Corporate Daddy (13 page)

He started the car and backed it up, stopping when he reached Hannah, who got in and swept her hair back with
one hand, sighing. “I just don’t know what’s happening with my sister. It’s like she’s mad at the world. I doubt she’ll be baby-sitting that little one anymore after the way she talked to his mother. I could tell the woman was shocked to hear that she was making Maria late.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Logan said. “She’s probably keeping more than one. She certainly has the makings of an adequate nursery.”

“Maybe so,” Hannah said. “I asked her if she wasn’t afraid of losing what money the woman owed her, but she didn’t seem concerned.”

“Maybe she gets paid in advance,” Eden said. “Lots of sitters do.”

Hannah nodded, but Logan could tell she was puzzling over something else as he turned the car around and headed out of the trailer park. He noticed, too, that Maria, who was supposedly in such an all-fired hurry, stood defensively by her old car until they were all the way at the end of the street.

“How old would you think the mother of such a young child would be?” Hannah asked as he turned the car out into the intersection.

Eden shrugged. “Early twenties to late thirties, usually, but we all know that these days a new mother can be a teenager or a middle-aged matron.”

Hannah nodded, but the next instant she was shaking her head. “That woman’s too old,” she whispered.

Something nudged Logan to speak up. “What woman?”

But Hannah waved a hand and laughed at herself. “Never mind. It’s not important. Maria may not be the loving daughter and sister we’ve always wanted her to be, but there’s nothing new in that. At least I can tell Mama that she’s all right.”

Logan smiled, but he couldn’t help thinking that he’d be brokenhearted and probably fit to be tied if Amanda Sue turned out like Maria Cassidy. But he wouldn’t let that happen. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d prevent it, but somehow
he would. He wondered what Emily would have to say about it, and suddenly he missed her with a pang of such longing that he made up his mind to leave for San Antonio as soon as possible. He’d intended to put it off until nightfall, hoping Amanda Sue would sleep through the drive, but he knew now that he wasn’t going to wait a minute longer than necessary to say a polite farewell. Suddenly beyond endurance, he depressed the accelerator a little further and imagined that Emily waited for him, arms open.

E
mily sat dejectedly on the bed in the waning twilight. Goody sprawled next to her, meticulously cleaning her paws, but Emily could not find the energy to raise her hand and stroke the tigerish fur. This was ridiculous. She’d always loved lazy weekends, lounging around with her cat, a good book and a cup of coffee or hot cocoa, snug in her little apartment despite the cold rain pouring down outside. She hoped the rain wouldn’t cause problems for Logan and Amanda Sue on their drive up from the ranch, but then, that was precisely the problem. She just couldn’t get those two our of her mind, couldn’t seem to get interested in anything else.

She looked at the clock on the bedside table. Four minutes of five. Oh, would this weekend never end? If only Cathy hadn’t been too busy to come over. She’d sensed during their two brief telephone conversations that Cathy needed the break in her busy schedule even more than she, Emily, needed distraction from the monotony of a solitary weekend.

Monotony. Who was she kidding? She was missing Logan and Amanda Sue as if they were her arms and legs. She felt incapacitated by their absence, however temporary, and she knew with awful certainty that it was just a taste of her life to come. How was it that the future had seemed so safe, so acceptable, so normal, only a few weeks ago?

When the telephone rang, she very nearly didn’t pick it up, but then she thought about cold rain falling on slick roads and unexpected panic had her grabbing for the receiver before the answering machine could switch on.

“Hello?”

“Em? Is that you? Are you okay?”

Logan. Relief swept through her, and another emotion that scared her half to death welled up, pushing a lump into her throat. She closed her eyes and tried to sound relaxed. “I’m fine. How are you?”

“Tired,” he said, “and hungry. We just got in.”

“You’re home.” She couldn’t prevent the relief from creeping into her voice.

“Safe and sound.” She heard insistent little-girl babble in the background. Then, “Hold on a sec. Amanda Sue wants to talk to you. Say ‘hi’ to Emily,” he coached, sounding far away.

“Hi-i-i, Mimy.”

Emily smiled, tears building behind her eyelids. “Hello, darling. How was your weekend at the ranch?”

“Traz n Awya run-run n gibby-ub Guhmama gimme num-num un eed iggle tummy.”

“She’s patting her tummy, whatever that means,” Logan supplied. “I think she’s telling you about her cousins Travis and Sawyer.”

“Yeah,” Amanda Sue confirmed, “Traz n Awya.”

She went off on another tangent, babbling away as if totally confident every word was understood. “Guhmama” came up several times.

“I think she’s talking about her grandmother now,” Logan interpreted. “She’s nodding.”

Finally Amanda Sue’s babble came to an end with, “Mon, Mimy. Mon bing Gooey hom.”

Logan chuckled. “She’s telling you to come on home and bring Goody with you.”

Emily smiled, wanting nothing more than to do just that, but she had no justification for such unwise action, none at all. She swallowed against the lump in her throat. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, darling. You have a nice dinner and get some rest.”

