Baby Benefits (14 page)

Could he ever have that kind of relationship with Kitty? He was beginning to have doubts.

“Perhaps we can both agree that my parents’ relationship was unusual. I don’t expect that from Kitty.”

“But maybe you should.”

“Kitty is an astute businesswoman. She’s smart and she’s savvy. She’d never do the kinds of things my mother did. She’d never put her life on hold to follow her husband to Bolivia at the drop of a hat.”

“I’m not even talking about Bolivia. I’m talking about just relocating to Dallas.”

“But she did come to Dallas when I needed her to.” Though that seemed like a small enough concession in the scheme of things. Yes, she’d come to Dallas, but she hadn’t shown the least bit of interest in Isabella. She’d never even held the girl in her arms.

Raina sucked in a deep breath and he could see her mustering the courage to say something. Finally she blurted, “She’s not going to live here.”

He was less surprised by her words than by her absolute certainty. This wasn’t a guess.

“She’s told you that?”

Nodding, but not meeting his gaze, she said, “Yes. It happened to come up.”

And then she fell silent, her hands twisting, her teeth nibbling on her pinkened lips. There seemed to be more she wanted to tell him, but couldn’t quite force out.

“Raina…” he prodded.

Her gaze darted to his. “What?”

“Is there more?”

She frowned, her lips pursing in disapproval and her brow knitting. Finally, she said, “You need to talk to her about these things.”

These things, she’d said. And as she’d done so, her eyes flickered to where Isabella lay asleep against his chest. Just as quickly, she looked back at him, meeting his gaze defiantly. She wasn’t going to tell him any more.

But she didn’t need to. He could put the pieces together well enough all on his own. Apparently, Kitty had told Raina not only that she didn’t want to live in Dallas, but also something about Isabella. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that might be.

Anger knotted his belly. Damn it.

“I don’t suppose I ever considered where we would live. I always assumed Dallas.”

“But—” Raina protested.

He cut her off. He didn’t need her recriminations, as well as his own. “Breaking off my engagement now would be disastrous. It would ruin our working relationship with Biedermann Jewelers.”

She bumped her chin up. “There’s more at stake here than your relationship with Biedermann Jewelers. Forget about what’s right for Messina Diamonds for a minute and think about what’s right for you. You’ve been so focused on business for so much of your life, you’ve forgotten how to want things for yourself.”

As he watched her, sitting there beside him, with her cheeks flushed from the exertion of her arguments, her eyes sparkling with vehemence and desire pumping through his veins, he could think of only one response. “Trust me. I still know how to want things for myself.”

She sucked in a breath and his eyes dropped involuntarily to her mouth. That luscious, perfect mouth of hers. If they’d been alone, he would have kissed her. If he’d been free, he would have done much more.

Frustrated with himself, as well as the situation, he couldn’t help but point out the obvious. “What about you, Raina?” he asked. “Do you still know how to want things? You talk a good game, but when was the last time you did something for you?”

She blinked, surprise rocking her back in her chair. She took a moment to answer. “We’re not talking about me.”

“Maybe we should be.” He shifted the sleeping Isabella in his arms. “What is it you want?”

She seemed to sway toward him. This time it was her gaze that dropped to his lips. His mind flashed back to the moment in the driveway when her lips had first pressed against his. How her entire body seemed to melt into his.

He knew without a doubt that she wanted him. Probably as much as he wanted her. As desire stretched between them—as hot and as inescapable as the noonday sun—everything else faded away, until all that remained was his need for her.

“What is it you desire?” he pressed, wanting to hear her say it aloud, even if she’d never act on it.

But instead of the admission he expected, she blurted out, “Kitty doesn’t want to raise Isabella. She wants you to give custody of her to Dex and Lucy.”

Raina paused. No doubt waiting for him to gasp in shock. But frankly, he wasn’t surprised. Anything that took that much gumption to say had to be particularly bad. Still, even though he expected it, her words sent a pang of longing through his chest. His arm automatically tightened around Isabella where she lay curled against his chest.

He glanced down to see her sleeping there. At some point in the past few minutes, she’d fallen asleep against his chest and he hadn’t even noticed.

When he didn’t respond, Raina blinked rapidly, then continued. “Here’s the thing, Derek. Isabella is your daughter. And if you want to raise her, then you should get to do that. Regardless of whether or not it’s best for the company. Regardless of whether or not it was part of your ten-year plan.”

Raina swung her legs over the side of the lawn chair and planted her feet firmly on the ground, leaned toward him as if every molecule in her body was willing him to listen to her.

“But if you don’t want her, if you can’t love her with all your heart, if the thought of giving her up doesn’t make every cell in your body recoil, then maybe you should step aside. Dex and Lucy adore her. If you can’t love her like they can, then maybe it would best for Isabella to let them raise her.”

Even as she said the words, his body tensed, flooding with parental adrenaline. He wouldn’t let anyone take Isabella away from him.

But before he could say that to Raina, she’d disappeared back into the house. Moments later, he heard her car start up in the front drive.

He let her go, too frustrated with himself to go after her.

He’d predicted Kitty would have a problem with Isabella, but he’d assumed that he’d be able to win her over. However, now that Kitty was in Texas, he was seeing her in a whole new light. Who was he kidding? Kitty hadn’t been hiding who she was, he just hadn’t seen her.

Obviously, she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body. It wasn’t something they’d ever discussed before. But it would be a problem regardless of whether or not Isabella was in the picture. He wanted children. He wanted Isabella to have a mother who would love her as if she were her own.

Kitty would apparently not be that mother. But as he’d pointed out to Raina, how could he end things now?

