Just sex. That’s all she wanted from the man. It was time to find out what all the fuss was about.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MOLLY COULDN’T BELIEVE her luck. She’d driven by the park on Friday afternoon, only to find Sierra being pushed in the bucket swing by a woman who was probably the babysitter. Dylan nowhere to be found. It was the middle of the day on a weekday, so it made sense that the park was filled with nothing but mothers and their young children. In other words, Molly had hit the jackpot.
If she could hold her baby, the world would right itself again and stop shifting off its axis. She’d smell Sierra’s soft baby powder smell, and Molly’s heart would resume its natural rhythm. These hit-or-miss park days weren’t going to be enough. Now Dylan would be looking for her, which would make it harder to watch her baby. Yes and, by the way, her baby because that’s exactly what Sierra was. Hers. And she didn’t remember signing any papers giving her up, either, even though Dylan was probably wishing she had right about now.
She didn’t even have to hide today, but she still pulled the baseball cap on and tucked her hair inside. She sat on the bench for a few minutes, making sure this woman knew what she was doing. Dylan shouldn’t just let anybody watch their baby. But she had to admit the woman was attentive to Sierra.
Emily said that Molly should talk to Dylan. Explain. Pour out all the feels. Except that had always been so hard for her to do. Emily was right, of course, that eventually Molly would have to face Dylan and explain why she’d left. But first she had to figure it out for herself.
For now, this was just easier.
“She’s really cute,” Molly said as she walked over to them. Sierra was now playing in the sandbox with a bucket and shovel. Other mothers seemed to be talking to each other, so it seemed only natural that she would engage in conversation, too.
“She’s a sweetheart.” The woman had long straight brown hair tied in a tight ponytail and didn’t seem like Dylan’s type. Maybe she really was the babysitter.
“Is she your only child?” Molly wanted to test the waters and make sure this woman, whoever she was, wasn’t going to lay claim to Sierra.
“No, she’s not mine. I’m helping my next-door neighbor out today. My kids are already in school all day.”
“I’m Molly.” She only occasionally glanced in Sierra’s direction to avoid seeming like some creepy stalker-type.
“Sandy,” the woman said with a smile. “And this is Sierra.” She patted her tuft of red curls and Sierra smiled at her.
Molly felt a wave of love kick her in the chest with such power that she had to sit for a minute. She crouched down next to Sierra. “A beautiful baby.”
“Where are your kids?” Sandy asked.
Of course she would want to know that. How many women randomly dropped by the park to check out the babies? Freaky types who were looking to steal a baby, that’s who. Molly gave Sandy points for asking, but she managed to come up with a plausible lie. “My boys are right over there, playing with their friends.”
Sandy looked in the direction of a gaggle of boys playing on the slide nearby and smiled. “Boys. Same here. I have three. Never had myself a little girl and we’re done now. That’s why it’s so much fun to watch her.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“How about you?” Sandy asked, while she handed Sierra another shovel. Sierra took it and put it in her mouth.
Molly sucked a breath in and resisted taking the shovel away. “What about me?”
“I mean, are you going to try for a little girl someday?” Sandy asked, taking the shovel out of Sierra’s mouth.
I already have one. “No. Not me. I’m divorcing my husband,” Molly lied.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. He’s a real jerk.” Molly wanted to use another more accurate word, but there were children nearby.
“A lot of that going around. My neighbor, Sierra’s daddy, is about to start divorce proceedings, too.”
“He is?” That rat. He’s trying to blindside me.
“He’ll get full custody of Sierra. Isn’t that right, sweetie?” Sandy cooed to Sierra, who squealed.
“No!” Sierra said.
“Isn’t it funny how everything is no at this age?” Sandy laughed.
Molly felt her insides churn. What she had to do was run home and tell Daddy or maybe call a lawyer, but she couldn’t seem to move away from Sierra. There was a good chance she might be able to hold her for a few minutes.
Suddenly, from behind them by the slides, an honest to goodness shriek of pain caused every mother in the park to look in its direction. Even Molly. A little boy came tearing toward them.
“Is he yours?” Sandy looked at Molly.
“No,” Molly said with her heart in her throat. Pretty soon everyone would figure out all of these boys were accounted for and not one of them was hers. Then good luck getting this babysitter to ever trust her again.
The boy ran past them, holding his hand. All his friends ran with him toward a woman whose face had turned many different shades of terrified. The mother.
“I’m a nurse. I better go see if I can help. Would you keep an eye on Sierra for a minute?” Sandy walked a few feet away to help the mother and son.
Molly gazed at Sierra, who had not missed any of this commotion. Her face, in fact, reflected everything Molly felt inside: stiff puckered out bottom lip, quivering chin, tears welling in her eyes. It seemed only natural to pick her up and give her some comfort.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” Molly said, as much to Sierra as to herself. Just as she’d thought it might, her breaths came easier, and her heart felt too large in her chest. She smelled her little baby hair smell. Johnson’s baby shampoo. Molly used to wash Sierra’s hair with the same shampoo and now wondered if she still hated getting her hair wet.
Sierra continued to sniffle and look in the direction of the mayhem and the crying. She pointed in the direction of the little boy and said, “Owie.”
