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“Yes, Max.”
“Well, good.”
She hid her smile. Max looked as if he thought he’d lost the battle but couldn’t figure out why. She knew why. Just by being in the same house, the past was going to creep up until it was dealt with and taken care of.
“First we’ll need cribs for the children. With that they’ll need sheets and bumper pads and a couple of light blankets. What about some clothes? Do you want me to run over to the church and check their clothes closet—”
“I can certainly buy anything the children need,” Max replied, affronted.
Kaitland paused, then asked the question that had been burning in her since she’d first arrived. She’d known the kids weren’t Max’s. He lived by the moral code of his faith. She took his word, too, for Max also didn’t lie. “Why do you insist on seeing to this problem? You could call Child Services and the children would be taken away and you’d never have to be responsible for them again.”
“But I am responsible.”
Her eyes widened in shock, thinking she had misjudged him.
“Not that way,” he replied, clearly exasperated. He dropped wearily onto the couch. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes. “Someone left them on my patio with a note addressed to me. I don’t know if the person was a crackpot or someone who really thought I could help the children. But whoever it was put their trust and faith in me. I won’t palm that off on some overworked agency that would probably separate the children out of necessity.”
Kaitland nodded. That would probably happen. Though Child Services didn’t like to do that, they had to find somewhere for the children.
“I have plenty of money,” he said. “Enough to last two lifetimes. And this house is big enough to hold forty or fifty people. So there’s plenty of room. It won’t hurt to keep them here.”
She smiled, gently, doing her best to hide the misting of her eyes. “You’re a good person, Max Stevens.”
“No, just practical,” he argued gruffly, refusing praise as he always did. “I’m going to call one of the investigative people we use in our business. I’ll put him on the case and see if he can find out what happened to the mother. After all, how hard is it going to be to track down a set of twins that were born about…fifteen months?” At her nod, he continued, “About fifteen months ago.”
“I honestly don’t know. I imagine easier than tracking down a single child.”
“My thoughts exactly. So, I figure within a week, maybe two, we’ll have this all cleared up.”
She hoped they had more than just that cleared up, but she didn’t say so. “Are you going to order the cribs and clothes, or do you want me to go shopping. I should warn you, if I go shopping, the children will be left here with you.”
His eyes widened. “I’ll call my store immediately. It’s nice owning a large chain of retail stores.” He suddenly grinned. “I’ll have my secretary at the office go downstairs to the store and find someone who knows about babies and send over everything they’ll need. Two of everything,” he amended. “That should work.”
Kaitland shook her head in disbelief.
“Now, about my office. When do I get it back?”
Kaitland shrugged. “I imagine when the kids wake up, which could be anywhere from an hour to two hours.”
“But I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he began.
“Bring it in here,” she replied.
Grumbling, he stood and walked out of the room, listing to her or himself, she wasn’t sure, what he needed to accomplish today.
Same old Max, except she didn’t remember him taking quite this much interest in the business five years ago.
She headed up the stairs to the room where the children had been. She found the maid, Lavina, in there finishing cleaning up the mess. “You’ll need to get someone up here to take all the knickknacks out of this room, Lavina. They’ll also need to remove the bed. Mr. Stevens is turning it into a nursery for the twins.”
“I’ll get Tim from the stables to help me this afternoon,” the maid said.
“You’d better go ahead and do it now,” Kaitland told her. “Mr. Stevens is ordering cribs and I imagine they’ll be here in an hour or two. Also, do you know which room I’m staying in?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Summerville. Sarah told me to put your bags in the room across the hall, unless you want the one across from Mr. Stevens?”
She knew Max’s room was next door to the babies’ room. The one next to her would be across the hall from him and larger than the one she was in. “No. This is fine. I need to be close to the children. As a matter of fact, if you could find a small twin bed I might just sleep in here.”
“Oh, no, ma’am. Sarah wouldn’t approve of that at all. She was telling me how much she likes you and has missed you around here. She’d be very upset if you weren’t completely comfortable while you were here.”
Kaitland grinned. That sounded just like Sarah. “Very well. Thank you, Lavina.”
