Sutherland’s Pride (3 page)

“He can read nautical flags?”

“It’s in his blood,” Pride said, straight-faced. “Come on, Flynn. Give.”

“Mine,” Johnny wailed.

“Flynn’s,” Pride corrected.

“Flynn’s,” Johnny pleaded.

“How old is he?” Flynn looked toward Gloria.

Gloria made a sound indicative of someone choking to death.

“He can’t be more than two.” Killeen handed out glasses of soft drink.

“He was two years old on March twelfth,” Pride said. “Un-wrist that watch, Flynn, or we’ll be here all day.” Flynn unclasped the watch, removed it from his wrist, and brought it to Johnny. Johnny’s small fingers closed around it like the arms of a starfish around an oyster.

“Johnny, what do you say?” Pride asked.

“Flynn’s.”

“What do you say to Flynn?”

Johnny looked up at Flynn and said in a clear, childish voice, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Flynn said.

Killeen Ross, covering her mouth with her hand, exchanged gleeful glances with Pride and backed out of the office.

Johnny got busy trying to pry the crystal off the watch so he could get to the brightly colored nautical flags on the face of the watch.

“Now, Flynn,” Pride said, grinning. “Tell us all about our trip to Bermuda.”

Flynn watched Johnny a moment then lifted his gaze to her. “Why didn’t you get in touch with your father before he died?”

“What makes you think I didn’t?” Pride asked.

“He told me as much. When I received your father’s request to handle his estate, he was in the hospital in bad shape. Before I could get there the next morning, he died.”

“That’s too bad,” Pride said. “Obviously, he was about to make an Interesting Revelation.”

“Don’t be flippant.” Flynn regarded her, frowning. “You’ve never been close to your father, have you?”

She had never told Flynn any of her troubles with her father on the grounds that people who detailed their innermost pain to other human beings were deadly bores.

“That’s probably the understatement of the year,” she replied. “He has always believed I’m not his real daughter.”

Flynn’s brown eyes went wide. He stared at her a moment in astonished silence.

“He never gave my mother a moment’s peace, and he was rude and disrespectful to her in public,” Pride went on. “No, I was not close to him. To tell you the truth, I didn’t like him much. Therefore, I haven’t any more idea than you have as to what he wanted to see you about.”

“I didn’t know,” Flynn said, still staring.

Pride smiled. “Now, Flynn, one doesn’t spill the more yucky parts of her personal history to a man unless she wants to either put him to sleep or run him off.”

“I suppose you mean reserve is more interesting than excess openness.” Flynn glanced behind him, picked up a folder from a stack on his desk, and turned back to face her. “I’ll say this for you. You were never boring.”

“Thank you.” She gripped her hands together in her lap and maintained her bright smile.

He eyed her. “Your sarcasm is well-taken. Let’s get down to business, before that one,” he indicated Johnny, “figures out how to take my watch apart.”

“He’s only dismantled the clasp so far,” Pride said, in comforting tones. “It’ll be a while before he figures out how to scatter the little gears and gizmos all over the room.”

Flynn winced. “Thanks. I needed that.” He opened the folder. “To make things simple, your father died a wealthy man. He has left you his entire estate, except for a few minor bequests to distant relatives.”

Pride suspected her father of trying to mess with her mind from the grave. Her parents had been well-off, but not rich by any means. She grew up in a large, brick home as befitted the daughter of a judge, and she had even received a car for her sixteenth birthday. But so had some of her friends, whose parents had big mortgages and were in hock to the local car dealership.

“That’s nice.” She glanced at Gloria. “Let’s get packed. Maybe we can catch a flight to Bermuda late this afternoon.”

Gloria hadn’t taken her eyes off Flynn. She nodded and kept her mouth shut.

“Mine,” Johnny said, with satisfaction.

Pride glanced down in time to see Johnny pop something into his mouth and swallow it. She grabbed for the watch, but it was too late.

“Uh-oh.” She noted her son’s angelic face. “You’d better take your watch back, Flynn. I do believe he ate the stem.”

Flynn received the watch with disbelief.

“And,” Pride added, “if I hear one word out of you about paying for repairs, I’ll see to it that you get the bill for having Johnny’s little stomach pumped.”

“Having his stomach pumped?” Flynn said. “It was only a watch stem. His digestive system will probably never notice it.”

