Cox, Suzanne - Unexpected Daughter Read online

  in Dallas, and he was a good doctor. Maybe Brijette would soon realize that being born into money didn’t automatically make you an insensitive, immoral ass.

  “WHEN DID YOU AGREE for Cade’s friend to come and work at the clinic?” Brijette straightened the stack of magazines she’d dropped off for Doc Arthur.

  “I don’t know. A few weeks ago, I guess. Andy’s found a house he wants to buy. He’ll be moving in this weekend.”

  “Buying a house? Moving in? Come on, Arthur, do you really think this guy is going to stay here? Did you see the car he was driving? And most importantly, why didn’t you bother to tell me he was coming?”

  The man squinted at her. “Is this twenty questions?”

  “More like fifty.”

  Arthur chuckled. “Yes, he’s staying. I actually got to drive that fancy car he has and I have to say I might consider getting one myself. But you’ll need to ask Cade why he didn’t mention Andy to you. Maybe he thought you’d have a bias against him because he has money?”

  “Now that’s ridiculous.” She left her chair and crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator.

  “Is it?”

  She found a pitcher of lemonade and poured a glass. “It’s not Cade’s money I have a problem with. It’s his and his family’s use of it, and their morals related to life and money, that bother me.”

  Doc Wheeler twisted in his chair. “Fix me one of those. You know, I never thought of Cade as immoral.”

  “I don’t mean immoral, immoral.”

  “What other kind is there?”

  She gritted her teeth as she poured Doc’s lemonade. “His family doesn’t think like I do. Especially that mother of his—she can be a pure monster.”

  “Lots of people don’t think like you do. But I doubt if you really know how Cade’s mother thinks.”

  She set his drink in front of him and settled into her chair. “Well, I honestly don’t care right now. I only hope this guy doesn’t decide to take off the minute Cade leaves.”

  “I don’t suspect he will, and maybe we can convince Cade to stay. Then I could come in and work one or two days a week and sort of retire.”

  She paused with her lemonade halfway to her mouth. “Would you want to do that?” Doc Arthur retire? It was an idea that had never crossed her mind.

  “Sure, there are lots of things I’d like to do, like travel a bit.”

  Now she felt guilty. She’d been complaining and thinking only of herself when she should have been considering what was going on with the man who’d helped her build her career.

  “If that’s the case, we’ll have to find Andy a wife so he’ll be inclined to stay.”

  Doc Arthur slid his glass back and forth on the table. “You want to volunteer for the position?”

  She almost choked. “Not me.”

  “Good. I’m afraid Cade wouldn’t be too happy, otherwise.”

  “I don’t think Cade cares what I do.”

  “You’re wrong. He does care, and if you’d give him half a chance he’d do something about it.”

  “Well, I don’t need Cade Wheeler in my life. I do fine on my own.”

  Doc tossed one magazine aside and picked up another. “You might be surprised how much better you’d do with him, and you’re not on your own. In case you’ve forgotten, another person lives in that house with you, someone who might be more than happy for you to try to make a life with Cade, someone who you might owe that opportunity.”

  She wanted to run for the door but her body was frozen to the seat. He was saying that he knew the truth, and she didn’t know how to respond. Then her survival instinct kicked in. Her mumbled, “I have to go” hung in the air, but she was long gone before Arthur Wheeler could comment.

  At the end of the drive, a red truck veered into the grass to keep from hitting her head-on. She slammed on her brakes, spewing gravel.

  The truck backed up and Brijette rolled down the window. “Sorry, Robert. I didn’t mean to run you off the road.”

  He shook his head. “It’s all right. Better slow that thing down when you get on the highway.”

  “I will. Hey, did you ever hear about your horse?”

  Robert rubbed his forehead. “I’m pretty sure my nephew is involved, so I’m looking into it myself to try to give the boy a chance.”

  “That’s good of you.”

  The man shrugged. “When are you bringing Dylan by to go riding? I still have horses left, you know. That wasn’t my only one.”

