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“The question,” he continued, again ignoring her input, “is how do we reach a compromise? I need time with my son. You need the time to observe me with him. I live in San Francisco and have to be there for my job. You live here and—where do you work?”
“Here,” she said, taking another bite and chasing it with a sip of wine. “I write books. For children.”
He glanced at the rabbit-shaped salt and pepper shakers and thought about all of the framed bunnies in her living room. “Something to do with rabbits, I’m guessing.”
Tula tensed, suddenly defensive. She’d heard that dismissive tone of his before. As if writing children’s books was so easy anybody could do it. As if she was somehow making a living out of a cute little hobby. “As a matter of fact, yes. I write the Lonely Bunny books.”
“Lonely Bunny?”
“It’s a very successful series for young children.” Well, she amended silently, not very successful. But she was gaining an audience, growing slowly but surely. And she was proud of what she did. She made children happy. How many other people could say that about their work?
“I’m sure.”
“Would you like to see my fan letters? They’re scrawled in crayon, so maybe they won’t mean much to you. But to me they say that I’m reaching kids. That they enjoy my stories and that I make them happy.” She fell back in her chair and snapped her arms across her chest in a clear signal of defense mode. “As far as I’m concerned, that makes my books a success.”
One of his eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t say they weren’t.”
No, she thought, but he had been thinking it. Hadn’t she heard that tone for years from her own father? Jacob Hawthorne had cut his only daughter off without a dime five years ago, when she finally stood up to him and told him she wasn’t going to get an MBA. That she was going to be a writer.
And Simon Bradley was just like her father. He wore suits and lived in a buttoned-down world where whimsy and imagination had no place. Where creativity was scorned and the nonconformist was fired.
She’d escaped that world five years ago and she had no desire to go back. And the thought of having to hand poor little Nathan off to a man who would try to regulate his life just as her father had done to her gave her cold chills. She looked at the happy, smiling baby and wondered how long it would take the suits of the world to suck his little spirit dry. The thought of that was simply appalling.
“Look, we have to work together,” Simon said and she realized that he didn’t sound any happier about it than she was. “We do.”
“You work at home, right?”
“Yes…”
“Fine, then. You and Nathan can move into my house in San Francisco.”
“Excuse me?” Tula actually felt her jaw drop.
“It’s the only way,” he said simply, decisively. “I have to be in the city for my work. You can work anywhere.”
“I’m so happy you think so.”
He gave her a patronizing smile that made her grit her teeth to keep from saying something she would probably regret.
“Nathan and I need time together. You have to witness us together. The only reasonable solution is for you and him to move to the city.”
“I can’t just pick up and leave—”
“Six months,” he said. He drained the last of his wine and set the empty goblet onto the table. “It won’t take that long, but let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you move into my house for the next six months. Get Nathan settled. See that I’m going to be fine taking care of my own son, if he is my son, and then you can move back here…” He glanced around the tiny kitchen with a slow shake of his head as if he couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly live there. “And we can all get on with our lives.”
Damn it, Tula hadn’t even considered moving. She loved her house. Loved the life she’d made for herself. Plus, she tended to avoid San Francisco like the plague.
Her father lived in the city.
Ran his empire from the very heart of it.
Heck, for all she knew, Simon Bradley and her father were the best of friends. Now there was a horrifying thought.
“Well?”
She looked at him. Looked at Nathan. There really wasn’t a choice. Tula had promised her cousin that she would be Nathan’s guardian and there was no turning back from that obligation now even if she wanted to.
“Look,” he said, leaning across the table to meet her eyes as though he knew that she was trying and failing to find a way out of this. “We don’t have to get along. We don’t even have to like each other. We just have to manage to live together for a few months.”
“Wow,” she murmured with a half laugh, “doesn’t that sound like a good time.”
“It’s not about a good time, Ms. Barrons…”
“If we’re going to be living together, the least you could do is call me Tula.”
“Then you agree, Tula?”
“Do I get a choice?”
“Not really.”
He was right, she told herself. There really wasn’t a choice. She had to do what was best for Nathan. That meant moving to the city and finding a way to break Simon out of his rigid world. She blew out a breath and then extended her right hand across the table. “All right then. It’s a deal.”
“A deal,” he agreed.
He took her hand in his and it was as if she’d suddenly clutched a live electrical wire. Tula almost expected to see sparks jumping up from their joined hands. She knew he felt it, too, because he released her instantly and frowned to himself.
She rubbed her fingertips together, still feeling that sizzle on her skin and told herself the next few months were going to be very interesting.
Four (#u160c6387-0456-5bec-b899-43cfb3328bb3)
Two days later, Simon swung the bat, connected with the baseball and felt the zing of contact charge up his arms. The ball sailed out into the netting strung across the back of the batting cage and he smiled in satisfaction.
“A triple at least,” he announced.
“Right. You flied out to center,” Mick Davis called back from the next batting cage.
Simon snorted. He knew a good hit when he saw it. He got the bat high up on his shoulder and waited for the next robotic pitch from the machine.
While he was here, Simon didn’t have to think about work or business deals. The batting cages near his home were an outlet for him. He could take out his frustrations by slamming bats into baseballs and that outlet was coming in handy at the moment. While he was concentrating on fastballs, curveballs and sliders, he couldn’t think about big blue eyes. A luscious mouth.
Not to mention the child who was—might be—his son.
He swung and missed, the ball crashing into the caged metal door behind him.
“I’m up two now,” Mick called out with a laugh.
