Mother by Fate

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Charmed and a little uncomfortable, Sara said, “So talk.”

  “Daddy’s sad.”

  That wasn’t her business.

  “He says Sara this and Sara that and when I asked Aunt Ashleigh why he keeps saying that, Aunt Pea said it’s ’cause he’s smitten and too dense to know it. Now, I don’t really get what smitten means but I know my daddy’s not dense.”

  The thought had crossed Sara’s mind a time or two over the past month, but that was better kept to herself.

  “So then I asked Daddy what smitten meant and he said it means you care about someone special but that he can’t be smitten with you because of Bessie.”

  “He said that?”

  “Yes, because you weren’t her mommy and you aren’t my mommy, either, and Daddy can’t be smitten with you because of that.”

  There was lot more to it than that.

  There was Shelley, for one. Michael was still in love with her. And not likely to chance loving another woman as deeply, either. Not after the way he’d lost her. Not while blaming himself.

  Not when he was so hell-bent on getting every bail jumper out there in an attempt to assuage a guilt he could never eradicate until he forgave himself.

  “Daddy said you wanted to adopt Bessie.”

  “I did.”

  “But her daddy said no.”

  She wished he had. “He didn’t let me,” she said instead.

  “Aunt Pea says that if you and Daddy got married, you could adopt me, and I wanted to let you know that’s okay with me.”

  Sara’s heart lurched. “It doesn’t work that way.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you have to go through the court and have a judge make you a real full-fledged mommy or daddy forever and ever to adopt someone. And you don’t even know me.”

  Mari frowned, and those big brown eyes studied her. Her curls hung loose down her back, surpassing the bottom of her short-sleeved shirt and dipping past the elastic waistband of her pink pants. “But how can I see you if you don’t see Daddy?”

  She had to get the child back to her aunt.

  The little girl leaned forward again, as if she was telling Sara a secret. “Besides, I been rememberin’ you from the hospital, and when I was there I liked you a lot,” she said.

  “I like you, too.” Sara didn’t know what else to say.

  “I know, because of when I was hurt and you made it better. That’s how I know I like you.”

  The kid was going to be a heartbreaker. But Sara’s couldn’t be one of the hearts that got broken.

  “Let’s go find your aunt,” she said, putting her hand out to take the child’s.

  Instead, those little arms came up and crossed her chest again. “I haven’t told you my secret yet.”

  “Oh. What is it?”

  “My daddy does whatever I say, if I look at him just like this...” She opened her eyes wide, dipped her chin down and pouted.

  Sara laughed. And then stopped herself immediately. “Little girls are supposed to do what their fathers say,” she said in her most serious, talking-to-a-child voice. “Because daddies know a lot of things little girls don’t know, and it’s their job to keep little girls safe until they’re big enough and know enough to keep themselves safe.”

  “Course,” Mari said, her brow puckered with equal seriousness. “But if I want something, Daddy listens, and I know that if you want to adopt me, I’ll tell him to, and he will.”

  Tears popped up out of nowhere. Sara couldn’t let them show. Couldn’t let them out. But she couldn’t force them back, either.

  What the hell...

  The man had been in her life less than four days and he’d managed to invade every single part of her...

  “We better go find Aunt Ashleigh,” Mari said, holding out her hand to Sara. “She’s having a meeting about our kennel here because Daddy talked to Ms. Lila and we’re going to help teach about animals.”

  Michael had talked to Lila? About helping with a kennel?

  And he’d never even called to collect on the dinner he’d made her promise to have with him?

  Lila hadn’t said anything to her about Michael calling her.

  But then...Sara had been pretty clear to everyone about the fact that Michael Edison was out of her life. For good.

  * * *

  IT TOOK MICHAEL a week after Mari’s trip to the Lemonade Stand to work up the nerve to talk to Sara. A week of listening to his mother and his sisters and his daughter lecture him about matters of the heart, about life, about the example he was setting for Mari by not being willing to take another chance at happiness. He’d told them all he was happy.

  But his words hadn’t shut them up.

  Because they weren’t true. He’d been happy enough before he’d met Sara.

  And in two days of living with her, she’d changed his life—shaped it so that nothing fit without her in it.

  It took him a week to build up his courage, and then he promptly lost it all the third Saturday in September as he sat outside her condo and waited for her to get home from work. Ashleigh and Peanut had taken Mari to the zoo and then she was spending the night with his parents.

  They’d given him the night off to make his move or they were going to call Sara themselves and invite her to dinner.

  Of course they wouldn’t. Not if he really didn’t have an interest in her. Or if he asked them not to.

  His daughter, he wasn’t so sure of. She’d asked at the Lemonade Stand for Sara’s number, and he wouldn’t put it past her to call her up and request a counseling session on his behalf.

