Nathan's Child

by Anne McAllister

  “Yes. Of course. Thank you. Where is she?”

  “At Maurice and Estelle’s. Hugh will bring her by later.” His jaw tightened briefly. “We ran into him at the airfield and he insisted on coming to the hospital with us. When you were out of surgery, he flew home. He’ll tell Lacey.”

  “And he’s bringing her?”

  “Later today. And he’ll take her home again.”

  Knowing that Lacey was all right eased Carin’s mind. That didn’t help, though, when it came to her arm. She looked at the cast with the pins, and then at her leg. “What did they do to me?”

  “Rasmussen called in an orthopedic surgeon, who set your arm. He put a couple of pins in it, said it would heal faster that way. Your ankle is sprained. X-rays came back negative for breaks on that,” Nathan reported. “You’ve got some abrasions. Lots of grit in your skin. They picked that out while you were unconscious.” He nodded at her face and at her gauze-wrapped hands. “It should heal up pretty fast. Doc said a couple of months and you’d be good as new.”

  “A couple of months?” Carin tried not to wail the words. “My show…”

  “Don’t worry about your show.”

  “Easy for you to say,” she muttered.

  “Ah, good. You’re awake, dearie.” A nurse appeared in the doorway, a bright white smile on her ebony face. “How you be feeling, then?”

  “Just ducky,” Carin muttered. But it was actually nice to see someone other than Nathan.

  “Pain medication wearing off?” The nurse shook a pill out into a tiny paper cup and gave it to Carin. “You just take this. You feel better soon.” She held a glass of water so Carin could sip it and get the pill down. “You get lots of sleep now an’ you heal right up,” she went on. “Don’t worry ’bout a thing. Your husband, he take care of things for you.”

  The water went right up Carin’s nose. She coughed and snorted and gasped and every muscle in her body screamed.

  “Oh, dear. Oh, dear. You drink too fast. Go slow. You got to go slow, dearie,” the nurse said, completely misunderstanding the reason for Carin’s coughing fit. The nurse put the glass out of reach and waited until Carin had stopped choking. “There now. You go slow.”

  “He. Is. Not. My. Husband.” Carin wheezed out the words. She shot Nathan a fulminating glare.

  The nurse looked surprised, then as her gaze turned to Nathan, she looked accusing.

  In return Nathan looked both implacable and inscrutable. Whatever he had told the doctors and the hospital staff, it had apparently involved him being a close relative.

  Now he shrugged, as if to say, Want to make something of it?

  Clearly the nurse didn’t. “You want more water now you stopped choking?” she asked Carin.

  “No. Thank you,” Carin added after a moment, banishing the rude child. She gave the nurse a wan smile and was rewarded with a pat on the hand.

  “Don’t you fret now,” she said. “Whatever he is, he cares about you.” Then, giving Nathan a smile, too, she headed for the door. “You need anything, you push that button,” she pointed to the one by Carin’s hand. And then she was gone.

  And the two of them were alone again.

  “Go away,” Carin said after a moment.

  Nathan didn’t bother to answer. He didn’t bother to move, either. He just sprawled in the chair by her bedside, looking tired. His dark hair was ruffled and uncombed, as if he’d run his hands through it. Dark stubble shadowed his cheeks and jaw. He was wearing a rumpled long-sleeved blue shirt and a pair of jeans faded at the knees to almost white. They were what he’d been wearing when she’d seen him right before she’d gone sailing over the handlebars of her bike.

  “What time is it?” she asked wearily, when it was clear he wasn’t going anywhere. There was some light coming through the window, but not much. It looked to be getting dark.

  Nathan glanced at his watch. “Just past seven.”

  “I’ve been out six hours?”

  “Eighteen. It’s seven in the morning.”

  She stared at him. “Seven in the morning. Tomorrow? I mean, I’ve been here since yesterday?”

  Nathan nodded. “Yep.”

  “And you’ve been here…”

  “Since we brought you in.”

