Divided Hearts (3 page)

His smile broadened. “Please.”

She had set the album on the end table before Simon arrived, anticipating his interest in it. She handed it to him and he opened it on his lap, pausing at the first page, which held photos of Jenna holding her tiny newborn in the hospital. Jenna looked exhausted but happy, smiling down at the bald, puffy-faced infant swaddled in a blanket in her arms.

“She was six pounds, three ounces at birth,” Faye told him; it was something a father ought to know. “Hannah Louise, named after her great-grandmothers on both sides.”

“It’s a beautiful name,” Simon remarked. Turning the pages slowly, he paused on each image with rapt interest, studying the images of Hannah’s early smiles, her first bites of solid food, birthday and holiday celebrations, and all the milestones the little girl had reached so far in her short life. When he closed the album, he simply set it on the sofa next to him, not speaking; his expression was melancholy, eliciting a twinge of sympathy in Faye, as she imagined him reflecting on all the special moments in his daughter’s life that he had already missed, never to be recaptured.

It was Hannah who broke the silence. Losing interest in the keys, she dropped them onto the glass tabletop with a clatter and wandered over to her toy box in the corner. Grabbing her favourite stuffed dog, she brought it back to the sofa, thrusting it toward Simon.

“Doggie,” she said, offering an impish smile. “Woof woof.”

“Thank you, Hannah.” Taking the dog from her, he wiggled its furry face against her nose, eliciting a burst of giggles from her.

A tender smile lit Simon’s face, and the warmth of it seeped through Faye, pooling pleasantly just below her breastbone.

Grabbing the dog back from him, Hannah hugged it against her chest, then shuffled to the other end of the sofa, burying her soft head in Faye’s lap.

“She’s getting tired. It’s bedtime,” Faye said, unexpectedly disappointed that Simon would now have to leave. Briefly it occurred to her to invite him to stay and talk further after Hannah went to bed, but she dismissed the thought just as quickly.

He rose from the sofa. “Thank you for letting me come by, Faye. Now that it’s all very real, I’m rather overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure she’d take to me.”

Lifting the sleepy child into her arms, Faye offered an encouraging smile. “You did fine.”

“Goodbye, my sweet.” Simon reached up to lightly trace the little girl’s round cheek with his fingertips. “I’ll see you again.”

With Hannah on her hip, Faye followed him to the door. Unexpectedly he turned and grasped her hand, where it rested on Hannah’s back, his fingers curling over hers only briefly. But even that fleeting touch sparked a bloom of sensation that spiraled through her limbs, leaving her flushed and breathless.

“I’ll be in touch,” he said as he left.

Once he was out the door, Faye put Hannah down for a moment to busy herself gathering up the toys scattered on the carpet. A tremendous pang of guilt stole over her, not only for bringing Simon here without Jenna’s approval—but also for feeling so warm and sensual from the memory of his touch on her hand, her nerves still pulsing with anticipation.

Dumping the toys into the toy box, Faye frowned. Simon Blake was attractive and charismatic, no doubt. His pull on her feminine senses had seemed harmless at first, but now she felt helpless against it. Her responsibility lay with Hannah and Jenna, and she couldn’t afford to let a heady physical attraction weaken her control of the situation. After all, Jenna must have had her reasons for keeping Hannah from Simon, even though Faye wasn’t having any more luck figuring out what they might be. Had Jenna’s fears been a fabrication, or was there a nefarious side to Simon Blake that Faye hadn’t seen yet?

Could there be danger lurking beneath that English charm and those incredible azure eyes?

Chapter Three

“
Slide! Wee!”
Hannah squealed, as the older children scurried around her, scrambling up the rope ladder on the side of the play structure and then clambering onto the spiral slide for a dizzying descent. Too small to participate, Hannah was ecstatic just watching from the sand below, clutching her miniature plastic pail and shovel and stamping her feet with excitement.

