The Daddy Gamble Read online

Rob didn’t like hearing that. “I was a lifeguard at our community pool for six summers. And I taught Red Cross swim lessons. I’m from the earlier-the-better school of swimming.”

  The look in Yetta’s eyes told him she agreed. “Well, maybe a male teacher would have better luck with Maya. She pretty much gets around her aunts and her mother.”

  She motioned for Rob to follow her through the house to the sliding glass door that connected to the backyard. He glanced at the decor in passing. The home was slightly shabby, slightly cluttered, but he felt an immediate connection to the underlying essence of the place. This was a home filled with love.

  He dashed around Yetta to open the door for her. She smiled, as if surprised by his gesture. “My mother’s influence.”

  “A good woman,” Yetta replied with a wry look.

  “Hello, everyone,” she called out a second later. “Look who’s here.”

  Rob followed her out. A covered patio ran the length of the house and was home to a lush flower garden at one end as well as a hodgepodge of padded chairs and small tables. Just beyond the line of shade lay an oval oasis of blue surrounded by concrete. In close proximity, a large green umbrella fluttered in the wind above a glass and metal table and six chairs.

  Kate, Liz and Maya stood together near the shallow end of the pool. Liz, in a navy-blue one-piece suit, stood on the top step in water up to her ankles. Maya—also in a swimsuit, a bright orange two-piece with a little skirt that was gathered at one hip—stood between the two sisters.

  Kate lifted her hand to shield her eyes as she looked at him. “Rob? What are you doing here? Is Jo okay?”

  “Fine.” I hope.

  “I asked him to stop by,” Yetta said. “I wanted to know where we stood regarding you-know-who.” She lowered her voice with the last word.

  Maya looked up with interest.

  Kate, who was dressed in her checkered chef’s pants and sleeveless white tank top, gave her mother a severe look. “Maya knows what’s going on, Mom. I read her the letter from my new lawyer. She said he sounds like a very nice man.”

  Unlike me. The icky one with squeaky shoes.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Rob said. “I talked to several people who said he’s experienced and compassionate. He’ll make sure your rights aren’t trampled in any way.”

  He patted his pocket for his sunglasses, but he’d left them on the table with his keys. Damn. It was really tough to look at Kate without remembering how it felt to hold her in his arms and kiss her.

  He pushed the memory away and said to Liz, “I was wondering if you could recommend some herbal tea for my mom. To help ease her cough. She says she’s having trouble sleeping because the cough wakes her up.”

  Before Liz could reply, Yetta made a chopping motion with her hand. “You can e-mail him some literature, Elizabeth. What’s important now is the fact that Rob is a licensed swimming instructor.”

  He demurred, trying to downplay Yetta’s overstatement of his credentials. “Was. In high school and my first year of college. It’s been a while.”

  “What? Like two or three years?” Liz quipped with a wink.

  “Slightly longer.”

  “I don’t want to go to swimming school,” Maya said, crossing her arms belligerently. “I already know how to swim.”

  Kate went down on one knee. “Maya, you’re a wonderful kicker and very bold when you’re wearing your floaties, but you also have to know how to swim when you don’t have them on your arms.”

  “Yeah, kiddo, being able to dog-paddle is important,” her aunt said. “Let me show—”

  “No,” Maya snapped rudely, brushing Liz’s hands away.

  Brat.

  She pivoted to stare at him as if she’d heard his silent comment. Rob fought to keep from blushing. Distracted by the little girl’s unspoken antipathy—and possibly because he rarely turned down a challenge—he heard himself say, “I have a suit in my gym bag in the car. I could come back after work. I bet I could have Maya swimming like a fish inside a week.”

  Kate stood up. “But…you’re a lawyer. Isn’t giving lessons to four-year-olds a bit beneath you?”

  “How often do I get to save a life? And that’s what learning how to swim can do.” He looked at Maya and said, “Unless someone’s…chicken.”

  Her chin came up just the way her mother’s did when challenged. “I don’t like you.”

