The Family Plan (27 page)

She’d taken guidance from her father in so many ways—pursuing an education and a career and taking care of herself physically as her parents had not done for themselves. She ate well, exercised, had regular medical checkups and generally made sure her life would be better than her parents’ lives in many ways. But they had always had one thing she hadn’t seriously considered until recently. They had been rich in love.

She was standing in her office, gazing out the window at the well-tended, but winter-browning lawn behind the building, accomplishing absolutely nothing, when Nathan spoke from behind her.

“If I come in, are you going to throw something at me?”

She wasn’t particularly surprised to hear his voice. She turned to find him leaning against the frame of her open doorway. It was the same position he’d been in after her phone call from Tom on Thursday, but he wasn’t scowling this time. His expression could best be described as wary.

“Where’s Isabelle?” she asked, deciding to ignore his question.

“Mrs. T. took her to a movie, and then they’re going shopping for some warmer school uniforms.”

“I’m sure Isabelle will enjoy the outing.”

He nodded toward her still-empty desk. “Did you just get here?”

“Yes. I visited my mother this morning.”

“How is she?”

“Physically, she’s in fair shape. Mentally, there’s no change. She’s still almost completely unresponsive.”

“It must be difficult for you. Visiting her like that, I mean.”

“I’ve come to terms with her condition. I’ve learned to find some pleasure in the visits.”

Taking another step into the office, he pushed his fingertips into the front pockets of the jeans he wore with an Old Miss sweatshirt. “I was hoping I would find you here. I owe you an apology, and I wanted privacy in which to offer it.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t owe me an apology.”

“Of course I do. First for eavesdropping on your private conversation. And second for getting angry about what I overheard.”

“I should have told you Tom approached me about a possible interview with his firm. You shouldn’t have had to find out by accident.”

“It was your business, not mine.”

“And you’re my business partner,” she countered gamely. “If I
had
arranged for an interview, I would certainly have talked to you about it, of course. I just didn’t want to bother you with it until I decided what I was going to do.”

“I think you should set up the interview. I can cover for you here.”

She frowned at him, surprised by his suggestion. “I haven’t even decided I want to go for an interview.”

“I think you should,” he insisted. “You don’t want to let the opportunity slip away from you.”

Her crossed arms tightened. “Why are you trying to talk me into this?”

“I’m trying to tell you that I’m not going to stand in your way if big opportunities present themselves to you. This could be just the break you’ve always wanted.”

“I don’t even know if I’m interested in moving to California,” she argued. “My mother is here. And I’ve got the Smith case that’s going to keep me busy for quite a while yet.”

“In California you would have challenging cases like that all the time. And you’d make enough to move your mom out there and hire round-the-clock private nurses for her.”

“Maybe, but how many hours would I have to work for that big salary?”

“Probably not much more than you do here,” he replied with a shrug. “Look at you now, you’re in the office on a Saturday afternoon. You’re here almost every Saturday. A lot of Sundays.”

“I just don’t know if I’m ready for a big firm like that. Maybe I need a few more years of experience.”

“Caitlin, you’re ready for anything you want to do. The firm in L.A. would be lucky to have you—and don’t think they aren’t going to recognize that. They’ll very likely offer you a position on the spot.”

It suddenly occurred to her that for every argument she came up with for not going to California, Nathan found a way to counter her. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? “Do you
want
me to go to Los Angeles?” she demanded.

He hesitated only a moment before answering wryly, “If I thought it would keep you here, I would gladly shackle you to your desk.”

There was absolutely no reason, of course, why she should feel a surge of relief. But she did. “You
don’t
want me to go?”

“I absolutely, positively, unequivocally do not want you to go. And in case that isn’t clear enough—I
really
do not want you to go.”

She felt her lips twitch with a smile. “So you want me to stay?”

He rested a hand on his chest, just over his heart. “With every fiber of my being. With every molecule in my body. From the top of my head to the soles of my feet, I want you to stay.”

