Nathan's Child - By Anne McAllister Page 0,49

Stacia’s tone told him how delighted she was.

Nathan doubted Carin would feel the same.

She hadn’t argued with him in front of Lacey, but she hadn’t exactly been sweetness and light personified since then, either.

Lacey had been delighted enough not to notice that her mother was grinding her teeth.

Nathan had noticed. He’d noticed, too, that she’d deliberately ignored him, clambering into the helicopter to sit on the seat next to Hugh’s dog, Belle, his “copilot,” leaving Nathan to sit with Lacey in the back.

He didn’t mind sitting with Lacey. His daughter’s enthusiasm delighted him and, as far as Nathan was concerned, it justified what he’d done, arranging things without Carin’s knowledge. She wouldn’t have agreed if he’d told her—and it was all too clear how happy Lacey was.

As the helicopter lifted off, she was practically bouncing off the seat in her excitement.

“See! There’s the school! And our house, and Lorenzo’s, and Maurice and Estelle’s! Oh, look! We’re going to see your place!” She gave another bounce as Hugh aimed the copter toward the seaward side of the island. “See it, Dad? Mom? Do you see?”

“I see,” Nathan said.

Carin glanced that way, but she didn’t say anything. She sat, stiff and unyielding all the way to Nassau, her good arm wrapped around Belle.

So much for taking charge and controlling her own destiny. So much for putting space between them. So much for the trip for two—just her and Lacey—to New York.

Of course Nathan was coming along because Stacia—of all people!—had called him and asked if he was coming. Naturally he’d said he was. And because he was Nathan, naturally he’d told Stacia not to bother making arrangements, that he would handle that end of things.

“Handle them how?” Carin asked.

“Well, we can’t go to a hotel,” he said practically. “My brothers would be offended.”

And Carin knew without asking that Nathan had no intention of staying in a hotel no matter how much she argued, which she couldn’t do anyway since Lacey was sitting next to her, all ears.

“Don’t say we’re going to stay with Dominic.”

The very thought appalled her. Stay with the man she’d jilted? Talk about uncomfortable situations.

“No. His place isn’t really big enough. We’re going to stay with Rhys and Mariah.”

Carin barely remembered Rhys, though she felt pretty sure he would remember her. “He’s married again?” She knew his first wife had died.

“To Mariah. She’s Sierra’s sister. You’ll like her.”

“Does she have purple hair, too?” Lacey asked avidly. She thought Sierra’s purple locks were absolutely fascinating.

Carin thought they were pretty amazing, too. She still found it hard to believe that Sierra, with her purple hair and funky day-glo clothes, was Dominic’s wife. But they’d certainly seemed deeply in love when she’d met them on the island last autumn.

“I don’t know what color it is now,” Nathan answered Lacey. “You’ll have to wait and see. Dominic’s picking us up.”

It should have been horrible.

In scant moments she was going to be face-to-face with the man she’d jilted. She’d seen him before—twice—but both times had been on Pelican Cay. She’d never presumed to set foot on his turf. And even though Dominic had professed to have forgiven her, who knew what he really felt? And would he and his wife really want to welcome her into their home?

Carin knew Sierra was “unusual.” But did her unusualness extend to welcoming her husband’s ex-fiancée? Carin tried to imagine and couldn’t. Why on earth couldn’t Nathan have left well enough alone?

“I’ve got your tote bag,” Nathan said over his shoulder, steering Lacey ahead of him and checking behind him to make sure Carin was following as they disembarked. As if she might duck out and vanish given a chance.

If it weren’t for Lacey, she would have been tempted. She didn’t want to have to smile and make small talk with Dominic. She didn’t want to go back to his Fifth Avenue apartment and act like she was glad to be there.

What she wanted was to strangle Nathan for forcing her into this.

But she couldn’t, she thought grimly. Not in front of Lacey.

The next thing she knew Dominic was striding toward them, his hard face lightened by a broad grin and his whole tough demeanor softened by the baby girl he held in one arm. He gave Nathan a punch on the shoulder, then wrapped his free arm around his brother’s neck and gave it a friendly squeeze.

“Took your own sweet time coming to see us, didn’t you, bro?” When he released Nathan, he wrapped Lacey in a