Naomi gasped, rushing to stand.
And promptly swayed, her knees folding. Royce rushed to brace her but her eyes were already closing as she passed out. She eluded his grasp, collapsing back onto the sofa.
Panic pumping through him, Royce knelt beside her, checking her pulse, stroking her soft face. “Naomi? Naomi, honey...”
Marshall moved to the end of the sofa, swinging her feet up and placing a pillow under them. Teenage Aiden shuffled back and forth in a youthful fidget of indecision.
The million reasons for her fainting entered Royce’s head—all of which focused on pregnancy complications. More panic burned in his veins. He looked to Marshall. “Someone call a doctor.”
Her older brother sat on the armrest, a hand on his sister’s propped feet. “Let’s give her a second to wake up before we go all ballistic.”
Sighing at the inevitable, Royce knew he would have to betray Naomi’s trust. “You don’t understand. She’s pregnant.”
Ten
Royce wanted to focus all his thoughts on Naomi, but logic was tough to find with his brain on fire with the image of her fainting.
Having all her relatives swarming around him didn’t help. Neither had his impulsive revelation about her pregnancy. She would be mad as hell at him, no question. But they needed to know.
Naomi was coming around, sitting up on the sofa, hand resting on her forehead. Royce sat carefully beside her on the cream-colored sofa.
His Saint Bernard was the only mellow one in the room, sprawled out by the wall of windows, soaking up the sun. Naomi’s brother—Royce searched for the name of the guy who’d just flown in—Marshall walked forward one thudding step at a time. “What the hell? You knocked up my sister and have the gall to come here, like this, now when our family is going through personal hell?”
Broderick clapped a hand on Royce’s shoulder, leveling a laser stare at him. “I think we need to have a...talk.”
Aiden hung back watching, quiet, but clearly the teen was ready to throw himself into the fray with one word from his brothers.
Royce stood, keeping an eye on Naomi even as he addressed the trio of brothers. “I realize you’re under stress, but you should seriously consider removing that hand. Now.”
“How about this?” Broderick’s voice rose with every word. “I’ll remove any job offer that may have come your way.”
Glenna squeezed her husband’s elbow. “Broderick, stop. Think of your sister.”
Broderick winced, guilt in his eyes. Royce nodded tightly and returned his attention to Naomi. She still looked foggy but she was coming around fast. Fast enough that he could see her fiery temper filling her eyes.
Royce rubbed her shoulder. “Naomi, relax, I’ve got this.”
Naomi shook her head and dark thick hair swished against black silk. “No, I have this. I have my life.” Her chin tipped as she faced her family. “I’m pregnant because of in vitro fertilization from an anonymous donor. I wasn’t ready to tell the family yet since it’s still early, just two months along. Royce had nothing to do with this. Our, uh, relationship came as a surprise to both of us. And that’s all you get to know.”
Broderick extended a conciliatory hand. “Naomi, I’m sor—”
Naomi silenced him with a glare. With a lawyer’s precision, she broke their gaze, turned to Glenna, eyes softer now. “Glenna, could you please deal with my Cro-Magnon brother? He’s yours now, after all.”
“Of course I will.” Glenna placed a hand on Broderick’s elbow. “But we did come to your suite for a reason. We wanted to let you know that your father’s surgery has been set for tomorrow morning.”
Royce turned quickly to Naomi just as she all but deflated, her face filling with concern. The scientist in him didn’t miss a beat. He put his arm protectively around her shoulders.
No matter what all this family had to say about it—or even how much Naomi might protest—Royce wasn’t going anywhere.
* * *
For the first time since she woke up from fainting, the jumbled unease in her stomach wasn’t from her pregnancy. Too quickly, fear for her father had come back to the fore.
How could she have forgotten for even a moment?
Unable to resist, she curved into the comfort of Royce’s hard-planed body, his steady breaths soothing.
She lost track of how long they sat in silence, Tessie stretched at the base of the sofa. For a moment, Naomi allowed herself to imagine Tessie here long term, running headlong in the pasture below where a bay horse galloped now, kicking up snow and leaving trails of hoofprints.
But then her gaze strayed from the pasture to the water, where the family seaplane bobbed in the waves, tied to the dock. A reminder that her brother Marshall had rushed home. She wasn’t ready to think about her father or the mess of everyone hearing about her pregnancy just as they’d discovered her relationship with Royce wasn’t all business. She just couldn’t go there in her mind. Not yet.
As if sensing the loop of her thoughts, Royce pulled her closer, his arm wrapping around her chest. “I imagine it’s tough to think about anything except tomorrow, but let’s try.” He massaged her shoulders, his jeans warm against her fleece-lined leggings. “I want you to imagine we can go anywhere right now. Where would you want to go? Don’t think too hard. Just answer.”
Her mind took flight. “Kayaking with whales.”
“Seriously?” His laugh rumbled against her lightly. “You wouldn’t pick somewhere warm to laze by the beach in the sun?”
“Is Texas boy freezing his toes off in those boots?” she teased.
His laugh—the feel of it tangled up with hers—lingered. “I’m just surprised.”
