Substitute Daddy Page 2

  The stubble on his face and tiredness in his eyes showed his grief over losing Lance and then anger at what he had just found out. She didn’t dare trust him though. He wasn’t a lost kitten at the door. He was a man, and her instinct on that species had been off for years. She had a baby to worry about and that was her only concern. Matthew Ryder would have to take his help and shove it. Grace was tired of letting her life fall into the hands of other people. She grabbed her old laptop and began to search for lodgings for her and her baby when she was born. She’d do what she had to until she could get home to Georgia and back to her mother’s. Grace shuddered. She hoped a baby would sooth the savage beast in the woman. If not, living there would be unbearable.

  Chapter Two

  Matthew wanted to hit something, and right now his anger was pointed at his dead best friend. He loved Lance, indiscretions and all, and he knew his friend’s penchant for various ladies, but how could he stand there and joke around when he knew full well he had Grace pregnant and stashed in a broken down apartment? When he drove into the neighborhood of the address the landlord had given him, the first thing he thought was that it wasn’t Lance’s style. He liked luxury and this wasn’t it. Then he thought maybe it was a place he took his escorts so they didn’t know how much money he had. It was a sleazy thought, but Lance made no bones about his life. Still, what he did to Grace sickened Matthew. He never knew Lance would sink so low as to do something like this. Lance knew how Matthew felt about family and children, and he laughed about it more than once. At any time he could’ve asked for help and Matthew would have been there. Unfortunately, he knew that it wasn’t because of Lance being too proud to ask for help. He just didn’t care.

  Grace Reid was something. Matthew strode over to the marble inlay bar to pour himself a Jameson and ginger. He smiled, recalling her words about not depending on the kindness of strangers. Gone with the Wind was his mother’s favorite movie so he knew it well. Some of the women Lance kept around would have gladly taken him up on his offer and moved right into his house. They’d have expected everything to be taken care of and here was this actual good woman in the midst of all those gold diggers and Lance treated her like crap. If he only knew what he had in his hands maybe he wouldn’t have tossed her callously aside. Matthew shook his head. Nope, Lance would have never had a clue. The child would have barely known him as a father and Grace would’ve been a single mom regardless. Jesus, Lance, how could you be such a dick?

  There was nothing more to be done until the next day. Matthew had been putting off the business end of the ranch dealing with Lance’s funeral and the likes. He took his drink to his office, and as he passed the kitchen his stomach growled, reminding him that he had eaten very little in the last few days. Bobbie Lee, his cook, was gone for the holidays and, normally, he’d have been in New York by now too. This year he decided the holiday nightlife in the city wasn’t what he wanted. While the cold winds and the snow gave the feeling of Christmas, the crowds and the people weren’t worth the trouble. He’d be spending it quietly at the house with his spreadsheets and a roaring fire.

  Unless Grace could do the numbers… An idea bloomed in his head. He needed to hire someone to do the books and payroll. How hard was it to go from managing a tourist shop to the payroll of a ranch? He grinned. It was apples and oranges, he knew, but a perfectly good excuse to get her at the house. Lance may not have wanted to take responsibility for his child, but Matthew made the decision before the door of that grimy apartment even closed that he would be everything to that child. No matter his faults, he would make sure Lance’s daughter would never lack for anything. Grace would protest, Matthew was sure of it, but he was as stubborn as the bulls he owned. Eventually, he’d wear her down. She didn’t need to do this alone.

  He sat down, booted up his computer, and opened the ranch finances but he found that he couldn’t concentrate because Grace’s face swam in front of his eyes. She was gorgeous, and that was another bone that stuck in his throat about Lance. Her dark hair was silky and black. She’d had it up in a ponytail, and he wondered how it looked down against her shoulders. Even in the midst of all the worry and hurt Lance had put her through, her eyes held a spark of fire in the dark chocolate pools of her irises. Her bottom lip was full, and how it trembled when she started to cry broke his heart into pieces. Grace had it tough for the eighteen months she lived with Lance and probably before that with the way she had mentioned her mother. When he helped her stand, he had noticed the light floral scent of her perfume and how lovely and lush her body was filled with life.