  She pulled in at half past eight. It was dark out. And he was hungry.

  He had her favorite type of wine with him, which unfortunately was no longer chilled.

  But he wasn’t backing down. Not when it meant facing the disappointed face of his six-year-old.

  Not when he thought about spending another night alone in his bed filled with regret and what-ifs...

  “Sara, hi!” he called out to her, as though he were the casual neighbor he’d pretended to be in that other lifetime.

  The one where they’d been partners in a game of life and death.

  He’d captured and brought in three more jumpers since then. All within a day of getting the initial call.

  She stopped cold. But didn’t turn around.

  Didn’t bode well for his evening.

  She’d promised him one dinner.

  “I brought you something,” he said, coming around to face her.

  She didn’t say a word. Didn’t ask how he’d gotten through the gate. Or why he was there. Didn’t ask what he wanted. She just stared at him.

  “Here.” He thrust the bottle at her.

  She took it. He got a little excited about that fact.

  “So...how’ve you been?”

  “Lousy. How about you?” She wasn’t going easy on him. That gaze bore into him. Asking questions he couldn’t answer.

  “’Bout the same.”

  It was her turn to speak. She didn’t.

  “Can I come in?”

  She didn’t look as if she was going to give him the answer he so desperately wanted.

  “For a glass of wine,” he said inanely. “In place of the dinner you promised me.”

  His palms were sweating. As though he was a damned kid on a first date.

  His palms had never sweat for Shelley.

  She turned and headed up her walk and let him follow her inside her front door.

  But before he’d taken two steps into her home she turned on him, her eyes filled with a fire he’d known was in there, but only because he’d made love with her. It had been the only time she ever came fully to life.

  “Here
’s the thing,” she said. “I’m not interested in a casual relationship. I want it all. Marriage. Children. Family. I want my man to want to share his life with me, to be with me when he’s not working, not off with the guys. I want him there because he wants to be there. Because he wants to spend his time with me and our kids and, furthermore, before I would ever consider dating you, I’d want adoption papers drawn up first, just in case, so they’re ready if we ever decide to get married, because I’m not settling for less than what I need ever again.”

  He fell back against the wall. Shot in the heart.

  And ready to jump her at the same time.

  The fierceness in her expression didn’t quite hide the hunger in her eyes. He started to grin. And the grin grew. Pulling her up against him, he pushed his groin into hers and said, “If we did decide to marry—” and he was suddenly quite certain that they would “—will you agree to a prenup?”

  She frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “I need to be an equal. And I don’t ever want you to have reason to doubt that I want to marry you because, as hard as it is to believe, I fell head over heels in love in a matter of days and can’t bear the thought of spending the rest of my life half-alive, the way I’ve felt this past month.”

  “You fell in love with me?”

  “Yes.” It was all truth with her now. Every minute of every day for the rest of his life.

  “You didn’t say so.”

  “I know. I was sure it would fade. Who falls in love in a couple of days?”

  “You left. Without a word.”

  “It was kind of hard to believe, you know? And I know you’re scared of loving another man with a child that you didn’t give birth to.”

  “I mean it about the adoption papers,” she said, her eyes wide and clear, as she pinned him with another stare. “I want them ready. Just in case. And they would be signed and sealed before I’d ever sign a marriage license.”

  “You’d have seven witnesses,” he told her. And then named his mother, his father, his daughter and all four of his sisters.

  She nodded. She didn’t seem to be struggling with the idea of him having a daughter. Not like she had when they’d been on the run. Not that she’d ever told him that she was struggling. Not specifically. But...

  “You’ve given this a lot of thought,” he said. She was a counselor. The realization didn’t surprise him.

  “You wouldn’t let me go.”

  “I did. I walked out and didn’t so much as send a text.”

  She touched her heart. “In here. I don’t want to live the rest of my life looking for you.”

  “I’m right here. And if you’d like, I’ll let you know where I am every minute for the rest of my life.”

  “Can we start with a glass of wine?” Her arms were on his shoulders.

  “We’ve spent three nights together. Made love. It might be hard to go back to a simple glass of wine.”

  “They were an intense couple of days.” A light he’d been afraid he’d never see again ignited in Sara’s eyes.

  “Yes, they were.”

  “I’ll give you your prenup, if you’ll promise to be okay with me sharing every dime of my money with you and our family and to have the adoption papers drawn up.”

  “Done.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I’ll set that in motion in the morning, I mean.” He pulled a sheaf of folded papers out of the back pocket of his jeans. “I printed this information off the internet. We’d have to file papers. And wait for the official hearing, but we can start whenever you’re ready.”

