A Father's Promise

by Marcia Evanick

  The south side of the building opened into another greenhouse. This one was decorated with working fountains, garden statues, palms, plants and outdoor furniture. It made a person want to relax and just soak up the atmosphere. It made him think about adding a sunroom to his own house. Of course it would be on a much smaller scale and he would have to be very insistent with Trevor not to leave his animals all around the room. It could be done, but he would want a fountain of some sort in it. One that could hold some goldfish. Trevor would love the fish.

  "May I help you, sir?" asked a young saleswoman.

  He glanced at the name tag pinned to the woman's dark green smock with the Ever Green Nursery logo embroidered above it. A yellow silk daffodil and a pink curly ribbon was pinned behind her name. "Hello, Cindy. I'm looking for Sydney St. Claire."

  "She's busy right now. Maybe I could help you?"

  Cindy, an average-looking blonde with a sunny smile and sparkling blue eyes, appeared quite enthused about helping him. Helping him what, he didn't know. In fact, he didn't want to know. "I'm Ellis Carlisle. I'm staying a few days with Sydney and her father."

  "So you're Ellis." Cindy's gaze skimmed him from the top of his head to the tips of his shoes. Her gaze measured, sorted and categorized him in a matter of seconds. "You're not what I expected."

  "What were you expecting?" He liked Cindy's honesty and he was especially thrilled that Sydney had apparently mentioned him to one of her employees. He just prayed Sydney hadn't said something too horrible about him.

  "I don't know. Someone who's a cross between a movie star and a millionaire. I was picturing a cross between Tom Cruise and John F. Kennedy Jr."

  He felt as if someone had just slammed him in the gut. "Excuse me, but why would you think that?"

  "Syd said you drove a brand-new top-of-the-line Mercedes and that you were gorgeous." Cindy grinned. "I just put the two of them together."

  Sydney thought he was gorgeous! He was stunned. Pleasantly stunned, but stunned nevertheless. "So which part didn't meet up to your standards, me being rich or me being gorgeous?"

  "It was the rich part that threw me. You don't look rich."

  Ellis glanced down at the loafers, jeans and old Villa-nova sweatshirt he had on and grinned. No, he didn't fit into any millionaire category that he knew of. He didn't care because he wasn't just some millionaire. Sydney thought he was gorgeous. "Are you going to allow me to see her?"

  "Sure. She's out in greenhouse number five." Cindy pointed out a set of doors and down a gravel path to a row of greenhouses. "There's a five above the door, you can't miss it."

  "Thanks." Ellis headed out the doors and down the path.

  Stones crunched beneath his feet. He spotted Sydney through the glass before he saw the red enamel five hanging above the door. She appeared to be alone so he opened the door and stepped inside the greenhouse. He now understood why she had taken off the sweater she had been wearing this morning. It was warm in the greenhouse, extremely warm.

  Sydney glanced up from the mound of potting soil and cuttings she was planting. "Ellis! Is something wrong with my father?"

  "No, your father is just fine." He stepped farther into the greenhouse. "Stop worrying, Sydney. Thomas can take care of himself."

  "He's blind." Sydney brushed her filthy hands down the front of her thighs.

  "I know he's blind. You know he's blind. He knows he's blind." Ellis smiled at the picture she created all sweaty-looking and streaked with dirt. "Your father has lost his ability to see, not his ability to think."

  "You left him alone at home?"

  "Yes, I did." He liked the fire that sparked in her eyes. He especially liked it when it had been caused by his kisses. Those hot kisses they had shared had driven him near-insane all through the night. "He said he'd be fine and I believed him. I asked if he wanted to take a walk over to the nursery and he said no but suggested that I go ahead without him. I couldn't think of a reason why I shouldn't, without making him seem incapable of fending for himself for a while. So here I am. Do you have a few spare minutes to give me a quick tour?"

  "You want to see the nursery?"

  "No."

  "No? If you didn't want to see the nursery, why did yon bother coming?"

