Living With Lies Trilogy (Books 1, 2, and 3 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (36 page)

A barrage of fireworks suddenly lit the sky. Sophie broke loose from Justine and came running over to Brad and said, in an excited voice, while raising her arms to him, "Can you put me on your shoulders, Daddy, like the other kids?"

Brad looked at Sophie, the word Daddy still strange to his ears, but nice, and said, "Sure honey," and swept her up and settled her on his shoulders. He felt her little mittened hands sandwiched on his head, one on each side of his face. He gripped her legs and held onto her. Sophie Meecham. Brad Meecham's daughter. His little girl. And he'd be there for the duration.

Ricky rushed up to Sam for him to do the same, and the two men stood together, kids on their shoulders, a couple of dads with women in their lives who were giving them hell, except that the woman who was walking up to him now wasn't sleeping with another man, or with him, and the temptation was almost more than he could handle.

Justine placed her hand on his arm and looked up at him, and said, "I told you things would work out for the two of you. You'll be fine now. You don't need me any longer so I'm moving back to the lodge tomorrow."

"No," Brad said. "You don't need to do that."

"Yes, I do," Justine replied. "After Sophie goes to sleep I'll try to give you a few more pointers on raising a child like her, but then you'll be on your own."

Brad had the gut feeling that after Sophie went to sleep, he'd come up with a dozen excuses why he should carry Justine off to his bed, but from the way she was talking, he suspected she'd be the one to put the skids on things…

A couple of hours later, after Justine helped Sophie bathe and got her into her pajamas, she came out of Sophie's bedroom, and said to Brad, "She wants you to tuck her in. Think you can handle that?"

"There's a first time for everything, I guess," Brad said. He went into the bedroom to find Sophie under the covers, her hair a mop of blond curls framing her face, her blue eyes bright on seeing him when he walked in. He sat on the side of the bed, wondering what to do next. Touch her? Kiss her on the forehead? Tuck the covers around her chin? What do dads do now?

Sophie solved his dilemma by opening her arms to him, and saying, "You can hug me now, Daddy, if you want."

And he did. Putting his arms around her little body, Brad held her against him. She smelled of bubble bath and apple shampoo and fresh little girl. Sweet. Innocent. A precious little person he'd give his life for now, and it had been barely more than a week since she'd come to him. A week that had changed his life forever.

"That's enough," Sophie said, in a voice that smacked of authority. Five-year-old authority. Cute. Ricky was already familiar with it. Maybe a good thing. Sophie wouldn't let boys or men control her. She'd keep the control, but somehow there had to be a happy medium.

Justine was also a woman who had to have the control, but the means by which she took it had also taken her self-respect. That would not happen with Sophie, but for the life of him, he didn't know how to set Sophie straight. "Can I have a kiss goodnight before I go," he asked her.

"I suppose," Sophie replied, then opened her arms again and gave him a warm, wet kiss on the cheek, then settled back against her pillow and smiled up at him.

"Good night, sweetheart," Brad said. He kissed her on the forehead and left the room, closing the door quietly behind.

"Day one in the life of Daddy," Justine commented, when he settled beside her on the couch. "How did it go?"

"That's a hard question to answer," Brad said. "I've been all over the world, and in lots of dangerous situations including crash landing in a jungle and dodging bullets in Iraq, but what I'm facing, raising a five-year-old daughter, terrifies me more than anything I've ever encountered. Do you think it's this way for all parents?" He looked at Justine, and waited.

"I don't know," Justine said. "You have to remember I'm new to this too. But it's changed my outlook on kids. You only have them for a short time so you'd better get it right during that time. I wouldn't have wanted to raise me."

"What about life experiences?" Brad asked. "Can't people learn from their mistakes and apply what they've learned?"

"What are you getting at?" Justine asked, looking at him, intently.

She knew exactly what he was getting at, and he did too. The big question. Could Justine Page raise Sophie Meecham to be a respectable woman?

