Sweet Entanglement

by Jean C. Gordon

  Jesse punched his dad’s number before he headed back down the road of regrets he’d finally been able to steer away from.

  “Hi, son,” his father answered.

  “Hey, Dad, how’s it going?”

  “All right, better if I had more to do.”

  His lungs burned at the resignation in his father’s voice. Dad had put in long hours at the shop, and Mom had been Dad’s best friend. Like Lauren had once been his. Any free time Dad had had, he’d spent cruising the coast on his bike with Mom. “I have a remedy for that. I could use your help here.”

  Jesse stood and paced in front of the bench as he told his dad about running into Lauren here, although not the circumstances other than her working at the law firm handing Uncle Jim’s estate, and about the mansion, his agreement with Sonja to renovate it, and his plans for opening a bike shop. He saved Shelley for last.

  “I have a granddaughter? Shelley.” Dad’s voice was thick with wonder. “So that’s what the woman had for you.”

  Jesse’s own throat constructed. “Yeah. Shelley looks just like those pictures Mom had of herself and Grandma and Grandpa when she was small. But what do you mean, the woman had for me?

  “I got a phone call forwarded from the old house number from a woman who said you’d left something at her place that she wanted to return.”

  That was one way to put it.

  “I said she could send it to you care of the Indigo Bay Post Office. Thought that was safe enough. When do I get to meet little Shelley?” his father asked.

  “About that. I have a huge favor to ask. I need someone to help take care of Shelley while I’m working.”

  “You want me to come?”

  Jesse held his breath.

  “Give me a few days to get my stuff here in storage and sublease the condo. The association has a waiting list of people who want places here. Then, I’ll need a week to drive there.”

  “By yourself?”

  “You did,” his father shot back. “Your old man isn’t that old.”

  True, Dad was only in his early fifties, He’d just seemed to grow so much older with Mom’s illness and death.

  “I’ll let you know when I have everything together to leave.”

  Jesse couldn’t remember the last time his father had been this enthused—at all enthused—about anything. “Thanks, Dad. I really appreciate this.”

  “A little Shelley. Huh. Looks like your mom,” his father mused. “I’ll call you in a few days.”

  Jesse’s phone flashed call ended. He whistled as he walked to his truck. He might not have as much difficulty getting Dad to come in on the bike shop here as he’d thought. Assuming he wanted to stay here after the mansion renovations were done. He put the truck in gear. Oddly, something about Indigo Bay—something other than Lauren being here—made it feel like home, even though he’d only been in town a couple days. And, he wouldn’t lie to himself. The challenge of making Lauren change her mind about him hanging around had a certain attraction. Not that he was looking to revive their former relationship. But they could be friends.

  Two cars were already in the driveway of Sonja’s duplex when he pulled up. Hers, from the magnet sign for Kostner Real Estate on the passenger door, and Lauren’s. His heart rate ticked up. Maybe Sonja’s offer wasn’t as great an idea as he’d thought. If Lauren didn’t want to have anything to do with him, as her recommendation he have Ray or Gerry handle Crystal’s estate indicated, living right next door, seeing her all the time could be uncomfortable. Jesse rubbed the back of his neck. He’d better start the renovations on the cottage, to give him and Dad and Shelley somewhere to live. He took his time parking the pickup and bike trailer in front of the house and getting out.

  His life had been so simple three days ago when he’d breezed into town, inheritance in mind, ready to make a new start for himself in what had appeared from his research and first impression to be an idyllic resort town. What more could a guy want? Beautiful beaches, warm weather, traffic-free stretches of winding roads for riding, no connections, no commitments. That was before he’d run into Lauren. Before her mother had become his new best friend and business partner. Before Shelley had been dropped on him.

  Ignoring the twinge in his bad ankle, he bounded up the front steps to Sonja’s side of the house. He hadn’t felt this alive since before his accident. The day before his accident when he’d bought a surprise engagement ring for Lauren. A ring he still had. Now it might be an investment in a different future. He could sell it to pay for DNA testing if he needed to.

