The Secret Father (The Calvert Cousins 1)

by Anna Adams

  Lily’s existence proved Zach had wanted Helene, but Olivia wasn’t unselfish enough to say so out loud. Even now she couldn’t bear the image of Zach with another woman. She’d been so convinced he cared for her, but by his own admission, he hadn’t wanted her to get as close as she’d wanted to be. Maybe Zach didn’t know how to commit. Maybe she’d been his distraction from the work that had taken so much of his life away from him.

  “Helene, you’ve remarried and you’re happy. Maybe you should forget about the past.” Immediately, she wished she could take back the words. Who was she to advise anyone?

  “Like you’ve forgotten?” The other woman’s voice taunted. “Your past with my ex-husband means nothing?”

  Not to Zach, though it still had the power to make her wish she’d stayed in Chicago. Obviously, both she and Helene still had a lot to learn about letting go. Olivia prayed she learned before she didn’t mind exposing such bitterness in front of strangers.

  “We shouldn’t discuss this. It doesn’t matter anymore, and you and I don’t need to be upset with each other. Evan’s late for bed, and I assume Lily is, too. Why don’t we go downstairs and get tonight over with?”

  Helene planted her hands on girlishly narrow hips. “Fine. Evan’s already with Zach and Lily, but I wanted to tell you to call off your father. My daughter shouldn’t have to worry about reporters.”

  Olivia’s breath caught. “I’m sorry about my dad. If I could make him see sense, I already would have.” Needing to reach Evan, she pocketed her room key and started past Helene. “Aren’t you coming?”

  “You’d better believe it. You and your son are another reason Zach should stay out of Lily’s life. She’s a Nash now, and that’s all I want her to be.”

  Olivia said nothing, not believing Helene for a single second. It might be the mantra she used to whip Zach, but no one could be so annoyed because she wanted to forget a man. Side by side, in tension-filled silence, they went downstairs.

  At the bottom, Olivia tried again, her heart banging hard in her chest. “I wish I could assure you I don’t want to hurt you or your daughter. I’m sorry my father set the media on us, but our children matter more to me than anything else. I hope Evan and Lily will learn to love each other.”

  Helene’s delicate face flushed with color. “I’d never try to harm your son. I just wish I’d known about you. I wouldn’t have wasted nearly three years of my life with Zach Calvert.” She slid in front of Olivia to reach for the study door. “This is our business. We’ll send Evan out after we’ve explained.”

  Olivia was halfway to the door when it shut. To hell with being fair or compromising. Her only thought was to rip the other woman a brand-new throat. She stopped, breathing hard.

  She could barge in, grab her son and set Helene Nash straight, or she could let Zach take care of Evan and tell him about his sister. She’d never let anyone else take care of her son when something so important was happening to him.

  She sucked in a breath and examined Helene’s behavior. Though the other woman had been annoyed, Olivia had thought they were getting along until Helene made her move at the study door. If Olivia pushed into the room now, Helene was unpredictable enough to make a scene that might put a wedge between Lily and Evan.

  She trusted Zach to protect Evan, and she didn’t want her son to see Lily’s mother in a rage.

  “Want a coffee, Olivia?”

  She spun around. Beth and Eliza Calvert stood arm in arm behind the registration desk. Beth was a little ahead of her dark-haired companion, as if Eliza had dragged her back.

  “You heard?” Olivia asked.

  They nodded with tight mouths as if they’d sworn not to say anything.

  “She hoodwinked me with that part about meaning Evan no harm,” Olivia said.

  “She doesn’t realize she had a part in the marriage not working. She blames the breakup on Zach, so anything she does is justified by her suffering.”

  Beth’s frank diagnosis made Olivia uncomfortable, but she’d probably be the same if it were Evan. “You don’t have anything stronger than coffee?”

  “Some tea our mother-in-law brews,” Eliza offered. “It’s supposed to soothe pregnant women in labor.”

  “I was thinking moonshine, but if you don’t have any…” Olivia smiled. After the confrontation with Helene, smiling felt like a relief. “Are moonshine jokes all right around here?”