“And Darlene is to help you with the babies whenever you need it. Sarah said those two are too much for one person. She said of course Mr. Stevens, being a bachelor, wouldn’t know, nor would he remember how much of a handful he and his brother were. She said that he deserved a taste of what he’d put her through growing up. I think she’s quite excited about having the little mites in the house.”
Kaitland’s grin turned into a full-blown smile. “I’m glad. You tell Sarah I’m sure Max is going to get a great big taste of what it’s like to have two toddlers underfoot. Now, go on. I need to unpack.”
She walked across the hall to her suite. Pushing open the door, she immediately smiled in pleasure. Light mauves and browns decorated the space. There were no balcony doors like the room across the hall, but the shutters on the large window made it possible for her to keep the room as bright as day or dimly lit A large overstuffed, floral-print couch sat near two armchairs, creating a comfortable sitting area. A polished oak armoire held a TV and VCR, as well as a stereo. A low bookcase held a collection of interesting titles. She knew the door to the right was the bedroom and bathroom.
Crossing the plush carpet, she found out she was right. Max’s room was larger. She knew he had a small gym in the second room off the main room, as did Rand. Max had explained the layout of the house once to her.
“Oh, my,” she breathed, looking in the room. Yellows and green pastels decorated the bedroom, along with pink and blue pastel watercolors hanging on the walls. She wondered who had decorated this. Certainly not an interior decorator. Her bag was sitting on the bed. She unpacked, putting everything in the cherry-wood armoire as she went. Her last thing to unpack was the first thing she had packed—her Bible.
Taking it out, she sat down on the bed and opened it. She was surprised to find she had opened it to a familiar scripture, “You will not fear,” it started, and ended with, “I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Smoothing her hand over the worn pages, she prayed, “Father, please help me, guide me in what You would have me do. I thought this would be so easy, coming here and facing the past. But, well, I’ve discovered I still have some kind of feelings for Max. Oh, I’m not sure what they are, but they’re there. I don’t want to hurt Max again, but I refuse to put myself in the path of hurt, either. Open the doors for healing between us even if that means we solve the problems and never see each other again. All I know is this has to come to a head. Thank You, Father.”
She laid her Bible down and stood. Taking her suitcase, she tucked it under the bed and then turned toward the door.
“Round one goes to Daniel,” she whispered. She had faced the lion in his den and come out unscathed.
“Now let’s see what happens in round two,” she murmured.
Chapter Four (#ulink_0bf032c9-b718-5f67-ad8d-ba12f3321d87)
“I’ve got Dugan Lawrence, head of security at our stores, checking into the twins’ background,” Max said, hanging up the phone and turning to where Kaitland had just entered the den. “And Jennifer is buying the store out, if I know her.”
“Jennifer?” Kaitland asked quizzically.
“My secretary. She loves kids and became my secretary when Rand had his accident.”
Max watched Kaitland digest that as she seated herself across from him in one of the overstuffed chairs. He couldn’t get over how good she looked. His heart beat a staccato as he unobtrusively studied her again. She was like manna for a starved soul. He thought he’d gotten over her, was no longer empty without her, but seeing her now…He forced himself to push those feelings aside and remember how she’d betrayed him. It would not be good to act the fool again. “Do you have any problems with living in? What about your own house or your job?”
“Jake gave me time off. I’m on vacation. I have four weeks built up but hadn’t taken any of it until now. As for my house, I imagine if I can run by once or twice a week, it’ll be okay. I can call and stop the paper, and my mail all goes to a post-office box anyway.” She shrugged daintily. “There’s nothing else to worry about”
“What about personal phone calls and such? Do you need to forward your phone?”
“No. The only people who would need to get in touch with me are at the church. Jake will forward any urgent messages to me.”
He nodded. “About publicity. I’d like to keep this situation quiet. You know how the news media constantly hounds Rand and me. This would be a field day. Not that I have anything to hide. But I’d like to have some answers, know who these kids belong to before this hits the papers.”
“I understand.”
“But?” he asked, seeing the look on her face.
