An hour later, after leaving Caro in her pre-K classroom, Belle found Wes waiting for her in the parking lot. He was leaning against a huge black SUV, watching her, and he looked...dangerous. Okay, maybe that was just her. The day was bright and freezing, with high clouds studding a deep blue sky. Pine trees were layered with snow, and high barriers of the white stuff lined the parking lot where it had been pushed by the maintenance crew.
She’d like to think Wes looked out of place at the school in his black jeans, forest green sweater and black leather jacket. The truth was, he fit in everywhere. His blond hair ruffled in the wind, and as he pulled his sunglasses off to look at her, she noted his eyes were narrowed against the glint of the sun off the snow.
He looked dark, edgy, and her heart gave a hard thump she couldn’t deny. Having Wes come back into her life was throwing everything off balance. Thoughts of him had kept her awake all night as her brain replayed memories she’d tried to bury for the past five years.
Working with him had been challenging, but fun. As focused as he was on his own vision, Wes had always been the kind of boss to welcome other ideas besides his own. That made for a great working environment, and Isabelle had loved being a part of it—until she fell in love with the boss. Then, everything had changed for her.
She’d let herself believe that the partnership she felt with him at work could extend to the personal, too. But even when they were alone together, at their most intimate, Isabelle had felt Wes pulling back. And the harder she tried to reach him, the more elusive he became. Finally, she’d had to realize that he wouldn’t change. Would never be able to love her as she loved him and that waiting and hoping would slowly wear her heart away like waves against rock, until there was nothing left.
Now, he was back. Pushing himself into her life whether she liked it or not. Refusing to go away. It seemed, she thought, that Wes would always do the opposite of what she wanted him to.
All around her, the sidewalk and parking lot was alive with people. Parents soothing toddlers, folks starting cars, rushing off to the rest of their days. But all she could see was Wes.
She headed toward him. “What are you doing here?”
“Wanted to see her school.” He pushed away from what was probably a rental. “Wanted to see you.”
Just five years ago, those words would have turned her heart inside out. Now, she was worried. Why did he want to see her? Before she could find out, someone called her name.
“Isabelle!” She turned and smiled tightly at the woman hurrying toward her.
“Hi, Kim. What’s up?” From the corner of her eye, Isabelle saw Wes approaching. Kim’s reaction was instantaneous and completely predictable. The woman’s eyes widened in appreciation, and a soft, speculative curve lifted her mouth.
Typical.
“What can I do for you?” Isabelle asked, drawing the woman’s attention back to her.
“Oh. Right.” She smiled at Wes again as he walked up to stand beside Isabelle. “Sorry. I just wanted to remind you that you volunteered to provide refreshments for the girls’ dance recital next week.”
“Sure. Thanks for the reminder,” Isabelle said, “I’ve been so...busy, I’d forgotten.”
“I don’t blame you for being...busy,” Kim said, shifting her gaze to Wes again. “Hello. I’m Kim Roberts.”
He took her hand in his. “Wes Jackson.”
She never took her eyes from his as she said, “Isabelle, you’ve been keeping this gorgeous man all to yourself? Selfish.”
Kim was doing everything but drooling, and Isabelle had to squelch a flash of irritation. Just like the old days, she told herself. Even when Isabelle was standing right beside him, women would coo and practically purr at him, completely ignoring Isabelle’s presence.
“Wes is an old...friend of mine from Texas,” she said and scowled when he smiled at her explanation. “He’s here visiting.”
“Well,” Kim said, her smile brightening enough that she looked like an actress in a toothpaste commercial, “maybe we could get together while you’re in town. I’d love to show you around.”
“Thanks,” Wes said, “but I think Isabelle’s got that covered.” He turned his back on Kim and asked Isabelle, “Are you ready to go?”
“What? Oh. Yes.” Surprised that he had turned down Kim’s oh-so-generous offer, Isabelle looked up at him and wondered, not for the first time, what he was thinking. He tugged at her arm and she’d actually started walking with him until she realized he was escorting her to his car. Then she stopped. “My car’s here.”
