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“That was my birthday present. Candace chose it for me.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Do you know Candace well?”
“Mom—”
“Are you…” Catherine’s voice trailed away and she glanced at Candace. “What does one call it these days? He’s too sophisticated to be called a boyfriend.”
Candace had gone bright red, and Nick started to smile. Then he took pity on her. “You can tell your mom if you want.”
“He is your boyfriend.” Catherine looked delighted. “You were so sad when you came back from your trip, I thought you’d had your heart broken.” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”
Nick quickly reassured her. “I didn’t break her heart.”
“Mom—” Candace got up from the bed and crossed over to perch herself on the arm of the sofa beside her mother. “I have to apologize to you. I’ve been keeping a secret from you. There was no trip. I agreed to help a woman—have a baby. I agreed to donate my eggs and carry the baby for her. Part of the agreement was that I’d keep it a secret. I should’ve told you.”
Catherine made the connection immediately; she glanced at the stroller and back to Candace. “Jennie is your daughter.”
She touched Candace’s hand, and Nick’s throat closed at the tender empathy in the gesture. How different Jilly’s life could’ve been with a mother like Catherine.
“It must’ve hurt terribly to give her up,” she was saying.
Candace’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “It did. But she had parents who wanted her.”
Nick thanked her silently for that.
“But you’re looking after her…is that a good idea, darling?”
“Her mom died. She needs me.”
The simple words rang out in the room.
Nick faced the truth of them. Jennie needed Candace. So did Catherine. And so did he. Candace brought light and sunshine into all their lives.
He loved her.
The knowledge settled over him without any sense of shock. In his heart he’d known it all along. The special qualities she possessed—her loyalty, her patience, her generosity—made her easy to love.
But he’d been too afraid to face up to it and admit it. So he’d hidden behind emotions he’d called desire and passion, want and even lust…
But he loved her. And that admission freed him.
Catherine was watching him with gentle understanding in her eyes. “You will make sure Candace doesn’t get hurt?”
“Mom!”
“Of course,” Nick assured Catherine, ignoring Candace’s horrified expression.
“You will take care of her if anything happens to me?”
For a split second, Nick glimpsed stark fear in the eyes so like Candace’s. “I’ll take care of her—and Jennie. But be assured nothing’s going to happen to you. Not for a very long time.”
“Thank you.” The smile was sweet. Then Catherine looked down at the baby in the pram. “Look, Jennie’s waking up—”
A cross gurgle of complaint made them all laugh.
“I think the time has come for that walk in the garden,” said Nick.
They’d gotten back to the house—Candace didn’t think it could ever be called a home—and she’d bathed and fed Jennie. Nick walked into the nursery as she was putting a sleepy Jennie into the crib.
Restlessness seized Candace. Excusing herself on a pretext, she’d gone downstairs to make herself a cup of chamomile tea and had just settled down in the upstairs sitting room with the hot drink and a magazine when Nick came out of the nursery.
“She’s fast asleep.” He sat down on the love seat opposite her and stretched back, folding his arms behind his head.
She shifted, aware of him watching her, conscious that night was falling and that the two of them were alone with so much unspoken between them.
“I liked your mother,” he said at last.
Candace set the magazine down on a lamp table beside her cooling tea. “Thank you.”
“But I will admit that I was surprised today,” he added.
“Why?”
“Your mother had met Jennie before.”
“Once. She had a fall and the staff called me to come and see her because she was badly shaken.” She looked at him through her lashes. “It was the day you thought I’d kidnapped Jennie—and you almost filed a missing persons report.”
“Ah, that day.”
“I didn’t want to call you for help…so I took her with me. I’m sorry, Nick, I should’ve told you.”
“But then you would’ve had to explain about your mother.”