  No wonder he looked as if he’d been run over by a truck. And Carin didn’t even want to think what she must look like. “You should go home,” she said.

  “I will.” But he still made no effort to move.

  “Don’t you have a hotel room?”

  “Didn’t need one. They let me stay here.”

  All night? He’d sat beside her bed all night? Carin was mortified and felt oddly teary at the same time.

  “Well, you didn’t need to,” she told him.

  “I promised Lacey I would.”

  And what could she say to that? Her fingers curled around a handful of sheet, and she shook her head, overwhelmed, exhausted, hurting even though the pain killer was beginning to take effect. It made her feel woozy. Her eyes shut.

  “Go to sleep,” she heard Nathan say. His voice seemed to come from far away. “Get that rest the nurse was talking about.”

  She strove to open her eyes. “You—” But of their own accord her lids closed again. “You should go…”

  The last thing she heard was Nathan say, “Don’t worry about me.”

  Nathan was doing enough worrying for both of them.

  Whatever “opportunity” he’d been waiting for, he’d never imagined this one. The sight of Carin flying over those handlebars was one he would take to his grave. And the vision of her chalk-white face and the way her eyes went all glassy from shock still had the effect of a punch in the gut every time he called them to mind.

  He hadn’t left her side except for the time she’d spent in the operating room. Then he’d paced the hallway cursing and muttering, calling himself seven dozen kinds of a fool for being so damn “patient” so damn long.

  He should have just hauled her off to a justice of the peace as soon as he’d arrived. It was what his father and Dominic would have done.

  It was fine to let people go their own way if they didn’t matter to you. But Carin mattered!

  He loved her.

  The moment he realized it was frozen forever in time as if he’d framed a shot, clicked the shutter and captured the mind-boggling amazement that came with it.

  He had told himself he’d come for Lacey. He had a daughter; he wanted to know her. And Carin? He hadn’t let himself think about Carin.

  When he couldn’t help but think about her, he’d focused on his anger at her not telling him, on his pain that she hadn’t loved him enough to trust him to do the right thing. And after he’d got here and faced further rejection, he’d done his best to get his heart to reject her, too.

  But it wouldn’t. Because his heart knew what his head had tried to deny—that he had come because of Carin. Lacey had been a part of it, the catalyst, but not the deepest reason.

  That had been Carin all along.

  He’d had a lot of time to think about it during the fifteen hours or so, after his epiphany. He had sat by her in the recovery room. He’d walked alongside the gurney when they’d taken her back to her room. He’d scarcely left her side since. He’d answered questions from the doctors and nurses. He’d fielded visitors—and she’d had several, including Hugh, who had run into his sister at the airfield.

  Hugh had come up to the room right after she’d returned from recovery and had insisted on seeing her. “Lacey will want to know how she is,” he’d said.

  “Getting along,” Nathan had replied. But he knew that Hugh was right, that Lacey would expect a report and that it would be better for her if she knew Hugh had actually seen her mother. So he let Hugh in.

  “For a few minutes.” He’d stayed right by her side, and he’d made sure Hugh understood that he was in charge.

  Hugh hadn’t seemed inclined to dispute it. There were no grins and intimate glances. He kept a respectful
distance from Carin’s sleeping form, standing at the foot of the bed, looking pale and worried and shaken, but uninclined to fight Nathan for the place of responsibility.

  On the contrary, after he’d looked at Carin, he’d turned his gaze toward Nathan and said, “You’re staying?” he asked as if he already knew the answer.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll bring Lacey tomorrow.”

  Nathan had wanted to say that it wasn’t necessary. But of course Hugh’s offer was sensible and was what Carin would want. So he’d agreed. “That’d be good.”

  Hugh nodded and looked back at Carin, then sighed. “What a mess.” Then noting how Nathan had stiffened, he grinned faintly. “Not Carin.”

  “Definitely not Carin.”

  “She’s going to be crazy when she realizes she won’t get enough paintings finished.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  As soon as Hugh left, Nathan had used the phone in the room to call Gaby. He’d told her to call Carin’s agent to tell her what happened, to see what could be done. And then he’d gone back to sitting beside Carin.

