For a moment, she wanted to tell him that their time to figure that out had passed. That they'd had a chance to be together long ago and lost it. Twice. First when they caved to family pressure to split up. Again when they settled a heated disagreement with sex instead of talking.
But she couldn't end the night on a sad note. He was trying, after all. And he would make a great father for César. But after the way he'd walked out on her ten months ago, he simply would never be more than that to her.
* * *
"Care to tell me why I have to read the papers to find out my kid brother is in town?"
Straightening from his work on the midsize power yacht he'd towed out of the boathouse, Jean-Pierre squinted into the morning sunlight to see Dempsey on the dock.
As the New Orleans Hurricanes head coach, Dempsey was the public face of the team owned by their older brother, Gervais. All too soon, they'd be standing on opposite sides of the football field inside the Zephyr Dome, pitted against each other in the matchup that had both the local and national sports media talking.
"You knew damn well I'd be coming down here to steal a firsthand look at your playbook." Jean-Pierre strode across the bow toward the back of the boat as Dempsey stepped aboard. "Good to see you, bro." He threw a few air punches at him by way of greeting.
Dempsey clapped him on the shoulder. "You're supposed to be here for a wedding, not work."
"That, too." Jean-Pierre returned to fixing the trim on a fishing-rod holder that had snapped while the boat was in storage. "Have a seat. Tell me what's new."
"How about you tell me? Sounds like this thing with Tatiana Doucet is new." Dempsey slid into the captain's seat and went to work checking the electrical components for him, systematically flipping switches and looking below the bridge area at the wiring.
Dempsey was good like that. Technically his half brother, Dempsey had been raised until he was thirteen without knowing who his real father was, so he didn't have the same upbringing as the rest of the Reynauds. For thirteen years he'd taken care of his drug-addicted mother, getting by on a meal or two a day. And while he lived a far more extravagant lifestyle now, he'd never really shaken that complete self-reliance. And his ability to fix things with his own two hands was legendary.
Although right now, Jean-Pierre sincerely hoped he wasn't the target for his brother's next fix-it-up project.
"You can't blame me for trying to spin a story for the press after she threw me under the bus with that comment about not betting against Henri for our matchup." He understood now why she'd said it. She'd been nervous about seeing him and overtired from caring for a newborn.
It still stung that she'd said it. The way it still stung that she hadn't told him she was pregnant months ago.
He twisted a nut tighter with his vise grips, his teeth grinding in frustration.
"I get it. I've been known to use the media to my advantage in the past." Dempsey thumbed through the open tool kit on the deck and pulled out a volt meter. "When I didn't want Adelaide to quit her job as my personal assistant, I announced our engagement."
Jean-Pierre put down the vise grips and stared at his brother. "Seriously? I thought you two were crazy about each other."
"That came later." Dempsey used the volt meter to test the battery and tossed it back in the tool kit. "And it wasn't easy for her that I put her on the spot like that."
"It worked, though. You're engaged for real now, aren't you?" He wondered how well he knew his brother after all.
"Damn straight. But I can tell you it wasn't as easy as me saying it was so. Women expect a lot more than that."
And men expected to be informed of impending fatherhood. But clearly he and Tatiana were making this up as they went along.
"I know smoothing things out with Tatiana isn't going to be easy, either." He debated how much to say on the subject and then decided to go for broke. "She left town this summer and I didn't know why until two nights ago. She gave birth to our son without telling anyone. Not even her family."
Dempsey's eyes widened for a split second before he could school his features. "You weren't there with her when your boy was born?"
Jean-Pierre tensed at the accusation in his brother's tone.
"I didn't even know about him. She never told me she was pregnant." Jean-Pierre could hear the frustration in his own voice; he sure hadn't expected to have to defend himself to his own family.
"You weren't in a relationship?"
"Correct."
"You're damn well in one now." His brother got to his feet.
He forced himself to stay levelheaded about this and not engage. But Dempsey looked twitchy and judgmental, a combination that didn't sit real well with him right now.
"I need more time to convince her of that." His gaze moved to the second-floor veranda, where her bedroom doors opened onto a private patio. There'd been no movement outside yet, but he'd spoken to the nanny before he left the house and showed her around the place so she knew where to find anything she needed.
"Do I need to remind you why it's important that you do?" Dempsey's voice lowered, but it didn't soften. He'd adopted his steely coaching persona, so it was a face Jean-Pierre recognized from the field.
"Hell no." He understood Dempsey's take on this would be different. The guy had grown up not knowing his father or half brothers. "I'm not Dad. I would never ignore my obligation to my son."
"Then why is Gervais beating you to the altar next weekend?"
"What part of ‘I just found out two days ago' did you not understand?" Frustration simmered at the implication he hadn't done enough.
"The part that had my college-educated brother failing to make use of the local justice of the peace." Dempsey made a show of checking his watch. "The clerk's office is open right now."
"It's Saturday." Jean-Pierre had a good plan for using the boat ride to provide a photo opportunity for any media looking for a story. The watercraft rocked gently beneath his feet.
"And lucky for you, I happen to know they have Saturday hours. One of my star players got his girlfriend pregnant last year and I looked it up when I gave my guy the same talk I'm giving you now."
Jean-Pierre shook his head. He normally appreciated Dempsey's down-to-earth take on things, but he couldn't see a way to twist Tatiana's arm to get married. He respected her too much to push her hard when she had been through so much on her own in the last weeks. She'd even admitted she was at an emotionally vulnerable place right now. What kind of man would he be to try and capitalize on that?
"You can spare me the rest of the talk since I already popped the question. The bride said no, for the record. Until I can close that particular deal, I would appreciate some help from the family to show her how welcoming the Reynauds can be."
"You know you don't have to ask. But it's only a matter of time before someone from the press spots her with the baby and then what? The media spotlight you're in now is going to be nothing compared to the juicy news that a player knocked up the coach's daughter."
Jean-Pierre's head snapped up.
"That's my future wife you're talking about."
"That's the spirit." Dempsey clapped him on the shoulder. "The sooner you make it so, the better." He climbed out of the boat and up onto the dock. "One more thing. I forgot the whole reason I came over here."
"What's up?" Jean-Pierre shoved the remaining tools in the tool kit and tucked it into a storage bin on the port side.
"Gervais and Erika are concerned about a media circus if they hold the wedding here as planned. They're going to assemble guests here and then fly them to the private island off Galveston."
The Texas branch of the family was deeply involved in the shipping and cruise business. The island off Galveston was a self-sustaining working ranch and an optional stop on many of their cruise itineraries. Guests could ride horseback on the gulf beaches or take part in one of the farm-to-table feasts that made use of the organically grown vegetables. Jean-Pierre hadn't visited his Texas cousins in years due to a family rift. His grandfather Leon had publicly cut his oldest son, Christophe, out of his will long ago, but since Uncle Christophe still retained his title as a vice president of global operations, he was very much a part of the family business along with his oldest son, Colton.