by Susan Meier
On Sunday when Lucy told Seth that she had spoken with her dad and decided to stay in Arkansas a little longer, it was clear Ty’s plan was working. Seth mentioned his surprise that the king wasn’t rushing to see Xavier’s future ruler, but Lucy casually explained that the country’s legislature was in session and her father couldn’t get away.
Seth might buy into the story that King Alfredo couldn’t get away to come to Arkansas, but he suddenly wondered why the king hadn’t demanded Lucy return home with Xavier Island’s future king. On the heels of that, he realized no reporter had ever approached him about either his marriage or Lucy’s pregnancy, and the whole scheme fell into place. Seth would bet his last dollar that King Alfredo hadn’t allowed Lucy to stay in Miami to finish his mansion but, instead, to keep her hasty marriage and her pregnancy a secret.
Which meant if Lucy returned to Xavier Island with a baby, the shocked media would investigate and any hope the king had of sanitizing the story of Lucy’s marriage and Owen’s conception would go out the window.
Whatever the king’s motive, Seth knew the situation worked to his advantage because Lucy was becoming very happy in Porter. So on Monday he dutifully ventured off to Pleasure, Utah, and the Monday after that he boarded a plane for Iowa.
The Iowa trip wasn’t part of Ty’s efforts to get Seth out of Lucy’s hair. It had been scheduled for months, so Seth couldn’t complain that he was getting tired of traveling or remind Ty that Owen was growing up without him. Besides, everything was evolving perfectly. Lucy seemed to thrive in the time Seth was away. So, fine. Seth would rumble around the country and give her free run of his house, and time to make friends with the neighbors and get her gorgeous figure and energy back.
He spent that week with negotiators for the unions representing the laborers in the area where Ty intended to build a huge office complex. After five days of nothing but cigar smoke and talk about wages and benefits, Seth was ready to go home, but Ty called and insisted that this weekend was the worst time for Seth to invade their space. The girls were having some kind of party for Lucy. Not exactly a baby shower, since they’d already bought enough gifts, but more of a girl-talk session where everybody got a chance to see Owen and all of his baby pictures.
Instead of going home that Friday night, Seth was shipped to Idaho to look at land. There, at least, Seth had cell phone service—if he stood in the right spot.
“So how’s it going?” he asked Lucy when he called home the following Wednesday. He’d spent nearly four weeks on the road. Owen was now five weeks old and Seth’s neighbors knew more about his son than he did. Plus, Seth might not know much about the length of Xavier Island’s legislative session, but he sensed his time with Owen and Lucy was running out. Any day now, her father could show up. Since he hadn’t gone home the previous weekend, he didn’t think a phone call was out of line.
He could picture Lucy’s smile when she said, “Great! You should see Owen, Seth…”
Seth squeezed his eyes shut. He longed to see his son but more than that it sounded so good to hear Lucy say his name. To have her speak to him normally. To not be afraid or wary.
“He doesn’t really talk, but he desperately wants to make sounds.”
“How could you know that he wants to make sounds?” Seth asked with a laugh.
“I coo at him and he tries to mimic me. His little mouth moves like crazy, but nothing comes out. It’s the sweetest thing,” she said with a dreamy sigh.
Seth swallowed as three different varieties of appreciation tumbled through him. Appreciation for how well Lucy cared for Owen. Appreciation for how quickly she was catching on. Appreciation for how sweet her interactions with their baby seemed to be.
He tried to fight them but absolutely couldn’t. Not when he was already overwhelmed with loneliness. Luckily, though, after the swell of appreciation came a sort of friendly feeling. They had missed this part of dating. They might have talked, but they had never just “been friends.” Being friends with her, even getting to talk to her, was like water to a thirsty man.
When Lucy asked, “So what are you doing out there,” Seth realized that she could be feeling the same thing he was. A desire to be friends. He perked up, thinking Ty’s plan really was working. Lucy didn’t hate him anymore!
“What am I doing right now?” Seth asked, glancing around at the quiet, all-but-deserted town. “Ty wants to bid on some road work. I’m evaluating the location.”
