Harlequin Heartwarming June 2021 Box Set

by Patricia Johns

  “It didn’t work out?” Taryn asked.

  “Things were great when it was just Shelby and me,” he said quietly. “But when we added her daughter into the mix, I couldn’t be the guy they needed. It turns out, I am a lot like Tom. I don’t have a sense of what’s good for a kid. I didn’t know how to connect with her, and she never did warm up to me. I felt like a failure. Her mother and I broke up because she needed to put her daughter first, and I wasn’t good at the kid stuff. I fully understood—my mom had done the same with Tom, since she’d had to prioritize us kids...”

  And he’d remembered how his mother had come back to life again after Tom left... Had it been the same for Shelby? It sure seemed to be the case for Nevaeh... She’d broken up with him and dropped into what seemed like a very happy relationship with his best friend. Noah looked at Taryn uncomfortably.

  “I have to prioritize my son, too,” she said.

  “Of course. And I’m glad you will,” he said. “I just want you to understand that when I say I’m not good with children, it isn’t because I haven’t worked through underlying issues or looked deep enough inside myself. I’ve done the work, and I’ve made peace with who I am. It was why I stood firm with my fiancée about not having children.”

  “That’s fair,” Taryn said. “I get it.”

  He was silent for a moment. “But I’m still here for you—for whatever that’s worth,” he said. It felt like very little to offer. He sighed. “Let me show you the rest of the main floor.”

  Taryn eyed him for a moment, not moving.

  “I meant it when I said I don’t need you to step in and be anything to this child,” she said. “I’m not asking for anything.”

  “Yeah, I know, but I still feel a responsibility toward this little guy,” Noah replied. “He’s my son. And he’s going to need a dad, of some sort. I sure did. I guess I’m just saying...lower your expectations.”

  “I have zero expectations,” she said, and she smiled faintly.

  How many women had tried to tempt him into the family life? What he needed was a woman who could join him in his ordered, streamlined world and appreciate the other pleasures in life, like music, art, books... Taryn wanted to raise their child alone. Maybe he’d be wise if he simply let her do that. But his moral compass was accusing him—a real man didn’t just walk away from his son. Before today, the right thing to do was to be honest about his shortcomings and stick to his strengths.

  But with a baby already on the way, what was the right thing now?

  CHAPTER THREE

  LATER THAT DAY, Taryn sat in front of her laptop in the office next to Noah’s. This lodge was almost antique, but it had been redone to sparkle with new life. The very logs of the walls seemed soaked in history, and while the offices downstairs were modern and neatly arranged, the fireside room in particular had made her feel the spirit of the place.

  This was a lodge where anything felt possible.

  She ran a hand over her belly. The baby must be sleeping, because he was still at long last. But there had been a moment there, with Noah’s hand on her stomach, that she’d felt this relative stranger’s connection to her. He was the dad...and it was more than a biological fact. When she’d looked up at him and seen the haunted look in his eyes, she’d known that she wouldn’t be able to sweep this man aside. He was connected, whether either of them wanted him to be.

  But Noah had been honest about what he could give. She’d felt his sincerity back there in that rustic fireside room—he’d been opening up. And while she was glad to know that he was being straight with her, she wondered what this would mean for the future. Was she connected to this man for the rest of her life? Or would he eventually lose interest and leave her to raise the baby alone?

  An email notification on her monitor caught her eye, and Taryn flicked over to check it. It was from Granny. Taryn sighed. Business was easier to focus on than her personal life right now, and a visit with Granny wasn’t going to be easy.

  Hello, my dear Taryn.

  Your mother said you should be in town today, and I wanted to see if you are here. I don’t know why you’d stay at a faceless lodge when you could come to stay with me. You used to stay with me when you were a little girl. I have the same bedroom all made up and ready if you decide you want to use it. But no pressure, my dear. I realize that if I make demands, you’ll become incredibly busy and I won’t see you at all. So all I will ask is that you do come by for a visit just as soon as you can. I have some old pictures you might like to see, and my sister sent a letter so there is all sorts of news about the East Coast family. And I want to see your face. Everything is better in person.