“We’ll come back for it later.” He helped her into the oversize Suburban, then closed the door.
Kim was staring after them, a look of shock on her features. It had probably been years since a man had shown such a lack of interest in her. Sadly, Isabelle knew that Kim would only react to his response as a challenge. She liked Kim, but the woman was always on the prowl for her next ex-husband.
“She’s interested in you, you know,” Isabelle said as Wes drove through the parking lot and out onto the street.
He snorted. “That type’s interested in everything male.”
“That was rude,” Isabelle muttered. “True, but rude. Anyway, where are we going?”
“I don’t know,” he said, aiming the car for Main Street. “Why don’t you tell me? What do you usually do after dropping Caroline at school?”
Frowning, she half turned in her seat to look at him. Even his profile looked hard, implacable. Why was it she liked that about him even as it drove her crazy? Okay, fine, he was here to see Caroline. But why was he spending time with her? “What’s this about, Wes? Do you plan to just follow me around town?”
He shrugged. “Would you rather we go back to your place and talk?”
“No.” Being alone with him wasn’t a good idea. Even knowing better, she might be tempted to—nope.
“There you go. So where are we headed?”
She sighed. The man was nothing if not determined. Rather than argue with him, she surrendered. “Business supply store,” she said. “I need a new laser printer and some other supplies.”
One eyebrow winged up. “Still working? What do you do now?”
“What I always did. I design toys, only now I freelance,” she said, turning her face to look out the window at Swan Hollow as it flashed past.
“For who?”
She thought about not telling him, but the minute she considered it, she let it go. The man could find out the truth easily enough if he did a little digging online. So really, it was pointless to try to keep it a secret even though she didn’t love the idea of allowing him even deeper into her life.
“Myself,” she said, keeping her gaze focused out the side window so she didn’t have to look at him.
“Right,” he said wryly, “because rich people can work, too.”
She whipped her head around to glare at him. “Why is it when you have your own company that’s okay, but when I do, I’m a rich dilettante just killing time?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” She took a breath and let it out again. “Besides, my life is not your business.”
“If that life concerns Caro, then you’re wrong. It is.”
“Where is this coming from?” She squirmed in her seat and wished she were on her feet so she could pace off the nervous energy pulsing inside her. “You never wanted kids, so why are you so fixated on involving yourself with Caro?”
“Because she’s mine,” he said and stepped on the brake for a red light. Turning to meet her eyes, he said, “I protect what’s mine.”
“So it’s just a pride thing?” she asked, trying to read his features, his eyes, hoping she’d see something that would reassure her. That would let her know they’d find a way to work all this out. But as usual, Wes hid what he was thinking, feeling, locking it all down behind an impenetrable wall.
“You hid my daughter from me, Belle. That’s not a pride thing, that’s a damn fact.”
His eyes flashed, a muscle in his jaw flexed and his hands fisted on the steering wheel. Staring into those intense eyes of his, Isabelle knew that he would be a formidable enemy. But was that really what they’d come to? Were they so obviously on opposite sides of this one issue that there would be no way to reach some kind of accord?
He couldn’t use his money against her, because she had plenty of her own. But she couldn’t use hers against him for the same reason—there, at least, they were on equal ground.
But what would a court say, she suddenly wondered. If he got a lawyer and sued for custody, would the judge punish her for keeping Caroline from him for years? Would he order her daughter turned over to her father? A way to make up to him for all the time he’d lost with Caro? God, that thought opened up a hole inside her.
“I did what I thought was the best thing for me,” she said softly. “For Caroline.”
“Well,” he snapped as the light turned green and he stepped on the gas again, “you were wrong.”
But she hadn’t been wrong at all, Belle thought. The only thing she’d done wrong was get caught.
“Your brothers came to see me this morning.”
