Czytaj książkę: «The Baby Favour»

One

As a general rule, phone calls that came after midnight were bad news.

An hour ago, when Scarlet Spencer had looked at her caller ID and seen her estranged husband’s name, a moment of excitement had rushed through her. The other kind of calls that came at this hour were emotional outpourings brought on by late nights and alcohol. She’d hoped that it was the latter—that perhaps he’d changed his mind about the divorce—but she was to be disappointed. Now she was walking through the front door of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles just after two in the morning and she didn’t know why.

All she knew was that Mason had called and asked her to come. Despite everything that was happening between them, she knew she had to do as he asked. There was something in his voice that scared her. Mason had been her rock for the last nine years. Through the ups and downs of their marriage, he had been the one to hold her hand. She got the feeling that tonight, she was returning the favor.

As she walked through the doors of the hospital, she tried to brace herself for seeing Mason again. She hadn’t seen him since he moved out two months ago and she didn’t know how it would feel. After nine years together, he wasn’t hers anymore. He wasn’t hers to hold or care for. She would have to remind herself of that as she consoled him tonight.

Before she reached the elevators, she found Mason sitting on a bench in the hallway. The first time they’d met, she’d instantly been enchanted by the beautiful surfer boy with his golden skin, eyes as blue as the sea and messy brown hair. When he smiled, his dimples had melted her insides. Just a glimpse of him now was enough to set her heart racing in her chest even all these years later.

Tonight, however, there were no smiles. He was slumped in his seat, holding his head in his hands.

He looked defeated. Scarlet had seen that in him only a few times in all these years. Most of the time, he was the confident, successful CEO of Spencer Surf Shops. The guy who never failed at anything. Who always knew the right decision to make. Sexy, bold and sure of himself. Rarely did that facade crack. Once, when he found out he couldn’t give her a child. The second time, when he couldn’t keep the judge from giving their adopted son back to his biological mother. The third time was when he walked out the door, leaving her and their marriage behind.

She couldn’t imagine what happened tonight that could bring that look of despair back to his face. “Mason?” she asked as she approached.

Her husband shot up in his seat, turning to her with eyes more red than blue. He stood quickly, his jaw flexed tight as he tried to hold everything in. He didn’t speak right away, as though if he opened his mouth, a torrent of emotions would pour out of him instead.

“What’s happened? Is it Jay?”

Scarlet knew that Mason’s younger brother, Jay, had been battling stage four melanoma for several months. The last she’d heard, they’d gotten the devastating news that the cancer had spread into all his major organs and they were discontinuing treatment. It wouldn’t surprise her to find out that Jay had finally lost his battle. Something about the look on Mason’s face, however, made her worry that this was something much worse.

“No,” Mason said at last. “It’s Rachel.”

“Jay’s wife?” Scarlet felt her chest tighten. Her sister-in-law had been like a true sister to her. As an only child, Scarlet had enjoyed having Rachel around to talk to and share marriage war stories with. The idea of Rachel raising their daughter alone after Jay passed had weighed heavily on her mind since she found out the news. Luna was only a year old and would never remember her father. “What happened?”

“She’s dead.”

Scarlet could only clap her hand over her mouth to hold in the painful gasp. It couldn’t be true. The universe wasn’t that cruel. Baby Luna was already losing her father. To lose her mother, too... “How...?” She couldn’t get the words out. How could something like this happen?

“It was a freak accident. She fell down the stairs carrying a basket of laundry. I can imagine her mind has been all over the place dealing with Jay’s illness. She fell in just the right way to break her neck instantaneously. Their housekeeper found her.”

Scarlet didn’t know what to say. Of everything that had run through her head since she received the call, Rachel’s death was the last thing she expected. It was so bitterly tragic on its own, not to mention when it was compounded by Jay’s illness. “Does Jay know?” she whispered through her fingers.

Mason nodded. “He’s the one who called and told me about it.”

She could only squeeze her eyes shut and shake her head. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. Her own life was a mess and she was dealing with that, but Jay and Rachel... Her heart just ached. Tears welled beneath her eyelids. A moment later, she felt Mason’s arms wrap around her and she didn’t fight it. Instead, she melted into him and let her tears wet the front of his dress shirt. She tried not to think about how good it felt to be in his arms again. How much she missed his scent in her lungs and his warmth surrounding her. He was just comforting her, perhaps comforting himself, and nothing more.

That thought was able to cut through the grief, stab her in her tender underbelly and remind her to keep her emotional distance. With a soft sniffle, she pulled away from him and took a step back. When her gaze met Mason’s, there was a flash of pain there unrelated to the accident. It was as though he was hurt she’d pulled away so soon. As much as she might like to stay in his arms all night, that wouldn’t help her get over him. It was hard enough being in the same room with him knowing he didn’t want her anymore.

