“Because…” She paused, clearly searching for an explanation that would make sense to a little girl. “…because his house is in Texas.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s where he lives.”
“But why?”
He muffled a snort. He really shouldn’t be enjoying so much how Belle squirmed, Wes thought. Still, he couldn’t help the deep pang of regret he felt at making his little girl unhappy. It only strengthened his resolve to stay in her life permanently.
“Can we go to Texas?” Caro asked, trying a new tack.
Another long pause, and Wes imagined that Belle was wishing he would hurry and show up to dig her out of the conversation.
“No, we really can’t.”
“Why?”
He heard Isabelle sigh.
“What about your uncles? They all live here. Wouldn’t you miss them?”
“Yes. But they could come, too!”
Wes felt a surge of pride. It seemed his daughter was as hardheaded as he was.
“Baby girl,” Belle said, “how about we just enjoy Wes while he’s here, okay?”
“But I don’t want him to leave.”
Wes’s heart filled and he had to gulp in a breath to steady himself.
“I know, sweetie,” Belle said softly. “Neither do I.”
And he smiled. There it was. She didn’t want him to leave any more than Caro did. So maybe it wouldn’t be hard to convince Belle to come back to Texas with him. To try being together—not just for the sake of their daughter.
And on that happy thought, he stepped into Caroline’s room. It was a little girl’s dream, he imagined. Everything from a canopy bed to a play table and chairs and bookcases filled with stories to be read over and over again. There were stuffed animals, a child’s learning computer and, in the corner, a dollhouse as tall as Caro herself.
“Wes!” Caroline scooted out of bed, ran to him and threw her arms around his legs.
There went that twist to his heart again. While he hugged his daughter, his gaze caught Belle’s, and he knew she was wondering how much of their conversation he’d overheard.
“Did you bring a present?” Caro squealed, her fingers moving as fast her voice. “For me?”
“It’s a present for the best dancer in the whole show,” he said, tapping his finger against his mouth. “Now who was that?”
“Me!” Caroline shouted. “It was me. Wasn’t it me?” she asked, now sounding a little less confident.
“You bet it was you,” Wes told her and handed her the red ribbon–wrapped white box.
“Mommy, look!” Caro staggered toward her mother, balancing the box awkwardly but refusing to put it down.
“I see,” Belle said, laughing. “Why don’t you put the box down so you can open it?”
“I will!” Caro set it on the floor, plopped down beside it and yanked at the ribbon until it fell away. Then she lifted the lid, pushed back the white tissue and said, “Ooh…”
One small word drawn out into a sigh of pleasure so rich and deep. Wes had to grin. She liked it.
“Mommy, look!” Caroline pulled the doll out of the box and inspected every inch of her. “She’s like me, Mommy. Her hair and her eyes and, Mommy, she gots hearing aids like me!”
“You like her?” Wes asked unnecessarily.
“I love her,” Caro said and handed the doll to her mother so she could run at Wes again. This time, he scooped her up and held her so she could throw her small arms around his neck and hang on. He’d never felt anything as wonderful as a freely given hug from his child. Her warm, soft weight in his arms, the scent of her shampoo, her grip on his neck and her whisper of “Thank you, Wes” made his heart fill to bursting.
Then he looked at Belle and saw her beautiful eyes shining with unshed tears and he was lost completely. He felt the ground beneath his feet shift as if he were standing in an earthquake. These two females had shattered him without even trying. And he wasn’t entirely sure it bothered him.
* * *
Once Caroline was tucked in with her new doll clutched tightly to her chest, Isabelle led Wes from the room and pulled the door almost closed behind them.
In the dimly lit hallway, she turned to look up at Wes and said softly, “She loves that doll. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. But I’m glad she loves it.” He smiled and threw a quick glance at the door separating them from their daughter. He looked back at Isabelle. “It’s from our new Just Like Me line. We’re set to launch in a few weeks, so Caro got one of the very first.”
The fact that he’d thought of it, arranged to have the doll sent here, touched Isabelle so deeply, her heart ached. “It meant so much to her. To me, too. You could have told her then. That you’re her father.”
He shook his head slowly. “No. I don’t want to give her a present and a responsibility all at once. When I tell her who I am, I want it to be the right time.”
Tears still brimmed in her eyes, remembering her daughter’s excitement and the wonder on her face when she realized the doll had hearing aids just like she did. Wes could not have given her anything that would have meant more. It was hard on a child, being different from all of the other kids, but Caro was so much a force of nature, that even at four, she was completely sure of herself. And yet, having a doll with hearing aids had suddenly given Caro a boost of even more self-confidence.
Wes had given their daughter more than a doll. He’d given her acceptance. Now, with his simple truth that he wanted to wait for the right time to admit to Caroline who he was, Isabelle’s heart was lost. Again.
She took a breath, grabbed Wes’s hand, pulled him along the hallway and said, “Come with me.”
“Where we going?”
“Where we were always headed,” she said and tugged him into her bedroom. No point in lying to herself, Isabelle thought. This had been inevitable from the moment he arrived in Colorado. She’d known it, felt it. As if seeing him again had fanned every ember inside her into life, now that banked fire was a raging inferno and she didn’t want to try to quench it anymore.
Moonlight on snow reflected into the room through the wide windows, giving the bedroom a soft, pale glow. She took a quick glance around the familiar space, the mountains of pillows stacked against the curved brass headboard, the thick, dark green comforter, the cozy chairs in front of the bay window and the brightly flowered rug across the gleaming wood floors. Reaching out, she flipped a wall switch and the gas fireplace in the sky blue–tiled hearth leaped to life.
This was her sanctuary. She’d never invited a man into this space before—not only because she hadn’t been interested, but because she hadn’t wanted Caroline to watch men coming and going. Not that there would have been a parade of men or anything. Yet tonight, it somehow seemed inevitable that Wes would be the first. Isabelle wasn’t nervous, because it felt too right to her to second-guess herself. She’d made her decision and wouldn’t back down now.
“Belle?” Wes looked down at her, desire warring with questions in his eyes.
“No talking,” she said and went up on her toes. She hooked her arms around his neck, tipped her head to one side and kissed him with everything she had.
Surprised, it took him a second to react, but then he was kissing her back, making Isabelle’s head spin when he deepened that kiss, stealing her breath. He parted her lips with his tongue, dipping