"Even if I thought I could," Justine said, answering Brad's unasked question, "you'd never know when someone out of my past might bump into us at a restaurant, or show up at a book signing, or appear on our doorstep to remind me, and you, and Sophie, that before I became Mrs. Brad Meecham, if that's where this is leading, I'd slept with every corporate head to get where I was before I became respectable. It's not a chance you can take. I wouldn't if Sophie were mine."

Brad didn't reply, because the shadow of someone passing the window caught his attention. He went to the door and opened it, and found Jack standing on the doorstep.

"There's a man at the lodge asking for you." Jack said. "He claims he just arrived from Washington D.C. and he's not leaving until he talks to you, and that he has some papers for you."

"Did you get his name?" Brad asked.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "Harrison Patel. He says you don't know him, but that you have his daughter, and he's come to take her home?"

CHAPTER 12

Brad motioned for Jack to step inside then shut the door and briefly explained to Jack who Harrison Patel was. "He's trying to make a claim on Sophie because he was married to Sophie's mother when she got pregnant with Sophie." 

"Are you sure you're Sophie's father?" Jack asked.

"Positive," Brad replied. "Sophie's mother hadn't been with her husband in months when she got pregnant. I didn't know she was married, but when Sophie's mother was killed, Sophie inherited money, and the man wants custody of Sophie so he can take control of the trust. He could have a legal claim, even though they were divorced by the time Sophie was born. The man wouldn't want her if she didn't come with money."

"Do you have any idea how much money's involved," Jack asked.

"No, but it's got to be enough for a man to take on a five-year-old, and possibly kill Sophie's mother. It was a hit-and-run. I've got to call my attorney in Frisco. I'm not letting Sophie go with anyone."

"It's New Year’s Eve," Jack said. "I doubt you'll be able to get a hold of him."

"I have his private number," Brad said. Punching in the number on his cell, Brad reached his attorney, and after a succinct conversation, said to Jack, "Did Patel come with the sheriff?"

Jack shook his head. "He's alone."

"Good," Brad said. "Since Patel already knows where I am, my attorney advised me to see what papers he has, and after the man leaves, take Sophie and go someplace where we can't be found until he can look into it. Patel will have to come with the sheriff to make me turn Sophie over to him. You sure there's no sign of the sheriff? You looked outside for his car?"

Jack shook his head. "No sheriff. I was outside when the man arrived. He's alone, and he came in a rental car. He also asked about lodging. I told him we were full. I didn't know what he wanted so I decided to play it safe."

"Good." Brad turned to Justine, and said, "Get Sophie's things together, and you'd better come too. Sophie might be upset if I try to take her by myself."

"Where are we going?" Justine asked. "Any vehicles we leave in will be easy to trace, if a sheriff wants to find us."

"I'll take you where you'll be safe," Jack said. "It's a cabin we have in the mountains about an hour's ride by horse from here. It's stocked with supplies. No electricity, but there's a wood stove for cooking, a fireplace for heat, and a hand pump with water to the sink. There's also a bedroom with a double bed, and a couch in the living room. I'll grab three sleeping bags and you can decide how you want to arrange sleeping. But you'll be safe there until you learn what this is all about. Meanwhile, give me the keys to your car and I'll lock it in the machine shed. Later, when the man asks for you, I'll tell him you checked out and left."

Brad looked at Jack, then clapped him on the shoulder, and said, "I don't know how to thank you, but we'll do it." He turned to Justine, and said. "Are you up to it, honey?"

"Yes," she replied, her face flushing.

Oh man. The honey thing. It worked for her too. But that's the way he thought of Justine now. She and Sophie. His two honeys.

Justine eyed him with uncertainty. "Should I get Sophie up? She just got to sleep."

Jack looked at her, and said, "It'll take me a few minutes to get the horses ready. Wrap Sophie warmly and I'll put her in front of me on the horse. Pack light though, mostly warm clothes. There will still be snow on the ground up there."

"It's dark out," Justine said. "How will we find our way?"

"The horses have night vision and it's a clear moonlit night. We'll be fine," Jack said.

"Okay then, I'd better see what Harrison Patel has for me."