After all these years of careful planning, all his goals for Messina Diamond’s future were unraveling. All because of one little baby.

Raina had accused him of forgetting how to want things for himself. Maybe there was some truth to that. But it had never bothered him until now. His entire adult life, every decision he’d made had been based on what was best for the company. It came first in his life. Always.

It had to. Because Messina Diamonds wasn’t just a company, it was a family company. It was his father’s legacy. Its success was a reflection of all the sacrifices his parents had made.

And now, for the first time ever, what was right for the company was not what was right for his family. For the first time, he was going to have to choose between them.

Knowing Kitty was evil and doing something about it were two totally different things. However, Raina was determined to do something. And she had less than a week to do it in.

By Wednesday of next week, she’d be free from this craziness. One way or another, she’d be out of Derek’s life forever. Even if Derek wasn’t satisfied about how he’d bonded with Isabella, even if she didn’t win their bet and the healthy compensation package, she had to leave Messina Diamonds.

But for now, Raina looked at the soufflé she’d just pulled out of the oven and wanted to cry. And not just because the damn thing had fallen in the oven and now resembled a badly curdled quiche.

Once, a decade ago, she’d known how to do these kinds of things. She’d lived and breathed soufflés, brochettes and béchamel sauces. She’d been flying through her first year of culinary school, convinced nothing would prevent her from being Dallas’s hottest new chef.

Now, her familiarity with Hamburger Helper far outweighed her experience with hollandaise. And worse still, at the moment, she hardly cared. She never knew a broken heart would hurt more than a shattered dream.

She’d always assumed that leaving culinary school to take that awful job at Messina Diamonds would be the hardest thing she’d ever done. She’d never dreamed that walking away from that same job would hurt just as badly.

“Frankly, I don’t see what you’re so worried about.” Lavender, who’d been working at the kitchen table all evening, poured herself another cup of coffee then reached for the sugar. “So what if he marries the wicked witch of the Upper West Side.”

“She’s going to ruin his life,” Raina protested.

“So what? Hasn’t he practically ruined your life for the past nine years?”

“Yes, of course,” she muttered dismissively. This was the problem with having a secret crush on your boss. No one, not even your sister, understood when you defended the man who’d found a way to muck up nearly every day off. “It wasn’t so bad.”

But her protest sounded weak, even to herself. The truth was, the long hours and demanding schedule were most difficult because of her crush. She knew and accepted that this was her own damn fault. If she hadn’t been so emotionally involved, she could have drawn better boundaries between her personal life and her professional one.

“I say,” Lavender pointed the sugar spoon in Raina’s direction. “Let the bastard make his mistakes and stew in whatever misery they stir up.” Lavender narrowed her gaze at Raina as if waiting for her to say something. Finally she gave a resigned sigh. “But you’re not going to do that, are you? No, you’ve just got to be the one to step in a save everyone.”

Raina returned her sister’s glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You can’t ever just let people muddle through things on their own, now, can you? You’ve always got to be the one who comes to the rescue. Like with Momma. When she had her stroke, what did you do? You dropped out of culinary school and rushed home to help out.”

“You’re sounding awfully critical for someone who benefited from me rushing home to help out.”

Lavender stirred her coffee with a last few emphatic strokes. “Hey, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it. But it wasn’t your problem.”

“I just did what needed to be done.”

“No. You didn’t. You, my dear, went above and beyond the call of sisterly duty. You put your whole life on hold. Not just until Momma could get back on her feet, but indefinitely. And now that Momma and the kids don’t need you anymore, now that you can finally get on with your own life, look what you’re doing. You’re inventing this problem that Derek needs you to solve.”

“You think I’m inventing this problem? Are you saying I’m delusional?” She didn’t bother to keep the annoyance from her voice.

“No, I’m just saying you like solving problems for people. You like being needed.”

“That is not true!” she protested.

“Then prove it. At the end of this week, when you’re finished with this silly bargain you’ve made with Derek, walk away. Quit, whether you win or not. Just leave.”

“But—”

“And don’t let yourself get sucked into this nonsense with his fiancée.” Lavender gave Raina a pointed look. “I mean, unless there’s some deeply personal reason you don’t want him to marry Kitty.”

Raina feigned ignorance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lavender snatched a dinner roll out of the basket on the table and threw it at Raina’s head.

“What?”

“Honestly, Raina. Are you never going to fess up and admit you’re in love with Derek?”

Her gaze darted to her sister’s. “You knew?”

Lavender rolled her eyes. “Of course I knew. What’d you think, I was an idiot?”

“I…I…Does any one else know?”

“I’m guessing Momma has figured it out. After all, she’s always defending him.”

“Oh.” And here Raina had thought her mom had just figured out where the money came from for the renovations on their house. “The kids?”

“Who, Cassidy and Kendrick? No, they’re too involved in their own lives. And Jasmine’s been away at school for too long.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before now?” Raina asked.

“Because, silly, I was waiting for you to say something. You’re my sister and my best friend.” A glimmer of pain shone through Lavender’s words. “I can’t believe you never told me.”

“I never told you because you hate Derek.”

“I don’t hate Derek. I’ve been baiting you, trying to get you to defend him and admit that you’re in love with him. You’ve just been too stubborn to rise to the bait.” Lavender cocked her head to the side and studied Raina.

“Why is it so hard for you to admit that the real reason you don’t want him to marry Kitty is because you want him for yourself?”

“This isn’t about what I want.”

“Maybe it should be. If you really love him, then don’t just hand him over to Kitty. Fight for him.”