  “We’ll see. I’m sure she’s ready.”

  “If I’m not there, you know where everything is.”

  She closed the window as Robert headed toward Doc Wheeler’s place. Everyone in the neighborhood came to check on the doctor. He and Robert had been around Cypress Landing for as long as Brijette could remember. She hoped Robert wouldn’t bail his nephew out of trouble every time. The boy needed to learn a lesson and possibly get help. Having plenty of money didn’t keep one’s family members from getting into trouble.

  Brijette wondered if Cade would ever learn that lesson or would he, like a lot of others, always believe that his money could save his butt? She’d seen exactly what that could look like. Her parents had been killed by a drunk driver when she was even younger than Dylan. The nineteen-year-old kid who’d run into them head-on while he was driving on the wrong side of the road had walked away from the accident, uninjured, and he’d never stopped walking. He’d received a get-off-easy ticket that had been paid for with his very wealthy parents’ money. These days drunk drivers didn’t get off so easily, but back then a big name and cash went a long way.

  Cade hadn’t been touched by the incident with the drugs ten years ago, but rightly so, because he hadn’t known a thing about it. The only problem she had with the whole thing was that no one ever even questioned him. Even though he and his mother acted as if Brijette had nearly gotten him thrown in jail, she’d never seen anything to indicate Cade was even close to being in trouble. He’d been whisked off like the prince of some foreign country whose name couldn’t be associated with hers.

  She hated that she actually wanted him to prove her wrong, but she did. In her mind she’d always had this idyllic vision of what life would have been like with Cade if… Of course, that thought held more ifs than she could list. Keeping this monstrous secret was…well, it was inexcusable. Brijette didn’t like to think of herself being unjust or unfair. She promised herself, once Cade proved he had changed, that he wasn’t going to teach Dylan to be a selfish person or one that deserted her friends when they needed her most, then she’d come clean. She’d tell him the truth. And let hell rain down, because that’s exactly what it would be like. It wasn’t just the wrath of Cade she feared but the total annihilation of her relationship with her daughter. She had to admit that Cade really didn’t have much left to prove, but her fear of what the truth would mean for her and Dylan kept her quiet. She needed to find a way to tell Dylan and Cade that wouldn’t ruin her relationship with both of them. At least until then, she and Dylan could both enjoy Cade’s company.

  NAVIGATING BRIJETTE’S driveway, Cade wondered what they would be doing today. Dylan had been quite specific about what he should wear—long pants, cool shirt, heavy shoes for hiking. Maybe she and her mother intended to drag him into the woods behind their house. When he stopped his truck next to Brijette’s SUV, he got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Standing atop a ladder, Brijette paused in the middle of lashing an ancient canoe to the top of her vehicle. Her confused expression made him fairly

  certain she had no idea he’d been invited on this trip. He slammed the heel of his hand on the steering wheel. He knew he should’ve called to talk to her.

  Dylan came bounding from the house and threw open the passenger door of his truck. “Aren’t you going to get out?”

  “I can tell by your mom’s face she didn’t have any part in inviting me.”

  The girl shrugged. “Don’t worry. She doesn’t mind if you come. She just
doesn’t know she doesn’t mind.”

  He snorted. “Is that how it is?”

  Brijette climbed from the ladder, glancing between the two of them, not speaking.

  “Cade’s going with us.”

  “So I gathered when he came wheeling in here and you rushed to meet him. Why am I the last person to know?”

  Cade began to feel a bit like an interloper. “I don’t have to go if you’d rather spend the day alone with Dylan.”

  Her gaze traveled over him in a way that wasn’t exactly angry. His muscles tightened. This was different.

  “No, you should come. You’ll either love it or hate it.”

  “Love or hate what?”

  “Cat Island Refuge,” Dylan chirped.

  “What is that? An animal shelter for cats?”