“What do you know about little children?” Pride asked. “For all we know, that watch stem could be working its deadly way into his intestines, where it will next enter his bloodstream and migrate directly to his — ”

“All right,” Flynn interrupted. He stared at his watch. “Let’s get him X-rayed. Never let it be said that I caused the death of an innocent child.”

Pride felt satisfied. She had no intention of getting Johnny X-rayed for ingesting a mere watch stem, not when he’d successfully dealt with such large items as pennies and quarters. She just thought it was high time Flynn worried a little over his own son.

Johnny climbed carefully off the sofa and toddled across the small expanse of gray carpet toward Flynn. He held up his small hands. “Flynn’s.”

“How do you like that?” Flynn asked. “He wants to eat the rest of it.”

“Flynn’s,” Johnny begged.

Eric, Tracy, and Sylvia had so far behaved like model children, much to Pride’s secret chagrin. Once Johnny left the sofa, they realized there were more exciting things in the office than the soft drinks in their hands.

“Oh, no.” Gloria received a liberal dose of cola in her lap. “Pride, I’d better take the kids back to the car. Things are about to go downhill in a really big way.”She grabbed for Sylvia, who had tumbled off the sofa to join Johnny in begging for the return of the watch. This signaled Eric to hit Tracy.

“Sylvia Boudreaux, you come back here. Eric. Tracy.”

“Whoops. Well, Flynn, it’s nice seeing you again.” Pride almost fainted with relief. “However, all good things must end.” She scooped up Johnny and Sylvia with profound gratitude. “If I need to sign anything, just put the pen between my fingers.”

“Wait a minute, Pride. I wanted to take you to lunch. That’s why I asked you to come in at eleven.” Flynn absently re-clasped his watch. “You’re all bound to be hungry.”

“Not today, thank you.” Pride banished the traitorous longing and smiled firmly. “If we don’t get the kids home, you won’t have an office. Johnny, if I hear one more word out of you about that watch, you and I will have a discussion outside.”

Johnny set up a preliminary protest.

“I mean it,” Pride said.

Johnny knew that tone and respected it. He shut up.

Flynn smiled. “In that case, I’ll pick you up tonight. We’ll have dinner. Is seven okay?”

She knew better than to fall for this, no matter how her unruly heart behaved. “Flynn, I do not have time for dinner with you. I’m only going to be in the area a few days, and I’ll be busy the entire time. But I do appreciate the thought.”

“Nonsense,” Flynn said. “You have to eat. Besides, I need to finish telling you about your inheritance.”

“You’d better go, Pride,” Gloria said. “I told you this would be an impossible proposition if we brought the children.”

Pride gave Gloria a look that said, “Traitor,” and returned her attention to Flynn.

“Is seven all right?” Flynn repeated, smiling at Gloria.

“Seven is fine,” Pride said, at last. “Johnny, stop that.” She turned Sylvia over to Gloria and resettled Johnny in her arms. “No, you are not going to walk. You are going to let me carry you to the car. There will be no further discussion.”

She turned toward the door, forcibly restraining her son from leaping out of her arms.

“Wear something sexy,” Flynn said, laughing.

Pride halted in the door and smiled over her shoulder at him. “What you see is what you get, and you’ll be lucky if you get something that looks this good by tonight.”

He had no idea, Pride thought. Her relief at escaping Flynn’s office reversed to a crazy mix of joy and frustration as she looked from Flynn’s face to the little face in her arms that resembled him so much.

Gloria collected her other two children and led the way to the door. “Tracy. Eric. Stop that fighting this minute, or we’ll take a detour by the restroom.”

“Tracy Eric,” Killeen Ross said, as the two women emerged into the main office, children in tow. “She’s my favorite columnist.”

Gloria started but covered it well by turning to smile at Killeen. “Mine, too. I’m a happily married woman, but my husband works offshore two weeks out of every month.”

“I’m newly divorced,” Killeen said. “If it weren’t for Tracy Eric, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Eric let out a terrible shout and tried to dart around his mother’s legs to deal with his sister.

“Tracy Boudreaux, I’m going to have a little talk with you just as soon as we get outside this door,” Gloria said sternly. “Excuse me, please. Duty calls.”

