Just Desserts (25 page)

“Willow kept him pretty busy at the hospital.”

“I noticed.” She shot him a sideways look. “Not to mention his mother.”

Finn started to laugh. “CeCe doesn't like giving up center stage to anyone. She was seriously disappointed the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her.”

“My grandmother,” Hayley said with a shake of her head. “The mind boggles.”

“Did you have a chance to talk to the rest of the crowd?”

“Not really. Two of his exes chatted me up for a few minutes but the kids kept their distance.”

“You don't sound very concerned.”

“You sound disappointed. This isn't a fairy tale, Finn. Just because we share some DNA doesn't mean we're going to share our lives. My life is with Lizzie and Fee and the bakery. Nothing's going to change that.”

“What about your ex?”

“What about him? This isn't any of his business.”

“Lizzie is his business.”

“What exactly are you trying to tell me?”

He wished he could take a step backward into last Sunday afternoon in her bed with the setting sun streaming through the windows and her naked body in his arms. Reality was definitely a bitch.

“Your ex-husband isn't exactly a great guy.”

“Tell me something I don't know.”

“Hayley, we ran some basic searches on you after Willow's lawyer first turned up the original birth certificate. The information about Michael Goldstein wasn't good.”

“Wait a second. You investigated me?”

“It's a standard part of drawing up the prenup. As one of his potential heirs, the other side had run a search on you. We needed to do the same.”

“I'm not too happy about that.”

“Neither was I once I met you.”

“How much do you know?”

“Basic stuff. Birth date. Schooling. Your Social. Credit rating.”

She groaned.

He laughed. “Marriages. Divorces. Offspring.”

“Shoe size?”

“Some things I want to find out on my own.”

“You have me at a disadvantage, Rafferty.”

“I'm sorry,” he said. “Before we met it was just part of the job.” He started rattling off his own vital stats starting with his birth date. By the time he reached the balance of his 401(k) she had thrown her hands up in surrender.

“Enough! We're even.” She gave him a funny look. “Did you really say you were arrested when you were in college?”

“We were protesting the faculty's refusal to recognize rock as a viable music form. The charges were dropped.” He grinned at her through the darkness. “I like to think it added to my street cred.”

“Michael was arrested twice during our marriage,” she said. “And the charges weren't dropped. That's one of the reasons why I divorced him.”

He drove his point home a little harder. “The guy's bad news and he's going to become worse news when he finds out Lizzie is Tommy's granddaughter.”

“Tommy's her grandfather, not an ATM. Michael's going to be very disappointed if he thinks there's some kind of financial reward in this for him.”

“Be careful, that's all I'm saying.” He told her about the time a distant relative tried to shake down Zach and Winston for start-up money. “The kids were a little younger than Lizzie. They actually fell for the guy's line about hospital bills and swiped Tommy's platinum AmEx card.”

“That's a scary story,” she admitted, “but—and no offense meant, those kids are my half brothers—we're talking about Lizzie here. She would never fall for a hard-luck story like that, not even from her father.”

“Her life is about to change,” he reminded her. “That could make her vulnerable.”

“I think I know my daughter, Finn.”

The conversation was over. He had done his best. Now all he could do was hope it was enough.

Tommy bumped into Hayley on the third-floor landing early the next morning.

“Are you settled in?” he asked, trying to pretend this was a casual encounter when he had been stalking her door for over an hour.

“We're getting there,” she said with a self-conscious laugh. “Rhoda and Fee thought the stairs were too steep so they're going to be spending the nights at Finn's place for the duration.”

“Rhoda and Fee?”

“My dog and my aunt. They have very specific requirements. Poor Finn doesn't know what he's in for.”

“He's a good man. They'll be fine. How about the rest of your crew?”

“Well, our cats are jockeying for position with your cats. Mr. G claimed one of the curtain rods in Lizzie's room. Lizzie—” She stopped. “We're getting there.”

