As he walked down the long driveway toward the big wrought-iron entrance gates, Jake still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around everything that had happened. In the span of a few hours, his life had changed in ways he could have never imagined. He had reconnected with the only woman he’d ever regretted not keeping in touch with, learned that by taking over Hickory Hills she’d become his employee and discovered that a little over six months ago she’d given birth to his baby.
Unbelievable.
But as he thought about Heather making several attempts to get in touch with him, his gut burned with anger. He deeply regretted that she’d been forced to go through the pregnancy alone. If his secretary hadn’t become overly zealous about screening his calls, she wouldn’t have. He’d have not only been there for Heather throughout the pregnancy and birth, he wouldn’t have been cheated out of the first six months of his daughter’s life.
His daughter.
Jake’s heart slammed against his rib cage and he took several deep breaths. He had a tiny baby girl who looked just like him.
It blew his mind that he had a child. Fatherhood had been something he’d never expected to experience. And it wasn’t because he didn’t like little kids. He did. He’d just made a conscious decision years ago never to marry and have one of his own.
His own father had twice walked away after impregnating his mother, and even though Jake didn’t think he was capable of doing something like that, he hadn’t wanted to take the chance. What if he carried the same narcissistic gene that had caused his father to shirk his responsibilities to his children in favor of pursuing his next good time?
Jake shook his head. It was all a moot point now. He had a daughter. And even though it scared the living hell out of him to think that he might somehow let her down the way his father had his children, Jake was going to do everything he possibly could to be a good father.
Lost in his disturbing introspection, it took a moment for Jake to notice the shadowy figure climbing over the gates at the end of the drive. “Daily?”
The boy froze halfway over the gate. “Mr. Garnier, I…oh, dude, this probably doesn’t look real good, does it?”
“No. It looks like I just busted you for sneaking out of the house.” Stopping a few feet from where the boy was perched, Jake planted his feet and folded his arms across his chest. “You want to come down from there and tell me why you’re out this late, as well as why you don’t want to alert anyone up at the house that you’re leaving by activating the gates?”
When Daily dropped to his feet in front of Jake, he seemed to take a great interest in the tops of his untied high-top tennis shoes. “It’s kind of personal, Mr. Garnier.”
Jake hid a smile. “Want to tell me what her name is?”
The boy’s head snapped up so fast, Jake wouldn’t have been surprised if Daily had suffered whiplash. “How did you know I was going to meet a girl?”
Jake did his best not to laugh out loud at the astonished look on the kid’s face. “I know it’s probably hard to believe, but I was fourteen once, Daily.”
“I’ll be fifteen in a couple of weeks,” the boy said, straightening his skinny shoulders.
“That’s still too young to be out this late. Not to mention the fact that you don’t have your grandmother’s permission.”
The boy’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, sir.”
“I think you’d better give your girlfriend a call and tell her that you won’t be able to make it this evening,” Jake suggested.
As he watched Daily whip out a cell phone and rapidly punch in a text message, a knot began to form in the pit of Jake’s stomach. In about thirteen years some pubescent boy with more hormones than good sense could very easily try to set up a midnight meeting with his daughter.
He barely managed to suppress a groan. He’d already raised one girl through the teen years when he and his twin brother finished raising their younger sister, Arielle. And just thinking that he was going to have to do it all over again with his own daughter was enough to give him an ulcer. His only consolation was that this time he’d be sharing that responsibility with Heather, instead of his brother who had turned out to be as clueless as he’d been.
When the boy slipped his cell phone back into his jeans pocket, Jake motioned toward the tree-lined drive leading up to the mansion. “Come on, Daily. I think it’s time we both called it a night.”
They remained silent for some time before Daily asked, “Are you going to tell my grandma about me trying to sneak out tonight?”
Jake shook his head. “No, I’m not. But you are.”
“Me?”
“Part of growing up is learning to accept responsibility for your actions,” Jake said, reminding himself as much as Daily.
“I’m gonna be grounded for the rest of my life,” the boy complained when they entered the mansion through the kitchen door.
“I doubt it will be that long,” Jake said, chuckling. “But as long as you’re going to be sticking close to home for the next week or so, there are a few things around here I’m going to need help with. Do you think you’d be interested in the job?”
“A real job? Really? Oh man, that would be awesome,” Daily said, his voice suddenly filled with enthusiasm.
“You’ll have to keep up with your other chores and check with your grandmother first, to make sure she has no objections.” Jake gave the boy a pointed look. “Right after you tell her about what happened this evening and accept whatever punishment she deems necessary.”
Daily nodded. “I will.”
“Then you’d better get some sleep,” Jake warned. “We have a big day ahead of us.”
“Yes, sir.”
As he watched the teenager hurry down the hall to his grandmother’s apartment, Jake headed for the stairs. He’d made Heather a promise and he fully intended to keep it. While she oversaw Stormy Dancer’s morning workout and attended to whatever else her job entailed, he and Daily were going to get her and the baby moved from the carriage house into the mansion. And once he accomplished that, he had every intention of spending the rest of his stay at Hickory Hills getting to know his daughter.
* * *
“Jake Garnier, how dare you?” Heather demanded when she found him sitting at the desk in the study. She was angry enough to bite nails in two and it was all his fault.
His unrepentant grin when he looked up made her want to throw something at him. “I assume you’re referring to the moving of the baby’s things and yours from the carriage house to the rooms upstairs?”
“You know good and well that’s what I’m talking about. You had no right to do that.”
He walked around the side of the desk to stand in front of her. “I don’t know why you’re so upset,” he said calmly. “I told you last night that’s what I intended to do.”
She