  He wished he could at least hold her hand. But both hands had been bandaged and she was asleep and there was nothing he could do at all.

  Only sit there and know that he loved her.

  He wouldn’t go away.

  They were going to keep her in the hospital three days. Three!

  It was ridiculous, Carin told the nurses, the doctors, everyone who came to see her. Everyone knew they were sending people home from the hospital the moment they’d pinned them back together these days.

  “Not here,” said Dr. Bagley, who had done the surgery. “Not my patients. You stay until I say you are ready. You cooperate, maybe you go home tomorrow.”

  And since there was no way she could go without help, Carin stayed—and cooperated.

  But she didn’t need Nathan bloody Wolfe staying with her!

  She told him that. She told the nurses and doctors and everyone else who came to see her, too. Often. Hourly sometimes.

  No one paid any attention. Not even Hugh. He came bringing Lacey the afternoon after she’d had surgery, and she’d tried to get him to take Nathan home with him. “He doesn’t need to be here,” she’d said. “I don’t want him here.”

  But Hugh only shrugged and said not very helpfully, “He says he’s staying.”

  Something had happened between Nathan and Hugh while she’d been asleep. There was no convincing Nathan that Hugh meant anything to her anymore. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

  So she tried to enlist the aid of the nurses. “Tell him to go away,” she said to each of them in turn. “He’s invading my privacy.”

  “Ah, dearie, you know you’d miss him,” said one.

  “Send that great hunk of handsome away? Not on your life, ducks,” said another.

  “Only if I can take him home with me,” said the youngest, batting her lashes and slanting hungry grins Nathan’s way.

  “Don’t be daft,” the senior nurse said to Carin. “Without him you’d be in a ward, not in a private room. I’d give my arm for a man who cared that much for me. Hasn’t left you once.”

  “You need a change of clothes and a shower,” Carin told Nathan.

  “I took a shower,” Nathan said, nodding toward the bathroom attached to her room. “And Gaby brought me a change of clothes just this morning.”

  “Good for her,” Carin said sourly.

  Nathan just grinned at her. “See? Clean jeans. Fresh shirt. Brought me my shaving kit, too. I’ll shave when you take a nap.”

  Carin could see, now, that he had cleaned up. And though he obviously still looked tired, his stubbled jaw only made him look rakish and more handsome than ever. She felt like an ugly witch by comparison.

  “Gaby’s looking forward to meeting you.”

  “What!”

  “She’ll be along in a little while. She couldn’t stop this morning. Had a business meeting this morning. But when they get things sorted out, she’ll be along to see you.”

  “She doesn’t need to stop and see me,” Carin said hastily. “What does she want to meet me for?”

  “Because I’ve told her all about you,” Nathan said.

  Whatever that meant. Carin didn’t even want to think. She didn’t have time in any event because moments later the door to her room opened and the beautiful blonde Carin recognized as Gaby came in.

  She wasn’t alone, either. There was another woman with her. She came running toward Carin, long, dark hair flying.

  “Oh, my God, Carin! You poor thing! I didn’t believe it when Gaby told me!”

  Carin gaped. “Stacia? How did you—” Nathan’s agent had told hers that she was in the hospital? Oh, dear God. “I was going to call you,” she began, trying to sound calm and in control to Stacia, all the while shooting Nathan a furious glare. “I’ve got…got two of the paintings done. I know that’s not—”

  “Not to worry,” Stacia said, patting her unplastered arm. “You need to rest. To get well. You need to take care of your arm. Even your hands are bandaged.” She was tsking, making horrified sounds.

  “I’ll be all right,” Carin said. Dr. Bagley hadn’t told her she wouldn’t be. He’d said she might need some therapy, but she could do that. “I just can’t get all six of the paintings done now, though.”

  If Stacia dumped her, Stacia dumped her. This show had been going to be her “big break,” and she might never get another. But there was no crying over what had happened. It had happened—and she simply had to go on from there.

