Harlequin Superromance December 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: Caught Up in YouThe Ranch She Left BehindA Valley Ridge Christmas

by Beth Andrews

  She handed the plate to Harper, started taking off her coat. “Where’s Cassidy?”

  Then she heard the unmistakable sound of her granddaughter’s laugh coming from the playroom. Without waiting for Harper, Joan kicked off her shoes and walked across the living room.

  “Cassidy,” she called, stepping into the room. “Guess what Grandma brought you?”

  Joan stopped in the doorway. Blinked.

  “Hi, Nana,” Cassidy said, smiling from her spot in Eddie Montesano’s arms.

  “Hey, punkin,” Joan said, trying to smile. What were Eddie Montesano and his son doing here? Why was he on the floor holding her granddaughter? Why did Harper look so guilty?

  Harper stepped into the room, still holding the cookies. “Uh, Max and Eddie came over for dinner.”

  “Oh. How...nice.” Joan kept her smile firmly in place even as it felt as if she’d just been kicked in the chest.

  Harper was seeing Eddie.

  How could she betray Beau that way?

  “We were just leaving,” Eddie said. His voice was deep and he was nothing like her blond, blue-eyed boy. Beau had been charming, talkative and full of joy while Eddie was dark and quiet.

  What did Harper see in him?

  “Oh,” Harper said as Eddie got to his feet and Max cleaned up the toys they were playing with. “Okay. Well, thanks for coming.”

  “Thanks for having us,” he said. He touched his son’s shoulder.

  “Thanks for dinner,” Max told Harper, giving her a hug.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “No,” Cassidy said, her little forehead crinkling into a scowl. “You stay,” she told Eddie.

  “Cass,” Harper said, sounding overly cheerful, “Eddie and Max need to go home now. Besides, it’s time for your bath. Want Nana to give it to you?”

  Cass shook her head and grabbed ahold of Eddie’s pant leg. “I want Deddie to give me a bath.”

  Joan went cold all over. “Daddy?”

  “Deddie,” Harper said quickly.

  But all Joan could think was that her son’s child was calling someone else daddy. Cass started screaming, crying that she wanted Deddie, and Eddie picked her up, rubbed her back as Cass laid her head on his shoulder.

  It was like a knife to the heart.

  It should be her son holding Cassidy. Beau should be the one giving her comfort, murmuring to her and calming her down. Beau should be the one playing with her on a snowy, Sunday evening, the one who got to put her to bed, not some stranger.

  Furious, heartbroken, Joan whirled on her heel and stormed through the house toward the front door.

  “Joan,” Harper called, chasing after her. “Joan, please.” She caught up with her by the door, stopped her from leaving by slipping in front of her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you had to find out this way.”

  “Find out what?” Joan snapped. “That you’re sleeping with that man. That you don’t even have the decency, the respect to tell me you’re involved with another man less than a year after you buried your husband?”

  Harper flinched and Joan felt triumphant, gratified that she’d been able to cause someone else’s pain when pain was all she felt anymore. “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Harper said, holding out a hand beseechingly. “I wasn’t looking for any type of relationship but Eddie and I got to know each other and...”

  “And you’re having sex with him. Fine. But why let him around Cassidy? It’s too confusing for her to have another man in her life so soon after losing her father.”

  “She’s two,” Harper said gently. “She doesn’t remember Beau.”

  “Only because you’ve already moved on.” She couldn’t believe this. Out of all the people in the world, she’d thought she could trust Harper to understand, to respect Beau’s memory as she did. Instead, she’d turned her back on them both. “She needs to know how much her father loved her, how nobody can ever replace him.”

  “She will know that. I promise.”

  “Your promises don’t mean much to me,” Joan said, pushing Harper aside and opening the door. “Not anymore. I never would have thought you were the type of woman who’d betray my son the way you did, who wouldn’t have the common decency, the courtesy to let a proper amount of time pass before you blithely went on with your life.”

  “Is that what you think? You think it’s been easy for me? I’ve suffered with guilt and doubts every day. Do you think I wanted this? I didn’t go searching for Eddie, I didn’t go out trying to find a man to take care of me. I wasn’t looking to have feelings for another man.”

  “Feelings for him? Well, why not? My son’s been dead almost a year. Time to move on, right? I can’t believe I was so wrong about you. I didn’t know the real you at all.”

  “That makes two of us,” Harper whispered, then she quietly shut the door in her mother-in-law’s face. Leaving Joan out in the cold. Alone.

  * * *

  WELL, HARPER THOUGHT the next morning, that had been a rotten night.

  She walked into her dark classroom, flipped on the lights. She’d come to school early to get caught up on some work but she had only a few hours before her students started arriving. She’d had a restless, sleepless night and it was catching up to her.

  Eddie had apologized but Harper knew that she was the reason Joan was upset with her. It was her own fault for not letting her mother-in-law know she and Eddie were seeing each other.

  She hadn’t wanted to upset Joan. Guess that hadn’t worked out quite so well.

  Harper walked to the break room and went through the motions of making a pot of coffee. After Eddie and Max had left last night, she’d given a very cranky and miserable Cass a bath. The only person her daughter wanted, it seemed, was Eddie.

