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Sierra, who evidently hadn’t seen the place, murmured, “Gorgeous,” the moment the doors opened to reveal the bold splashes of color, large-format modern paintings and several sumptuous hand-woven rugs, along with an art-glass chandelier that offset the colder metallic surfaces, exposed brick and the gleaming white quartz of the generous space.
But Ace was beyond responding, his eyes locked on his sister Ainsley, who had risen from the long, curved sectional, her light eyes filling with tears and her chestnut hair flying behind her as she ran to throw herself into his arms.
“You’re home! You’re finally home,” she kept saying, her tears—and all the tears he knew she must have shed on his account since he’d left—only deepening his guilt.
For the next few minutes they were all talking at once, with Ace stammering apologies for his flight, to Ainsley and his dark-haired brother Grayson, who greeted him first with a firm handshake and then overcame his natural reticence to hug him, too. As Ace’s three siblings who were present argued that there was no more need for regrets and they were only glad to have him home in one piece, Ace caught a glimpse between Ainsley’s head and Grayson’s broad shoulder of Sierra by the island that separated the living space from the large, eat-in kitchen. With that deceptively gentle face of hers in profile, she placed a calming hand on the shoulder of a smaller and clearly younger blonde, who was being supported by a tall, slender man with tan skin and dark brown curls.
But it was the young woman’s face that captured all of Ace’s attention, a face as pale as milk as she stared at him with wide green eyes.
Ace felt an electric jolt zing through him and heard a buzzing in his ears as Sierra looked from the man with the dark curls to the clearly nervous young woman, whose striped dress showed an unmistakable baby bump.
A hush fell as, all at once, his siblings and Sierra all noticed him looking at his daughter,
too, saw him take the first step forward, and then heard him force the first shaky words from his mouth. “You’re as lovely as your mother, Nova.”
Her breath hitched in answer, her nose growing pink as her eyes shone with emotion.
Sierra removed her arm and stepped aside, offering quiet words of reassurance. “This is going to be all right, Nova, and is it...?”
“Nikolas Slater,” the man supporting her supplied with a nod.
Looking back toward Ace, Sierra nodded her head at Slater before telling the couple, “You’ll both see. He’s a good man.”
With Ace’s next step, his heart pounded even harder, his world narrowing to the young woman who had somehow believed in him, if what Sierra had said had been true, before he’d even known of her existence. Because of the love his siblings still had for him, love that had transcended both DNA and doubts.
“I’ve only just heard about you recently,” Ace told her, “and I’m grieving. Grieving for the time we’ve lost, but so grateful that you’ve come. Grateful for the chance to prove myself a decent man, to learn to be a decent father, to do whatever it takes to welcome you, and that little one you’re expecting, into my life now.”
After a last glance back at Nikolas, who offered her a reassuring smile, Nova took the first hesitant step forward, the hope in her face tinged with trepidation. “I—I’m so happy to finally get to meet you...sir.”
Ace winced to hear her call him that, as if he were some stranger, though he knew it was the case. “Please don’t call me sir—and Mr. Colton would be even worse, so let’s just—how about Ace? For now, at least.”
She nodded. “All right. Ace, then.”
“Until I earn an upgrade.” He tried for a smile—and hoped it didn’t look like a pained grimace, as nervous as he felt. “If I ever do. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, after all these years I’ve missed, all the things there are for me to get to know about you. I’m only telling you I want to, and that I’d be honored as hell if you’d allow me.”
Nova’s pretty face suffused with color—a face in which he was delighted to recognize the resemblance, in the eyes, that Sierra had mentioned earlier. A resemblance that swept aside any lingering, paranoid suspicions that this incredible story of a secret daughter had been some elaborate hoax whipped up by his siblings and the bounty hunter to trick him into coming home.
Damned if this girl isn’t mine, and carrying my grandchild, too, he thought, his throat tightening as the miracle of this unexpected gift of a biological connection, after so much had been taken from him, truly sank in. Especially seeing it witnessed like this, blessed and aided by three of his siblings and the woman he prayed he could convince to become a part of his life moving forward.
But he’d be damned if he allowed his daughter’s first impression of him to be that of a sobbing sentimentalist, so with some difficulty, Ace pulled himself together by grabbing a box of tissues from the countertop and offering it to Nova before her tears began to spill.
Instead of taking one, however, she sniffled softly and then abruptly ducked beneath his outstretched arm. Nova then wrapped Ace in a hug that had him wondering what he’d ever done in this life to deserve such grace.
* * *
While Ace, Nova, and Nikolas were speaking privately in the study, getting to know one another, Sierra and Ainsley sat in the main living area talking, while Grayson wandered over to examine the contents of the built-in bar just off the main living area.
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Grayson said, a relieved smile slanting across his handsome face, “but I sure could use a stiff drink right about now.”
“I’ll second that,” agreed Rafe, who’d been leaning against the kitchen island returning a text message to his fiancée. “Though a cold beer sounds good about now.”
“Sierra?” Grayson asked.
“I’d be good with sparkling water,” she responded, since she felt the need to keep her wits about her.
“Coming right up. What about you, Ainsley?”
Ainsley nodded. “I’ll have a glass of chardonnay, if there’s any chilled, please. I’m completely wrung out from trying to keep all our other siblings from rushing right over here before Ace had the chance to spend any time with Nova. If Bowie hadn’t surprised Marlowe with that overnight getaway, I’m pretty sure she would’ve been pounding down the door right now.”
