The innocent question made both Caitlin and Nathan start, their gazes breaking apart. Following the direction of Isabelle’s pointing finger, Caitlin spotted Lenore McCloud at the same time the other woman noticed them.
Carrying plates filled at the salad bar, Lenore and another woman were headed toward a table not far from the one where Caitlin sat with Nathan and Isabelle. Lenore’s steps faltered, her face going taut with pained recognition.
Caitlin had the unsettling sensation that the noisy restaurant suddenly went quiet around them, though she knew that was exaggeration. She also knew, however, that many pairs of eyes waited to see how Lenore would react to this awkward encounter.
They all should have known, of course, that Lenore was nothing if not socially conscious. Though her eyes had gone flat and opaque, she managed a cordial nod. “Nathan. Caitlin.”
Isabelle
took no offense at the slight. “Hi, Nate’s mom,” she said with her brightest Shirley Temple smile. “We’re having lunch.”
Her gaze darting quickly around them, Lenore cleared her throat and replied, “Yes, so I see. Enjoy your meal.” She gave Nathan a look of reproach before turning to her companion. “We’d better claim our table before someone else does, Maxine.”
Caitlin noted that Lenore chose a seat that placed her back toward their table. Glancing at Nathan, Caitlin saw the flash of pain in his eyes. He so obviously hated this distance between his mother and himself, but he was just as obviously at a loss as to how to bridge it.
Remembering the adamancy in Lenore’s voice when she’d insisted she could never accept Isabelle, Caitlin wasn’t sure there was any solution to the impasse.
They finished their lunches quickly. Isabelle seemed to be unaware that the mood had changed, but Caitlin was all too conscious of the difference in Nathan. He had been rather quiet before his mother’s appearance, but he was positively subdued now. She hated seeing him this way, but she could think of nothing that would cheer him up.
Fortunately, Isabelle was very good at that sort of thing. By the time they returned to the office, Nathan was smiling again, if only for his little sister’s sake.
Settling Isabelle with her dollhouse again, Nathan followed Caitlin into her office. “Do you have much more to do today?”
“Not much. Another couple of hours, maybe. You?”
“Maybe a half hour to finish that file I was working on before lunch. Just as well. I’m not sure Isabelle’s dollhouse is going to hold her attention much longer.”
“She really is a very well-behaved little girl. No pouting or tears, no tantrums, no whining.”
“Except for the tantrums, I’ve seen a little of all of the above from her, but not much.” His smile looked a bit weary around the edges. “She’s a normal three-year-old, Caitlin, but she is a good kid, on the whole.”
“No question about that.” She hesitated, then tentatively laid a hand on his arm. The muscles beneath his long-sleeved rugby shirt were rock hard with the tension she had sensed in him since they’d left the deli. “Are you okay?”
“Who, me?” He flashed a semblance of his usual cocky grin. “I’m always okay.”
Giving him a repressive frown, she said, “You know what I mean. I know the scene with your mother bothered you.”
His mouth quirked wryly at her choice of words. “My mother would never cause a scene. She was as calm, collected and polite as she would have been with any distant acquaintance—or even with a bitter enemy—in such a public venue.”
“I know that must have hurt you.”
“It breaks my heart,” he answered simply. “But I don’t know what else to do about it.”
“Would you like me to try to talk to her again?”
He covered her hand with his own. “Thanks, but I don’t think it would help. My mother is the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met. Strike that. The second most stubborn woman. My sister still holds top prize.”
“I just wish there was something I could do to help.” Caitlin had discovered that she really hated seeing the empty look of pain in Nathan’s beautiful eyes.
Even as that thought occurred to her, she saw his eyes light with a soft gleam. His fingers tightened around hers. “I can think of a few things you could do to help me feel better.”
She sighed and started to move away. She should have known he wouldn’t be serious for long. Nathan’s typical response when things got too intense was to start wise-cracking and flirting.
As always, his flirting made her self-conscious. “I suppose we had better get back to—”
The rest of her words were smothered beneath his mouth.
She couldn’t believe he was kissing her right there in the office. With no warning, no provocation, no chance for her to resist. And she would have resisted, she assured herself even as she tilted her head slightly to accommodate his kiss, if only he had given her some forewarning of his intentions.