  Eliza beckoned her toward the kitchen. “I wouldn’t talk about a still too loudly unless you’re running one. You don’t sound like one of us, so you might be mistaken for a ‘revenuer.’”

  By silent agreement, the three women brewed their tea in the B&B’s kitchen but sipped it around a small, round table in the entrance hall. They sat on three sides, all with a view of the study door. Olivia wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was glad they didn’t hear shouting.

  “Eliza,” she suddenly said, “do you think we could light the fire in Evan’s room? Just a small fire—he likes to pretend he’s camping out. He sleeps in front of our fireplace at home sometimes.”

  “I’ll be glad to.” Eliza shared a glance with her sister-in-law. “The boy likes to camp.”

  “Lily and Zach spend as much time as they can up at a spring on the ridge,” Beth said. “Are you a camper, too?”

  “I do it for Evan when I have to, but I prefer room service and a shower.” Olivia smiled ruefully as the other two women looked snakebitten. “It’s not that I’m a city girl. I just don’t like having dirty hair and washing in cold water.”

  “Sounds familiar,” Eliza said in a voice as dry as dust, but then she locked her own hand around her throat. “Sorry.”

  Olivia eyed both women. “I’m not here to pick up where Zach and I left off.”

  “No,” Beth said, but the look she shared with her sister-in-law suggested they’d discussed the tidiest future available.

  “Zach and Lily will want to take Evan up to the spring. No man should have to care for two kindergarteners on an overnight,” Eliza added.

  Just then, the study door opened. Evan came out, shyly smiling at the sandy-haired girl who skipped to keep up with her taller brother.

  “Where’s your mom?” Lily asked.

  Evan pointed, and Olivia met deep green eyes, astoundingly like her own son’s and Zach’s. “Hi, Lily.” The little girl in bell-bottom jeans and a brown-and-green peasant blouse, was another small replica of her father. She smiled with bashfulness so like Evan’s Olivia ached for the years the brother and sister had already lost. She splayed her hand across her chest.

  “Hello,” Lily said, her voice light, yet unwavering. “I don’t know what to call you.”

  “My name is Olivia.”

  “Miss Olivia.” Helene came out behind her daughter. “That’s how children address adults down here,” she said.

  Behind her, Zach shut the door, his gaze uneasy as he caught Olivia’s eye. “I thought you’d be in.”

  She flicked a glance at Helene who smiled, waiting for Olivia to turn snitch.

  “The door was shut,” Olivia said. “I thought you wanted privacy.”

  He frowned in noticeable disbelief, but he let it go. “Lily, I’ll be at your house at six o’clock on Friday.”

  “Okay, Daddy, but can I come back tomorrow to play with Evan?”

  All eyes turned to Helene. Olivia almost offered to pick Lily up, but swallowed the words. Her help wouldn’t be welcome.

  “Please, Miss Helene,” Evan said. “I never had a sister before.”

  Half hurt by his pleading tone, half proud of his eagerness to know his new sister, Olivia crossed the hall to curve her arm around his shoulders. He broke away with a look that reminded her they were in front of people here.

  “I’d be glad to pick her up and bring her back for breakfast,” Zach said, “or she could stay at my house tonight, Helene.”

  After a moment, Helene reached for Lily’s coat on a rack near the door. “Breakfast,” she said, as if it were
the lesser of two evils. “And I want her back by noon. She has a piano lesson at four, and she’ll need to practice.”

  “Okay.” Zach set his jaw.

  “Daddy, I get an extra day with you.” Lily grabbed his hands and swung, pure happiness lifting her feet off the floor.

  Olivia wanted to cry, and from the sudden redness that rimmed Zach’s eyes, she suspected she wasn’t the only one.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ON HIS WAY to pick up Lily the next morning, Zach arranged for Tyler, one of his deputies, to watch the desk till after noon. Shutting his cell phone as he stopped in front of Helene’s door he viewed the brick-and-glass house with new eyes.

  Nash’s family had owned this place in their land-grab days, before they’d monopolized East Tennessee banking. Lily’s home with her mom was impressive, but not a Kendall abode. His life seemed to be a repeating theme. Women who either were or wanted to be out of his league.

