Ginger rested a hand on the back of Phoebe's chair and shot her sons a censuring stare that hadn't lost its impact over the years. "I'm sorry you had to hear that. My boys should be more diplomatic."
Kyle watched his mother win over Phoebe with a few well-chosen words. There was no doubting who wore the diplomatic mantle in their family.
"I'm not offended," Phoebe said. "In fact, I'm relieved that you're all being practical about this. That bodes well for Nina, and I have nothing to hide."
Jonah twitched back an overlong lock of hair from his brow. "Lady, I have to confess, this all sounds a little hinky to me. You wouldn't be the first person to want a piece of the Landis lucrative pie."
"I'm not here for money." She patted Nina's back steadily until the baby burped, then lowered her to the crook of her arm. "I only need time. I want to keep her out of foster care until we can find her mother, and if we can't, then it's my hope I can adopt her."
Jonah tugged his dangling tux tie free … not that it had even been tied before they stepped back here for the family confab with Phoebe. "Then let the legal system sort it out. If you're best for her, that's where she'll land."
Ginger waved her rebellious youngest son up from the chair and motioned for pregnant Ashley to sit.
Ashley smiled her appreciation as she sat with a heavy sigh. "It's not that cut-and-dried. I was lucky."
Phoebe smoothed her hand over the baby's head with obvious affection, but her face creased with concern. "Yours is a success story, then?"
"My foster sisters and I found a wonderful home with 'Aunt' Libby and were better off. Claire's biological mother wanted to keep her, but was too young and didn't have the money. Starr's parents were criminals who refused to relinquish custody. My parents gave me up." Quiet Ashley grew more fervent as she spoke. "Not all of the girls who were placed with Aunt Libby came straight there from their biological parents, though. Most foster parents are well-meaning, big-hearted people, but there are some … " She shook her head in obvious disgust.
The defender in Kyle, the military part of him that had spent the past six years of his life protecting, made him want to pluck the kid up and keep her safe from the world.
How much stronger would those feelings become if it turned out the baby was his?
Phoebe rested her cheek on Nina's head. "I don't want to run any risk of Nina landing in an unloving home for even a day."
"Exactly," Ashley agreed. "Some people don't have choices. There are options here for little Nina."
His mother nodded. "I've already spoken with my assistant and she's scheduled a paternity test."
"On a weekend?"
Apparently Phoebe didn't grasp his mother's ability to move mountains.
Ginger toyed with one of her diamond stud earrings. "We'll have an answer before child services opens on Monday morning."
Time to test how far she was willing to go with this. He put his hands behind his back, military bearing tough to shake even with his separation papers in the works. "Since you all seem so certain Nina is mine, we might as well start moving her things into my wing of the house."
"Excuse me?" Phoebe's eyes went wide with alarm. "Um, Nina and I are already settled in our hotel, but thank you."
Kyle braced a hand across the door. "If there's even a chance that's my daughter, I'm not letting you just walk out of here with her."
Phoebe looked around nervously, then bolstered, her arms locked around Nina. "I'm not leaving her behind."
"I don't expect you to." Nobody was going anywhere until he had answers. "You'll both be staying with me at the family compound."
Three
She didn't have a choice but to go with him, and she knew it. Sitting in the back of Kyle's Mercedes sedan beside Nina in her car seat, Phoebe just wished she'd foreseen this twist in the plans.His broad shoulders, encased in the uniform jacket, spread in front of her in the driver's seat. He guided the luxury car through the security gate into the Landis family beach compound. As the gates swung closed behind them, she shifted closer to Nina, the infant asleep and drooling in her rear-facing car seat. Morning was going to come early after this late night and she needed any edge she could scavenge to soothe her already frazzled nerves.
By appealing to Kyle for help, she'd also made herself vulnerable. One call from him to child services could steal her few days' window to secure Nina's future. She hadn't felt so powerless since she'd watched helplessly while her husband had drowned.
Her gaze skimmed nervously ahead to the beachside Hilton Head mansion owned by the Landis family. Kyle had told her that his lawyer-brother and wife had a home a few miles away, and the oldest brother, a senator, and his wife had an antebellum mansion in downtown Charleston. Kyle had kept his gear in the third-floor quarters of the mansion since he'd deployed so often.
She'd rubbed elbows with plenty of affluent families at the college fund-raisers, but she'd never visited anywhere nearly this opulent. In spite of insisting she didn't need money, a hotel over the weekend would have taken a chunk out of her account. She had to keep her savings intact for any legal fees she might need in adopting Nina. Staying here was the fiscally smart thing to do.
She'd seen photos from a Good Housekeeping spread when she'd looked up the Landis family on Google for more details, and she'd read about their diversified fortune that increased under the savvy care of each generation. But no picture could have prepared her for the breathtaking view. On prime oceanfront property, they'd built a sprawling white three-story house with Victorian peaks overlooking the Atlantic. A lengthy set of stairs stretched upward to the second-story wraparound porch that housed the main entrance.
Latticework shielded most of the first floor, which appeared to be a large entertainment area. Just as in Charleston, many homes so close to the water were built up as a safeguard against tidal floods from hurricanes.
The attached garage had so many doors she stopped counting. His sedan rolled to a stop beside the house, providing a view of the dense green bushes behind them and the Atlantic shore in front of them. An organic-shaped pool was situated between the house and beach, the chlorinated waters of the hot tub at the base churning a glistening swirl in the moonlight.
He put the car in Park and reached for the door. "I'll get your things from the trunk while you unload the munchkin."
Kyle stepped out before she could even answer. Apparently he'd inherited his mother's take-charge attitude. Phoebe walked around to the other side of the Mercedes, security lights activating like sunrise coming early, and unhooked the carrier from the car-seat base so as not to wake Nina.
He lifted her small suitcase and duffel with a porta-crib out of the trunk. "You sure do travel light compared to most women I've met."
"I had only planned to stay overnight." She'd pretty much counted on getting his support and then heading home in the morning, a naïve fantasy now that she saw how complicated things were becoming as reality played out. "I have a job to get back to in Columbia."
He gestured toward the sprawling staircase. "Then you can leave Nina here."
She hesitated at the bottom step, suddenly claustrophobic about entering his house. Sheesh, it wasn't like he could lock them away in the attic. "I won't abandon her."
"And neither will I," he said with unmistakable determination, which made her glad for Nina.
If she could trust him.
She looked away from his persuasive blue eyes and back up the length of stairs. This would be temporary, until he left on his next assignment, then she could resume her life. "It seems we're at an impasse."
"What about your job?" His intoxicating bass drifted after her shoulder as he followed her up the outside wooden steps.
"I'm teaching all my classes online this semester anyway." She'd adjusted her schedule to be with Nina, seeing this as her once-in-a-lifetime chance to take care of a baby. Little had she known when Bianca dropped off her daughter … "I can work from here until we have things settled."