Despite everything, Scarlet couldn’t help but wonder why he’d called her tonight. They were getting a divorce and had hardly been speaking for the last two months after he’d moved out of their Malibu beach house. He had family in town. Friends. Surely there was someone else he would want here with him instead of her. He was the one who walked away, after all. Away from her, away from their life together...

Mason cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “I’m sorry to drag you down here in the middle of the night, but Jay asked to see us.”

Scarlet frowned. “Us?”

He nodded. “He’s waiting on us to come up. He’s on the oncology floor.”

Mason turned toward the elevator, not giving Scarlet a chance to argue with him, as usual. She followed him, both of them silent until they exited on the third floor. Halfway down the hallway, they entered a room with the name J. Spencer written on the whiteboard.

Scarlet held her breath as she stepped inside. She hadn’t seen Jay in a while and she was worried about how she’d react to seeing him in such rough shape. At first, a privacy curtain blocked all but his blanketed legs, then Mason pushed it aside.

The man lying in the bed was half of the robust brother-in-law she’d once known. He’d easily lost fifty pounds on a tall frame that needed every bit of it. His thick brown hair, so much like Mason’s, had thinned. His skin was sallow. But the Jay she knew was still in there somewhere—the life of the party, the comic relief, the easygoing counterpoint to Mason’s perfectionism.

“Hey there,” Jay said in a raspy voice as he spied Scarlet slipping into the room. She reached out and took his extended hand as he offered it to her. “You’re looking beautiful as always, sister.”

Scarlet bit at her bottom lip to keep from crying. “I won’t be able to keep it up if you continue to interrupt my beauty sleep,” she quipped. Jay preferred to keep things light even in the darkest moments, so she’d do her best to comply.

“I know.” Jay’s gaze grew distant as he stared off for a moment. “It couldn’t be avoided. Did Mason tell you what happened?”

Scarlet could only nod as she slipped down into the chair beside the bed. “I’m so sorry, Jay.”

Jay shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. I won’t be wasting away without her. She and I will have a happy reunion before too long. But I asked you both here because I’m worried about what’s going to happen to Luna.”

Scarlet felt stupid. She’d focused on the trauma of the loss and hadn’t even considered the fact that Luna would be orphaned soon. No wonder Jay was up in the middle of the night worried about his daughter’s future.

“We want you to raise her. The paperwork officially just names Mason as her guardian for some reason our lawyers explained but I never understood, but of course we intended to leave her to both of you. I know how badly you both wanted a child. This isn’t the way I expected it to happen, but I hope that you’re open to the possibility of adopting Luna and raising her as your own.”

“She’ll always be your child, Jay,” Mason said.

Jay shook his head. “She won’t remember us, Mason. You and Scarlet will be the mother and father she knows and I’m okay with that. When she’s older, you can tell her about us and about how much we adored her. But I hope you’ll embrace this opportunity and raise her with all the love and support that Rachel and I would’ve given her.”

Scarlet’s heart lodged in her throat as she realized the implications of Jay’s words. She couldn’t make a sound, she could only sit stunned and listen to the two brothers discuss her life like nothing had changed between them. Mason hadn’t told his brother they were getting a divorce yet. Jay was speaking about their future as though he expected them to raise his daughter together. What were they going to do?

Mason reached out and took Scarlet’s hand, squeezing it tightly to silence her concerns. Her gaze met his for a moment and she knew that he sensed her panic. “Of course we will,” he said.

“Promise me,” Jay said.

Mason swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes shut before nodding. “I promise, Jay. Luna will want for nothing. She will have all the love that we can give her.”

Jay finally seemed pleased. He relaxed back into his bed and took a deep, labored breath. “Thank you. You know, when you write your will, you never imagine you’ll actually need it. At least you hope you won’t. In the morning, I’ll have my attorneys start the process of having you declared her legal and physical guardian, Mason. I can’t fill that role from my hospital bed, and before long, you’ll be all she has anyway. Once I’m gone, I hope the two of you will consider adopting her.”

“Of course,” Mason said. His grip on her grew ever tighter as Jay spoke. “You don’t need to worry about a thing.”

* * *

“You haven’t told your brother that we’re getting a divorce?”

Mason halted his quick pace. They were just exiting the hospital and heading toward their cars when she finally confronted him. He was thankful she’d waited that long so no one could overhear the truth he desperately wanted to keep from his brother. He pivoted on the asphalt and turned to look at his soon-to-be ex-wife.