  It hadn’t bothered Harper before; she’d actually found it endearing how good Eddie was with her baby, how much Cass adored Eddie and Max, but now, with Joan’s words echoing in her head, she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been wrong to encourage a relationship between them. Not only was she Max’s teacher, but she had no idea where her relationship with Eddie was going—if it was going anywhere.

  Things were confusing, getting more and more complicated and now she could add upsetting her mother-in-law to the mix.

  The coffee done, Harper filled her large mug three-quarters full, added a hefty dose of cream and walked down the quiet, empty hallway to her room, crossing to her desk. It had taken longer than usual to get Cass settled down and into bed. She’d been upset about Eddie leaving and had no trouble showing it in the form of a tantrum the likes of which made Harper want to rip her own ears off to save herself the pain of listening to her daughter’s angry screams.

  Cass had finally calmed down enough to let Harper read to her in the rocking chair. By the time they’d gotten a few pages into the book, Cass had been asleep. Harper had sat there holding her baby, thinking about Beau and Eddie, how different they were.

  How could she love them both?

  Yes, she thought, dropping her head into her hands. She was in love with Eddie Montesano. How could she be? She’d loved her husband, still did, and now, after barely a year of him being gone, she’d given her heart to another man. No wonder Joan was furious. But Harper couldn’t help how she felt. She could, however, control what she did about those feelings.

  She was keeping them to herself.

  Eddie wasn’t exactly a big proponent of marriage. At least not for himself. He took great pride in taking care of Max on his own, in not needing anyone. He cared about her and Cassidy, of that Harper had no doubt. But she didn’t know if he’d be willing to trust Harper with his heart.

  And she wouldn’t settle for anything less than the type of commitment she’d had with Beau.

  She tipped her head back and blew out a heavy breath. No sense worr
ying about it now. Not when she had so many other things to worry about such as mending the rift with her mother-in-law, figuring out a way to tell Sam McNamara that she was involved with the parent of one of her students. Oh, yes, and getting these damn papers graded.

  Sipping her coffee, she opened her bag, took out the thick pile of papers. She’d left school Friday halfway through grading the rest of the tests so she still had marking to do, plus she needed to work on her lesson plan for the week. She’d meant to work on them at home over the weekend but she’d been too wrapped up in celebrating Max’s good grade, and in her feelings for Eddie and their first time together to get anything done. She laid the papers on her desk, smiled at Max’s which sat on top. She’d gotten a few others done before that so she set those aside, took another sip of coffee and picked up the next paper on the pile.

  Red pencil in one hand, she scanned the answers to the test, comparing them to her answer key. Paper after paper she marked, checking off a wrong answer, writing notes in the margin, letting students know they’d done a good job and to keep up the excellent work, adding smiley faces where appropriate.

  She picked up the next paper. Checked a wrong answer. Then another. Frowned as she reached the bottom and realized that something seemed amiss. That the paper she’d just graded seemed very familiar.

  Too familiar.

  Her heart sinking, she quickly leafed through the graded papers. Please, please, let me be wrong. Please.

  Finding the one she’d been searching for she laid it next to the one she’d just graded. They were the same. Same right answers. Same wrong answers. Even the misspelled words were spelled exactly the same.

  They’d cheated, obviously. One of them had copied off the other. She’d bet her life on it.

  She wanted to bang her head against her desk, wanted to pound her fists against the wall. She wanted to lay her head down and cry.

  Oh, Max. What did you do?

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  EDDIE STOOD IN the school’s main office trying not to fidget. He’d been sent to the principal’s office plenty of times during his student days, had been called down there for Max as well last year when Max was fighting in the playground. But he had no idea why he’d been called in today. The lady who ran the school’s office had called him at work and told him there was a problem with Max and Eddie needed to come in right away.

  A pair of cherubic girls entered the office and almost barreled into him. He shifted, giving them space, stared at the clock on the wall.

  “Mr. Montesano?” Mr. McNamara, the principal, said as he let another couple and a little boy out of his office. “Please come in.”

  Eddie nodded at the couple. Their son, one of Max’s classmates—Joshua or Jacob—was crying.

  This couldn’t be good.

  Why hadn’t Harper called him herself? Why did they have to meet here instead of the classroom?

  Eddie stepped into the office, saw Max sitting with his head down, Harper talking to him quietly. “Is there a problem?”

  At the sound of Eddie’s voice, Max’s shoulders hunched even more if that was possible.

  “Thank you for coming in,” Mr. McNamara said. “Please have a seat.”

  Eddie sat on Max’s other side, looked at Harper but he couldn’t read much in her expression.

  The principal sat behind his desk. “Mr. Montesano, it has come to our attention that Max cheated on a test.”

  Eddie’s head whipped around to Max. “What?”

  Mr. McNamara slid two papers forward, one Max’s test, which he’d done so well on, the other with the name Joshua written on the top. “As you can see, the answers are identical on both papers. We just spoke with the Chalkes and Josh admitted that Max asked if he could copy his paper during the test and Josh agreed.”

  Eddie stared at his son. “Max. Is this true?”

