style="font-size:15px;"> Beside her, she heard Zach’s breath catch.
Emma heard it, too, because she looked over at him, then actually scooted back a step. And the little girl, whose exposure to the male species had been limited and who had certainly never met anyone as big and imposing as the man in front of her now, started to cry.
Paige wanted to scoop the child into her arms, to hold her and hug her and promise her that the big scary man would go away and everything was going to be okay. But it was a promise she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep, so she stood motionless, helpless, while Zach squatted beside the teary child.
He murmured softly to her, so softly that Paige couldn’t hear the words that were said. But despite the soothing tone, Emma turned away, tears tracking down her cheeks as she crawled over to where Paige was standing. Grabbing hold of her pant leg, she pulled herself up and hung on, peeking at the stranger from behind the shelter of Paige’s leg.
Zach stood, too, and sighed wearily.
“She’s a little wary of strangers,” Paige told him.
She expected he would again claim that he was her father, but he seemed to understand that even if that was true, he was also a stranger.
“But she warms up quickly,” Megan interjected, as if to reassure Zach. Then she ruffled Emma’s soft curls. “Don’t you, Em?”
The little girl looked up at her and smiled shyly. Then, apparently bored with the adult conversation, she dropped down to the floor again and crawled back to the living room.
“I want to get the paternity test done as soon as possible,” Zach told Paige.
“All right,” she agreed, biting back a more elaborate retort that would have let him know in clear terms that what she wanted was for him to descend into the fiery underworld.
Megan sent her a look that warned her cousin that she knew what evil thoughts were lurking in her mind, then she turned to Zach and asked, “What are you going to do in the meantime?”
“I had originally planned to fly out to California tomorrow, but finding out about Emma changed those plans.”
“Having the responsibility of a child changes everything,” Paige felt compelled to point out.
He nodded. “That’s why I’ve decided to stay in Pinehurst until we’ve established Emma’s paternity.”
He planned to stay in Pinehurst?
Oh, this is not good, Paige thought.
At the same time, Megan said, “That’s great.”
Paige frowned at her, but her cousin refused to meet her gaze.
“Because caring for Emma has been a big responsibility for Paige to tackle on her own,” Megan continued.
“I’ll gladly help in any way that I can,” Zach said.
Paige didn’t need or want his help and the steely-eyed glare she sent in his direction told him so. But he wasn’t looking at her but at Megan, who rewarded his evident compliance with a smile.
“And it would probably help ease Emma’s shyness if she got used to seeing you around,” she continued. “She’s in the living room playing, if you wanted to hang out in there.”
“Do you mind?” he asked Paige, as if her opinion actually mattered.
She forced a smile through gritted teeth. “No. Go ahead.”
Paige waited until Zach had left the room to turn to her cousin. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“What I just did was ensure that Zach Crawford will see firsthand how good you are with Emma, how much she’s bonded with you, and realize how difficult it would be for her if he tries to take her away,” Megan said.
“So I’m supposed to believe that you did this for me?”
“You know that Ashley and I love that baby, too. Maybe not the way you do, but none of us want to see you lose her.”
“Yet you just invited the enemy to essentially set up camp here.”
“It’s not as if you could force him to leave town before he’s ready, and this paves the way for a cooperative, rather than an adversarial, relationship,” Megan said reasonably.
“If he is Emma’s father, he could take her away from me, so forgive me for not wanting to cooperate with him.”
Megan sighed. “You are one of the most rational people I know, but you’re being completely irrational about this.”
Paige knew it was true, but she wasn’t quite sure how to explain it.
“Something about him just sets off my radar,” she finally admitted.
Her cousin’s eyebrows lifted. “Your I-don’t-trust-this-guy radar? Or your I-don’t-trust-myself-around-this-guy radar?”
Paige frowned.
“Because I may be happily married and eleven months pregnant—” she glanced down at her enormous belly “—but even I couldn’t miss the fact that Zach Crawford is seriously hot.”
“He’s a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force.”
“Which, for a lot of women, would only further enhance his appeal. Yummy good looks, perfectly sculpted body, strong moral character and dedication to his country.”
“None of which qualifies him to assume the care of a fourteen-month-old baby, even if she is his daughter.”
Megan nodded slowly. “Now I get it.”
“What do you get?” Paige asked warily.
“That this isn’t about Zach at all.”
“It’s about Emma.”
“Maybe,” her cousin acknowledged. “And maybe it’s about the fact that Colonel Phillip Wilder was a respected military leader but a complete screwup as a father.”
“It’s about Emma,” Paige insisted.
And although there was no disputing that Paige was genuinely concerned about the child’s well-being, it was obvious to both of them that there were more issues to be dealt with than the custody of one little girl.
Zach stayed through the morning, just hanging around while Emma played. Sometimes Emma approached Paige, wanting her help with some task or another, and although she cast frequent curious glances in Zach’s direction, the little girl kept a careful distance between herself and the stranger.
To his credit, Zach didn’t push to engage her in play or conversation and he didn’t hover. He just stayed in the background, silently observing. Paige knew it was ridiculous, but she couldn’t help feeling that her every word and her every action were being monitored by the man who claimed to be the little girl’s father.
When
