The Mommy Proposal

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  How could he not? It took two people to make a relationship succeed, to make it fail. Nate shrugged and admitted ruefully, “Had I paid attention to the signs, given her the attention she obviously needed, she might have never run off with Miles.”

  Brooke’s eyes glittered as she jumped to his defense. “And maybe she would have anyway,” she said. “Maybe the failing was hers and hers alone.”

  Wishing Brooke wasn’t working for him, so he could go ahead and pursue her the no-holds-barred way he wanted to, Nate studied her. “Is that the way you feel about Seamus?”

  She sighed. “I was a good wife. I loved him. I gave him everything I had and he cheated on me when he should have respected our marriage vows and been loyal to me and our son,” she reflected sadly. “And now it’s possible he cheated Iris Lomax, too, by stealing her work and passing it off as his own. Is it what Iris deserves, for carrying on with a married man? I don’t know. The only thing I’m certain about is that I am not taking the blame for my late husband’s lack of character. And you shouldn’t blame yourself for what your ex did, either,” Brooke told Nate pointedly. “Because the moral failing was hers and hers alone. Unless…you’ve cheated on someone, too?”

  Ah, the test he had been expecting, given his undeserved reputation as a womanizer. “I would never do that,” he told her quietly.

  Their gazes meshed. “Neither would I,” she said.

  Nate smiled and took her other hand in his. “Then it seems we have that in common,” he said, looking down at her.

  Brooke smiled at him briefly, then withdrew her hands and stepped back. “Just don’t try and boss me around or take over my life,” she warned, all feisty, independent single mom and accomplished businesswoman. “Because I am perfectly capable of looking after myself.”

  BROOKE’S PARTING SHOT haunted Nate for the rest of his day. He knew she was a capable woman. He also knew she was in a weak position, legally and personally, and it was that vulnerability, the sense that she needed him as much as he needed her, that made him want to protect her.

  The question was, how could he make her see that his concern was something to be appreciated instead of resented? That it was okay for a woman to accept help from the man in her life, and vice versa? And that was what he wanted to be, he realized. The man in her life.

  Kissing her again would remind her of the chemistry they had felt. Maybe further develop intimacy and passion between them.

  But that, too, was hard to accomplish when they had two chaperones on the premises every evening.

  Nevertheless, Nate knew that where there was a will, there was a way.

  In the meantime, he had told Brooke that he would retrieve the boys from summer camp and pick up some Texas barbecue on the way home, so he headed out.

  “How was camp?” Nate asked, when the boys got in his Jaguar.

  “Really cool,” Cole answered, and proceeded to talk about the computer video game he was designing. Landry was working on a similar project. And they were still chattering about the problems and successes with their designs when they got home.

  “Sounds like you’re both learning a lot,” Brooke observed over dinner.

  Landry smiled at Brooke. He finished his mouthful of brisket and forked up some potato salad. “I really like the fencing lessons, too. It’s a lot harder than it looks….”

  “I’ll bet.” Brooke flashed an understanding, appreciative grin. As Landry basked in her approval, Nate saw how much the teen needed a maternal presence in his life again.

  Almost as much as Nate himself needed this particular woman to stay in his life…

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Brooke murmured, when he stayed behind to help her clean up after the boys went off to shoot hoops on the sport court at the rear of the property.

  Glad for the time alone with her, he carried the dishes to the sink and gathered up the empty take-out containers. “And what is that?” he teased.

  Brooke placed the leftovers in airtight bags and slid them into the fridge, then turned around to face him. Leaning against the fridge, she answered drily, “The same thing I think when I see Cole looking at you like you are some kind of superhero. It’s not enough reason for us to get together.”

  Nate set aside what he was doing and slowly crossed the distance between them. He stopped in front of her and braced a forearm on either side of her slender shoulders.

  He hadn’t intended to make another move on her right here and now, but then again, he hadn’t intended a lot of things when it came to Brooke Mitchell.