“Really? As half owner of the company, you still go out and do the preliminary legwork?”
Not wanting to tell her they were making work for him to get him out of her hair, Seth said, “I’m not half owner. There are three of us who own this company.”
“That’s right. You have a brother.”
“Yeah. Cooper.”
“Did you guys ever find him?” Lucy asked innocently and Seth drew a quick breath, realizing again that he’d told Lucy much, much more about himself and his life than he thought he had.
Still, it was good to have something to talk about, something personal—but not something directly related to their relationship—that could bridge the gap that yawned between them. “I only recently convinced Ty that we should look for him in earnest.”
“That’s great.”
“Yeah, it is,” Seth agreed, suddenly buoyed. It felt good to talk about Cooper. Actually, it felt good to talk about anything familiar. He hadn’t been around anyone he knew in weeks. But even when he was in Porter, Ty didn’t talk as much as he once had, now that he had Madelyn in his life. And nearly everybody else in town worked for Bryant Development. So, the Bryants weren’t much for airing personal business in town. Plus, Seth had apparently already told her a good bit about his life when they were together. He could talk about anything he wanted.
“Ty’s changed a lot in the past few months.”
“He seems very happy.”
“He’s ecstatic and that makes all of our lives better.”
Lucy laughed.
Seth leaned against the rough wood of a porch brace in front of a convenience store, pleased that he had amused her. “Did you know the employees used to call him Tyrant Ty?”
“Oh, yeah,” Lucy said with a giggle. “He scared the pants off fifty percent of the crew you guys had working on my dad’s mansion before…before…”
“Before your dad fired us,” Seth said easily, as if it were no big deal, so that part of their lives could come out in the open and neither one of them would have to avoid it anymore. Then he quickly changed the subject. “So what else has Owen done?”
“Not much. He likes to eat and sleep and watch me.”
“So you two just stare at each other all day?”
She laughed again. “No! I set him in his bouncy chair and secure it wherever I’m puttering and he watches me do dishes or dust.”
The thought of Princess Lucy doing dishes, dusting and basically keeping his house livable sent a shaft of fear through Seth. He was supposed to be keeping her comfortable and happy! Not treating her like hired help. Now that he wasn’t home, he should have brought his maid back.
“Lucy, I have someone who comes in to do that stuff. I gave her a paid leave when you first arrived so you would have your privacy,” he lied, but he decided he didn’t have a choice. “So if you’d like her back, I would be happy to…”
“No!” Lucy gasped. “My gosh, Seth, everything’s perfect. In fact,” her voice dipped and Seth had to strain to hear her, “I want to thank you for letting me stay here.”
And for leaving, Seth thought, as his chest tightened with both gladness that he’d done something nice for her and sorrow that she really didn’t like him. But he didn’t say anything. The life of the mother of his child was absolutely perfect. No matter that his not being around was part of that perfection. No matter that they’d spent every minute of every day together for four wonderful weeks. Times had changed. She was happier when he wasn’t around.
“Hey, look, I gotta go. I’m in
front of the convenience store,” he said, making the place sound busy as he glanced inside at the empty aisles and the clerk who napped behind the cash register. “I need to get out of everybody’s way.”
“Okay, Seth. I’ll see you this weekend.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you this weekend,” he agreed and quickly hung up the phone. He couldn’t stay on the phone while his lungs were tight with missing her and his gut twisted with the knowledge that her life was so much better without him. In fact, he wasn’t really sure how he would manage spending the weekend at the house when he knew how much happier she was when he wasn’t there.
But he needn’t have worried. Friday afternoon, Ty hunted Seth down and explained that a crisis had arisen and Seth couldn’t go home that weekend, either. He had to go to Arizona. Seth hopped a plane, then a commuter, then rented a car and drove to another remote site. He met the foreman who outlined the impending crisis Ty discussed, but Seth looked at the blueprints in front of him and easily pointed out the solution. The foreman, nodded, pleased that Seth had found his answer, but Seth had the feeling he had been set up.
