Chapter 3
The moment she sat down at the table, Lia felt the friction that came from being in hostile territory. It didn’t affect her as much as it would have if she hadn’t made good use of the wet bar in her room. She let out a sigh.
“Do you want me to call you Dr. Kendall or Aaron?”
“Aaron is fine,” he replied in a clipped voice.
“Okay, Aaron.” She smiled as the server offered her a menu. “Are you going order?”
“No,” Aaron replied. “I’m just having coffee.”
“Coffee for me, too,” she told the server as she glanced at the appetizer menu. “And nachos.” Having something to munch on sounded like a good idea.
After the server had left, she looked across the candlelit table at Aaron. Defiance was imprinted all over his squared shoulders, unsmiling lips, and frowning eyes. He generated intensity. That sparked excitement inside her. And it wasn’t the kind of excitement she should be feeling, especially when it came to him.
“How is Candace’s baby?” she asked.
“He’s stable. At the hospital, we have a special-care nursery that includes NICU pods for babies who need intensive care like John Aaron. He’s had a few setbacks, and he’s still in an incubator, but I’m hoping by the end of next week I can move him to the special-care nursery.”
The server reappeared with a tray containing two coffees, a basket of tortilla chips, and a bowl of warm cheese sauce. As Lia dipped a chip into the cheese sauce, she noticed that Aaron was stirring his coffee even though he’d put nothing in it. “I’m glad the baby is all right.”
“I never said he was all right.” Aaron stopped stirring the coffee. “How did your sister die?”
“From what I was told, she overdosed on heroin and coke.”
He straightened and frowned. “At the hospital, she denied any drug use.”
“Her friend said she’d been clean a while. I don’t know. I hadn’t seen or heard from Candace in years.” Aaron gave her a surprised glance. “I grew up in Nashville,” Lia said, “and Candace lived with my mom in LA. We were never close.”
She ate a couple of chips. “They’re really good.” She offered the basket to Aaron, and he shook his head. “You’re not what I expected.” She laid the truth out between them.
He folded his arms on the table and looked her directly in the eye. “I’m not giving up John Aaron.”
“John Aaron?”
“That’s the baby’s name.”
“Is he going to be a junior?”
“No. My name is Aaron Lee. One of the nurses called him Baby John Doe when he was born because she didn’t have a name for his paperwork. The name stuck, and I decided to call him John Aaron Kendall.”
“John Aaron. That’s a nice name,” Lia said as she considered the baby she’d never seen and the determined man who sat across the table from her. The man who was divorced and lived in a frat house with girlie calendars on the wall and a disgusting kitchen. She could only imagine what the bedrooms were like.
“I’m sure your heart is in the right place,” she said, trying to be positive. It was always good to provide some positive reinforcement before the negative. “But have you given this serious thought?”
He bristled. “How much do you know about babies?”
“I’m clueless when it comes to babies. I don’t know anything about them.” She dipped a chip in the cheese before she lifted her gaze to his face. “But I do know a baby should have a mother and father if at all possible.”
His blue eyes narrowed. “I suppose that should be you and Dallas Peyton.”
He Googled me. She took a moment to eat the chip. “No.” She dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Not me and Dallas.” There was no her and Dallas, but that was a well-guarded secret.
She tossed the napkin aside. “It was supposed to be you. A different you.” Frustration slipped into her voice. “You were supposed to, like, have a normal life.”
“What?” He frowned in confusion. “I do have a normal life.”
“Seriously?” She gave her eyes a roll. “It didn’t look too normal to me.”
“My father was hosting a bachelor party.” He stirred his coffee again. “Maybe you should call someone before you show up at their house unexpectedly and uninvited.”
“I didn’t think it would be a problem.” She pushed her hair back off her bare shoulders. “There was supposed to be a Mrs. Kendall in the picture. I expected there to be a lovely couple who were settled and ready to provide a good home for a baby.”
“The baby is going to have a good home. With me,” he added, and she began to see just how tenacious he could be.
“A baby should have both parents. As for me, I’m single, and I have to travel a lot.” She didn’t mention her personal life was something of a disaster at the present time. “Me adopting the baby is just as bad as you adopting him.”
She turned her attention to her coffee to avoid Aaron’s glare. “I have no plans to adopt him, but I want to be his aunt. I want to be part of his life, and that’s why I came here. To meet his adoptive parents. I’m his mother’s only living relative, and I feel like I have a responsibility toward him. Wouldn’t you?”