  “Hush, Xena,” Lauren said giving the large black dog fidgeting beside her a pat on the head. She opened her front door a crack so Xena couldn’t get out and glanced toward the other side of the house. Then, reassuring Xena that she would return, Lauren slipped out and into her car. At the end of the driveway, she took a moment to admire the brilliant orange and red sun over the beach to the east. Jesse’s truck was gone. But the bike trailer was still on the street where he’d parked it last night. She’d heard him pull up and had peeked out her window. He must be at the beach doing his community service. What had she expected? To wake up and have it all be a bad dream?

  She couldn’t help but wonder if Jesse might not be waking up to the same thought. The walls of the duplex weren’t very thick, and she’d woken several times during the night to Shelley crying out and Xena whimpering and nudging her with her nose to do something. The low murmur of Jesse consoling the little girl had followed. Lauren’s heart went out to them both. All the more reason to maintain her distance from father and daughter, which wasn’t going to be easy with them right next door.

  She swung by Sweet Caroline’s for a cinnamon roll and coffee for her breakfast and bought a half dozen rolls to take into the office for Brittany and the guys and any clients scheduled for today. Not that she had any coming in. She sighed. She could always have the leftovers for lunch. The waistband of her skirt seemed to tighten at the thought. Not the best idea, like many of her recent ideas. At the office, Lauren juggled her briefcase, coffee, and the rolls so she could unlock the front door. The key wouldn’t turn.

  “Good morning.”

  Lauren dropped the bag of cinnamon rolls at Brittany’s unexpected greeting.

  “Having trouble with your new key?” Brittany asked.

  New key? What new key? “Yeah,” she fudged.

  “Let me see if mine works.”

  Lauren stepped aside and Brittany unlocked the door.

  “There we go,” Brittany said.

  Lauren searched her co-worker’s face for any sign that she knew Lauren didn’t have a key to the new lock their bosses must have had installed without her knowledge. She didn’t see any. Of course, she didn’t see any, she chided herself. Brittany wasn’t conspiring against her. Ray and Gerry weren’t conspiring against her. Jesse hadn’t appeared in Indigo Bay planning to set up a partnership with her mother. He hadn’t come looking for Lauren, as much as an ever-growing kernel inside her might wish that. Him, her, here. It was all coincidence. She followed Brittany inside.

  Brittany dropped her bag on her desk. “Are those cinnamon rolls to share, or do you have an early morning meeting?”

  “Totally to share.” Lauren placed the bag on the front desk and opened it for Brittany, releasing a warm cinnamon scent.

  Brittany pulled out one of the gooey confections. “Mmmm.” She looked up. “I think we have some more takers.

  Lauren followed Brittany’s gaze to the door, which Jesse was opening to let Shelley toddle in ahead of him.

  “I assume he’s here to meet with you, although I wouldn’t mind being closed in an office alone with him.” Brittany’s gaze dropped to Shelley. “Fill me in after your meeting.”

  “The records are all on the network,” Lauren said with an animosity that had come out of nowhere.” She pasted a smile on her face. Not out of nowhere. Out of jealousy. She’d deal with that later.

  “Good morning, ladies.” Jesse’s cheery smi
le looked as fake as hers and contrasted with the circles under his eyes. “Do you have a few minutes, Lauren?”

  “I do, come into my office,” she said all business.

  “I’ll watch your daughter,” Brittany said, her voice rising in question, nodding at Shelley who stood with one arm around Jesse’s leg and a thumb firmly in her mouth.

  “No,” Lauren and Jesse said in unison.

  How did Brittany know Shelley was his daughter? Lauren relaxed her tensed muscles. She didn’t. She just assumed as any normal person might.

  He picked up Shelley, who kept her thumb planted where it was. “She’s been through a lot, meeting a lot of strangers the past few days.”

  “I understand,” Brittany said. “Moving here and all. Don’t forget your rolls.” She handed Lauren the bag as she started to lead Jesse to her office.

  “From Caroline’s?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Lauren took the bag.

  “Your mother made us eggs this morning, but I’m sure we could down a cinnamon roll or two.”