  Brijette shook her head. “It’s a wildlife area. Dylan and I go there occasionally to practice tracking, have a picnic, mostly spend time together.”

  “A day with my two favorite ladies—sounds good to me.”

  Brijette stumbled as she moved to put the ladder away and Dylan giggled. Cade smiled at Brijette, giving her what he hoped was a sexy look. But she rolled her eyes, so he figured he might have missed the mark. That’s what he got for studying so much during medical school and not practicing his flirting skills at the local bar with the rest of the students.

  “I’m going to get the food.” Dylan disappeared inside.

  He turned to Brijette. “Are you sure it’s okay if I go? I promise I wasn’t aware that you didn’t know Dylan had invited me. From now on I’ll to speak to you personally.”

  She leaned against the car, crossing her arms in front of her, smiling. “It’s fine. You’ll get a taste of what Dylan and I do for fun. It’s not exactly what you’d find in the city, but we’ll see how you survive.”

  He didn’t answer, realizing he might be about to take a test. He watched Dylan fly off the porch and toss a small cooler and a tote bag in the Tahoe. She mouthed the word “food” and rubbed her belly before climbing in the back seat and motioning for Cade to get in the front.

  “I guess we’re ready,” Brijette said, climbing behind the wheel and starting the engine.

  Dylan began to jabber, filling them in on what she’d done at her friend’s house this week and how she’d gone to ride horses at Mr. Robert’s. He turned in his seat so he could see the girl and noticed Brijette glance at Dylan in the mirror. A moment of sheer panic hit him. If this was a test, he hoped he’d pass with flying

  colors. He hadn’t been this worried about getting a good grade since he’d taken his exams to get into medical school.

  DYLAN SHOOK HER HEAD at him for what felt like the fiftieth time, and if Cade hadn’t liked being with the two of them so much he’d probably have gone to the car. That is, of course, if he could have found the car, which he couldn’t have.

  When they’d arrived at the refuge he’d helped Brijette unload the canoe, which Dylan insisted on calling a pirogue, a name he only slightly recalled from his last stay in Cypress Landing. After an hour of paddling, they’d pulled their transportation ashore and plunged into the woods. He couldn’t help that he had trouble staying quiet. He had questions, like what the heck did they see on the ground and how did it make sense to them?

  Brijette waved him over to where she and Dylan were studying the ground. “See, Cade, this is a bear track. A black bear.”

  He looked around the thick forest. “Are you expecting him to put in an appearance?”

  “Could be,” Brijette whispered. “I can tell by this track we’ve only missed him by a few minutes.”

  He put a hand on Dylan’s shoulder. “Which way did he go? Maybe we should leave.”

  Glancing at Brijette, he decided something wasn’t right. Finally she burst out laughing.

  Dylan snorted. “It’s an old track, silly.”

  She pointed to the indentation on the ground with a stick and rambled off a long list of reasons she knew this

  track had been made before today and how the bear had stopped here, then ambled off that way, then heard or saw something and veered to the left to sprint through the trees.

  “And you get all that from these prints?”

  Brijette nodded, grasping his forearm and dragging him closer to the ground. The wind blew loose strands of her hair into his face. She pressed his finger against the dirt. “Feel the track. Really look at it, the way it’s deeper here.” She led him a few feet farther. “See how that’s different from this one? See the change of the indentations and how the soil is bumped up here?”

  Surprisingly, he did see. It must have taken years for Brijette to learn to track like this.

  “That wasn’t very funny about the bear track.”

  Brijette put her hand to her mouth to try to keep from laughing, but she couldn’t, and even he had to smile.

  “You really had me going for a minute.”

  “I know. Bear? Where? We need to go.” She spun her head from side to side in a nice imitation of his panic when he thought he might be bear bait, then held out her hand to help him to his feet. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close. Her eyes darkened, but she continued to smile. He let her go and moved to study the next track.

  Up ahead, Dylan stirred a stick in the edge of the water. He desperately wanted to get to know these two better. He once thought he knew Brijette very well. He’d been wrong. He’d only scratched the surface.