  He took another step and was close enough to touch her. "I wanted to see you, Sydney."

  "Me?"

  "Now that I've seen you, I want something else." Uncertainty was clouding her soft green eyes, drowning out the fire that had been there moments before. He wanted that fire back. He took another step closer and smiled as she backed up against the wooden table behind her.

  "What?"

  His hand reached out and instead of touching her mouth as he wanted to do, he followed a streak of dirt across her cheek and down her jaw. "A kiss, Sydney. Nothing more than a kiss."

  "You don't kiss like a man who wants nothing more than a kiss."

  "It takes two to kiss. What does that say about you, Sydney?" He moved in nearer. There was barely an inch between their bodies. He could hear the unevenness of her breath, and see the soft parting of her mouth. Readying itself for his kiss.

  "I don't want to know." Sydney's mouth instinctively reached for his.

  He saw the fire spark anew in the depths of her eyes and welcomed her, dirt and all, into his arms.

  Chapter 6

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  Two days later Sydney stood in the kitchen preparing dinner, feeling as if she was walking on eggshells. Her world felt very fragile with the two men in her life pulling her in opposite directions.

  Her father was living in his own dark, little world, unaware of the conflicts surrounding him. He was unsuspecting of the fact that she had her doubts about his claim of not being Ellis's natural father. The one nagging question remained: why would Catherine name Thomas if he hadn't fathered her child?

  Ellis tormented her with a whole other arsenal of emotions. Since the morning he had shown up at the nursery wanting a quick tour, she had been besieged with stolen kisses and her senses were now at a frustration level guaranteed to drive every sane thought she had ever possessed straight out of her mind. Ellis had been true to his word. Never once had he tried to take their kisses to the next step. He had otherwise been the perfect gentleman, and she hated it.

  She finished peeling and quartering the last potato and tossed it into the pot. The meat loaf she had thrown together after she had gotten home from work was already in the oven cooking. Dinner would be later than normal, but at least she was handling it today. The past two nights Ellis had cooked. He was a wonderful cook, and she really appreciated coming home to find dinner on the table, but she was beginning to feel useless. Ellis had stepped into their home and before she knew it, he had taken over.

  It was the same thing with her father. In the five days Ellis had been living here, he had done more good with her father than she had the previous six months. It was maddening. There was no obvious explanation for it. She should have been the one to turn her father around, not some stranger. But she couldn't begrudge Ellis for it. Her father was doing better.

  She walked over to the freezer and started rummaging through the contents looking for a bag of corn. Her father liked corn. As for Ellis, she really didn't care if he liked corn or not. The man had no right to kiss her the way he did and not follow through with anything! She was so constantly frustrated and aroused that if Ellis talked dirty to her she would probably shatter at his feet.

  "Are you sure I can't help with something." Ellis's voice came from directly behind her and caused her to lose her grip on the bag of corn she had just pulled out.

  She caught the bag, backed away from the freezer and closed the door. There was something he could help with, but preparing dinner wasn't it. "No thank you, Ellis. I've got dinner under control." It was about the only thing she had under control and she wasn't going to let him take it from her.

  "How about if I help set the table?" Ellis tried to back her against the refrigerator, but she managed to slip
past him.

  She saw another frustrating kiss coming and wanted no part of it. "I thought you were discussing the upcoming baseball season with my father?" That had been a close one. One more step and he would have had her blocked and she knew firsthand what Ellis did whenever he had her cornered. He tortured her with his mouth and promises of ecstasy that never came.

  "I was, but I heard you puttering around in here and thought to offer my assistance." He moved up behind her as she stood by the sink. "You're acting awfully edgy tonight, Syd. Is anything wrong?" His hands gripped the counter on either side of her, but thankfully he didn't touch her.

  Short of climbing up onto the countertop, she was indeed trapped. She shuddered as one of his fingers reached out and stroked its way down her cheek, over her jawline and down the arch of her neck. It was an intimate gesture; one designed to drive her over the edge. At this point, it wouldn't take much.

  "I don't want you kissing me anymore."

