The Instant Family Man Read online

  Peyton cleared her throat. “You said you came to talk about Madelyne. What did you want to discuss?”

  “I’d like to spend some time with her—”

  “We can arrange that. I was thinking maybe all of us could go to the children’s museum tom—”

  “On my own,” Luke cut in. “I want to get to know her and I think that would be easier without a go-between.”

  “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. She’s nervous about new people and she’s used to me and—”

  “And I’m her father, as far as we know, though I’m willing to wait on the blood test results for confirmation, if need be. And if the DNA comes back a match, you know I have the right to see her.”

  He was right, of course, and if they went to court—not that it would ever get that far—but if they did, Luke would have every legal right to share custody, and maybe even get sole custody. He was, after all, very likely the only remaining biological parent.

  Maybe she could use the time that Maddy was at Luke’s to do some work from the hotel room. Follow up on the Drexel Avenue job that had been on her desk before she left, check on that order for the silk wall covering. Try to resuscitate her career. She was supposed to be on vacation, but that didn’t have to stop her from doing some damage control.

  Maybe then she could return to Baltimore with a plan in place. Her career could get back on solid ground, and that would give her more time to devote to Maddy.

  Peyton twirled the glass between her palms and stared at Luke. “You’re asking me to trust you with Maddy.”

  “I’m a trustworthy guy, Peyton.” He grinned.

  “It’s just...I don’t leave her often with people I don’t know really well.”

  “Why?”

  She could lie and tell him that Maddy didn’t like new situations or got upset in new places. But that wasn’t true. Until Susannah’s death, Maddy had been a pretty adaptable kid, easy to please, friendly to everyone she met. Peyton could say it was because she was still worried about Maddy’s fragile emotional health—which was true—but that wasn’t all of it. “I’ve made most of the decisions for Maddy since she was born,” Peyton said. “And to be honest, it’s hard for me to let someone else be in charge, even for a little while.”

  “Where was Susannah during all this?” Luke asked.

  Peyton leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees. Her gaze traveled across the tops of the trees, now just blotches against the night sky, to the lake that sat in a thick black line in the distance. “Susannah wasn’t much for being a mom. She was a great friend, but kids don’t need friends. They need parents who set schedules and make them eat vegetables and remember to put on their winter coat when there’s frost on the ground.”

  “And Susannah didn’t do that?” Surprise colored his words.

  Peyton thought of all the arguments she’d had with her sister, all the times she’d told Susannah that she needed to step up, be responsible, be the mother that Madelyne needed. Peyton would trade every one of those arguments to have her sister back, with her quirky sense of humor and her silly cards. “Susannah wanted to be a good mom, and she loved Maddy more than anything in the world. In the end, that’s all that really matters.” Peyton shifted her gaze to Luke and let out a long breath. “And that’s all that really matters to me—that Maddy is loved.”

  “That’s all that matters to me, too, Peyton.” Luke’s gaze turned to the night sky again. The stars flickered above them, as if Orion was blinking his approval.

  Chapter Five

  Luke Barlow had made a lot of mistakes in his life, some he had made amends for, some that still lingered like scars. In the few days since Peyton had arrived with Maddy, he began to have a glimmer of a different life, of a future that frankly scared the hell out of him as much as it excited him. Rather than push off the next steps he needed to take, as he might have done last month or last week, he got up early and showed up on his brother Jack’s doorstep just as the sun was beginning to rise and kiss Stone Gap with gold.

  Jack was already out in his workshop, the whine of the table saw drawing Luke over to the detached garage that Jack had converted a couple of months ago. Luke knocked on the open door. “You got a minute?”

  Jack shut down the machine and laid the newly cut boards against the machine’s leg. His younger brother had the same dark hair and brown eyes as Mac and their father, but had retained the leanness and hard edge he’d picked up during his time in Afghanistan. “I must be hallucinating. Because I’m seeing my brother before noon.”

  “Hey, I’ve been getting into the garage early for weeks now.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m just teasing.” Jack grinned, then reached for a bottle of water in a nearby cooler. He handed a second one to Luke. “You thinking about making it a full-time gig? Dad needs that second knee operation and really shouldn’t be—”

  “I know. I know.”