“She's not too happy about this, is she?”

“No, she isn't. It's a pretty big gulp of information to swallow.”

“I think we both know how she's feeling.”

“Fourteen is a dangerous age,” she said. “A few years earlier, a few years later, it would be so much easier on her.”

“Maybe she needs to talk to someone she isn't related to about this.”

“I thought about that,” Hayley said. “I don't believe counseling is necessarily the answer to everything life throws at you but this might be an exception.”

“How about you?” Tommy asked. “How are you handling this new situation?”

“The truth? Everything's happening so fast that I haven't had time to process much of it.”

“I'm a week ahead of you and I'm still trying to figure out why we didn't find you sooner.”

“Jane made that decision for all of us.”

He looked for signs of bitterness but to his surprise he saw none. “No point fighting a thirty-eight-year-old battle. We're better off moving forward.”

Her eyes widened. “You really feel that way, don't you?”

“You sound surprised.”

“Most men would be angry.”

“Are you angry?” he countered.

“I was,” she admitted, “but—” Another shrug. “Life is short. What's the point?”

“Lizzie will work this out,” he said. “She won't stay angry with her grandmother forever.”

“The thing is we don't have forever.”

“Your mother is a vibrant woman. She'll be around a long time.”

Hayley shook her head. “No, Tommy.”

He listened as she told him about Jane's two previous battles with cancer.

“We thought she had it beat,” Hayley said, “but it's back and this time the prognosis isn't good.”

“I'm sorry,” he said, trying to put a lifetime into the words. “For all of us.”

He wanted to pull her into a hug, but in all the important ways they were still strangers to each other.

“I'm glad you decided to stay with us for a few days,” he said as he walked her down the hall to the suite of rooms she was sharing with Lizzie. “If there's anything you need or want—”

She gave him a look that made him laugh. “Hello,” she said. “Have you seen this place? You have an indoor pool! We're fine, Tommy, believe me.”

“Lizzie doesn't seem very happy about the arrangement.”

“Like I said, she's fourteen. I think she wanted to stay home with her friends and be the center of attention.”

“This has been—” He stopped as emotion started to overtake him.

There was a deep well of kindness inside his oldest child. She waited patiently, eyes averted, while he pulled himself together. She had his smile and his eyes and so far she hadn't asked him for anything else. No hints about her circumstances. No veiled references to the ex-husband whose problems continued to dog her business. She talked about Lizzie, about her mother, about music and art and baking, but she never touched on the fact that he was rich and she wasn't.

There was also a certain wariness about her that hurt him to see. He had the sense that she was always looking over her shoulder, ready to duck for cover.

“I'm glad you and Lizzie are part of my life.”

She thanked him warmly, but she didn't echo his words.

He looked forward to the day when she would.

Lizzie's room was on the other side of a beautifully decorated sunshine-yellow sitting room that Hayley shared with her. Not that Lizzie had spent any time in the sitting room yet. So far she had stayed closeted in her room, tapping away on her laptop. Hayley knocked softly on the door. “Hey, Lizzie,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

She waited a moment, then poked her head inside. Lizzie was sitting in bed, propped up by a mountain of down-filled pillows. A schoolbook rested, wide open, on her lap. Her computer, lid closed for a change, sat on the nightstand. Its little green power light blinked rhythmically.

“I'm okay,” Lizzie said, casting a quick glance toward her laptop, then back again at Hayley.

“No fever,” Hayley said, “and you're not coughing or sneezing. I think you're good to go.”

“Home?”

“I meant downstairs.”

“I don't want to talk to her.”

“Listen, honey, I know you're angry with Jane. I was too but what's the point? What's done is done. Why don't you come downstairs with me and get to know this brand-new family we seem to have found ourselves part of.”

“Why?” Lizzie asked. “They hate us.”

“They do not.”

“His mother hates us.”

