by Neesa Hart
“Naturally,” Anna assured them. “That’s why I’ve arranged for you to tour the campus. You’ll be able to see the buildings where Grace has her classes, as well as our dining hall and gymnasium.”
Doris, Liza noted, looked ready to pop a cylinder. “We have a limited amount of time here. We’d like to spend that time with Grace.”
“And we’ll be happy to arrange that,” Liza assured her, “as soon as we have Dr. Liontakis’ permission for a visit.”
Doris sputtered. “His permiss—”
“Now, see here,” Leonard took a menacing step forward. “We don’t need his permission to see Grace. We’ve been taking care of her for years.”
Liza rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, genuinely enjoying herself now. “I understand, but of course you realize that we can’t simply authorize visits with our students without guardian or parental permission. It’s state law. We have to put our students first, you know.”
Doris’s nostrils flared as she studied Liza with glittering eyes. “I’ll have you know—”
“I’m here.” Eli shoved open the door and charged into the small room with the finesse of a class five hurricane.
“Eli.” Anna greeted him with a bright smile. “Grace’s grandparents decided to come by and see Breeland for themselves. I’ve arranged for a tour of campus.”
“What’s going on here, Eli?” Doris demanded.
He leveled a glacial look at her. Liza took careful note of that look, and marveled that Doris Paschell, evidently, didn’t have enough sense to heed its warning. “That’s what I’d like to know,” he said with careful control. “I wasn’t aware you were planning to come for a visit.”
“We spoke with Martin yesterday,” Leonard told him. “Doris was concerned.”
“Really?” Eli turned on him. “About Grace? About her reputation? About my reputation? Which is it?”
“Don’t be crass,” Doris snapped. “You know how we feel about this.” She leaned back in the chair. “These children are not appropriate playmates for our grandchild.”
Eli clenched his teeth so tightly, Liza could see the effect along the ridge of his jaw. She wouldn’t be surprised if he cracked the enamel on his teeth. “Look, Doris. I went over this with you when I accepted the job here. I am Grace’s father, and this is what I felt would be best for both of us.”
Doris glared at him. “As if you’d know. You had almost nothing to do with the child for the past four years.”
“I’m not going to even bother to respond to that.” The tension in him shimmered in the small room. “The point is, it was my decision to make, and I made it.”
“And I have the right to know,” Doris told him, “that your decision isn’t harming my grandchild.”
“That’s right.” Leonard nodded. “We want to see Grace.”
“And you will,” Anna assured him as she punched a button on Liza’s phone with a well-manicured nail. “But she’s in class just now, so you might as well see the grounds.”
The intercom crackled. “Yes?”
“Connie,” Anna asked the receptionist. “Is Bill here yet?”
“Just arrived,” Connie assured her.
“Excellent. We’ll be right out.” Anna stood and indicated the door with a sweep of her hand. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll introduce you to Bill Maxin. He’s a member of our board of visitors, and he’ll be delighted to show you around the campus. I thought I’d go along.” She gave Liza a meaningful look. “In case you have any questions I can answer.”
Trapped between blatant rudeness and Anna’s iron-hard will, the Paschells looked first at each other, then at Eli. “We will discuss this later,” Leonard told him.
“There’s nothing to discuss.”
Doris rose from her chair with a sigh of disgust. “You’re not going to win this battle, Eli. The sooner you accept that, the better. Grace belongs with us. We’ve known her longer. We’ve been closer to her than you ever have. Mara would have wanted it this way.”
“Then Mara should have stated that in her will.”
Doris gasped. Liza winced. Leonard looked like he might bury his fist down Eli’s throat. Anna wisely pulled open the door. “Ah, Bill,” she said to Bill Maxin who stood just outside. “Perfect timing.” She gave Doris Paschell a bland look. “Shall we go? It will take a while to see the entire campus.”
Doris spared Eli a final glare as she glided from the room. Leonard, too, stalked by. Anna gave Liza and Eli a knowing look, then silently shut the door behind her.
Liza’s breath drained from her body. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding it. Eli started swearing the moment the door clicked shut. She let him rage for a full twenty seconds before she crossed the room to wrap her arms around his waist. “Sorry,” she muttered into the soft denim of his shirt. “I would have spared you, but I didn’t think it was wise.”
He crushed her to him with stunning force. “No, I needed to be here. What did they say before I arrived?”
“Nothing important. Doris, er, hinted that she thinks the girls at Breeland aren’t what she might call her kind of people.’ “
That won a harsh laugh. “You could say that. Doris’s kind of people are heartless bastards who like to screw up other people’s lives.”
“I’m sure it was hard on them when Mara died.”
He sighed. “In their own way, I guess. Still, I’m not going to play this cat and mouse game with them. They want to take Grace from me, and it isn’t going to happen. That’s all there is to it.”
“Are they suing you for custody?”
“Not yet. For now, they’d just like to bully me into giving it to them.”
Liza tipped her head back so she could meet his glittering gaze. “Do you want them to see Grace while they’re here?”