“They what?” The change in subject was so startling, it completely threw her off. But a second later, Isabelle gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes. This was her own fault. She had planned to tell her brothers today about Wes being in town. She should have known that they would hear the town grapevine buzzing long before that. Rubbing her fingers against her forehead, trying to fight a headache that seemed to have settled in permanently, Isabelle reminded herself that Chance, Eli and Tyler loved her. They were just being protective. They were looking out for Caroline.
Nope, trying to calm herself down wasn’t working, she thought. She was still furious. “What did they do?”
One corner of his mouth quirked in response to the tone of her voice.
“You think this is amusing?” she asked, stunned at the sudden shift in his attitude.
“I didn’t this morning,” he admitted. “When they pushed their way into my hotel room, my first instinct was to go a few rounds with them. But now, seeing how them interfering really frosts you, yeah. It’s amusing.”
“That’s great,” she said, nodding as her world tipped even farther off balance. “You’re bonding with my brothers. I should have expected that. You’re all so much alike.”
“Excuse me?”
She glanced at him. “Now you’re offended. That’s what I find funny.” Shaking her head, she said, “You don’t even see it. You, Chance, Eli and Tyler are all pushy, domineering, know-it-alls. You think you know what’s best for everyone and none of you are willing to listen to reason.”
“Reason?” he repeated. “I think I’ve been pretty damn reasonable so far.”
“Ah,” she said, lifting one hand. “So far being the key words in that sentence. How do I know you’re not going to suddenly decide to sue me for custody of Caro?” she asked, blurting out her deepest fear. “How do I know you’re not already planning to take her away from me?”
“Because I just found out about her two days ago?” he asked. “I’m good, but even I need more time than that.”
He parked the car in the lot and shut off the engine, and Isabelle shifted in her seat to look at him. “How much time, Wes? How long do I have before you come after me with all of your lawyers?”
Wes shifted in his seat, too, until they faced each other in the closed-off silence of the big car. Outside, people wandered in and out of the store and a few more clouds filled the sky, threatening more of the snow that still covered the parking lot. “Who said anything about lawyers?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say it,” she admitted. “But just know, if you bring lawyers into it, so will I.”
“Yeah, I know.” He nodded grimly. “So no lawyers. We do this between us.”
Isabelle released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. For now, at least, she didn’t have to worry about Wes taking her to court. He might change his mind later, but she’d be grateful for today. “Okay, good. So how do we settle this?”
“To start? You get used to me being here. Being with Caroline. I’ll jet back and forth to Texas as needed for business, but I plan on being here. A lot. Don’t fight me on it, Belle,” he warned. “We’ll figure the rest out as we go.”
She didn’t like it. But why would she? Still, she liked this better than the idea of a protracted courtroom drama where they ended up at each other’s throats. That wouldn’t be good for Caro—or for any of them. It went against every instinct she had to let him into her and her daughter’s lives. But the way she saw it, she just didn’t have a choice.
Staring into those beautiful eyes of his, she felt that near magnetic pull that she’d always experienced around him. That was dangerous, but only to her. Isabelle knew she would have to be on guard—and never let him know what he could do to her with just a look. Her reawakened feelings aside, it would be easier all the way around if she could just get through this situation with Wes without slipping back into dangerous feelings.
Wes hadn’t wanted a family—kids. Finding out that she had kept Caroline from him had hit him in his pride, so naturally he’d had to come here. Had to get answers. But it wouldn’t last, she told herself. He’d spend some time here and then he’d go back to his real life and she could return to normal. All she had to do was hang on until Wes remembered that he liked being unencumbered by a family.
“So are we good?” he demanded.
He was watching her, waiting.
“Yes,” she said. “We’re good. For now.” And that was the best she could give him.
“That’s a start,” he said and opened the car door.
* * *
Much later, bedtime was a little crazier than usual. Caroline was fascinated with Wes, and Isabelle couldn’t blame her. When Wes smiled, the female heart melted. Didn’t matter if you were four or eighty-four, the man had a power. For the last five years, Isabelle had assured herself that she was immune to Wes’s charms.