Then she looked at Molly like she was some kind of shiny bright thing she’d never seen before. She reached up and tugged on her baseball cap. “This hat,” she said.
“That’s right. This is my hat,” Molly said. “You’re a smart girl, aren’t you?”
“Yay,” Sierra said and clapped her hands together. “Yay, baby.”
Molly closed her eyes and hugged Sierra tight. “My baby. I’m your mommy,” she whispered.
Sandy walked back toward them. Apparently the commotion had died down, not that Molly had noticed until now.
“Bee sting,” Sandy said. “Luckily I carry a first-aid kit in my bag.”
From the way that kid was wailing, she would have guessed he’d lost an arm. “Is he all right?”
“He’ll be fine. I see that somebody likes you,” Sandy smiled. “Isn’t she the friendliest baby you’ve ever met?”
“She is.” Molly smiled and held her tight one last time before handing her baby over.
“It was nice meeting you,” Sandy said. “Maybe I’ll see you and your boys again sometime. I’ve got to get Sierra back for a nap. Dylan keeps her to a pretty tight schedule.”
“I’ll bet he does,” Molly said. A schedule I’m about to blow up into a thousand little shiny pieces.
* * *
STONE HADN’T BEEN ABLE to push off the meeting any longer. He stared at the almost-stranger across the wide oak conference table in his attorney’s office. A stranger who looked like him. No doubt, at least physically speaking, they’d both come from the same gene pool. Sarah had the same blue eyes. Her hair was dark like his, and she wore it in a bun that made her look like a librarian.
He hadn’t seen Sarah in years and thought the attorney’s office was possibly not the best place for a family reunion.
Stone’s
lawyer was the first to speak. “We thought this meeting might be a good idea.” He had an annoying click in the back of his throat that punctuated the end of his sentences.
Stone didn’t speak. Good idea or not, he resented the hell out of being here. Matt was right in that they should be able to do this without lawyers. But Sarah had hired one, which forced him to hire Mark. A man he’d love to fire right about now.
“Thank you for arranging this,” Sarah said. “I haven’t been able to have an adult conversation with my brother.”
Conversation? Weren’t the lawyers going to fix this? Weren’t they on the clock? What good were they, anyway? Right now he didn’t want to talk to anyone, but Sarah least of all.
“I suggest we give you two a few minutes alone, to talk things out. No lawyers. After all, sometimes we get in the way.” Sarah’s lawyer had long red fingernails she liked to tap on the glass table. Between her taps and Mark’s clicks, it would be a small miracle if Stone could sit still for longer than five minutes.
“Don’t worry, we’re off the clock.” Click, click. Mark stood.
Within a few minutes, Stone was sitting alone in a glass-walled conference room with his sister. The stranger who looked like him.
She turned to him. “I’ll talk, since you don’t seem to be fond of words.”
Nice. He’d give her that. She got the first shot in. “Go ahead.”
“By the way, our mother’s doing fine.”
“We email regularly.” There were even a few phone calls here and there, not that he’d been a big talker. Point being, he hadn’t felt abandoned by his mother, and he couldn’t understand why Sarah had felt abandoned by Dad.
“She tells me. But I don’t know anything about your life for the last few years, except that you’re former air force.”
“What else is there?”
She pushed her glasses back up on her nose. “I want to know why this school is so important. Why you won’t just take the better offer. I’m guessing you’re not exactly a high roller.”
“Simple. Money isn’t everything to me. Carrying out his wishes is all that matters.”
“So interesting that those wishes weren’t in the will.”
She had to point that out. “It doesn’t matter. I know what he wanted. He wanted for his employees to be able to keep their jobs. The buyer I have lined up wants to keep the school open, and he can do it. Why do you have a problem with that?”
She hesitated for a minute. “I think what he would really want is for both of us to do the best we can. And that means going with the better offer.”
“The better offer means that someone is going to close the airport. That means a lot of people will lose their jobs. There’s no other regional airport like this for miles. And the last thing this area needs is another strip mall.” He hoped he looked as disgusted as he felt.
“What do you care? It’s not like you’re going to settle down and live here. I wouldn’t even know that if Matt hadn’t told me. You’re going to take off as soon as this is all resolved. Aren’t you?”
“It doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to the people in this town. At this airport. They were Dad’s friends, coworkers.”
“Those people can find other jobs.”
Yeah. He didn’t like Sarah. In fact, he could fill the room with all the reasons he didn’t much like her. “Is that all you care about? The money? Do you even know or care what mattered to him?”
“Maybe I would if he’d taken the time to get to know me. But he abandoned me and my mother.”
Yeah, he couldn’t sit here and listen to this crap. “Shut up, Sarah. That’s a bold-faced lie. You obviously don’t remember him.”
“Exactly. And that’s the problem. Why don’t I?”
“Your choice.” But for one minute, a sense of understanding passed over him. Until he’d joined the service, he’d always been a loner. Sure, there had been times he’d envied the larger families on the block—the mother who managed to be home every day after school, the kids who had enough family members to play a game of touch football at a moment’s notice. But he’d found his extended family with his comrades in arms. Maybe Sarah had never found that.
