style="font-size:15px;"> Sebastian closed the file and glanced up somberly. “Is she your daughter?”
Kyle stopped in his tracks and dropped to sit on the edge of the desk, his foot twitching. “It’s a distinct possibility.” A possibility that still sucker-punched him harder than the missile that had taken down his aircraft in Afghanistan. He pinched the bridge of his nose briefly before his hand fell away. “If she’s really Bianca Thompson’s daughter, the timing of our, uh, week together lines up.”
“A week, huh?” A rare hint of humor lit his normally serious brother’s eyes.
Kyle wasn’t in the mood to laugh. “We hooked up when I was in between rotations overseas. Neither of us was interested in anything long-term.”
“You never are.” Sebastian looked away and back at the papers.
Yeah, he wasn’t known for serious relationships, but at least he understood himself, rather than sending out mixed signals. “Which makes it all the more ironic that Phoebe would toss out a marriage proposal to me.”
“I think it makes her seem like a more logical type.” Sebastian kept his voice low enough that the cluster of people a few feet away wouldn’t hear. “If she knows your reputation, then she has no reason to worry about you growing attached to her or the baby.”
“She said she only tossed it out there in desperation. That she didn’t really mean it, and could I come up with something else.” Still it rattled around in his head. “You got any suggestions?”
Sebastian scrubbed a hand over his face, a near mirror image of Kyle’s. “I think the first order of business is finding out if she’s really yours. I’ve never been one who could see Great-aunt Whoever’s chin on some infant, but I have to confess, she looks just like a Landis.”
The uncertainty was already chewing him up inside. “Any idea how long it takes for the results of a paternity test?”
“Gotta admit, I’ve never needed one.” His eyes slid over to his wife with obvious affection. Their son had been born a few months ago, a surprise pregnancy after the crushing loss of the baby daughter they’d adopted, only to have the birth mother change her mind. “Jonah should know, though.”
Their youngest brother had always been a hellraiser, so much so that after a while it became tough to distinguish between truth and reputation. Kyle had always understood his younger brother better than the rest of the family, although the military had helped him rein in his wilder impulses.
And yet still, somehow, he may have screwed up. “The sooner we can clear this up, the better.”
“What do you know about her?” Sebastian nodded toward Phoebe, who was lifting the baby up to burp, a hand towel from the bathroom draped over her shoulder.
“Nothing at all.” Kyle flipped open the manila file folder again and thumbed through the papers. “I’d never met her, but those photos of her with Bianca look real.”
“The private investigator I keep on retainer will be able to verify her story by morning. The fact that she lives and works in state makes things easier all the way around.” Sebastian tapped the documents spilling out across the desk. “Everything seems authentic and in order though. We’ll see soon.”
Not soon enough. “So, we’re stuck for now.” Kyle lowered his voice, even though no one across the room seemed to be paying any attention to them. “Either she’s on the up-and-up helping out a friend, in which case she needs help, so the baby stays. Or she’s a nutcase, in which case for the baby’s safety, she has to stay.”
“Be careful, my brother.” Sebastian leaned closer. “There’s a lot of money at stake here.”
Sebastian’s wife glanced over her shoulder. “Men are so cynical.”
Damn, he could have sworn they were keeping their voices down. Could Phoebe have overheard them too? Not that they’d really said anything that mattered. She should expect they would have her investigated.
The wife of their oldest brother, Matthew, stepped aside, opening the circle as she caressed the slight curve of her stomach. “They’re right to be concerned,” Ashley said. “I’ve seen some sad cases of how heartless people can be when it comes to the needs of a child.”
Their youngest brother, Jonah, snorted, lounging on the other wingback chair, one leg draped over the armrest. “Who are you condemning here? The baby’s mother or Phoebe?”
Ginger rested a hand on the back of Phoebe’s chair and shot her sons a censuring stare that hadn’t lost its impact over the years. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. My boys should be more diplomatic.”
Kyle watched his mother win over Phoebe with a few well-chosen words. There was no doubting who wore the diplomatic mantle in their family.
“I’m not offended,” Phoebe said. “In fact, I’m relieved that you’re all being practical about this. That bodes well for Nina, and I have nothing to hide.”
Jonah twitched back an overlong lock of hair from his brow. “Lady, I have to confess, this all sounds a little hinky to me. You wouldn’t be the first person to want a piece of the Landis lucrative pie.”
“I’m not here for money.” She patted Nina’s back steadily until the baby burped, then lowered her to the crook of her arm. “I only need time. I want to keep her out of foster care until we can find her mother, and if we can’t, then it’s my hope I can adopt her.”
Jonah tugged his dangling tux tie free…not that it had even been tied before they stepped back here for the family confab with Phoebe. “Then let the legal system sort it out. If you’re best for her, that’s where she’ll land.”
Ginger waved her rebellious youngest son up from the chair and motioned for pregnant Ashley to sit.
Ashley smiled her appreciation as she sat with a heavy sigh. “It’s not that cut-and-dried. I was lucky.”
Phoebe smoothed her hand over the baby’s head with obvious affection, but her face creased with concern. “Yours is a success story, then?”
“My foster sisters and I found a wonderful home with ‘Aunt’ Libby and were better off. Claire’s biological mother wanted to keep her, but was too young and didn’t have the money. Starr’s parents were criminals who refused to relinquish custody. My parents gave me up.” Quiet Ashley grew more fervent as she spoke. “Not all of the girls who were placed with Aunt Libby came straight there from their biological parents, though. Most foster parents are wellmeaning, big-hearted people, but there are some…” She shook her head in obvious disgust.
The defender in Kyle, the military part of him that had spent the past six years of his life protecting, made him want to pluck the kid up and keep her safe from the world.
How much stronger would those feelings become if it turned out the baby was his?
Phoebe rested her cheek on Nina’s head. “I don’t want to run any risk of Nina landing in an unloving home for even a day.”
“Exactly,” Ashley agreed. “Some people don’t have choices. There are options here for little Nina.”
His mother nodded. “I’ve