  “I know. And I wish you did. But you can still learn from me. If you’re brave enough to try.”

  She looked at him a few seconds, then turned and ran to her mother. “Mommy…”

  Kate picked her up and walked under the shade of the umbrella. He couldn’t hear what they were saying because they spoke in whispers. Liz apparently got tired of waiting because she dove into the water and started swimming laps. Yetta motioned for him to follow her back under the overhang where it was significantly cooler.

  “This is a turbulent time for my granddaughter. She’s particularly sensitive to her mother’s feelings, and Katherine is a ball of nerves. Too much on her plate, as they say.”

  “I’m sure it can’t be easy running the restaurant alone.”

  “Oh, that’s a small thing compared to Ian’s return. My daughter is an all-or-nothing kind of woman,” she said, looking to where Kate was standing. “If she gives her heart, she gives every ounce of her spirit, trust and loyalty, as well. When Ian betrayed her, he broke her faith in love.”

  He looked at her, wondering if she was telling him this for a reason.

  “Wounds that fester never heal properly. I’m afraid that Katherine will never allow herself to trust again if she doesn’t resolve things with Ian.”

  “You don’t think she should fight to retain sole custody.”

  “Rom men will defend to the death what they believe is theirs. Ian’s honor—what’s left of it—is at stake.” She made a dismissive motion with her hand. “But if he were to win Kate back, the challenge would be gone and sooner or later he’d revert to his old ways.”

  Grant planned to win Kate back? Was that possible?

  They do share a child. Wouldn’t any mother want to give her daughter a happy, two-parent home if the possibility presented itself?

  Yetta startled him when she laid her slim white hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, my dear boy. I said that’s what Ian wants. Not what Katherine has in mind.”

  He blinked in surprise at her cheerful tone. Her silver hair made her regal, not old. Smooth skin and uncanny brown eyes so dark they almost seemed black. Bewitching.

  Before he could speak, Kate joined them. Maya had disappeared. “Thank you for offering to help, Rob, but we’re going to have to take a rain check. Maya’s convinced herself she’s sick.”

  “I’m sure we’ll see a remarkable improvement once Rob leaves,” Yetta said. Her tone seemed nonjudgmental to Rob, but he could tell by the way Kate’s shoulders stiffened that she took her mother’s observation as criticism.

  “Hey,” he said before she could reply, “I don’t blame her. I’m a stranger. And a man. Maybe if you had a couple of other kids around at the same time—made it a real class, she’d feel less like she was on the spot.”

  Kate blinked, obviously surprised by his suggestion.

  “That’s a really good idea,” Yetta said. “Maybe Gregor could bring Luca and Gemilla over. I remember Mary Ann taking Luca to lessons when he was little, but I don’t think Gemilla knows more than what she’s picked up from her brother.”

  “Mom, Rob is a busy lawyer. He gets paid big bucks—”

  He cut her off with a laugh. “Not to swim. Consider it payback for all the work your family’s sent my way. I know things have been tough for your cousin and the kids with Mary Ann away. This might be nice for them. How ’bout Saturday morning?”

  Kate still didn’t appear convinced. “Not early. Fridays are our busiest night.”

  “Say midmorning. Ten-thirty?”

  “O…okay.”

  Rob could tell she wasn
’t enthused but, oddly, he was. In fact, he could hardly wait.

  He was about ten steps away when he remembered the gift in his pocket. He decided to leave it there. Maybe it would look less like a bribe if he gave it to her after she learned to swim.

  “Katie. God, you look great. It’s so good to see you. Did you bring Maya?”

  Kate’s temper spiked. Typical Ian. Everything is always about his agenda.

  Today was Friday. Last day of the week and what was surely going to be the longest day of her life. Her attorney had called shortly after Rob’s visit two days earlier. He had news. She and Ian were scheduled to meet face-to-face. “Just to feel each other out,” her lawyer had said.

  Kate shook her head, managing to keep inside all the things she’d waited so long to say. She’d promised her mother and Liz that she wouldn’t lose her temper.