Her smile widened in response to his fervent hyperbole. “Then why were you trying so hard to talk me into going?”

“Because I want you to follow your dreams.”

She was genuinely touched by the sincerity in his voice. “And if I decide I can pursue my dreams here?”

His tense expression lightened just a little. “Then you would be fulfilling
my
dreams.”

Her voice was husky when she said, “Tell me about your dreams, Nathan.”

As often as she had talked about her own, it occurred to her that she had never asked about his.

He shrugged and took another step toward her, bringing him to within touching distance of her, though he kept his hands at his sides. “I’ve never wanted fame or riches. My parents came close to having both, and I saw how little happiness those things brought them. What gives me satisfaction is having the people I love—my family—close to me, safe and happy. I’ve always wanted a career I enjoy that would pay me enough to take care of my family. I’ve always wanted to be my own boss and have some freedom to pursue a few pleasures outside of the office.”

She moistened her lips. “That sounds like a nice dream.”

“There’s another part to it,” he said. “I always wanted to find someone to share that life with me. Someone who enjoys the same things I do. Someone who values family the way that I do. Someone who will stand by me when no one else does. Someone
I
can stand by when she pursues dreams of her own. Someone who will sit on a porch with me when we’re old and reminisce about all the good times we shared and the inevitable bad times we survived.”

“It…sounds like you’ve given this a great deal of thought.”

“You’re not the only one who has made plans for the future,” he told her softly. “I’ve always known what I wanted. I knew it when I established this law firm and when I asked you to help me make it a success.”

All those months when she had thought Nathan was just drifting happily and aimlessly through his life, he’d known exactly what he wanted for his future. In his own way he had been pursuing those goals as faithfully as she had hers. Maybe he’d been even more focused, because he’d had his plans clearly delineated in his mind, while she had been chasing after vague goals of career success she hadn’t been quite sure how to define.

Had she wanted to make the McCloud and Briley Law Firm a major player in the area’s legal community or start from the bottom in a bigger, already established firm? Had she been pursuing her own dreams or her father’s? And if family had meant so much to her in her past, why had she been following a career path that would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for her to have a family of her own?

Nathan had been watching the expressions crossing her face; she wasn’t sure what he’d read in them. “If you want to go to L.A.,” he said, “I still think you should make the arrangements. And if you decide your dream is there, I want you to go for it. My goals can be pursued anywhere. Isabelle and I might just like L.A. She was born in California, you know.”

Caitlin set a hand on her desktop for support as she stared at him. “You would be willing to go to L.A. with me?”

“If that’s where you’d be happiest,” he agreed. “You and I are partners, Caitlin Briley. In work and—I hope—in every other way.”

“But this firm—your family—”

“This firm, as proud as I am of what it has become, is only a place to work. I’m a skilled attorney. I can find another position wherever we end up. As for my family, Isabelle goes where I go, and I can always come back to visit the others whenever time allows. Deborah doesn’t live in Honesty, but that doesn’t make her any less a part of the family.”

Caitlin looked at him with a deep sense of wonder. “You really do love me, don’t you?”

His smile was sympathetic, as if he understood how deeply shaken she was by the realization. “Of course. But you knew that already, didn’t you?”

She supposed she had. He’d shown her so every time he kissed her, every time he made love with her so sweetly and so tenderly. He hadn’t said the words, but he’d made his feelings quite clear.

She was the one who had held back. The one who had been so afraid to commit—and why? Fear, she thought. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of being trapped. And maybe deep inside, an old fear, that she didn’t really deserve him. A useless and groundless self-doubt left over from a childhood of living just outside the fringe of acceptable society, never quite being a part of any peer group.

She drew a deep breath. “I love you, too, you know.”

His smile was blinding. “Darling. Of course you do.”

She reached out to him then, placing her hands on either side of his handsome face. “Have you always been so confident?”

“When it comes to you? No. But I’ve never been afraid to go after what I want.”

“And you want me,” she murmured, her lips hovering very close to his.