  “No problem,” Stacia said, giving an airy wave of her hand.

  Carin blinked. “No…problem?”

  That wasn’t what Stacia had been saying the last time they’d talked. “You think you’ve got enough to make the show go on?”

  “Of course,” Stacia said emphatically. “It’s all sorted out. It will be wonderful.” She beamed at Carin, then at Nathan. “Having such a wonderful photographer’s work as a complement to your paintings will bring patrons out in droves.”

  “What!” Carin tried to sit bolt upright, but gasped at the pain and sank back against the pillows to stare aghast at Stacia. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nathan’s offer. You know we needed more,” Stacia said, perfectly matter-of-factly. “I told you that. I told you six more large pieces minimum. Better ten. Or lots of smaller ones. So you finished two more. And Nathan offered his work to fill in the gaps. Island shots, right?” She looked at Nathan for confirmation.

  He looked a little uneasy, as well he might. If looks could kill, Carin thought, he’d have been worse off than she was.

  “I don’t need Nathan bailing me out,” she said to Stacia.

  Stacia blinked, then said, “Oh, but you do. We don’t have enough otherwise.”

  “Then we won’t do it!”

  Stacia just looked at her. For a full minute she didn’t say a thing, just looked, and let Carin realize how stupid and petulant and childish she sounded. It didn’t even take thirty seconds. Irritably she did her best to shrug.

  “I don’t like to be beholden,” she said irritably. “I wanted to do it on my own.”

  “But circumstances don’t permit. And you will,” Stacia assured her. “In time, you will. But for now, this is perfect. It will showcase your work in the company of a man who shares a vision with you. Different media, same subject. Wonderful. And I hear that your daughter has done some fine work as well.”

  “Lacey?” Carin looked from Stacia to Nathan to Gaby.

  Gaby was nodding. “She’s very talented. We thought we might feature all three of you.” She beamed. “A family affair. Island Eyes.”

  While Carin listened, stupefied, they chatted on, as if it were really going to happen. They talked about logistics and shipping and framing and all the practicalities that meant they were serious. They discussed Lacey’s work as if they were familiar with it. They mentioned different pieces. They talked abou
t balancing her work and Nathan’s with Carin’s paintings.

  Every once in a while they consulted Nathan. But they talked as if Carin weren’t even in the room. When the nurse appeared, she took one look at Carin’s pained expression and misunderstood the situation completely.

  “Out,” she said to Gaby and Stacia. “You’re tiring my patient.”

  They didn’t seem to mind. “We can finish this over lunch,” Gaby said cheerfully. “No sense in bothering Carin about it.”

  “Of course not.” Stacia came over and patted Carin’s hand. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Gaby and Nathan and I will take care of everything.”

  “We certainly will,” Gaby seconded. “It was lovely to meet you at last, though I’d have preferred other circumstances,” she added. “And don’t worry. Everything will be fine. We’ll see to it.”

  Carin looked from one woman to the other, and finally at Nathan. “No reassurances from you?” she asked sarcastically.

  He shrugged, but met her gaze steadily. “Trust me,” he suggested.

  She didn’t.

  Not an inch.

  How could she when he just bullied his way in and took over her life?

  First he insisted on staying with her the whole time she was in the hospital. Then he arranged for his agent and hers to get together and come up with this ridiculous combined show, this “family affair,” which everyone else seemed to think was wonderful and which Carin knew was a sham.

  They weren’t a family, damn it!

  But when she pointed that out to Nathan, he said, “We could be.”

  And she knew that was his way of saying he was still willing to marry her. Obviously the Wolfe notion of duty ran very very deep.

  She found out just how deep when she finally got out of the hospital and Hugh flew her home to Pelican Cay.

  Of course it was too much to hope that Nathan wouldn’t be with her every step of the way. Even when she had Hugh right there to help her, Nathan insisted on carrying her across the tarmac and helping her into the helicopter.