  “Wouldn’t hurt you to step up, Luke.”

  He scowled. “I didn’t come here for a lecture about my life choices. I came to ask a favor.”

  “If it involves lying to some girl, call Ben. I’m not your alibi.” Jack took a sip of water. “Though I still want to hear all the details.”

  “It does involve a girl, but it’s not what you think.” Luke sat down on an overturned five-gallon bucket. The day was starting out hot, but the workshop, built under a wide tree, was still cool inside. “I need you to take my shift at the garage this morning. Nothing big on the schedule, just Ernie Franklin’s brake job. I did the front two yesterday afternoon but the rear—”

  “What girl?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “Peyton Reynolds, by any chance?”

  “How do you know she’s in town?”

  “Luke, Stone Gap is smaller than a mouse’s shoebox. Someone sneezes in this town, and half the residents are lining up for their flu shot ten minutes later.”

  Luke chuckled. “True.”

  “And I know she always had a thing for you, so I just figured maybe now that she’s all grown up, and hot as hell—”

  “Hey!” The words had struck a match to Luke’s temper. “You’re practically a married man. You shouldn’t talk like that about Peyton.”

  “And that,” Jack said, tipping his bottle in Luke’s direction, “answers my question about whether you are interested in her. So, what do you have cooking with Peyton Reynolds? She’s a mother, too, I hear.”

  “It’s not her kid. Well, it is, but...” Luke let out a long breath. He’d come here for a little advice and support, and telling only half the story wasn’t going to do much good. “Promise you won’t tell Mama, not till I’m ready to tell her myself?”

  Jack dropped onto a second bucket and draped his arms over his knees. “Cross my heart, hope to die.”

  Luke smiled at the echoed promise, the same one he’d made to his daughter. “Peyton is raising Susannah’s child. Susannah’s and...mine.”

  Jack’s jaw dropped. “Whoa, wait. Did you just say your child?”

  Luke nodded, then ran through the story. “So today, I get to spend some time alone with her. Just me and Maddy. A garage isn’t a safe place for a kid, so I was hoping you’d take my shift.”

  “Sure, sure. No problem. I can move things around with my schedule.” Jack peeled off the paper label on his water bottle, then wadded it into a ball and tossed it into the trash. “You know you have to tell Mama and Dad. They’re bound to find out, and woe to you if the information doesn’t come straight from your lips.”

  Luke chuckled. “Yeah, probably not the kind of news that should be delivered through gossip. I will tell them. I’m just...getting used to the idea myself.”

  “And trying to decide how you want to handle the future?”

  “Pretty much.” He ran a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “Peyton’s a hell of a mom. She’s all organized and scheduled and she thinks about all those little things like tying shoelaces. I’m not exactly J
oe Father Figure here, and I don’t know...”

  “Don’t know what?”

  “I don’t know if I’m the best role model.”

  “Hell, who is? Nobody’s perfect, Luke. Not me, not you and not even Peyton. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Mama and Dad, it’s that you do the best you can and don’t sweat the small stuff.”

  “You sound like Anthony Robbins and Oprah Winfrey’s love child.”

  Jack laughed. “I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I do have a few. After all, I’m the youngest one, so I’ve learned from the mistakes of those before me.”

  “Being last doesn’t make you the smartest,” Luke said, repeating an oft-told joke. “Or the one Mama likes the best.”

  “She just tells you that you’re her favorite so you won’t feel left out, being in the middle.” Jack grinned.

  “And she tells me she had me because she was so disappointed in the first kid.” Luke grinned back.

  “Well, she tells me you’re the spare, after she had Mac. And that makes me—”

  “An accident,” Luke said, the same jokes from the past two-plus decades causing a burst of laughter between the brothers. Their mother told each of them that they were her favorite, and all three boys tried various ways to get their mother to pick one of them as the numero uno kid. She never had, and probably never would, which only made them try all the harder.