  “Then how about this?” he offered softly, leaning in to kiss her again.

  Chapter Seven

  Brooke knew allowing Nate to put the moves on her wasn’t the wisest course of action. But sometimes, she thought wistfully as his lips settled ever so nicely over hers, being cautious wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

  Sometimes a gal had to just go with the dictates of fate.

  And fate had put her right here, right now, with Nate.

  So what if it wasn’t meant to last? Or if they were drawn together solely by their mutual need for support, guidance and assistance?

  They were here. Now. Together. They had maybe five minutes to enjoy the dreamy passion of their kiss, and the encapsulating warmth of his hard body pressed up against hers.

  Five minutes to forget—even for one moment—that…Wait! Were those footsteps racing down the hall…toward them?

  Apparently so, Brooke realized, since Nate heard them, too.

  He broke off the kiss, stepped back.

  She swung open the refrigerator door and ducked behind it, just in the nick of time.

  The pounding footsteps hit the porcelain tile and swept into the kitchen. “The ball’s low on air,” Cole announced, holding up an orange globe with black edging.

  “Yeah. We figured you probably had an air pump somewhere,” Landry added.

  Brooke finished smoothing her hair and blotting her mouth. Composure restored as much as possible, she closed the fridge and stepped back. To her relief, Nate looked more relaxed than she felt.

  He shot her a reassuring, we’ll-pick-this-up-again-later glance that only she could see, then turned back to the boys. “The air pump is in the garage. Let’s go out together so I can show you how it works.”

  NATE GOT THE BOYS SET UP, shot a few hoops with them, then headed back to the main house. Halfway there, he got a phone call from work, alerting him to a problem that needed to be addressed right away. It took an hour to work things out. No sooner had he hung up than Landry appeared at the library door. Dressed in a pair of jersey shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops, his damp, spiky hair standing on end, he looked like he had just come out of the shower.

  “Got a minute?” he asked.

  Wondering if it was his imagination or if the teen had grown taller in the last few days, Nate nodded. “Come on in.”

  Landry shut the door behind him. “I was wondering if you still had pictures of my mom and you, when the two of you were together.”

  Good question, and one that caught Nate off guard. He gestured for him to have a seat. “I returned her stuff when our engagement ended.”

  Landry perched on the edge of the black leather sofa. “So you don’t have anything.” His shoulders sagged in disappointment.

  Nate spun around in his swivel chair, so they were facing each other. “If you’re talking about old love letters or anything like that, no. But I might have some photos that escaped the postbreakup purge.”

  He turned back to his desk, disconnected from his company’s network and opened up the drive that held all his personal information. Within it were files of photos that he’d scanned into memory, arranged chronologically.

  He went back sixteen years, to the month he had first started dating Seraphina. The personal photos of the two of them were gone, but Landry’s mom was in a number of his company photos. “Here she is at the second annual company picnic.” Back then, Nate had employed only a dozen people,
so it was easy to spot her.

  Landry flattened his hands on the desktop and leaned in for a closer look. “Wow. She looks young.”

  And happy…as did Nate. He smiled, remembering that time in his life when it seemed he was going to get everything he wanted in short order, including the “happy family” of his dreams.

  He scrolled through more photos. “And here she is at that year’s 5k race to raise funds for cancer research.”

  Landry pulled up a chair close to Nate, so he could better view the screen. He propped his elbows on the desk and leaned in again. “Do you think she had any idea she would have cancer herself one day?”

  “No. She just did that to help others.”

  Landry smiled fondly, reflecting. “She was good that way.”

  Nate found half a dozen more photos of him and Seraphina—all at company events, all with other people. He hadn’t noticed it at the time, but as he studied their body language now, he could see what he had been blind to then. Subtly but surely, he and Seraphina had been growing apart as his success and the company grew.

  Finally, they got to the last week he and Seraphina had officially been a couple. Nate clicked on the photo. “I think this is the last one I have,” he said.