“Hell, no,” he admitted. “But I don’t suppose I can avoid it.”
“Does she like them?”
He considered that for a minute, then shrugged. “It’s hard to say. She doesn’t seem to loath their company, although to my knowledge, she’s never actually asked to visit with them.”
“How often does she see them?”
“As seldom as possible. I’m not really sure what Doris and Leonard tell Grace about me, or about my relationship with Mara, but I get indications that I wouldn’t like it if I had all the facts.”
Unable to resist, Liza smoothed the frown from between his eyebrows with her index finger. “Grace hasn’t told you?”
“She hardly talks about it. The other day, though,” he shook his head, “I’m having some PR problems—it’s really more of an annoyance than anything. But I was on the phone with Martin about it, and by the time I hung up, Grace was asking me if I was going to go to prison over it.” His scowl deepened. “I’m sure she got that fear straight from Doris.”
A niggling worry began to amplify in the back of Liza’s mind. “Have you—considered—that the Paschells might try that to take Grace from you?”
“Hell, yes, I’ve considered it.”
“What are you doing about it?”
He frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
“You can’t just ignore it, Eli. You have to respond.”
“You sound like Martin.”
“God help us.”
“Look.” He looked exasperated. “There’s a researcher—Dr. Jonathan Dally—who is challenging some of my research. This type of thing happens all the time in the scientific community. One scientist beats another to the finish line, and the next thing you know, someone’s crying foul. It’s not a big deal.”
“But the publicity is bad.”
“It’s annoying,” he clarified. “Not bad. He doesn’t have a lot of support, but it’s a very high-profile situation.”
“Which is exactly my point,” she told him. “It’s high profile enough that the Paschells can use it against you.” She drummed her fingers on his chest. “Have you even bothered to defend yourself?”
His lips twitched.
“How do you know I’m right and he’s wrong?”
“Oh, don’t be an ass. Of course you’re right.”
“Thanks for that.”
“My point is, that if you continue to ignore this, the publicity is going to get worse. You’ll look like you’re hiding something if you don’t respond.”
“I know,” he assured her. “And I’m going to. I just wanted to get Grace settled in here without worrying about all that.”
“But she’s been concerned. You said so yourself.”
“I didn’t think she even knew about it until she brought it up.”
“Parenthood 101, Eli. Children know just about everything that’s going on in their home.”
“I’m learning that.”
“Did you talk to her about it?”
“Yes.”
“Did she seem okay with it after you discussed it?”
“I think so, yes.”
Liza nodded. “Then it’s going to be all right, Eli. We’ll handle the Paschells.”
He searched her face for long seconds, then his fierce expression began to register subtle changes. “Do you think so?”
“Yes. You don’t even need to worry about it.”
He rubbed his hand down her back. “How long is this tour that Bill and Anna just led them on?”
“Oh, it’ll take at least two hours. Three if Bill gets really wound up with stories about the history of Breeland. Anna will make sure Doris has quarter-sized blisters on her heels from walking on the brick paths in those pumps.”
She could practically feel the tension draining from him. “Lord,” he groaned as he leaned his head back. “They make me crazy.”
“I can certainly understand that.”
He met her gaze again, and this time, a subtle awareness glowed in his eyes. “And speaking of crazy—” his hands molded her to him, “do you realize this is the first time I didn’t have to manipulate you into my arms.”
“Eli—”
He shook his head. “Don’t, Liza. Not now. We’re alone. Finally. My heart is still pumping a hundred miles an hour from finding out Doris and Leonard are here.” He shifted against her, a slight, alluring motion meant to seduce. “I don’t want to argue. I haven’t got the energy.”
Her hesitation fled in the path of a gripping need that spiked her temperature several degrees. Clad in a denim shirt, he looked devastating. Her heart missed a beat. “You have friends, now, Eli. You don’t have to do this by yourself.”
He lowered his forehead to hers. “I know. Thanks for heading them off at the pass. I’m not sure how Grace would have reacted if they’d swooped into one of her classes.
“Like any normal kid would if her grandparents suddenly showed up at camp. She would have died from embarrassment.” She smoothed a wrinkle above his shirt pocket. “And you can thank Anna. She handled it. I’m pretty sure Doris wasn’t prepared for coming up against Anna’s iron-spined determination.”
He laughed. It sounded a little rusty, but it definitely counted as a laugh. “Probably not.”
“What did you do with your class when Lindsay came for you?”
“Dismissed ‘em.” He gave her a wry look. “That’s what my boss told me to do. Lindsay said so.”
“I did.”
“Does this mean we both have an afternoon off?”
She hedged. “I’m really swamped.”
He tightened his hands on her back. “I haven’t seen you for days.”
“Of course you have. I saw you yesterday afternoon at the faculty meeting.”
“Alone, Liza,” he said with strained patience. “I haven’t seen you alone”
“I seem to remember pointing out the challenges of that to you.”
“You don’t have to look so smug.”
“I’m not smug. Just practical.”
“I think you enjoy torturing me.”