He’d tried not to react to seeing her again for the first time since he moved out, but not even his grief could suppress his response to Scarlet. Even now, after spending the last hour with her under the worst possible circumstances, his heart still skipped a beat when their eyes met. There was an undeniable connection between them that time and distance hadn’t dulled. He didn’t know if anything could.

She was the most beautiful women he’d ever seen in person, and LA was filled with beautiful people. In his eyes, no one could compare. Scarlet had long brown curls that trailed down her back, soft brown eyes and a disarming smile that had immediately caught his attention when they met. That was just the beginning of her appeal, he soon learned. She was also talented, smart, sensitive and a wonderful mother. At least for the short period of time she had been able to be one.

“No, I haven’t told him. I didn’t tell anyone in my family about the divorce yet.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Mason repeated, running his fingers anxiously through his hair. “Because my brother has spent the last few months of his life battling terminal cancer. My parents are a wreck, barely holding it together. I didn’t want to dump more on them. And really, the demise of our marriage seems fairly inconsequential in comparison, don’t you think? They’ve been too caught up to even notice they haven’t seen you in weeks.”

“Of course it doesn’t compare, but it’s hardly insignificant. Now, because you haven’t told anyone, Jay thinks we’re going to raise Luna as one big, happy family.” Scarlet’s large brown eyes reflected the panic that he’d felt the moment he realized what Rachel’s death would mean for him.

“I know,” he admitted. “But how could I possibly tell a man in his position no?” He remembered his brother asking about putting him in the will not long after Luna was born. He’d agreed. Of course he’d take his niece in an emergency. He just never expected there to be an actual emergency. Or if there was, that it would happen at the worst possible time in his own life.

His lawyer had just sent him a draft of the mediated divorce settlement to review. Once they agreed on terms, it was a matter of signing off and filing it with the judge. Mason had moved out of the house he and Scarlet had bought together in Malibu and got a place in the Hollywood Hills. The new place was definitely a bachelor pad, not a single-dad pad. It was a midcentury modern design decorated with lots of glass, wood and chrome, completely unsuitable for an infant just starting to walk.

Then again, the home he’d shared with Scarlet in Malibu would be perfect. It still had a decorated nursery in it. She’d shut the room up and left it as it was the day they took their adopted son, Evan, back to his birth mother. The home also had an open floor plan with soft, safe surfaces that were fully baby proofed over a year ago.

It also had Scarlet, the mother that Luna would desperately need. That was where Luna should be. Mason was happy to have children with Scarlet when she wanted them, but the idea of being a single father to his niece was horrifying. He didn’t know anything about babies, and he was certain Jay wouldn’t leave Luna to him if he knew Scarlet was out of the picture.

The trick was convincing her to go along with this. After their adoption plans went south, she swore she would never go through that again. Was asking her to take in Luna, even temporarily, going to aggravate the wound? He didn’t know. All he did know was that he’d made a promise to his brother and he would do whatever he had to to keep his word.

“I know that I have no reason to ask you for anything and you have no reason to go along with it. But you were there in Jay’s hospital room, Scarlet. You heard him beg me—us—to take care of Luna. He was worried enough about leaving Rachel all alone, and now he’s powerless to do anything but leave his daughter behind. I know our situation is complicated, but I couldn’t tell him no. I need your help.”

Scarlet crossed her arms over her chest. He knew from years together that it was her defensive posture. She was uncomfortable with this entire situation. “What are you asking of me, Mason? Do you want us to get back together just so you don’t have to do this alone?”

“No, of course not.” But what did he want? He really hadn’t had enough time to process what all this would mean. Life-changing moments that arrived in the wee hours of the morning were hard to work through with a combination of stress and sleep deprivation. He couldn’t process a long-term plan at this point; he could only focus on his next steps. The most important things were to make sure Luna was safe and Jay was at ease.

“For now, I just need you to do me two favors. First, please let’s keep the divorce a secret from Jay and the rest of my family until after...” Mason couldn’t finish the sentence. He still hadn’t fully accepted the fact that his brother had only weeks left to live. Skin cancer was supposed to involve removing a bad mole and getting a lecture about sunscreen. It wasn’t supposed to strike down an otherwise healthy father in his early thirties.

Scarlet watched him silently with dark eyes that didn’t betray what she was thinking. She was always too hard for him to read. Whatever happened inside Scarlet’s head was a secret from Mason. To this day, he wasn’t sure if she blamed him for the fact that they couldn’t have children. It was his fault, really, but did she look at him and see a barren future because of him? He didn’t know. He also didn’t know if she felt he was responsible for everything that happened with Evan. Had he fought hard enough to keep him? Had he hired all the best attorneys their money could buy to keep their son in their home? He thought he had, but it hadn’t been enough.