Seated on a bench only a few feet away, Faye observed with a contented smile of her own. The usually warm April afternoon offered an opportunity for a long play session at the park for Hannah, and a much-needed respite for Faye. Simply getting out of the apartment for something other than grocery shopping made a world of difference to her peace of mind. As well, the steady improvement in Jenna’s condition eased Faye’s anxiety day by day. The doctors had begun reducing Jenna’s medication, anticipating she’d regain consciousness in the coming days—an enormous relief to everyone who cared about her.

A warm male voice interrupted her thoughts. “Looks like someone’s having fun.”

Raising her hand to shield her eyes against the sun, she looked up to see Simon standing beside the bench, his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. He was wearing a navy-blue T-shirt, and she noted with mild surprise the impressively muscular arms on display.

She smiled up at him. “We both are.”

Hannah had heard his voice, too, and turned to look. He waggled his fingers at her, and the little girl grinned, peering up shyly from beneath her pink sunhat. It was hard to know if she remembered him from the week before, but the fact that she didn’t mind his presence was encouraging.

“Thanks for inviting me here,” Simon said to Faye. She’d had little choice. He’d been phoning her almost daily, asking to see Hannah again. Finally Faye had agreed that the park was an ideal place for a short get-together.

“You should get used to playgrounds if you want to spend time with Hannah,” she told him. “She’s addicted to them.”

Simon chuckled amiably, the deep, resonant tone rousing the fine hairs on Faye’s arms. “Oh, I’ve spent my share of time clambering around play structures. My niece is six. There’s no starker reminder of the passage of one’s youth than trying to crawl through those bloody plastic tunnels without nicking your knees or putting your back out.”

“You look like you keep yourself in decent shape,” Faye observed, glancing at his athletic frame, pleasingly outlined by the snug-fitting T-shirt. Briefly she allowed her eyes to linger on the enticingly firm contours of his biceps, and then roam across the taut plane of chest between that tapered smoothly to a trim waist.

“You as well,” he replied mildly, and her gaze snapped up to catch a slow smile curving his mouth. Feeling heat scorch her cheeks, she shrank a little against the bench, wishing she could see the expression in his eyes beneath his sunglasses; she had no way of knowing whether his gaze met hers or had strayed to her fitted blouse and skirt, or down to her legs, exposed to mid-thigh on the slatted bench seat.

Simon at last slid off the sunglasses, but not before his focus had shifted to Hannah. He crouched next to her, inviting her to play in the sand. Happily she obliged, using the shovel to scoop mounds of sand into the bucket, and then dumping them onto Simon’s shoes as he feigned distress at having his socks soiled.

After a few minutes, Simon stood and lifted the little girl into his arms, holding her for the first time. Hannah didn’t seem to mind at all; she grinned up at him, patting his nose several times with her plump hand. He then carried her to a smaller slide at the far end of the play structure, setting her at the top and then kneeling at the bottom, his arms outstretched to catch her. Faye held her breath, unsure whether Hannah would be brave enough to take on the slide unaided. But she pushed herself forward readily, catapulting into Simon’s arms amid a peal of ecstatic giggles.

Watching them together, Faye felt a stirring in her heart that caused a hitch in her breath. Already a bond was forming between father and daughter, the delight in Hannah’s eyes matched by an unguarded tenderness in the depths of Simon’s deep-blue gaze. There was no going back now. If Jenna could only see this—how would she feel? Faye realized she had no clue. Her best friend’s feelings for the man who had fathered her child were a mystery to Faye. Thinking back, she was positive Jenna had never used the word
love
in reference to Simon while they were together. In fact she hadn’t talked about him much at all, as though their romance hadn’t meant a great deal to her. What had it meant to Simon? Curious as she was, Faye didn’t feel it was her place to ask.

After a while he left Hannah to play with her pail and shovel, returning to the bench to join Faye. His expression lit with satisfaction, he was clearly pleased to have taken the first small steps toward being his little girl’s father, in practice as much as theory.

