Dean tugged her back. “To a baby?”
“Sure. He’s a sweetie. I’ve met him a few times when Dom and Ginny visited Eva and Alex.”
She tugged again.
He tugged her back again. “But there’s so much family around him already.”
Kristen laughed. “That’s the way they like it. The Sancho men were alone for so long that they love being surrounded by people. They especially love showing off Jimmy.” She smiled. “Come on.”
He almost took a step. Almost. But something held him back. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jason approaching.
Relief rippled through him when Jason said, “What’s going on?”
Kristen said, “We were just going to say good-night to Jimmy.”
Jason laughed. “Cutest kid I’ve ever seen. But Dean and I really need to talk about a thing. So why don’t you go and we’ll catch up later.”
He saw Kristen hesitate. Inside him, a small battle ensued. He wanted to go with her. He wanted to take this step. But he couldn’t and he thanked the heavens Jason needed to talk to him.
Kristen walked away and Dean turned to Jason. “So what do we need to talk about?”
“Nothing.” He laughed. “I could just see that you needed rescuing.”
“That obvious?”
“Nah. I just know you. Kids freak you out.”
Dean stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets. “Yeah, well, I’m going to have to get over it.” He nudged his head in Kristen’s direction. “I really like her.”
Jason snorted. “Of course you do. She’s gorgeous. And just like with Nina, you’re in love in two weeks.” He batted his hand. “You’re so predictable with a certain kind of woman. You like them strong and smart. But it almost seems that subconsciously you pick somebody you really can’t have. Nina was already taken, and this one—” He pointed at Kristen. “Is moving on.”
Confused, Dean faced Jason again.
“You didn’t hear that the royal family gave her the boot today?”
“What? They fired her?”
“No. No. They gave her the ‘shove the bird out of the nest’ dismissal. Rumor has it they also contributed to the tune of a million dollars.”
Pleasure for her shimmied through him. “That’s great.”
“It’s fantastic. For her. And who got her to this point? You. You introduced her to Mrs. Flannigan. Just like you gave Nina the way to get to Alex, you gave Kristen the way to get to know the people who could set her on the right course.”
Dean’s blood ran cold. “Are you saying she used me?”
“I don’t think she did it deliberately. I don’t think she realized the kind of clout that you have, but the genie’s out of the bottle now. She’s gotten her introductions and literally millions of dollars of funding. She doesn’t need you anymore. And you still have weeks of work on a failing project.”
Dean stood frozen, trying to link the things Jason said to Kristen’s behavior and he just couldn’t do it. True, he and Kristen were in two different places with their careers. But there was no law that said they had to be in the same place.
He wanted to support her. He wanted her to support him. “She’s exactly where she needs to be.”
“And so are you.”
Dean frowned. “Excuse me?”
Jason took Dean’s shoulders and turned him to face Kristen, who stood by King Mason, playing peekaboo with Jimmy. “Look at her, Dean. She is in her element. She is going to travel around the world and build schools. And what she needs is some big blond guy name Sven to hold down a fort at home. Maybe run the family farm. So that when she comes home, she will see her beautiful, well-adjusted babies and rest up before she has to go to Africa or Asia or South America.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“What’s ridiculous? You don’t think she deserves a nice home, the family she wants?” He waved a hand. “Forget it. Forget I said anything. You want to mess with the life of a woman who’s finally got her act together, who deserves to have the family she wants, who worked damned hard to get there, then who am I to stop you? Just remember you were in a car behind Nina, chasing her down, refusing to take her no for an answer when she jumped into that boat. You might have been cleared of any wrongdoing, but you’re in no way an innocent.”