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“Nope,” Rafe answered. “I’ll let you know how things are progressing once I’ve hired that PI. I’ve got a number of candidates I want to vet first.”
Payne nodded, his thick salt-and-pepper hair falling into his eyes. He combed it back with his fingers out of habit.
“I expect nothing less,” Payne informed his adopted son.
“I know,” Rafe replied, well aware how his father operated.
“And you...” Payne turned toward his daughter, belatedly beginning to take on the role of a hands-on father, a role that wasn’t exactly second nature for him and didn’t suit him, either. But he was trying his best.
Surprised by her father’s attention, she asked, “What about me?”
“Your doctor say that you’re okay to go back to work?” he asked. “You and the baby?” Payne added after a beat.
Marlowe could only stare at her father. This was a first. A whole new side to her father that she had never seen before and she wasn’t sure how to react. He had never been a concerned father unless there was something about a particular child’s behavior that could be seen as reflecting badly on the company. Then he would make his displeasure known.
“Well?” Payne pressed. “I know you can talk, girl. You damn near can talk the ears off a brass monkey,” he declared. “Why aren’t you talking now?” Always one to anticipate the worst, Payne stared at his new CEO, waiting to hear the news. “The doctor say something bad?” he asked.
“No.” At least that much she could say honestly, Marlowe thought.
“Then he said it was all right to come back to work right after what you went through?” Payne pressed, watching her face intently.
He was like a dog with a bone, Marlowe thought. Once he latched onto something, he was not about to let it go until he was good and ready to. When Marlowe said nothing, his eyes all but burrowed into her.
“Well? What did he say, girl?”
Marlowe had never lied to her father. She thought of lies being in the same category as quicksand. Once she stepped into that territory, there was no getting out of it, and she didn’t want to have to go through the ordeal if she could possibly avoid it. Because she knew in her soul that no matter how finely crafted the lie would be, somehow, some way, her father would find out that she had lied to him, and then all those years she had spent building up and cultivating his trust would be lost to her in a single second.
“Well?”
“She didn’t say anything,” she finally said. She was very aware that not only her father was looking at her but Rafe was, too. She really wished that lies could come rolling off her tongue with ease, the way they did whenever Selina talked. But she lacked that particular talent, and most of the time, that was all right with her.
The next second, she berated herself for wanting to be like Selina in any manner, shape or form.
“Why not?” her father asked.
“Because I didn’t schedule an appointment with an ob-gyn yet,” she answered in exasperation.
Her father looked surprised, then thought her answer over. “I appreciate you being tough, but this isn’t just about you, it’s about—the baby you’re carrying,” he forced himself to say, although she knew it wasn’t easy, since the child in her belly was half Robertson. “You have a responsibility to it.”
She never expected to hear her father say anything remotely like that. To acknowledge her condition and even be concerned about her state. Especially since he was aware of the fact that the baby was Bowie’s—and the grandchild of his archenemy. A grandchild that would very possibly force the two families to come together.
“Point taken,” she told her father.
“So finish whatever you have to do,” he instructed, “And then call your doctor. Tell her what happened yesterday. Don’t leave anything out,” he said harshly. “And then do whatever she tells you to.”
“And if the doctor tells me to stop working?” she challenged.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Now I’ve got a meeting to go to,” he announced. Looking at Rafe, he said, “Let me know when you find a private investigator,” he ordered.
And with that, Payne walked out, leaving his two children flabbergasted in his wake.
Chapter 23
“Mind if I walk you home?”
Marlowe looked up from the assessment estimate for the proposed day care center she had been working on for the last few hours. She was surprised to see Bowie standing in the doorway.
Belatedly, his unusual question registered in her tired brain, and she looked at him as if his words weren’t computing.