  In the past, the thought of dating a woman with

  children had been an instant no-way. Could Brijette be so special to him that he even wanted to know her child?

  Looking back at them, the girl announced she was hungry and ready to eat. Her blond ponytail bobbed as she skipped and her green eyes made him think of a mischievous cat. Mother and daughter were alike yet different. Brijette carried the dark mystery of the swamp in her eyes, on her skin, while Dylan was light, airy, sunny. She was like…him. The revelation reeled him onto his heels and he fell to the ground on his butt.

  He struggled to his feet while the two of them were talking, but he didn’t hear them. He tried to wipe the suspicion from his mind. It was his mother, what she’d said about Dylan being like him that had planted the possibility in his brain. The girl was born much too long after he’d left Cypress Landing. He and his mother had both seen the birth certificate, and it had appeared to be legitimate. But it didn’t have to end there. She could be his, he and Brijette could share their lives and this child, maybe even have more children. That idea had him feeling things he’d rather not dwell on at the moment.

  They hauled the nylon bag from the canoe and Dylan tossed a blanket on the ground. Cade couldn’t remember having a picnic since…since he’d spent the summer in Cypress Landing and had them with Brijette.

  After finishing her sandwich, Dylan curled up on the blanket and napped, or at least pretended to. Cade wasn’t sure which. He noticed today that Dylan, rather

  than trying to compete with her mother for his attention, was doing everything she could to throw the two of them together. Several times, Brijette had to call her when she’d ambled off, leaving the two of them alone. He didn’t know what her game plan was, but he figured he knew Dylan well enough to know she had one.

  Brijette tossed a paper towel in the bag of leftovers. “Well, Doctor Wheeler of the City, what do you think of our backwoods?”

  He stared across the rippling water to the cypress trees rising from the shallow murkiness. The birds chirped, and even though his skin was damp with sweat from the early summer heat, he couldn’t imagine a trendy restaurant or an air-conditioned clubhouse where he’d rather have been.

  He caught her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the backs of her fingers. “Thank you for today.”

  She closed her eyes and when she opened them again she looked at him, maybe for the first time since he’d been in Cypress Landing, without the resentment, or the accusations, or the hurt and anger of the past.

  “You s
hould come with us again,” she whispered.

  “I want to. I want…” He stopped himself because he wasn’t completely sure what he wanted, but whatever it was Brijette surely wasn’t ready to hear it. Not yet. “I’ll come anytime.”

  “Good,” a voice chimed from the other side of the blanket. “Next time we’re going camping.”

  He tilted his head to one side. “Do you mean we’re going to spend the night in a tent?”

  Dylan stretched, though he knew she hadn’t slept a minute. “That’s right, and if you’re scared, you’ll have to get over it.”

  “I think I can handle camping in a tent.” He knew he could handle it, that and a lot more.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “THIS IS ONE HEALTHY baby.” Brijette bounced Regina Broussard’s child in her arms. “Oh, and I talked with the lady in charge of the GED classes. She said there’d be no problem getting you started. They’d even help you get financial aid for college, and the school has on-site daycare.”

  “Thanks so much, Ms. Dupre. With your and Dr. Wheeler’s help, we’re going to get to school much sooner than we thought.”

  Brijette handed the baby to the girl, frowning. “Do you mean the elder Dr. Wheeler? I didn’t even know you’d met him.”

  “No, ma’am, the Dr. Wheeler that’s here,” Regina said.

  “He helped us find a house,” her husband added.

  Brijette narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you sure?” T.J. Broussard laughed. “I’m sure. He called us maybe two days after we left here and gave us the agent’s name and number. We got a nice little place right here in town and didn’t even have to give a dime up front. Lights, water and everything was already on.” He reached to take the baby from Regina, and Brijette noticed a cut on his upper arm.

  “T.J., that arm of yours is infected.”