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“Good. Well. Okay, then. Be sure you put a fresh bandage on your finger.”
He’d told himself he wouldn’t. “I loved it, too,” he admitted. And sliding his hand around her neck, he pulled her to him and pressed his mouth to hers.
He heard her squeak. Felt her gasp. Tasted her shock. Her surprise.
Her hands touched his arms. Rose to his shoulders. Destroyed his intentions. His toolbox hit the ground with a heavy thud.
He slid one arm around her narrow waist. It was like holding a fluttering wild thing against him. Like tasting an exotic, heady spice. He kissed her jaw. The pulse thundering frantically beneath her ear. “Open your mouth,” he muttered.
She inhaled and he felt the thrust of her breasts against him. The heat that had been simmering inside him bubbled. He covered her mouth again, tasting. Going deeper, needing— “Well, this is about what I expected of you.”
The intrusive voice barely penetrated Garrett’s brain. But Darby sprang back from him as if she’d been shot.
He shifted, shielding her behind him, and stared at the one man he could truly say he hated.
Caldwell Carson.
“I’ve never much been interested in what you expect,” Garrett said evenly.
“Carrying on in plain sight of my grandchildren with one of your—”
“Don’t say it,” Garrett warned. “And they’re my nieces and nephews. In case you’ve forgotten.”
“I’ve forgotten nothing,” Caldwell snapped. “Particularly the fact that Elise never had anything to do with you. This story you’ve managed to concoct may have convinced a few people for now, but it won’t last.”
Darby slid past Garrett’s restraining arm, dismay darkening her bright eyes. “Mayor Carson, I know your loss has been terrible. But Elise did say—”
“Who are you?”
Garrett silenced her with a look. “Take the kids inside,” he ordered flatly. “And keep them there until he’s gone.”
She bit her lip, clearly reluctant. But finally she went, leaving Garrett alone with his father. “What are you doing here, Caldwell? Slumming?”
“I came to see my grandchildren. That secretary of yours has put me off long enough. You wouldn’t take my calls, so here I am. I want to see them.”
“Not today, Gramps.”
“You can’t keep them from me.”
“I can as long as I’m their guardian.”
“That’ll end on Wednesday.”
“So you keep threatening. Frankly, I’m pretty bored with it all.”
“Do you have no respect for your sister at all?”
Cold anger settled inside him. “Have you? You slapped a For Sale sign on her house before anyone could blink. You were huddling with your lawyers before my sister was even buried.” His lips twisted. “You never did have any respect for the dead.”
“Your mother would be ashamed of you.”
Garrett’s hand curled. It took everything he possessed not to raise it. “The only shame in my mother’s life was her involvement with you.”
“I loved Bonnie.”
“I’m sure your wife found that as comforting as the rest of us. You loved women,” Garrett corrected flatly. “My mother was just one more to you.” He stared at Caldwell, seeing the physical resemblance between himself and the older man and hating it. “No comment?”
“You can’t keep those children from me,” Caldwell finally said. His voice was harsh. “For God’s sake, son. They’re all I have left.”
Garrett knew that. How well he knew that, and how well he knew just how much like this cold old man he really was. “Don’t call me son.”
Then he picked up his tool chest and walked away.
He stopped short at the sight of Darby standing inside the fence. The children were nowhere in sight.
“Garrett, I—” she hesitated “—are you all right?”
His jaw tightened until it ached. He wanted, needed, her on his side to win his case against Caldwell. But right now, the soft look in her eyes was more than he could take.
“I told you to go inside,” he said flatly. But instead of having the desired effect, the look in her eyes softened even more before she turned and headed into the house.
Leaving him. Alone.
Chapter Seven
Thunder crashed overhead, sounding as if mountains were caving in on the house. Darby pressed her hands to her ears, wishing she could blot out the violent sounds of the electrical storm raging outside.
Another rumble. Starting far off in the distance, rolling closer and closer, building strength, plowing over Garrett’s two-story rented house. Windows rattled. Glasses inside the cupboard rattled. The entire house seemed to rattle.
Darby shuddered and decided that sitting in the kitchen wasn’t the place to be, after all.
She gathered up the newspapers that had been piling up on the counter and carried them, along with her iced tea, into the living room. It was odd, she thought, listening to the storm brewing while it was swelteringly hot outside. There just seemed to be something wrong with that picture.
Georgie had told her about the storms that seemed to shake the world with fury. All noise and no show, she’d said.
Frankly, Darby figured the noise was bad enough to give the unwary a heart attack.
