When Love Comes Home

Paige fell back against the counter. “What are you saying?”

“He didn’t have any choice but to take me! You kept him away ’cause he wouldn’t give you money! That’s why he wasn’t around for so long! You wouldn’t let him be a dad! And now you’re doing it again!”

Paige gasped. After the divorce she’d gone out of her way to include Nolan in Vaughn’s life. She’d begged him to come around. He’d complained that her demands on his time were unreasonable, saying that Vaughn wasn’t old enough to miss him. He’d even threatened to tell Vaughn that he wasn’t his father if she didn’t give him some space.

Only after she’d proved his paternity and won back the right to child support had he taken any real interest in his son, and only then to punish her. She hadn’t cared, so long as Vaughn was happy. Now to hear her son say that she’d kept Nolan from being a dad to him was almost unbelievable to her.

She gulped and stammered, “W-we always have ch-choices.”

“I don’t!” he yelled. “’Cause if I had a choice, I wouldn’t be here!” With that he tore from the room, rocking her sideways as he shoved past her.

“Now look what you’ve done!” she cried at Matthias, but the old man shook his head sorrowfully.

“Not me, girl. That Nolan’s the one who done this, and you aren’t helping that boy by not telling him the truth.”

Paige closed her eyes and put a hand to her head. “Even if he could hear and believe the truth, Matthias, I couldn’t tell him. You just don’t understand the harm it does a child when his parents defame each other.”

“His father don’t have no problem defaming you.”

“All the more reason for me to take the high road.”

“Just be careful you ain’t setting yourself up for a bad fall,” Matthias warned. “If you don’t make that boy understand that his daddy’s a lying, scheming—”

“Stop,” Paige interrupted firmly. “Just stop. Don’t you see? No one can make a child ‘understand’ such a thing.” She shook her head. “I don’t even want him to know it, Matthias. I want him to believe that his father loves him as much as I do. I want my son to grow up believing that both of his parents treasure him beyond anything in this world.”

“Wanting a thing don’t make it so,” Matthias insisted. “You’re setting yourself up for disappointment, if you ask me.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to say that she hadn’t asked him, but she swallowed the impulse as he limped out of the room. Matthias only wanted what was best for her, but she had to think of what was best for Vaughn.

Grady leaned against the window ledge behind his brother’s desk and tried not to stare at her. He’d been surprised when Dan had called and asked Grady to join him and Paige Ellis in his office. His dealings with Paige Ellis should have been at an end. Even if legal assistance was required, her case was Dan’s responsibility, not his. Yet, he’d answered his brother’s summons without complaint, interrupting an important telephone conversation in the process.

Her hair was a little longer, he noted, as if she hadn’t found time to get to the stylist recently. Shadows rimmed her exotic sea-green eyes. For a moment he thought she’d taken to wearing smudged eyeliner; then he’d realized that she was tired, so tired that even the tiny smile she’d found for him had seemed to require great effort on her part.

“Anyway,” she said, glancing at Grady and then at her hands. “I just thought I should run it by you before I made a firm decision.”

Dan cast a veiled look at Grady, who knew instantly what he was thinking. The safety issue loomed large in both their minds.

“The contact would be limited to the telephone, I take it?” Dan asked.

She nodded. “Since you made it impossible for Nolan to return to Arkansas without risking prosecution, it has to be.”

At least she’d acquiesced to that much, Grady told himself. Dan shot him a helpless look, and Grady cleared his throat, prepared to be the bad guy. “That was my doing, and I thought letting Vaughn call his dad was a lousy idea from the beginning.”

“I know you did,” she said softly. “My former counselor agrees with you.”

“But the new counselor does not?” Dan surmised.

Paige sucked in a deep breath, her chest rising beneath the lapels of her brown velvet jacket and the plain front of the simple plaid sheath dress under it. “That’s right. He feels Vaughn will benefit from regular, unhindered contact with his father.”

“But the old counselor apparently thought it was harmful,” Grady pointed out. Paige took it as a bid for clarification.

“She concluded that talking with his father would keep Vaughn from making peace with his new circumstances.”

“Obviously my brother finds merit in her argument,” Dan said. “I think I agree with them, though I have to tell you that this is not a legal issue. There is nothing at this point to legally prevent Nolan from maintaining contact with your son.”

“We could fix that if you want us to, though,” Grady added.

She shook her head. “I’m not here to find a legal impediment. I—I just want to do what’s best for my son.”

If you were sure what that was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, Grady thought. He truly wanted to help her.

“Can I ask you something?” At her nod, he went on. “Why did you switch counselors?”

The slowness of her reply told him that she was choosing her words with great care. “My son relates best to men.”

Dan made a sound somewhere between recognition and conclusion, and Grady knew what he was going to say before he said it. Groaning inwardly, Grady could only listen.

“I’m wondering if a male in this role is the best choice. I mean, we’ve had experience with this issue ourselves. Our dad’s failure to bring a solid female influence into my brother’s life created some difficulties for him, as they both would tell you.”

Grady briefly closed his eyes. “I don’t think Vaughn could have a more solid female influence than his mother, Dan.”

“Right!” Dan waved a hand, swiveling side to side in his chair with what Grady hoped was extreme embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to imply… Actually the situations aren’t that similar. Ours was a male household after our mother died. Grady was only six, so it’s no wonder he never learned how to relate to women.”

Grady groaned aloud this time. “Thanks loads, Dan,” he rumbled.

“I—I probably wouldn’t have, either,” Dan went on lamely, “if not for my wife.”

To Grady’s surprise, Paige Ellis sat up very straight. “Who says Grady doesn’t relate to women?”

Dan chuckled uneasily, as if he thought she was making a bad joke. When he realized that she was serious, both eyebrows shot straight up into his hairline. Paige glanced at Grady and caught him with his mouth hanging open. She flopped back in her chair, huffing with what sounded suspiciously like indignation.

“That’s ridiculous,” she scoffed. “I spent at least eighteen straight hours with your brother, and I assure you he’s perfectly capable of relating as well to women as men.” She nodded decisively here and added, “Better, in fact, than a great many men of my acquaintance.”

Now Dan’s mouth was hanging open. He managed to get it closed, babbling, “Ah. Um, I see. That’s…good.”

Grady grinned. He couldn’t help it. In fact, a chuckle escaped as he came to his feet. But, it was time to bring this discussion to an end before his brother got the wrong idea.

“All right. I think we’re through here.”

“Yes, I really shouldn’t take up any more of your time,” Paige agreed briskly, rising from her chair, “especially since I came in without an appointment.”

“Think nothing of it,” Dan replied graciously, leaning over the desk to offer her his hand.

She shook hands, then allowed Grady to steer her toward the door. He did not dare to so much as glance in his brother’s direction as he moved with her across the room and through the next, which was mercifully empty, Janet being away from her desk.

“It was good of you and your brother to see me on such short notice,” she said as he walked her straight past the receptionist in the outer office and through the door at the glass front of the suite to the bank of elevators beyond.

“You happened to catch us both free,” he lied, pushing the elevator button. The door slid open at once, and the moment for them to part ways had arrived, but he found himself oddly reluctant to do so. Impulsively, he stepped into the elevator with her, an action which required explanation. Belatedly he provided one, saying, “I’m ready for a cup of coffee. Can I buy you one?”