The Family Plan (The McClouds of Mississippi 1)

Caitlin knew Lenore would do her best to talk her son out of this plan. Could he really withstand her tears, her accusations of betrayal, her pleas and threats? “I just think it might be a good idea if you—”

“No matter what my mother says, I’m not changing my mind about Isabelle,” Nathan insisted stubbornly. “I’ve already anticipated everything she could possibly say, even if she refuses to ever speak to me again. I would regret that, of course—hell, it would break my heart. But Mom would still have Gideon and Deborah. Isabelle only has me.”

It seemed that there would be nothing anyone could say to change Nathan’s mind about this. Having spent the past couple of hours watching him with his little sister, Caitlin realized that their bond was already too strong to be broken by warnings or threats.

She looked at his determined expression with a touch of awe, realizing that she’d underestimated him. She’d never realized quite how forceful he could be. And she hadn’t expected him to be so courageously self-sacrificing—for any reason. There was a great deal more to Nathan McCloud than he had allowed her to see during the past nine months—maybe more than he allowed anyone else to see, even those who were closest to him.

“All right. I’ll pick her up at ten in the morning,” she said, committing herself to taking his side in the coming controversy and hoping she didn’t regret that decision. “But I warn you,” she added in an attempt to lighten the mood, “it’s dangerous to send two women shopping with your credit card and no budget.”

She was pleased when he gave her a semblance of his enticingly lopsided smile. “So I’ll sell my golf clubs, if necessary. I have a feeling I won’t be needing them as much for the next, oh, fifteen years or so.”

Hard to believe he could keep smiling when he said that. Caitlin swallowed. “I’ll try not to go quite that crazy.”

“Buy her whatever she wants.”

Caitlin frowned at him. “You aren’t going to spoil her, are you? You’ve seen in court what happens when children are overindulged. It ruins them for life, teaches them to expect everyone to give in to their expectations.”

“I’ll try not to spoil her,” he promised, smiling more broadly as he raised one hand in a mock vow. “Just buy whatever she needs to turn this into a nice room. I want to make a good home for her here.”

Because the sentiment touched her, even though she was trying her best to retain an emotional distance from this entire situation, she looked away from him and spoke brusquely. “If there’s nothing else you need this evening, I’d better head home now. I have a stack of paperwork in my car I need to go through tonight, especially if I’m going to be free for a shopping excursion in the morning.”

“Did anything come up at work I should know about?”

“Several things,” she replied, thinking of the medical malpractice case she would be working on most of the night. She would have to discuss that with him, of course, but it could wait a few hours. “We’ll talk about them later this weekend.”

He followed her to the front door. “Irene was giving me some pretty deadly looks before she left the office earlier. I got the impression she was only being passably courteous because Isabelle was with me, which I could tell was making her crazy with curiosity.”

“She doesn’t know yet that you’ve taken Isabelle as your ward. I didn’t tell her why you were in California, only that you were tending to personal business. She probably thinks Isabelle is visiting you for a few days or something. She’ll understand better when you explain the situation to her.”

“So she thinks I was in California spending a week at Disneyland while you were carrying the load here?”

“Maybe something like that,” Caitlin conceded. “It wasn’t my place to discuss your personal business with her, of course.”

“Nice to know our office manager has such a high opinion of me,” he grumbled.

“Well, you haven’t done much to change that opinion,” she reminded him. “You either clam up or bolt—or both—whenever she’s around. And you have to admit you play havoc with her schedules and routines. You know how obsessive she is about that sort of thing.”

“Do I ever,” he muttered. “Wonder what she’s going to say when I tell her I’ve taken in a three-year-old? She’ll probably think I should be committed. I’m quite sure she’ll think I’m completely unqualified to raise a child, considering her low opinion of me.”

Because Caitlin still wasn’t quite convinced, herself, that Nathan had made the right decision, she decided not to comment.

Nathan covered the doorknob with his hand when she reached for it, detaining her for a moment. He was standing so close to her that his arm brushed hers when he turned to face her. His expression was serious again, and his gaze held hers when he spoke. “Before you leave, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me tonight.”

“That isn’t necessary,” she said, suddenly self-conscious. “I was happy to give you a hand.”

“Don’t brush me off. I mean it, Caitlin. I really needed your help this evening—and your company. Bringing Isabelle home alone…well, that was pretty scary for me. Having you here for moral support, even when you were questioning my sanity, meant a great deal to me.”

She became even more aware of how very close he stood. Their faces were only inches apart.

The intimacy of their proximity—and maybe something about the way he was looking at her—made her stomach muscles tighten. “That’s the sort of thing business partners do for each other,” she said inanely.

He smiled then. “No. That’s what friends do for each other,” he corrected. “Thank you for being my friend tonight, Caitlin.”

Maybe he intended the kiss he gave her to be nothing more than a friendly peck on the cheek. His lips were warm when he pressed them against her cool skin, just to the right of her mouth. So close to her mouth that their lips almost, but not quite, touched. And the temptation to turn her head just that small amount was suddenly so strong that she jerked backward as though his touch had burned her.

Stumbling awkwardly, her face flaming, she fumbled for the doorknob. “I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow.”

He moved out of the way so she could make her escape, though she felt him watching her. She felt like a fool as she all but fell out the front door. She didn’t look back when she jumped into her car and drove away, but she had the feeling that Nathan watched her until she was out of his sight.