Winning Over Skylar

by Julianna Morris

  The relief that had filled Skylar faltered. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I want to spend time with her, doing things that she and Melanie will enjoy. That way I can get to know her, and she can get to know me. I’ll be able to get a better grasp of the situation that way.”

  “Oh.” Skylar didn’t say anything else for a long minute.

  Aaron’s comment about getting a “grasp of the situation” sounded like a typical businessman, but he wasn’t as bad as she’d thought. Still, there were a number of ways her daughter could be hurt by him or his family. And while she didn’t have any more right to judge the Coopers and Hollisters than Aaron had to judge her background, she didn’t want Karin to be touched by their lifestyle.

  “Skylar, I honestly didn’t know there was a chance I might be a father,” Aaron murmured, leaning forward. “My dad admitted he had some people in Cooperton sending him updates on me. One was a teacher, the other a police officer. Apparently they found out you were pregnant, and he took matters into his own hands.”

  “Yeah.” Her ire rose with the memory. “He tried to pay me off as if I was a cheap nobody who’d taken advantage of his innocent son. I don’t know when you stopped being innocent, but I didn’t have anything to do with it!”

  “That wasn’t it at all. Spence has his issues, but he’s always provided for his children financially. He says he felt I was too young to be a father, so he offered money to help with Karin in case she was really his granddaughter.”

  Skylar didn’t know if she believed Aaron or not. And it didn’t matter. Protecting Karin remained her first concern, both then and now.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  AARON COULDN’T TELL what Skylar was thinking...but he could guess. She didn’t want him near Karin for fear of what he might say or do.

  “What do you think?” he prompted.

  “Things are busy now, with school and the holidays coming up. Maybe when everything settles down—”

  “I was thinking we could do something tomorrow,” Aaron interrupted. He didn’t want Skylar to hope he’d lose interest over time. “As you’ve pointed out yourself, the weather is unseasonably warm. We could take inner tubes down a few miles of the American River tomorrow. Karin swims, doesn’t she?”

  “Like a fish, but you aren’t taking my daughter anywhere without me.”

  “Of course not,” he agreed quickly.

  It hadn’t occurred to Aaron to go someplace with the girls by himself. Skylar was the experienced parent; he wanted her there to run interference. He struggled enough to communicate with Melanie.

  Skylar sat back, and Aaron saw shadows in her eyes and the weary tension around her mouth. He tried to dig up the anger he’d felt upon learning about Karin, but it was hard. She was the one who had faced becoming a single mother at eighteen, while he’d gone off to college and a life made easy by his trust fund.

  “All right,” she murmured finally. “You can spend time with Karin as long as I’m present. But don’t overdo it with extravagant plans, or push too hard. Friendship is one thing, but I don’t want her becoming fond of you, only to see you disappear from her life.”

  “You mean if I don’t turn out to be her father.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stop voicing doubts about Karin’s paternity at every opportunity. You can think what you like, but I don’t have to listen to it. What I meant is that it takes more than DNA to be a father, and I seriously doubt you plan to put down permanent roots in Cooperton. My guess is that you want to get Cooper Industries running solidly again and sell out once the value is up.”

  Aaron resisted the urge to loosen his collar. Selling the company was one of the options he’d considered, along with having someone manage it while he went back to the city. Still, if Karin was his daughter, it could affect whatever decision he made, at least until she was ready for college.

  “Cooper Industries needs to update and expand before anything is an option,” he said noncommittally.

  Skylar pushed her coffee cup a few inches away. “Your expansion plans are a separate issue, and I want them to stay that way. Much as I’d like to use my position on the city council to keep you out of Karin’s life, I can’t do it. My decision on your proposal will be based on its merits and what’s good for Cooperton. The main thing holding it up is that I’m waiting for your response to my concerns, along with any new blueprints that might be needed.”

  Curiously, Aaron believed her. He didn’t even think she would reject his proposal out of hand if he didn’t take her suggestions.

  “I’ve sent your ideas to the industrial engineers who worked on the original plans. I’m waiting for their evaluation.”

  “Fine. Call the mayor’s office at city hall when you have anything to discuss, and Micki Jo will let me know.”

  He’d prefer contacting Skylar directly, but knew that she was trying to distance herself from him in any way possible. She’d drawn the line at discussing Cooper Industries at the Nibble Nook, now she was trying to limit it further.

  “All right. So how about tomorrow?”

  She swallowed visibly and shifted in her chair. “We could be ready to leave by 10:00 a.m. Shall I pack a picnic lunch?”

  The flicker of emotion in Skylar’s green eyes told Aaron she was far from being as composed as she sounded. “I don’t want to put you to any trouble. We can stop at a restaurant.”

  “A picnic would save time if we want to be on the river during the warmest part of the day. I’ll figure something out. I know Melanie’s allergies and her likes and dislikes—what are yours?”

  “No allergies, and I eat practically everything except anchovies or bell pepper on my pizza.”

  Skylar flinched. Aaron wondered about it until he remembered that Karin’s favorite pizza was “everything except anchovies and bell peppers.” It wasn’t a genetic test and hardly an unusual dislike, yet it tightened his stomach.