“Sweetheart, you’ve always been a part of my plan.”

Something about that comment amused her. She was laughing softly when his mouth came down on hers, instantly transforming her humor to passion.

As if it had been all he could do not to touch her earlier, he let his hands sweep over her now, touching and caressing every part he could reach. Her own hands were just as hungry, stroking and shaping, tangling with his. They had both dressed in loose, casual clothing for this Saturday afternoon, which made it much easier to shed them.

“Tell me you locked the front door,” Caitlin murmured, retaining just that modicum of caution as they sank to the thickly carpeted floor.

He nuzzled her neck. “I locked the front door.”

“Good. I have a habit of forgetting. Oh, Nathan, that feels so good.”

“I love you, Caitlin,” he said, holding her hands over her head as he prepared to slide into her.

“I love you, too,” she whispered, arching to welcome him. “And you can consider that signed, dated and notarized.”

He chuckled, then crushed her mouth beneath his, joining them with an exultant thrust.

Nathan couldn’t have said how much time passed before he raised his head from the floor with an effort and glanced around them. He couldn’t help smiling a little at what he saw. Caitlin was sprawled nude beside him, her eyes closed, her arm draped limply over her stomach. Their clothes lay scattered in tangled clumps all around the formerly immaculate office.

He couldn’t help wondering what Irene would say if she knew what had just happened in the offices she considered her domain. He sincerely hoped she would never find out. Though he had grown to respect the office manager quite a bit during the past weeks, he was still afraid of her.

“Caitlin?”

She responded without moving a muscle. “Hmm?”

“We really should get dressed.”

“Why?”

“Because if you lie there like that much longer, we won’t be leaving this office for the next week.”

The corners of her mouth lifted with a slight smile. “Sounds nice.”

“You really want Irene to find you like this Monday morning?”

She groaned and opened her eyes. “You had to bring up Irene’s name now?”

“Sorry. She sort of comes to mind whenever I’m in the office these days.”

Smiling, she reached up to trace a fingertip around his mouth. “I’m sure I can change that.”

“I’m sure you could,” he muttered, catching her hand and pressing a kiss in her palm. “But, I have to go. Mrs. T. and Isabelle will be home soon and they’ll be wondering where I am.”

She sighed and reluctantly pushed herself upright. “Okay, you made your point. The office isn’t the place for this sort of thing, anyway.”

He grinned and pulled her toward him for another long, deep kiss. “With you,
anywhere
is the place for this sort of thing,” he said when he finally released her.

She cleared her throat, blinked her hazy eyes, then reached for her clothes. “That sort of thinking could get us arrested.”

“I think we should keep Mrs. T. on. She’s pretty much irreplaceable, I think, don’t you?”

Caitlin paused in her dressing to look at him in question. “Why shouldn’t we—I mean, why shouldn’t you keep Mrs. T.? She’s, like, the greatest housekeeper in history, isn’t she?”

He chuckled as he zipped his jeans. “Probably. I just meant that there’s no reason to change her schedule after we get married. You and I are both too busy here to have to worry about housework and cooking and laundry.”

He pulled his shirt over his head, talking through the folds of fabric. “She and Isabelle seem happy together. I think Mrs. T. would really miss the job if we let her go. So there’s no reason why—”

As he emerged from the top of his shirt, he realized that Caitlin was standing in the middle of the office, half-dressed and staring at him with her mouth open.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Was it the
M
word that made you go comatose on me?”

She closed her mouth and stepped into her slightly wrinkled slacks. “You did bring it up rather casually.”

“Oh. Sorry. Too soon?”

“Maybe. You suppose you could give me a day or two before we start booking honeymoon suites?”

“Sure, even though I do like the sound of that honeymoon suite thing,” he added meditatively.

She looked at him repressively. “This is serious, Nathan.”

“I’m completely serious,” he assured her. “I love you, and I want to marry you. But I understand if you need a little time to think about it, knowing how you are about long-term planning and such.”