Mort was right. It wasn’t too late for Nick.
A pickup truck veered off the highway and onto Ty’s long driveway, kicking up a plume of dust.
“Know whose truck that is?” Nick asked.
“Might be Davis Fuller’s.”
“Know why he’s here?”
“Haven’t a clue.”
Davis pulled up in front of the veranda and stepped out.
“Hey.”
Davis had been Nick’s high school gym teacher and basketball coach. He’d aged some, but hadn’t gone so soft that he couldn’t shoot hoops any longer. Or not that Nick noticed.
He stood and shook Davis’s hand.
“How’ve you been, Davis? It’s been a long time.”
“Good to see you, Nick. Glad you’re in town.”
Ty offered him a beer and Davis nodded.
Ty returned from the kitchen with a cold one. “What’s on your mind?” he asked after Davis had taken a long draw on the beer.
“How long are you staying, Nick? I got a problem and you can fix it for me.”
“Me? Here in Accord?”
“Yep. I need a coach for a bunch of boys in a summer basketball camp.”
Nick’s skin shifted. His nerves lurched. “You’re not asking me, are you?”
“It’s only for a couple of days. I committed to coaching them, but just got a call from my mom. My dad’s had a heart attack.”
“Aw, hey, Davis, sorry to hear it,” Nick said.
“Thanks. He’s okay, but gave us a real scare.”
“What does it have to do with me and coaching?”
“I’m leaving in the morning for Wyoming to see him and to support my mom. She’s getting on. She’s stressed.”
He finished his beer and handed the can to Ty. “I need you to cover for me. I’ve got no one else, Nick.”
Nick opened his mouth to object, but Davis raised a hand to forestall him.
“You were the best b-ball player I ever coached, Nick. Bar none. You were smart. You were quick. You knew the game inside out. Your strategy was flawless.”
Basketball. His legs hummed just thinking about getting onto a court and running the length of it in a handful of strides. He’d loved the game. But...
“I’m not in the shape I was in high school.”
“Who is?” Davis laughed. “You don’t have to play. Just teach. Please, Nick. I’m in a bind.”
Nick turned to Ty. “I’d have to leave Emily with you and Ruby.”
“That’s fine. I’m off for a couple of weeks to spend time with Ruby. It’d be no hardship to get to know Emily better.”
“I can help with that,” Mort said.
“So?” Davis asked. “Is it a yes?”
Nick nodded and grinned. “Looks like it.”
Davis returned his grin and shook his hand. “Good to have you aboard. Wait until you see some of these kids. Real promise. Can you come over to my place? I’ll go over the schedule with you.”
Nick handed Ty his empty and followed. “Want me to take my own car so you don’t have to drive me back later?”
“I’d appreciate it. I still gotta pack tonight. I’m over on side road 42. Follow me there.”
Nick didn’t return until nearly eleven, his head crammed full with kids’ names and game and practice schedules. A fire simmered in his belly that felt an awful lot like excitement, like the thrill he used to get the night before a game.
The girls and Mort were in bed, but he found Ty at the kitchen table using a laptop. Ty glanced up. “You look like a different man.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you look alive. Happy.”
“I’d forgotten how much I’d missed b-ball. All I did was talk about it tonight, didn’t even pick up a ball, and got excited anyway.”
“Looks good on you, bro.”
* * *
NICK STARTED COACHING the following morning. Trial by fire.
He met the boys, discussed some of Davis’s strategies, then put them through drills. He joined them in those drills. His legs and arms tired quickly, but man oh man, it was fun. His body hummed. Buzzed.
It was better than sex.
He thought of Laura. Okay, not that good.
When had he last had fun?
The snowball fight with Emily.
He should get her out on a court.
On a whim, he detoured to the nearest town with a sports store and bought a basketball hoop for Ty’s yard. It would be delivered tomorrow.