  He’d never wanted kids, not wanting to risk repeating his father’s mistakes. Skylar’s words had stung when she’d said his family considered child rearing to be someone else’s responsibility...mostly because she was right. His flighty mother had sent him to live with his grandparents after he’d been bounced between her and Spence for years. And while he’d spent part of each summer with Celina and his stepfather in New York, his father had usually been too occupied with finding a new wife or getting rid of the old one to see him.

  Lord, what a mess.

  And Skylar had said something else that was bothering him...about it being hard for his grandparents to raise a young child at their age. He’d given lip service to the challenge they’d faced taking him, but had never really thought about it. They had been settled into a gracious life of middle-aged comfort when he’d come along with his boyish energy and resentment against the world. That couldn’t have been easy.

  He’d have to visit his grandparents soon.

  It might be time to look at them in a whole new way.

  * * *

  “WE’RE DOING WHAT, MOM?” Karin asked. She scratched at a streak of paint on the back of her hand. The work was done in the church basement, and it looked awful nice. Mrs. Hashima and Mr. Calderas had worried that the brighter colors underneath would show through the primer and a single coat of enamel paint, but so far, so good.

  “We’re going rafting with Melanie and her brother tomorrow,” her mom said. She was fixing dinner, along with a picnic to take on the rafting trip.

  “Melanie didn’t say anything about it.”

  “Her brother wanted to ask me first, in case we had plans.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  Inner tubing on the river sounded like a blast. The youth group had wanted to do it last summer, but it never worked out. It would be odd doing it with Mr. Hollister, though.

 
“If you don’t want to go, I’ll call and tell him.”

  Karin blinked. “No, it’ll be fun. And I’m sure Mellie has never swum in a river like me. Remember when we...” She stopped and bit her lip.

  She’d started to talk about the time they’d gone camping in Yosemite National Park. They’d found a river to swim in near a covered bridge, and the water had been really deep and clear with giant boulders that were twice as tall as her dad. She’d loved diving down near the bottom and letting the current sweep her downstream. It was so free and cool, gliding along that way. Mom and Dad had loved it, too, and they’d done it over and over while Grandpa Joe and Grandma Grace sat with their feet in the water and watched.

  “Remember what, Karin?”

  Karin shrugged. “Nothing.” Whenever she talked about her dad and the things they used to do together, it upset people. “Should I get the sunscreen?”

  “It’s in my bathroom. I already put the swimsuits away in a box of summer clothes, so I’ll go up to the attic for them later.”

  Karin went into her mom’s bathroom and got the sunscreen from the medicine cabinet. They used an unscented kind because perfume had given her dad headaches, and she tried not to get sad again as she put it in the backpack on the kitchen counter.

  “Do you think this means Mr. Hollister is going to let Mellie move in with us?” she asked, brightening with the thought.

  “I think he’s just being friendly.”

  “I don’t know. Nobody likes him. At school they think he’s awful mean—that’s why the kids wouldn’t talk to Mellie at the mixer in August, just because he’s her half brother. You shouldn’t be mean to someone because of their family.”

  Her mom snapped a lid on a bowl of chicken salad and put it in the refrigerator. “Why don’t you decide on your own about Aaron? That’s what Grandma Grace says to do, isn’t it? ‘Don’t pay attention to gossip and make up your own mind about people.’ You did that with Melanie. You saw your classmates weren’t being nice and went to talk to her. And now you’re best friends.”

  That was true. Her parents had never required her to “like” someone just because they were a grown-up, though they’d expected her to be polite. There was a sourpuss old lady at church that her mom didn’t care for, but she was nice to Mrs. Delinsky and even brought her food when she wasn’t well.

  “Okay. Are you making pretzel rolls?” she asked, noticing the bowl of rising bread dough on the counter.

  “I thought they’d be good with the chicken salad tomorrow.”

  “Yum. I’m going to call Mellie and tell her. She’s never had pretzel bread before.” Karin happily went to her room and flung herself on the bed with her cell phone.

  It had been grand to have Melanie show up to help with the painting, and now they were all going inner tubing.

  Awesome.

  * * *

  THE SEASONAL BUSINESSES renting rafts and inner tubes had mostly closed down, but by late Saturday afternoon, Aaron had located someone willing to provide five—one for each of them, and one to carry supplies.

  The casual rafting he’d done as a teenager with his friends seemed a long way off as he worried about things he hadn’t considered before—like emergencies and life jackets. While he didn’t think either girl would appreciate wearing them, he arranged to have four new life vests available. At least Melanie’s education in swimming hadn’t been neglected in the places she’d lived—she had even won medals at one school when she joined their swim team.

  He was almost glad when Sunday dawned gray, thinking they’d be able to cancel the outing, but the overcast sky cleared quickly and it was comfortably warm by the time they arrived at the designated starting point on the river.

  “Mr. Hollister?” said the man waiting by a truck filled with giant inner tubes. The logo on the tailgate said, Gordo’s Fun in the Sun Water Equipment.

  “Yes. Do you have everything?”