  “You still working on that playground downtown?” Luke asked. His brother had started building a playground in the heart of Stone Gap as a way to memorialize his friend—and his fiancée Meri Prescott’s cousin—Eli, who had been killed in action in the war.

  “Yup. I’m adding in some handicap-accessible sections this week. Trying to make it a playground for all kinds of kids, you know?”

  “I’d love to help out. Let me know if you need me this weekend.”

  “I can always use another pair of hands.” Jack got to his feet and set his water bottle on a nearby counter. “Speaking of which, I better get cleaned up if I’m going to be at the garage in a little while.”

  Luke clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Thanks, Jack.”

  “No problem. Just do me one favor.”

  “Anything.”

  “Don’t screw this up,” Jack said, his tone serious, his gaze direct. “A child is a gift, Luke, and the last thing you want to do is throw it away. You might not get a second chance.”

  * * *

  At eight that morning, Peyton stood in her hotel room, in her third outfit choice of the day. Not that she cared what she wore, of course, or who might see her in this dress or that dress—

  Okay, so maybe she did care. She’d changed dresses over and over, put her hair up, let it down and finally settled on a dark green cotton dress she often wore to work.

  Maddy tugged at Peyton’s hand, bringing her back to what was important. “Auntie P, are you gonna stay with me today?”

  “No, honey, I explained this to you earlier. You’re going to stay with Mr. Luke for just a little while, and I’m going to get some work done. I’ll be back before you can miss me.”

  “I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay wif me.”

  “It’ll be fun. Remember, he has a dog and you love dogs.”

  “Okay,” Maddy said, but her voice was small, almost resigned. How Peyton missed the excited Maddy who used to run up and greet her at the end of the day, who found wonder in everything she saw and touched. This sad, empty little girl broke Peyton’s heart.

  Peyton bent down beside her and took Maddy’s hands in both her own. “If you don’t want to go, just say the word. We can do whatever you want. Do you want to do something else today?”

  Maddy shook her head, her gaze downcast.

  “Do you like being here, sweetie?” Peyton asked. “In Stone Gap?”

  Maddy shrugged.

  “Because if you want to go back to Baltimore, and go back to day care—”

  Maddy was already shaking her head. “I wanna stay with you, Auntie P.”

  “And I want to stay with you, monkey. No matter where we go, we’ll be together.”

  “But not...not when you goes to work and I gotta goes to day care and then I gots to wait a long, long time for you to come back and I get sad and wanna go home.”

  “Oh, honey, I know.” Peyton drew Maddy into her chest and held her niece tight for several long seconds. Her heart filled with love, and she wished she could hit the lottery, or inherit a gazillion dollars, just so she never had to leave Maddy again. “When we go back to Baltimore, I’m going to try my best to work less and be with you more. Okay?”

  “How’s come we can’t live here? With Mr. Luke and his doggy and the zoo and the pancake lady?”

  Peyton brushed Maddy’s bangs off her forehead. “Because my job is in Baltimore. But we can visit Stone Gap a lot. Would you like that?”

  “I don’t like Baltimore.” Maddy’s eyes welled. She gripped the hem of her shirt again. “I like here. I like the pancake lady and I like the zoo and I like the park.”

  “We have all those things in Baltimore, too.”

  “And I like Mr. Luke,” Maddy added.

  That was the only thing that she didn’t have in Baltimore. And Peyton didn’t have an answer for Maddy about making Luke magically appear in Maryland anytime soon. “Then do you want to go to Mr. Luke’s house today for a little bit? I bet it will be fun.”

  Maddy nodded but didn’t release the edge of her shirt. “Okay.”

  “I’ll stay for a little bit, okay, sweetie?” Peyton said. “And if you change your mind after you meet Charlie the dog, you don’t have to stay.” Peyton bent down to retie a loosened shoestring on Maddy’s sneaker. “Remember, Luke isn’t used to watching a little girl like you, so try to remember all your manners and to not be a messy monkey.”

  Maddy smiled. “I’s not a monkey. I’s a big girl.”

  Peyton chuckled and tapped Maddy on the nose. “You are indeed.”

