Most Eligible Baby Daddy (2 page)

And then she pulled out of the driveway and got the hell out of there.

She’d never come back. She swore it. This time, she’d leave Gris behind for good.

Chapter 2

Forrester

F
ORRESTER WAS SIPPING COFFEE AT
the kitchen counter when Faith and Lacey entered, each carrying a beautiful baby girl. His eyes lit up as he saw the babies approaching.

“Say hello to uncle Forrester,” Lacey said to her little daughter, before mimicking the words, “hello, uncle Forrester,” in a mock baby voice.

“Hello, little angel,” Forrester said, reaching down and taking Lacey and Grant’s baby into his arms. Then, greedily, he grabbed Faith and Jackson’s daughter with his free hand, and had the two babies cradled, one in each arm. He looked like someone’s version of a joke nanny, muscles, tattoos, a tight, white t-shirt, and two beautiful, innocent babies in his arms.

“They suit you,” Faith said.

“They really do, Forrester,” Lacey agreed.

“Hold on, hold on,” Forrester said, grinning and shaking his head. “I need a good woman before I can even think about getting one of these for myself.”

Faith nodded. “And how’s that going? You haven’t been on a date in years.”

“Ever, as far as I can remember,” Lacey said.

Instead of answering, Forrester made faces at the babies. It was true, he hadn’t dated in a long time, although he didn’t exactly have a hard time finding a woman to share his bed. He just always made sure the relationship was over before it had a chance to get started. He liked women to be close physically, but he made damned sure to keep them at a distance emotionally.

“Don’t get on to me about that,” he said. “Just let me enjoy these two little beauties.”

He raised his arms, bringing the baby girls’ faces up to his own, and then he kissed them both in turn, making playful sounds as he did. Despite being so young and tiny, they both managed to laugh.

Faith and Lacey already knew he’d be their favorite uncle. He was a natural with them. To the women, it was so obvious that Forrester loved children. He’d make a perfect father. He just had
commitment issues.
It was a common affliction for men of his type. He lived dangerously, he made and spent huge amounts of money without batting an eye, and he was never far from a fight or a bar. He wasn’t an angry man, nor was he aggressive, but he had a habit of getting into trouble. He had a quick tongue, a hot head, and a sense of humor that got him in more trouble than he really deserved.

“A very nice girl just started working for us at the wine shop,” Faith said, but Forrester was already shaking his head.

“I don’t even want to know her name, Faith.”

“You’ve got to meet someone,” Lacey said. “You just turned thirty. If you wait much longer you won’t be an eligible bachelor, you’ll be an old fart that doesn’t have a woman. There’s a big difference, believe me.”

Forrester laughed. “Is that how it is?”

“Trust us,” Faith said. “Women are very discerning. They know what they like, Forrester. Right now, you’re exactly what they like. You’re the perfect age, you’re rich.”

“You’re hot as hell,” Lacey added.

Forrester smiled at them cheekily. “Don’t forget that I’m hung like a horse.”

Faith rolled her eyes. “But you wait much longer, and the women, the smart ones, will start to wonder why you weren’t snapped up by anyone else.”

“They’ll think there’s something wrong with you, Forrester.”

Forrester handed the babies back to their mothers. He would have liked to spend the entire morning with them but he had things that needed to get done. He’d promised Grant and Jackson that he’d help out on the vineyard, and afterwards he had a job to plan with Grady.

“Listen,” he said, looking Faith and Lacey in the eye, “I’m not sure what I’m looking for in this world, but when I find her, I’ll know it.”

The women each kissed him on the cheek.

“He’s a romantic,” Lacey said.

“He’s a fool,” Faith added.

Forrester took another sip of his coffee and picked up the mail, checking to see if there was anything for him.

“I almost forgot,” Lacey said, “there’s a letter there for you.”

Forrester nodded as he found it. It wasn’t the usual junk mail from his cell phone provider or bank. The name and address were handwritten. He lifted it up to the light to better see the postmark.

“What is it?” Faith said.

“It’s from Montana.”

