LITMIR.BIZ

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and it wasn’t his place to point out what they were.

      While she put Sunnie to bed in the crib, he turned on the camera and picked up the video baby monitor to take with them. “Thank you for stopping by,” he said once they’d left the nursery and were descending the stairs. “It seems like you’ve had to come to my rescue twice today.”

      She gave him a questioning look. “Since Sunnie is wearing a dry diaper, I assume you mastered that challenge?”

      Nodding, he grinned. “It turned out to be a lot easier than getting her to bed for the night.” When they reached the bottom of the stairs, he asked, “Would you like to stay for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake?”

      “I… should go and let you enjoy the quiet,” she said, walking over to the bench where he had laid her coat and purse earlier. “If you have any more problems you can always call me.”

      Before she had a chance to pick up her things, he placed his hand to the small of her back and ushered Abby toward the family room. “To tell you the truth, I could use the company of another adult for a little while. As you’ve seen this evening, Sunnie isn’t exactly a witty conversationalist just yet.”

      “No, but you have to admit, she gets her point across,” Abby said, smiling.

      “No kidding.” He rubbed the side of his head. “I’m still experiencing some ringing in my left ear.”

      When they went into the family room, she sat down on the edge of the couch. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass on the cake and coffee. If I drink caffeine now, I’ll be up all night.”

      “Would you like something else?” He walked over to turn on the gas log in the fireplace. “I think there are some soft drinks in the fridge.”

      Abby shook her head. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

      “I’d offer you something stronger, but since I don’t drink, I don’t keep it around the house.”

      Brad’s sister, Sadie, had told her that he never drank anything stronger than coffee or iced tea, due to the fact that their older brother, Michael, had been an alcoholic, as well as a drug addict. It had ultimately led to the man’s death when, in a drug and alcohol induced haze, he’d crashed through a guardrail and driven over the side of a cliff.

      “I’m not much of a drinker, either,” she admitted. “I might have an occasional glass of wine with dinner, but that’s about it.”

      Brad sank into the big, overstuffed armchair flanking the couch. “Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against drinking in moderation. It’s when a person doesn’t know when to quit that it becomes a problem.”

      “Like it did for your brother?” she asked.

      He nodded. “Mike had a rebellious streak a mile wide and would do anything he could think of to humiliate our dad. What better way to do it than to become the town drunk?”

      She could tell Brad resented the fact that his brother had gone out of his way to humiliate the Price family. She could sympathize. In her senior year in high school she had suffered through her own family’s scandal, and knowing they were the subject of intense gossip and speculation had been one of the worst times in her life.

      “A lot of kids go through a reckless stage,” she offered gently. “I’m sure Michael never meant for it to become the huge problem that it did for him.”

      “You’re probably right. Unfortunately, Mike never seemed to be able to come out of that phase and it just got worse when Dad disowned him.”

      Two years older than she and Brad, all she could remember about Michael Price was that he had a reputation for partying hard and raising hell. “Was your dad disowning him the reason he left Royal?”

      “Dad had reached the end of his rope,” Brad said, nodding. “He ordered Mike out of the house and rather than stick around to see how Dad felt once he had cooled down, Mike took off. The first news we had of him was eight months ago when we were notified that he’d been killed.”

      “Michael’s death must have broken your father’s heart,” she said, unable to imagine the degree of desperation Brad’s father had to have reached to take such a drastic stand. To lose his son without making amends had to have been crushing.

      “I’m sure it affected him more than he let show.” Raising one dark eyebrow, Brad gave her a pointed look. “But don’t get the idea that Robert Price would have handled it any other way. You know how he is about appearances. Sadie wouldn’t have made the decision to move to Houston when she got pregnant with the twins if she hadn’t been worried about our father’s disapproval.”

      Abby had been in Seattle at the time, working at the web development company she and one of her college friends had started right after graduation. It wasn’t until she sold her interest in the highly successful venture and moved back to Royal to marry Richard that she learned the story behind Sadie’s move.

      “I’m glad she decided to return to Royal,” Abby said sincerely. “If she hadn’t, she and Rick might not have run into each other.”

      Brad’s sister had become pregnant after one night with Rick Pruitt, just before the dashing Marine had been deployed to the Middle East. Losing touch, it wasn’t until some three years later that they were reunited when they ran into each other at the TCC clubhouse. Now they were happily married, raising their adorable two-year-old twin daughters and looking forward to a bright future together.

      “Dad mellowed over the years and was pleased about her and the girls moving back, so it all worked out for the best.” Brad glanced at the video monitor he still held. “Do you think Sunnie will be all right? She cried awfully hard there for a while.”

      “Babies do that.” Abby couldn’t help but be a bit amused. She had never seen Brad Price look more unsure of himself, and she found it oddly fascinating. “I think she’ll be fine, Brad. Really.”

      “I hope that’s the case,” he said, placing the monitor on the end table beside his chair.

      “This afternoon you mentioned that you don’t intend to hire a nanny,” she said, when he glanced at the monitor again as if needing to reassure himself that the baby was all right. “Having help might give you a bit more peace of mind about caring for her.”

      “I’m not entirely certain that handing Sunnie’s care over to someone else would be in her best interest,” he said, surprising her. His expression told her that he had given the matter a considerable amount of thought.

      “You’re going to try to do this on your own?” She hadn’t meant to sound so incredulous, but men with the kind of fortune Bradford Price had amassed hired help to take care of their children, even if they were married.

      “Yes, I am,” he answered decisively. He sat forward, propping his forearms on his knees, and stared down at his hands as if trying to put his reasoning into words. “This isn’t about me or my comfort. This is about Sunnie. In her short little life, she’s been abandoned by her mother, used as a pawn in a blackmail scheme and passed from one stranger to another. She hasn’t really had the chance to bond with anyone.” His tone took on a hard edge. “She deserves a hell of a lot better than that.”

      Abby couldn’t have agreed more. Sunnie had been the result of Michael Price’s only night with an unscrupulous woman who, after giving birth, had tried using her infant daughter at the request of a dangerous drug lord to extort money from the Price family. They had sent blackmail notes to Brad, as well as a few other TCC members, telling each of them they were the father in an effort to get as much money as they could. He had correctly assumed they’d be too embarrassed to reveal to each other that they were being blackmailed. But when Brad and the other men who had received notes refused to pay, the career criminal had given up on his scheme and the mother abandoned the baby on the doorstep of the club with a note pinned to her blanket, declaring Brad was Sunnie’s father. A DNA test proved that there was indeed a genetic link, but when Zeke Travers tracked

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