  “Everything you asked for, and a bit more. I brought watertight containers to use for food and cell phones and such. Also ropes to connect the inner tubes so they don’t get too far apart.”

  He cheerfully began unloading everything at the water’s edge, no doubt delighted to have an unexpected customer who was willing to pay a premium for service.

  “Shall we eat first, or find a place along the river?” Skylar asked when the vendor had driven away with a friendly assurance that he’d be waiting at the pickup point in a few hours.

  “Later,” the girls said in unison. They were hastily rubbing sunscreen on their skin, anxious to get started.

  “All right.”

  Skylar shimmied out of her jeans and shirt and Aaron’s mouth went dry. She wore a one-piece blue swimsuit cut high on the hips that was guaranteed to turn a man into a raving lunatic. He’d never been especially partial to bikinis—they revealed rather than teased—and at the moment he didn’t care if he ever saw a woman in one again.

  She joined the girls in applying sunscreen, and Aaron had another difficult moment, watching her hands slide over her neck and shoulders, arms...legs. He deliberately turned away, reminding himself that Skylar would sooner put a knee in his groin than consider him as a potential lover. And there was another issue that he couldn’t ignore—Karin’s and Melanie’s presence. It didn’t seem appropriate to have those thoughts with the teenagers nearby.

  Before they could complain about the life jackets, Skylar fastened one on and put an oversize shirt over it. Part of her was covered as a result, but it did nothing to restore Aaron’s peace of mind—the sight of Skylar’s curves and long, long legs was burned onto his retinas.

  “Do we have to, Mom?” Karin asked, her small nose wrinkling at the life jacket.

  “Yes, you have to.”

  Skylar’s firm reply ended additional protest. Melanie and Karin put them on, giggling as they looked at each other in the brightly colored safety gear.

  “I just realized...what about the water wing things?” Aaron asked Skylar in an undertone. “I saw kids wearing them this summer—the air-filled things that go on the upper arms. Should they have those?”

  “At their age? Not unless you want wholesale mutiny,” she replied in the same soft voice. “Anyhow, my mother-in-law is convinced they could actually push a very young child’s head under the water, so we never used them for Karin, even when she was small.”

  She obviously respected her mother-in-law, and Aaron had a sudden urge to meet the Gibsons. Karin mentioned her grandparents on a regular basis, and they’d obviously had a good deal of influence on her. If Karin was his daughter, he should know everyone important in her life. Though not right away. He was adjusting to a whole new reality and needed to take it a step at a time.

  All at once Skylar grabbed his arm and pulled him farther away. “I just remembered something I should have said yesterday,” she whispered. “Don’t make an unusual effort to talk to Karin or get too close to her. You’ll creep her out. You’re a stranger, and she has no reason to trust you.”

  Aaron wanted to ask whose fault that was but figured Skylar would tell him to look in a mirror...or something earthier. And it was good advice.

  “I won’t,” he promised. “I’m not sure how this should work, so I’ll take it slowly.”

  “Good.”

  They returned to the riverbank and stowed the food and other gear in the watertight containers. One of the inner tubes had a net to hold everything and they fastened it around their supplies before pushing off.

  The water was much colder than Aaron remembered from teenage rafting trips, though whether it was because he was older now, or due to the late time of year, he didn’t know. Melanie and Karin didn’t seem to mind, and Skylar lay with her legs and arms draped over the inner tube, looking relaxed as they drifted along.

  Aaron had hoped their positions would shift a
round with the slow current, giving him a chance to be close to Karin and engage her in casual conversation, but the teenagers kicked and paddled with their hands to stay together.

  Frustrated, he finally rested his head on the inner tube and listened to their innocent chatter. They complained about one of the teachers at school being dull, worried about a test coming up and speculated about who was going steady with whom. Karin made a couple of references to finding a cure to diseases, so when Aaron’s inner tube bumped against Skylar’s, he lifted his head.

  “She wants to go to medical school?”

  “And become a scientist,” Skylar murmured without opening her eyes.

  “When did that interest start?”

  “After Joe, her grandfather, was treated for prostate cancer several years ago. It was caught early, but it scared the hell out of the family. That’s when Grace and I got serious about organic foods.”

  “You seem very close to your in-laws.”

  “They’re wonderful people.”

  “What about your own parents?”

  Skylar instantly tensed and looked toward her daughter. Melanie’s and Karin’s inner tubes had drifted ahead the full length of the connecting ropes, and they were griping about the paint they hadn’t been able to get out of their hair.

  “I have no idea where my parents are, and don’t want to,” Skylar muttered. “They’ve never even seen Karin. Girls,” she called in a louder voice, let’s paddle toward that low place on the riverbank and have our picnic.”

  On shore they unpacked lunch from the cooler, Karin excitedly explaining to him that the five-inch rolls were pretzel bread her mother had baked the night before. Aaron bit into a thickly loaded sandwich and understood why Karin was so enthusiastic. None of the food was fancy or gourmet, but the chicken salad was crunchy with diced celery and tangy with dried cranberries, and the soft rolls were delicious. Fruit and chocolate brownies finished the meal, and he lay back in the sun feeling stuffed and lazy and half-asleep.