  Was it, though? Taryn had managed her relationship with her grandmother through email and good old-fashioned greeting cards for the past few years. She hadn’t even had a phone conversation with Granny about her pregnancy yet, although she guessed that Granny would have heard through the grapevine by now. The East Coast family consisted of Granny’s sister and cousin and their children and grandchildren, none of whom Taryn actually knew. But her grandmother still shared vivid tales from the lives of these virtual strangers and strung out her offers of gossip like breadcrumbs to lure in visitors.

  Pregnant at nearly forty, the father some stranger from a bar... She could already hear the rendition in her grandmother’s voice. Granny was old-fashioned and particular. She liked things to happen in the right order—love, marriage, babies and then the eventual death of a spouse. Nothing else. Keep it simple. So Taryn’s life of accidental pregnancy, marriage, divorce and then a baby conceived with a stranger wasn’t going to be easy for Granny to swallow.

  “Taryn?”

  Taryn had left her door open a few inches, and Angelina eased it open the rest of the way.

  “Hi,” Taryn said, putting a smile on her face.

  “I’m sorry I had to duck out there,” Angelina said. “I trust you had good tour with Noah?”

  “Yes, and the lodge is stunning,” Taryn replied.

  “Is there anything you need?” Angelina asked.

  “A bit more information, if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure.” Angelina crossed the room and sank into the easy chair that flanked the window.

  “We discussed my plans for clickable, shareable social media content that will focus on your lodge, but I need actual people—stories that have happened here,” Taryn said. “It needs to be as authentic as possible for people to connect with it, and for it not to come off as advertising.”

  “Like...weddings?” Angelina asked. “We’ve had a few.”

  “That’s definitely a start,” Taryn agreed.

  “We’ve had about thirty weddings here,” Angelina said. “Two of them were my friends. Gayle and Matt got married here last year. This was a second marriage for both of them, and Gayle was just stunning.” Angelina flicked through her phone, and then held it up so Taryn could see a picture of a striking couple, the bride in cream lace, her hair silver white. They looked elegant, regal, even.

  “Like that...” Taryn breathed. “That’s the kind of couple that people can relate to...or they want to relate to!”

  “Gayle is wonderful,” Angelina said. “And this is Melanie and Logan.”

  Angelina held up a photo of an attractive couple—about forty. The bride had one arm around a strikingly beautiful teenager who was dressed as a bridesmaid and was obviously pregnant.

  “Did they meet at your lodge by any chance?” Taryn asked with a smile. “Or is that too much to ask for?”

  “Mel and Logan dated as teens, but they did meet up again right here at my lodge.” Angelina met her gaze with a twinkle. “They got engaged here, too.”

  “And the girl in the photo?” Taryn asked, looking at the shot again with the lovely teenager.

  “Her stepdaughter from her previous marriage,” Angelina said.

  “Do
you think either of these couples would be willing to be featured in some online content?” Taryn asked.

  “I could ask,” Angelina said. “We get together for a dinner club every few weeks, and we’re actually dining tonight.”

  “Dinner club?” Taryn asked. “That sounds interesting. What sort?”

  “We call ourselves the Second Chance Dinner Club, and we offer emotional support to women who’ve just come out of painful divorces. It started out as a casual thing—I just wanted to help out a friend of mine who had gone through a nasty breakup. But then I met more women who needed that emotional lift, and it became...a thing, I guess.”

  “And these women are from the dinner club—the ones who got married here?” Taryn asked hopefully.

  “Yes.”