Before he left, Brad squeezed Justine's shoulder, and said, "Maybe after a few days up in the mountains with Sophie and me, that glass ceiling won't seem so appealing."

Justine held his gaze, and replied, "Maybe not while we're there, but eventually the fairy tale will end, and the prince will return to his castle in San Francisco, and Cinderella will return to her corporate tower in Seattle. Not all fairy tales have happy endings."

Brad said nothing, because Justine was right. A few days in the mountains wouldn't lure her away from what her corporate world had to offer.

He accompanied Jack to the lodge, and when they entered through the back door, Brad spotted Harrison Patel at once, even though he'd never seen the man before. Patel was pacing restlessly off to the side, his hand gripping what appeared to be a manila folder. When Patel saw them, he started over. Jack left to saddle the horses, and Patel walked up to Brad, and said, "I'm Harrison Patel, Sophie's legal father. I was married to Yvette when she got pregnant, and I have legal documents with me that give me temporary custody of Sophie pending full legal custody. I've come to get her."

Brad thrust out his palm. "I want to see the documents first."

Patel slapped the folder against Brad's hand. Brad opened the folder and glanced over the documents, aware that they were stamped by the court, and signed by a judge in Arlington, Virginia, where Yvette was living when she was killed. "I'm not turning her over to anyone tonight," Brad said. "She's sleeping right now, and I'll need time to get her things together. She'll also need to know everything will be okay or else you'll have hell trying to leave here with her," he said, stalling for time.

"Then you don't have any objection to my taking her?" Patel asked.

"No," Brad replied. "She's been a pain in the ass. I'm a writer and I travel all over the world, and I don't need a kid tagging along. Come back in the morning and spend a little time with her before you go. Believe me it'll be worth the effort. She was out of control when the woman who brought her here left her behind. She's still a handful."

Patel looked at Brad, dubiously, and said, "Alright. I'll come back around nine in the morning, but I'll expect her to be ready to go by then."

"She'll be ready," Brad assured him. "And so will I. The only reason I'm still at this place instead of in San Francisco is because kids aren't allowed where I live. Just don't be late tomorrow. She's not an easy kid to have around."

"I'll be here at nine," Patel assured him, and left.

As soon as Brad saw the lights of Patel's car start down the road, he had Sam fax copies of the documents to his attorney then left a message on his PI's answering machine to speed up the investigation on Patel and get back as soon as possible. Thankfully, the snow at the lower levels had melted and there would be no horse tracks leading into the mountains, and with his car locked in the machine shed, Patel would have no reason to believe they were still in the area.

He gave Jack the numbers of his PI and his attorney, and Jack agreed to call both men the following day, and if there were any changes, ride up to the cabin and tell them what was going on. Brad had no idea what to expect from either his PI or his attorney, but he knew for sure he'd never turn Sophie over to Harrison Patel, even if he had to keep on the move to avoid it.

He also knew that by morning, the three of them would have spent their first night in a cabin with one bed and a couch, and that neither he nor Justine would be sleeping on that couch, and there was no question what would be taking place in the bed.

Somehow he felt that this would be a turning point in their relationship, that when they came back, he'd have a clear picture of where things should be, whether it would be for Justine to return to Seattle and make a success of herself the right way, and he return to San Francisco to make a life with Sophie, or for them to become a family.

***

The hour-long horseback ride up the mountain in the dead of night, with only moonlight to guide them, and worry over the horse stumbling in the dark, was so nerve-racking that after Jack left them at the cabin, and Sophie was asleep on the couch, Justine crawled into a sleeping bag and wasn't aware that Brad was in a sleeping bag beside her until the next morning, when she awakened to see his quietly sleeping face.

The door to the living room where Sophie was asleep was open, and the bedroom was warm, so she knew that sometime during the night, Brad must have banked the fire and crawled back into his sleeping bag. For a few minutes she lay watching him, but when she moved to touch his face, he stirred and opened his eyes.

He stared at her for a few moments, then rolled onto his side and stretched an arm outside the sleeping bag, cupping her chin, and kissed her, the kind of kiss a husband would give a wife in the morning. "You were out like a light last night," he said. "I was disappointed."