“You have no responsibility toward him and no reason to be here.” Aaron spoke in a tone that let her know there would be no compromising. “John Aaron has a family now.”
She lifted her gaze to meet Aaron’s haughty stare. “Your family? From what I saw of your family today, I have plenty of reason for concern and reason enough to be here.”
If a scowl could kill, she’d be dead. She took a sip of her coffee. Gilda had advised her to find out more about him. Not that she wanted to know, but she needed to find out who the enemy was. “Tell me about yourself.” She cradled her coffee cup. “I didn’t Google you.”
His expression shuttered as if he were protecting things that were sacred to him. “I graduated from the UT College of Medicine and did my residency in pediatrics. I also did a fellowship in neonatology at the Texas Children’s Hospital. I’m the medical director of newborn care at the hospital.”
She nodded. His education was impressive, and that was a good thing when it came to a sick baby. “Are you in a serious relationship? Like, do you have any plans to get married soon?”
His mouth formed a tight line. Finally he spoke. “No, I’m not in a serious relationship, and I have no plans to get married in the foreseeable future.”
She didn’t know what to make of that. “A baby should have a mother and a father.”
“You’re way too idealistic.”
“I was raised by a single father,” she said quietly. “My mom was never around.”
A moment passed. “Lia.” He called her by her name for the first time, as if he’d decided to make a personal connection with her. “I’m aware that both a mother and father are best when it comes to a baby. And the perfect scenario would be if John were a healthy newborn being placed with the adoring parents you want him to have. That’s not how it is.
“He’s not a well baby. Your sister didn’t take care of herself when she was pregnant, and that left him vulnerable. He’s been struggling to live ever since he was born. But he’s a tough little guy. He’s no quitter, and I love that about him.”
She glanced away as she felt a hitch in her chest. “Are you saying there’s a chance he’ll die?” Never once had she considered the baby dying.
“I’m trying to prevent that. John has pneumonia right now, and his immune system is still weak,” Aaron explained. “Plus, other problems may surface with time. He won’t be a well baby for a long time, and he may have developmental problems as he gets older.”
Lia remained silent as she dealt with her anger toward her sister for being negligent when it came to her baby’s health. “I’m sorry Candace wasn’t a better person.”
He shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. “That’s not important now. What’s important is John Aaron, and I know what I’m facing when it comes to raising him and the potential health issues. There’s no one more qualified than me to be his father.”
She couldn’t argue with that. A pediatrician, even one who lived in a frat house, would certainly be qualified to take care of a sick baby. “Why don’t you adopt a healthy baby?”
For the first time, he smiled slightly, and a look of joy softened his features. “I had no plans to adopt a baby. Not that I don’t want one. But adoption had never crossed my mind. When the baby’s mother said she didn’t want him, I knew I did.”
His voice took on an amazed note as he spoke. “Something just hit my heart at that moment—like out of the blue—and I knew it was meant to be. I had always wanted a son, and John Aaron needed a home. I spent the night with him in the nursery.” He settled back in the chair and glanced out the window where dewy flowers glistened in the moonlight. “I’ve never had doubt or a second thought about my decision.”
The server came by and refilled their coffee cups. Lia mulled over what Aaron had said. Why couldn’t things have been as she expected? It would have been so much easier.
Now she was crushing on him a little. It wasn’t just his looks—the dark hair, blue eyes, and athletic build. After all, she’d worked with some of the sexiest guys in the music industry. Nor was it his being a doctor, but she did admire the intelligence and hard work that required.
She supposed it was that he had decided to make an abrupt change in his lifestyle and adopt John simply because “it was meant to be.” That struck a note in her poetic soul. She wrote songs about love and loss and all those things that were meant to be. Like a lonely doctor and an unwanted baby.
Maybe she should go. Get her bags and head back to Nashville where a life that wasn’t really hers waited on her. After all, Aaron had been right about being qualified to take care of a sick newborn. Who else could do that? Everyone she knew was as clueless about babies as she was. “Do you have a picture of the baby?”
Aaron studied her for a moment. “If you want to see him, I can arrange that,” he said. “I can meet you at the hospital nursery at nine in the morning.”
“Really?” Excitement hummed inside her. She was going to get to see the baby. She lit up. “I would love that! Thank you.”
“Sure,” he responded in a disinterested tone as he took a look at his smartphone. “I guess this concludes our meeting.” He didn’t glance up from his phone.
