A Family Come True (14 page)

“Fair enough.”

Good God, would Moxie ever shut up and let him finish a sentence? And for the love of all that was holy, could she wipe that satisfied smirk from her face?

“Here’s what I’m thinking.” She carried on as if no one had either rebuked her or dared to speak without her permission. “If that Xander comes and stays here, he’ll have time with the child and can’t say anything about you not doing your best.”

“Which could be important, given the fact that he didn’t know about her for so long,” Carter added. “You don’t want anyone to be able to say, ‘Oh, she’s throwing up roadblocks, trying to keep him from his daughter.’ The fact that he didn’t know of her existence until he literally stumbled across her—that could be played against you. It’s better to bend over backward now.”

Moxie crossed her arms over her chest. “As I was saying, he would get to know little Cadence while you’re beside him to keep an eye on things. The rest of us will be here, too, to keep things from being too awkward, and so Mr. Caveman over there doesn’t rip any heads off.”

Ian shook his head. Was Moxie talking about
him
?

“At the same time,” Moxie continued, “Xander seems to be looking at this whole parenthood thing through some rainbows. A few days of changing diapers and getting up at night with a little one who’s cutting teeth would help him see what he’s really in for.”

“Darce?” Ian waited until she twisted to face him. He knew what she would say—it was too much, too fast, too disruptive. He needed her to block out everything else and everyone else and focus on the only thing that mattered.

“Forget Xander and all of us and even you. Think about Cady. This could be your best shot at handling the introductions your way.”

She searched his face. Some of the doubt leached from her eyes.

“You have a point.” She spoke slowly and glanced around the room. “But I— Dear heavens, you already are going out of your way to take in Cady and me. I can’t ask you to house Xander, too.”

“Why not?” Dad’s voice was as mild as always. “He came to visit a few times when he and Ian were rooming together. This isn’t that different.”

Yeah, it was. But it was damned decent of his father to put it that way.

That, he realized, was the big reason why he wanted to make this visit work, to make this job work: to be back with the people he knew and who knew him the way no one else ever would. He had good friends in a lot of places. But nothing was the same as being with family, with the people who knew when you were lying through your teeth but understood why and opted to let it go. That only came with a lifetime of togetherness. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed it until now, when it was dangling in front of him again.

“This house is big enough that we could take in Xander and half of his prison buddies.” Moxie seemed to reconsider. “You did say he was the peaceable type, right, Ian?”

“Cyber crimes only, Moxie. Unless he’s changed drastically in the last two years, I can give you my word that he won’t steal anything or murder anyone in their sleep.”

“Oh, that was reassuring,” Ma said drily before pressing her fingers to her lips and glancing apologetically at Darcy. “That was a joke. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Not to worry.” Darcy was starting to sound more like her resilient self. “Contrary to what Ian thinks sometimes, I’m not some delicate hothouse flower.” She peeked up at him with a teasing kind of grin that implied all kinds of inside jokes. He’d smiled back down at her before he even knew it. “I find it’s better to bring things out in the open than to walk around dodging elephants.”

“Then that’s settled.” Moxie pushed to her feet, the queen dismissing her subjects. “Give Xander a call and tell him there’s a room waiting. And let him know there’s chicken and dumplings for dinner. As I recall, that was one of his favorites when he visited before.”

“Thank you all,” Darcy said as the adults stood. “You’ve made a confusing situation a lot less overwhelming. I’m grateful to all of you and to Ian for insisting I come here.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake, girl. You’re family now. This is just what family does.”

Confusion flitted across Darcy’s face for the briefest of seconds until she laughed. “Well, then, I guess I’m doubly lucky.” She patted his cheek. “Thanks again, sweetie.”

He squeezed her hand, bent to pick up Cady’s stacking cups and froze.

Xander was going to be staying at the house. Xander, who was the reason he and Darcy were pretending to be involved in the first place. Which meant that the farce might have to be carried on for a bit longer.

Which meant that he and Darcy would be sharing a room after all. A room with one big, inviting king-size bed.

Oh, holy shit.