“I love my home state.” And she did. So deeply it was a part of her. She glanced back to the Inuit rugs on her floor. Her thoughts went to her heritage, to her mother and all that was already lost.
“Yes, but you’re also a glamour girl.” He stroked her loose hair.
“Winter clothes are fun too, and more layers to peel away.” She tunneled her fingers between the buttons on his shirt, stroking his T-shirt underneath.
“True enough.” He slid a palm beneath her loose tunic with deft familiarity that stoked fissions of warmth through her.
“Honestly, I get to travel wherever I want, and I’ve enjoyed the trips, but I still always look forward to coming home. Maybe part of that is because my family’s all here. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.” Her family was woven into her soul, into the fabric of this community and the way she understood the world.
“Clearly. You braved a bear for them.”
The bear. A helluva stunt. And one that felt like a distant memory, despite being only a few days ago. Tragedies were funny things like that. Compressing the weariness of years and months into moments. “That seems a lifetime ago.”
“A lot has happened in a short time.” He drew her closer. “Your father is going to be alright. Just relax and let the doctors do their work. Let me be here for you.”
“Releasing control is easier said than done.” A sigh tumbled free.
“Control over anything?”
“What about you? You want me to trust you, but that goes both ways. We’ve rushed so much and still have so much to learn about each other.”
He tensed against her as if it was all he could do to stay on the sofa. But she’d already seen how determined he was to remain by her side. With her father’s surgery looming, she doubted Royce would go anywhere.
But afterward?
She shoved aside that thought. “So, do you mind if I ask more about you?”
“What else do you want to know?”
“I’d like to hear more about your former fiancée.”
He cricked his neck from side to side, pulling his arm from along the back of the sofa. “She was the girl next door, but also an
outsider like me. We both were a few grades ahead in school and, being younger than the rest of the crowd, that made it natural for us to hang out together, eat lunch together, walk home from school together.”
“That’s quite a history to have...and lose.”
His dark eyes went distant, as if he was somewhere else, another place, another time. “When she put the pieces of her life back together again after the miscarriage, she decided to sever all ties to the past. She said she was too dependent on me. Which is damn ironic because I always knew she carried me through life, taught me how to navigate the world, from school onward.”
“I’m so sorry.” Naomi paused, searching his eyes, unable to resist asking her question, nervous about how important his answer would be to her. “Do you still love her?”
“That’s irrelevant. We’ve been apart for ten years. She’s married with three kids.”
She couldn’t help noticing he’d dodged her question. “Alright, so she’s moved on, but that doesn’t answer my question. Do you still love her?”
“I can’t love anyone who would turn their back on me.”
“That’s very clear-cut.”
“I’m a scientist. I deal better in facts. You should understand that as a lawyer, a person of reason.”
“I see so many shades of gray in my job it defies description.” A yawn interrupted her. Exhaustion tugged at her after her long night at the hospital and everything that came after.
And she knew Royce wouldn’t miss the telltale sign of her tired state. Still she insisted even as her eyes drifted closed, “I want to visit my father again later, when everyone’s not vying for his attention.”
“I’ll wake you.”
Surrendering control wasn’t easy...but her body won over her will.
For now.
* * *
Royce knew that his place was not inside the room with Naomi and Jack Steele, the patriarch of the Alaska Oil Barons dynasty. He knew that. Logic screamed it. Naomi needed time with her father to talk before his surgery.
But damn. He found it hard to stay at the threshold of the hospital door and not be there physically beside Naomi when he knew she needed support.
So he’d settled for the next best thing. Standing at the doorway to eavesdrop.
Not that he coded it that way. Royce preferred to think of it in more scientific terms: data collection. Since he couldn’t be in there with her, Royce would make sure he knew how to best attend to that beautifully strong-willed force of nature after she left the room.
Jack had a voice like a gale force wind. Even sick and worn, his cadence demanded attention. “I hear from your brother that you’re pregnant?”
“Domestication has turned Broderick into a blabbermouth.” Though her back was to him, Royce could hear the eye roll in Naomi’s assessment of her brother. “But yes, Daddy. I am.” She sat in the chair at his bedside. “I’m sorry you didn’t hear it from me. I had planned to tell you myself tonight. I wanted you to know before the surgery.”
“This guy, the scientist with you? He’s the father?” Jack Steele’s gaze went to the door where Royce stood reading his cell phone, tamping down a wince over the assumption he was the father.
Broderick hadn’t told his dad the details? Apparently, he only spilled part of secrets. Or maybe Jack’s concussion was messing with his memory.
“No, Dad, he’s not. I went the in vitro route. You’re going to be a grandfather. That’s good news.” Naomi squeezed her dad’s hand. “This wasn’t how I’d planned for you to find out, but I’m glad you’re happy.”
“Yes, baby girl. I am. I’m just surprised, and the concussion has me thinking slower than usual. I’m happy for you, for all of us.”
“Thank you.” Silence echoed heavily before she continued, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be the conventional daughter you want.”
Naomi’s words gutted Royce.