  Tears filled her eyes. Dripped slowly down her cheeks.

  “Unless I’m going too fast here, I’d say we should probably schedule dinner with my family this coming weekend.”

  He wasn’t going to let her go. Not when she looked at him like that.

  But still, he wanted to hear her commit to him, too.

  “You know I don’t know how to give up,” he added.

  “I’m counting on that, Michael,” Sara said. “I’m counting on that. Because no matter how much you know, or learn, no matter how much you have, you’ll never be happy until you find someone you can trust to have your back.

  “And then give it to him.”

  There might have been tears in Michael’s eyes as he bent to kiss her.

  He was too consumed by desire to know for sure.

  * * * * *

  Look for the next

  WHERE SECRETS ARE SAFE book

  by Tara Taylor Quinn!

  Coming from Harlequin Superromance

  in June 2015.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE COMEBACK OF ROY WALKER by Stephanie Doyle.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Five years ago

  “GREAT PARTY, ROY!”

  “Thanks,” Roy said dismissively, nodding to some woman he didn’t recognize.

  Yes, it was a great party. Booze was flowing, food was plentiful. The music was loud and people were starting to dance. Any second now something would break and then he could call this party a true success. Not that he really cared one way or the other.

  The invitation had come as surprise to many of his teammates. It was completely out of character for Roy to want to socialize with them outside of work let alone host a party with free booze and food. In fact, for many of the players this was the first time they had seen the inside of his apartment.

  But everyone knew this was Roy Walker’s last year on the team. It had been Roy’s plan from the moment he stepped on the diamond to dictate when he stepped off for good. He always said he would go out on top and this season was it. His final farewell. And kicking it all off with a huge party before they got down to the grueling business of the one-hundred-and-sixty-two-game season seemed like the perfect idea. His colleagues no doubt thought that maybe, after all this time and with his career coming to an end, Roy Walker was finally starting to loosen up.

  He wasn’t.

  “Roy, this is messed up!” Eddie Britton, the team’s all-star second baseman, threw an arm around Roy’s shoulder. This might be the first time a teammate had ever actually touched him outside of a fist bump or hand slap.

  Roy was working on the assumption that messed up was a good thing. Mostly because Eddie was both drunk and smiling.

  “I’m glad you’re having a good time.”

  “Dude, free booze and food? Of course I’m having a good time. You should have done this years ago, man. People might have actually liked you.” Eddie shook his head. “Now you’re almost done.”

  Roy didn’t take offense to the insinuations that no one liked him and that the only way he might have been liked was if he’d been supplying free food and alcohol to his teammates on a more regular basis. Eddie was probably right.

  “Well, better late than never,” Roy muttered. Not that this party was about making friends. There was only one objective for having all these people in his place.

  “Speaking of friends, where is your girl? She’s coming, right?”

  His girl. Just the thought of those two wor
ds together made the muscles in his stomach go tight.

  “I don’t know who— I’m not dating anyone—”

  “No, man. I mean, your girl! Or should I say, Danny’s girl, who you wish was your girl.” Eddie clearly thought that was hysterical.

  Roy clenched his jaw. Had he been that obvious? So obvious that even the other guys on the team knew?

  “I’ve got to check the beer supply,” Roy said, rather than address that issue.

  “That’s cool,” Eddie said, not upset by the brush-off. He stumbled away to take a dive into a couch where a bunch of baseball bunnies had congregated.

  Danny’s girl.

  Maybe not for long, Roy thought. Not if everything went according to plan. This whole party was nothing more than a charade designed to do something he felt he needed to do. Before he retired.

  Yes, after careful consideration Roy had made a decision about one person’s need to know the truth. So he’d formulated a means to reveal it—a big social gathering to bring everything to light. It was meant to be a grand gesture.

  This might not be a good idea.

  He shook his head. It was too late. The wheels were already in motion. Both Lane and her husband, Danny, were on their way.

  Only not together.

  “Is this a bring-your-wife party?” Danny had asked.

  “Are you kidding?” Roy snickered. “I want everyone to have fun. Bring whoever you like. But there will plenty of female fans in attendance...if you know what I mean.”

  Roy recalled the conversation with a heavy sense of dread in his stomach. What he was doing to Danny Worth was wrong. Maybe even cruel. Roy was deliberately setting him up and he was doing so for one reason and one reason only.

  Lane Baker Worth deserved better. The daughter of the legendary Duff Baker, a Hall-of-Fame baseball player and manager, Lane was, to Roy, the princess of baseball. Yet, she’d married Danny Worthless. Roy would never understand what she’d been thinking. Maybe if he’d known her back then, he could have stopped it. Certainly her family should have stepped in to avoid the travesty of Lane and Danny’s union.