  They had been with a group of friends at a New Year’s Eve party at a swank hotel downtown. Dress was formal. Seraphina looked incredibly beautiful. And unhappy, even in her cardboard top hat, with a paper whistle in her hand.

  Landry studied the numbers printed on the Happy New Year banner. “This was fifteen years ago,” he said.

  Nate nodded. “We broke up the following week.”

  Landry blinked. “You know, my birthday is in mid-August. Eight months later.”

  Nate swore to himself. He’d been so busy tripping down memory lane, he hadn’t thought about Landry doing the math. He swallowed and aimed for reassuringly casual. “Yeah.”

  “So I could be your kid?” The boy’s eyes widened.

  Wasn’t that the fifty-thousand-dollar question? “I don’t know,” Nate said finally, wishing he did. He forced himself to meet Landry’s searching eyes. “It’s…possible.” There was no clue from the way Landry looked. He had his mother’s hair and eye color. His features were an amalgam. His height he could have gotten from either Nate or Miles Lawrence.

  Landry stood and began to prowl the room restlessly. “But you don’t know for certain.” His flip-flops slapped on the geometric patterned rug.

  Nate wished he had the right to take him in a hug and comfort him the way he had seen his friends comfort their sons, the way his own father had never comforted him. But he didn’t. Because he knew that to push Landry into something else he wasn’t ready for would be to lose the rapport they had managed to build thus far.

  Aware he deserved an honest answer, Nate exhaled slowly. “No…I don’t know for certain.”

  Hurt and confusion shone in Landry’s blue-gray eyes. “Is that why you were so interested in becoming my guardian and adopting me?” He ran a hand across the peach fuzz on his face. “Because you think I’m yours?”

  Nate reminded himself to get Landry a razor. He didn’t even know if the boy had one. “I agreed to become your guardian and adopt you because it’s what your mother wanted.”

  Landry’s jaw thrust out pugnaciously. “What about what you and I want?”

  Nate stood. He closed the distance between them in two strides and put his hand on Landry’s shoulder. “This is what I want.”

  “Sure.” Landry jerked away. “If I’m your kid.” He stared at Nate, a muscle working in his jaw. “What if I’m not?”

  Nate regarded him evenly. “You will be when the adoption is final.”

  Another tense silence ticked out. Landry stood as if braced for battle, still glaring. “You’re telling me you don’t want to find out?”

  They were dealing with a time bomb here. Nate knew he could handle the results, whatever they were. He wasn’t sure Landry could weather them half as well. And that being the case… Nate gestured noncommittally. “I don’t see the point.” It wouldn’t change what happened in the end. Landry would still end up being adopted by him. Landry would be his son; he would be Landry’s father.

  “Well, I sure do.” The teen threw up both hands in barely suppressed fury. “I want a DNA test.” The words were flat, final.

  Nate struggled to calm him down. “Landry—”

  “I have to know.”

  Nate could see that was so. In his place, he admitted to himself reluctantly, he would probably feel the same way. So he tackled the problem the way he did all others, head-on. “All right.”

  “So you’ll arrange it?” Landry pressed, coming closer once more as he sought to extract a promise.

  It was all Nate could do not to pull the kid into a hug. With a nod, he vowed, “First thing tomorrow.”

  BROOKE WAS LOADING clothes into the washer when Landry burst back into the caretaker’s cottage. His face was a blotchy pink and white as he brushed past her, heading toward his bedroom. “Landry?” She dropped what she was doing and went after him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “Ask Nate!” He slammed the door behind him.

  Cole came out of the bathroom, smelling like soap and still drying his hair. “What’s going on?” he asked in concern.

  “I’m not sure,” Brooke murmured, torn between going to Landry and talking to Nate first. Forewarned was forearmed. And right now she was leery of doing and saying the wrong thing and making an already bad situation worse. “Would you mind hanging here while I go talk to Nate?”

  “No problem.” Cole hesitated outside the shut bedroom door. “You think I should try?”