It was a hard thing to discover that she’d been lying to herself, too.
“Another story!” Caroline said, grinning up at Wes. The two of them were sitting on the floor in front of her bed.
Isabelle leaned one shoulder against the doorjamb and folded her arms across her chest. She couldn’t tear her eyes off the man and his daughter. Just like she couldn’t help wondering where they would all be right now if she had told Wes about Caroline from the beginning. Would he have changed? Would he have wanted the three of them to be a family?
Had she cheated all of them out of what they might have had? God, that was a terrible thought and one that couldn’t do the slightest bit of good. What she had to do now was concentrate on the moment at hand and not get lost in memories or dreams of what if.
Wes had a book on his lap, and while he read the story out loud, he also tried to use sign language. The movements were a little clumsy, and he got quite a few of the hand signs completely wrong. Isabelle noticed Caroline giggling a little when Wes read the word bear and signed something entirely different. But making mistakes wasn’t important. The fact that he was trying, that he was going to the trouble to learn ASL tugged at Isabelle’s heart.
“Wes,” Caro said and signed, “read the one about Christmas.”
He feigned dramatic shock. “Christmas is over.”
“Not next Christmas,” Caro argued, with a little giggle that rippled through Isabelle’s heart.
“Three stories is enough, Caroline,” Isabelle said from the doorway, and the girl and her father both turned to look at her. Two sets of eyes the color of the sea in the Caribbean studied her. She saw Wes in her daughter every day, but seeing the two of them together like this, the resemblance was heartbreaking.
She wasn’t blind here. Not only was Wes enjoying this time with Caroline, but her little girl already adored him. Once she found out Wes was her father, that affection would be sealed forever. And again, Isabelle felt that twinge of guilt for keeping them apart.
“Mommy...” Caro dipped her head, looked up and let her bottom lip jut out just enough for a really good pout.
Isabelle laughed in spite of herself. “Not a chance, kiddo. Now get into bed and I’ll tuck you in.”
Dragging herself to her feet, Caro sighed heavily, turned and crawled under the covers, tugging them up to her chin. “Can Wes tuck me in tonight?”
Wow. Arrow to her heart. Shifting a glance to Wes, she saw the pleasure shining in his eyes, and that actually took a bit of the sting out of Caro’s request. She’d never had to share her daughter with another parent before. The joys, the worries, the sleepless nights had all been for her alone. But standing in the bedroom with Wes, both of them looking at the child they’d created together, Isabelle could almost see what she’d been missing. It was more than sharing the responsibilities. It was sharing those secret looks of pride and understanding when their child did something cute. Or silly. Or tender.
So Isabelle took a step forward, into that joint custody world. Bending down, she gave Caro a kiss and whispered, “Sleep tight. I love you.”
Then she stepped aside and let Wes be the one to smooth the sheet and blanket, to sweep soft, silky hair back off their girl’s forehead. He kissed her cheek and said, “Good night, Caroline.”
“G’night,” she said on a yawn. “Will I see you some more tomorrow?”
Wes straightened up and glanced at Isabelle meaningfully before looking back at his daughter. “You sure will.”
* * *
For the next week, Isabelle felt like a caged tiger in the zoo. Someone was always watching her—and that someone was Wes. Every time she turned around, there he was. At the grocery store. At Caro’s school—where he’d charmed the little girl’s teacher until the woman was practically a puddle of goo in front of him.
He showed up at her house nearly every evening, bringing dinner with him—which endeared him to Edna, who enjoyed the time off from cooking. He helped Marco pull a tree stump from the backyard, and now Isabelle had to listen to Marco’s glowing remarks about a “city man” who knew how to put in a real day’s work.
But the worst, she thought, as she pulled into the school parking lot, was Caro herself. The little girl was completely in love with her father.