She hesitated. “I’d as soon not be in the middle of a media feeding frenzy, either. If you’ll remember, I almost was, five years ago…”
“I thought we agreed to keep the past in the past?” Max asked, his tone harsher than he’d intended.
Kaitland sighed. “I’m sorry. You asked.”
“Yes, I did. And yeah, I wondered why those pictures never hit the newsstands.”
“Oh, Max, you had that all figured out Remember, I was in on the conspiracy with whoever it was that slipped you the pictures. They were angry at me and wanted to make sure you knew I didn’t really love you.”
“Katie,” Max began.
“You brought this up, Max,” Kaitland said, remembering those years when she had waited day after day then week after week until she had figured out that the sick person who had snapped pictures of her and ruined her soon-to-be marriage was not planning to release the photos to the media and ruin the rest of her life, as well.
“I don’t want to fight,” he warned.
“Oh, no, of course not,” Kaitland said gently, defeat in her voice. “It was easier to accept what you saw in those pictures and find me guilty.”
“You can’t deny you were in Senator Richardson’s arms kissing him,” Max said desperately, the old pain boiling up anew. “I saw the pictures. How can you explain it?”
Kaitland smiled, but it wasn’t a smile of pleasure. She remembered that night. Going up to her stepbrother’s room. She’d thought, at the time, that the note sent to her had been from her stepbrother. Who else would call her to his bedroom in the middle of a party? Of course, later she realized that the person had simply gotten their rooms mixed up. Her and her stepbrother had connecting rooms. But at the time, she had simply thought her brother might be ill.
She’d found out differently. Going into the darkened room, looking around, she had been surprised when large muscular hands had closed around her shoulders. Gasping, she had spun around, only to see Senator Richardson, very drunk, standing there smiling at her. She remembered his words about inviting, her room and cook up our own little fun. Realizing his intentions, she had backed away, but he’d thought it funny, some grand game. It was during that struggle that someone had snapped shots of their intimate embrace.
She almost shuddered, remembering how close she’d come to getting raped. Shame had prodded her not to tell anyone of the fiasco in the bedroom. Since she was spending the night, she had escaped to her room and changed her ruined gown. But she’d not gone back down to the party. She’d hidden in her room, crying over what had almost happened.
And if she’d pulled away from Max’s touch for the next few weeks it had only increased her shame, and her inability to explain why she suddenly didn’t want to be touched.
She hadn’t been able to tell him, certain he would look at her differently. When she’d finally decided to confess, it was too late. That someone else who had evidently witnessed her humiliation and taken pictures had sent them to Max. Yeah, she didn’t much like the media, either, for whoever the scum was that had taken the pictures had certainly gotten revenge. She still couldn’t understand why one of the magazines hadn’t bought them…assuming that is what happened, as she was almost certain it was.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” she said sadly now. “You never once asked me to explain the pictures. You just waited until I showed up for our date that night and then dropped the pictures in my lap and told me they had been delivered to you, anonymously. And since they were pictures of the bash over a month before, the one you didn’t go to with me, it was obvious, according to you, that I was not as committed to the relationship as you were.”
“You never even offered an explanation,” Max argued.
“You should have trusted me,” Kaitland said unhappily.
“But the pictures…” Max raised his hands helplessly, then let them fall back to his sides.
Kaitland saw the hurt and pain that she was sure was mirrored on her own face. She remembered her terror when she’d seen the pictures, the sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach when Max had stared so coldly down at her. She had opened her mouth to explain, but suddenly realized all of her fears were coming true. Max was not going to believe whatever she said. She was doomed to even try. And belatedly, she realized the main reason he wouldn’t believe her was because she had not been the one to tell him. Still, the pictures were so incriminating.
“Yet you won’t explain?” he said now.
Pride stiffened Kaitland’s spine. It would do no good. She knew his mind was set against her. Had those pictures not shown up, they would have worked through the situation, but all Max could see was that she had not come to him until someone else had implicated her so he believed what he saw in the photos. “No,” she finally said, thinking it useless to argue further.