“It isn’t that he didn’t want to be in your life. He always tried to do the right thing. The honorable thing. This must have seemed like it at the time.”
Their parents hadn’t managed to make marriage work any more than fifty percent of the population could. Most of his AF buddies came home to broken relationships and kids that didn’t know who they were. Marriage was one big crapshoot and not worth the risk.
In a way, Stone already had the only family he’d ever need.
“I’m not surprised you would defend him,” Sarah said with contempt in her voice.
Stone spoke between clenched teeth. “You were the one who stopped coming to see him after that last summer.”
“You mean the summer when no one wanted me?”
“Not true. You spent half your visit in the bathroom!”
“Dad barely talked to me after I told him I didn’t want to go fishing. Just stared at me like I was some kind of alien creature he’d never seen before.”
Or in other words, a teenage girl with attitude. And a nose ring, if he recalled. Did she really expect their father to know how to treat her? He’d had zero experience with teenage daughters and Sarah had gone from cute girl to hormonal teenager in one short year.
This wasn’t going to work. Not like he hadn’t seen it coming. Time to bail.
She pointed at her chest. “I’m his flesh and blood. He wasn’t there for me.”
“Look, Sarah, I get that you have daddy issues. Believe me. But this has nothing to do with me.”
“It has everything to do with you. You could have called us. Why wouldn’t you tell us he was dying? You think his ex-wife and daughter might have liked to know? Wasn’t it any of our business?” She stood, hand on her hips.
He stood up and joined her. “I followed his wishes.”
“But you didn’t have to listen to him. You should have picked up the phone and looked us up. Told us he was dying. Did you ever think maybe our mother wanted to say a final goodbye to the man she once loved? That maybe I wanted to say goodbye to my father?”
And there it went again. The now-familiar tightness in his chest.
“Look, you can take it out on me. That’s fine. Just don’t blame it on him. You’re right, I could have called you. But I didn’t.” He made his way to the door. “All I’m asking is for you to let me sell the flight school to the buyer who won’t change everything about it. It’s what Dad wanted, if that matters to you.”
“I don’t know if I can do that. It’s not fair. This whole thing is just not—fair.”
“Fair is the weather.”
He left her standing in the conference room. In a perfect world, they might have grown up together straight into adulthood and had deeper and lasting family ties. A bond or connection that went beyond mere biology. But it wasn’t there anymore, and seemed it never could be now.
“Wait. Mr. Mcallister,” Sarah’s lawyer called out.
He chose not to listen but kept walking out the double-glass doors and outside into the bright California sun. It wasn’t until he reached his truck that he allowed himself to take a good solid breath of air.
Shit.
He’d lost his temper again and the meeting had accomplished exactly what he’d expected. They’d made negative-point-five progress. Sarah possessed the gift of making him feel like an asshole when he was trying to be a good guy.
Or in other words, she managed to see right through him.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t picked up the phone half a dozen times and thought about contacting Sarah or his mother. Sure, Dad had asked him not to do it, but maybe he wasn’
t in the best condition to make those choices. Maybe he should have vetoed his wishes and done the right thing. But in the end, Stone had settled into the familiarity of following orders up the chain of command. He’d been asked, not ordered, but the wishes were clear. It wasn’t up to him to decide if they made sense or if anyone would regret them. Tough decisions were made dozens of times a day, and the one thing he realized was he’d never make everyone happy.
So why was he allowing the guilt to eat him alive?
Sarah would continue to fight him and if she did for much longer, he wouldn’t blame his buyer for backing out. What would happen to the airport then and all the small businesses that depended on it?
Yeah, he cared. He wasn’t sure when that happened. Stone slid the key in his ignition and got the hell out of the office suite’s parking lot. He needed to blow off some steam.
Today was a clear day, the kind of day Dad would have loved to fly. He used to say aviation wasn’t so much a profession as it was a disease. Stone hadn’t always understood what Dad meant, but he did now. He wasn’t at all sure he could go a day without flying. These days it didn’t seem to matter so much that it wasn’t a jet.
But now he wondered what Dad would think about Sarah wanting to go with the highest bidder. Hell, maybe wherever he was right now he didn’t give a shit. Might even say “do what you think is best.” But Jedd had a baby on the way, and he needed the job. Stone also couldn’t accept an entire airport being gone. The Air Museum, gone. The Shortstop Snack Shack gone. All because land in these parts had reached the kind of high value some people only dreamed about.
But dammit, money wasn’t everything.
He walked through the airport hangar, toward the back and his office. He caught sight of Jedd over by the Snack Shack getting coffee and waved. No Cassie, though. Probably on her two-hour lunch break. Would be nice if every now and again she’d help him save her job.
Stone opened the door to his office to find Emily sitting behind his desk. She swiveled then got up rather suddenly, like she’d been caught in the act of pretending to be the boss. When she rose, he got a better view of what she wore, and what a view it was—a short red clingy dress which showed a lot of curvy leg. His favorite kind of dress. The type that made him grateful for his twenty-twenty vision, even if he preferred X-ray vision at the moment.
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