  The door opened, and Landry appeared. He looked at Cole. “You can come in,” he said tersely, glancing at Brooke as if she was an enemy. “That’s it.”

  Okay. Now she really had to talk with Nate. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, guys,” she said. “You know where I’ll be, so come and get me if you need me.”

  “Right, Mom.” Cole’s eyes were trained toward his friend.

  The bedroom door shut.

  Brooke slid her feet into her clogs and headed out across the lawn.

  Nate was standing on the stone terrace that ran along the rear of the mansion. Hands gripping the balustrade, he was looking toward the cottage.

  Slowly, he came to meet Brooke. She mounted the steps as quickly as possible. “What did he say?” Nate asked.

  His usual self-assurance was gone.

  Brooke’s heartbeat accelerated as she closed the distance between them. “Nothing illuminating. What happened?”

  Nate exhaled. Weary lines bracketed his eyes. “Landry wanted to see some photos of his mother and me. The last one was taken on New Year’s Eve, right before we broke up. He read the banner, did the math. Figured out his paternity was somewhat in question.”

  Brooke caught her breath. “You didn’t…”

  “Lie to him?” Nate stiffened, letting her know she had struck a nerve. “No. I didn’t. Which is why he now wants a DNA test.”

  Her eyes widened. “And you agreed?”

  Nate’s jaw set in that stubborn way she was beginning to know so well. “Landry wants to know the truth. I get that.”

  But did he get the rest of it? Brooke wondered, her years of parenting coming to the fore and giving her a broader view of the situation. “You understand,” she told him, as gently as possible, “that however this turns out, you’re in trouble.”

  Nate quirked a brow. “For telling the truth?”

  Forcing herself to ignore the edge in his voice, she continued, “If Landry is your biological son, it means his birth certificate is a lie, and his mother lied to both of you all these years. And if he isn’t, then…” Brooke lifted her hands helplessly. “That’s got to hurt now, too.”

  Because it meant Nate and Landry would never have that biological connection every parent and child wanted, whether they admitted it or not.

  Nate sighe
d and shoved a hand through his hair. “Obviously, it’s not a situation I’d want.” He turned gleaming blue eyes to hers. “But I’m not going to run from it or encourage Landry to do so, either. Whatever the situation turns out to be, it’s best we deal with it now.”

  Another silence fell, this one even more packed with emotion. Nate studied her. “You don’t agree?”

  I think you’re headed for a long, hard fall. And so is Landry. But aware she had already overstepped her bounds in giving her opinion, she shrugged. “It’s not really up to me, is it?”

  His mouth curved downward and he shook his head. “No, I guess it’s not.”

  Another long, uncomfortable silence fell.

  Hard to believe, Brooke thought, that just a couple of hours ago they had been standing in his kitchen making out like a couple on the threshold of taking the next big step….

  Hard to believe she had put so much in jeopardy, so fast.

  Which was why she had to take charge of her life once again. And control what she could of a situation that was fast becoming an emotional mess. “But there is something that is up to me. And that’s our…attraction to each other.”

  Nate folded his arms across his broad chest and waited. With his black hair tousled, and a hint of beard lining his face, he looked wildly sexy.

  “It can’t continue.” Brooke felt her throat tighten, but pushed on. “We can’t let the kids see us kissing.”

  “I think they could handle it,” Nate replied with a grin.

  “They could handle seeing two random people kissing,” Brooke countered, as her heart somersaulted inside her chest. “But you and me…?” Surreptitiously, she wiped her perspiring palms on the sides of her shorts. “I think it sends the wrong message.”

  “Which would be?”

  She gulped, aware she was the one now on a road she never should have taken. “That it’s okay to become casually involved with someone you’re working for.”

  “First of all…” Nate’s glance raked her appreciatively from head to toe. His voice dropped a husky notch. “There’s nothing casual about the way I feel when I kiss you. And if you’re honest with yourself, there’s nothing casual about the way you feel, either.”