He wasenjoyingthis? Giddy with relief that he’d escaped the life himself?
“She knows her rules and is fantastically good about abiding by them. She just gets ahead of herself sometimes when rules collide. She’s allowed to move freely on the four-cottage stretch of beach as long as either Scott or I are present. Sometimes, she misinterprets that wordpresent. She knows we’re always watching her, keeping her in sight. And she’s incredibly fond of dogs. She knows every member of the canine population on Ocean Breeze, calls them by name and thinks they’re her family.”
“Even Aggie? That girl is a hundred twenty pounds minimum.”
“And the sweetest living being on Ocean Breeze.” Her lawyer hat was on. Defending herself. Her parenting. “But she knows she’s not allowed to run up to or away from Aggie. She’s not allowed to be in touching distance, unless a trusted adult is with her. Precisely because of her size. And Aggie’s.”
She could show him a picture where the two had fallen asleep together, though. On the beach one night, during a bonfire. Harper had been sitting right there, too. Leigh had crawled up into the other woman’s lap to pet Aggie. She’d fallen asleep, with her body on Harper and her head on Aggie’s thigh.
A sweet memory. Not one she was going to share with a man who’d rather leave her than father her children.
And, the other side of her brain reminded her, not wanting children in no way made Gray a bad guy. On the contrary, the fact that he’d been honest with her—albeit last minute—was honorable. Minus the last-minute part.
For a second there, she wished she could shut that part of her up. But she knew better. A good lawyer always looked at both sides. It was the only way to predict what an opponent could throw at you. And to make sure your client’s business was fully prepared and protected at all times.
Likewise, in her personal life, she had to make sure that she and Leigh were emotionally as well as physically safe.
And that meant taking honest looks.
Even if they hurt.
They’d established that they both knew she had a daughter. He wasn’t comfortable with any of the reasonings popping up as to why that fact had been important enough to Sage that she made a point of having a major conversation over it. Like, what, she’d really think that if the kid showed up close to him, he’d be rude to her?
A four-year-old?
He had to be reminded to be kind?
His reluctance to have a family had obviously come off worse than he’d realized.
Watching Sage sit there, fiddling with her hair, Gray wanted the conversation done, and wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “Are we still in session?”
She blinked as though, while she’d been looking in his direction, he most certainly had not been her focus. Bringing to mind, once again, that father of her child.
She’d mentioned her and Scott looking after Sage.
Not a dad.
And not a topic he had any justifiable reason to raise...
“We can be, if you have something you need to bring to the table.”
Because she’d said it was a one-time thing. He got that. Either then or never. The child’s father was off-limits, but, “What’s her name?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your daughter. Granted, I know diddly about kids—other than all of those I deal with every day at work when they come in with their parents to have a pet cared for...” The dig was beneath him. But was boldly out there, unretractable, so he went on. “But it makes sense to me that I would appear kinder if I knew what to call her.” He stopped. Didn’t like the blank look on her face. Had to wipe it off.
And came up with, “If she ever comes down my way...you asked me to be kind...”
Figuring he was in the weirdest, most awkward conversation he’d ever had, Gray was oddly willing to remain sitting there and be in it.
“Her name is Leigh.”
No last name. Was it Martin? Like hers? Or did the child have her father’s name? Had the guy been around when Sage had carried the child? Had he been there to help her through the birth?
Was he still there and just traveling at the moment?
Whoa. What in the hell was he doing? What was she doing to him?