  Ellis dropped his hand immediately and backed up a step. All the teasing that had been in his eyes slowly faded. "Can I ask why?"

  "Your kisses make me want too much." Her gaze dropped to the floor between them.

  Ellis stopped his retreat. "Want what?"

  "You." She raised her eyes and studied his strong jaw, the endearing bump on the bridge of his nose and the confusion shadowed in his eyes. "The kisses aren't enough any longer and we both know there can't be anything more."

  "Do we, Syd? Tell me again why there can't be anything more. I know I was the one to set the boundaries, but somehow I can't remember why." He reached out a finger and stroked her lower lip.

  She felt his finger tremble against her mouth and closed her eyes. He knew exactly where to touch to make her want. There were reasons, good reasons, why they shouldn't become lovers. She just couldn't remember a single one of them when he was touching her.

  The sound of her father's cane tapping against the entryway into the kitchen caused her to jerk away from Ellis.

  "Is dinner almost ready?" Thomas asked as he made his way into the room.

  She knew a blush was sweeping up her cheeks, but she couldn't prevent it. Thomas was her father, and even though she and Ellis hadn't been doing anything wrong, it still made her feel awkward to have her father walk into the room when she and Ellis had been so close. It didn't matter one iota that her father was blind and wouldn't have known if they had been dancing naked on the counters. She had known.

  Sydney couldn't bring herself to look at Ellis as she took another step away from him. "Dinner won't be for another half hour, Dad. Why don't you and Ellis go sit on the patio and enjoy the evening air. It's not too chilly out tonight. A light jacket should be enough."

  She noticed her father was starting to use the cane the hospital had given him. He was getting around the house much better and he was even using it on the short walks he and Ellis were taking lately. The nursery's fields provided her father with exercise, sunshine and fresh country air. Yesterday she had had one of her employees travel every path throughout the property making sure there weren't any ankle-breaking holes that her father might trip in. Thomas's independence was returning by leaps and bounds. She guessed it was one more thing she had to thank Ellis for.

  "That sounds like a good idea." Thomas tilted his head, but continued to face where she was standing. "What do you say, Ellis? Are you up for some fresh air?"

  She felt the flush staining her cheeks turn bright brilliant red. Her father had known all along where Ellis was, and exactly how close they had been. She reached for a pot and busied herself by dumping in the frozen corn as Ellis and her father put on their jackets and left the kitchen through the back door.

  * * *

  An hour later dinner was done and the cleanup was nearly completed. Having Ellis share their meal had brought a range of topics to the conversation that had been missing for quite a while. Six months to be precise. At least Ellis's presence guaranteed some form of conversation. Her father had even begun to ask her about her day, the nursery and some of the employees he knew. Thomas hadn't talked about the nursery since his wife died. It was a painful subject for him because her mother's whole life had revolved around her family and her business. Julia had loved the nursery.

  Thomas also was an endless well of stories about the town and people who knew Ellis's mother. He told countless tales about Catherine but said very little about her parents. Sydney suspected that Catherine's parents might not have been very loving and that her father was trying to spare Ellis any unnecessary pain. As for Ellis, he appeared to soak up every word her father uttered about the young, beautiful and shy Catherine Carlisle.

  "Are you sure you won't mind, Ellis?" Thomas was relaxing and digesting his dinner over his second cup of coffee. "I told the guys that I could only stay for an hour or two."

  "Stay as long as you like, Thomas." Ellis, who had already finished his second cup of coffee, winked at her. "I can run you into town and then come back here and get some work done."

  Sydney dried the last pot and put it away. Ellis had been winking at her all through dinner. Each and every time he did, she blushed. It was a stupid schoolgirl reaction, one she vowed not to happen again. The vow was shattered the next time he winked. "I can drop you off, Dad." It annoyed her how her father asked Ellis instead of her to drive him into town so he could spend some time at the station with his friends. It was nice of Ellis to instantly agree, but it still bothered her.