She set the newspapers on the couch, peered into the playpen where Keely and Bridget were sleeping, sound as could be. She didn’t know how it was possible to sleep while thunder shook the house, but she wasn’t going to argue with it. Tad was gnawing halfheartedly on his frozen teething ring. Hopefully, he’d fall asleep, too.
Regan and Reid weren’t seemingly bothered by the racket, either. The two blond heads barely looked up from the video they were watching over the coloring books Georgie had given them.
She sat down on the couch and flipped through the newspapers, hoping that she wouldn’t see another article about Phil Candela’s connection to Rutherford Transportation. So far, the newspaper had run several little blurbs about the man, including details of his funeral in Kentucky. Darby had sent flowers, but she’d been too cowardly to sign her name to them.
She bypassed articles about the increase of housing starts in Fisher Falls and the appointment of a new police chief, skimmed one about an upcoming carnival and lingered over a half-page advertisement of G&G Construction and Development, which was currently hiring in the area.
She flipped to the comic-strip section, which was more her usual focus and had been for years and years.
It was an old habit learned when she’d been only fifteen and the front pages were always containing some piece of news about her family. Her father was squiring around another starlet or heiress even as he inked the deal to acquire another small, struggling company. Her brother had won another race, received another award.
Every time there had been an article, Darby had found herself being approached by yet another person claiming to be her friend. A friend who wanted an introduction to her sexy older brother. A friend who wanted an invitation to their estate, just coincidentally when the governor and his wife were visiting for the weekend.
It had taken Darby a while to understand that she wasn’t the appeal for these people, but when she’d finally learned, she’d learned it well.
Too bad she hadn’t learned it before it was time to walk down the aisle with a groom who’d decided she wasn’t worth her father’s bribe after all.
Disgusted with the depressing thoughts, Darby pushed aside the papers and leaned into the playpen to pick up Tad. “You don’t need a bribe to like me, do you, Tad?”
But instead of spitting out his teething ring and grinning at her the way he always did, he just looked at her with his brown eyes fever bright.
Darby’s adrenaline kicked in. She propped him on her hip and carried him upstairs to take his temp. Something that he did not like at all.
And she didn’t like at all the fact that it was so high. He was teething, but that didn’t account for a temp this high.
She didn’t even know any of the pediatricians in town. The only doctor with whom she’d had any dealings had been Georgie’s physician.
Smiling into Tad’s unhappy face, she maneuvered him into shorts and a clean shirt and carried him back downstairs. He rested his hot face against her neck, his fingers tangling in her shirt.
“Regan, sweetie.” She sat down on the coffee table where Regan and Reid were drawing. “Do you remember ever going to the doctor?”
Regan nodded. “For a shot.” Her eyes slid to Reid. “He cried. But I didn’t.”
Reid pushed her arm. “Uh-huh,” he argued. “You did too cry.”
“Do you remember his name?”
“Who?”
“The doctor, Regan. What did you call the doctor when he gave you the shot?”
Her lips pursed. Then she shrugged and picked up another crayon. “I dunno.”
Darby gave up on that tack. Another boom of thunder rocketed the windows, and Tad started to cry. She hugged him gently and searched out a phone book. There were three pediatricians in town, but when she called them, none had any of the Northrop children listed in their records.
She called Garrett, but reached only Carmel, who said she was on her way out the door to a meeting and Garrett was at one of their building sites. Growing more frustrated by the minute, Darby called Smiling Faces. The only medical information in the children’s files was their parents’ insurance policy number and a notarized form that said Smiling Faces could obtain medical care for the children in an emergency—two things that didn’t help Darby in the least. Molly finally offered to send Beth over to watch the children while Darby took Tad to the hospital for a quick check.
It was about the least appealing solution Darby could have imagined, but at least she wouldn’t have to cart all five of them around in the brewing storm. When Beth finally arrived, Darby wanted to drag the young woman into the house and throttle her for taking so long. Instead, she gathered up Tad and hurried out to her car, fastening him into the car seat as she kept one eye on the angry-looking sky overhead. So far, Georgie’s words had proved true. All noise.
Tad started crying again when her car backfired, and she tried singing to distract him. It didn’t work and by the time she carried him into the emergency room at the hospital, she felt like crying herself.
Particularly when the admitting nurse refused to admit him without the guardian’s approval. Darby leaned over the desk and stared the prune-faced woman in the face. Calmly explaining the situation had gotten her nowhere. “I want this child examined. Right now.” There wasn’t one other single person in the waiting room.
