out with gorgeous guys old enough to be her father?”
“He is her father.”
Fiona’s jaw dropped. “That’s Lacey’s father? That gorgeous…I didn’t know Lacey’s father was coming,” she said accusingly.
“Neither did I.” And she wouldn’t have announced it in any case. “Lacey will be right back,” she said to Nathan, not bothering to invite him in. “She went to borrow some fishing gear from Thomas.”
“Good.” He didn’t wait for an invitation. He stepped into the kitchen and smiled at Fiona, who looked at Carin expectantly.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Carin introduced them. Fiona didn’t only admire his looks, she was disgustingly flattering about Nathan’s photos and his books and articles and how pleased she was to meet him. And Nathan was his most charming, too, saying he’d noticed Fiona’s sculptures in Carin’s shop. He’d thought they were eye-catching and appealing—even the weird ones made out of stuff Fiona had found on the beach. They were well on their way to forming a mutual admiration society when Lacey at last appeared.
“Hey, wow! You’re early.” She beamed when she saw Nathan already there. “I got some stuff from Thomas.” She waggled the rod, coming dangerously close to decapitating Fiona. “I thought I’d bring my camera, too. So I can take pictures. And maybe afterward you could show me some of yours?”
“Don’t pester,” Carin warned Lacey, who seemed about ready to offer yet another suggestion.
“I never pester,” Lacey said indignantly. “All set?”
Nathan nodded. “All set.”
They started out the door.
“Wait.” Carin snagged Lacey’s neon-lime-green ball cap off the hook by the door and thrust it at her daughter. “And don’t forget sun screen.”
“I won’t.” Lacey rolled her eyes.
“And wear your life jacket. You do have life jackets?”
Nathan nodded.
“And don’t stand in the boat and—”
“If you’re so worried that we can’t manage without you,” Nathan cut in, “why don’t you come along, too.”
“No! Thank you. I have work to do.”
“Mom paints on Wednesdays,” Lacey said. “She’s got a lot to do ’cause she’s having a show.”
Nathan’s brows lifted. “A show? Where?”
“In New York City,” Lacey said proudly.
The brows hiked even further. He looked at Carin for more details.
She shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
It was a huge deal, and sometimes she thought she’d made a mistake agreeing to it. A successful one-woman show in New York City would take her to a whole new level. She’d had a couple of shows in Nassau and one in Miami. But Stacia hoped to broaden her market.
But if the critics panned her work or the sales weren’t there, Carin knew she would regret it. She had agreed to the show only because the offer had come after Dominic had discovered her whereabouts. There was no longer any point in keeping a low profile. And she’d hoped that the show would result in more money in case she needed to fight Nathan in court.
She didn’t imagine she would have to—couldn’t believe he would want custody of Lacey—but it would be better to have a nest egg than not.
“Where?” Nathan asked now.
She told him. It was just a small gallery in Soho. But he’d heard of it.
“I’ll have to go,” he said. Which would be fine with her because she had no intention of going.
“Dad,” Lacey said impatiently. It amazed Carin how she could say the word so easily, as if she’d been saying it all her life.
“Coming,” Nathan said just as easily. “You won’t mind if I don’t bring Lacey back until after dinner, then? Since you’re going to be painting all day.”
Hoisted by her own petard. Carin pressed her lips together. “Fine. If that’s what you want.”
“It’s what we want, right, Lace?” Nathan took the ball cap Lacey held and clapped it on her head. “Come on, kid. We’ve got dinner to catch.”
Giggling and grinning over her shoulder at her mother, Lacey followed her father out the door.
“Welllllllll,” Fiona said when the door shut after them, “I can certainly see why you went to bed with him!”
Carin flushed. “I was young and foolish and it was a mistake. Except for Lacey.”
“Of course.” Fiona nodded, then slanted Carin a glance. “You had very good taste. He’s lovely.”
“It’s purely skin deep,” Carin said. Of course that wasn’t entirely true, but she was not getting into a discussion about what had attracted her to Nathan in the first place.
“The bones aren’t bad, either,” Fiona said with a grin, “speaking as a sculptor, of course. Still got the hots for him?”
“Of course not!”
Fiona’s grin turned wicked. “Protesting just a bit too much?”
Carin clamped her