* * *

D
ARCY WAITED UNTIL
Ian returned from getting Lulu before lifting Cady and saying, loud enough to carry, “Oops, I think it’s diaper time. Can you give me a hand with her, Ian?”

“Sure thing.”

They ascended the stairs silently. Well, except for Cady, who was not happy about being removed from the activities on the main floor and was doing her level best to break her mother’s eardrums.

Lulu, that most adaptable of creatures, scooted ahead of them once they reached the top and pattered to the correct door, where she plopped on her behind and gave them a look that said,
Would one of you please put those opposable thumbs to work?

The minute they were inside the room—with the door closed and, Darcy ensured, locked—she set Cady on the bed and turned to Ian.

“Does the door to the other room lock, too?”

“I’ll check.”

She pulled her phone from her pocket, debating texting Xander right away while Ian was busy, but decided it could wait a few more minutes. She didn’t want the impending conversation to be interrupted by anyone.

She kicked off her sandals and sat on the edge of the bed. The big, cushy bed. The only one in the room.

Oh, God. She couldn’t sit here. It was too much of a preview.

But though her legs twitched and tightened, she stayed put. She would get through this. They were going to talk it over like adults, and they would come up with a solution, and soon this would be nothing more than something to look back on with laughter. Kind of like the time last summer when Ian had walked into the backyard and caught her naked from the waist up because it was a hot day and she thought he was at work and she was too damned tired to nurse discreetly.

Though now that she thought about it, neither of them had ever mentioned that again.

Cady crawled over to Darcy and grinned. Darcy flicked away a line of drool with her thumb before cupping her precious girl’s chin in her hand.

“You’re worth whatever I have to do to make this work.” She wasn’t sure if the words were for her daughter or herself, but they made Cady giggle and bounce, which made her own heart a little lighter. So, bonus.

“All set.”

Ian’s words brought her back to the matter at hand. Damn. She had been so close to forgetting for a moment or two.

“Let me guess.” He lounged in the doorway, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. “You don’t trust Moxie to keep from sneaking in and eavesdropping.”

“Mostly I just don’t want to be surprised again. There’s only so many times I can handle life jumping up at me and shouting
boo!
”

“Figured. I bet it’s not diaper time, either.”

“You know, you could at least pretend I’m a woman of mystery. Stroke my... Praise my intelligence, and all that.”

Great one, Maguire.
Talk about
stroking
while perching on the edge of the bed they were going to end up sharing after all. When, deep down, she could hear a tiny voice whispering a reminder that she hadn’t had anything stroked in a long, long time. One year and nine months, to be precise.

“Sorry, Darce. You have a lot of talents, but intrigue isn’t your thing.”

“You might be singing a different tune by the end of the weekend.” Try as she might, she couldn’t keep the words as light as she wished.

“Are you really okay with the thought of Xander coming here?” His teasing tone had departed.

“I don’t know. I mean, yes, I’m okay. It’s just...everything is happening so fast. It feels like it’s all going to spin away from me and blow up into an entirely different universe at any moment.” At least, it had felt that way until he had turned her to him and reminded her of what was really at stake. Funny how everything else had seemed to slip away then. “Thanks for your help down there. I was starting to lose sight of the big picture.”

“Just doing my job.”

Now, what did that mean?

“Will it help if I remind you that Xander is probably even more afraid than you are?”

“Yes. But no.”

“You know, with answers like that, you might have that woman of mystery thing going on after all.”

Her laugh was shortened by the tightness of her throat. “Nah. That’s just the confusion talking.”

“How about this?” His foot stretched as if he were planning to move forward, but at the last second he pulled it back and crossed it in front of his other leg. Probably planned to sit beside her and had changed his mind when he remembered the bed thing.

Curiouser and curiouser,
Alice in Wonderland would say. Except for Darcy, it was more like
Complicated and complicateder
.

“Let’s take this one piece at a time,” he said. “Focus on what’s in front of us at each moment.”

“I’m trying.” She made a face. “It would be a heck of a lot easier if the pieces didn’t insist on jumping all over each other.”

