“That’s why you’re here,” Diane said, “isn’t it?”
Marissa wasn’t about to admit that she’d moved in with Blake. She hadn’t had time to think of an appropriate cover story for her actions, and she didn’t want to reveal Suze’s fractured marriage as her reason for leaving her parents’ home. Marissa didn’t even know yet what had precipitated the breakup, since she and Suze hadn’t had time to talk. The last thing she wanted was to spread the news around the gossip-hungry town.
“We’re here to help find Annie’s mother,” Pete explained.
“Right.” Marissa breathed a sigh of relief that their friends believed she was at Blake’s house to consult with him about Annie’s temporary custody. “But how can you help?”
Marissa glanced at Blake, who looked as puzzled as she was.
Diane dug into the pocket of her shorts, removed a folded sheet of paper, and smoothed it open on the kitchen table. “I’ve worked out a rough design for a flyer.”
Under a blazing headline reading Find Annie’s Mom, Diane had drawn a picture of the front of Blake’s house with the laundry basket prominently positioned in front of the door. The flyer’s sidebars included the day and time of Annie’s abandonment, a description of the infant and wicker basket, and Blake’s business number where people could call if they’d noticed a woman with an infant or carrying the laundry basket anywhere in Dolphin Bay the past few days.
Blake leaned over and studied the sketch, then turned to Pete with an amazed expression. “You really paid attention to my story.”
Pete shrugged off the compliment. “I’m a stickler for details.”
“I can finish this after supper. If you approve.” Diane glanced from Blake to Marissa.
“It’s a great idea,” Blake said. Marissa nodded in agreement.
“We’ll take the completed flyer to Kinko’s,” Pete said, “and have them run off several hundred.”
“The church youth group we sponsor has a car wash tomorrow morning,” Diane said. “Before we start, we’ll ask the kids to distribute these all over town, but especially in this neighborhood and in the shop windows. If anyone saw anything, we should hear back fairly quickly.”
The Jacobses’ thoughtfulness caused a tightness in Marissa’s throat that verged on tears. She’d forgotten how good the people of Dolphin Bay could be, especially in a crisis. Pete and Diane were going all out for a baby they’d never even seen.
“You guys are terrific,” she told them. “I never knew how much I’ve missed you until now.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” Pete said.
“Thanks, bud,” Blake said, “and you, too, Diane. The flyer is brilliant.”
“You’d do it for us,” Diane said.
Watching Blake, Marissa knew Diane’s claim was true. Their scheme really had nothing to do with Marissa, although they’d gladly included her. Their loyalty was totally to Blake. He obviously was a true friend to generate such a response.
Sneaking Bo a second piece of pizza crust beneath the table, Marissa couldn’t help comparing Blake with Harry. Her ex-husband had considered his friends a means to an end, people he used to obtain what he wanted, whether sealing a business contract or borrowing a boat or vacation home.
Blake, on the other hand, had taken on the task of finding a home for Annie with no hope of reward other than the child’s ultimate happiness. Marissa panicked at the wave of affection that surged through her. Her old teenage flame was a paragon of kindness, loyalty and good looks. And she was as vulnerable as a woman could be, having just ended a bitterly disappointing marriage with her self-esteem in shreds. The fact that she’d moved into Blake’s house and placed herself in constant intimate contact with him showed exactly how poorly she’d been thinking. Intent on helping her sister, she’d landed in a situation where, if she wasn’t extremely careful, she’d put her own heart in jeopardy. Again.
She shuddered inwardly. She wouldn’t risk that kind of pain. Ever.
Mentally she made a list. Locating a place of her own would be her top priority. But, despite her efforts to harden her heart, she had to admit that helping Blake find a good home for his Annie came a close second.
PETE AND DIANE LEFT in the pouring rain, the leading edge of a cold front that had dropped temperatures drastically.
Typical Florida weather, Blake thought. Scorching one minute, freezing the next. While Marissa finished settling into the guest room, he laid logs and kindling in the living room fireplace. By the time she returned to join him, the fire had chased the chill from the house.
Marissa curled in the corner of the sofa and sipped hot chocolate Blake had made. Bo lay beside her, his head on her lap.
Blake envied the dog. “Looks like you have a new friend.”
“He’s a sweetie.” Marissa ruffled Bo’s fur. “I’ve always loved dogs.”
“Never had one of your own?”
“Harry didn’t like them.”
Blake scowled. “I’ve always been suspicious of people who don’t like dogs.”
Marissa giggled. “Dogs didn’t care much for Harry, either.” Her expression sobered. “That should have been a clue.”
Blake settled in the chair across from her and took a drink of hot chocolate. The clock on the mantel chimed 10:00 p.m. “It’s been a long day.”
Marissa nodded. “Too long.”
Blake noted her troubled expression as she gazed into the fire. “You’re worried about Suze?”
She nodded again.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Nothing to tell. I haven’t spoken with my sister yet. I have no idea what’s going on.” Marissa’s eyes clouded with sadness. “I left her a note, asking her to call me when she’s ready to talk.”
“Will she?”
“Maybe. Some things are too painful to discuss, even with family.”
