Because of the Baby(17)

“You don’t need to thank me,” Keaton said. “We’re doing this for Grace, remember?”

“For Grace,” she agreed.

With Keaton a step behind her, Lark headed out of the ICU. As she neared the door to the hall, two people came into view. Her parents. They stood at the nurses’ station, speaking with Lark’s coworker Jessa and hadn’t spotted Lark or Keaton yet.

She slowed her pace, all too aware of Keaton’s towering presence behind her. In the rush of getting prepared for Grace’s homecoming, Lark had neglected to mention to her parents that Keaton would be helping her with Grace. Or maybe she’d dodged the issue to put off dealing with her father’s ire as long as possible. Lark gathered a breath to bolster her courage. This encounter promised to get ugly.

Her mother spotted her first. “Lark?” Her gaze bounced from her daughter to the man shadowing her. “What’s going on?”

At Vera’s sharp tone, Tyrone Taylor glanced around. His expression twisted with disgust when he saw Keaton.

“Grace is coming home with me today,” Lark explained, stopping a good fifteen feet away from her parents, hoping distance and a soothing tone would keep her father’s temper from flaring. “I brought her to see Skye before we left.”

“And him?” Lark’s father demanded. “What’s he doing here?”

“I’m driving Lark and Grace home.” Keaton’s level reply was neither defensive nor aggressive. His body radiated calm confidence at Lark’s side, but her tension didn’t ease.

Lark had let Keaton take on the role of Grace’s caretaker because her parents hadn’t stepped up. Was that dawning on Tyrone and Vera or were they too consumed by their needs and desires to realize they would never be nominated for grandparents of the year?

“Since when are you two so chummy?” Tyrone demanded, his attention fixed on his daughter.

Lark felt her chin lift to a defiant angle in response to her father’s hostility. “Keaton is Grace’s uncle. We are both concerned about her welfare.” She glanced down at the tiny bundle of pink sweetness they all should be concerned about, but failed to refocus her father’s attention.

“I don’t know why you’ve accepted Jake as Grace’s father. He sure as hell isn’t acting like it. What sort of man abandons his baby and the woman he claims to love?” Tyrone shot Keaton a hard look. “What does your brother have to say for himself?”

“I haven’t spoken with Jake.”

Lark’s father made a dismissive noise, but his next words were for Lark. “I told your sister four years ago that Jake was going to ruin her life.”

“He hasn’t.”

“He forced her to turn her back on her family and now he’s abandoned her.”

“You don’t know that he did,” Keaton said. “I know my brother. He loves Skye. If he’s not here, there’s a good reason why.”

“And none of that matters at this moment,” Lark chimed in, modulating her voice so as not to disturb the sleeping infant. “Grace and Skye need all our love and support. That’s where our energy should be focused.” Frustration ate at her. She needed her father to put aside his dislike of all things Holt and concentrate on what was best for his daughter and granddaughter. “We should get going. I need to get Grace home.” In the spirit of putting differences aside, Lark added, “It would be great if you could come by later this week and have dinner. You could spend some time getting to know Grace.”

“Maybe you should bring her out to the ranch instead,” Tyrone countered, his hard gaze still resting on Keaton.

“Preemie’s lungs are always delicate,” Lark explained. “It will be better for Grace if she doesn’t venture out for the first few weeks. That’s why I wanted you to come over.”

“Will he be there?”

“We’ll check our schedule and let you know what works for us,” Vera said in a rush, her response geared toward ending the conversation. She fussed with the numerous bracelets on her wrist and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Tyrone, I have a meeting with my nutritionist in forty-five minutes, so we’d better go see Skye before we run out of time.”

Lark said goodbye to her parents and headed for the elevator. She didn’t realize how much she’d been dreading running into them until she let out a huge breath.

Keaton shot her a somber glance. “You okay?”

“That could have gone so much worse.”



Keaton agreed. But it should have gone a lot better.

For the first time in his life, Keaton was having difficulty keeping his opinion to himself. The reserve Tyrone and Vera demonstrated toward their daughters irritated him. It was one thing to dislike Jake, Keaton and their parents based on grievances that had plagued generations of Taylors and Holts over numerous decades. It was another to let that animosity drive a wedge between them and their lovely, successful daughters.