Wes had plenty of charm when he wanted to use it, as Belle was in a position to know. But she’d never really stood back and watched as he made a conquest. The women in town, Edna, they were one thing, but seeing Caro respond to her father’s determination to win her over had been both touching and worrisome. The harder Caro fell for Wes, the easier it would be for him to eventually break the girl’s heart. Though to be honest, she hadn’t really seen any sign of Wes pulling away. Instead, he seemed focused on being an integral part of Caro’s life.
And all of it worried Isabelle. Sooner or later, he would return to Texas. What then? Would he want to take Caroline back with him? Would they end up in a bitter custody fight after all? Or would he have his fill of playing daddy and just leave—breaking Caroline’s heart? Even a best-case scenario was filled with possible misery. Say she and Wes worked it out together and he didn’t get tired of being a father? Wouldn’t he want Caro with him in Texas for at least part of the year?
Isabelle’s head hurt, and she didn’t see any relief in her near future. So she pushed all of those thoughts out of her mind and tried instead to focus on her work.
She went over the last of her digital drawings, adding a touch of color here, smoothing a sharp line there, until she was completely satisfied. Well, completely was a stretch. She was never truly satisfied with her work, and invariably, once she’d sent the drawings off, she would think of dozens of things she could have done differently.
But the most important thing here was getting her latest designs to the manufacturer who could get started on production. Isabelle sent off a quick email, attaching the designs, and then shifted her attention to the paperwork that had been mounting over the last few days.
“You work from home?”
Isabelle jolted in her chair, glanced at the open doorway to her home office and slapped one hand to her chest when she saw Wes standing there. “How did you get in?”
“Edna let me in. Told me you were up here.”
Traitor, Isabelle thought. Her housekeeper was clearly indulging her inner matchmaker. Too bad the woman didn’t know that Wes wasn’t interested in a match of any kind. Isabelle’s heart ached a little at that internal reminder. It would be so much easier for her if she could just get past the feelings for him that kept resurfacing.
He strolled into the room, hands in his pockets, and wandered the perimeter, invading her space, looking at everything. She bit her tongue, because telling him to get out of her office would only make him that much more determined to look around. He took long, slow strides, moving with a sort of stealthy grace that made her insides quiver completely against her will.
Taking a deep breath, Isabelle watched as he checked out the full-color digital printouts of her latest sketches she had taped to a wall and the easel where one of her charcoal sketches was on display. Then he moved onto the dry erase board, with her schedule laid out, and finally to the corkboard where she’d affixed dozens of pictures of children holding toys.
Her office was at the front of the house on the second floor. Caroline called it the tower room. The windows looked out over a landscape that included the woods full of snow-covered pines, a lake, and in the distance, mountains that looked tall enough to scrape the sky.
The room wasn’t very big, but she didn’t need a massive office since there was no one to impress. She had a desk with a computer, an easel and paints, and space enough to pace when she needed to think. But right now, Isabelle wished for a much bigger space, because her office seemed to have shrunk the moment Wes walked into it.
“What is all this?” he asked quietly, turning at last to look at her.
“My work. It’s what I do now,” she told him and stood up from behind her desk. She didn’t want to be seated while he loomed over her. “I set up a nonprofit that provides toys to hospitalized children. I call it Caro’s Toybox.”
She didn’t look at him, instead focusing on the pictures of the smiling kids she kept in her office as inspiration. “I do the design work and the manufacturer produces the toys, then we distribute them.”
He looked at those smiling faces in the photographs, too, and asked, “How’d you get into this?”
Isabelle walked up to stand beside him so that both of them were looking at those happy faces staring back at them. “When Caro was so sick, and then diagnosed, we spent a lot of time in the local hospital. We saw ill, scared children, and I realized that stuffed animals, or dolls, or even a toy plane could bring comfort to those kids when no one was around.”
She sighed as memories rushed into her mind—sharing waiting rooms with other worried mothers, hearing the muffled cries of children, punctuated by an occasional wail of pain.
