready for the first, not nearly, he reluctantly pulled away. They regarded each other breathlessly, both trembling, and Kristy shook her head. “I knew from the moment I met you that you were bad news.”
Connor grinned, knowing that although her reaction wasn’t exactly the one he wanted, it wasn’t all bad, either. “So do I get a cottage, too?” he asked.
KRISTY KNEW SHE SHOULDN’T give him one. Having Connor close by would mean nothing but trouble and nearly constant temptation, two things she could ill afford right now. On the other hand, if she refused to give him a cottage, she knew everyone there would think it indicative of her unusually spirited reaction to him. When the truth was she had no feelings for him except friendship. Okay, she amended hastily, friendship and desire. But that still didn’t amount to any kind of romantic future. Because Kristy was not looking to get married again. At least not for a very long time. Even if she had taken off her rings before she got in the shower that morning and declined to put them back on. Nor was she looking to have a steady man in her life, a lover or a companion. And it seemed, unless she was mistaken, that Connor was determined to be all three.
Sensing he was waiting for a response, Kristy said, “I enjoy talking to you.” And confiding in you. And having one person in my life who truly seems to understand and accept what I am feeling. But Connor had that effect on everyone, she reminded herself. Kristy only had to watch him with the twins and Winnifred and Harry to know that. He got along with everyone, even her nosy, intrusive neighbor, Bruce Fitts.
Conno
r leaned toward her earnestly, his entire attention focused on her. “Now that sounds like a kiss-off,” he teased, giving her a very knowing, very male grin.
Obviously, he didn’t buy it for a single minute. Which was the problem in dealing with a tycoon, Kristy thought. They were way too confident and self-possessed for their own good. She folded her arms at her waist. “All you will find out by moving in here for one week is that I intend to be your friend, and nothing more.”
He grinned, all scoundrel again. “So? I can always use more friends.”
Her body still tingling with the memory of his passionate kisses, Kristy kept her eyes on his and adapted a devil-may-care tone as she asked, “Which cottage do you want?”
Connor sent her a probing gaze. “Which ones are Harry and Winnifred bunking in?”
“One and two,” Kristy reported, as her pulse kicked up another notch. Honestly, she didn’t know why Connor had this effect on her, he just did. “They took cottages closest to the lodge,” she continued matter-of-factly.
“Then put me way at the other end,” Connor decided, as considerate of others as ever. “I want to give them maximum privacy.”
She thought about the simmering romance between the two, the way Winnifred had followed Harry all the way out here—an unusual occurrence, to say the least. Kristy studied Connor’s face. “You really think they are going to make up, and that Harry will go back to work as her butler?”
“I don’t know about that,” Connor allowed, his brow furrowing, “but I do think they are going to make up eventually. And the more time they spend together, the quicker it will happen.”
Kristy paused, troubled by this revelation. It was what she had been thinking, too. “I wonder if I should be looking for backup kitchen help for next week,” she worried out loud. Heaven knew she wanted—needed—this business conference to go well. She wanted to be able to use the group for reference, as a foundation for building up the resort’s, and her own, reputation. Especially among business folk.
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