The meeting, yes. She wasn’t certain about the rest. She watched as a server brought out dinner for a couple seated at a nearby table. The honey-glazed chicken drew her attention as her stomach reminded her that she needed a decent meal, not just nachos. “I’m going to stay and have dinner. Have you eaten? If not, I’ll buy your dinner.”
“No.” He frowned at her.
“If you don’t want to eat, that’s fine. I just thought I should be polite.” She motioned to the server. “I know you probably want to get back to your party.”
“It’s not my party. My father is the one having the party.”
“All right, but you’re not obligated to stay.”
“I got that.” He remained seated as the server approached.
Lia shrugged and smiled at the woman who stopped at the table with a couple of menus. “I want the honey-glazed chicken dinner with chardonnay, please.”
While Aaron looked over the menu, the server commented on the gold locket that Lia wore. “That necklace is beautiful. Is it vintage?”
“It’s over a hundred years old.” Lia beamed as she held up the pendant so the server could get a better look at the two lovebirds that decorated the front of the locket. Above them, a diamond representing the sun gave the locket some bling. The necklace was one of her most treasured possessions.
Aaron spoke up. “I’d like the rib eye, medium rare, baked potato, and more coffee.” He handed the menu back to the server, who cleared the chips and cheese off the table and promised she would be back shortly with their drinks.
Lia glanced across the candlelit table at Aaron. Dinner with the enemy. As a couple of moments of bored silence passed between them, she struggled to think of something to say. What do you say to a baby doctor? How do you change diapers?
“So that necklace is over a hundred years old?” It appeared he, too, was trying to think of a way to break the monotony of two strangers sitting at a table saying nothing to each other.
He had asked the right question.
She loved talking about the necklace and about the outlaw who had given it to his mistress in 1870. Excited, she leaned across the table and flipped the locket so Aaron could read the inscription on the back.
“With love. TCY. June. Eighteen seventy.” Aaron glanced from the locket to her face, which was only inches from his. He cleared his throat. “I take it the necklace is a family heirloom.”
“No.” She settled down in her chair with her fingers on the locket. “The initials are for Thomas Coleman Younger of the James-Younger Gang.” She sighed. “Captain Cole Younger. I paid a fortune for this necklace.”
Aaron gestured toward the necklace. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I’ve been a fangirl for years. It all started when my father was producing some music for a documentary on outlaws, and I did some research on the James-Younger Gang. Frank and Jesse both lived in Nashville for a while, and they’re more famous than Cole, but I like him best. Compared to Frank and Jesse, he was the bad-boy outlaw. The sexy one,” she added, and Aaron’s brows shot up.
She laughed as he gave her a speechless stare. “Frank and Jesse weren’t that exciting. They were the sons of a Baptist minister, and they had a straitlaced upbringing. They married nice girls and had children. Lived quietly to an extent,” she said. “On the other hand, Cole came from a large upper-class merchant family. Cole was well known for his devil-may-care attitude. He was considered the life of the party and a ladies’ man. Women adored him, but he never married. Legend has it that Belle Starr, who was a female outlaw, had a daughter by him.”
The server appeared with their meals. Again, things grew quiet at the table as they began to eat. Lia decided the doctor was not a conversationalist. “The food’s good,” she remarked as the speakers overhead broadcast the soft music.
He nodded in agreement. “What happened to Cole Younger in the end?”
“After serving over twenty years in prison, he was released due to good behavior.” She smiled at the doctor. “Cole had worked in the prison hospital, helping take care of the sick. After his parole, he and Frank James, who had been acquitted of all the charges against him, put together a Wild West show and traveled the country. Eventually, Cole went on the lecture circuit, advising young people against a life of crime, and he wrote an autobiography. He died in his seventies at home, surrounded by family. Frank had died a month earlier.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t die in a gunfight.”
“He had been shot several times in the past. He still had eleven bullets in him when he died.”
“Is there anything about him you don’t know?”
She grinned as she considered the man across the table from her. With his looks, he could have given Cole Younger a run for his money with the ladies. She wasn’t certain about his personality. He remained reserved, almost indifferent, as if he had herded his emotions off into a safe room, away from the threat she posed. She wondered if Cole Younger’s charm was buried beneath Aaron’s guarded façade?
“I wrote a song about Cole.” She held Aaron’s gaze. “ ‘The Outlaw in My Arms.’ ”
He gave his head a shake. “There’s something wrong with you.”
