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“How can you be so certain?”
Marianna gestured to a portrait on the hall wall, a painting of an infant boy. Undisguised love shone in her eyes. “That’s my son, Sebastian Edward Landis Junior. And very obviously Nina’s cousin.” She tapped four other framed images of babies along the way, all with striking blue eyes. “These are of Matthew, Kyle, Sebastian and Jonah when they were little. There’s no mistaking the Landis look.”
She totally agreed. The deep blue eyes, the signature one-sided smile…they all had it, as did Nina. “If you see the likeness, why can’t they?”
“Because I’m evaluating with maternal eyes, and so are you.” Marianna stopped in front of a closed door, her hand resting on the brass handle. “We see them in a way nobody else ever will.”
Marianna’s words stabbed her with an inescapable reality. “I’m not her mother.”
“You’re willing to do anything for Nina. In my eyes, that makes you her mother.” Marianna looked at her with an understanding. “The family will want a paternity test for legal reasons, of course. They’re that way about details, but truly it will protect Nina’s interests as much as their own.”
“Those results take a while, don’t they?” Would they know soon enough to satisfy a family court judge?
“Nothing takes long when you’re a Landis. They’re an impatient bunch and have the money on hand to see that their wishes are met speedily. Don’t worry. You’ll get your answer quickly.”
Marianna swept open the door to reveal an airy nursery, decorated in neutral sea-foam-green, a white crib on one wall with a coordinated white daybed tucked under a window. A fat, delicious-looking rocker and ottoman took up a corner underneath a mural of fairy-tale characters. “Here we are.”
“Thank you for showing me the way.” Phoebe stepped inside with mixed feelings, wishing she could have given Nina all this and more.
Marianna kept her hand on the open door. “I’m sure Kyle will check in when he’s done talking with Sebastian, but I really need to head home now so the sitter can leave. I don’t like being away from little Edward too long. Good luck.”
“Hopefully I won’t need it.”
With a smile and a quick squeeze of her arm, Marianna seemed to sense her worry. “It will be fine. You’ll both be fine. You’ll see.”
She closed the door behind her. The click reminded Phoebe of her plans to learn more from the woman. She hadn’t found out much more than confirmation of what she’d already known in her heart. Nina was a Landis.
Long after Marianna left and Nina was tucked in her crib, Phoebe sat on the daybed, hugging her knees and staring out at the ocean, unable to sleep. Too many questions, uncertainties, fears churned in her mind like the curling waves, rolling and retreating only to crash right back over her again. One thing shone through as clearly as the moonlight slashing away at the murky depths.
The Landises had power.
The kind of money and impatience that could buy an overnight paternity test could surely oust anyone who didn’t belong in their elite world. With no blood claim to Nina, and Bianca gone, Phoebe could easily find herself at odds with Kyle all too soon.
After having been helpless while she’d watched her husband leave her, she couldn’t tamp down the reflexive fear of having someone she loved taken from her again.
Parked behind the desk in the family study, Kyle scrubbed a hand along his bristly face that had long ago gone past a five-o’clock shadow. Early morning rays from the sun were just beginning to poke through the horizon and past floor-to-ceiling windows. Answers were piercing through just as surely.
Sebastian slept on the butter-yellow leather sofa in front of built-in library shelves of warm oak, but Kyle kept watch for the updates that had been coming in from the private investigator over his Black-Berry throughout the night, while doing some checking on his own. Money and the Internet provided a wealth of fast information.
So far, everything about Phoebe Slater’s story checked out. She did, in fact, work at the University of South Carolina. She’d been a history professor on campus for three years, but for the fall semester had abruptly shifted to teaching only online classes—right about the time Nina would have entered her life full-time.
Bianca Thompson had indeed gone to school with Phoebe, and Bianca had given birth to a daughter named Nina.
He cradled his BlackBerry in his hand, staring at the latest report. The one that had surprised him.
Phoebe was a widow.
The circumstances of how her husband had died were simply listed as accidental drowning. That explained the haunted look that never left her eyes, even when she smiled, which was only when she looked at the kid.
This was getting complicated.
He shoved restlessly to his feet, pacing, farther and farther away from the desk until he found himself making his way through the halls, toward the nursery where Marianna had said both Nina and Phoebe were staying. The door was cracked slightly open. The baby slept on in the crib his mother had set up for her grandchildren. They’d expected Matthew and Ashley’s baby, due this winter, to be the next addition.
Who could have foreseen this?
He stepped deeper into the room—and stopped short.
