Married For His Heir

She blushed. “Well, again, I’m sorry for prying into your life. By the way, I know your age, so if you want to know mine, I’m twenty-nine. Madeline was twenty-eight when she was killed in the car wreck.”

“She was beautiful and talented. I remember that much. Talia, forget hiring a PI. You had a good reason. That’s how you found my attorney, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she admitted.

“I wondered.” Hattie chose that moment to let out a shrill giggle as she played with her bunny, eliciting a smile from Nick. “She is a happy little girl, isn’t she?”

Talia put the baby on the floor so she could play. “She’s a sweetheart. She’s had a big loss in her life but she’s still happy. I’ve tried to make up for the loss of her mother as best I can, which just means being there for her and showering her with love.”

“You’ve done a good job and I’m grateful.” He looked at Talia again. Her long blond curls framed her face and he realized he could spend the day looking at her. His gaze lowered to her mouth and he wondered what it would be like to kiss her. When he realized the drift of his thoughts, he tried to shift his focus. He reached down and ruffled Hattie’s brown hair, which earned another giggle.

“She’s been around a lot of kids at the day care and her mother used to take her to music tryouts and rehearsals,” Talia said, “so she’s comfortable with people. You’ll see.”

“Artie was happy, too. He was so easy.”

Hattie was busy with her new bunny, making sounds as she played with it. She was a beautiful baby but he couldn’t feel like she was his yet. Nor could he keep from wanting Artie and Regina.

Talia watched Hattie, another of those concerned looks on her face. He knew what she was thinking about—that moment when she would have to give up little Hattie, when she would have to hand her over to Nick forever. He ached for her because he knew how she felt. He missed his own little boy, the baby he had rocked, kissed, fed and held. Hattie and Talia were bringing back memories that ripped him apart.

“Aw, hell, Talia, this is tearing us both up,” he said, turning to her. “Let’s figure where we’ll go from here, what we’ll do next and get this over with. I have to take her, but not today. We’ll continue to send her to day care until we work out what we’ll do. Then I’ll take Hattie, so the state will have to back off and get the hell out of our lives.”

He glanced at the child. “Thank goodness she doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s going to miss you like hell.” Talia had become mama to her. When they loved each other, a mother and child formed the tightest possible bond. Nick rubbed his forehead as he thought about what he was doing—taking a baby from the only mother she now knew. When Hattie woke crying in the night and he came to comfort her, would she be scared?

He looked intently at Talia and she stared at him.

“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“As far as she knows now, you’re her mother,” he said.

“Yes, but you’ll be her daddy before you know it,” Talia answered solemnly. “And suddenly you’ll be a family. You’re bound to marry again and then she’ll have a mama who loves her.”

Talia looked away and he knew she was fighting tears again and he couldn’t blame her.

He barely knew her, yet he ached for her. He wanted to put his arms around her and try to comfort her and to calm his own nerves and feelings of loss, but they had a fiery chemistry between them that he didn’t want to ignite. He didn’t know why sparks flared when they touched, but he didn’t want the physical attraction to escalate. He didn’t need that to complicate his thinking. He had to avoid crossing a line where they had more emotional problems between them to deal with, but it was a strain to keep from reaching out and comforting her. He fought the urge and stood facing her as he said, “Talia, you should raise her.”

She turned her back to him and he suspected she lost the battle to try to avoid crying. “That was my biggest fantasy, that I was a stay-at-home mom and with her every day,” she said in a soft voice as if talking to herself. After a moment she wiped her eyes while her back was still turned. “This is hard, Nick. It hurts because I love her as if she was my own baby. I’ve had two miscarriages, so I’ve lost two babies and I’m going to lose another one now—one that I love with all my heart.”

This time he couldn’t keep from stepping up close to her to pat her on the shoulder, and even that touch just made him want to pull her into his arms and hold her. “Shh, Talia,” he whispered. He looked at the baby seated on the floor, still playing with her new bunny. She looked up at him and smiled, holding out her arms.

“Talia, she wants to be picked up,” he said.

Glancing over her shoulder, Talia moved instantly, wiping away tears as she turned to get Hattie before he did. She scooped her into her arms and held her, hugging her and kissing her cheek. Hattie smiled and held Talia.