  He hit the doorbell. To his surprise, Helene opened the door with Lily in tow. Usually, he had to wait on the threshold as if he were delivering groceries.

  Lily jumped and he caught her in his arms. “Hey.” He couldn’t help grinning like an idiot because he got to spend a few extra hours with her.

  “Daddy!” She planted a kiss on his jaw. “See you later, Mommy. I got to see my bruver.”

  “Brother, Lily. I keep telling you, it’s brother. Noon, Zach. Not twelve-o-one. Noon on the dot.”

  With instincts as ingrained as breathing, he ignored her strident tone in front of Lily. “Right.”

  With his daughter beside him, he strode to the car under a brighter sun, anticipating a whole morning with his two children. And Olivia?

  Would she leave him with the children as she had the night before? He’d expected her to come back into the study with Helene. Helene had surprised him, offering to go find Olivia and bring her down. The next morning, he still didn’t understand Olivia’s reasoning, and he’d rather not acknowledge his own disappointment when he’d realized she wasn’t going to appear.

  Lily grabbed the door handle, and he helped her. Then he helped her into her booster seat and got behind the wheel. “Are you starving, Lily?”

  “Nope. Mommy made me eat toast and oatmeal.”

  On her way to breakfast? He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from swearing. “Maybe you can have some hot chocolate while we eat.”

  “Evan and I have to play in a hurry.”

  He grinned at her, but she was right. They had to pack a lot of playing into about three hours. “You’ll have other days with Evan, you know. We’ll ask Aunt Eliza if we can eat outside on the garden terrace, and then you and Evan can play in the yard.”

  Aunt Eliza was ahead of him. She’d already set a table outside where Evan and Olivia were waiting patiently in front of coffee for Olivia and juice for Evan. Lily glimpsed them first through the dining room window.

  “There’s my bruver, Daddy. There’s Evan.”

  “Go ahead.” He lifted her hand and let it go. “I’ll find Aunt Eliza and let her know we’re here.”

  She shot through the terrace door at Lily speed, and Zach smiled as she stopped like a girl in a cartoon, almost rocking to a halt beside Evan’s chair.

  They beamed at each other, both obviously happy to be together, both wordless. Olivia pushed her chair back and flashed an indulgent look through the window as she helped Lily into the seat beside Evan’s. Zach pointed toward the empty reception area, and she nodded.

  He met Eliza carrying a tray from the kitchen. Laden with French toast and fresh bacon she bought from a local farmer, she had almost too much to carry.

  “I’ll take that.”

  “Would you?” She handed it over. “I’ll go back for the fruit salad. Strawberries and mango, Lily’s favorites.”

  “Thanks.” Zach pressed a kiss to her cheek as he took the tray. “And thanks for letting us take over your terrace this morning.”

  “My other guests thoughtfully took themselves off to the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, and I’m having a fine time with your Evan. He asked for a taste of grits, which he then nearly spat on the kitchen floor.” She shook her head with the dazed look so familiar to all parents of small children. “We decided on French toast and fruit.”

  “Maybe he’ll acquire a taste for grits on his next visit.”

  “After he was almost sick, Olivia turned down a bite.”

  Zach nudged his aunt’s arm. “If she’d spat, she might have died of embarrassment. You wouldn’t want to clean up a body.”

  Eliza arched her eyebrows. “Is she that delicate, Zach?”

  “She’s that determined to keep a low profile.”

  “Too bad her father’s not of the same mind.” Eliza administered a small shove toward the dining room. “I’ll bring the fruit. Where’s your mom?”

  “Gran enlisted her to teach a basic crocheting class up at the baby farm.”

  “Greta would think you and Olivia should spend time alone with the children at first, and Beth wouldn’t have been able to resist inviting herself.”

  “And why do you suppose the women in this family feel so free to manipulate?”

  “Bardill’s Ridge is a matriarchal society.”

  She was probably close to being right. He wove between the dining room tables. As soon as Olivia saw him, she hurried to help. Together, they set the tray on their table and unloaded plates in front of the children. He glanced at Olivia, who didn’t seem as wistfully conscious of the fact that real families performed these chores every morning.