Phoebe sat curled up in a corner of the daybed, asleep with her cheek resting against the windowsill. The sheet and coverlet twisted around her, attesting to a restless night. She still wore her little black number from the party, but she’d kicked off her strappy heels. The delicate arches of her bare feet called to him to stroke up her legs, explore the softness of her skin.
Her white-blond hair streaked over her face, the silver clasp discarded on the bedside table. Given they both wore the same clothes from the night before, they could have been a couple ending a long, satisfying night together.
Except she wasn’t here for him. He started to back out and his uniform shoe squeaked.
Phoebe jolted awake. She shoved her silky blond hair away from her eyes, blinking fast, adding to her sultry morning-after appeal. “What? Nina?”
Kyle held a finger to his mouth. “The kid’s still sleeping,” he said softly, striding closer. “No need to get up yet, unless you want to go to shower and change.” He really didn’t need an image of her showering seared in his brain. “I can, uh, keep an eye on her.”
He had his BlackBerry. He could still work from here.
She tugged a strap back up her arm. “I only meant to close my eyes for a second after I put on her pj’s, and then I was going to unpack and put on something else. I must have fallen asleep.”
“You have reason to be tired after yesterday, traveling with a baby on your own, then sleeping sitting up.”
She shifted free of the tangled covers. “I didn’t want her to wake up in a strange place and be scared.”
An image of the little tyke’s face scrunched up and crying sucker-punched him. Damn. And he didn’t even know if she was his yet. “I really, uh, don’t mind staying here with the kid while you sleep or shower.”
“Her name is Nina.”
“I know.”
“You keep calling her ‘the kid’ or ‘rug rat’ or other generic things.” Phoebe swung her slim legs from the bed, her simple black dress rucking up to her knees. “She’s a person—Nina Elizabeth Thompson.”
“I know what her name is.” He dragged his eyes away from the enticing curve of Phoebe’s legs and back to her equally intriguing face. “I saw her birth certificate. She’s Nina.”
Nina. A person. His eyes went to the crib where the little girl—Nina—slept on her back in fuzzy pink, footed pj’s, sucking on one tiny fist in her sleep. A plastic panda teething toy lay beside her head.
For the first time in a crazy-ass night, he stood still long enough to think beyond the weekend. What if Nina turned out to be his? What if—as Sebastian had warned him—the courts still opted to put her in a foster home for even a short period of time? No. Freaking. Way. He had to stack the odds in his favor, in Nina’s favor, just in case this little girl belonged to him.
Damn. He was actually considering Phoebe’s proposal.
His hand fell to rest on the crib railing. He glanced over his shoulder at Phoebe. “You’ve given this paper marriage thing some thought.”
“I haven’t thought of much but that.” She stood, her eyes wary. “Does this mean you’re thinking about it, too?”
“I won’t turn my back on my responsibility.” He gripped the railing tighter. “We still have to wait for the paternity test. If she’s not mine, marrying me won’t help you. Bianca could have lied to you.”
“She didn’t.” Phoebe crossed to stand beside him and rested a hand on top of his. She squeezed his fingers lightly. “Nina is yours. I know it.”
Her touch sent a jolt through him, just a simple touch, for Pete’s sake. But her soft skin and light vanilla scent along with the pooling gratitude in her eyes had him downright itchy. He needed distance. Fast.
He stared at her hand pointedly and scrounged up some sarcasm. “I don’t want you to do something stupid like fall in love.”
She jerked her hand away and shook it as if it burned. “With you?”
“Who else have you asked to marry you?”
She laughed, then laughed again until her giggles tripped on a snort. The baby stirred and Phoebe went silent in a flash. He gripped her elbow and guided her back out into the hall, the doorway to the nursery still open.
She sagged against a wall alongside framed portraits of generations of baby Landises. “Don’t worry.” She gasped through a final laugh. “There’s not a chance in hell I’ll fall in love with you, but thanks for helping to lighten the mood for me.”
What he’d meant as sarcastically funny suddenly didn’t seem quite so humorous. “You’re quite a buster there.”
“I feel certain your, uh, man parts and ego will survive any potential busting.”
“You seem mighty confident,” he pressed, not even sure why, since she appeared so damned confident in her ability to keep her distance. “We’ve barely met. What have I done to make you dislike me so much? Not to sound egotistical, but I happen to have a lot of money. I’ve been told I have a pretty decent sense of humor, and I haven’t noticed my face scaring off small children or animals.”
“Other than the money part, the same could be said of me,” she pointed out logically. “So since you already have plenty of money and don’t need more from a wife, should I worry about you falling in love with me?”
Damn. She was good.