She rolled onto her side in the bag and faced him. Propping her head on her hand, she said, "What did you have in mind?"

Brad raised himself up on one elbow, exposing an ample amount of solid, muscular chest, and replied, "Some unfinished business."

"If you're referring to what happened in the stable," Justine said, running her palm over his chest, "you finished the job. I was very satisfied afterwards."

"It only took a few seconds," Brad said, grabbing her hand and nibbling on her finger. "Not my idea of a satisfying experience."

"I didn't go to the stable just to have sex," Justine said, "I went there to brush the horse."

"Like hell you did," Brad kissed her palm. "You were so ready for me I barely had time to give you what you wanted."

"You're right," Justine admitted, "but anytime now your little offspring will be waking up and I'd be very frustrated if you couldn't finish the job once you started, so instead, I'll get up and fix the coffee." She threw back the sleeping bag and tossed her legs over the side of the bed then standing in her underwear, grabbed her turtleneck jersey. Slipping it on, she said, "Go outside in the snow and chop wood. It'll take your mind off it."

"Honey, there's only one way to take my mind off it," Brad said.

"I know," Justine replied. "I'm looking forward to it." She bent down and kissed him on the lips, and said, "Meanwhile, we have a child to bathe and dress and feed, and a dozen other chores to take care of while we're here in our little home away from home, so to take our minds off
it
let's focus on that instead."

Brad reached out and pulled her to sit on the bed and kissed her, but after the kiss ended, Justine looked at him soberly, and said, "Have you ever wanted to live a fairy tale?"

"I live in a fictional world with my writing most of the time," Brad said, "but I never thought about it for myself. Why do you ask?"

"Because I've been thinking. While we're here, would it be so wrong to pretend we're a family? We could do everything a family living in the wilderness would do." The idea came to her when they left on horses to head to the cabin Jack described, a place with one bed, where they'd be alone in their own little world, a world where Justine Page, who slept her way to the top, wouldn't exist. Only Justine Page who loved a man, and now a little girl, and wanted to be a part of their lives, but knew it could only be for a few days.

"This isn't exactly wilderness," Brad said. "I can hike back to the ranch in an hour."

"Don't spoil the fairy tale," Justine replied. "You know what I mean. We'll be returning to reality in a few days and it will be over for me. I may never have another chance to know what a family would be like."

"The whole thing?" Brad said. "Man and wife? Sharing a bed at night?"

"Yes, the whole thing," Justine replied. "You already know we'll be sharing the bed. I just want more than that during the time we're here. I want to pretend we're married. A real family."

"How do we explain it to Sophie?" Brad asked. "You and me in bed?"

"That would only be after she's sleeping. We could be discrete."

"Honey, you're really tempting me."

"That's my intent."

"Starting when?"

"Now." Justine went to the living room and glanced over to where Sophie was still sound asleep on the couch, hunkered down in her sleeping bag, her head tucked into the pillow. Satisfied that she'd remain sleeping for some time, she crept back to the bedroom and quietly shut the door, fastening the little hook and eye, then stripped off her clothes and returned to the bed. "Now, Mr. Meecham, you can open that bag and let Mrs. Meecham in."

Justine snuggled into the bag and curled her body around his. "We'll still have to be fast so we're done before Sophie wakes up," she said. "Are you alright with that?"

"Honey, I'm alright with anything you do," Brad said. He kissed her then, a passionate, open-mouth kiss that brought groans of satisfaction from her...

He took her almost as quickly as before, but afterwards, they held each other, even after the last waves had flickered and died.

"Was it okay this time, Mrs. Meecham?" Brad asked. "It still went pretty fast."

"It was amazing, Mr. Meecham," Justine replied. "I love being with you like this." She cuddled closer. For the first time in her life she felt loved, even though Brad never said the words, but she didn't expect him to. Theirs was a fairy tale marriage. Expressing words of love couldn't be part of it because feelings would be involved and the fairy tale would end. But after a while, Justine crawled out of the bag.

She started to turn, when Brad said, "Wait."