A Father's Love

“Yes, Max.”

“Well, good.”

She hid her smile. Max looked as if he thought he’d lost the battle but couldn’t figure out why. She knew why. Just by being in the same house, the past was going to creep up until it was dealt with and taken care of.

“First we’ll need cribs for the children. With that they’ll need sheets and bumper pads and a couple of light blankets. What about some clothes? Do you want me to run over to the church and check their clothes closet—”

“I can certainly buy anything the children need,” Max replied, affronted.

Kaitland paused, then asked the question that had been burning in her since she’d first arrived. She’d known the kids weren’t Max’s. He lived by the moral code of his faith. She took his word, too, for Max also didn’t lie. “Why do you insist on seeing to this problem? You could call Child Services and the children would be taken away and you’d never have to be responsible for them again.”

“But I am responsible.”

Her eyes widened in shock, thinking she had misjudged him.

“Not that way,” he replied, clearly exasperated. He dropped wearily onto the couch. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes. “Someone left them on my patio with a note addressed to me. I don’t know if the person was a crackpot or someone who really thought I could help the children. But whoever it was put their trust and faith in me. I won’t palm that off on some overworked agency that would probably separate the children out of necessity.”

Kaitland nodded. That would probably happen. Though Child Services didn’t like to do that, they had to find somewhere for the children.

“I have plenty of money,” he said. “Enough to last two lifetimes. And this house is big enough to hold forty or fifty people. So there’s plenty of room. It won’t hurt to keep them here.”

She smiled, gently, doing her best to hide the misting of her eyes. “You’re a good person, Max Stevens.”

“No, just practical,” he argued gruffly, refusing praise as he always did. “I’m going to call one of the investigative people we use in our business. I’ll put him on the case and see if he can find out what happened to the mother. After all, how hard is it going to be to track down a set of twins that were born about…fifteen months?” At her nod, he continued, “About fifteen months ago.”

“I honestly don’t know. I imagine easier than tracking down a single child.”

“My thoughts exactly. So, I figure within a week, maybe two, we’ll have this all cleared up.”

She hoped they had more than just that cleared up, but she didn’t say so. “Are you going to order the cribs and clothes, or do you want me to go shopping. I should warn you, if I go shopping, the children will be left here with you.”

His eyes widened. “I’ll call my store immediately. It’s nice owning a large chain of retail stores.” He suddenly grinned. “I’ll have my secretary at the office go downstairs to the store and find someone who knows about babies and send over everything they’ll need. Two of everything,” he amended. “That should work.”

Kaitland shook her head in disbelief.

“Now, about my office. When do I get it back?”

Kaitland shrugged. “I imagine when the kids wake up, which could be anywhere from an hour to two hours.”

“But I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he began.

“Bring it in here,” she replied.

Grumbling, he stood and walked out of the room, listing to her or himself, she wasn’t sure, what he needed to accomplish today.

Same old Max, except she didn’t remember him taking quite this much interest in the business five years ago.

She headed up the stairs to the room where the children had been. She found the maid, Lavina, in there finishing cleaning up the mess. “You’ll need to get someone up here to take all the knickknacks out of this room, Lavina. They’ll also need to remove the bed. Mr. Stevens is turning it into a nursery for the twins.”

“I’ll get Tim from the stables to help me this afternoon,” the maid said.

“You’d better go ahead and do it now,” Kaitland told her. “Mr. Stevens is ordering cribs and I imagine they’ll be here in an hour or two. Also, do you know which room I’m staying in?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Summerville. Sarah told me to put your bags in the room across the hall, unless you want the one across from Mr. Stevens?”

She knew Max’s room was next door to the babies’ room. The one next to her would be across the hall from him and larger than the one she was in. “No. This is fine. I need to be close to the children. As a matter of fact, if you could find a small twin bed I might just sleep in here.”

“Oh, no, ma’am. Sarah wouldn’t approve of that at all. She was telling me how much she likes you and has missed you around here. She’d be very upset if you weren’t completely comfortable while you were here.”