  They must have all been up at the crack of dawn for them to have eaten a cooked breakfast before he’d left for his community service job. He would have never had time afterwards and gotten here so close on her heels. Lauren scanned Jesse’s tired face. Or earlier.

  “Could we sit on the couch?” Jesse asked as she led them into her office and headed toward her desk.

  “If you’d be more comfortable.” She’d be more comfortable with her desk between them, preventing any chance of Jesse or Shelley touching her and chipping at her attorney-client wall that her pesky emotions kept trying to break through from the other side.

  Jesse dropped onto the couch with Shelley on his lap. Lauren sat at the other end, positioning herself knees toward Jesse so she could face him. The Sweet Caroline’s bag between them. She swallowed a sip of her coffee. “Help yourself.”

  “This could get messy.” He nodded at Shelley.

  “The couch only looks like leather.” Whereas Ray and Gerry’s furniture was leather. “It can be wiped off. So what can I do for you this morning?”

  What she recognized as mischief flashed in his eyes, and her cheeks warmed at the possibilities her general question opened.

  “Donut, Jesse-Daddy.” Shelley interrupted before he could answer. She reached in the bag.

  “Better than donuts.” Jesse helped his daughter lift out a roll and wrapped a napkin from the bag around it. He took one for himself and offered Lauren one.

  Her stomach grumbled.

  “I’ll take that for a yes.” He passed her the bag.

  Lauren focused her complete attention on the cinnamon rolls while her reheated cheeks cooled. She’d long ago mastered the propensity to blush that went with her fair skin and blond hair. Except where Jesse was concerned.

  “Aside from whatever made you blush the first time …”

  She crumpled the bag closed and placed it on the table in front of the couch.

  “I called yesterday and got an appointment at the DNA testing center in Charleston this morning. You said something about a form that has to be filed.”

  “You got an appointment that quickly?”

  He scuffed his boot against the rug. “You know it’s not my style, but the woman scheduling the appointment recognized my name. She was a fan. I kind of played the motocross champion card. She squeezed me in.” He buried his face in his daughter’s hair. “Speed is important here. More important than in any race. I have to secure Shelley’s place with me.”

  Jesse’s words kicked a hole in her already shaky wall. “I heard you up with her last night. Through the wall of my room. Reassuring her.”

  “Sorry. For all the good I did. She kept waking up anyway.”

  Lauren touched the arm he had around Shelley. “She’s been through so much. You got her back to sleep. She wasn’t up crying continuously. I can vouch for your consoling skills.”

  Their gazes locked. Why had she said that?

  “When people let me,” he said, reminding her of how he’d tried when her father had left, and she’d pushed him away.

  Like he’d pushed her away after his accident. Lauren cemented a few bricks back into her wall. “Back to your reason for stopping in. The form is for me to file for you once you have your results. You don’t need it today. All you need to do is authorize the results to come to Acer and Acer, or give me a copy when you have them.”

  “We can get going, then.” Jesse stood, breaking the remnant of the emotional connection she’d already nicked.

  “Wait. Is Mom watching Shelley for you while you go to your appointment?” She wasn’t ready to let him leave, and it was a reasonable question, although not directly related to their attorney-client relationship.

  “No, she’s gone into work. She has showings this morning. She offered to reschedule them, but I couldn’t ask her to do that.”

  “Gamma’s gone. Mommy’s gone. Aunt Tara’s gone.”

  With a look of sadness no child that small should feel, Shelley gripped Jesse so fiercely it squeezed Lauren’s heart. “Gramma will be back after work.” Had she really just referred to her mother as Shelley’s grandmother. Professionally, she knew better. It had just slipped out.

  “Gamma work?” Shelley gazed up at Jesse.

  “Yes, we’ll see Gramma later.”

  She should discourage Jesse and her mother from the grandmother thing. Shelley was going to be confused and hurt when Jesse and the little girl left Indigo Bay after the guardianship was finalized and the mansion renovations done. If he stayed for the renovations. The Acers and Ken Kostner might still entice him to sell. Or when Jesse left on his own if it turned out he wasn’t Shelley’s father, as he’d left Lauren despite his professed love.

