Substitute Daddy (3 page)

Outside the room Grace was in, Matthew shook the nurse’s hand. “Thank you for taking care of Grace.”

The nurse smiled. “I’ll go get the doctor and have him sign off on the transfer to Southern Hills.”

He nodded and watched her leave before knocking gently and entering the room. Grace’s eyes were closed, and the sun streamed across her face. She looked almost ethereal, and Matthew’s breath caught in his chest for a moment at how gorgeous she was.
Great, now I’m lusting after my kind of best friend
’
s widow. Is she a widow since they were never married?
Grace opened her eyes slowly, and he saw the surprise on her face at seeing him there.

“What are you doing here? How did you find me?” she asked.

Her voice was soft, and it had a defeated tone that he hated hearing. Matthew let the door close and pulled a chair next to her bed.

Grace struggled to sit up. “I guess you can clear the apartment out now. I’ll be stuck here for a while. You can just leave my things with the leasing office.”

“Your neighbor with the bad smoking habit fleeced me for fifty for the information,” Matthew answered. “The nurse told me you haven’t been eating enough.”

“I ate…some.” She looked down, and he knew the classic move of a person that was ashamed. In Matthew’s opinion, she had nothing to be ashamed of. This was Lance’s fault, pure and simple. He knew she had no one, and what he did to her was akin to abuse.

“Not enough and you’ve been stressed out for a long time,” Matthew pointed out in a somber tone. “Grace, I know you don’t know me, but please let me help you and the baby.”

“Why? Why does this bother you so much, and why do you feel that you have to help me?” Grace asked. “Most men would be glad to hand me cash and say get out of my world and let’s pretend this never happened.”

Matthew sat back and looked at her for a moment before speaking. “Lance was like my brother, more than that. He was my brother in every sense of the word except for blood. I knew him and, hell, I should’ve known about you sooner. So in some sense I feel guilty that he did this to you because he is—was—my family and he treated you wrong.”

“Okay, guilt is a great motivator,” Grace said. “I can’t absolve you of anything. I’m not a priest, but just know it wasn’t your fault.”

“The baby is the last connection to Lance. I’d like to give her everything he wasn’t planning to give,” Matthew offered. “From what you vaguely said, I take it you and your mother don’t have the best relationship. I can offer you a job with good income, a house on the ranch property, and everything that was Lance’s will be transferred to you and the baby.”

“Sounds too good to be true so it probably is,” Grace said bluntly. “I’ve stopped believing in unicorns and wishes coming true long ago.”

Matthew was ready for such an answer. “I’ll have my lawyers draft up an agreement so airtight that there’s no wiggle room. Even the house on the property will be yours, the shares Lance owned. Everything will be for you and the baby. What do you have to lose? I’m offering security, and right now it’s better than going to Georgia with nothing.”

“I’d get a job and be out of my mother’s house within six months,” Grace pointed out flatly. “I’m very resourceful, and while your offer sounds great, don’t expect me to jump on it because I’m in dire straits.”

Matthew pressed the brakes and slowly took another route. “Even if you left I’d still put everything in your name and the baby’s name. It’s your choice, Grace, of course it is, but I hope you’d think past what Lance did to you to see this can and will help you in the long run.”

Grace was quiet for a moment. “What kind of work are we talking about?”

“The bookkeeping for the ranch.” His heart jumped because this was progress; she was relenting. “I have a lot of rods in the fire, and I get so caught up sometimes, and Lance wasn’t much help at it. Your salary, severance pay—everything—would be laid out in the agreement.”

It wasn’t all true, of course, because he would never let his bookkeeping get behind. Matthew was a hands-on kind of businessman and very rarely outsourced, but if getting her to say yes meant he had to seem frazzled, then so be it.

“The house, was it one of Lance’s sex dens? Because if so, that would be a no,” she said. “I don’t want to live in a place where he soiled the sheets.”

He smiled. “No, that’s not a problem. I kept a rule that I didn’t want his, um, friends to be on the property.”

Grace gave a short laugh. “Yes, let’s call them friends.”