And Nick hurt for them and for himself.

Talia sat on the floor with her, doubling her long legs under her. He couldn’t keep from letting his gaze sweep over her gorgeous, long shapely legs. As he watched them play, he couldn’t deny his attraction. She was a beautiful woman.

Again, he thought Talia knew how to take care of Hattie better than anyone else on earth. She stood and faced him while Hattie curled up on the floor and played with her bunny.

“She’s getting sleepy, so we should go. You’ve got your DNA results and you’ve met your baby girl. I’ll take her home with me tonight. You plan what you’ll do, get baby equipment—and I will be happy to help with any or all of that if you want me to—and then I’ll turn Hattie over to you. It really shouldn’t take you long. I can give you a list of baby furniture she’ll need. I don’t want to give mine up because I hope you’ll let her stay with me sometimes.”

“Of course she can stay with you. She can stay a lot. Talia, she’ll be lost without you,” he said.

“She’ll adapt. Children do adapt,” she said and he heard the strain in her voice. “Whatever help you need, let me know.”

“I’m letting you know right now,” he said, suddenly wanting her help and knowing Hattie needed someone who loved her to be with her. If this were Artie, Nick absolutely wouldn’t want him handed over to a house of strangers. Talia was the one person Hattie would know and love. And who would love Hattie with all her heart in return. Babies thrived on love. Talia would be the most possible help because she was already parenting Hattie.

The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. Suddenly he knew exactly what he had to do.

“I need your help,” he said. “Move in here while we work this out. You don’t have to tonight, but soon. I can have someone drive you to school and pick up you and Hattie.”

“In a limo?” she said, smiling and shaking her head. “I’m almost tempted to answer yes just to see everyone’s reactions. I would be the most famous person in the school. No, Nick, thanks. I can’t move in with you. We’ll get this over and done with without me moving in because all too soon, I’d have to move out again. I’d cry over her every day.”

“Okay. Come over for dinner tomorrow night, bring Hattie, and I’ll have my first questions and problems lined up. And I will need the list of baby furniture. I got rid of the baby furniture that I had because I couldn’t see any point in keeping it.”

“If you want me to go shopping with you, I will.”

He looked into wide eyes that made him momentarily forget baby furniture. “I won’t go shopping,” he said. “I’ll hire someone to buy everything. You can earn some money on the side if you want to do it.”

“I’ll get it but you don’t have to pay me. Just pay for the furniture. Where do you want it delivered? Here or the ranch?”

“I’ll need it at both places. I live here and I live there. She’s so little and yet she needs enough things to fill a big truck.” He let out a deep sigh. “I need a wife.”

“I’m sure you can find a wife easily enough,” she said. “But please get one who really likes Hattie and means what she says.”

He meant his comment as a joke, but he saw the sincerity in Talia’s eyes. They were filled with worry and he was part of the problem. He stepped close, placing his hands on her shoulders, feeling her warm, smooth skin where her dress was sleeveless.

“I can’t tell you to stop worrying because I know this hurts, but you’ll always get to see Hattie. You’ll get to be with her. She isn’t going out of your life. Hang on to that. I’d give anything if I could see Artie.”

She blinked and her eyebrows arched. “Oh, Nick. I’m sorry. I’ve probably been making things worse for you.”

“We both hurt.”

“Just love Hattie. She’s going to need your love. She lost her mother, never knew her grandparents and now she’s losing me. She’ll need your love.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “Sorry, Nick, sometimes I just can’t avoid crying. I love her so much.”

“I understand. I’ll love her because she’s my child. I only knew Artie two months, but I loved him beyond measure,” he said so quietly, he didn’t know whether she heard, but it didn’t matter.

“There’s just no way I can be her mother in the eyes of the state,” Talia said, looking at Hattie. “Love doesn’t even fit into their equation.” Talia looked up to find Nick studying her intently.

He gazed at her in silence so long that she focused on him, frowning when she studied him. “What, Nick? What’s wrong?”

Lost in his thoughts, he blinked. “I’m thinking. There’s one way you can become her mother as far as the state is concerned. It would be legal and binding.”

Frowning, she shook her head. “I don’t think so. We don’t have any—” She broke off to stare at him while her frown deepened.

“We can marry,” he said.