“Not finished yet,” Simon shouted, enjoying the rush of competition. Mick had been his best friend since college. Now he was also Simon’s right-hand man at the Bradley company. There was no one he trusted more.
Mick slammed a ball into the far netting and Simon grinned, then punched out one of his own. It felt good to be physical. To blank out his mind and simply enjoy the chance to hit a few balls with his friend. Here, no one cared that he was the CEO of a billion-dollar company. Here, he could just relax. Something he didn’t do often. By the time their hour was up, both men were grinning and arguing over which of them had won.
“Give it up.” Simon laughed. “You were out classed.”
“In your dreams.” Mick handed Simon a bottle of water and after taking a long drink, he asked, “So, you want to tell me why you were swinging with such a vengeance today?”
Simon sat down on the closest bench and watched a handful of kids running to the cages. They were about nine, he guessed, with messy hair, ripped jeans and eager smiles. Something stirred inside him. One day, Nathan would be their age. He had a son. He was a father. In a few years, he’d be bringing his boy to these cages.
Shaking his head, he muttered, “You’re not going to believe it.”
“Try me.” Mick toasted him with his own water and urged him to talk.
So Simon did. While late-afternoon sunshine slipped through the clouds and a cold sea wind whistled past, Simon talked. He told Mick about the visit from Tula. About Nathan. About all of it.
“You have a son?”
“Yeah,” Simon said with a fast grin. “Probably. I’m getting a paternity test done.”
“I’m sure you are,” Mick said.
He frowned a little. “It makes sense, but yeah, looking at him, it’s hard to ignore. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it myself. Hell, I don’t even know what to do first.”
“Bring him home?”
“Well, yeah,” he said. “That’s the plan. I’ve got crews over at the house right now, fixing up a room for him.”
“And this Tula? What’s she like?”
Simon pulled at his ice-cold water again, relishing the liquid as it slid down his throat to ease the sudden tightness there. How to explain Tula, he thought. Hell, where would he begin? “She’s…different.”
Mick laughed. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Good question,” Simon muttered. His fingers played with the shrink-wrapped label on the water bottle. “She’s fiercely protective of Nathan. And she’s as irritating as she is gorgeous—”
“Interesting.”
Simon shot him a look. “Don’t even go there. I’m not interested.”
“You just said she’s gorgeous.”
“Doesn’t mean a thing,” he insisted, shooting a look at the boys as they lined up to take turns at the cages. “She’s not my type.”
“Good. Your type is boring.”
“What?”
Mick leaned both forearms on the picnic table. “Simon, you date the same woman, over and over.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“No matter how their faces change, the inner woman never does. They’re all cool, quiet, refined.”
Now Simon laughed. “And there’s something wrong with that?”
“A little variety wouldn’t kill you.”
Variety. He didn’t need variety. His life was fine just the way it was. If a quick image of Tula Barrons’s big blue eyes and flashing dimple rose up in his mind, it was nobody’s business but his own.
He’d seen close-up and personal just what happened when a man spent his time looking for variety instead of sensible. Simon’s father had made everyone in the house miserable with his continuing quest for amusement. Simon wasn’t interested in repeating any failing patterns.
“All I’m saying is—”
“Don’t want to hear it,” Simon told him before his friend could get going. “Besides, what the hell do you know about women? You’re married.”
Mick snorted. “Last time I looked, my beautiful wife is a woman.”
“Katie’s different.”
“Different from the snooty ice queens you usually date, you mean.”
“How did we get onto the subject of my love life?”
“Beats the hell outta me,” Mick said with a laugh. “I just wanted to know what was bugging you and now I do. There’s a new woman in your life and you’re a father.”
“Probably,” Simon amended.
Mick reached out and slapped Simon’s shoulder. “Congratulations, man.”
Simon smiled, took another sip of water and let his new reality settle in. He was, most likely, a father. He had a son.
As for Tula Barrons being in his life, that was temporary. Strangely enough, that thought didn’t have quite the appeal it should have.
“I don’t know what to do about him,” Tula said, taking a sip of her latte. “What can you do?” Anna Hale asked from her position on the floor of the bank.
Tula looked down at the baby in his stroller and smiled as Nathan slapped his toy bunny against the tray. “Hey, do you think it’s okay for the baby to be in here while you’re painting? I mean, the fumes…”
“It’s fine. This is just detail work,” Anna said, soothing her, then she smiled. “Look at you. You’re so mom-like.”
“I know.” Tula grinned at her. “And I really like it. Didn’t think I would, you know? I mean, I always thought I’d like to have kids some day, but I never really had any idea of what it would really be like. It’s exhausting. And wonderful. And…” She stopped and frowned thoughtfully. “I have to move to the city.”
“It’s not forever,” Anna told her, pausing in laying down a soft layer of pale yellow that blended with the bottom coat of light blue to make a sun-washed sky.
“Yeah, I know,” Tula said on a sigh. She walked to Anna, sat down on the floor and sat cross-legged. “But you know how I hate the idea of going back to San Francisco.”
“I do,” Anna said, wiping a stray lock of hair off her cheek, leaving a trace of yellow paint in her wake. “But you won’t necessarily see your father. It’s a big city.”
Tula gave her a halfhearted grin. “Not big enough. Jacob Hawthorne throws a huge shadow.”
“But you’re not in that shadow anymore, remember?” Anna reached out, grabbed her hand, then winced at the yellow paint she transferred to Tula’s skin. “Oops, sorry. Tula, you walked away from him. From that life. You don’t owe him anything and he doesn’t have the power to make you miserable anymore. You’re a famous author now!”