  Max shrugged.

  Eddie leaned forward to look at Harper. “Did you know about this?”

  “I just discovered it this morning.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “It’s school policy,” Mr. McNamara interrupted, “for teachers to inform me of any cheating or violent behavior. Mrs. Kavanagh thought it was in everyone’s best interest, considering your personal relationship with her, if I were involved.”

  Eddie narrowed his eyes. When the hell had their private relationship become public? And why didn’t Harper handle this on her own in the classroom, instead of involving her superior? Not that Eddie thought Max shouldn’t be punished, but certain things needed to stay within the family.

  But that was it, wasn’t it? He and Harper weren’t family. He wasn’t sure what they were and he couldn’t worry about it now.

  “Max, look at me,” he said and waited until his son met his eyes. The guilt and regret there about did Eddie in. “Why did you copy that boy’s answers?”

  Another shrug.

  He wanted to shake an answer out of his son but knew nothing would get Max to talk when he didn’t want to.

  Mr. McNamara looked at Max. “Max, you will stay inside with me during recess for one week. Now, could you please wait outside with Miss Brown while I talk with your father?”

  Without raising his head, Max walked out, shut the door quietly behind him.

  Eddie nodded, put his hands on his knees. “Thank you for letting me know,” he said. “I can guarantee that Max will be punished at home for this, as well.”

  “I’m glad you understand how serious this is.”

  Eddie bit his tongue as he didn’t quite agree with his assessment. It was wrong of Max to cheat, to copy answers, but it’s not like he broke a law.

  The principal rose and crossed to the front of the desk to lean against it. “Mrs. Kavanagh has informed me that she suspects Max cheated to overcome or hide the problems he’s been having with his schoolwork.”

  Eddie sent Harper a narrow look. “He’s been doing better. Harper...Mrs. Kavanagh...has been tutoring him.”

  “I’m aware of that but unfortunately he’s not making the progress any of us had hoped he’d be making at this time. In my opinion, it would be in Max’s best interest to put him in remedial classes—”

  “No,” Eddie said, standing.

  “Surely you can see that this is what’s best for Max and his future. His self-esteem will suffer if he continues to struggle. We want all our children to succeed on their own terms and in their own ways.”

  “Max will succeed. He’ll be fine. I’ll hire a tutor to help him.”

  Harper sighed as she stood. “I’m still willing to tutor him—”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said stiffly.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Are you serious?”

  In answer, he walked out. “Come on,” he told Max, who was sitting on a chair next to the wall, “we’re leaving.” He gripped his son’s hand and tugged him out of the room.

  Harper caught up with them in the hallway. “Oh, no,” she said, her quiet tone not softening the edge to her voice, “you don’t get to walk away from this, Eddie. We need to discuss this.”

  He kept walking. “There’s nothing to discuss.”

  She followed him, the wind lifting her hair, snow dotting her shoulders. “We need to hash this out.”

  He didn’t want to hash anything out. “I’ll hire a tutor since it’s obvious our personal relationship is causing problems for your career.” At his truck, he unlocked the door and urged Max to get in. Eddie started it and turned on the heater then faced Harper. “You should have just told me when you found out he’d cheated,” he said, trying not to soften at how pretty she looked with snow melting on her hair, her cheeks pink. “Did you really have to get your supervisors involved?”

  “Of course I did! How would it look if I hadn’t? I have
a job here, Eddie. A career I love and a reputation I take great pride in. We’re all trying to help Max but you’re too stubborn and full of pride to realize it.”

  When he remained silent, she sent him a disappointed look as if he was the one in the wrong. As if he didn’t want to help his own son. As if he was messing everything up.

  Then she walked away.

  Leaving Eddie to wonder, to worry that she might be right.

  * * *

  EDDIE ANSWERED THE DOOR ready to lay into whoever was knocking at ten o’clock at night only to blink in surprise. “Lena. What are you doing here?”

  He told himself he was disappointed only because it was never good to find his ex-wife standing on his porch, especially this late on a weeknight. He wasn’t disappointed that it wasn’t Harper standing there. He didn’t want to talk to her, didn’t want to see her. Not yet. Not until he’d thought things through a little bit.

  “Where’s Max?” Lena asked, pushing past Eddie as she stepped inside, her clothes wrinkled, her face pale. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s sleeping.” What time did she think little boys went to sleep on school nights? “What are you even doing in town?”

  Now she frowned, played with the strap of her purse. “Max called me. He said he needed me.”

  It was like a knife to the gut, the pain sharp and unexpected. “He called you?” Eddie patted his pockets, felt the familiar shape of his wallet but no phone. Damn it, he needed to keep that thing under lock and key. “So instead of phoning me to ask what was going on, you flew across three states and showed up here unexpected?”

  Unwanted.

  “I wanted to be here for him.” Her chin lifted despite the flush staining her cheeks. “To prove I’ll be here when he needs me. And I knew if I called you, you’d brush whatever happened aside. You’d brush me and my concerns aside like you always do.”

  “You left.” Eddie kept his voice low and controlled so as not to wake Max but the effort cost him, had his throat raw. “No one pushed you out that door.”