“Sure,” said Nick unenthusiastically. “Alison certainly thinks so.” He gave his sister a mock frown.
“Hey,” said Alison. “To make up for the fact that I’m certain you’ll have to kiss the darling again today, I’ll babysit for you tonight…if you want to take Candace out for dinner?”
Nick’s heart flipped. But Candace was flushing as she said quickly, “No, no, that’s not—”
Before she could turn down the offer, Nick cut in. “That’s a great idea. Thanks, Ally.” He touched Candace’s arm. “Don’t forget, Bertha told us to have fun.”
Candace’s bottom lip jutted out endearingly, causing Nick to fight the impulse to kiss it.
“I’m sure you’ll both enjoy some time out,” said Alison, looking around her. “Speaking of which, I’ve been left alone far too long. I’d better go and check where those boys of mine have gotten to.”
Before Nick could ask his sister to wait so they could finalize Jennie’s sleepover arrangements for the night, he spied a familiar snowy head in the approaching throng.
Putting an arm around Candace, he braced himself for the inevitable clash of wills with his father-in-law. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Desmond.”
“As a future stockholder in Valentine’s, I wanted to investigate my investment. What better time than today?” The grim smile didn’t light up his glacial eyes. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your woman?”
Nick felt Candace tense.
Resisting what was rapidly becoming a familiar urge to land his fist in Desmond’s stomach, he said, “This is my father-in-law. Desmond, this is Jennie’s nanny, Candace.” He chose the explanation she’d offered Bertha, and thankfully Candace didn’t contradict him.
“I see.”
Without sparing the sleeping baby in the stroller a glance, Desmond looked Candace up and down, making his opinion of what he saw very clear. Nick resisted the urge to let his hand fall from where he’d rested it protectively in the small of her back.
“I doubt it,” said Nick levelly.
“I see a pretty woman living in your home—”
Candace tensed under Nick’s touch. “A woman my sister employed while I was overseas on business.” Nick spoke from between gritted teeth, furious with his father-in-law’s implication, and even more furious because he couldn’t in clear conscience tell Desmond to get his mind out the gutter.
Because the irrefutable truth was that Nick was lusting after Candace. The spark of attraction that had flared that first night had raged out of control. Now that he’d discovered they’d created a daughter together, Nick couldn’t get the picture of making love to Candace—the real, passionate way, not the clinical IVF way—out of his mind. It was driving him crazy. She was driving him crazy.
Even now he caught the scent of her perfume as the wind lifted tendrils of her hair off her nape. He was intensely conscious that only one layer of cotton fabric separated the fingers resting on her back from her bare flesh beneath. And the idea that Desmond had spotted what Nick was so determined to conceal turned his stomach.
He dropped his hand from where it rested.
“Was that your sister who rushed past me?” asked Desmond.
Nick’s hackles rose. He was sure that Desmond knew it had been Alison. “Why? Did you want an update on how her husband is progressing on finding new premises?”
It was a shot in the dark. But the slight widening of Desmond’s eyes gave him away even before he blustered, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m sure you do.” Nick lowered his voice. “Leave Alison and Richard out of it. This is our fight.”
Desmond glanced away, then back. “I see someone I need to talk to—I’m sure you’d agree with me that people would line up to buy an apartment on the lake’s edge.”
“It’s not going to happen,” Nick said, “and that’s a promise.”
Desmond glared at him, and the rush of anger that his father-in-law so often provoked rose fast and hard in Nick. He stepped forward.
“Nick,” said Candace, “let’s move on. I’d like to wheel Jennie around to keep her from waking.”
Nick suspected that Candace’s timely concern had more to do with stopping him from flattening Desmond than from worry about Jennie’s waking. His initial surge of annoyance ebbed to be replaced by a more complicated emotion as he glanced across to Candace.
An unspoken connection leaped between them.
“I found my boys,” Alison said from behind them, bringing Nick abruptly back to earth, and then she added, “Oh, hello Desmond.”