She pointed to the cluster of live oaks and palmettos framing a two-story carriage house. “Who lives there?”
“My youngest brother, Jonah. He’s finishing up his graduate studies in architecture. He stays here between internship trips to Europe.”
White with slate-blue shutters, the carriage house was larger than most family homes, certainly bigger than her little apartment in downtown Columbia.
“It’s lovely.”
She understood he came from money, but seeing Kyle’s lifestyle laid out so grandly only emphasized their different roots. Phoebe gripped the increasingly heavy car seat with both hands as she reached the top of the stairs. The tall double doors opened before Kyle could even reach forward.
His lawyer brother, Sebastian, filled the entrance, their appearances close enough to be mistaken for twins. Except the lawyer didn’t have Kyle’s laugh lines. “You finally made it.”
Kyle deposited her bags on the polished wood floor. “I drove slower because of the kid. Where’s Mom?”
“Still at the club with the general closing out the party so it’s not as obvious we’re gone.” Sebastian eyed Phoebe and Nina briefly then looked back at his brother. “We need to talk.”
Kyle ushered her into the cavernous foyer. “As soon as I get them settled.”
A woman, the wife of the lawyer brother, stood waiting in the archway leading to a mammoth living room with a wall of windows overlooking the ocean. “I can show her around.” The woman—Marianna, she’d been called back at the country club—swept a loose dark curl from her face. “You’ll want to put the baby to bed. I’ll take you to your rooms.”
Phoebe glanced into the hall where Kyle had deposited her bag. “Did the porta-crib make it inside?”
“Don’t worry,” Marianna reassured her. “Everything’s taken care of.”
Still, Phoebe hesitated. What did the brothers need to speak about that she couldn’t hear? Suspicion nipped her ragged nerves, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it, especially in her exhausted state. Maybe she could ferret some information of her own from this woman while Kyle was out of the room.
She smiled back at Marianna. “Thank you, I appreciate your help.”
Marianna extended her hand for the diaper bag. “Let me. Those things weigh a ton. Come on and I’ll show you to the nursery.”
“There’s a nursery here?”
“My husband and I live a few miles away, but Grandma Ginger keeps everything we need here if our little guy needs to nap. Ginger’s second husband, Hank Renshaw, also has grandchildren from his daughters. Between us all, we make good use of that room. You’ll find everything you could possibly need in there.”
Still, Phoebe hesitated. Giving Nina a room here, even a temporary one, seemed such a huge step. One she should have been happy about.
Marianna hitched the pink-flowered diaper bag over her shoulder. “There’s a nursery monitor so you can hear the least little peep if she needs you.”
Even swaying with exhaustion, Phoebe hesitated. “I don’t think I could leave her to wake up alone in a strange place.”
Marianna’s face softened with understanding. “There’s also a daybed in the nursery if you would rather sleep in there with her.”
“Show me the way.”
Marianna started the winding walk through pale-yellow halls until Phoebe wondered if she would be able to find her way back out of the Landis world again. Beach landscapes mingled with framed family candids that added a surprise touch of hominess to the designer decor. A grandfather clock ticked, their footsteps muffled by the light patterned Oriental rugs.
Phoebe couldn’t take the silence any longer. Besides, she would never learn anything from the woman this way. “Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m lying? Everyone else doubts me.”
Marianna glanced back with a reassuring smile, her thick dark hair swishing like the clock’s pendulum. “I believe you’re telling us the truth about Nina being Kyle’s daughter.”
“How can you be so certain?”
Marianna gestured to a portrait on the hall wall, a painting of an infant boy. Undisguised love shone in her eyes. “That’s my son, Sebastian Edward Landis Junior. And very obviously Nina’s cousin.” She tapped four other framed images of babies along the way, all with striking blue eyes. “These are of Matthew, Kyle, Sebastian and Jonah when they were little. There’s no mistaking the Landis look.”
She totally agreed. The deep blue eyes, the signature one-sided smile…they all had it, as did Nina. “If you see the likeness, why can’t they?”
“Because I’m evaluating with maternal eyes, and so are you.” Marianna stopped in front of a closed door, her hand resting on the brass handle. “We see them in a way nobody else ever will.”
Marianna’s words stabbed her with an inescapable reality. “I’m not her mother.”
“You’re willing to do anything for Nina. In my eyes, that makes you her mother.” Marianna looked at her with an understanding. “The family will want a paternity test for legal reasons, of course. They’re that way about details, but truly it will protect Nina’s interests as much as their own.”
“Those results take a while, don’t they?” Would they know soon enough to satisfy a family court judge?
“Nothing takes long when you’re a Landis. They’re an impatient bunch and have the money on hand to see that their wishes are met speedily. Don’t worry. You’ll get your answer quickly.”
Marianna swept open the door to reveal an airy nursery, decorated in neutral sea-foam-green, a white crib on one wall with a coordinated white daybed tucked under a window. A fat, delicious-looking rocker and ottoman took up a corner underneath a mural of fairy-tale characters. “Here we are.”
“Thank you for showing me the way.” Phoebe stepped inside with mixed feelings, wishing she could have given Nina all this and more.
Marianna kept her hand on the open door. “I’m sure Kyle will check in when he’s done talking with Sebastian, but I really need to head home now so the sitter can leave. I don’t like being away from little Edward too long. Good luck.”
“Hopefully I won’t need it.”
With a smile and a quick squeeze of her arm, Marianna seemed to sense her worry. “It will be fine. You’ll both be fine. You’ll see.”
She closed the door behind her. The click reminded Phoebe of her plans to learn more from the woman. She hadn’t found out much more than confirmation of what she’d already known in her heart. Nina was a Landis.
Long after Marianna left and Nina was tucked in her crib, Phoebe sat on the daybed, hugging her knees and staring out at the ocean, unable to sleep. Too many questions, uncertainties, fears churned in her mind like the curling waves, rolling and retreating only to crash right back over her again. One thing shone through as clearly as the moonlight slashing away at the murky depths.
The Landises had power.
The kind of money and impatience that could buy an overnight paternity test could surely oust anyone who didn’t belong in their elite world. With no blood claim to Nina, and Bianca gone, Phoebe could easily find herself at odds with Kyle all too soon.
After having been helpless while she’d watched her husband leave her, she couldn’t tamp down the reflexive fear of having someone she loved taken from her again.
Parked behind the desk in the family study, Kyle scrubbed a hand along his bristly face that had long ago gone