Blake noted the dejected slump of Marissa’s shoulders. “The voice of experience?”
She brushed a strand of honey-blond hair off her forehead. “It’s hard to admit to the people you love most that you’ve really messed up.”
“You think Suze and Michael’s breakup is her fault?” he asked.
Marissa shrugged. “Marriage cuts both ways. It takes two to marry, two to ruin it.”
“I don’t believe that,” Blake insisted.
She gazed at him in apparent surprise. “Why not?”
“Because I know you.”
“We aren’t talking about me,” she corrected quickly.
“Maybe we should.”
Marissa didn’t answer. She stared at the flickering flames and patted Bo’s head.
“I remember you too well, Rissa,” Blake said gently. “You always kept things to yourself. Especially anything bad that you were afraid would make others uncomfortable to talk about.”
“Like what?” she challenged.
“Like the time during our sophomore year that you missed making the final cut for the cheerleading squad. I saw how you brushed it off when your mom asked if you’d been selected.”
She shrugged. “It was no big deal.”
“Then how come you sat on the beach that night and cried your heart out?”
Her hazel eyes widened. “You spied on me? I never knew.”
“I wasn’t spying. I’d come over to see if you wanted to take the boat out. When I saw you crying, I figured you wanted to be alone, and I left.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought you wanted your privacy, but I’ve always regretted leaving that night.”
“Why?”
“You needed a friend. I should have been there for you.”
A smile smoothed the sadness from her face. “You were always a great friend. The best I ever had.”
Her compliment warmed him. “And Harry?”
Her smile faded. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
Blake set his mug down, shooed Bo off the sofa and sat next to Marissa. “Maybe you should.”
“Because you need an objective listener.” He took her hand, twined his fingers with hers and experienced a sense of satisfaction when she didn’t pull away. “And it’s good to get things off your chest.”
“There’s nothing to tell.” Her chin trembled so slightly he almost didn’t detect it. “My husband cheated on me. For years. Everyone in the town where we lived knew but me.”
Anger toward the man he’d never met flared in Blake’s gut. “And you think his cheating was your fault?”
“If I’d been a better wife—”
“That’s a load of crap,” Blake said hotly. “I’ve met too many guys like Harry. They can have the sweetest, most perfect woman in the world waiting at home, but their egos, or whatever demons they’re fleeing, keep them running after other women, hoping that eventually the so-called ‘right’ one—or maybe just enough mind-numbing sex—will fill the hole in their souls.”
She tossed him a watery smile. “How’d you get to be so smart?”
“I listen a lot.”
“So you’ve heard all the gossip in Dolphin Bay about the reason for my divorce?”
“Only that you had ended your marriage a few months ago. But I know you, Rissa. If Harry had been a decent guy, you two would still be together.”
Marissa turned toward him. “I tried to make it work. Everyone told me marrying Harry was a mistake. The warning signs were there early in the marriage, but I refused to see them. I didn’t want to face the I-told-you-sos if I left him. Then things got so bad, I had no choice. My self-esteem was already in tatters. If I’d stayed with him, I’d have none left.”
“Some relationships aren’t meant to work.” Touched by her despair, Blake slid an arm around her shoulders and drew her close. She fit into the curve of his body as if she’d been meant for him alone. “Harry didn’t deserve you.”
She blinked away tears. “You always knew the right things to say to make me feel better. You haven’t changed.”
Yes, he had. He had learned to recognize perfection when he saw it, and Marissa Mason was the most perfect woman he’d ever met. Beautiful, warm, sexy, smart. The list was endless. Before he could consider the consequences, he dipped his head and touched his lips to hers. She tasted of cocoa and salty tears. He cradled her cheek with the palm of his hand, reveling in the warmth and softness of her skin. The subtle fragrance of wisteria filled his nostrils, driving out sympathy and replacing it with excitement. He pulled her closer, felt the delicious curve of her breast against his chest, the thunder of her pulse beneath his fingers. His blood pounded in his ears in response.
She opened her mouth to his and strained against him. Incredible and unexpected desire shot through him like a wildfire through dry grass.
Suddenly she pulled away. “This is a bad idea.”
The sweetness of her smile and the gentle touch of her fingers on his lips eased the harshness of her words.
“Seemed like a good one to me,” he said, struggling to find breath enough to speak.
She shook her head. “You were only being kind, and that was leading places neither of us should go. We’re buddies, remember?”
With her scent tantalizing him, the memory of the silkiness of her skin still warming his flesh, Blake realized with a start that he wanted more than friendship. But Marissa was right. The rawness of her recent wounds made her lack of readiness for more than companionship too apparent.
He took her face between his hands and met her quiet gaze, wishing he could wash away the pain that lingered in those green depths, wishing he could kick her former husband’s sorry butt from here to eternity. “What you need is a good night’s sleep.”
Marissa hesitated, and for an instant Blake hoped she was considering kissing him again. But she extricated herself from his grasp and stood. “Sleep tight.”
“You, too.”
But as Blake watched her graceful retreat to the guest room, he had a feeling sleep wouldn’t come easily that night.
Chapter Six
Kitty stepped into Marissa’s office. “He’s here.”