They both went silent. They didn’t need to know any more than that to know it would be something serious. In the existence that had formed itself into Forrester’s life, and in all the years that both Lacey and Faith had known him, they knew that nothing good ever came to him from the great state of Montana. For Forrester, Montana only ever meant bad news, and bad memories.

“What is it?” Faith said.

“Let me open it,” Lacey added, handing her daughter to Faith.

Forrester let out a small grunt, barely audible, but Lacey and Faith both heard it as if it was a scream from the bottom of his lungs.

“Sit down,” Lacey told him as she took the letter and ripped open the envelope with a knife.

Faith poured him some more coffee.

“Do you want me to read it?” Lacey said.

Forrester nodded. “Thank you,” he said, and even though he was only a few years younger than her, he reminded her then of the boy who’d been brought to the mansion by her father from a Montana juvenile detention center many years earlier.

She scanned the words of the letter as if searching it for hidden traps. She knew there was nothing that could hurt Forrester as deeply as the things that came to him periodically from Montana.

“It’s from your father’s lawyer,” Lacey said.

Forrester shut his eyes and waited for her to continue.

“He’s dead.”

Forrester didn’t say anything to that. The man was old and he’d no doubt prepared himself for that piece of news some time ago.

“The lawyer wants you to return to Stone Peak to settle the estate. It says the funeral is to be held tomorrow at the Good News Cemetery.”

“Good News?” was all Forrester said, and he got up from his seat and left the kitchen.

The two women looked at each other, and then hurried after him.

“Forrester,” Lacey said, and Faith had no difficulty detecting the stress in her voice. Lacey had known Forrester since he was a teenager, in fact, they both had, and they looked at him as if he was their younger brother. They would both do anything in their power to protect him from that sort of pain.

They climbed the sweeping staircase to the upper level of the mansion and found Forrester in his room, hurriedly packing a leather overnight bag with a few things, underwear, a clean shirt, a razor, soap and deodorant.

“You don’t have to go back,” Lacey said.

“You owe that man and that town nothing,” Faith added. “That’s what they gave you, and that’s what you’d be entitled to give them back in return.”

“I know,” Forrester said, gratitude and love in his eyes as he looked at them, “but it’s like you both said earlier. It’s past time I became a man. It’s time I stepped up to the plate. If I wait any longer, I won’t be a hot-headed bad boy with a troubled childhood, I’ll be a man who failed to face his past.”

“It was a little bit more than a troubled childhood,” Lacey said.

“That don’t make any difference,” Forrester said. “A man’s got to face his past. He’s got to face his demons. If he doesn’t, he’s no man at all.”

Chapter 3

Elle

E
LLE WAS LOW ON GAS,
low on food, and freezing her butt off when she saw the turn off that led into the mountains and the remote town of Stone Peak, Montana. She’d never heard of the place, she’d been driving all day, and hadn’t even ever been to Montana before, but something about the name of the town attracted her. It was twenty-five miles from the highway, and the road looked like it wound precariously through dense forest, high up into the icy peaks of the mountains. The route wasn’t her best bet. It was covered in snow and she lacked winter tires. The way would get progressively more frigid and treacherous as she ascended into the mountains, and there was something seriously wrong with the heater on her battered old car. Maybe she’d damaged it when she rammed the Camaro. If she had, it was worth it.

She looked at her gas gauge. Less than a quarter tank left. She’d make it. She had to.

Another town, another life, she thought to herself as she rounded the dangerous bends leading ever higher into the Rockies. She was only twenty-three and she’d already lost count of all the towns she’d lived in. The last stop, the three year stint she’d done with Gris, had been the longest of her life. She wondered apprehensively what this next town would have in store for her. Would it be the place that offered her a lasting refuge? Would it be the place she could finally settle down in for good? Would it be a home to her?

She shook her head. Now was not the time for sentimentality. She had less than a hundred dollars in her wallet, a few bank cards that had probably already been cancelled, and not a person in the world she could turn to. She was alone.

Moving is what keeps me safe,
she told herself.
If I know no one, no one can hurt me. If I have nothing, I can lose nothing.

That was the kind of thinking that had brought her this far. It was what had protected her through poverty, loneliness, and abuse. She let no one in, not even the people who’d thought they owned her.