When he got home, he found Mort and the girls waiting for him on the veranda.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Can you drive us to Uncle Gabe’s?” Emily asked. “I want to show Ruby and Grandpa Mort the dogs.”
More exposure to Gabe. And to Callie. What difference did it make? He’d be seeing them tomorrow anyway.
“Sure. Let me shower, then we’ll leave.”
An hour later, they were on Gabe’s property making friends with the dogs, and Mort was in the prospector’s tent pestering Gabe for details about the business.
Facts and figures flowed from Gabe’s lips, all of the information that Nick had needed so desperately in January, when he’d sent Callie here to spy on Gabe, to find out whether they could somehow sabotage the business to get Gabe to sell. In the end, it hadn’t been necessary.
All Nick had basically had to do was hand Callie over to Gabe. The two had fallen in love. From what Nick had been able to tell the couple of times he’d seen them together, they were deeply in love. And Nick was jealous.
He had no idea how “deeply in love” felt, but it sure looked good.
“Do you want to visit the home?” Callie asked Emily and Ruby.
“Yes! Can we, Dad?”
In for a penny, in for a pound. “Sure,” he said, and they set off in two vehicles.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the nursing home.
“There are only a few residents at the moment,” Callie explained when they entered. “We haven’t finished fundraising and staffing, so we haven’t filled it yet.”
They stepped into the solarium and Mort spotted Callie’s mother, Johanna. He’d met her shortly after Callie started working for the company. She’d come to her first Christmas party as Callie’s “date.”
Johanna looked confused when Mort addressed her by name, but that didn’t stop him. He knew about her early-onset Alzheimer’s—Callie’s mother was only fifty-five. He sat beside her and chatted with her as though they were old friends, until Johanna relaxed and began to enjoy herself.
Mort questioned Callie about the business side of the home. There was nothing wrong with Mort’s mind. He had lost none of the sharp intellect that had built a successful business out of a few modest bank loans.
If Nick kept an open mind, he could still learn from Mort.
He caught Emily’s smile and they laughed, because it felt good to see Grandpa Sanderson enjoying himself.
Watching Mort, seeing how much he was enjoying himself in Accord, Nick’s heart filled with satisfaction that he was helping a man who had done so much for him and whom, he’d only realized recently, he loved.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ON JULY THE THIRD, Ty entered Sweet Temptations. He needed to see Laura now that he knew she was pregnant with Nick’s baby. He could have talked to her yesterday when he’d finished with Tammy, but after Nick’s confession about how idiotic he’d been with her, Ty figured giving Laura a day to cool down couldn’t hurt.
“Hey, Tilly. Is Laura around?”
“She’s upstairs.”
He left the café and mounted the fire escape out back. In the shade of her deck, he took off his cowboy hat and ran his fingers through his hair. Sure was a hot one.
Laura answered after his first knock. When she saw him, she raised her brows. He figured he was guilty just by being a Jordan.
“Ty, what can I do for you?”
“I came to invite you to a barbecue at my house tomo
rrow.”
“Aren’t Nick and his daughter staying with you?”
There was nothing wrong with Accord’s small-town gossip mill.
“Yes, and Gabe and Callie will be there, too.”
“Why would you invite me?”
He pointed, swiftly and briefly, to her stomach. “That’s my niece or nephew you’re carrying.”
Laura’s frown was thunderous, but not one iota of it was directed toward Ty. Thank goodness. The woman looked fierce. “Not according to Nick.”
“Nick’s an idiot. He told me what he said to you yesterday. He’s having second thoughts.”
“So he should.”
“I’m not arguing with you. He needs a smack upside the head.”
Laura blushed. So that had been a palm print Ty had seen on Nick’s face yesterday. He grinned. Nick had had it coming.
She leaned against the doorjamb. “Your barbecue won’t be much of a holiday celebration with both Nick and me there at the same time.”
“It’s a big ranch.” She didn’t smile at his joke. “You’re carrying family. I want you there.”
“I don’t—”
“Do you have other plans?”