  “Don’t call me Katie. And, no, Maya isn’t with me. She won’t be allowed anywhere near you until the court orders it.”

  His chin dropped to his chest, as if she’d struck him. “Why? Do you think I’d harm her? I’m an embezzler, not a pedophile.”

  Before Kate’s attorney could pull her back, Kate leaned across the table and said, “You’re a two-bit thief and a worthless excuse for a husband. You’re a lot of things, Ian, but the main thing you are is a flight risk.” Although looking at him, she wondered if that was true. Pale. Too thin. And weak-looking.

  He gave a feeble laugh. “Do I really look that dangerous?”

  “I know you, Ian. You could be on life support, and still find a way to screw up my life. I’m demanding that you not be allowed to spend any time with our daughter unsupervised.”

  His skin had the cast of day-old mashed potatoes. He made a “whatever” motion with his hand, which ended up flopping uselessly to the table. “I’m not going anywhere, Katie. I can’t even get up to pee without help. You don’t have to worry about me stealing our daughter.”

  She lowered her voice. “But I do, Ian. I used to have nightmares about you talking your way out of jail then walking off with Maya. I’d spend night after night in a futile chase. You know how we Romani feel about dreams—that they forecast the future.”

  He acknowledged her assertion with a grimace.

  “Eventually, those dreams faded because you were safely behind bars, but now…here you are. You look sick, but maybe you’re faking this just to get close to Maya. I don’t know and I’m not taking any chances.”

  “You really hate me, don’t you?”

  “The absence of love isn’t necessarily hate. But I do hate what you did.” She couldn’t allow sympathy—or the memories of the good times they’d shared—to cloud her judgment. “I loved you once, but now I really don’t give a damn what happens to you, except for how it might affect Maya. I don’t wish you dead—just not living in the same town.”

  “God has forgiven me, so how come you can’t?”

  God? Was Rob right? Had Ian found religion in prison? “To forgive you would be to excuse what you did. I want my daughter to know that lying, cheating and stealing result in losing things that matter to you.”

  He didn’t say anything for so long Kate wasn’t sure he was still breathing. “You never used to be so hard.”

  She picked up her purse. In a low, harsh growl, she said, “You’re right. I used to trust people. I trusted you. But then you stole the money left to my mother by my recently deceased father. While I was grieving, you ran off with another woman, leaving me—and your daughter—homeless and broke. Yes, I’m a bitter, dried-up old woman, and you can thank yourself for that.”

  He lifted his eyes to look into hers. “You’re still young and beautiful, Katie.”

  “Don’t call me that. I’m not your wife, Ian. I’m the mother of your daughter and always will be, but other than Maya, we have nothing in common. Nothing. The only reason I’m here is because the state of Nevada and this poor misguided young woman seem to think you have some redeeming value. I stopped believing in you the day the cops hauled you back from the border with a blond bimbo in handcuffs beside you.”

  He started to speak, but before he could get a word out, she added, “I’ll get through this because I don’t have any choice. I have to be strong for our little girl, who sees her best friend’s daddy and doesn’t understand why she doesn’t have one.”

  She ignored the spark of hope she saw in his eyes. “The state says I have to let you back in Maya’s life, but that doesn’t mean you’ll ever be a part of mine.”

  The young public defender or whatever she was—a willowy blonde—started to speak, but Kate cut her off. “I’m done here. I said what I came to say. But I want your client to know that I plan to watch his every move where our daughter is concerned. If he hurts Maya or tries to turn her against me, he’s going to wish he was back in prison with guards to protect him from a mother’s wrath.”

  She left without looking back. For reasons that had been explained to her, but in her anxiety she’d forgotten, the meeting had been held in the conference room at Rob’s law offices. She’d been to the first-floor suite in the well-appointed professional complex once before, but never to this part of the building and she was turned around. Lost.

  She started toward what she thought was the front entrance, but stopped when she heard a familiar voice.

  “Integrity, man. Either you get the concept or you don’t. And I won’t have people working for me who think it’s okay to bill a wealthy client for time spent on the golf course. Or at your kid’s soccer game. Or whatever.”