  “Perfect!” Taryn leaned forward. “That’s exactly what we need. It’s definitely relatable, and it’s the kind of thing that people might share to encourage each other. If I could do some content on the Second Chance Dinner Club, have some stories of women who’ve found love after heartbreak, some candid photos of the couples now—”

  “No.” Angelina shook her head. “The dinner club is private. You can ask the women if they’d allow their weddings to be featured, but our club is a living, breathing thing. We rely on each other, and I’m not going to commercialize it.”

  Of course, it was too good to be true. But at least they were finding the right sort of element that could work for this campaign.

  “I understand that,” Taryn said. “I would never try to use any information that you aren’t comfortable with. You have full control. I’d love to meet the women, though.”

  Angelina folded her hands in her lap. She was silent for a moment, then said, “You could come.”

  “You mean...to the dinner club?” Taryn asked. “Would they be okay with that? I don’t want to intrude on a private event.”

  “It would be a perfect time to meet them,” Angelina said. “They’re busy women. I’ll tell them who you are, but you’ll have to be discreet about the club and anything said there.”

  Taryn couldn’t help but like the idea of a dinner club of supportive female friends. Every woman had a point in her life when she needed that kind of solidarity to keep her moving forward.

  “I’ll be discreet,” Taryn said. “Thank you for the invitation. You know, I could have used something like that in Denver. I can appreciate what you’re doing here.”

  “Are you divorced?” Angelina asked quietly.

  “Recently.” Taryn smiled faintly. “He, um, left me for another woman.”

  “Younger?” Angelina asked. “That seems to be the pattern.”

  “Older,” Taryn replied, and she heard the bitterness in her tone. “He just loved her more.”

  Angelina’s gaze softened. “I’m sorry. My husband didn’t leave me for another woman, and I almost wish he had. We just didn’t work out. I wasn’t what he or his family needed, and his life was better without me. A divorce because of another woman is easier to explain, you know? It might even be easier on my ego. But there it is.”

  “Yeah.” Taryn shook her head. “I know the feeling. If he’d left me for a pert and bouncy twenty-five-year-old, that would be easier to explain, too.”

  They exchanged a smile. So Angelina understood...that was comforting. She’d felt judged on all sides this past year.

  “Men can be cads,” Angelina said.

  “It was for the best...probably.” Taryn shook her head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get into that. I just wanted to say that I think what you’re doing is admirable. I really do.”

  “Well, then...” Angelina nodded. “You might just belong with us, after all. Tonight at seven in the dining room.”

  Taryn felt a little welling of hope that had nothing to do with this job or even her future plans. It would be nice to have an evening with some women who understood. How often did that come along?

  “Is there a dress code?” Taryn asked.

  “We tend to dress up,” Angelina said. “It’s an excuse to feel gorgeous for a night, but there’s no pressure. What you’re wearing now would be just fine.”

  Taryn glanced down at her black dress and pink blazer. It was business attire, but she could do better.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Taryn replied.

  She did have one formal maternity dress from an awards event last month. She’d gotten a bad cold and hadn’t been able to attend. But she’d packed it for this trip, just in case it was needed...

  She might like to feel gorgeous for an evening, too.

  * * *

  NOAH CHECKED HIS email one last time, and then shut down his computer and pushed back his desk chair. He took off his glasses and put them on the desk. He was waiting to hear back from the job he’d applied for in Seattle. It was a plum position—general manager of a luxury hotel. He’d been told that they’d get back to him in a week or so. It was still a couple of days early, but at this point he didn’t have much he wanted to stay in Mountain Springs for.

  He’d been honing his skills over the past several years with Angelina, with no plans to leave. But after his best friend and his ex-fiancée got together, he knew that Mountain Springs couldn’t be his future. That was painfully obvious, and he was thankful for how much this job had developed his résumé.

  It had been a long day. He’d noticed when Angelina and Taryn had left for the evening together—their offices now closed and locked.

