Falling for the Brother

“We don’t need Bruce.” He took a slow step, and then another. People on the beach, the tide, the setting sun all faded into a blurred background. Only her voice mattered. “If we have you, me and her, we’ll be able to get a definitive match if she’s mine. If we don’t, she’s probably not. There’ll be some markers because Bruce and I are brothers, but not enough to make it conclusive if she isn’t mine.”

They were in his territory now—puzzle pieces. He might not run forensic tests himself, but he knew how to read the results.

“Okay.”

The word was so soft it didn’t even sound like her. For a second he wondered if he’d really heard it.

“Did you say okay?”

“You have a right to know.”

Damn straight he did. But…

Words slammed him from all sides. Plans. Logistics. Thank-yous. Apologies. Queries. Was she okay? Assurances…he wouldn’t ever do anything detrimental to Brianna. Or interfere in Harper’s parenting…

Before he could voice any of it, she interrupted him.

“I have to go. We’ll talk tomorrow. Good night.”

Just that quickly she was gone. Staring at his screen, at the evidence of the disconnected call, Mason stopped in his tracks, his cup of beer splattering against his feet.

He’d made Harper Davidson cry.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

IT WAS WRONG to feel relieved.

Bruce had refused to allow her to seek Brianna’s paternity confirmation. For four years Harper had carried around a need to know—to be certain that she wasn’t lying to herself, or her daughter. To be certain that she wasn’t being unfair to Mason. And for four years, Bruce had denied her the right to know.

Shaking her head as she watched her ex-husband catch the little girl who’d just thrown herself out of the car and run toward him, she felt crippled with guilt. Bruce adored Brianna. And she adored him, too. You couldn’t see them together and not know that.

So what if he didn’t call her often enough? She was four. The grin on his face was huge as he pulled his daughter into his arms and hugged her tight. Brianna sat on his hip, staring at him, her expression serious as she put her little hands on either side of his face and said something.

Feeling another sharp jab of unwanted emotion, Harper hurried toward them. Sara, the counselor at the Stand, had had a talk with Brianna that morning, telling her why it was important to keep a secret about anyone who was at The Lemonade Stand. It wasn’t about the person. Or about who she might tell her secret to; it was about the very special place The Lemonade Stand was. Brianna had asked if it was like the North Pole and the elves who were there but couldn’t tell anyone because people didn’t believe in them.

Harper had teared up as Sara smiled and told the little girl that it was something like that. She’d explained how people at The Lemonade Stand did very special work, including Brianna when she smiled at the women and children who lived there. She’d said that Miriam was helping, too, but no one, including her dad or her grandparents, could know about it.

“Hey, there.” Bruce came toward her with an arm outstretched, and Harper was thankful again that Sara hadn’t singled him out when she’d told Brianna not to tell anyone that Miriam was at the Stand, or that she’d seen her great-grandmother—because then she might have to say where.

“Hi,” she said, searching his expression for any sign that anything had changed with him. Searching his demeanor was habit. He leaned in, as though he was going to kiss her, and she turned her head so his lips landed on her cheek. Bruce hadn’t tried to kiss her since the morning she’d told him she was filing for divorce.

Mason had said he’d be there, watching. She didn’t want him seeing Bruce kiss her.

“What was that about?” she asked, as Brianna looked between the two of them. The last thing Harper needed was for her daughter to suddenly start thinking Mommy and Daddy were in love.

“Sorry.” Bruce looked and sounded contrite. “It’s just so good to see the two of you. A month is too long. And being here, at the beach again…”

He took Brianna to the beach regularly—always while Harper was with her parents.