Playing the Part

He had the grace to blush. She’d caught him in a vulnerable moment. It wasn’t often he prayed or pleaded with the divine. His mouth tightened, hating that Lindy seemed to see right through to the raw wound inside him that he did his best to cover, and his voice came out sharper than he intended. “Where’s my daughter?”

“You know, she’s much too young to be left to her own devices,” she admonished him instead of answering his question. He frowned and opened his mouth to offer a rebuke but she kept talking, eclipsing his opportunity. “Here’s the thing—she’s your kid, I know that. But it seems to me that you don’t have a clue as to what you’re doing and that kid is hurting. Big-time. And if you take a kid with a great big emotional wound weeping inside of them and pair that with an absent parent...disaster is only one dirtbag with a creepy smile away. You get me?”

Oddly, yes, he did, but he chafed at the idea that Lindy plainly saw what he didn’t want to see. “She’s my daughter. I would appreciate it if you minded your own business.”

“Yeah, that’s the smart thing,” she agreed, as if irritated at herself for her part in this drama, which he found baffling. “But I’ve never been accused of doing the smart thing. I’m an actress, for crying out loud. Doesn’t that tell you something about my decision-making

process? Don’t answer that, it’s written all over your expression. Your daughter is with my sister Lilah. She’s got a knack for lost things—cats, kids, dogs, birds...you name it. Right now, they’re helping Pops set the table for dinner, which brings me to why I’m here right now.”

“Which is?” He had to admit, he was curious as to what would drop from her mouth next. The woman was oddly fascinating...and it didn’t hurt that just looking at her made him momentarily forget that he wasn’t interested in dating.

“I’m inviting you to dinner. I think Carys, even though she denies it, would like you to be there.”

Dinner...with the Bells? “Why?” he asked, openly confused. “Do you always dine with your guests?”

“Sometimes,” she answered with a blinding grin that showcased a set of pearly white teeth that would make a dentist proud. “But the truth is we invited Carys to stay and I thought you should be there, too. She needs you. Even if you’re too busy to forgo a business call to spend it with your kid.”

At that, her voice hardened just a touch and he felt chastised, which immediately caused him to be defensive. “You don’t know my business so I suggest you stay out of it,” he reminded her coolly.

“True enough, but I do know that you’re about to lose Carys,” she said without hesitation. “I guess it’s up to you to decide whether or not that matters. Hell, I don’t know, maybe you don’t care a fig about anything but turning a profit, but something tells me that you do care. And I’m banking that instead of being a stuffed-shirt prig about the fact that I’m trying to help you, you’re going to accept my dinner invitation with the grace your mother tried to teach you back when you were a kid.”

Gabe stared, caught between the urge to go get his daughter and give her a stern reprimand for hanging out with strangers, and giving in because Lindy had a point about Carys wandering around unattended. “I didn’t leave her to her own devices,” he said defensively. “I took a business call and I was going to meet her at the beach.”

“Yeah, I heard. Except you forgot about the part where you’re actually supposed to follow through when you offer to meet someone somewhere.”

“My call went longer than I expected.” He scowled.

She waved away his excuses. “Whatever. Don’t care. For reasons beyond my understanding, I kinda care about your kid, though. We got off to a rocky start but now that I don’t want to wring her little neck, I’ve realized she’s actually a cool girl. Reminds me a bit of myself.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I think.”

“So what’s it going to be? Either way, we’re about to eat and your daughter is eating with us. So make your choice.”

The woman, for all her seemingly laid-back ways, was pretty damn bossy, he wanted to grumble, but he didn’t. She had a point. He could see that she was trying to help. And even if it made him uncomfortable, he wasn’t above admitting when he’d just fallen flat on his face.

He choked down something that felt like pride and said, “I’d be honored to join your family for dinner if you’ll have me.”

Lindy’s face lit up with an approving—and possibly relieved—smile and she surprised the hell out of him when she hooked her arm through his as she said, “Excellent! This day might just be salvageable yet.”

“Oh?” he couldn’t help but inquire, curiosity getting him again. “I’m flattered...?”

“Long story. It involves my sisters. You don’t want to know. Let’s just say, if you think your problems with Carys are big...you ought to thank your lucky stars Carys wasn’t a twin.”

Carys a twin? He shuddered at the thought. That surely would’ve been the death of him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LINDY WALKED INTO the expansive dining room that looked out onto a beautiful open-air patio. Whenever all the Bells were home—which wasn’t often these days—Pops always opened up the dining room. The front windows were actually giant partitions that slid away, completely exposing the dining area to the glorious view of the ocean. Grams had said it’d cost an arm and a leg to remodel but it’d been worth every penny. Lindy had to agree. Judging by the obviously impressed expression on Gabe’s face, he thought it was damn spectacular, too.

“Not bad, huh?” Lindy asked, smiling.

“Gorgeous,” he murmured in appreciation. “The architecture of the entire resort is impeccable but this is really something else.”

“Thanks. This was added after my grandparents bought the resort. My grams said she’d always wanted a place without walls but seeing as that wasn’t entirely feasible, even on an island, Pops had this created. He found the design in a magazine featuring a restaurant in Fiji.”

Pops and Lindy’s sisters walked in with Carys in tow. It was hard to miss the animation in Carys’s expression, and the surprise in Gabe’s eyes was dimmed by something else that Lindy couldn’t identify but it seemed vaguely sad. For some reason she wished she could fix whatever had caused it. She shook herself, wondering where that notion had sprung from. She wasn’t the fixer...of anything. “Carys, why don’t you introduce your dad to the crew?” Lindy suggested, somewhat discomfited by her reaction. She covered well, moving to her seat and gesturing for Gabe to sit across from her with Carys to his left.