“Which darling would that be?” Logan said directly into
her ear. “The short one has had her say and abandoned the post in favor of making my bed a shambles by building a ‘house’ with my pillows, a little trick taught her by her rowdy cousins.”

Emily laughed. “Sounds as if she had a very eventful weekend.”

“We both did,” he said. Then, softly, he added, “We missed you.”

Heat expanded the lump in her throat so that she couldn’t speak for a long moment. “H-how is your mom?”

“Oh, Mom is great. She loves being a grandmother again, but she’s worried about my uncle Ryan.” He filled her in briefly on Ryan’s difficulties. The kidnapping she knew about, the divorce and possible remarriage were news—to which she wasn’t at all sure she was entitled. “We had a strange visit with Maria Cassidy,” he went on. “That’s Lily’s youngest daughter. She seems to hate Fortunes on principle, which is odd since she used to work at the big house. It made me feel sorry for Lily and Hannah—she’s the older daughter. It made me glad that my sister Eden isn’t like Maria. Hannah’s nice enough. My sister wants to come and see you, by the way.”

“Me?” Emily was shocked.

“I told her to drop by the house anytime. That’s all right, isn’t it?”

She wanted to say no. She didn’t know why, but she very much feared meeting Logan’s family socially, getting to really know them, like them. What if she and Eden didn’t appreciate one another? What if they did? She took a deep breath and said the only thing she could. “Sure.”

“Okay, then. So, how was your weekend?”

Miserable
, she thought. “Fine,” she said. “I love staying in and snuggling down when the weather’s miserable like this.”

He sighed. “I guess that means I can’t talk you into coming over tonight.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t think that’s wise. My old car—”

“You’re right,” he said. “I don’t want you out in that thing. We could always come and get you.”

“You shouldn’t be taking Amanda Sue back out in this weather,” she said briskly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“But not for long,” he complained. “I’ll be in the office all day.”

“I thought that was the point,” she said, smiling because he wanted to spend time with her, then frowning because she wanted to spend time with him.

“Daddy,” Amanda Sue demanded loudly in the background. “Hungy num-nums.”

“I guess I’d better rustle up some dinner,” he said reluctantly. “You’re sure you won’t—”

“I’m glad you’re home safely,” she interrupted. “Kiss Amanda Sue for me. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Come early,” he urged after a moment of silence.

“Early enough to make breakfast,” she promised.

“Didn’t you miss me at all?” he asked softly, and she wondered how he managed to get that tone of vulnerability just right. She knew that it was a well-rehearsed technique, and still it was all she could do not to tell him exactly what he seemed to want to hear.

“Good night, Logan,” she said, and if her voice was all husky and thick with feelings she shouldn’t feel, well, she just couldn’t help it. She hung up the phone and lay back beside Goody. “He didn’t really miss me,” she whispered. “No, not really.” He couldn’t have, because she couldn’t bear it if it was true. She just couldn’t.

The week proved rather uneventful for Emily, probably because it was so crushing for Logan. Just when it seemed that he might get caught up at work, a pair of bombs detonated—a deal undone at the last moment and an unexpected, short-term financial crisis brought on by a nervous stock market and rumors about his uncle Ryan’s impending divorce. He had no time to interview prospective nannies, and Emily didn’t press him about it, not even when he called
several times a day to vent his frustration and discuss the situation at the office.

Strangely, though she usually enjoyed the intense moments of decision-making and crisis-defusing, Emily found that she did not particularly miss the office. She appreciated that Logan called her and asked her opinion or just ranted and raved in her ear, but that was enough for her—for the time being. She loved being home with Amanda Sue. Staying one step ahead of the world’s fastest, brightest toddler was more than merely challenging.

She was pleased that Logan called to talk to Amanda Sue during the day and that he walked through the door in the evening with his arms open. Seeing Amanda Sue run to her daddy at the end of the day, giggling and so delighted to have him home, made Emily think that it was worth anything to be there to witness it. The difficulties of his day always seemed to have disappeared somewhere along the way, and he would sweep his little daughter up to hug and kiss her, tossing her over his shoulder to ride piggyback into the bedroom so he could change clothes. They’d romp and play while Emily got dinner on the table. Then, somehow, she and Logan would manage to eat and carry on a sensible conversation while feeding Amanda Sue, even though she would occasionally bang on her chair tray and demand, “Me, Daddy! Me!”

“I see you, ’Manda mine,” he would say. “You have tomatoes in your hair, and you’re rude, but you’re still beautiful, and I love you. Now hush up.”

Life felt altogether too good that week, until Emily came down the stairs on Friday after putting Amanda Sue down for her morning nap and found Logan standing in the living room when he ought to be at work. “What’s wrong?” she said, suddenly certain that it was something terrible.

He stepped forward sluggishly. “I have to go to New York this evening.”

She wasn’t sure when the ax would fall, when the bad
news would hit. Leaning back against the counter, she asked calmly, “How long will you be gone?”

