Scandal on the Sand (The Billionaires of Barefoot Bay #3)(13)
Author: Roxanne St. Claire

“No.” Liza reached in and firmly took hold of Dylan, shouldering Nate out of the way. “Just no.” He wasn’t going to blow in here and do this. “You can’t give a child everything he wants, and you can’t make promises you can’t keep.” With a tight grip, she got Dylan out of the seat. “You can’t let him drive.” Her voice rose as she wrestled with a writhing, squirming, unhappy forty-two pounds of wild child. “And you can’t…” Take him away from me. Which was really at the bottom of the low-grade panic rising in her chest.

Dylan kicked her thigh so hard she almost buckled.

“Liza.” The reprimand and surprise in her mother’s voice were loud and clear. Instantly, she was there, trying to wrest Dylan from her arms. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Me? What about—”

“I want to dwiiiiiive!”

Sweat prickled under her arms, and all Liza’s muscles bunched as she tried to still Dylan, looking over his shoulder to meet Nate’s amused gaze. “You think this is funny?” she asked him.

“I think you’re overreacting. Put him down, and let’s all take a ride.”

“There are two seats, Nate.”

“Go, go.” Her mother practically pushed her from behind. “I’ll stay here, and you three go for a little zip around the neighborhood. You can talk about your new job. What are the hours?” she asked.

Oh, Lord.

“She can set her own.” He slipped behind the wheel, touching something that made the seat shift way back, at least ten inches from the steering wheel. He reached out for Dylan. “Let’s take a drive, tiger.”

Dylan practically flew out of Liza’s arms. “I dwive! I dwive!”

“Yep, you can drive.” With an easy movement, Nate took Dylan from her arms and slid him behind the wheel. “You coming, Liza?”

“Aunt Liza!” Dylan cried, kicking again as excitement overtook his whole body. “Let’s go!”

“You heard the boy, let’s go.” Nate had the nerve to grin at her as he pulled the seat belt across Dylan’s little body, nestling the child into place on his lap.

On a sigh, she started around the back of the car, her mom instantly on her heels. “Liza! This is a miracle, isn’t it?”

Not exactly.

“This job sounds wonderful.” She squeezed Liza’s hands. “And do you know he’s one of the most eligible billionaires in the country? Billionaires with a b, Liza.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Mom. This isn’t about…us.”

“Health benefits! Child care! Set your own hours!” Mom’s voice rose with every empty promise. Because, really, what else could they be? “And look at him! You wouldn’t be the first boss-and-secretary romance.”

She looked to the sky, a full-headed eye roll necessary to calm her mother on a marriage roll.

“Let’s go,” Nate called. “I can’t hold him still much longer.”

“And he’s so good with kids!” Mom slapped her hands on her cheeks in sheer wonder.

How good would he seem in a custody battle?

The words had a chilling effect on her heart, making her step toward the car to protect what was hers. Dylan was hers.

She couldn’t forget that.

Except…he was also Nate’s.

Chapter Five

As soon as the car was moving, Dylan relaxed into Nate, his tiny hands gripping the leather steering wheel, his little body finally still.

His guardian, on the other hand, was anything but relaxed. He threw her a reassuring look, but she had that lip trapped between her teeth again, her arms wrapped around herself as tight as the seat belt.

“There we go, now, we’re going to make a right.” Of course, Nate controlled the car completely, still holding the wheel with his own two hands and keeping them at a nice ten miles an hour on completely empty streets. “You got it, kid.”

He felt Liza’s stern look and met it with another smile. “S’okay, Aunt Liza,” he said softly. “We got this.”

“Like you had it back there at my house?” she asked under her breath. “With some bogus job offer?”

“We got this!” Dylan repeated in his high-pitched voice. A voice that reached into Nate’s heart and twisted things around a little.

“Not bogus at all,” he replied. “The offer is legit.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you’re exactly what we need and…” Dylan squirmed and giggled and stole a glance of pure joy over his shoulder.  Because maybe he wanted to be near this kid?  “It makes sense.”

No, it didn’t actually make sense, but he couldn’t deny the sensation that had rocked him at the sight of Dylan Cassidy.

God uses the same flawless mold for every piece of Ivory glass!

He could hear the Colonel’s proud voice, his announcement made at each birth and baptism in the Ivory family, celebrating the growth of the name built on the glass industry.

“It’s just crazy,” Liza said.

Yes, it was. But…it was true.  And Dylan looked like he’d walked right out of that mold. 

“Whoa, here comes a truck.” Nate inched the wheel to the right and hugged the curb while a pickup rolled by.

“T-R-U-C-K! Truck.”

“And what a great speller!” Nate gave the boy’s shiny hair a ruffle, remembering his own hair being that honey color when he was small.

“Many words,” Liza agreed. “But he shouldn’t win when he has a temper tantrum.”

“Does he have them often?”

She blew out a breath. “All the time. Daily. Hourly. Way more than you want to deal with, trust me.”

He wanted to laugh, but he got her message. She didn’t want him to like this child.

“He’ll kick the heck out of your car,” she added. “And he never sleeps through the night. Plus, he gets a lot of colds and…” Her gaze shifted to Dylan’s face, and her eyes deepened in color, more blue with concern. “And he’s…” She nibbled her lip. “He’s a good kid,” she finished.

“I’m sure, but—let’s wait here for the mailman to pass, bud.”

“M-A-I-L! Mail!” Dylan shimmied on Nate’s lap, so delighted with himself. “Aunt Liza, I can dwive!”

The childish pronunciation and babyish enthusiasm were so damn sweet, Nate couldn’t help but smile. But Liza’s misery was apparent with every passing minute. “Just one more street, then we go back to your…” He had no idea what this child called Liza’s mother.