Dance Away with Me - Susan Elizabeth Phillips Page 0,81

family!” Tess declared. “You were lucky to get away from them.”

Jeff hadn’t blinked at Ian’s self-assessment. “I admire a man who faces up to his mistakes. And you’ve certainly made up for it, not only with your career, but with your charity work.”

What charity work? Tess wondered.

Ian was having none of it. “There’s no work about it. Writing checks is easy, hardly a mark of strong character.”

“You’re too modest,” Jeff said. “What about the time—not to mention money—you spend at those community art centers?”

One more thing she hadn’t known.

Ian frowned. “Whenever there are budget cuts, the arts are always the first target. More than a little shortsighted when they can be the only savior for kids in crisis.”

“That’s all commendable, but the Internet can’t tell us what’s most important.” Diane gazed toward her granddaughter, asleep in Tess’s arms. “We know how Tess feels about Wren, but what about you?”

“Ian loves Wren,” Tess asserted. “He’d do anything for her. He’s just more private about expressing his feelings.” She turned to him, silently pleading. “You couldn’t find a better father.”

His eyes met her own. This was it. He couldn’t sidestep any longer. Sure enough, he rose from the table and went upstairs. Abandoning her. Abandoning Wren.

It was over. He’d had enough. She blinked her eyes. Swallowed. She put Wren to her shoulder, not looking at Diane or at Jeff.

She heard the clank of metal as Diane set her silverware on her plate. Jeff cleared his throat. Wren squeaked in her sleep. And then footsteps on the stair treads as Ian returned.

He’d brought one of his sketchbooks. He set it on the table in front of them and opened it to a pencil drawing of Wren asleep in Tess’s arms. He flipped to the next page. Wren howling. Another page. Wren yawning. There was a study of her cockleshell ears and her orchid-petal mouth with its puffy top lip. One drawing after another—each daintier, more ethereal than the last, and none of which could have been executed with a spray can or paint roller.

Tess felt the sting of tears. She had no idea he’d been doing this.

“Oh, my . . .” Diane’s hand flew to her cheek, and her voice caught in her throat. “These are . . . They’re lovely.”

For once, Jeff seemed at a loss for words, and it took him a few moments to recover. “I guess this answers Diane’s question.”

Diane’s hand lingered on a page that showed the feathery whirl of Wren’s cowlick. She gazed up at them, clearly troubled. “People can stay engaged for years. It happens all the time. We—I need to know you’re committed for the long haul. That Wren will have parents.”

“We sound like a couple of old fuddy-duddies, don’t we?” Jeff said.

Diane rejected her husband’s conciliatory chuckle. “I’m not apologizing, and I’m not going to spend the rest of my life worrying that Tess will end up with a revolving door of abusive boyfriends.”

Tess raised her chin. “I’m not in the habit of surrounding myself with abusive men!”

“All it takes is one,” Diane said. “May he rot in hell.”

“What about Ian?” Tess exclaimed. “How do you know he’s not slapping me around in private, or . . . harboring a sick obsession for little girls?”

“Is he?”

Tess had no right to be offended, since she was the one who had brought it up. “Of course not!”

“I didn’t think so,” Diane said. “I have exceptionally good radar when it comes to pigs. Even the most respectable.”

“She does,” Jeff said. “A local judge. One of the most important men in town, but Diane knew, and she’s the one who brought him down.”

She waved him off. “That’s neither here nor there. I need to know the two of you are solid.”

Ian tucked the sketchbook under his arm. “This is between Tess and me,” he said firmly.

“Ian’s telling us to butt out,” Jeff said.

But the Tiger grandmother was having none of it. “And I’m telling them both . . . I’ll make sure Simon won’t relinquish his parental rights until I know for certain my granddaughter has real security.”

Tess pulled Wren closer. “I’d give up my life for her.”

Diane lowered her eyes to her lap. “I’m sure my mother thought the same thing.”

“What you’re demanding is unnecessary,” Tess retorted.

“Unfair, yes,” Diane said. “Unnecessary, no.”

Tess had lost. Not only the battle but the war. “I can’t do this.”

“Then we have our answer,” Diane said quietly.

“Hold up.” Jeff slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Diane, we’ve been wanting to visit Asheville,