“My husband and I live a few miles away, but Grandma Ginger keeps everything we need here if our little guy needs to nap. Ginger’s second husband, Hank Renshaw, also has grandchildren from his daughters. Between us all, we make good use of that room. You’ll find everything you could possibly need in there.”
Still, Phoebe hesitated. Giving Nina a room here, even a temporary one, seemed such a huge step. One she should have been happy about.
Marianna hitched the pink-flowered diaper bag over her shoulder. “There’s a nursery monitor so you can hear the least little peep if she needs you.”
Even swaying with exhaustion, Phoebe hesitated. “I don’t think I could leave her to wake up alone in a strange place.”
Marianna’s face softened with understanding. “There’s also a daybed in the nursery if you would rather sleep in there with her.”
“Show me the way.”
Marianna started the winding walk through pale-yellow halls until Phoebe wondered if she would be able to find her way back out of the Landis world again. Beach landscapes mingled with framed family candids that added a surprise touch of hominess to the designer decor. A grandfather clock ticked, their footsteps muffled by the light patterned Oriental rugs.
Phoebe couldn’t take the silence any longer. Besides, she would never learn anything from the woman this way. “Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m lying? Everyone else doubts me.”
Marianna glanced back with a reassuring smile, her thick dark hair swishing like the clock’s pendulum. “I believe you’re telling us the truth about Nina being Kyle’s daughter.”
“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 BlackBerry 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.