  Shelley nodded, “`Ren later?” The little girl pointed at Lauren.

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  Jesse was right in discouraging Shelley from attaching to her, too. Falling for the little girl would be easy and dangerous to Lauren’s equilibrium, since Jesse would be part of the package. She should be thankful for his discouragement. So where was the resentment and feeling of being left out coming from?

  “No, `Ren. Gamma later.” Shelley burst into tears.

  “It’s okay.” Jesse patted her on the back, his expression saying it was anything but okay.

  “Maybe you should reschedule your appointment for a time when Mom can watch Shelley.”

  Jesse’s face hardened. “She’s so tired, she’ll fall asleep in the car. Besides, I need to be able to handle whatever.”

  “It’s okay to accept help.”

  The way Jesse worked his jaw, Lauren knew she’d said the wrong thing. She was the one who’d turned down Jesse’s and everyone else’s help in the past to prove she was strong enough to handle her life herself. She was, and strong enough to help Jesse as well.

  “I’ll come along and stay with Shelley while you go in for your appointment? In a professional capacity. As your attorney.”

  The grin of thanks Jesse shot her said he believed the last part about as much as she did.

  C H A P T E R 6

  “Lauren?” A tap on his shoulder woke Jesse from a dream of him and Lauren lying on the beach, his beach, looking up at the stars.

  “No `Ren,” a childish voice said.

  He lifted his head from his laptop where he’d fallen asleep working on the mansion renovation drawing and blinked to see his daughter standing next to the desk. He swallowed the bitter tang in his mouth. Some parent he was. He’d been so out, he hadn’t heard Shelley get up from her second nap of the day. She could have been into anything, and he would have had no idea.

  “No Gamma,” Shelley said.

  He tapped the spacebar and glanced at the time. Two. They’d gotten back to Sonja’s duplex about 12:30 with Shelley fast asleep. He’d worked on the drawing for at least forty-five minutes, so he hadn’t been asleep long.

  “Gramma’s still at work,” he sa
id. The black expression that crossed Lauren’s face every time Shelley said Gamma, flashed in his mind. He probably shouldn’t encourage Shelley to call Sonja Gramma, even though Sonja was fine with it.

  “Hungy,” Shelley said.

  “I’ll bet you are. Me, too. Let’s see what we can rummage up.” He stood and lifted Shelley into his arms and carried her into the kitchen.

  They’d both missed lunch. Shelley had fallen asleep in the car on the way to Charleston, probably from the bla-bla lullaby of polite-strangers conversation between him and Lauren. When Lauren had offered to stay with Shelley in the car while he went into the testing center for his appointment so his daughter could sleep, he’d gotten a glimpse of the girl, woman, who’d captured and once held his heart. The only women who ever really had. Lauren had shuttered that glimpse when he’d come back out from his appointment, and she’d brought up Ken’s offer to buy the mansion again.

  Jesse pulled open a cupboard. That had started a livelier conversation in which Jesse did his best to impress Lauren with his plans for the mansion. He had no idea if he’d made any headway, but they’d woken up Shelley, who’d started crying. Lauren had calmed the little girl with a repertoire of children’s songs, becoming his old Lauren again.

  “How about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”

  Shelley shook her head. “No p’butter.”

  The emphatic way she said no made him wonder if she was allergic to peanuts. Weren’t a lot of kids now? He jammed his fingers through his hair. There was so much he didn’t know. But Dad would be here soon to help. Together they’d figure things out. But that wasn’t the partnership he truly wanted. He wanted Lauren. But he couldn’t have that until he proved to her and himself that he wasn’t a screw-up, that he could succeed at something other than racing.

  “Cereal.” Shelley pointed at the box in the cupboard.

  For lunch?

  She smiled up at him.

  Why not? He grabbed the box, put it on the table, and sat Shelley in the booster seat that for whatever reason Sonja had had tucked away in a closet. Then he’d grabbed two bowls and the milk and made them each a bowlful.