The stark sincerity in his question took her breath away. Usually sure of herself, right now, she didn’t know how to answer him.
He must have realized something was wrong, because he looked up from the baby, and his gaze met hers. “Kaitlyn?”
Their evening together and what had almost happened between them flashed before her eyes again. It seemed to require some kind of honesty, though she didn’t know why. But she couldn’t be honest with this man. She didn’t really know him.
So she fell back on the usual excuse. “I work so many hours—”
Suddenly, a beeping came from Adam’s hip. It was his phone. “That could be Tina,” he said with some desperation in his voice.
Kaitlyn stood immediately and scooped Erica from his arms. Her hand brushed against his chest, and she could feel his hardness under the material of his shirt. She knew there was springy, dark brown hair there. But she concentrated on the baby and the bottle and settling on the sofa with Erica to feed her some more while he took his call.
He checked the screen. “Not Tina. It’s my father. He might know where she is.”
“Hello, Dad,” he said with a little more distance than Kaitlyn would expect between father and son.
She unabashedly listened, curious about Adam’s family connections.
“Where are you?” Adam asked.
He paused for an obvious few moments of explanation.
“So you’re in Ireland, but you plan to fly to England tomorrow?”
His father must have agreed that was the plan because Adam asked, “Have you heard from Tina at all?”
A short answer there, most likely no.
“Something’s happened, Dad. She’s not herself. I think she ran off and left Erica with me because she’s depressed and needs help.”
His father must have said something.
“I was out of the country. Didn’t find out she’d had a baby until I got home. I need to find her, and maybe instead of taking a jaunt to England, you should come home.”
Another pause. “I know you promised Iris you’d take her to Ireland and Scotland and everything in between, but this is a family emergency. Our family emergency. Jade’s gone and Tina has no one else. You and I, in the past few years, have practically deserted her. Of course she feels like she doesn’t have any support. You’re out of the country. I was out of the country. How often do we call her? How often does she call us? And what kind of example are either of us setting for her? You’ve been married four times—”
He stopped abruptly and glanced at Kaitlyn. His father must have made some retort because Adam shook his head and clenched his jaw. “I might be a serial dater, but you’re a serial groom. If you hear from Tina, day or night, anytime, call me. This is important, Dad. I have a group of people here who will help her.”
His father must have asked him a question.
Adam answered, “I’m leaving for Thailand in a month. I have no choice. This is a contracted commitment. If that means you have to come back and babysit for a while, that’s what it means.”
Adam just kept shaking his head at the rest of the conversation.
After he ended the call, he slowly slipped the phone back into the holster on his belt, looking as if he’d gone far away.
“It didn’t go well?”
Adam gave a mirthless laugh. “No, it didn’t. But that’s not unusual with Dad. He’s always been more concerned about his most recent marriage to Tiffany or Anna Mae or whoever comes next. But Tina and I—we were pretty much on our own. We never understood why he and Jade divorced. They never told us.”
“It seems you watched over Tina a lot when you were younger. Didn’t you mind having a tagalong? That had to cramp your style given the big age difference.”
“I didn’t have a style. I studied mostly. I ran track, but only so I could get a scholarship.”
Adam’s pride was almost as big as he was. The stiffness in his voice concealed his true feelings. She imagined they would have been sorrow, loneliness and regret. However, just as she hadn’t confided in him, she could tell he wasn’t going to confide in her. She knew about the arrest he’d had when he was twenty-one...that his younger years hadn’t been all studies and sports, even though that’s what he wanted her to think. He’d been involved in a serious accident that had been his fault.
However, she didn’t push further. She didn’t want to get more involved than she already was. “So your dad didn’t know Tina was pregnant?”
“No. I called and left a message for him yesterday after Tina left Erica with me. We’re a pair, the two of us.”
“But not alike. You haven’t been married four times.”
Adam gave her a penetrating stare. “No, I haven’t been married four times. But I also haven’t had a serious relationship with a woman for more than a couple of months. Make that one month. I guess I come from a gene pool that can’t commit.”
“You think it’s in the genes?”
“I think it’s in the genes, and I think you have to grow up in the right atmosphere. I batted zilch on both.”
“I don’t agree.”
When he studied her at her remark, she knew he’d never expected her to contradict him.
“Just what don’t you agree with?” he asked. “You don’t know what my childhood was like.”
“No, I don’t. But I do know we do what we want to do—when we’re kids and when we’re adults. Granted, it’s easier if someone teaches us how to get along with other people. But basically, I think if we want a friend, we make a friend. If we want a mate, we look for the possibilities—which could be anything from a one-night stand to a lasting commitment. But we have to want it, Adam.”
“How do you know what I want? Seems to me, you didn’t stick around to find out.” He sounded regretful about that and she wondered why. After all, he’d just admitted he didn’t date anyone longer than a month!
“I knew what you wanted that night, just as you knew what you wanted. But I—”
“You chickened out, and I’d like to know why.”
Oh, there it was. The conversation that she didn’t want to have.
Taking the bottle away from the baby, she said calmly, “I have to burp her. Do you want to learn how?”
“Kaitlyn, you’re cutting it off again.”
“I’m not here to discuss what happened a year ago. I’m here to figure out what’s best for this baby. Do you want to learn to burp her?”
Adam’s brow furrowed, his jaw set, and she saw the storms in his eyes. He was used to being in control. He was used to being in charge. And right now, he wasn’t.
“Show me what to do, and you won’t have to show me how to do it again.”
Well, those lines were drawn.
Kaitlyn lifted Erica and took her over to Adam. She said, “Sit up straight. You can burp a baby on your shoulder, but you said that wasn’t working for you. So we’ll try something else. I’m going to sit her on your knee.”
Kaitlyn knelt down beside Adam so she could more easily help. “Support her back like I’m doing.”
When Adam transferred his hand to Erica’s back, Kaitlyn’s was still there. She slipped hers away, but not without feeling the warmth of his