  She froze. Rob’s voice, although she’d never heard him that vociferous.

  She glanced around, finally recognizing where she was. Rob’s office was just ahead. That wasn’t the direction the contentious voices were coming from, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She turned to leave and bumped into the man she’d hoped to avoid.

  “Kate.”

  His face was slightly flushed, and she detected a tension in his brow that she’d never seen. He seemed puzzled to see her.

  “Hi. Meeting here today. Sorry. I got turned around. I’m looking for the door.”

  His eyes opened as if realizing why she was there. He leaned toward her and in a gruff whisper asked, “Do I need a gun?”

  “What?”

  “You had this look—as if you’d been wrestling with the devil. Is he still here? Do I need a gun?”

  His small attempt at humor was oddly calming. She felt her shoulders relax. “Do you have one?”

  “Naw. They scare the crap out of me, but for you, I’ll buy one.”

  She snickered softly. “Well, I’m not a big fan of guns, either. Not since Grace got shot.”

  “Understandable. How do you feel about iced mochas?”

  “Much less lethal, although they are a danger to my thighs.”

  “Are you willing to risk the calories?”

  “Possibly. Why?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at the office he’d just stepped out of. “I think we both need a drink—and it’s too early for booze.”

  The offer was tempting. “I…I don’t know.”

  He put his hands together in prayer. “Please. I could really use someone to talk to who isn’t associated with this place.”

  Since Maya was at the Hippo with Alex, she gave in and followed him to his car. She sank against the soft, sun-warmed leather. The car still smelled new and the luxury was infectious.

  The day was relatively cool and when Rob asked if she’d like the top down, she nodded yes. The wind played havoc with her hair, and she didn’t care. “There’s a Starbucks about half a mile down—”

  He shook his head. “I found a drive-through right up here. And since I’ve got you, I’d like to make the most of the opportunity.”

  “To do what?”

  “Pick your brain.”

  “Concerning?”

  “Whether or not I should buy a house. You know Vegas, right? Everyone tells me the housing market is insane. If I don’t
buy, I’ll regret it, but a part of me says only an insane person would live in a desert.”

  She laughed. “I went to culinary school in upstate New York and I spent a couple of years in Colorado and New Mexico working at resorts, but I’ve always called Vegas home. To me, nothing compares to the pure beauty of Red Rocks or the Valley of Fire. The desert is constantly changing—like life.”

  Rob shook his head. “I didn’t expect to hear such passion about a place that feels so alien to me. Do you know what I miss most about the Bay area? The chilly breeze that races in ahead of a fog bank. I’ve seen fog swallow the Golden Gate Bridge in a matter of minutes.”

  He put on his blinker. “And the green. It’s funny what you take for granted...until it’s gone.”

  The veracity of that statement made her breath catch in her throat. It could be applied to so many things...including her relationship to her ex.

  “But, on the up side, Vegas does hold a certain appeal I didn’t see coming.”

  Me? Does he mean me?

  They pulled into the express lane at the coffee shop and placed their order. Two iced mochas. Blended for him. On the rocks for her.

  She sipped her drink in silence until they’d pulled back into traffic. “So, where is this house you’re looking at?”

  “The other side of town. I doubt if you have time—”

  Impulsively, she checked the calendar on her phone. “Actually. I’m free until three when I have to start prepping for tonight. Fridays are always crazy, but we hired two new cooks and your mother is having fun whipping them into shape.”

  “Not literally, I hope.”

  His quip made her choke on a swallow of her icy drink. “Jo’s a much better teacher than I am. We both know it. That’s why she asked me not to come in until I absolutely had to.”

  “Interesting. I’ve never thought of Mom as a teacher. That was Dad’s job when I was growing up.” He changed lanes effortlessly and stepped on the gas. “Does that mean you’re all mine for a couple of hours?”

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Hang on and you’ll see.”

  Why do I suddenly feel relaxed? Playful? Kate could picture her sisters’ shock if they’d been privy to this conversation.