Hayley sighed. “Okay, so maybe CeCe isn't all that thrilled but who cares? She lives in Florida. We don't have to see her again if we don't want to.”

“You don't care that she's your grandmother?”

It was a good question. It deserved an honest answer. “Right now, this very minute?”

Lizzie nodded.

“No, I don't.”

Lizzie giggled. “Really?”

“Have you seen that red hair?” Hayley rolled her eyes. “Whatever happened to aging gracefully?”

“He colors his hair too,” Lizzie said. “Zach told me.”

“I didn't know you talked to Zach.”

Lizzie shrugged. “Zach and Winston rang me on the house phone and asked if I wanted to go out to a movie but I said no.”

“I don't care if they are your—” She stopped. “What are those boys to you anyway?”

“My uncles,” Lizzie said, which set the two of them laughing.

“Okay,” Hayley said. “I don't care if they are your uncles. You don't go anywhere with anybody without telling me first. Understand?”

Lizzie nodded. “Why did she do it? I mean, how could she not tell you that you had a real father?”

“Jane thought she was doing the right thing for everyone.”

“But she lied. How could she think that was right?”

“I don't know,” Hayley said. “People tell lies. They keep secrets. Life can be pretty messy at times.”

“He must hate her.”

“You mean Tommy?”

Lizzie nodded.

“Actually he doesn't. He says he's just glad he found us.”

Lizzie pretended to stick her finger down her throat.

“I think he really means it,” Hayley said, feeling surprisingly protective. “He seems like a good man.”

“You mean you like him?”

“Yes,” she said. “There's a lot to like about him.”

“Do you like him like a friend or like your father?”

“Friend,” Hayley said. “I'm thirty-eight years old. I don't think I need a father at this point.”

“I don't need a grandfather either.”

She leaned forward and took Lizzie's hand in hers. “I have an idea,” she said. “How about we both keep our options open when it comes to Tommy Stiles. We've only known him for a day. Let's give the guy a chance.”

Lizzie didn't say yes, but she didn't say no either.

Hayley took it as encouragement.

Zach and Winston were teaching Lizzie how to play Texas Hold 'Em in the front living room when Finn showed up early that evening.

“Hey, guys, Lizzie.” Zach and Winston grunted at him. Lizzie gave him a smile. “Is your mother around?” he asked the girl.

“In the kitchen with Anton,” she said. “They're cooking.”

“The rest of the crowd? Are they back yet?” Tommy had rounded up Jane, John, Fiona, and CeCe that morning and taken them on a tour of the East End of Long Island. Willow, still under the weather, had opted to sleep in.

“They're on the deck,” Zach said, “with a pitcher of martinis.”

He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the back of a very expensive chair. “Deal me in later, okay?”

The boys' enthusiasm was underwhelming. Nothing like an old guy to ruin a perfectly good evening.

When had he become the old guy anyway? He didn't feel old. Thirty-nine wasn't old these days, not by anyone's standards.

Lizzie, however, favored him with a smile that was a wonderful combination of her mother, her grandfather, and her own unique self. There was something about her that touched him deeply and he didn't know why. He felt strangely protective of her and oddly vulnerable at the same time, a combination he had never experienced before.

“Great timing,” Anton said as he walked into the kitchen. “We already did the heavy lifting.”

“It smells incredible in here. What are you up to?”

“Our asses in work,” Anton said with a wink for Hayley. “Hayley decided to make dinner for everyone tonight.”

“Which meant Anton cooks and I bake,” Hayley said with a laugh. “I wanted an excuse to work in this fabulous kitchen.”

Finn glanced around at the great expanse of Charles Peacock–designed marble countertops, Jenn-Air ranges, Sub-Zero fridge, things he had seen every day over the years and never really noticed.

Hayley was bent over a white marble slab, rolling a small dark ball beneath the heel of her hand.

“Truffles,” she said as he crossed the room to join her. “A little pre-dessert dessert.”