When he found himself alone in his hotel room that night, with nothing to do and nothing really on his agenda because the “problem” had been solved, he knew he had been set up.
By the following Thursday, in spite of his now daily calls to Lucy, Seth had had it. Ty was making up trouble that was insulting Seth’s intelligence. Lucy was doing fine without him. Six-week-old Owen was growing by leaps and bounds. Seth’s son had had his second pediatrician appointment. He’d gotten a tour of the town from Madelyn. The ladies at church had bought him enough clothes for six kids. If Seth didn’t soon go home, they’d have Owen enrolled in kindergarten.
He called an airline and growled for the entire two-hour drive to the airport. Blasted Rocky Mountains! Blasted Ty! No, stupid, stupid Seth for listening to anyone other than himself. Sure, he agreed that Lucy needed some time alone to discover the town and to make friends with the townspeople. Great. He could handle that. And, yes, Seth recognized that he was the biggest cause of her initial anxiety. But he’d been talking with Lucy and he knew she was fine. Sometimes, he even suspected she enjoyed getting his calls.
So he was going the hell home!
When he stepped into his front entryway, it was two o’clock in the morning. He was tired. His feet throbbed. His back ached.
And Owen was screaming.
He kicked off his loafers, bounded up the steps and burst into the master bedroom where he found Lucy walking the floor with a bundle of baby who absolutely refused to quiet down.
“Please, Owen,” she said, sounding helpless. “I wish I knew what was wrong, but you can’t tell me and I don’t know what to do.”
From behind her, Seth said, “Let me take him.”
She whirled around. “Seth!”
He reached for sobbing Owen and cuddled the little boy against his chest. Ripple upon ripple upon ripple of emotion flooded through him. He was home. He was holding his son. Lucy needed him.
He let himself soak in and savor every tiny nuance of emotion as Owen quieted on his shoulder, before he said, “Lucy, what’s going on here?”
She collapsed on the bed. “I’m sorry, Seth. I’m not the perfect mother I’ve been trying to lead you to believe I am. This whole time, friends of Penney Gentry have been helping me with Owen. I tricked you.”
“You tricked me?”
“But I had good reason. I didn’t want a nanny but more than that, I needed to learn how to care for Owen in the little bit of time I knew my dad would be unable to come after me. Penney Gentry and her friends agreed to teach me.”
Seth sat beside her on the bed. Owen settled into Seth’s shoulder, sniffling himself to sleep. “You weren’t keeping me away because you don’t like me?”
She blinked up at him. “What?”
“You just seemed so much happier without me that I…” Seth stopped. He hadn’t kept himself away. Ty had helped. Still, Seth was an adult. He wasn’t about to blame Ty for his own stupidity. So he might as well tell Lucy the whole truth.
“I stayed away because you seemed so much happier without me. And I wanted you to be happy and see what a great town Porter is so I would have at least a leg to stand on when you and I sat down to talk about…” He almost said custody, but knew he couldn’t broach that until the time was right. So in the final seconds he said, “Visitation.”
“Oh, Seth, I’m not going to lie to you. You’re not going to get much time with Owen and when you do get to see him, you’ll probably have to come to Xavier Island. As Xavier’s future king, Owen will have to submit to my dad’s authority more than any of my dad’s other grandchildren will. But I promise to do my best to get you every minute I can. I’m on your side.”
Because his plan was to convince her to let him have custody and he wasn’t anywhere near ready to do that yet, he didn’t protest what she’d said. In fact, he decided to pretend he hadn’t heard it and focus on the positive.
“Then I’m on your side.”
She drew a quick breath. “Thanks. I just couldn’t refuse Penney and Mildred’s help with the baby. I’d spent more time with nannies than with my mother when she died and her memory faded very quickly. I hardly missed her after only a few weeks because I hardly knew her. I don’t want that to happen with Owen.”