“No, there isn’t.” She fondled her locket. “I wrote it for a western movie. An indie film about Cole and Belle. I’ve written a lot of songs with western themes,” she said. “I love the history and majesty of the Old West.”
“Have you ever seen Lonesome Dove?”
“Like a dozen times!” She tried to contain her enthusiasm. “It is so epic, and I love the music. It literally breaks my heart when I hear it.” She let out a deep sigh. “Plus there’s Woodrow Call. Tommy Lee Jones did such a great job. Woodrow Call is right up there with Cole Younger in that I’d run away with either one of them tomorrow.”
“Well,” Aaron sliced his steak with a few brisk strokes of his knife. “I can see why you and Dallas Peyton are a couple.”
For the first time, her smile was artificial. “Yeah,” she answered quietly. It would appear to Aaron that Dallas, who had grown up on a ranch in Colorado and had the West in his blood, would be the perfect match for a girl like her. At one time, she had thought so, too.
After she had taken a sip of her wine, she shifted the conversation away from her relationship with Dallas. She found herself wondering what kind of woman intrigued the doctor. “Who fascinates you?”
He glanced up from his plate, looking at her as if she’d just spoken in ancient Aramaic. “Nobody,” he retorted, and he turned his attention back to his food. He didn’t say anything else as he rushed to finish his meal. It was a wonder he didn’t choke.
She took a couple more bites of the chicken and pushed away her half-finished plate.
He noticed. “You’re done?”
“I’m a picky eater.” She settled back in the chair and emptied her wineglass. “Aaron, are you always so dark and serious?”
He tossed his napkin over his plate. “Would it help if I wore a gun belt and robbed banks?”
“No.” She grinned. She was going to tease him about looking sexy enough without the outlaw persona when the piano chords of a familiar song stopped her. She listened as the notes floated from the overhead speaker.
“What is that song?” she asked, hoping she was wrong.
Aaron listened. “ ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’” he answered, reaching for his humming phone.
“Rainbow,” she murmured as she thought of Gilda’s crazy prediction. You must look for a rainbow. It will be a sign that your spirit guides are showing you your true destiny. Her gaze fell on Aaron as he checked his phone. No. Totally impossible.
“I have to go.” He pocketed his phone and took care of the bill, despite her protests.
In the hotel lobby, he told her the hospital nursery was located on the third floor south. “There’s a small waiting room near the elevator. I’ll meet you there.”
“Got it.” She gave him a nod. “See you tomorrow.”
He didn’t look overly excited about that prospect as he headed out of the hotel, and she didn’t feel thrilled as she rode the elevator to her floor. She was still unsettled about Candace’s baby. She had no doubts that Aaron truly wanted the child. Plus, he was a doctor, so he would know how to care for a sick baby. Did all of that outweigh the need for both a mother and a father? Had Aaron been right when he said she was too idealistic?
In her hotel suite, she checked her smartphone, which she had purposely left on the desk when she had gone downstairs. She had four messages from Dallas asking her to call him back. Holding the phone, she looked at the publicity still of Dallas wearing his trademark black Stetson and duster.
At age nineteen, it had been crush at first sight for her. He had been outside a stable, singing as he groomed a mare. She had followed the sound of a deep, clear voice, full of passion, and when she rounded the corner of the stable and saw him, she’d known that Dallas had what her father called star quality.
She’d never had star quality. All her life she had been prepped for a musical career, and she did have a good voice. It was the kind that got you solo parts if you were singing in a choir, but it wasn’t the ethereal, soulful voice needed to turn songs into gold records and pack a stadium with fans. Dallas had that voice along with the looks and charisma to woo an audience.
Yet, at that time, he had never sung in public. He’d spent his life on a remote Colorado ranch. Just out of high school, he was working that summer as a horse trainer on a dude ranch. She had been hiding at the ranch, avoiding the reality that she was a disappointment to her father. Julian Montgomery had never admitted it, but she’d seen it on his face. When it came to music, she was as much a failure as her mother had been. She would never be the next Taylor Swift.
Dallas had changed all that. Over the next two weeks, they spent the evenings practicing songs and playing tunes. His enthusiasm for music, which had been dead inside her for several years, inspired her to write her first song. They had worked on it together, and listening to Dallas sing her song enticed her to write more, to let all the sorrow, pain, joy, and love she felt inside come out in songs. They even worked to get her voice to complement his so she could back him up on the choruses.
