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“Don’t waste too much sympathy on him. I’m sure he only came up with this idea after seeing you with me on Sunday.”
“You don’t suppose—” She broke off, not wanting to voice the unkind thought.
“I don’t suppose…what?”
“You spoke about Desmond trying to hurt you through Alison on Sunday. You don’t suppose he’s only doing this to hurt you again? That it’s not about Jennie at all?”
Nick didn’t respond, but the grip of his fingers grew tighter. Jennie was gnawing at a block. Her gums had been swollen, the next tooth would be through very soon.
“Such an overreaction would be insane,” she said finally, hoping her response wasn’t misplaced.
“Not for Desmond,” said Nick slowly. “He’s more than capable of that kind of malice. I simply hadn’t considered that he might want to hurt me that much.”
She turned her head and met his gaze. “Why would he want to do such a thing?”
“It’s a power thing…he couldn’t get me to bend to his will. Perhaps he thinks Jennie would be my breaking point.”
“And would she be?”
Candace held her breath as she waited for his answer. This was crucially important, far more important than the throwaway tone of the question suggested.
There was a flash of something…vulnerability?…in the navy depths of his eyes. “It would kill me to lose Jennie.”
The simple intensity of his response rocked her to the foundations of her existence. He cared. Candace wasn’t sure why it mattered so much, only that it did.
He loved Jennie.
She placed her other hand over his, cradling his hand between both of hers. Her love for him flowed through her fingers, and she hoped it would give him the strength he needed to do what was right.
Without taking his eyes from her, he raised her hands and placed a kiss very carefully, first on the back of one hand, then on the other.
A rush of emotion overtook her.
Currents electrified the space between them. A compelling need to defuse the sudden tension vibrating between them made her say with forced lightness, “Boy, you certainly picked the family to marry into.”
Nick shook his head. “They did the picking.”
She remembered what he’d told her about how Jilly and her father had all but blackmailed him into marriage, and his suppressed frustration became totally understandable.
At last she said, “What are we going to do?”
We?
Nick stared at the woman sitting, legs outstretched, on the floor beside him, while their baby inched forward half crawling, half sliding as she tried to reach for a brightly colored ball. The firm hold of Candace’s hand warmed him.
“It’s not your problem,” he said automatically.
Her eyes sparkled. “Of course it’s my problem. I’m Jennie’s mother. You’re not going to leave me out in the cold on this.”
“It would weaken Desmond’s crazy suit to announce that Jennie is not Jilly’s child—she’s yours.” It was a dangerous move. And it would give Candace an advantage that he would never be able to regain. Still, it might be a risk worth taking. “That way Desmond can claim no biological tie with the baby.”
“It will cause a scandal.”
“I don’t care.” But he hadn’t thought about how it would affect her, and he discovered that he didn’t have any desire to see her hurt or humiliated. “Will it matter to you if I announce it to the world?”
“Of course not!” A luminosity lit her gray eyes that made her more beautiful than ever. “I can think of nothing more wonderful than being publicly branded as Jennie’s mother.”
The moment of truth had come—if he announced that she was Jennie’s mother, there would be no going back, there’d be no more talk of her leaving…
When she’d first told him that she was Jennie’s mother, he’d wanted her out of the baby’s life at all costs. But she’d called to something deep and dark and primitive in him, something he didn’t fully comprehend.
All Nick knew was that he wasn’t going to let her go.
The decision he’d come to the night he’d lost his senses returned from where he’d buried it at the back of his consciousness…it was a plan. A plan that might even work.
Thinking about it, he realized it was a team solution. We. He was starting to like the sound of that.
“Then marry me,” he said simply.
“What?”
Her eyes darkened with disbelief.
“If you marry me, then as her biological parents we will be able to show any judge that living with us is the best solution for Jennie. Together we will refute any evidence that Desmond might choose to present that Jennie is neglected. She has a father and mother who love her, and a safe and secure home. What more could any child need?”
