knew exactly how lovely she was, but that had no bearing on this conversation. “She knows nothing about kids! She’s unconventional and a free spirit and jet-setter!”
Tate glared at him, looking like she wanted to argue, but at the last moment she nodded, surprising him by agreeing. “All true.”
Jo looked from Tate and then at him. “What nonsense! Yesterday afternoon, I called her boss, the executive producer, Keith someone, and asked for a reference on Tate.”
Tate looked aghast. “You did what?”
Linc groaned. “God, Mom.”
“According to her boss, Tate is punctual and easy to work with. As smart as a whip. She writes and coproduces her show and helps out with the logistics. But, best of all, she’s utterly reliable.”
His mother, Linc thought darkly, could be damn annoying.
“Oh, God,” Tate muttered, putting her head in her hands. After a moment she dropped her hands and narrowed her eyes at Linc. “She’s your mother, talk to her.”
He’d try. “Mom, you can’t ambush us like this.”
“Just did,” Jo replied, and Linc heard the familiar sound of a text message coming into a phone. Jo pulled her cell out of the back pocket of her designer jeans and swiped her finger across the screen. When she looked up again, her eyes glinted with amusement.
“Gary’s booked our flights, and we’re leaving for the Caribbean at noon. Yay!” Jo stood up and shoved her phone back into her pocket. She grinned at Linc. “Unless you can find another nanny by noon or play hooky from work, Tate’s your only option to look after Shaw. And, Tate, stop being stubborn. You need a place to stay, and Linc, while he can be incredibly annoying and bullheaded on occasion, does know what he’s doing when it comes to babies. Stay here, spend some time with Shaw, enjoy the house.”
Jo dropped a kiss on Shaw’s head, then Linc’s, then Ellie’s before wrapping her arms around Tate’s shoulders and hugging her tight.
Linc had to strain his ears to hear her softly spoken words. “This is a good house, Tate. It can heal you if you let it.”
* * *
Tate watched Jo walk away and rubbed her suddenly throbbing forehead. What had just happened? She dropped her hand and looked at Linc, whose eyes held the fury of a hundred hurricanes.
“Bloody Jo,” he muttered, and the words were barely out of his mouth before they heard the rumble of deep voices in the doorway. Tate turned around and blinked when a petite, stunning woman with long black hair stepped into the room, followed by two tall, well-built, immaculately dressed men. Damn, the Ballantyne men were a sexy bunch.
The room filled with noise as Shaw jumped up to greet his aunt and uncles, flinging himself against hard legs before being boosted up and over rugged shoulders. Linc rolled his eyes and after ribs had been tickled and hair ruffled, he told Shaw to sit down and finish his breakfast. When Shaw resumed his place at the table, Linc glared at his siblings.
“Yeah, you three are exactly what I need right now,” he said, sarcasm coating every word.
Tate felt a flutter of nerves and bit her bottom lip, bracing herself for their hostility.
“Pancakes! Sweet.” The tallest of the three Ballantyne brothers slid onto the chair opposite Tate and grabbed a plate. He flashed a grin as he forked a pile of pancakes onto his plate. “Tate, right?” he asked her. “The bride of Satan’s sister?”
There was humor in his voice, and while his eyes remained wary, he didn’t seem to direct any hostility toward her. “I’m Tate and you’re...Beck?”
Beck waved his fork at his older brother, who took a seat at the end of the table. “Yep. And that’s Jaeger and our sister, Sage.”
Jaeger nodded a greeting as he pulled out a chair, clasping the ball of Linc’s shoulder before he sat down. “You’re looking a bit rough, dude.”
“You have no freaking idea,” Linc muttered, glaring at Tate. She returned his blistering look, silently telling him not to blame this situation on her. This was his meddling mother’s idea, not hers!
“Tate?”
She turned her attention to Sage, who stood next to her chair. The young woman held out her hand, which Tate shook. “Hi, there. We understand that Kari has run off again?”
“Yep.” Tate flicked an uncertain glance at Linc, who was pouring juice for Shaw. “I take it that your brother filled you in on my situation?”
“We don’t keep secrets in this family,” Jaeger said, his voice growly. Tate looked at him, and she saw the warning in his eyes, on his face. Mess with my family and I’ll take you apart. Tate knew that this wasn’t the time to cower, so she held Jaeger’s eyes, and eventually, maybe, she saw a flicker of respect cross his face. A faint smile touched his lips, and then he turned to Linc. “So, what’s the plan of action? And leave some pancakes for me, Beck!”
“The plan of action was for Tate to leave this morning. She was going to see a lawyer, I’m going to talk to Reame about tracking down Kari—”
“Reame’s going to be pissed at doing that again,” Sage commented before asking Tate if she could pick up Ellie. When Tate nodded, Sage took the little girl from Linc’s lap. Ellie’s hand immediately curled into Sage’s long black hair, fascinated.
Linc quietly instructed Shaw to run upstairs to brush his teeth. When his son left the room, he turned his still-annoyed eyes back to his siblings. “Jo has thrown a monkey wrench into those plans.”
Tate looked down at the table, shocked to see that the massive pile of pancakes had all but disappeared. Obviously Jo had advance warning that Linc’s siblings were coming over; either that or she’d invited them. Tate suspected that they were very aware of Jo’s plans and, worse, approved of them. “What’s she done now?” Sage asked, rocking from side to side, her cheek on Ellie’s head.
“Left me high and dry.” Linc placed his forearms on the table and closed his eyes. “She’s taking off to the Bahamas with Gary at noon, leaving me without anyone to watch Shaw. And I have a crazy afternoon.”
“She didn’t provide you with an alternate solution?” Beck asked, draining the rest of Shaw’s orange juice, his smile hidden by the rim of the glass. Oh, hell, yeah, his siblings knew about Jo’s plan. Tate leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, trying to make sense of Jo’s machinations, but all she could think about was the Ballantynes’ reactions to her. She’d expected them to hate her, to transfer their animosity about Kari to her. But they seemed to want her to stay with Linc, live in this house and act as Shaw’s nanny?
Why? What was their agenda?
Jo could offer her the moon to stay, but Tate knew that, while Jo had conned Linc into letting her stay for a night, he wouldn’t be steamrollered a second time. No, this would be Linc’s decision...
And hers, obviously. So, what did she want to do? Stay here or go? It would be easy to stay, Tate admitted. On a practical level, if she remained at The Den, there was a fully equipped nursery full of baby equipment for her to use, and she could save the expense of