“I do not. If you wanted to see me, I’ve been right here.”
“And always just out of reach,” he murmured. “Fancy that.”
Liza shrugged. “Think what you like, Eli. I warned you it would be like this.”
“Don’t fight me, Liza,” he cajoled.
And she sank farther into his web. “It’s not—”
“Please don’t fight me.”
His lips were a fraction of an inch from hers when a commotion outside the door arrested their attention. “He’s right in there, sweetie,” Connie was saying. “Go on in.”
Eli’s startled gaze met Liza’s as she pushed away from him. A split second later, Grace walked into the office. She looked from Liza to Eli, then back again. “Lindsay told me you wanted to see me.” She looked at Eli. “Hello, Father.”
He gave Liza a sharp look, then his features softened. “Hi, honey. Are you done with class?”
“Yes.” She looked at Liza again. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” Deliberately avoiding Eli’s gaze, Liza sat on the edge of the desk. With a slight wave of her hand, she indicated the battered chair where Doris had perched. “Nothing’s wrong. Your dad and I just wanted to talk to you about something. Want to sit down?”
Grace’s expression turned wary as she slipped onto the chair. “What’s going on? Am I in trouble?”
Eli cleared his throat as he crossed the room in three quick strides. He squatted by Grace’s chair so his face was eye level with hers. “Your grandparents stopped by today,” he explained quietly. “They’d like to see you.”
“Oh.” She stared at him. “They’re here?”
When several seconds of silence passed, Eli pressed. “Would you like to see them?”
She chewed on her lip. “Do you want me to?” she asked carefully.
“Honey,” he said slowly, “you can do what you want. If you want to see them, you may. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.” He narrowed his gaze as he studied Grace’s tense expression. “Do you think I’d make you see them?”
“They’re my grandparents,” she said.
“Yes.” He swept her dark hair from her face with the pads of his fingers, “And because of that, you need to be polite and kind to them. But if you don’t want to see them for some reason, then will you at least tell me what that reason is?”
She hesitated. Liza waited with bated breath while Grace searched her father’s expression. Finally, she leaned closer to him. “Are they going to make me leave?”
“Leave Breeland?”
That hesitation again. “Yes.”
“No,” he assured her. “I won’t let them do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.” His hands, Liza noted, had turned white from his grip on the arms of the chair, but he kept his voice low. “If you don’t want to leave, we won’t.”
“I don’t,” she said.
“Then it’s settled.”
Grace laid her hand against his cheek. “Daddy?”
His eyes drifted shut. “What, sweetheart?”
“If we eat dinner with them, can they leave right after?”
When he opened his eyes again, Liza saw the humor in them. “Want to know a secret?” he asked.
Grace nodded. Eli smiled at her. “I don’t like spending time with them very much, either.”
The child looked immeasurably relieved. “For real?”
“For real.”
“Mama liked us to go over there a lot.”
“I know.”
Grace frowned in concentration. “How come I never met your parents?”
“My parents aren’t alive anymore. They died before you were born.”
She seemed to consider that. “Both your parents died?” He nodded. Grace’s hands twisted in her lap. “When?”
“I was eighteen when my father died. Mom died three years later.”
“I didn’t know that. Mama never told me.”
“I should have told you. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“If I’d met them, would I have liked them?”
“I think so. The
y would have liked you, too.”
She met his gaze again. Liza could see the pain on the child’s face. “I don’t think Grandmother likes me very much.”
Eli’s shoulders shuddered. “Why not?” he asked quietly.
“She wants me to be more like Mama.”
And, Liza thought, less like Eli. Eli traced the curve of Grace’s jaw with his index finger. “You don’t have to be like your mother, Grace. You don’t have to be like me, either. I just want you to be yourself.”
She hesitated, but finally nodded. “I guess so.”
“And,” Eli continued, “If you want me to talk to your grandmother about it, I will.”
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “I don’t think she’s really mean or anything. I just think she’s really sad that Mama died.”
“She is.” He kissed her forehead. “And you look a little bit like your Mama. It makes it easier for your grandmother to remember your mother when she’s with you.”
“I know.” She studied his face for a moment. “But, Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Do I have to go over there every week when we’re home?”
“Didn’t your Mama take you every week?”
“Yes. Especially when she was with Paul. She liked to drop me off for weekends. She said she wanted me to know Grandmother and Grandfather better, but I think she just wanted to be alone with Paul.”
Liza saw the flash of anger that registered on the hard angles of Eli’s face. He wrestled with it for a moment, then brought it under control. “Maybe you’re right,” he said. “But can we make a deal that if you don’t want to go somewhere, you’ll just tell me about it? Things are different for both of us, Grace. I’m learning, too. I want you to talk to me about what you think. Okay?”
Grace hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Daddy?”
This time, his smile was dazzling. “What?”
She framed his face with her small hands. “No matter what Grandfather says, I’m really glad you let me live with you.”
Liza’s breath caught. Eli looked like he might faint. Grace bussed his lips with a quick kiss. “Can I go now?”