She drove on into the mountains, refusing to turn back even when her wheels skidded. She’d die getting up that mountain if that’s what it took. She wrapped herself in the old blanket she always kept on the back seat. The clothes she’d worn when she left Gris’s place were no match for the mountain cold. The gas light was on, the sky darkened, and to make matters worse, it began to snow. The wind whipped up the snow into ferocious little flurries and she realized a blizzard was coming in.

She knew she should have been keeping her cool but as the panic, and impending sense of doom, mounted inside her, she put her foot down harder on the gas and sped up.

Fuck it,
she told herself.
No one ever got where they needed to be by being light on the gas pedal.

She almost cried in relief when she saw the yellow glow of the town in the distance, high above her, nestled into the rocky peaks.

The first building she passed was the gas station. She knew she was running on fumes, but to fill up would cost her half of the hundred dollars she had in her wallet. She needed that money for more important things, like food and shelter. Elle wasn’t the kind of girl to balk at sleeping in the back of her car, but in a blizzard high up in the Rocky Mountains in winter, that wasn’t really an option. The next building she passed was a motel. She breathed a sigh of relief at the red Vacancy sign that was lit up over the parking lot. The price posted for a night’s stay was forty-nine dollars. She made a note of the price in her head and drove on. She stopped at a set of lights and looked to her left and right. She was at the center of the town. There didn’t seem to be much to it. The street she was crossing was Main, and it was lined with stores that seemed to cater mostly to tourists, skiers and hunters. At the very end of Main Street was a luxurious looking lodge, built of timber, with gaslit, flame lamps at the entry. It was like a magnificent, medieval castle overlooking the town. Even from the distance, she could see the flames of a massive open fireplace through the windows. She smiled to herself as she wondered what it would cost to stay in a place like that for the night. Her hundred dollars probably wouldn’t cut it.

Across the intersection was a brightly lit diner that seemed, miraculously, to be packed with people. It’s light and warmth called to her.

Elle parked outside the diner, pulled her light jacket tightly around her, and ran through the driving snow for the door.

“Welcome to Gracie’s,” the waitress said as Elle pulled the door closed behind her. “Come in and get warm. It’s a whore out there.”

Elle laughed. The sound of her own voice surprised her. She hadn’t laughed out loud in quite a while.

“It is,” she said.

“Just grab a seat anywhere,” the waitress said. “I’ll be right with you.”

Elle sat at the counter and observed her surroundings. The waitress was run off her feet, bringing coffee and beer and classic diner cuisine to the people of Stone Peak. She watched the men mostly, who seemed rugged and capable, dressed in practical snow boots and warm plaid shirts. She counted. Of the fourteen men sitting in the diner, fully thirteen of them wore full beards. Many of them sat alone, men in their forties or fifties who no doubt lived off the land. The few women she could see were definitely wives. None were as young as Elle herself, apart from the waitress, who introduced herself as Kelly. She was about Elle’s age and wore a pretty waitress uniform. Her hair was sensibly tied back from her eyes.

“So, what brings you to Stone Peak?” Kelly said when she brought Elle her burger, fries and coffee.

“I guess you’d say I’m running away from something,” Elle said matter-of-factly.

“Let me guess,” Kelly said with a wink. “A guy? An ex-boyfriend, or husband?”

“An ex-asshole,” Elle said.

“I hear you, sister,” Kelly said.

Kelly left Elle alone to eat, but Elle kept an eye on her. Without really knowing why, Elle was very excited to see a girl her own age in the town. She secretly prayed that it would be possible for her to set up a life for herself there, not least because she didn’t have gas money to get back out of the mountains.

“So,” Kelly said as she cleared away Elle’s dinner, “are you just passing through?”

Elle looked up at her and smiled. She knew an offer of friendship when she saw it. “Actually, I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Kelly nodded. “Is that your car parked outside?”

Elle looked out the window at it. “The broken down wreck with an empty tank? Yes.”

“And you don’t have a place to stay?”

Elle laughed. “I’m staying at the five-star ski resort on the top of the hill,” she said.