  He’d received a dinner invitation from his sister, Laura, a couple of hours ago. Apparently, they were barbequing tonight, and the kids wanted to invite Uncle Noah. Honestly, he was pretty sure that Laura invoked the kids whenever she felt sorry for him, and for the past few months, Laura had been including him more often in their family events. They’d all liked Nevaeh a lot, and the end of the engagement had been a blow to more than just Noah.

  So tonight, Noah would drive up to his sister’s acreage outside of town, and he’d eat burgers and make awkward conversation with his nieces and nephews, and remind himself that he had a family who loved him.

  The light through the windows was getting soft and golden. The light faded a little earlier in a deep valley like theirs, shadow enveloping the town while the sky was still light overhead. He grabbed his suit jacket from a hanger on the back of his door as he headed out of his office.

  “Have a good night, Lisa,” Noah said, passing one of the housekeeping employees who was pushing her cart down the hallway to start her evening cleaning. Lisa Dear was a local writer who worked at the resort for her day job.

  “You, too, Noah,” she replied with a smile.

  Taryn had been busy with Angelina for most of the afternoon, and he’d seen her in passing a couple of times, and after that he’d been swamped with his own work. But he’d been thinking about Taryn...

  The irony here was rich. He hadn’t wanted to be a dad—he didn’t trust himself in that role—and he’d been willing to let his fiancée go in order to stick to that. So how was this going to look if he ended up with a son in his life, after all? Was Nevaeh going to be furious? She’d broken up with him, so she couldn’t fairly hold this against him. It didn’t mean that she wouldn’t, though.

  Because while Noah might not have wanted to be a father, he couldn’t just let a kid think his dad had never cared. Noah had experienced that—his biological father had left his mother when he was too young to even remember him, and then Tom left, too. When Noah was a boy, he used to lie in bed at night imagining that Tom had come back and told him that he loved him—that Noah was the son Tom had always wanted, and that now they could be a proper family.

  And Tom wasn’t even his biological father.

  Noah’s throat got thick even remembering it. He wasn’t letting his own son make up stories like that to self-soothe. His son would know that he cared...if he could figure out how to do that much
right.

  Noah glanced up at the stairway that led to the suites above as he walked past—an instinct mostly. He saw Taryn’s dress before he even realized it was her—it was deep, rose red, with a draping skirt that swung around her curves, and with lace sleeves and bodice. She came down the stairs slowly, one hand on the banister, and he stood there watching her cautiously descend. She looked up as she reached the bottom, and color bloomed in her cheeks.

  Wow. Noah crossed the foyer and felt the smile tickling his lips when he reached her.

  “You look great,” he said. “What’s the occasion?”

  “I’ve been invited to dinner,” she replied with an arched eyebrow.

  “Yeah?” He had no right to feel that hint of jealousy.

  “With Angelina’s dinner club,” she said, and she smiled. “Apparently, they dress up.”

  “I’ve seen them,” Noah replied. “And they do dress up.”

  Taryn licked her lips, and he noticed her makeup—understated except for her eyes, which were smoky and dark. She glanced up at him.

  “Are you only leaving now?” she asked.

  “I had some work to finish up,” he said. “And my sister invited me for dinner at their place tonight, so—” There was something that was holding him there, and he felt her gaze locked on him expectantly. “You look really beautiful.”

  Shoot. That was too blunt. He wished he could take it back, but it was too late.

  Taryn looked down. “I feel a little foolish, actually. Dressed to the nines like this, pregnant out to here.” She put a hand at the front of her stomach.

  “And looking amazing,” he said. “Trust me on that. I’m not the kind of guy who says stuff he doesn’t mean.”

  Apparently, he wasn’t a guy who kept his mouth shut, either.

  Her smile deepened. “Thank you. It’ll have to do.”

  He chuckled and took a step back. “Have a good night, Ms. Cook.”

  “Enjoy your family dinner, Mr. Brooks,” she replied, and she shot him a smile over her shoulder as she headed toward the dining room. His gaze lingered on her retreating form until he noticed Susan at the front desk watching him with undisguised curiosity.