  A real dad who took his children and a loving woman for granted probably didn’t serve that much French toast. Zach couldn’t imagine taking anyone for granted ever again.

  Lily tugged at his sleeve. “Daddy, pssst.” She sounded like a tire rapidly losing air.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Peanut butter. You forgot it.”

  “Peanut butter—yuk!” Evan looked as if he might spit again.

  “Peanut butter sounds good to me.” Olivia frowned at the boy. “I think I’ll try some, too. You want to come along and help me find it, Evan?”

  “Nah, I’ll just say sorry to Lily now and eat. I’m really hungry.” As Zach restrained a laugh, Evan leaned around him to eye his sister with earnest apology. “Sorry, Lily.”

  “Do you really think it’s yuk?” Her voice wobbled a little, and Zach hugged her.

  “I’ll eat some if you want me to,” Evan offered.

  “Why don’t we all stick to what we like, and we’ll just remember Evan likes syrup and Lily likes peanut butter on French toast.” Olivia left the table with a warning glance that made Evan dive into his breakfast.

  “But no sugar,” Lily said, wiping hers off with her bare hands. “I don’t like sugar on my French toast.”

  “I could scrape it with your knife, honey.”

  “Yeah, before my mom sees you,” Evan said low-voiced.

  “Don’t tell my mommy, okay?”

  Evan nodded vigorously and Zach hugged him, too. His children already had secrets. Made a guy feel kind of proud. “You’re pretty good kids, you know?”

  “Well, yeah, Daddy.” Lily handed him her knife. “Could you finish the sugar before Evan’s—Miss Livia comes back?”

  He kissed the top of her perfect ponytail. “Sure. Anything I can do for you, Evan?”

  “No.” He swung his legs so vigorously his whole body swayed. “I’m cool.”

  “Cool,” Lily said, giggling.

  Zach wasn’t sure what was so funny, but he laughed with them. Breakfast went too fast, the only delay being Olivia tackling peanut butter on French toast. A couple of times she looked as if she might be on the verge of sending her toast the way of Evan’s grits, but she managed to choke down a respectable portion before Lily said the words “swing set,” and both children tore around the side of the walled garden for the play area.

  “You can stop eating that now.” Zach topped off Olivia’s coffee cup.r />
  “Thanks.” She slugged some back. “It grows on you.”

  He laughed out loud, actually relieved to let it out.

  “Really.” She sounded affronted.

  “It was nice of you to try. Did you see Lily watching you? She felt better because you ate it.”

  “I don’t know what came over Evan.”

  “He’s little. They’re both excited at seeing each other.”

  She looked a little dazed. “All of a sudden, I wonder how long this charmed period will last. Lily’s bound to realize Evan’s going to take more of your time, and Evan wouldn’t be human if he didn’t hope you’ll love him as much as you love Lily.”

  Zach nodded, picking up his own coffee cup. “Funny, you immediately know how to love your child.” It was true. He felt as if he’d loved Evan all his life. “What I wonder is how I’ll ever make up the past five years to him.”

  Olivia frowned. Her hand trembled as she reached across the table. “You don’t have any reason to feel guilty. Evan seems perfectly happy with things the way they are. He checked the clock every fifteen seconds or so until you and Lily drove up, and he kept interrogating your aunt about what she was making. He wanted the perfect breakfast. I was sort of startled she didn’t stuff him in the oven.”

  Zach shook his head, smiling. “We’re not big oven stuffers around here. How do you feel about all the family you just picked up?” Right away, he realized asking was a mistake.

  Olivia straightened in her chair in an apparent effort to back away from him. “You’re all Evan’s family. I’m glad to meet everyone, but I’m not part of the deal. You guys aren’t stuck with me.”

  “You all, or just plain y’all.”

  “What?”

  “Not you guys. Y’all.”

  A smile hovered on her lips. Her moist lips, full and red, defining temptation. “Y’all,” she said.

  She looked away, and strands of black hair flitted into her eyes. As she batted it, he imagined her hands sliding over his chest. “And it’s too bad you didn’t know how Southern family works before you came down here,” he said.

  Was he flirting with her? He wasn’t sure, and she didn’t seem to be either.