Lia had never forgotten the day she took Dallas to the studio in Nashville and the shocked looks on everyone’s faces as she sat at the keyboard and an unknown cowboy belted out her song lyrics. A star was born. She still remembered the surprised look on her father’s face as he stood in the control room door listening to her and Dallas rip through song after song.
Ten years had passed since the day they met, and Lia looked at the photograph on her phone with a deep sadness. “She’s the music that flows through my heart,” Dallas had said of her during early interviews. Her father had used his publicity machine to promote her and Dallas as country music’s cutest sweethearts. They made television appearances together. They were interviewed together and did award presentations together. The fans adored the young couple.
And, through Dallas, she had become the daughter her father had always wanted.
Yet time and success took its toll on her and Dallas. While fans were waiting for them to announce a wedding date, their relationship had started to fracture. Under the demands of success, Dallas suffered from the highs and lows of an artistic temperament, while she had to face a heartbreaking reality. If Dallas had been just a regular cowboy without the stellar voice, their relationship would have fizzled out years ago.
Love was a hard thing to fake.
She took a seat at the desk where her notebook lay open, and she glanced at the lyrics she’d written earlier. If I could only make all the wrongs right. She tapped the Call button on her smartphone, and he answered.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“I’m in a town south of Nashville. Lafayette Falls. Are you still in Alaska?”
“Yeah.” He had a cabin hidden in the wilderness. Everyone thought it was where he went to escape the pressure of stardom and rest his voice, which was partly true. It was also where he went to rendezvous with singer Madison McCain. She wasn’t Dallas’s first fling, but she was the one he had fallen in love with.
“Julian has called me twice,” Dallas said, his voice uneasy. “He wanted to know what was going on. He said he’d gotten a message from you, saying you were taking a few weeks off. He wanted to know if we were having some problems. It’s time, Lia.”
When she didn’t say anything, he grew angry. “You’ve put it off long enough. I know how you feel about your father, but this is my life. And it’s your life if you ever choose to have one.”
“Dallas, listen to me, we have to do this right.” She’d been trying to reason with Dallas for months as their rocky relationship came to an end. They were not a typical couple who had grown apart. Millions of fans who had bought into their romance adored who they were.
True love was part of the brand her father had promoted since the first time they’d appeared together when they were nineteen. A breakup was going to shatter the myth. It could damage Dallas’s career, her career, and Coldwater Hills Music, which had been in her family for generations.
“I’m not giving Madison up,” he said quietly.
“Fine, but you can’t be seen with her. You have to make sure the paparazzi don’t get any photos of you and her together. Stay inside, and if there is any leaving the house, you do it in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah,” Dallas remarked. “I’ve heard all this before.”
“I keep reminding you because if you slip up and the press finds out about her, you know how they will spin this story. You’ll be the villain, and I don’t even want to think about how Dad will react if that happens.”
“I want to talk to Julian before something does leak. You know that’s going to happen,” Dallas said. “Lia, we need to talk to Julian now.”
She knew Dallas was tired of hiding the truth and he felt he could weather a scandal. His concern was Julian Montgomery, who had become his mentor and who had taken care of him since he’d signed with Coldwater Hills Music. Dallas loved her father. Julian was the one person Dallas trusted and respected most.
“He’s in Europe, and I can’t go to Europe now. My sister just died.”
After a moment of surprised silence, Dallas asked, “What happened?”
“Drugs,” Lia answered. “She left behind a baby. He’s here in a hospital, very sick, and that’s why I took some time off. I haven’t told anyone. Especially not Dad.” Her father wouldn’t have been the least bit sympathetic when it came to his ex-wife’s daughter. She was thankful that he was overseas on a promotional tour with a couple of new acts. “He wouldn’t understand, and I just can’t deal with his objections. Not right now. It’s a bad time.”
“Are you okay? Is there anything you need?”
She blinked back tears. “I’m okay. I just have to make sure everything is all right with the baby.” And she had to come to some sort of resolution about Aaron before she left Lafayette Falls. She sighed. “Dad is supposed to be back on the eighteenth of July. That’s just a few weeks away. We can break the news to him then. In the meantime, you stay there and stay out of sight.”
“All right,” Dallas agreed. “You know the sooner we get this behind us, the better.”
She knew.
The thing was, she couldn’t imagine her life without him. How selfish was that?
She stepped outside on the small balcony. A warm, humid blast of night air greeted her, and the moon struggled to shine through a heavy drift of clouds. The clouds lit up, and the sound of thunder dominated the night.
She found herself wishing for a rainbow.