“Whoa, stop with that.” Jack lifted a shaky hand to pat his daughter’s cheek.
“I didn’t mean to upset you. Just rest.” She kissed his forehead. “Love you, Daddy.”
“Well, just so you know, I like that scientist. Now could you find Jeannie for me?”
Royce could see a hint of resentment sneak past her defenses. But she smiled anyway. “Of course. I’ll let her know you’re ready for her to come back in.”
She stood, tightening her ponytail, then flipping it over her shoulder in an attempt at normalcy. Royce could see her hurt and disappointment in the way her face tightened. The line of her smile and her dark brown eyes said everything, betrayed her disappointment at her father’s lukewarm reaction to her news. He couldn’t help but think about her apologizing for not being the kind of daughter she thought her father wanted.
And damn if Royce couldn’t help but wonder if that had played into why she’d thrown herself in front of a grizzly bear just to meet him.
Eleven
Wind whipped around the corner of the hospital balcony, covered but not enclosed, stinging Naomi’s exposed skin. Wrapping her arms around herself, she tried to push more warmth into her body. The thick cable knit of her green sweater valiantly sheltered her from much of the wind’s relentless impact. A day in the thirties in Alaska felt downright balmy.
Normally she embraced the support of her large family, but right now she felt a hint of understanding for Royce’s need for solitude. The waiting room had been so packed with people and riotous emotions, everyone worrying about how Jack’s surgery was going. Not just family, but friends, as well. People from work. Even a surprise visit from Birch Montoya. He’d quietly kept his distance, while offering support by keeping everyone supplied with coffee.
Naomi’s brain and heart were on overload. She’d made sure they knew where to find her and she had her cell phone.
As she inhaled, drinking in the wind, an acute sharpness wedged into her chest. Palpable, locatable fear and unease from a legion of sources.
She needed this moment. This space away from everyone. Part of the allure of Alaska that struck true to Naomi’s heart was the iced aloofness of the landscape. Though a delicate ecology existed, there were ways in which the Alaskan brush protected the individual’s need for sovereignty and solitude.
Which she needed now more than ever. Waiting for news of her father’s surgery had set her on edge, then to feel she fell short of his expectations yet again? That hurt and she didn’t know how to reconcile the pain. Heaven help her if something happened to her dad before she found peace with him.
She’d retreated out here since all her siblings had channeled their anxieties over Jack Steele’s surgery into a discussion of her pregnancy, with sidelong glances that insinuated she’d gone off on a lark.
No wonder she hadn’t told them ahead of time.
The attention felt suffocating. But then her siblings were likely falling into old habits out of stress, focusing on her health and her father’s as if their concern could somehow keep death from lashing out prematurely at their family yet again.
From behind her, the rustle of an opening door intruded on her thoughts. Out of the corner of her eye, Royce approached, clothed in a warm jacket, a rough five o’clock shadow taking up residence on his angled face. Her attention remained ahead, extending to the mountain range in front of her that watched over deep sapphire water.
A feeling of conflict rose as a lump in her throat. On one hand, she wanted to melt into Royce’s embrace. Cast her fears of intimacy aside and believe he’d be there to support her. He was here listening to her with unjudging eyes when the rest of her family wasn’t. But leaning on the railing, she chewed her lip, the fear for her father coalescing with the fear of depending on Royce.
“I just needed some air.” She put on her best smile to keep him from whipping out a five-course meal here on the balcony, which was actually kind of sweet. If she could just believe he had fai
th in her ability to stand on her own. “I assume you of all people understand about the need for some quiet.”
“Here’s your jacket.”
“Thank you. That’s thoughtful, but it’s actually a fairly warm day for us Alaskans, Texas boy.”
“If you’re sure.” He didn’t sound convinced. At all. “Food? Whatever you’re craving, I’ll find it.”
“I’m too upset to eat, but thank you.” She couldn’t help but notice how he was standing there holding her jacket for her, at her side when no one else in her family was. “I appreciate your effort, but can we just relax?”
“I’m worried about you. Is that so wrong?” He walked toward her, a dusting of snow packing with each step. He stopped beside her, leaning against the railing. Face so near to hers.
Again, Naomi felt torn by the urge to reach out coupled by the urge to run. “You’re concerned and that’s kind of you. But there’s nothing you can do to help my father. Just being here is comfort.”
“You’ve been running yourself ragged with the trip up during the storm and now with your dad’s injury.” He tucked a windswept strand of her hair behind her ear.
While she recognized he had a point, his observation grated on her nerves, sparking a different kind of fire between them. “I am an adult—” she waved her hand as if gesturing to all of her family members “—with lots of support. And I do mean a lot.” Although so far, they hadn’t been as supportive as she’d hoped. She wanted to think it was because of distraction over their dad’s accident. Time would tell.
“I realize that, but you’re tired and stressed. It’s icy out here.” He had a point, but the way he said it... “What if you were to slip while you’re alone?”
“Royce, could you please just—”
The doors swooshed open, cutting her short. Trystan Mikkelson burst through. His rugged, usually reserved face shone with a smile. “We tried texting you.”
The Double Deal Page 13
