A Chance with You

“Goodbye, Zoe.” Spencer turned on his heel to go. “A word, Raina?”

She must have heard the commanding tone in his voice because she followed him into the retail area of their catering shop.

“Yes?” Raina snapped, her arms folded across her chest.

Spencer was irritated by her hostile behavior. “You started this, Raina. Don’t be upset with me because I’m running with it,” he responded. “I’m trying to get to know the little girl you claim is my daughter, so a little less acrimony would be good here.”

His response knocked some of the wind out of her sails and Raina unfolded her arms and her shoulders relaxed. She blinked several times and said, “I’m sorry. It’s just that Zoe responded to you like she’d known you for years and with me...” Her voice trailed off.

“Of course she’s going to be harder on you,” Spencer said, softening his voice. “You’re in the trenches day in and day out. You’re the one she’s going to take out all her hurt and loss on.”

Raina looked up at him as if she was surprised that he could understand what she’d been going through. But isn’t that what she is looking for, someone to take the load off her with Zoe?

“It’s been hard on her, losing Alexa so young,” Raina supplied. “I’m doing my best, but it’s not easy.”

“Of course it’s difficult. Zoe may have lost her mother, but you lost your sister, your twin. That must be harder than any of the rest of us can imagine.”

Raina swallowed, and he could see her biting back her tears. He hadn’t wanted her to cry. He’d only wanted her to know that he understood and could be there. If she wanted.

“Thank you.” Raina nodded. “I think everyone seems to forget that I lost Alexa, too.”

Spencer reached across and caressed Raina’s cheek. “I understand loss.” He was still dealing with the ramifications of losing Cameron four years later. He could only imagine how much worse it would be if he’d had to contend with rearing a child after such a loss.

Raina looked up as if to ask him a question, but Spencer felt it was time to leave. He swiftly moved toward the door. “I’ll be in touch about the timing of the test. As both our attorneys stated, it’ll better if the test is done at an independent laboratory to avoid any conflict.”

Seconds later, Spencer was out the door and breathing a sigh of release. Raina Martin was quickly getting under his skin. He’d wanted to comfort her and take away the pain he knew she was feeling by spilling his guts about the loss of his brother. But he had no right to put that on Raina; it was his cross to bear and his alone.

* * *

Raina stared at the door Spencer had just departed out of. He’d been surprisingly comforting when he’d told her that she was suffering as much as Zoe. It was as if he’d looked deep inside her soul and read her mind. And it scared her.

When he’d said he knew loss, she knew it wasn’t a line. He wasn’t using it as way to get into her panties though she had no doubt that’s exactly what Spencer wanted to do. She’d known it from the moment she’d laid eyes on him at the fund-raising dinner. The fact that he’d personally come to see her today even after finding out that she’d served him with paternity papers confirmed it. Spencer Davis wanted her. The question was did she want him? And if she did, would she act on it?

“Raina.” Her mother called her name from the doorway of the kitchen. “Was that who I think it was?” she asked, coming into the retail store.

“Yes,” Raina replied, moving away from the door and walking behind the counter to find a rag to wipe off the counter. She needed to do something to try to avoid the conversation she knew her mother wanted to have. No such luck; her mother went in for the kill.

“What does he want?”

“I don’t know, Mom,” Raina replied, shrugging her shoulders as she wiped the counter.

“Don’t give me a pat answer, Raina Martin.” Crystal grabbed her by the shoulders and stopped her from working. “More importantly I want to know what was going on between you two.”

“What do you mean?” Raina asked innocently.

“Body language,” her mother offered. “That man was clearly interested in you. What kind of man would hit on the woman raising his daughter? It’s deplorable.”

“We don’t know Spencer is Zoe’s father,” Raina said, surprising herself by coming to Spencer’s defense and jerking her shoulders away.

“But Alexa said that Spencer was the one.”

“No, what she said was Spencer could help.” Raina remembered her sister’s last words very carefully because she’d replayed them in her head a million times. And since meeting Spencer, she was finding it hard to believe that in this day and age he would be so careless as to expose himself to diseases, much less pregnancy, by not practicing safe sex. Spencer struck her as a smart man.

“Yeah, well, I think it’s him. Why else would Alexa have carried that picture with her all these years?”

“Perhaps as a clue to find the real father.”

“Why are you grasping at straws here?” Her mother looked at her. “This was your idea. I thought you wanted to find Zoe’s father. If it had been up to your father and I, we would have let the matter rest and raised Zoe ourselves.”

“Well, it’s not up to you,” Raina snapped. She was aware that her parents thought her inept at the parenting thing, but Alexa had chosen her. “I’m Zoe’s guardian, and she confided in me how she wished she was like other kids with two parents. If you’d heard her and how upset she was, you would know that’s what I’m trying to give her.”

“I just hope your good intentions don’t come back and smack you in the face.” Crystal seemed unfazed by Raina’s harsh tone. “Because if he is Zoe’s father, he has rights, too, you know.”

Raina rolled her eyes. She already knew this. Spencer had made it painfully clear that should he be deemed the father, he would sue her for full custody. But Raina thought it was a bluff. What thirty-eight-year-old man wanted to be a single parent to a six-year-old little girl? Although he’d had a way with Zoe earlier, she highly doubted Spencer had been around children often, much less knew how to raise one. It’s not like you do, either, her inner voice mocked.