“Let’s give it a chance, please. If after six months you don’t like it I’ll buy you out top dollar and you can go where ever you choose,” Matthew coaxed. “I’d like to be in Lance’s daughter’s life and show her mother Nevada isn’t so bad.”

“Fine, I’ll give it a chance, but I reserve the right to say no at anytime. I refuse to be stuck here for six months if I don’t want to be,” Grace replied.

“Deal.” Matthew grinned. “An ambulance from Southern Hills Hospital is on its way to move you to their facility—”

“Say what?” Grace frowned. “I didn’t say I want to move.”

“I thought that Southern Hills would be better than Mercy. You’d have a private nurse and…”

Grace held up her hand to cut him off. “No, you don’t get to bulldoze me into what you think is better. That’s where you’ve gone wrong. Mercy is fine. I’m perfectly well taken care of here, and I will not be moving to Southern Hills…wherever that is.”

“This is a county hospital and the staff is overworked,” he said. He watched her eyes narrow and knew he’d said the wrong thing.
Shit.

“I grew up going to a county hospital and on Medicaid half the time. My first birth control pills came from the health department,” Grace said stiffly. “We all aren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths, Matthew.”

“I’m sorry, I never meant to insult you,” he said. “I’ll call and have the ambulance cancelled.” He looked at the second empty bed in the room. “Can I at least ask them to put you in a better room? If you have to be here until the baby is born then you should at least be comfortable and have a room to yourself.”

Grace nodded. “I’d actually like that. I like having my own space.”

Finally, Matthew felt a sense of triumph when she gave in. Impulsively, he reached out and squeezed her hand.

“It’s all going to work out fine, Grace, you’ll see.”

She gave a swift nod, and he smiled encouragingly before he walked out the door. Grace wasn’t going to trust him easily. He didn’t need the entire story to know she had a hard life, and Lance only reinforced the fact in her mind that she could trust no one but herself. Matthew had every intention to change that view and to give her and her baby the best. The baby was the last piece of Lance in this world. He hoped that his being in her life would be a good influence as opposed to the father who hadn’t cared before he died.

Chapter Three

It was no fun being pregnant, stuck on bed rest in a hospital room. She was ten days in with periods where she was contracting and her cervix was beginning to dilate. The doctors knew the baby was going to come early. It was just a matter of time and keeping her in as long as they could. She was allowed to get up, go to the bathroom, or sit in a lounge chair that Matthew had brought in and placed by the window so she could sit and gaze outside. So that’s what she did, looked out the window at the trees and lake and fluffy clouds and wished she could be out there, getting some fresh air. Oh, and she knitted. She’d asked Matthew to find her yarn bag and he brought it. So while she longed for the outdoors, she made the baby booties and hats, a bunting, and she was working on a blanket. No matter what went on, Grace was in love with her baby, and she comforted herself in the fact that bed rest meant Lilah was safe and healthy.

She found herself liking Matthew more than she should. Grace was still very wary of him and his intentions, but so far he had been true to his word. The very next day he’d shown up with an agreement drawn up, and when she saw what Lance actually owned compared to what he told her and gave her she felt like crying. Lance had said he didn’t want her to work, but did he want her to suffer? How callous could he have been seeing her in that crummy apartment, struggling to survive on what he brought her, and not feel anything? While she was making tuna casserole with whatever she could find, he was eating filet mignon. She was pregnant with his child, and he acted like it was nothing. The lowlife acted as if her worth meant nothing when she got pregnant and could no longer give him the sexual treats he wanted.
How could I have been so stupid?

Matthew was trying to go above and beyond because of what Lance did and while it was nice, it made her a tad uncomfortable. Was he really such a nice guy or was there an ulterior motive? The amount in the agreement was astounding if he ever bought her out. The pay for being his bookkeeper was more than generous, and he went further to put stock owned by Lance into the baby’s name for her future when she turned twenty-one. That melted some of the frost around Grace’s heart because he was looking out for the baby where his friend did not. He had meals brought in for her, a prenatal masseuse for massages to keep her stress level down, and even the nurses loved him. Matthew Ryder had not only brought them in baskets of goodies, but made a sizable donation toward Mercy Hospital.
If it’s too good to be true it probably is, young lady
. Her mother’s words came back to her, and after what Lance did she held a healthy dose of distrust.

