Because of the Baby.... Cat Schield

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Lark rarely encountered a man she could look up at. Keaton towered over her, making her feel normal. Maybe even a little dainty.

      The heat at her center had worked its way into her cheeks by the time she realized she wasn’t standing on her own two feet, but still relying on his support. She should have regained her balance and gotten the heck out of there. Keaton and Gloria had to be wondering if she’d been listening in on their conversation. But the leashed strength of the man slammed into her like a runaway calf.

      Gripped by what could only be described as a rush of lust, Lark floundered in confusion. Starting when she was a baby, her father’s bedtime stories had revolved around the wrongs inflicted on her family by the Holts. She couldn’t possibly want Keaton Holt.

      “Thank you.” She disengaged her arm and took an awkward step back. With effort she ripped her attention away from his sculpted lips. Twenty feet away the room that housed the smallest and sickest babies offered refuge. “Excuse me.”

      “Lark.” Keaton’s deep voice rumbled through her as she fled. “Lark, we need to talk.”

      His voice didn’t recede the way it should if she was escaping him. Bracing herself, Lark stopped beside the door that led into the NICU unit.

      “The DNA results are due shortly.”

      “I know,” she mumbled, miserable at the idea that she’d have to share Grace with any of the Holts. Unfortunately and against her better judgment, she was also sympathetic to their plight. If she’d been denied access to her niece, she would be beyond miserable.

      “We need to talk about what’s going to happen next.”

      “Nothing is going to happen.”

      “That’s not really the case, is it? Once the test determines that Grace is Jake’s daughter then I have the same obligation to her as you do.”

      “Obligation?” Did he seriously think what she felt for Skye and Grace was born of responsibility? She loved her sister and would do everything in her power to take care of Grace. “You think it’s your duty to step up because your brother is nowhere to be found.” Lark’s earlier compassion was trampled beneath an onslaught of annoyance. “You needn’t bother. I have matters well in hand.”

      “I don’t think of it as a duty, but I do feel responsible because Jake isn’t here.”

      “And why isn’t he?”

      “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what’s going on.” Keaton set his hand on his hip and gazed beyond her shoulder. “If he did, he’d be at her side.”

      Lark wasn’t at all convinced. “What makes you think they’re even still together?”

      “My brother loves Skye. Grace is his daughter.” Keaton’s thick brows drew together. “That’s all the proof I need.”

      Having had no way to reach her sister these last four years, Lark understood his frustration, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of admitting it. “Did you let him know Skye was hurt?”

      Keaton’s expression shifted into stoic lines. “I’ve spoken with his assistant, but she’s refusing to forward any messages.”

      “That’s quite an excuse.” Lark blew out a breath. “If he and Skye were still together I believe he’d have moved heaven and earth to be here for her and Grace. I don’t think he’s her father.”

      But she wasn’t as convinced as she pretended to be. Grace had Holt eyes and bone structure. That was why Lark had resisted the DNA test for so long. Her instincts told her Grace was Jake’s daughter, but the feud that existed between the Taylors and Holts made it so hard for Lark to do the right thing. In the end Keaton’s determination and threats of legal action had worn her down.

      “Then who is Grace’s father and where is he?” Keaton demanded.

      Lark had no more idea what had been going on between Skye and Jake than Keaton did, and she wasn’t going to pretend any different. “I don’t have a clue. We haven’t spoken since she left Royal.” Seeing Keaton’s surprise, Lark continued. “I didn’t think running away with your brother was a good idea and told her so.”

      “Because you didn’t think a Holt was good enough for her?” Keaton’s neutral tone kept his comment from sounding bitter.

      Lark didn’t want to fight with Keaton. She was sick of their families being at war. “I knew my father would disown her if she left.”

      Skye had always been her parents’ favorite. They understood her. Unlike Lark, she’d been pretty and popular in school. She didn’t lock herself away in books. Their parents didn’t care that Skye’s grades were good enough to keep her in the top twenty-five percent of her class; they loved the fact that she was a cheerleader and voted prom queen her senior year.

      “I guess we have more in common than either of us knew.”

      “Seems we do.” Tightness eased in Lark’s chest. Regret had been her constant companion for four years. It had been a lonely time. Her parents refused to talk about Skye, and Lark had been too ashamed at how she’d treated her sister to confide in any of her friends.

      “Thank you for letting me do the test.” Keaton’s voice softened. “My mother desperately wants to visit her granddaughter.”

      Regret swamped her at his words. Lark wished her parents had similar desires. “My parents haven’t seen Grace.” The words spilled out of her with more bitterness than she’d intended.

      “But once she leaves the hospital, they can see her as much as they want.” Keaton had misinterpreted Lark’s meaning.

      “The problem is they don’t want to see her.”

      Despite the harm that had befallen their daughter, Tyrone and Vera Taylor hadn’t set aside their resentment over Skye’s choosing to run off with a hated Holt. Oh, they’d visited her in the beginning when she was first brought in and they acted genuinely concerned, but as the months passed and Skye didn’t wake after the medical treatment that induced her coma ceased, they’d retreated into bitterness.

      “I don’t understand.”

      “They still can’t forgive Skye for running off with your brother.”

      “Don’t you think this thing between our families has gone on too long?”

      “Maybe.” Everything she’d ever been told by her parents made her want to keep Keaton and his family as far from Grace and Skye as possible, but deep in her heart she knew that if Keaton was right and Jake was Grace’s father, the Holts deserved equal time with her. “But you can’t expect decades of mistrust to evaporate overnight.”

      “Jake and Skye got the ball rolling. The rest of us have had four years to adjust.”

      His challenge settled a huge weight on her shoulders. She was supposed to mistrust him, dislike him even. Since the late 1800s their families had been fighting over the ownership of two thousand acres dotted with several lakes, owned by Lark’s family, that bordered the Holts’ ranch. She’d grown up listening to her grandfather and father rant about what liars and cheats the Holts were. Never to be trusted. How they were willing to СКАЧАТЬ