“At least through Monday,” he said in a funereal voice. Suddenly he stepped forward and engulfed her in a fierce embrace. “Oh, God, Em,” he said, “I don’t want to go!”

She put her arms around him, half afraid, half…amused. “What’s the problem, Logan? Anything I can help you with?”

He jerked back. “Yes! Come with me!”

“What?”

“You and Amanda Sue—come with me.”

“It isn’t business?”

“Of course it’s business, but I want you with me. I want you both with me.”

She put her hands to her hips and rolled her eyes. “You want to fly your daughter from San Antonio to New York and back again in a matter of a few days, just so she can sit in a hotel room? Are you nuts? She’ll be ripping the paper off the walls by the end of the second day—and I’ll be helping her!”

He frowned then. “You don’t have to sit around the hotel. New York’s full of museums and galleries and—”

“Oh, right! Let’s turn Amanda Sue loose in the museums of New York! Wouldn’t you like them still standing when she’s old enough to actually benefit from them?”

His frowned deepened. “She’s not that bad.”

“She’s a toddler, Logan. She doesn’t have any business going with you to New York!”

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re right. It’s just… I don’t want to be away from you, either of you!”

“Oh, please. I can understand you not wanting to leave your daughter, but it’s the weekend. I wouldn’t be here, anyway.”

“Don’t you get it?” he said angrily. “I missed you like crazy last weekend. You! And I had no intention of doing it again. I’ve been looking forward all week to having at least one day with you, one whole day, and now there will
be no weekend at all, just one long, miserable week with a hole in the middle!”

He meant it. He was
that
intent on seducing her. Shaken, Emily tried to think what to say, what to do. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Abruptly, Logan turned and swept out of the room. For several moments she just stood there, trying to decide what to do next. It was as if her body decided for her. She knew even as she stepped away from the counter that she was going after him and that she didn’t have any business doing it, but that didn’t seem to matter.

He had dropped his suit jacket on the floor and was throwing clothes into a suitcase on the bed when she came into his room. “Shouldn’t you fold those?” she asked timidly.

He stopped what he was doing, hung his head, and finally sat down on the edge of the bed, legs splayed before him. “I shouldn’t have shouted at you,” he said apologetically. Loosening his tie, he stripped it off. “It’s just so frustrating!”

She came farther into the room and picked up his jacket, which she hung on the bedpost. “I know.” She retrieved his tie from the pillow where he’d tossed it, folded it neatly and laid it on the table beside the bed. “All parents feel some frustration, especially single parents. You can’t help being torn between work and your child.”

He was shaking his head. “This is not about Amanda Sue, dammit!” Suddenly he came up off the bed in a single, fluid motion. Fastening his hands around her elbows, he shook her gently. “This is about
you!
You and me.” Dismayed, she turned her head away, but he cupped her chin and made her look at him. “Tell me that you’re not attracted to me. Make me believe it!”

She opened her mouth, but one glance into his fiercely burning blue eyes told her that lying was hopeless, so instead she pulled a deep breath and attempted to marshal her thoughts. “Logan,” she began carefully, “we’ve discussed this before, and—”

He yanked her against him and covered her mouth with his. Frozen in shock, she could do nothing more than stand there, wrapped against him by the confining strength of his arms, but then he widened his stance, urged her closer still, and slanted his mouth across hers in a plea so poignant she could not leash her reaction. Her body softened, even as her mind screamed silently that she must remain firm. Groaning, he dropped his hands to her bottom and pulled her against the hardness pulsing from his groin. His kiss moved across her cheek to her ear, where he breathed hot words that shivered down her spine.

“Em, oh, Em, I need you so!”

She shuddered, her knees weakening, and grabbed at his shoulders. “Logan.” She couldn’t think what else to say. His mouth came back to hers, hotly possessive, urgently persuasive. Lost, she pushed her arms up around his neck, and in reward he stabbed his tongue into her mouth, reaching deeply as his hands swarmed over her back.

Something opened inside her, softened and swelled. Suddenly her breasts were tender, the nipples pushing against his chest. His mouth broke away from hers and came to rest again just below her ear. He bit her, and it was not a dainty nip with the edges of his teeth, but a hot, wet, openmouthed, almost vampiric but utterly painless fixing of his teeth in her flesh. She nearly collapsed, shuddering as sensations too numerous and keen to identify rolled through her in convulsive waves. He licked his way to her earlobe with the tip of his tongue, and fixed his teeth there, at the same time shoving up the bottom of her sweater with both hands until he reached the band of her bra and released it.

Frantic to feel his mouth on hers again, she made no protest when he pulled the sweater over her head and brushed away the bra. His hands on her bare back made her skin prickle. Or was it the prickle of his beard against her palms that made her seize his mouth with hers? She objected with a moan when he shoved her away and down onto the bed. He followed on his knees, settling astride her, and a wave
of his arm knocked the suitcase off the bed, while with his other hand he tore at the buttons on his shirt, breaking one and ripping away another. With a growl of frustration, he gave it up, yanking the shirt over his head, turning the sleeves inside out as he pulled his hands free one at a time.