“But then she had me.”

“Yeah, she had a baby. So now she was alone and responsible for an infant. She had no friends, no one to call. Her own mother didn’t speak to her for over a year.”

“But what about the alumni? You said they helped.”

“They did. They brought casseroles and sometimes babysat. They gave us names of doctors and helped with the bills. They made it possible, but it was never easy. There were times your mom and I fought so much we made you cry. There were weeks we hated each other and if we’d had the money, we would have gotten divorced a hundred times over.”

Tears filled Brittany’s eyes again. “Daddy, no.”

He squeezed her fingers. “We worked it out. We realized we loved each other and we were going to have to try harder. Then I signed with the NFL and we were able to move back here. Life got easier. You started school and Serena and I could finally spend some time together. We made it, but just barely.”

“I thought it was different. I thought it was a fairy tale.”

“I know. Maybe that was a mistake.”

Nicole had been right. He and Serena had paved the way to this disaster. They’d practically illustrated a manual on how to screw up a life.

“There’s no baby,” Brittany whispered. “I was sad before, but maybe it’s a good thing. I guess I should go on birth control, Dad.”

Not a conversation he wanted to have.

“You’ll have plenty of time to think about how you want to handle that,” he said. “You already have an appointment with your doctor in two weeks.”

She pulled back her hand. “Dad! That’s so embarrassing.”

“So’s getting pregnant at seventeen. Not that I see that happening again anytime soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“You won’t be going out with Raoul for a while.”

She glared at him. “You can’t make me break up with him. He’s my boyfriend and I love him.”

“I’m sure you do, but this isn’t about him. This is about you. You lied to me about your relationship. You moved out, you ran off, you got a fake ID. I’ve always trusted you and given you a lot of freedom. Obviously you’re not mature enough to handle it.”

“What?”

He stood. “You’re grounded, Brittany. You won’t be dating anyone for a while. You’ll go to school, then sit in my office and do homework until I’m ready to leave.”

“That’s crazy. I’ll drive myself home.”

“I’m taking away your car.”

“What? You can’t!” She shrieked loud enough to injure the neighborhood dogs. “Daddy, no!”

“No car for a month. You’re grounded for six weeks. The last two weeks are to test your ability to be responsible. If you can’t handle it, you’ll lose the car completely until you’re eighteen. For now I’m letting you keep your cell phone and Internet privileges, but let me be clear. They are privileges. I can take them away, too.”

She pushed past him, turned and glared. “You can’t do this.”

“I can and I have.”

“It’s not fair. I wasn’t that bad.”

“You were that bad and worse. I worried so much about how you felt after your mom died. I wanted to make things easy for you and I did. Too easy. You’re spoiled, Brittany. If something doesn’t change, you’re going to become the kind of person no one likes. I don’t want that. I want to be proud of you again.”

She began to cry again. “Daddy, don’t.”

He wasn’t sure what she wanted him to stop, but he didn’t care. He walked past her and entered the kitchen. Her car keys were lying on the counter. He pocketed them.

Brittany ran into the kitchen. “You can’t do this. You can’t treat me like a child.”

“You’re acting like one.”

“This is so unfair. I hate you.”

“Right now, you’re not my favorite person, either. I love you, Brittany, but you’ve crossed the line.”

She turned and raced out of the room. He heard her footsteps on the stairs, followed by the sound of her slamming her door. When there was silence, he leaned against the counter and wondered how the hell he was going to get through the next month.

It would be hard. There were more laws to lay down and Brittany wasn’t going to take any of it well. He was fighting uphill—he should have done this years ago. But with luck, he could still turn her around.

He walked into his study, but couldn’t sit. He felt too restless. Something was still wrong and he couldn’t figure out what it was. He felt uncomfortable. Like he didn’t fit in his skin anymore.

Brittany was back, he’d done the father thing. Everything was right. What did he have that was…

Nicole, he thought. He needed to talk to Nicole. They’d fought and he’d hurt her. She’d only been telling him the truth, saying what he needed to hear. He respected that, and he missed her.

He walked upstairs and knocked on Brittany’s door.

“Go away,” she yelled.

“Keep talking like that and you’ll lose your phone.”

There were a couple of seconds of silence followed by her opening her bedroom door.

Her face was pale and streaked with tears. “Okay,” she said, then sniffed.

His knee-jerk reaction was to tell her not to worry, that they could put this all behind them. But he knew that would be a mistake.

“I’m going to see Nicole,” he said. “I’ll be gone a while.”

“You’re leaving? Now? After ripping my life apart and destroying me?”

Good to know Brittany hadn’t lost her flair for the dramatic. “Just wanted you to know I was gone. I’m taking your car keys with me, so don’t think you can sneak out. I expect you to stay up here and think about what you did wrong.”

“Daddy, no. You can’t leave. Not now.” More tears slid down her cheeks. “Don’t. Don’t go to Nicole.”

“Why not? I want to spend time with her.”

“If I can’t go out, you can’t go out.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “You didn’t just say that.”

She swallowed. “Sorry. No. I didn’t mean that. It’s just I don’t want you to be gone right now. You hurt me.”

“I punished you. There’s a difference.”

“But, Daddy…” Her voice was a high-pitched whine. One that grated on his last nerve.

“What’s the real problem here?”

“I don’t know. It’s just…How much do you like her?”

Interesting question. “I like her a lot.”

Brittany’s eyes widened. “You mean, like it’s serious?”