  "You have the nursery to run, Syd. I've kept you away from it long enough." Thomas pushed his cup into the center of the table. "Ellis doesn't mind, do you?"

  "Not at all." Ellis turned to her and smiled.

  Her comment was cut off by the ringing of the phone. With a glare toward Ellis she walked over to the wall phone and picked it up. "St. Claire residence."

  A male voice that was deep and pleasant came over the line. "May I speak to Ellis Carlisle, please."

  "Whom shall I say is calling?" Ellis had had only two phone calls while she had been home. Both were from his housekeeper, Rita McCall, and both times Trevor had wanted to speak to his dad. She glanced over at Ellis, who returned her look with one of curiosity.

  "This is Frank Nesbitt from Alpha Laboratories."

  Suddenly, she felt as if the rug were being pulled from under her feet and she rested her gaze on Ellis. Alpha Laboratories was the lab Ellis was using to see if there was a match for Trevor's bone marrow transplant—the lab that would determine if Thomas was Ellis's biological father. The results were in. "One moment, please."

  Something in her look must have tipped Ellis off because he was on his feet before she even spoke. She held the phone toward him as he walked across the room. "It's Alpha Laboratories."

  Ellis took the phone, turned his back and said, "This is Ellis Carlisle." The strain in his usually beautiful voice echoed throughout the room.

  Sydney had noticed how his hands trembled when he reached for the phone but she didn't blame him for turning his back. Ellis needed some measure of privacy. She was surprised that he hadn't taken the call in the other room. If it had been her child's life riding on the results, she would have.

  "Yes, I see." Ellis's voice turned bland now as he spoke to the lab technician.

  This was it. This was what they had been waiting for. She walked over to her father and gently placed her hand upon his shoulder. Thomas's hand was strong and warm as it reached up and covered hers. She stared at Ellis's back and tried to read his body language. She couldn't. His shoulders didn't slump, nor was he punching the air in a show of success.

  "Yes, of course." There was a long pause before Ellis concluded the call with, "Yes, thank you very much for staying late to give me the results." Another pause, and then a simple, "I will."

  She watched as Ellis lowered the phone. As she studied his back, which he kept carefully turned toward them, she realized the results hadn't been what Ellis had been hoping for. She gave her father's shoulder a light squeeze and waited for
Ellis to tell them what the lab technician had said.

  Ellis stood there for a good two minutes with the phone dangling from his hand before he spoke. "There was no match." Ellis stared at the cabinet door in front of him. "You were right, Thomas. You aren't my father. My mother lied on the birth certificate."

  Sydney felt the tears run down her face. Trevor's miracle wasn't going to happen.

  Thomas fumbled across the table, located the napkins and handed her one. "I'm sorry, Ellis. What can we do to help you and your son?"

  She wiped at her tears and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "Yes, Ellis, what can we do? What's your next step?"

  Ellis's head slowly went back and forth and his shoulders finally slumped beneath the disappointment. "There is no next step. This was it. This was my last hope."

  She refused to believe it Ellis couldn't give up now. "There has to be something else we can do."

  Ellis did turn around then. His pain and anguish was clearly etched across his face. "Thomas's part is done. As for you, Sydney, I gave them permission to add your name and blood to the national donor list. Who knows, maybe you'll match someone else." Ellis slowly replaced the phone. "As for me, I'm heading home. It will take me twenty minutes to pack and then I'll be out of here."

  She didn't like the way he looked. His voice was raw, yet his eyes were perfectly dry. Ellis had the look of a man who had been defeated. Her heart was breaking.

  "I…"

  "Let me finish, Syd. I want to thank both of you for your amazing hospitality and generosity under the circumstances."

  "Ellis, I don't think it's a good idea for you to be traveling right now." Thomas pushed his chair back and stood up. "I might be blind, but I can still see certain things. You're in no condition to drive after receiving that news. There's no use rushing home to your son, he will be asleep before you even get there. Why don't you wait until morning before heading home?"

  "You've been kind enough, Thomas. I really don't want to impose any longer."