Nathan's Child Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lacey wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think Hugh would mind. But as long as you’re here…”
    â€œWho’s Hugh?”
    Lacey giggled. “Hugh the hunk. That’s what Mom and Florence call him.” Lacey giggled.
    â€œWho’s Florence?” Hugh’s wife, Nathan hoped.
    â€œLorenzo’s mother.”
    Not Hugh’s wife, then. “So what does this Hugh do, when he isn’t scuba diving?” What sort of “hunk” was Carin running around with?
    â€œHe runs the charter service. He’s got a seaplane and a helicopter and three boats. Last summer when Lorenzo had to have his appendix out, Hugh flew him to the hospital in Nassau. When he came home, Hugh took me along to pick him up. It was way cool. Can you fly a helicopter?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOh.” A pause. “That’s too bad.” Because maybe she was angling to learn how to fly a helicopter, too? “I used to think maybe he’d be my dad,” Lacey said.
    Nathan scowled. “Why?”
    â€œBecause he likes Mom. An’ Mom likes him.”
    And he was a hunk.
    â€œAnd now she doesn’t?” Nathan hadn’t even thought that Carin might have a boyfriend. Dominic had only known that she didn’t have a husband.
    â€œâ€™Course she likes him. I told you, he’s nice.”
    â€œBut he’s not going to be your dad?”
    Lacey gave a long-suffering sigh. “You’re my dad,” she explained.
    â€œOh. Right. Of course.”
    Which was true but wasn’t the answer to his question: Does your mother plan on marrying Hugh the hunk? He couldn’t bring himself to ask that.
    â€œDo you have your book about Zeno here?” Lacey finished her soda, hopped off the stool, carried the can to thesink and rinsed it out. “If you do I can tell you my favorite picture. And you can tell me about when you took it.”
    â€œYeah, I’ve got it upstairs.” He moved to get it. Like a shadow, Lacey came right after him.
    â€œI like this house,” she said, looking around his bedroom with interest. “It’s big. Lots bigger than our house.”
    â€œYeah, well, there were three of us boys and my folks.” He opened the duffel on the floor and began pulling clothes out. There was a copy of each of his books at the bottom. He’d brought them for Lacey, never thinking Carin would already have given them to her.
    â€œI’ve always wanted brothers and sisters.” Lacey perched on the edge of the bed and looked hopefully up at him.
    â€œYeah, well, um…brothers are kind of a pain in the neck.”
    She gave a little bounce. “Uncle Dominic is really nice. He came to the shop to see my mom. And then he and Aunt Sierra were here before Christmas. And he and Grandpa came down a couple of months ago.”
    Grandpa?
    â€œWhich Grandpa?” Nathan asked warily.
    â€œThe only one I’ve ever met,” Lacey said. “Grandpa Doug.”
    His father had been here? And hadn’t even bothered to mention it?
    â€œGrandpa brought me a camera. Want to see it?”
    â€œA camera? Why’d he bring you a camera?” Nathan demanded.
    â€œBecause he thought it would be good for me to understand your business,” Lacey told him.
    Yeah, Nathan thought grimly, that sounded like the old man. Grandkids and business were the two most significant things in Douglas Wolfe’s life. Nathan was almost surprised he hadn’t given Lacey a share of the company, and he said so.
    â€œHe wanted to,” Lacey said. “My mom said no.”
    Nathan blinked. That didn’t sound like the Carin he remembered. The Carin he remembered wouldn’t have said boo to a goose. But then he recalled that she’d taken her life into her own hands the day she’d jilted his brother. So she’d obviously made some changes.
    And so had his father if Douglas was taking no for an answer.
    â€œShe said