Kaitland grinned. That sounded just like Sarah. “Very well. Thank you, Lavina.”

“And Darlene is to help you with the babies whenever you need it. Sarah said those two are too much for one person. She said of course Mr. Stevens, being a bachelor, wouldn’t know, nor would he remember how much of a handful he and his brother were. She said that he deserved a taste of what he’d put her through growing up. I think she’s quite excited about having the little mites in the house.”

Kaitland’s grin turned into a full-blown smile. “I’m glad. You tell Sarah I’m sure Max is going to get a great big taste of what it’s like to have two toddlers underfoot. Now, go on. I need to unpack.”

She walked across the hall to her suite. Pushing open the door, she immediately smiled in pleasure. Light mauves and browns decorated the space. There were no balcony doors like the room across the hall, but the shutters on the large window made it possible for her to keep the room as bright as day or dimly lit A large overstuffed, floral-print couch sat near two armchairs, creating a comfortable sitting area. A polished oak armoire held a TV and VCR, as well as a stereo. A low bookcase held a collection of interesting titles. She knew the door to the right was the bedroom and bathroom.

Crossing the plush carpet, she found out she was right. Max’s room was larger. She knew he had a small gym in the second room off the main room, as did Rand. Max had explained the layout of the house once to her.

“Oh, my,” she breathed, looking in the room. Yellows and green pastels decorated the bedroom, along with pink and blue pastel watercolors hanging on the walls. She wondered who had decorated this. Certainly not an interior decorator. Her bag was sitting on the bed. She unpacked, putting everything in the cherry-wood armoire as she went. Her last thing to unpack was the first thing she had packed—her Bible.

Taking it out, she sat down on the bed and opened it. She was surprised to find she had opened it to a familiar scripture, “You will not fear,” it started, and ended with, “I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”

Smoothing her hand over the worn pages, she prayed, “Father, please help me, guide me in what You would have me do. I thought this would be so easy, coming here and facing the past. But, well, I’ve discovered I still have some kind of feelings for Max. Oh, I’m not sure what they are, but they’re there. I don’t want to hurt Max again, but I refuse to put myself in the path of hurt, either. Open the doors for healing between us even if that means we solve the problems and never see each other again. All I know is this has to come to a head. Thank You, Father.”

She laid her Bible down and stood. Taking her suitcase, she tucked it under the bed and then turned toward the door.

“Round one goes to Daniel,” she whispered. She had faced the lion in his den and come out unscathed.

“Now let’s see what happens in round two,” she murmured.

Chapter Four (#ulink_0bf032c9-b718-5f67-ad8d-ba12f3321d87)

“I’ve got Dugan Lawrence, head of security at our stores, checking into the twins’ background,” Max said, hanging up the phone and turning to where Kaitland had just entered the den. “And Jennifer is buying the store out, if I know her.”

“Jennifer?” Kaitland asked quizzically.

“My secretary. She loves kids and became my secretary when Rand had his accident.”

Max watched Kaitland digest that as she seated herself across from him in one of the overstuffed chairs. He couldn’t get over how good she looked. His heart beat a staccato as he unobtrusively studied her again. She was like manna for a starved soul. He thought he’d gotten over her, was no longer empty without her, but seeing her now…He forced himself to push those feelings aside and remember how she’d betrayed him. It would not be good to act the fool again. “Do you have any problems with living in? What about your own house or your job?”

“Jake gave me time off. I’m on vacation. I have four weeks built up but hadn’t taken any of it until now. As for my house, I imagine if I can run by once or twice a week, it’ll be okay. I can call and stop the paper, and my mail all goes to a post-office box anyway.” She shrugged daintily. “There’s nothing else to worry about”

“What about personal phone calls and such? Do you need to forward your phone?”

“No. The only people who would need to get in touch with me are at the church. Jake will forward any urgent messages to me.”

He nodded. “About publicity. I’d like to keep this situation quiet. You know how the news media constantly hounds Rand and me. This would be a field day. Not that I have anything to hide. But I’d like to have some answers, know who these kids belong to before this hits the papers.”