“Yeah, there is that.” He finally peeled himself from the doorway, but instead of joining her, he sat on the floor, one hand reaching to pat Lulu and the other stretching to Cady, who scrambled to the edge of the bed and was rewarded with a loud kiss on the cheek.

Lucky kid.

“You’ve watched me make things,” he said slowly. “You know how it works. I have an idea of what I want to create, and I have to keep that big picture in mind, but all I can change is one section—the little bit that’s hot and pliable. If I try to shape anything else, it won’t work. All I’ll do is waste my time and get frustrated. And probably break something while I’m at it.”

“You have a point.”

“Hey, with Moxie as my grandmother, I had to learn to think on my feet.”

“Yeah. I have a whole new appreciation for that, too.” She grabbed her phone. “Okay. Let me try this the Ian way. Step one, tell Xander what we’ve decided.”

A few taps later, the text was sent. Sure enough, while a new set of butterflies had taken up residence in her stomach, some of the old ones had definitely left. She set the phone on the bedside table and took a mental step forward.

“So Xander’s been shoved into the forge to soften up.”

“Now you’re talking.”

“And we can deal with the next item on the agenda.” She forced herself to meet his eyes. “Do we keep pretending?”

“Do you want to?” Mild panic raced across his face. “I mean, do you think we need to?”

Oh, but those were two very different questions. And there was only one of them that she was going to address.

“I’m not sure. But I... If he stays here it would make things easier, in a lot of ways, if he kept on thinking we’re together. It would mean we wouldn’t have to have a lousy conversation at a really awkward time.”

“It would give you some distance.”

“Distance. Yeah. That’s a good way to put it.” With the way the whole situation was flying through her fingers, the truth was she could use all the slowing tactics she could find. “It might even make it easier to explain it to him when the truth comes out. You know, once he sees that his coming here kind of pushed everything up a notch, he might understand why we wanted a barrier. He’ll see that we just wanted to be sure he’s everything he says he is while he’s getting to know Cady.”

“Yeah, that might cushion the blow.”

“Are you okay with pulling the wool over your family’s eyes a bit longer?”

He took Cady’s hands and bounced her arms up and down. “It’s not the way I would prefer to do things,” he said at last. “But if we told them the truth, one of them would let it slip before Xander stepped in the door. Moxie could keep it close. But Ma, Dad...they couldn’t do it.”

She noticed he didn’t say anything about Carter’s and Taylor’s ability to keep a secret.

At least if she had to stay here she might have more chances to encourage Ian to hash things out with Carter. She and Ian could talk about it at night when it was just the two of them in the room, in their pajamas, in the great big beautiful—

Her phone beeped. Her relief at having her thoughts pulled back from the danger zone quickly turned to a sinking feeling in her gut when she saw the message.

“Xander?”

“Yeah. He loves the idea and will be here in twenty minutes.”

“You gonna be okay?”

“Do I have a choice?”

His gaze softened. “There’s always a choice, Darce. Sometimes it’s between sucky and suckier, but there’s always a choice.”

Yeah, he had her there.

“Well. We have twenty minutes to figure this out.” One piece at a time. Maybe if she got the elephant out of the way first, the rest would fall into place. “First up, sleeping arrangements.”

“You and Cady take the bed. I can make up something in the other room.”

“With what, the mattress from Cady’s crib and the toddler bed? I think you outgrew those long ago.”

“There are air mattresses in the garage.”

“Seriously, Ian, do you hear yourself? Moxie already wandered in here while we were talking. If you set up a bed someplace else, you know she’ll find it.”

He grabbed Cady and pulled her onto his lap. “Poor Bug. You’re going to have a rough time pulling anything over on your mom when you get to be a teenager.”

“The bed is big enough that we can share it without—”
without getting too close, without touching, without rolling over in the night and curling around each other, and
“—without too much awkwardness.” She pointed to the quilt folded in neat thirds at the foot of the mattress. “We can roll that up like a jelly roll and put it down the middle. Not because I don’t trust you or anything,” she hastened to add, even while her conscience pointed out that
his
hands weren’t the ones she feared might roam. “But because it will be easier to relax and sleep if we’re not lying there worrying about...whatever.”