“Then find the child’s guardian,” the other woman retorted.
“I’ve told you. He’s not available right now. For heaven’s sake! This is the mayor’s grandson,” Darby gritted.
“I don’t care if he’s the president’s grandson.”
Darby hissed with annoyance. Carrying Tad on her hip, she walked right past the admitting desk, through the double doors, to the first exam room, ignoring the voluble protests following her. “You can’t just go back there!”
“Watch me,” Darby muttered. She pressed her lips to Tad’s hot forehead, looking around until she found an otoscope. He’d been tugging at his ears, and she wasn’t surprised to find them both red. Inflamed. She carried him back out to the admitting desk where a security officer had been summoned. “He needs an antibiotic,” Darby said.
“Miss White, I don’t know who you think you are, but—”
“What’s going on here?”
Darby whirled on her heel, gaping at Garrett who was standing behind her. When he’d left the house, he’d been wearing a black suit. But now he was in worn-white jeans and a black T-shirt that hugged his chest and arms. She swallowed, determined not to think about how it had felt to be held against that wide, warm chest, and cuddled Tad. “You look as if you’ve been installing windows yourself again. When did you get here?”
“Just now. Carmel told me you were looking for me and when I called the house, someone named Beth told me you’d brought Tad here.” His gaze flicked over the infuriated admitting nurse and the bored security guard. “So what’s the deal?”
“Otitis—” she broke off at the sharpened look he gave her. “Ear infection,” she finished. “I suspect. But they won’t examine him without your permission.”
“So I’m giving my permission now.” Garrett raised his eyebrow at the nurse. “Well? Some reason why you’re still sitting on your thumbs?”
The nurse rose, shoving a blank form toward them. “Give him to me.”
Darby shook her head. Tad was clinging to her with a grip that was nearly painful, but even if he hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have surrendered the precious boy to this cranky woman. “I’ll come with you.”
They went into the same examining room. Two minutes later, the doctor arrived and confirmed what Darby already knew. He wrote out a prescription and disappeared with a flap of his lab coat. Darby and Tad rejoined Garrett before he’d even finished completing the lengthy medical form.
“Ear infection,” she said, handing the square of white paper to Garrett. “We need that filled right away.” She carried Tad over to a molded plastic chair in the waiting room and sat down, holding him in her lap.
After several minutes Garrett walked their way, folding a pink sheet of paper and tucking it in the pocket of his jeans. “That nurse isn’t real happy with you,” he murmured as they left.
Darby sniffed. “That woman shouldn’t even call herself a nurse. She didn’t have one iota of compassion for Tad here. I’d be ashamed if I were her.”
Thunder banged overhead, seeming to agree with her. Tad cringed. Darby shuddered. And Garrett grinned. “Don’t like the percussion?”
“Not much.” She tried to reach her purse, but couldn’t. Not with the way Tad had his arms and legs wrapped around her. She gently detached him and handed him toward Garrett.
His grin faltered, then he took the tot, holding him awkwardly.
Tad howled.
Darby frowned at them both. “For heaven’s sake, Garrett. Hold him next to you. He’s probably afraid you’re going to drop him like that.” She rooted through her purse, found her keys, then dropped them again when another clap of thunder exploded around them.
“I think I’ll drive to the pharmacy,” Garrett suggested. He pushed Tad back into her arms and tugged her over to his truck. “We’ll get your rust bucket later.”
She knew she should be insulted, but she was too glad to climb into the safety of his big truck where the thunder overhead didn’t seem to be quite so near. She fastened Tad into one of the built-in car seats the shiny new vehicle possessed, then Garrett drove out of the hospital’s parking lot, heading to the drugstore that was just down the block.
He went inside and came out a short time later with a small white sack that he tossed into her lap. Darby didn’t waste any time. She climbed into the backseat and gave Tad a dose of the sticky pink liquid right then and there.
Garrett watched her in the rearview mirror. Saw the way she tenderly smoothed Tad’s wispy blond hair and tucked his soft little blanket against his cheek, murmuring sweet nothings under her breath as she tended to him.
Then she climbed back into the front seat and sighed deeply. Her fingertips drummed against her thigh, just below the hem of her toast-colored shorts. “I should’ve known he was getting sick. Garrett, I didn’t even know who their pediatrician is. It wasn’t even on record at Smiling Faces. You’ve got to get that information so this doesn’t happen again.”
He nodded. “I’ll get whatever you need.”
Her blue gaze settled on him. “It’s not what I need. It’s stuff that you need. As their guardian.”
