felt at the loss of his brother had sent him to a dark, lonely place in his mind and it had forced him to reevaluate a lot of things in his life. But at least he’d been an adult while learning to cope with his loss. For Faye, just a teenager, how could she make decisions about her future when everything she’d ever known, every parameter she’d lived her life by, had been gone in a flash?
“Tough, yeah. That’s one word for it. I had lovely foster parents, though. And my mom and stepdad had established a college fund for me so when I aged out of foster care I could choose where I went from there. I didn’t want for anything.”
Anything except for a family. Piers thought about the little boy sleeping down the hall in his bedroom, considered the ready-made family that he and Casey could offer Faye. But he weighed that up with her obvious reluctance to have anything to do with the baby. Did that stem from the losses she’d suffered when she was still a teenager? How on earth did a man wade past that?
* * *
Encircled in Piers’s arms, Faye didn’t feel the usual searing pain that scored her when she thought about her family. Instead it was kind of a dull ache. Still there, still hurting, but muted, as if the edges had softened somehow. The realization made her feel disloyal to their memory. She didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve to let any aspect of the memory of their loss slide away. Guilt hammered at her with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
This was why she hadn’t encouraged any relationships beyond friendship in the past. And it was why she should never have allowed things between her and Piers to go as far as they’d gone—no matter how fantastic it had been.
She’d made a mistake tonight—several mistakes. From the minute she’d accepted the glass of champagne from Piers to the second she’d allowed him to touch her. What had she been thinking?
Maybe that, for once in her life, she should reach out and sample what others took for granted?
No. She mentally shook her head. She had no right to do that. It was best that she get back on her path alone and leave in the morning as she’d planned. Leave before her heart became too heavily engaged with the man who had drifted to sleep beside her, not to mention the child he was determined to claim for his own.
Decision made, she closed her eyes, willing herself to drift to sleep. Goodness knew her body felt so sated and weary that sleep should have come easily. But for some reason her mind wouldn’t let go, wouldn’t allow her to find peace.
Instead she found herself concentrating on the smallest of things, like the way Piers’s fingers continued to stroke her bare back every now and then, even though he was asleep. Like the deep, regular sound of his breathing and the scent of his skin. She would store these memories and lock them away, and maybe one day she’d be strong enough to think about them, about this magical night, again.
* * *
Faye woke to an empty bed and felt a rush of relief. At least the whole morning-after thing could be delayed until she was showered, dressed, packed and ready to leave. She shifted in the bedsheets, catching a drift of Piers’s cologne. Just that tiny thing made her body tighten on a wave of longing so piercing that it almost brought tears to her eyes.
Instead of giving in to her emotions, Faye did what she’d always done. She focused on what needed to be accomplished first. That, at least, was something she could control.
Once dressed and packed, she double-checked the bathroom and bedroom to ensure she was leaving nothing behind and headed down the stairs to put her suitcase by the front door. She could hear Piers and Casey in the kitchen. With her stomach in knots, she walked toward the sound. Piers had his back to her and was talking a bunch of nonsense to the baby, who was staring up at him in rapt attention.
Faye would never have thought her heart could break any further than it already had, but the sight of those two was just about her undoing. Once again, tears sprang to her eyes. She blinked them back fiercely and turned to a cupboard to drag a mug out for her morning coffee.
“Good morning,” Piers said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Better than I expected,” she answered shortly.
“Me, too,” he answered with a smile that sent a curl of lust winding through her.
This is impossible, she thought as she grabbed the carafe from the coffee machine and poured the steaming liquid into her mug. Just a look from him, a smile, and she was as pathetically eager for his attention as all his other women. Did that mean she was one of them now? She straightened her shoulders. No, it most certainly did not. One night did not change anything as far as she was concerned. If she could just get back to her apartment and back to a routine, everything would be okay.
She watched as Piers took the baby bottle from the warmer and gave it a little shake before testing a few drops on his wrist.
“Sir, your breakfast is served!” he said to the infant with a delightfully dramatically flourish.
Casey gave him a massive gummy grin in return. His little legs kicked wildly as Piers offered him the bottle.
“You’re good with him,” Faye observed. “Are you still going to keep him?”
“Yes.”
The answer was simple and emphatic. No fluffing about responsibilities or honoring his brother’s memory or anything like that. Just a simple yes.
She envied him his conviction.
Piers looked up at her and she saw something new in his gaze.
“Is it ridiculous to say that I love him already?” he asked.
She’d never known him to sound insecure about anything. Ever. That he should feel that way about Casey just made him even more human, more attractive. She shook her head.
“No, it’s not.”
Piers nodded in acceptance and turned his attention back to the little boy.
Faye took advantage of the shift in focus to start making breakfast. “Have you eaten?” she asked.
“Yeah, I ate when I got up. It was early, though. I could go a second round.”
She busied herself making omelets with the last of the ingredients she could find in the refrigerator. It was a good thing the road would be cleared today and that Meredith, who’d been waiting at a motel in town, would be able to come through with supplies.
Faye was just plating up the food when the phone rang with the news that a crew had cleared the road up to the fallen tree and was now working to clear the log. The news made Faye feel as if every nerve in her body had coiled tight, ready to spring free the moment she could leave the building.
The next two hours were an exercise in torment as she tried to catch up on emails while Piers lay on the floor and played with the baby before putting him to bed for another nap. The moment she heard a sound near the front door she was up and all but running to let the newcomer inside.
“Ms. Darby! Are you all right? I saw your car. It’s a miracle you’re still alive!”
Piers’s housekeeper bustled inside and grasped Faye by her upper arms, giving her a once-over as if checking for injuries. “Oh, Ms. Darby—your face!”
“It’s