  Maddy dropped onto the bed and sat as still as a stone while Peyton brushed her hair and fashioned it into braids. Peyton kept an eye on the clock, working fast on Maddy’s hair. “Does Luke like dolls?” Maddy asked.

  Peyton thought of the manly jock she used to know and couldn’t keep the wicked grin off her face. “I bet he loves dolls.”

  “Okay. I’ll bring Sammie and Lucy and...” With her hair done, Maddy went over to her pile of toys stacked on the chair beside the bed, grabbing one after another and handing them to Peyton to add to the pile inside the bag. “Macy and this one. She doesn’t have a name yet.” Maddy gnawed on her bottom lip. “Maybe Mr. Luke will wanna name her.”

  “I’m sure he will.” He’d probably hate Peyton for suggesting he play with dolls, but hey, that was part of being a father. She could only hope Maddy asked for a tea party, too. “Okay, it’s getting late. We need to eat and get going, kiddo.”

  She piled Maddy, the bag of toys, a change of clothes and a few snacks into the car, then stopped off for breakfast at Miss Viv’s again. This time, Maddy slid into the booth and beamed up at Miss Viv when she ordered her favorite pancakes.

  Miss Viv gushed and fussed over Maddy, and dotted the pancakes with whipped cream at the table. Maddy ate up the attention, then finished off her breakfast in record time.

  Relief washed over Peyton. Maybe being here in Stone Gap was exactly what Maddy needed. It was the most she’d seen her niece eat in one sitting since Susannah had died, and it gave Peyton a surge of hope. The emotion was chased by reality—would these changes hold when they went back to Baltimore?

  At nine on the dot, Peyton pulled up to Luke’s house. She rang the bell, and an instant later, the door opened. Peyton’s heart skipped a beat, and her belly tightened.

  Luke wasn’t bare-chested today, and a part of Peyton was disappointed. He had on an old, faded concert T-shirt, with Bruce Springsteen’s face on the front, and khaki shorts. His feet were bare, his hair still mussed as if he’d just gotten up. Char
lie sat beside Luke, tail swishing on the entry carpet. The whole thing felt too intimate, too close. “Bet you thought I wasn’t going to be awake,” he said.

  “Twice in a row, on time and up early. I daresay you’re becoming a true card-carrying adult now.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “Is that your doggy?” Maddy said. “He’s cute.”

  “Yup, this is Charlie. He’s awful excited to meet you, Maddy.”

  Maddy stayed pressed against Peyton’s leg, still shy and wary. Peyton laid a protective hand on her niece’s shoulder. “If you just wait a bit, Charlie can get to know you, like he’s doing now with sniffing. Then you can play with him.”

  Maddy nodded. “And I can smells him, too.” She sniffed, but stayed where she was.

  Luke bent down and gave Maddy a wide smile. “And look at you. Is that a little chocolate from Miss Viv’s famous pancakes on your chin?”

  Maddy nodded. “Uh-huh. She makes yummy ones. And she puts this cool white stuff on ’em and it looks like ice cream, but it’s not. But it’s yummy. Auntie P said I can only eat a little, cuz it’s not good for my tummy.”

  “Oh, a little of the bad stuff can be very good sometimes.” He raised his gaze to Peyton. “Isn’t that right, Auntie P?”

  Heat curled in her veins. Was he talking about whipped cream or something else? And what if he meant something else? Was she interested? No. Definitely not. Not at all. “Sometimes, yes. Most of the time, no.”

  His gaze swept over her, and a smile curved up one side of his face. “Look at you. You always dress like that on vacation?”

  She adjusted the collar on her dress. “I was going to go to a coffee shop and get some work done. It helps me feel like I’m working if I dress the part.”

  Appreciation shone in his eyes, in the devilish tilt of his smile. “You’re making a good impression on me.”

  The compliment warmed her. It had been a long time since she’d been complimented this many times in a week. She worked with men, of course, but always did her best to keep everything all business, and no dating. Dating detracted her from her goals, so she had decided to put that part of her life on hold. But ever since that kiss with Luke—that too-short, soul-shattering kiss on the zoo bench—she’d begun to wonder if she was missing something.