“I held Caro on my lap as doctors poked and prodded her. She was scared, but she had me there to try to comfort her,” she said sadly. “But there were a lot of kids on the ward who spent too much time alone in their beds. Their moms and dads had other kids to take care of, and jobs, too. Nurses are amazingly great, but they’re frantically busy and can’t always take the time to try to ease a child’s fear.”
“I wish I’d been there. For Caro. For you.” His voice was low, soft and tinged with regret.
Isabelle looked at him and saw his features soften and felt closer to him than she ever had. Whether he’d been there or not, he was Caroline’s father, and only the two of them could really understand what it was like to have a sick child you couldn’t help.
“I wish you had been, too.” She looked up at him. “I know it’s my fault that you weren’t, and for that, I’m really sorry.”
He looked down at her, and his clear aqua eyes shone with emotion that he couldn’t hide. “Thanks. For saying that. For meaning it.”
Isabelle’s heart thumped hard in her chest. Her stomach swirled with anticipation, expectation and a jolt of nerves that only increased with every breath she drew. “I do, Wes,” she said. “If I could do it all over...”
He shook his head, reached out and laid one hand on her shoulder. “We can’t do any of it over. But we can do it differently from here on.”
The heat of his touch drifted down, sliding into her chest and filling her with a kind of warmth she hadn’t known in five years. Staring into his eyes, she was drawn in by that magnetic pull she’d always felt around him. It took everything she had to keep from moving into him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. But that would only make this moment even more confusing than it already was.
So she only reached up to cover his hand with her own. “We can do that.”
He released her as his eyes warmed and a half smile curved his mouth. “Good.” He shifted his gaze back to the faces on her board. “So you decided to try to take care of all of those kids,” he said.
“To do what I could, yes.” She too looked at the board where smiling children were caught in a moment of time. “We set up a toy room on the pediatric floor—” She broke off and chuckled. “Nothing fabulous, of course, usually a maintenance closet that we take over. We add shelves, paint and stock it with toys. Then every new patient gets to choose a toy for themselves.”
She smiled a little, remembering the excitement of the kids when they were given the chance to go toy shopping right in the hospital. “It’s a good feeling, watching children go into the room and inspect everything there before making their choice.”
“Yeah,” he said softly, “I bet it is.”
She felt him looking at her, and she turned her head to meet his gaze. He was giving her a quizzical look, as if he was trying to figure her out. “What is it?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I’m just...impressed.”
“And surprised?”
“No, not really,” he said, tipping his head to one side to look at her more deeply. “You always had a big heart.”
Now she was the one shocked. And a little off balance. These few moments with Wes had fundamentally changed how they were dealing with each other. Which was good for Caroline, but dangerous for Isabelle. Old feelings were awakened and new ones were jolting into life. “Well, it’s getting late, and I need to pick up Caro at school.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll go with you. But first...” He paused, looked down at her and said, “I’d like to help you. With this.”
“What?”
“If you had more toys available, you could get into more hospitals, right?” He studied each smiling face on the board as if committing them each to memory.
“Well, yes,” she said, watching him. “We’ve been moving slowly, running on donations and what we can produce. It’s taking longer than I’d like.”
“Then let me help,” he said, and this time he turned to her and reached out to hold her upper arms in a soft, firm grip. “What you’re doing is something special. Something important, and it makes me proud that you started it all. So let me in, Belle. Let me be a part of what you do.”
Her heart jumped into a fast, heavy rhythm. His eyes on hers, she saw his sincerity. Saw how much he wanted this and what it meant to him. She was touched more deeply than she’d expected. With Wes’s help she could grow her program faster than ever before. They could reach more children. Offer more comfort. That he wanted to do this meant more to her than anything else he could have done.
“I’d like that very much,” she said.
A slow, satisfied smile curved his mouth, and his eyes gleamed. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, creating a friction that kindled the heat already building inside her.
“Thanks for that,” he said. “I think we’ll make a great team.”
Isabelle smiled, but her heart hurt a little, since five years ago, she’d thought the same thing.