“No. Mom hasn’t planned anything this year.” She sounded bitter and Ty wondered what was going on there. “I’ve been too tired to organize anything. Noah’s using his time off to rock climb in Yellowstone.”
“Then come,” Ty urged. “For God’s sake, don’t stay home alone.”
“Ty, you’re crazy to even think of this.”
“I’m looking for peace in my family.”
“And this is how you’re going to get it? By inviting enemies to dine at the same table?”
“Maybe it’s time for you two to stop being enemies.”
“And me and Gabe?”
Ty ran the brim of his hat through his fingers. “I thought you two had worked things out.”
“I don’t know his wife, though. Will she resent having Gabe’s former fiancée present?”
“I don’t think anything gets Callie down these days. Just heard she’s pregnant. The woman seems to be flying high.”
“I don’t know, Ty. It’s a crazy idea.”
“I know,” Ty said quietly. “Please come, Laura.”
Something in his plea must have gotten across to her. She nodded and Ty walked away satisfied. “Come over about one.”
He strode down Main to the post office to pick up fireworks he’d ordered for the Fourth.
There might be fireworks of a few different varieties tomorrow, but he had to give his family a shot at getting things right.
* * *
LAURA HAD NO idea exactly what Tyler Jordan expected of her, or why he thought she should be at his celebration today, but she’d said she would attend, so she would.
She also had no idea why she was taking such care with her dress. After all, it was only a summer barbecue. That was all. So why had she discarded four dresses so far?
Why did her room look as if a cyclone had spun through her closet? Why was every pair of sandals she owned out on the floor?
Why was she so nervous?
Because today had the possibility to become a disaster.
Unable to avoid it any longer, she drove to Ty’s ranch and got out of her car. He’d been blessed with a beautiful day, sunny and clear. No rain for the fireworks tonight, if there were any.
The veranda had been inexpertly festooned with red, white and blue cotton swags. She wondered whether Ty had tried to do it himself, or if Nick’s and Ty’s daughters had done it.
They were shooting hoops when she drove up.
When she stepped out of her car, they stopped and stared, then ran over, a pair of good-looking girls, like their fathers.
“I’m Emily. Dad didn’t introduce us before. It was rude.”
“I’m Ruby. Are you here for my dad’s barbecue?”
“I’m Laura. I used to be friends with your fathers. In high school.”
Satisfied, they nodded and turned back to their basketball. Laura strode around to the back of the house, where red, white and blue decorated everything with more enthusiasm than precision. She smiled. It had definitely been done by the girls.
The scent of charred meats filled the air.
No one noticed her.
She had the chance to observe.
Ty stood beside the barbecue looking grimly determined to make a success of the day.
Tammy Trudeau stood on the opposite side of the yard talking to Callie MacKintosh, the woman Gabe had married.
Laura wondered whether Tammy had noticed the looks Ty sent her way when he thought no one was looking, and whether she could tell his heart was in his eyes. She wondered whether Ty was even aware of how often he glanced at Tammy.
Something had to give there, soon. Tammy was about six months pregnant, her stomach a hard ball on her petite frame. Laura would probably start to look like a water buffalo at about six or seven months and would start to spread in all directions, not just forward.
Small price to pay to have a child.
Gradually everyone stopped talking and that’s when she knew she’d been spotted.
Nick turned to stare at Ty and Ty stared right back with a mulish jut of his jaw.
Gabe turned immediately to his wife with a raised brow. Are you okay? She returned his look, shrugged and raised her own eyebrow. I’m fine. Are you good?
The tenderness between them hurt to watch. It should have been hers. Water under the bridge. Regrets would do her no good today.
Laura stepped away from the shadows of the house and into the center of the yard.
“I was invited,” she said, addressing everyone. “Ty, would you care to explain why?”
“Glad to.” He put down the barbecue utensil he held in his hand and crossed his arms over his chest, his body language clearly conveying that he had no regrets about bringing them all together. “I’m tired of my family fighting. I’m tired of old resentments that were never dealt with and never healed.”