The cell phone Matthew had brought for her so she’d have a phone in her room rang. She picked it up and she saw that it was her mother. Grace frowned because she’d called her a day ago to tell her she was in the hospital and only got indifference. Why was she calling now?

“Hi, Mom,” she said wearily, already tired from a conversation that had not yet happened.

“I’m coming to get you and the baby. Tell me where in Nevada you are,” her mother said in a voice that was stern and cold.

“I’m fine, Mom, you don’t need to come here. I told you I have a job, and the baby’s father left her a sizeable amount in his will when he died,” Grace answered. It was easier to tell her that than the scumbag’s best friend was being more of a man than he had ever been.

“Yeah, sure, the same man who gave you the phone probably wants you in his bed too. Why don’t you ever listen? You are such a willful child,” her mother snapped.

“I stopped caring what you think of me when I turned eighteen,” Grace answered.

“You certainly cared when you were begging to come home,” her mother retorted.

“Thank God I didn’t have to do that,” Grace snapped and then pinched the bridge of her nose. Her mother could always make her lose her patience. “I was obviously wrong in thinking my mother would give a damn about me or a grandchild except to throw it in my face.”

“I am trying to help you, girl. There’s a perfectly good couple in my church willing to adopt the baby and give her a better home than you could,” her mother explained.

Grace saw red. “Excuse me? You’re auctioning off my baby to your church friends because those hypocrite fools would be a better parent than me? The same church where Reverend Porter tried to feel me up in one of his private bible lessons?”

“Don’t you dare. You know you tempted that good and righteous man!” her mother shouted.

“I was sixteen, Mama. How did I tempt him? By being a young girl?” Grace cried out. “You wouldn’t stand up for me then, and you won’t now. Don’t pretend you’re doing this for me. You want to look pious in front of your friends. Mrs. Reid took her sinful child’s baby and sent it to a good home. Who are you kidding?”

The phone was plucked from her hand and she looked up to see Matthew frowning as he put the phone up to his ear.

“Mrs. Reid, how are you?” Matthew said, but his voice held no warmth. “Well, I’m sorry to hear about your willful child and all, but she’s fine. Right now, if you were any kind of mother, you’d stop trying to upset her while she’s on bed rest in the hospital. From the conversation I heard when I walked in, you are trying to pressure her to give up her child. This will not be happening, and you will not call this phone again unless she wants you to. Good day to you, ma’am.”

He held the phone to Grace’s ear and said, “Say goodbye to your mother.”

Her mother was screeching in anger, and Grace winced at the sound. “How dare he talk to me like that? Just like you to shack up with some rude, white—”

“Bye, Mom,” Grace said, cutting off her words. Matthew pressed the disconnect button and tossed the phone on the bed.

“Are you all right?” he asked. She could hear the anger in his voice, yet the slight country twang gave it some charm.

“I’m fine. That was actually a nice conversation. They can be much worse.” Grace gave him a smile even as her hands trembled. She picked up her crocheting again, but let it drop back in her lap. “Carol Reid is my mother and I love her, but I don’t like her. It’s always been a piss and vinegar relationship with her. Why do I expect it to be any different?”

“Because you’re a daughter and a soon-to-be mother. You wouldn’t want to have a relationship like that with the baby. And, in the long run, we all want our families to be perfect,” Matthew said simply.

Grace laughed. “How very astute of you, Dr. Phil. You’re here every day, Matthew. Aren’t you letting your business slide? World domination takes time.”

Matthew pulled up a chair. “Nope, I have my minions watching over that aspect for me. I come bearing lunch.” He picked up the blanket in her lap and ran his hand over the soft wool. “Wow, this is nice. My mom used to knit. She could make those needles in her hands work in a blur. I used to get a sweater each year for Christmas.”

“I like knitting too, but I’m not as good at it as I am at crocheting,” Grace said. “I didn’t get much but a bible and maybe a new pen here and there and some books for Christmas. My mom wasn’t big on holidays. I plan to be completely different. I was hoping to decorate for Lilah before Christmas came along. I guess I won’t get to this year if I’m stuck in here.”