Tracy, who knew punishment for socking her brother in the stomach approached, sent up a series of tearful promises.

Pride grinned at Killeen as she prepared to follow Gloria out the door. “Perhaps Tracy Eric will cover child discipline in an upcoming column.”

“Let’s hope,” Killeen said. “I could sure use some pointers.”

“Seven o’clock,” Flynn said, from the door of his office.

“You may regret this.” Pride gripped Eric’s hand. “I intend to follow the state of Johnny’s stomach very carefully this afternoon.”

“If you should recover my watch stem,” Flynn said, grinning, “kindly save it.”

Pride exited. Flynn had definitely gotten in the last line as far as she was concerned.

• • •

Flynn watched as Pride Donovan walked out, leading one child by the hand and balancing the other on her hip. He found himself filled with a variety of emotions, but chief among them was the certainty that three years ago he had made a ghastly mistake.

“That’s really something,” Killeen said. “Two kids named Tracy and Eric. What a coincidence.”

Just outside the door, Gloria Boudreaux explained to Tracy that little girls did not sock their brothers in the stomach, especially in public. The sounds of discipline being enforced made Flynn wince.

“There are lots of Tracys and Erics these days,” he said absently.

He wondered what name Pride would have chosen for her child, had she carried it to term. Would it have been a boy or a girl?

He shook off the questions with impatience. It did him no good to torment himself by wondering if things would have been different had he married Pride.

The fact remained, he hadn’t married Pride. He had let her get away, when he could have married her and claimed her baby as his own.

If he’d married Pride, would she have carried the child to term? If she’d been happy and secure …

He brought his thoughts to another halt. Just because Pride looked paler, thinner, and a little more strained than he remembered ever seeing her look, didn’t mean she wasn’t happy now. He’d better remember that.

Besides, she probably hadn’t been pregnant at all. That was the first thing he’d better remember.

Flynn straightened in bitter frustration. Being sterile had never bothered him until he met Pride Donovan. Then, he’d begun thinking of marriage and children, only to find the whole thing blowing up in his face.

Today, watching Pride as she helped look after her cousin’s children, he wondered what kind of mother she would have been to her own child. She had certainly managed the outspoken little blond boy well, and Flynn didn’t require any experience with children to know that particular child was a handful.

Outside the door, Tracy’s sobs faded into the distance. Flynn crossed the room and opened the door. Pride and Gloria were herding the children down the hall toward the elevators.

“Flynn’s,” Johnny cried.

Flynn grinned. Johnny, looking back over Pride’s shoulder, had spotted the owner of the coveted mariner’s watch at once.

Pride turned and waved, then spoke to Johnny. Johnny subsided.

Still smiling, Flynn shut the door.

“Now Pride Donovan is what I call a beautiful woman.” Killeen propped her chin on her hand and regarded him. “Down-to-earth, too, and good with children.”

Flynn forced a smile. Killeen definitely didn’t approve of some of the women he’d been dating.

“Yes, she is. They’re both beautiful women,” he said, in his most noncommittal tones.

“Pride is just your type, boss,” Killeen said. “She likes you, too. I could tell.”

Flynn wondered what Killeen based that deduction on. “I’m glad to hear that. I’m taking her to dinner tonight.”

“Great. It’s high time you dated a woman who’s real.”

“I draw the line at dating extraterrestrials-in-disguise,” Flynn said mildly.

“You could have fooled me,” Killeen muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Flynn regarded her. “Insubordination in secretaries is not a trait conducive to a large Christmas bonus.”

“When it gets a little closer to Christmas, I’ll remember that,” Killeen returned.

Flynn withdrew to his office. He’d be in limbo until seven that night anyway. He might as well try and get some work done.

All he could think of was Pride Donovan. Her green eyes were as clear and honest as he remembered, despite what he knew about her duplicity. She had overlaid her former warmth and interest in all his doings with an attitude of gentle mockery.

Her figure was as stunning as ever. Flynn recalled the tiny waist, the long, slender legs, and the high, firm breasts. She had disguised them beneath the business-like blue suit she’d worn, but a discerning male could still spot the attributes.

His body had reacted the instant she walked into his office in that slow, graceful way she had. Even her perfume smelled the same. Pride had always favored a wild rose scent. It recalled their lovemaking to his mind instantly.