He pointed to Callie then to Tammy and then to Laura. “We have three cousins who are going to be born only a few months apart.”
He pointed to Ruby and Emily, who stood behind Laura. “These girls deserved to know each other all of their lives. Instead, they were hidden from each other.”
He looked at Nick and Gabe. “I want a whole family. No more secrets. No more feuding. I’ve learned that family is a rare and precious thing. We’ve got family that we’re wasting. Let’s get along.”
When no one moved or spoke, Ty went on, “What Nick did all those years ago was wrong. Dead wrong. He betrayed you, Gabe. I understand that.” Ty looked at Gabe and Laura followed his glance. No problem there. Happy with his wife and baby on the way, he was content to let go of old problems. It was written all over his face. “You seem to have moved on. But you, Nick,” he looked at his brother, “if you continue to wallow in anger and resentment, you’re going to create a reality that stands to ruin a poor kid’s life. You might want to consider getting along with both Gabe and Laura.”
Gabe glanced at Laura and then at Ty. “What are you talking about? They’re going to ruin what kid’s life?”
Ty turned to Laura, slack-jawed, suddenly realizing that he might have been the only one besides Nick who knew that Laura was pregnant with Nick’s baby. He cursed and said, “I’m sorry.”
He scrubbed one hand down his face. “I wanted to bring the family together. I should have been more careful. Made sure everyone knew. I’m so sorry.”
“No problem, Ty. Everyone would have known eventually, anyway.” She glared at Nick, daring him to object. When he didn’t, she said, “Ty’s talking about the baby I’m having with Nick.”
A bomb could have gone off and no one would have noticed.
Gabe was the first to react. He approached Laura and opened his arms. She walked into them, so grateful that there wasn’t a speck of censure on his face, only acceptance.
“Congra
tulations,” he whispered in her ear. “I know you’ve been wanting a baby for a long time.” Years ago, when they were still engaged, he’d known she had wanted children and had wanted to start their family early, too.
She pulled away. “Thank you.” She smiled at him, so blessedly relieved that their tough times were over for good.
She turned to find his wife beside her. They’d seen each other in town and in the bakery, including once when Callie had tried to fish information out of her about Gabe. Laura had thought that it had been about getting Gabe to sell, but now she wondered how much had been purely curiosity about the man with whom she had been falling in love.
“Congratulations,” Callie said.
Laura put out her hand to shake, but Callie waved it away and hugged her. “We’re having cousins. We’re family.”
The next thing Laura knew, she was seated on a park bench with Tammy and Callie and they were sipping nonalcoholic drinks and chatting about pregnancy and morning sickness. Laura even mentioned her fear of another miscarriage. Tammy and Callie were sympathetic and supportive. What a blessed relief to talk to women who actually listened.
* * *
“DAD, HOW COULD YOU?”
Nick turned to find Emily standing behind him, her expression rife with outrage and hurt and, if he wasn’t wrong, fear.
“You heard what Laura said?”
“Yeah. She’s nuts. Right?”
“It was an accident, Emily. I never meant to have a baby with Laura.” Wasn’t that a fine example he was setting for his daughter? He wasn’t much better than a randy teenager getting his girlfriend in trouble.
“You mean, it’s true?” Her lower lip wobbled. “It’s really true?”
Nick heaved a sigh that felt as if it came from the depths of his soul. “It’s really true and, for once, your dad doesn’t know what to do. How to fix this.”
“Are you going to marry her?”
“No.”
Emily relaxed, marginally. “Are you going to live with the baby?”
“No.”
“So, you’ll still live in our house in Seattle with me?”
Nick cursed Laura and the baby from here to eternity. He wasn’t losing his daughter because Laura wanted a baby and decided that he should be the one to give it to her. “Come here, honey. I love you and nobody on earth will ever change that.”
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