AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You were fortunate that your friendship endured for all those years.”
“She was so much more than a friend. More than a sister, even. She was my confidante. My family. The person I trusted more than anyone else in the world when my family let me down.” Her gaze cleared. “I can’t give Dylan up. Don’t ask it of me.”
Connor’s sigh went all the way to his soul. He’d already hurt her beyond belief with his swipe that she hadn’t had time for Suzy before she died. How could he take her last link with her friend away from her? Even though he knew that Michael would’ve wanted Dylan to be with him.
The provision for sharing of guardianship and custody in the will had startled him. Victoria was a working woman who clearly didn’t have time for bringing up a child. What had the Masons been thinking? Suzy must’ve insisted on it, never believing the will would have to be acted on long before Dylan grew to adulthood.
But whatever the will provided for, it was absolutely irrefutable that Suzy’s death had left a vast chasm in Victoria’s life.
Connor drew a deep breath and made the biggest concession of his life. Despite what he believed was the right thing for Dylan—and him, he would go along with the provisions of the will. “Then we’ll have to split the custody—work out which of us gets which days.”
Emotion flashed in her eyes. “How can you even suggest that? It took Dylan almost the whole weekend to settle with me. He’s missing his parents, and now you’re suggesting ripping him away from me.”
“Not ripping,” said Connor firmly. “We’ll share him.”
“And he’s going to know what’s happening?” She shook her head so hard the silken mass of her hair whipped from side to side. “No, he’s not going to understand the terms of a custody arrangement. His parents are gone. Right now everything in his little life is in upheaval. I’m his only constant. How can you yank up the few roots he has left and take him away from me?”
She had a point. He remembered how Dylan had snuggled against her earlier.
“And you can’t take Dylan away from my home. That’s all that’s familiar to him right now. Another change of place is going to unsettle him all over again.”
He tilted his head to one side and replayed her words through his mind—Another change of place is going to unsettle him all over again. “That’s it!”
At his exclamation Victoria stared at him as though he’d taken leave of his senses.
He hit a hand against his forehead. “The answer is simple.”
Five
“C ome on.” Connor held open the door.
Victoria hesitated only for a second. No way was she abandoning Dylan to Connor and the powerful Maserati.
She stepped past Connor, catching a whiff of lemon and male, and settled into the passenger seat. The acreage of leather was seductively plush, and before she could protest Connor had leaned across her and clicked the seat restraint into place, strapping her in.
She’d barely recovered from the jolt to her senses of having him so close when he joined her in the intimacy of the cockpit.
“Ready?”
Victoria nodded, unsure what she was letting herself in for.
The motor roared, and the rich, husky voice of Nina Simone poured from the surround-sound system, silencing even Dylan. Connor’s hands slid over the steering wheel with such tactile pleasure that Victoria had to suppress a groan. A moment later he swung the vehicle out of the churchyard.
The journey passed in a flash. As Connor throttled back the surging engine, Victoria glimpsed through the side window a familiar oak with wide, spreading branches.
What were they doing outside Suzy and Michael’s home?
She struggled impotently to unlock the car door, until—to her immense frustration—Connor strode around and freed her.
Clambering out, she slung her tote over her shoulder and asked, “Why have you brought us here, Connor?”
“Let me get Dylan first.”
Nostalgia welled up as she stared at the Edwardian cottage that had been Suzy and Michael’s home since their marriage—and where she had spent so many happy hours.
She wandered across the sidewalk to the low, white wooden gate.
Dylan had been baptized in this garden. Right there in the arbor tucked into the east side, under the canopy of girly, pale-pink roses. It had been one of the few times she and Connor had visited the house at the same time. As the baby’s godparents they’d been forced to put on a façade of friendship for Michael and Suzy’s sakes.
The gate swung open under her touch. As she stepped onto the winding garden path a gigantic wave of sadness drowned her. The ghosts of Suzy’s laughter and Michael’s slow smiles lurked everywhere. In the pretty pansies that brightened the pots lining the pathway, in the fresh coat of lily-white paint on the shutters and in the shriek of a gull overhead, its wings icy-pale against the darkening sky.