He couldn’t stop a begrudging smile of respect at how she’d taken him down a notch. “Touché.”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“It’s nothing personal. You’re a beautiful, smart woman.” A hot, sharp woman, a distinction that was even more pulse throbbing.
“Of course. Just as it wasn’t personal when I laughed at you.”
“Point well taken. I’m years away from being ready to settle down.” He had his hands full launching his new life and career outside the military. “What about you?”
“I was married before.”
He knew that already, of course, but letting on would make it clear he was already having her investigated. “Nasty divorce, huh?”
Her face went devoid of emotion, completely. He’d seen the look before on shell-shocked soldiers, numbing themselves for fear even the smallest emotion would shatter them to bits.
“He died,” she said simply. “There’s no room in my heart to love anyone else, not when he still fills every corner.”
He exhaled hard. He knew that kind of love existed. He’d seen it with his parents, and again when his widowed mom remarried. He’d also seen how torn up his dad was over having to divide himself between career ambition and family. “Wow, that’s hefty stuff there. I’m really sorry. How did he die?”
And why did he need to know more about it?
She looked down, staying silent.
Damn it, he needed to know everything about her. He had a short time to make an important choice, a majorly life-altering choice. He was used to making snap decisions in war, but he did so with as much intel as possible at his disposal. This shouldn’t be any different. It wasn’t personal.
“Phoebe, if we’re going to get married, I should know. It will seem strange if someone thinks to ask and I don’t have the right answer. For Nina’s sake, we would need to make it look real.”
“He drowned.” A flash of undiluted grief bolted through her brown eyes like a lethal lightning strike. Then her face went blank again. She pushed away from the wall, away from him. “I should get back to Nina.”
She spun on her heel, giving Kyle her back. She couldn’t have been any clearer. Discussion over. Stand down. But he had his answer. That flash of grief in her eyes, followed by her abrupt shutdown left him with no doubts about where she stood on the subject of her ex-husband.
She was completely committed to another man.
That should have made the possibility of a paper marriage easier to contemplate, but damn, what a tangled mess. The door clicked closed behind her, and he reminded himself to take things one step at a time. First, he had to give a blood sample later today and wait for the paternity test results.
Although his instincts now shouted loud and clear that Phoebe Slater was telling the truth.
Four
“Marry me.”
Kyle’s demand—not request—bounced around inside Phoebe’s head hot on the heels of the preliminary paternity results. Overwhelmed, she sagged in the front seat of his Mercedes, Nina asleep in the back after the exhausting day at the doctor’s.
Butter-soft leather cradled her in luxury but offered little comfort for the stress knotting her neck. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
“Now’s not the time to lose courage.” He turned on the engine and adjusted the climate control for the muggy fall afternoon, all efficiency with a calm she envied. “I’ve talked it over with Sebastian and you were right about this being the fastest, most efficient way to secure Nina’s future.”
She stared through the windshield at the busy hospital complex parking lot. Her eyes were mag-netically drawn to mothers with their children.
Mothers and fathers, too. “How long?”
“We’ll get married on Monday—tomorrow.” His jaw flexed with the first signs of stress.
A closer look revealed the pale hint under his tan.
She fisted her hands to keep from touching him, comforting him. She understood well how overwhelming this could all be, becoming a parent out of the blue. “No, I mean, how long would we keep up this charade? Who will we tell?”
“My family already knows what’s going on. But beyond them, we would need to keep up appearances for Nina’s sake.”
“Appearances?” Holy crap, she’d meant fake marriage. Not pretend-to-be-real fake marriage.
“We’ll need to live together, at least for a while.” A slight grin eased the deep lines around his mouth. “But since I live at the Landis compound, we’ll be surrounded by family to protect you from your lecherous husband.”
She tucked her tongue in the side of her mouth to keep from laughing, but she couldn’t keep from smiling…until she thought about the next hurdle she should have considered before moving forward with this half-baked plan of hers. “What will your family think?”
More importantly, how would they react to her and Nina in their lives full-time? Her smile faded.
“You’ll be welcomed as a Landis. And my mother will adore you simply because you love her…uh…granddaughter.”
“That’s a relief, at least.” Nina would never be alone and abandoned again. “I wouldn’t want things to be awkward when I bring Nina to visit.”
“Visit?” He cocked a dark eyebrow and put the car in Reverse. “You’ll need to stay at the house for at least a couple of months. At that point we could maintain two residences and claim work conflicts.”
“Months?” She pressed a hand to her forehead.
He nodded curtly. “Long enough to get official custody worked out. Or until Bianca returns.” His fist tightened on the gearshift. “If we don’t hear from her, we can start divorce proceedings after a year.”