He shook his head. “Then it’s best we forget it and remember this is only a job between us.”
Kaitland’s heart breaking, she nodded. “Agreed, again.”
“Very well.” Max cleared his throat and wiped the emotion from his face. Kaitland could still see what he thought of as her betrayal burning in his eyes. “I told Jennifer to have the furniture delivered by noon today. I’ll be calling my lawyers to make sure we’re not breaking any laws by keeping the kids here. Would you be willing to act as an emergency foster parent should the need arise?”
Kaitland inclined her head. “Of course. I imagine, though, you won’t have any problem housing them here temporarily since the note was left for you.”
“How do you know about the note?” he asked, surprised.
“Sarah showed it to me.”
Max rolled his eyes. “I should have known.”
Kaitland giggled, the tension between them finally easing. “She was ecstatic at the thought that you might be getting served back some of what you put her through when you were a child.”
“Hey, it was Rand, not me, that drove the woman to gray prematurely.”
“Not according to her,” she replied. “You were, after all, the one with all the broken bones each time something went awry.”
“But it was Rand who masterminded the situations.”
“We only have your word for that,” she said, smiling with the good memories they had once shared. “As I remember, Rand has a completely different story.”
“Ask Elizabeth. I’m sure Rand has told her the truth.”.
“I know Elizabeth,” Kaitland said. “And I’m sure she wouldn’t divulge a secret Rand might share.”
Max’s smile immediately dimmed. Kaitland realized the issue of trust between Rand and Elizabeth had reminded Max of the betrayed trust he felt Kaitland had dealt him. “If you’ll excuse me, Max. I need to get upstairs and make sure everything has been moved,” she said abruptly. “I’ve got Darlene sitting with the little ones right now. She’ll be helping me out as I need it. After making sure Sarah has a menu for the children, I’ll go relieve Darlene. Bobby and Maddie should be awake by then and I’ll take them outside to play until the room is ready. You’ll have your office back and can work in peace.”
Max nodded. “If they need anything, come tell me.”
Kaitland imitated Max’s nod, so formal, polite and distant “I’ll do that”
She stood and strode from the room.
Max sighed, his rigid posture deflating the minute Kaitland was out of sight. She’d just had to bring up those pictures. It seemed like only yesterday when a courier had hand-delivered the package to him. Thinking it was something Rand had sent over from the store, Max had strolled into his office/gym in his room upstairs. He was running late. Kaitland was due any minute and he still had his cuff links to apply and his jacket to slip into. He’d bought a special gift, a matching necklace to go with the ring he planned to give her tonight. Oh, they were engaged, but the ring she had worn was his mother’s. He’d asked her to wear that until he found the perfect ring for her—which he’d discovered and which had just been delivered that day. A beautiful teardrop emerald surrounded with diamonds. The wedding band was emeralds with clusters of diamonds around them. It was exquisite. And to go with the ring was a matching necklace. He knew the color would bring out the glow of Kaitland’s eyes, accentuate the gold highlights in her hair.
He could hardly wait to present it to her over dinner.
Grabbing his letter opener, he’d slit the manila envelope, tipping it so the papers would slide out.
Pictures had slid out instead. Pictures and a note demanding money.
Pictures of Kaitland and Senator Richardson as he kissed her, his arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly to him. A picture of Richardson falling onto the bed with her while her hands tangled in his jacket, her own leg showing up to her thigh. Another of the senator’s hand pulling her dress from her shoulder while her head was flung back in abandon.
His face had flushed hot before every bit of blood had drained from it He’d dropped into a chair, certain he was going to pass out. Then he’d thrown up.
His stomach had twisted with rage. He’d wanted to go out and destroy the senator with his bare hands. And Kaitland. He’d almost cried over the pain of her betrayal. He probably would have, had Sarah not chosen that moment to tell him Kaitland was there.
Instead, holding on to every shred of dignity he could muster, he’d marched downstairs and dropped the pictures in her lap, wanting her to break down and tell him they were a lie. Even though he knew they couldn’t be, he wanted her to tell him that.
