A Mum For Amy

“Maggie, this project is a huge investment for me, and I have to believe that an older, more experienced outfit like Coastal Communities will meet our needs more effectively.”

“Why must you believe that?” Maggie asked, running out of patience. She jerked her hand out to indicate Will seated beside her. “Because this man advised you to go with Coastal?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Will admitted quietly.

That nearly took Maggie’s breath away. She hated that he sounded so sure of himself, so superior. Inside, her blood seethed, but she’d never let him see just how much he’d upset her. “I knew you would,” she told him. “As soon as I saw your name attached to this, I knew you’d do everything you could to keep me from being involved. This isn’t a business decision. This is your personal, petty revenge.” She shook her head slowly. “It’s not worthy of you, Will. In the old days, you’d never have done something so underhanded.”

The solid power of her anger left her unable to go on. They stared at one another. At least until Teddy cleared his throat and spoke up. “Would one of you like to tell me what’s going on here?”

Will looked at Teddy. “Miss Tillman and I—”

Maggie, her heart cold and hard as a jewel, couldn’t take any more. “For God’s sake,” she snapped. “Considering the fact that we slept together for almost a year, you’d think you could call me Maggie.”

She felt her cheeks go hot, but frankly, she was pleased to see that Will was momentarily speechless. Obviously annoyed as hell, but speechless.

Teddy raised a hand to catch their attention. “Hold on, you two. I love a good tussle, but let’s keep the gloves on.”

Maggie wasn’t sure Will was listening. And she didn’t much care, because she was perfectly willing to go toe-to-toe with him now, even though she could hear her own heartbeats drumming in her ears. Will swung toward her, clearly intending to…

Well, she didn’t know what he intended, and she never found out.

At that moment, the construction trailer door was thrown wide, and a small, bustling tornado that turned into a little girl came barreling in. She headed straight for Will. When she got to his chair, she threw herself into his arms. The hard hat she wore, too big for her head, went flying, and a cascade of brown curls fell down her back.

“Daddy!” she cried. “Look! I got scared, and so did my arms.”

Maggie stared, transfixed not by the fact that the girl’s thin arms were covered in goose bumps, but by the realization that this child was evidently Will’s daughter.

In all the scenarios she’d ever imagined for his future, a house bright and noisy with children had never been a consideration. Perhaps not even a wife. Silly, really, because Will, a handsome, successful man in his thirties, must surely have caught many a woman’s eye.

She watched father and daughter interact, her mind straying into new and disturbing channels. A child. Family. Something she’d longed for once upon a time.

Some queer pang stabbed her heart, and for the life of her, Maggie couldn’t explain it.

Or make it go away.

CHAPTER THREE

JOHN DENVER, rest his soul, had once recorded a song about some days being diamonds and some being stone. Will Stewart thought this was definitely a stone day.

Most definitely.

The week had started out well enough. His sister, Lisa, seemed in a great mood lately, having met a new guy in her college English class. Quarterly returns on his investments were up. Yesterday, Jacobson had taken him to lunch and actually used the word partner when talking about Will’s future at the firm. This morning he’d turned on the computer to find an e-mail from his stockbroker. And Amy, the one unpredictable component of his life, had managed to eat breakfast today without spilling a single drop on her clothes. Now there was a genuine miracle.

Then he’d made the mistake of stopping by the LaCrosse site, catching Teddy in the trailer as he spoke with his construction supervisor. Will should never have taken that offer of a cup of coffee, never stopped long enough to discuss how yesterday’s press conference had gone.

If he hadn’t, he might never have come face-to-face with Maggie Tillman.

A John Denver stone day for sure. And if things had gone downhill from that moment, they showed every indication of heading even further south right now.

He had to work hard not to stare at Maggie.

He couldn’t argue that over the years he’d grown more curious about her rather than less. He knew the basics of her life—still living in Key West, unmarried, working. When he chose to use them, he had connections enough to find out that sort of thing.