As he sat down beside her, Faye found herself enveloped in his scent, a blend of spicy aftershave and the pleasant tang of sun-warmed skin. She inhaled deeply, letting it tingle through her senses as he spoke.

“Have you thought about what you’ll tell Jenna when she wakes up?”

Faye lifted her shoulders as she breathed out. “Vaguely. But I’m mainly concerned about how she’ll be. We don’t know what sort of condition she’ll be in, and what she’ll be able to handle at first. But her mother does want to meet you.”

His eyebrows lifted. “You told her what’s been happening?”

“I figured I had to. She’s been despising you as much as I have the past two years.” Faye offered a small smile to convey that the sentiment no longer applied. “Don’t worry about Carole, she’s very sweet. She’s been like a mother to me over the years.”

“You don’t have a mother of your own?”

“I do, but … we’re not all that close.” In fact Faye hadn’t spoken to her mother in several months, not because of any falling out between them, but for lack of anything to say to one another.

“I had a thought that I’d like to discuss with you,” Simon said.

“Yes?”

“I want you to bring Hannah to my place for Easter. You could arrive Saturday and leave Monday morning. There’s plenty of room at my house. My mother will be staying with me for the weekend, and she’s dying to meet Hannah. So are my sister and niece.”

Faye straightened her back, a nervous flutter invading her belly at the thought of Simon’s home and his relatives entering the equation. A development like this could make it harder to maintain her tight control on the situation. “I don’t know, Simon.”

“Just think about it, all right?” he urged. “It’s just two nights. Holidays are a big deal in our family. I want Hannah to be a part of it.”

“I feel a little as though I’m sneaking around behind Jenna’s back as it is,” Faye protested, realizing a moment later that it was an imprudent approach to use with a man still reeling from the same woman’s deception. “You know what I mean. Obviously I can’t get her permission.”

“I realize I’m putting you in a difficult spot,” Simon conceded. “But you’ll be with Hannah the whole time. You can leave at any time if you feel uncomfortable. But you may actually find you both like it up there.”

“I’m sure we would.” Faye suspected she’d like it a little
too
much. “But I’m not sure it’s a good idea, that’s all.”

He nodded his understanding, to her relief choosing not to press her further. “Give it some thought.”

“I will.”

As Simon turned his attention back to Hannah, Faye watched him covertly, studying the shape of his profile. She thought she saw something of Hannah in the contours of his nose and lips. Until now, she’d seen only a resemblance to Jenna’s delicate features. But now that Hannah had her second parent, his qualities would surely begin to show themselves in her as she grew and developed.

Though Faye understood that Simon and Hannah needed to know each other, her first instinct told her to refuse his request, at least until Jenna was able to approve such an arrangement. But then it occurred to her that the chance to observe Simon in his home, with his family, might give her a better picture of who he was.

And it might just offer clues to the reason Jenna had chosen to keep him out of their daughter’s life.

* * *

Faye had never journeyed this far up the British Columbia coast before, and along the way she soaked in the pristine beauty of her surroundings, her drive from Vancouver to Halfmoon Bay broken mid-way by a picturesque ferry ride across the mountain-framed Howe Sound. Arriving on the other side at the sleepy village of Langdale, she followed the tree-fringed highway that snaked along the Sunshine Coast, finding herself in a paradise of unspoiled nature, far removed from the big city she’d grown up in. Sheltered by Vancouver Island, the ocean water curving through the Strait of Georgia rippled serenely, lapping against densely wooded shores and sun-drenched beaches, as the brisk sea air carried gulls and cormorants high up against a cloudless sheet of blue sky. Driving with her car window down, Faye allowed the cool, salty breeze to lace through her hair.

Mid-afternoon she eased her car along the roads of tiny Halfmoon Bay, finding Simon’s log-frame house nestled among Douglas fir trees and overlooking the tranquil bay. A spacious, rustic design, the cedar-sided house featuring large front windows and a broad stone chimney rising above the gabled roof. To Faye is looked idyllic, though Jenna had never mentioned her impression of the place.