of disappointment. “When did all this happen?”
“It didn’t,” Rafe told her, switching Bethany to his other side. The area around half his buttons was wet from the toddler’s questing mouth and grasping fingers. “I figured an ‘engagement’ was the best way to keep Bethany and my word to Rory and Lil.”
“But it’s not real.” Alyssa sounded as if she wanted to make perfectly certain of that fact.
“No, it’s not real,” Rafe assured her.
“Oh.” Alyssa nodded, obviously understanding what he was saying.
But she didn’t, Greer thought, and she decided it was time someone filled her in. She turned, looking at Rafe. “I think we’ve come full circle, Mr. Maitland.”
“I think if we’re going to be engaged, you’d better call me Rafe. And,” he added, shaking his head at Bethany, who was once again reaching for his shirt and the fascinating buttons, “you’d better learn how to talk a whole lot plainer than that.” Rafe looked at Greer, his brow raised. “What do you mean, full circle?”
She could feel Alyssa studying her. Her discomfort grew. “Well, I asked you to explain to me why you need a fiancée and you were about to tell me when the door opened.” She spared Alyssa a glance.
To underscore his point, Rafe grasped Bethany by the waist with both hands and held her up. The little girl laughed and cooed, then clapped her hands as if this were a familiar game between them.
“This—” he nodded at Bethany “—is why I need a fiancée.”
Greer still wasn’t quite following him. “Your daughter?”
“Not yet.” Lowering her, he tucked Bethany against him again with a practiced movement Greer found intriguing. Most men she knew were uncomfortable with children that size. “But she will be once I can file adoption papers.” His face grew grave. “In order to do that, I have to have clear claim to her.”
“And you don’t,” Greer guessed. For someone who gave the impression that he was a man of few words, he certainly seemed to like stretching things out.
He scowled, thinking of the threat that Lil’s relatives posed. “No, not right now.”
Still confused, Greer looked to the other woman for a further explanation, but there was no enlightenment coming from that quarter.
“I’d better be getting back,” Alyssa announced suddenly, as if she’d just become aware of the time. “I have to be putting dinner on the table soon. Mr. Owen doesn’t like to be kept waiting. If you need anything—” she underlined the word, looking at Rafe “—just call. Nice meeting you,” she added as an afterthought, glancing at Greer. The next moment, Alyssa slipped out the front door.
“Same here,” Greer murmured, her voice utterly flat.
Rafe caught the uncomfortable note in her voice and looked at her curiously.
She didn’t care for the way he seemed to be continually scrutinizing her. It made her feel awkward, as if she were found wanting. To get his attention off her and back to her yet unanswered questions, Greer nodded at Bethany. “Whose baby is that?”
Because of the hour, Bethany had begun settling down. He knew that Alyssa had already changed and fed her. He stroked the fine, dark hair. “She belonged to Lil and Rory Butler.”
Greer picked up on the past tense. “The friends you mentioned earlier?”
“You were paying attention.” A minor smile gracing his lips, Rafe nodded his approval.
If there was one thing these schoolmarm types were, it was sticklers for detail. He figured that having her in the courtroom as his fiancée might impress the judge enough to make him see things Rafe’s way. After all, he was young, with his whole life in front of him, and the Prestons were well past their primes. Too old to be taking care of a one-year-old, really, he reasoned.
“I always pay attention,” she informed him.
He didn’t like the coolness in her voice. You would have thought he’d insulted her.
“Good.” His voice was crisp, matching hers. “Then I won’t have to repeat myself. Lil and Rory were killed in a car accident a little more than a month ago. I always knew they wanted me to be Bethany’s guardian, but it’s not really the kind of thing you pay attention to when the people you’re talking to are twenty-three years old and in perfect health.”
If he had paid attention, maybe he would have tried to talk them out of it, he thought. Tried to make them pick someone else who could give Bethany more than he could. But what was done was done and, Rafe had to admit, he doubted if anyone could care as much for the little girl as he did.
“Anyway, after the accident I took Bethany in, and not long after that, I heard from some guy claiming that he represented Lil’s aunt and uncle and that they were coming for the baby.”
Most men she knew would have been relieved to relinquish the responsibility of raising a toddler. Especially alone. Her own mother had seen fit to leave her sitting alone in the last pew of a church when she was barely three. That was where she was told they’d found her. Curled up, asleep in a pew with only the clothes on her back and a battered stuffed animal that was so worn it was unidentifiable.
“That would make things easier for you.”
He couldn’t quite read her comment. She wasn’t one of these liberated females who looked down their noses at families, was she? Not that it mattered if she played her part right.
If.
That was the all-important word.
Of course, if he could find the softer side of Megan Maitland, he might be able to get the woman to use her influence and settle things for him, then there’d be no need to continue the engagement charade.
The thought of using his aunt’s influence didn’t sit well with him, even though he wasn’t planning to use it for any personal monetary gain.
Because it raised issues he just didn’t have time to sort through, Rafe put the whole thing out of his mind for now.
“Sometimes ‘easy’ isn’t the best way. I gave my word and I intend to stick by it.”
Rafe didn’t add that giving Bethany up would create a giant-size hole in his heart. The little girl had created a space for herself that he’d never expected to be there. He wasn’t given to attachments or bonding. But he had bonded with the little lady in his arms and he intended to do right by her. No matter what it took or what it cost him.
This wasn’t making any sense to Greer. “And you honestly think that by lying to the court, you’ll get to retain custody?”
He didn’t like being judged. Especially not by a stranger who had no idea what was involved. His eyes grew flinty as he looked at her. “Call it a stopgap maneuver. Until I can come up with something better.”
Her breath caught in her throat. There was no reason to feel as though she’d just been put in her place, and yet she did.
“It’s