But was she happy? What kind of woman had she turned into? Did she ever think of him? You couldn’t get answers to those kinds of questions without digging a little deeper, and he had always refused to do that.

He mistrusted those rambling thoughts and was sometimes quite annoyed by them, as well. Old lovers weren’t supposed to stick around and blight your mental landscape. He had wanted the end of his relationship with Maggie to be like a heavy door closing behind him, firmly locked and impenetrable.

Instead, here she was again, popping back into his life with all the fire and fury that was pure Maggie. Aware of her sitting stiffly beside him as he listened to his daughter chatter, Will didn’t think for a minute she was done with arguing yet. Tenacious. Passionate. That had been Maggie, too, and she didn’t look like she’d changed much over the years. He needed to keep that fact uppermost in his mind.

He needed not to panic.

But, most of all, he had to find the quickest way possible to get Amy out of this trailer.

Amy’s words ran down to nothing as her interest was drawn to the stuffing peeking out of his chair arm. He loved her so much. Being a father was tough, time-consuming. But every moment he was with his daughter, Will felt as though he had trapped sunlight in his hands. How could you ever let anything mess with that?

He touched her cheek, drawing her gaze up. “So you liked the tour Aunt Lisa gave you?”

The child nodded. “It was kind of scary, though. My stomach felt funny when we went up in the elevator with no walls. Aunt Lisa says nobody ever fell out and got squished on the ground, but I said I bet it happens sometimes. I didn’t like that part.”

He smiled at her with tender amusement. His fault, probably, but Amy sometimes tended to be more fearful and cautious than the average seven-year-old. Lisa said he was overprotective, too restrictive with the child, but what was really wrong with that? The world was a tough place, and you had to look out for the people you loved.

The trailer door opened again, and this time it was his sister. They were going to have lunch today, but first, Will had wanted to talk to Teddy. Lisa had volunteered to keep Amy occupied while he was busy.

“Aunt Lisa shouldn’t have taken you up in the elevator,” he said.

Hearing Will’s admonition as she came in, Lisa grimaced at him. “Really, Will. Don’t you know that going up in an open elevator is the best part of visiting any construction site? Did you think she wanted to watch them pour concrete?”

As she approached, she removed the hard hat she wore so she could shake out her hair. His sister was going to be twenty-one in a few weeks, and Will couldn’t believe so much time had passed. She’d been ten when their parents had died. He could still clearly recall the fear that had clenched his gut when Ernie Becker, a family friend and the executor of the estate, had told him he was legally responsible for her. The same fear that had gripped him the day Amy had been placed into his arms.

Lisa, remembering her manners, gave Maggie a vague smile. “Hello. I’m sorry to interrupt.” Then she did a double take. “Oh, my gosh! Maggie. Is it you?”

Maggie turned farther in her chair. “Lisa?” Her eyes traveled up and down his sister. “I can’t believe it. Look how big you’ve grown!”

Lisa laughed. “Not too big, I hope. It’s so good to see you again. What have you been up to all these years? Where have you been?”

“I live in Key West now. But we must get together and catch up. I’d love to hear all about what you’ve been doing.”

Will felt Amy lean into him. She was always hesitant around strangers. The movement caught Maggie’s attention, and she smiled down at Amy. “And who are you?”

Nerve centers within Will had begun to register swift alarm when Amy had come into the trailer. Now they went into overdrive. He didn’t want Maggie interacting with her. The woman could be mad at him, come up here to fight whatever battle she chose for the sake of her business. But he didn’t want her within a hundred miles of his daughter.

“I’m Amy,” the child said shyly.

“My daughter,” Will added, though he supposed it was quite obvious.

“You’re such a pretty girl.” Maggie reached out to touch one of Amy’s dangling curls. “Your hair’s like mine. Just wavy enough to be a challenge. I’ll bet your mommy has her hands full trying to get it to behave.”

Amy wiggled against Will. “Aunt Lisa does my hair every morning.”