Marissa noted the skittishness in her receptionist’s expression. “Relax, Kitty. I keep telling you, Blake’s one of the good guys.”
“Right. That’s why he’s being hauled before a judge this morning.”
“He isn’t being hauled. We requested the hearing. You’ll understand everything when you type my notes for the file.”
“If you say so,” Kitty said with obvious skepticism. “But someone that good-looking has to be dangerous.”
Marissa silently agreed. Not that Blake would ever hurt anyone. But he was definitely a man too easy to like. Too easy too love. She’d learned that lesson fully the first night she’d rented his guest room, the night he’d kissed her in front of the fireplace, the night she’d almost made a fool of herself with her overwhelming desire to throw herself into his arms.
She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Although his kiss had affected her more than she wanted to admit, Blake’s motivation, as always, had been kindness that had momentarily gone out of control. He was too good a friend for her to jeopardize their relationship by carrying it beyond appropriate bounds. Unfortunately, however, her body had responded to Blake in ways it had never responded to Harry, but she didn’t believe in recreational sex. Sex was for marriage, and marriage was for life.
Yeah, right. She’d already proved half of that theorem wrong.
“Send Blake in,” she instructed Kitty.
While Kitty returned to the waiting room, Marissa composed herself to see Blake for the first time in several days since that kiss, even though they’d communicated by phone or through notes left under the magnet on the refrigerator door. By rearranging her schedule, she’d managed to avoid him, leaving the house after his early departures and, thanks to working late hours, slipping into her room long after he had gone to sleep. She’d almost broken her resolve to evade him when she came home the second night and discovered he’d purchased a luxurious new mattress for the guest-room bed.
With today’s scheduled hearing in Judge Standiford’s chambers, however, she couldn’t avoid coming face-to-face with Blake. She hoped the fact that he was her client would add a protective buffer around her rebellious emotions.
She lifted her head and smiled when Blake stepped into the room. Luckily, years of practice keeping a poker face in the courtroom so the jury couldn’t gauge her thoughts helped hide the reactions of her traitorous heart. His warm, easy grin sent her pulse racing. She’d tried to continue to think of him merely as the adorable skinny teenager of her youth. The sight of the big, muscular man dressed in a well-cut suit and classy tie, as handsome as any movie idol, erased those earlier images and made her want to throw herself into his arms, a safe haven, and a definitely desirable destination, if she ever saw one.
Down, counselor. He’s your client, remember?
“So you are real,” Blake said.
“What?” Evidently her besotted reaction to him had extended to her brain. His words made no sense.
He folded his tall body gracefully into the chair in front of her desk. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, I’ve been calling you my phantom tenant.”
Marissa lost the fight to control the blush that colored her cheeks. “I’ve been busy.”
“Me, too.”
“How’s the Hearthstone Project coming?”
“I have some preliminary sketches. Nothing final yet. Is your dad back in town?”
She shook her head. “He won’t leave California until the trial’s over. And they haven’t reached closing arguments yet.”
Undercurrents of emotions, so thick she could almost see them in the air, belied the casualness of their conversation.
“And Suze?” Blake asked. “How’s she doing?”
“I went to dinner with her last night, but she still hasn’t opened up about her problems.”
He appeare
d genuinely concerned. “Any signs of reconciliation?”
“Michael keeps calling the house and coming by, but Suze refuses to speak to him.”
Blake nodded, sat quietly for a moment, then shifted in his chair. For the first time, Marissa noted a hint of anxiety in his demeanor.
“Don’t worry about this morning,” she said. “It’s just a preliminary hearing where we place your request for temporary custody of Annie before the judge.”
“Will he decide today?” Blake’s expression portrayed a mixture of hope and panic.
Marissa shook her head. “He’ll want to study all the facts. But in the meantime Debbie Arnold has visited Annie. As her attorney, she’s keeping a close eye on the baby’s welfare. Debbie says the foster parents are taking great care of her.”
A frown wrinkled Blake’s forehead. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
“Debbie’s sharp. She knows what to look for. Annie will be fine.”
“If I was sure of that, I wouldn’t be seeking custody,” Blake said.
“I understand.” Marissa remembered all too well the agony those amazing gray eyes had reflected when Blake had been a boy. That he was going to such lengths to ensure Annie never suffered such pain spoke volumes about his character. Blake was the total opposite of Harry, who’d been consumed with selfishness.
Marissa shoved bad memories aside. She was happy to have good news to report. “Pete and Diane’s flyers have done the trick. We have a lead on Annie’s mother.”
“You’ve found her?” Blake leaned forward, excitement sparking in his eyes, reminding her of the desire that had simmered there the other night.
She had to get a grip, keep on topic and purge emotions that would only lead to grief. She clasped her hands on the desktop and took a deep breath. “Not yet. A teenager from the church group posted a flyer in the bus station. One of the drivers passing through early this morning saw it. He contacted our office.”
When Diane had prepared the final copy for the flyers, Marissa had asked that her business phone instead of Blake’s be placed on them. She’d wanted Kitty and Fred Black to take the calls and screen out pranksters, saving Blake from having his hopes dashed by people with a sick sense of humor.
Verdict: Daddy Page 7