When Seth glanced down at Lucy, he saw the sheen of tears on her eyelashes. Shifting Owen so that he needed only one hand to secure his son against his shoulder, Seth reached down and lifted Lucy’s chin so that he could look into her eyes. Guilt threaded through him because he intended to take Owen from her. But in the final analysis, if Owen lived with Seth, Lucy could easily visit Porter and Seth would also gladly let her take their son anytime she wanted as long as it didn’t interfere with school. But if Owen lived in a castle on an island across the Atlantic, Seth wouldn’t have the same option. Lucy had already admitted Seth would only see his son a few times a year—and then only on Xavier Island.
More than that, though, if Seth didn’t get custody from Lucy, Owen wouldn’t have a normal childhood.
But, again, this wasn’t the time to mention all that. This was the time for them to take their first real steps toward a friendship. “Then we’ll make sure your son knows you.”
She smiled and nodded. “Thanks.”
Silence entered the room and for the first time since Owen had been born, Seth saw the exhaustion in Lucy’s pretty brown eyes. Obviously she wasn’t accepting help with Owen at night and Seth felt horrible for deserting her. He felt worse for not talking to her honestly before this.
“You look awful.”
Lucy laughed. “Thanks, Seth. That’s just what a woman wants to hear.”
“I didn’t mean it like it sounded. I said it because I shouldn’t have deserted you since it’s pretty clear the nanny brigade doesn’t spend the night.”
“Nanny brigade?” Lucy said, then laughed. “That’s what you call Penney and her friends?”
“If you think about it, that’s what they are.”
“Yeah. I guess so. But I didn’t let them help me at night because I don’t want to become entirely dependent on them. I want to be Owen’s mom.”
The way she said it overwhelmed Seth with emotion. Having lived without parents from the time he was fifteen, it wasn’t simply gratifying to his male ego that the mother of his child wanted to be a real mother. It was a blessing to know his son wouldn’t suffer the fate he had. God willing, Owen would have the love and support of two parents for most of his life.
Overcome with gratitude, Seth didn’t stop to think about consequences and bent his head and kissed her. When his mouth met the softness of her lips, his eyes closed in sweet appreciation. Memories overloaded his mind. Instincts surged to life. He combed the fingers of his free hand through her hair, and a thousand sensations thundered through him, the most potent of which was the desire to make love. But strangely, that instinct was the one that brought him
to his senses.
They couldn’t make love. They really shouldn’t even be kissing. He needed her to like and trust him because he wanted his son. And if they took this relationship back to the sexual level, when there was no future for them, she would never trust him. Hell, he wouldn’t trust himself.
He pulled away. For several seconds, he stared into her desire-glazed eyes, assuming from the fact that she didn’t argue when he stopped and didn’t do anything to encourage him to kiss her again that she had concluded the same things he had. They couldn’t go back to their past and they didn’t have a future.
Except as Owen’s parents.
With Owen sleeping soundly on his shoulder, Seth rose from the bed and walked to the door. He would care for Owen tonight while she slept.
“Go to sleep.”
Chapter Six
Though Owen’s crying awakened Lucy the next morning, a flood of joy enveloped her when she opened her eyes. Seth had kissed her the night before! She rolled out of bed to get her hungry son, unable to stop the flow of happiness that poured through her.
But lifting Owen from his crib, she reminded herself that being joyful over that kiss wasn’t necessarily good. She might be happy that Seth had kissed her, but she was also smart enough to know she shouldn’t make too much of it. First, the circumstances in which he had kissed her had been charged with emotion. Second, the kiss had sealed a bond of sorts. The soft, sweet joining of their mouths hadn’t been an expression of love as much as a commitment to work together.
That was the way she needed to view it. They’d been honest with each other for the first time since her arrival at his house and they’d formed a team of sorts. The kiss had been merely a way to seal their deal. They weren’t about to get involved again. Otherwise, he would have taken the kiss further, deepened it, made it one of the passionate, romantic kisses they had shared when they’d thought they had a future. But he hadn’t. He had said good-night and run out of the bedroom.
If she thought he’d meant anything but a sealing of their commitment, Seth could break her heart. But more than that, she would be foolish to consider getting involved again. Seth may not have dumped her, but he hated her country and the monarchy to which she belonged. She had to remember that.