All he knew was how he felt, and he felt like a failure where Scarlet was concerned. Mason wasn’t the kind of man who failed at anything. He turned a small Venice Beach surf store he started in college into a chain with locations at every major beach in California, Florida and Hawaii. Spencer Surf Shops was more successful than he’d ever dreamed. But none of that mattered to him when he saw the brokenhearted look on Scarlet’s face the day they took Evan away. He had failed her in the one dream she longed to fulfill more than any other.

“Okay. What’s the second favor?” she asked at last.

“I need to move back into the house.” He held up his hand to stop her inevitable protest. “Not forever. I don’t want you to think I’m just trying to sweet-talk you into taking me back so I have a permanent babysitter. But I want to create the illusion of a secure future for Luna with the two of us to give Jay some peace of mind. Everyone thinks we’re still together.”

Scarlet flinched. “You walked out on me and now you just expect me to let you move back in?”

Mason tried not to let her reaction hurt his feelings. He was the one who had left, although he didn’t like the idea that she’d already gotten used to living without him. They were together nine years. “Yes, that’s what I’m asking, but you know I wouldn’t if I had any other choice. It’s just for however much time Jay has left. It will also give me some time to get my place ready for a baby. Our house has a nursery ready to go.”

Scarlet’s already pale skin seemed to blanch at his words. “Evan’s nursery? You want to put Luna in Evan’s room?”

Mason’s jaw tightened. Scarlet’s protection of Evan’s space was something that he’d never challenged before. He knew it wasn’t healthy to keep the room like a shrine to a child who was never returning, but pushing the issue with her seemed like a cruel fight to pick.

“It’s an unused nursery,” Mason clarified. Evan was never going to use it ever again. It was just a room with a crib, a changing table, and some baby supplies and toys that would help ease the situation they were in. “I’m not saying Luna has to stay there forever.”

Scarlet’s lips flattened into a tight line of displeasure, but she didn’t argue with him. Instead, she seemed to be considering his request for a moment, finally dropping her arms at her sides. “Okay, fine. You can stay at the house and bring Luna. But,” she emphasized, “I’m not going to be your nanny, Mason. I’ve got a new gallery opening in San Francisco in two weeks, not to mention a large commissioned piece for a hotel in Maui. I’m behind on it because of everything that’s happened between us and I have to get it done.”

“That’s fair,” Mason said cautiously. “What do you need to make this work for us?”

“I’m happy to keep up appearances for Jay’s sake, but you need to get a nanny to take care of Luna. I won’t—no, I can’t—go into Evan’s room. I don’t even like the idea of Luna using it, but I know that’s unreasonable. You can use it, but don’t expect me to be in there singing lullabies and rocking Luna to sleep. Please don’t ask me to.”

Mason watched as frustrated, glassy tears formed in Scarlet’s eyes. It had been over a year since the judge awarded Evan back to his biological mother, but it may as well have been yesterday as far as Scarlet was concerned.

He had hoped that she might enjoy the time with her niece, but that didn’t appear to be the case. She actually seemed repelled by the idea, which surprised him, but he wouldn’t push the issue. If she agreed to the two favors that really mattered, he would find a way to make it work even if Scarlet was hands-off with Luna.

“I understand. Thank you for doing this. I’ll see about a nanny first thing in the morning.”

“Where is the baby now?” she asked.

“With my parents.” It gave them something to focus on other than the grief. Luna was the same happy baby she always was. For her, nothing was different and that was a good distraction for them. “They’ll probably keep her until Rachel’s memorial service.”

Scarlet nodded and reached into her purse. She pulled out a key and handed it to him. “This is to the house. I had the locks changed after you moved out. Just let me know you’re on your way before you show up. Remember this isn’t your place anymore.”

Without another word, Scarlet turned and headed toward her car in the hospital parking lot. Mason watched her drive away with an aching feeling of disappointment in his stomach. He hadn’t been able to shake that feeling the last few years of their marriage as they battled to start a family. He’d hoped that maybe when they were apart, the feeling would go away. It only got worse.

Scarlet had agreed to do him these favors, but he could tell she didn’t want to. She had loved her little niece, but she resisted the idea of being hands-on with her. He hadn’t had time to ponder the possibilities of what Luna could mean for their relationship, but it was clear that those ideas would just be fantasies. She didn’t want anything to do with Luna. She wanted a child of her own. Once they were divorced, there was no reason for her to even pretend to be a family. Hell, that was why he’d left in the first place, so she wouldn’t be held back from her dream.

That meant that once Jay passed away, Mason was going to be raising his niece all on his own.

A feeling of overwhelming panic started to wash over him. It felt like the first time he’d caught a huge wave surfing and had been engulfed by the harsh cone of water. He could only brace himself for the inevitable wipeout, knowing he was in way over his head.