“Yes.” More than serious, he thought. “She’s very important to me.”

“But you said you were just dating. You said it didn’t matter.”

“That was before.” When they’d had a deal. But the deal had turned out to be real.

“You’re not supposed to be with anyone but Mom. You promised.”

“I will always love Serena, but it’s been five years, Brittany. I’m allowed to have a life.”

“No, you’re not. You’re my dad. You can’t care about someone more than me. Is that it? Do you love her? Do you?”

Did he? Love? He’d never thought about that. He’d always had fun with women, but he didn’t get involved. Not seriously. Love.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, turning the idea over in his mind. Love?

“I hate you,” Brittany screamed. “I hate you and I hate her.”

Her door slammed. Hawk ignored the sound and his daughter’s tantrum.

Why hadn’t he seen it before? How important Nicole had become to him? How much he looked forward to seeing her? How he counted on her and trusted her and needed her in his life?

Love. Who would have guessed it was possible?

“I’M SO EXCITED,” Claire said, grabbing Nicole by the arms and bouncing up and down. “This is wonderful and amazing. How did it happen?”

Nicole wasn’t in the mood to bounce. She pulled back and walked into the kitchen. “The usual way.”

“You’re pregnant.” Claire sounded far too happy.

“I know. I’m the one who told you.”

“You should be happier. Pregnant. That means a baby.”

“I’m clear on the biological ramifications of the event.”

Claire shook her head. “Why aren’t you more excited? I thought you wanted a family.”

“I do.”

“Now you and Hawk can get married.”

Nicole ignored the stab of pain that ripped through her. If only. But that wasn’t going to be happening.

“It’s a new century,” she said. “Getting married because the girl gets pregnant is no longer required.”

“But you really like Hawk. Actually, you love him.”

“So not the point.”

“Why?”

Nicole crossed to the freezer and pulled out two pints of Ben & Jerry’s. She really hated to share her stash, but Claire wasn’t going to simply sit by and watch her eat ice cream alone. It was unnatural.

“There are complications,” she said setting the cartons on the table and grabbing spoons. “I’m not sure Hawk is over his late wife. His house is a shrine to Serena. He has this vision in his mind about her and no mortal woman can measure up.”

“You can handle that.”

“There’s more.” Nicole sat across from her sister and picked up one of the pints. “He has a spoiled princess of a daughter who isn’t going to deal with any of this well.”

“Brittany will be graduating in June and leaving for college. She’s a short-term problem.”

Possibly. But there was still one more thing.

Nicole waited until Claire had swallowed before saying, “Hawk and I weren’t really going out. I made a deal with him to be my pretend boyfriend. I was tired of everyone feeling sorry for me because of Jesse and Drew. He was coming on to me, so I traded him sex in return for pretending to date me. We’re not really going out.”

Claire dropped her spoon. “You lied about your relationship?”

“Yes.”

“To me?”

“Yes.”

Claire’s face got all scrunchy, like she’d just been hit in the stomach. Nicole felt sick.

“It’s not what you think,” she said quickly. “Everyone seemed overly concerned. I hated that. And Drew was showing up every fifteen minutes telling me I had to take him back because no one else would ever want me. I felt completely undesirable. Then I met Hawk and he was interested in sex, which isn’t exactly a love match, but he’s hunky and appealing and I thought it would be better to make people think we were together.”

“You lied to me.”

“I know. It was wrong. I’m sorry.”

Claire nodded slowly. “I guess I’ve been a bad sister, if you thought you had to trick me.”

Nicole felt herself shrinking. “Don’t go there. You’re taking it wrong. This is all about me. You’ve been great and patient and I appreciate that.”

“You hate me.”

Nicole wanted to pound her head against the table. “This isn’t about you,” she yelled. “Don’t you see? This is about me feeling like crap about my life. I was humiliated by what happened and then you found Wyatt and you’re so damn happy. It was really annoying. And you were worried and Wyatt was worried and I couldn’t stand it.”

Claire licked her spoon. “Was the sex good?”

“Amazing.”

“That’s something.”

Nicole took a deep breath. “Are you still mad?”

“I’ll get over it. Tell me about Hawk.”

“There’s nothing to say. We had sex, I got pregnant.”

“You fell in love with him.”

“Yeah, that, too. Not very smart, huh?”

“You can’t control your heart.”

“Right now I can’t control anything in my life.”

“What do you want from Hawk?” Claire asked.

“A happy ending. But I’m not fooling myself. I know that’s not going to happen.”

“It might.”

“Unlikely,” Nicole muttered. “He doesn’t want more children. He never gets involved. His life is complete. He doesn’t need me.”

“On the surface.”

“Have I ever mentioned how your ongoing optimism gets on my nerves?”

“Everything gets on your nerves.”

That was true.

“Are you happy about the baby?” Claire asked.

Nicole felt the need to touch her stomach, as if that would connect her to the child growing inside. “Sort of. How crazy is that? Like I need more responsibility in my life.”

“Oh, please. You love responsibility. You always have.”

Nicole glared at her. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I know a lot more than you think. You thrive on responsibility. Why else would you have kept the bakery? You could have sold it years ago, taken the money and done something else with your life. It’s in a great location. Just the land has to be worth a couple million. So you’re there because you want to be there. You love Jesse, so as much as she bugged you, you never wanted to get rid of her. Even now. With all she’s done, you miss her. It will be the same with the baby. You’ll eat up the responsibility.”