  “Come on, Matthew, focus,” he muttered to himself.

  But instead of working, he spent the night devising a plan on how to convince Grace to stay in Nevada and work for him. By the time he headed upstairs to bed, little work had gotten done but he had his speech down pat. He’d built a multimillion dollar empire. He was sure he could cajole her to see his way.

  The next morning when he showed up at the apartment and knocked a few times without an answer, Matthew frowned. Could she have gone that quickly? He tried knocking again and a neighbor with a cigarette hanging from her mouth opened her door.

  “Keep it up and I’m calling the cops!” she yelled and took a drag of her lit cigarette. “They’ve been here twice already yesterday.”

  Matthew knew once was for him, but didn’t know what the other one was for, and his heart lurched. “What do you mean twice?”

  She looked him up and down. “That suit’s expensive. How important is the information to ya?”

  He made a sound of frustration and pulled a fifty from his wallet. The old lady went to grab it but he held it out of reach. “Talk.”

  “The pregnant girl got taken to the hospital late last night,” the old woman said. “She looked like she was hurting pretty badly, and I heard the EMT say she was in early labor.”

  “Which hospital?” Matthew asked urgently.

  “There’s only one people who live around here can afford. Mercy takes the charity cases. Now give me the money.” She reached out her wrinkled hand for the money.

  Matthew dropped it into her hand and walked away. There was no way she’d be considered a charity case. He was on his cell while sliding behind the wheel of his car to make arrangements for her and the baby. While he drove he was calling in favors. By the time he was striding through the sliding doors of the older hospital, he knew which room she was in and had spoken to Southern Hills Hospital about having her transferred there. They had the best suite in the labor and delivery ward waiting for her, and their ambulance was on its way. All he had to do was convince Grace to go. The ER was packed and the nurses looked frazzled. After one directed him to the third floor without even looking up, he shook his head. Just because people had less money didn’t mean they should be given less medical care. Matthew made a mental note to contact the medical board of Mercy Hospital later in the week and offer a big donation for revamping the small overworked facility.

  He stopped at the front desk and put on his best smile. “Hi, I’m here to see Grace Reid.”

  The nurse looked up and smiled slowly. “Are you family?”

  Matthew played the part. “I’m the baby’s father, and I was away on business so they brought her here. An ambulance is on its way from Southern Hills, and I’d like to fill out transfer papers please.”

  “We’re small but we care for our patients,” the nurse said defensively. He could see that she was one who truly cared about the people who came in.

  “I have no doubt of that, ma’am, and as soon as I make sure my best girls are okay, I plan to speak to your board about a generous donation to remodel and revamp your facility.”

  This time the nurse beamed. “That would be a wonderful blessing. Ms. Reid is in room four. Both she and the baby are stable.”

  “What was wrong?” Matthew asked.

  “The doctor thinks it’s stress related. Her blood pressure was high, and she started having contractions.” The nurse made a s
ound of disapproval before speaking again. “Ms. Reid has not been eating properly, and her weight is too low for a woman this far along. The doctor wanted her on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy, and she has been given a low dose of magnesium to stop her contractions. The baby could come right now and be fine, but we like for them to stay in utero as long as possible.”

  Outside the room Grace was in, Matthew shook the nurse’s hand. “Thank you for taking care of Grace.”

  The nurse smiled. “I’ll go get the doctor and have him sign off on the transfer to Southern Hills.”

  He nodded and watched her leave before knocking gently and entering the room. Grace’s eyes were closed, and the sun streamed across her face. She looked almost ethereal, and Matthew’s breath caught in his chest for a moment at how gorgeous she was. Great, now I’m lusting after my kind of best friend’s widow. Is she a widow since they were never married? Grace opened her eyes slowly, and he saw the surprise on her face at seeing him there.

  “What are you doing here? How did you find me?” she asked.

  Her voice was soft, and it had a defeated tone that he hated hearing. Matthew let the door close and pulled a chair next to her bed.

  Grace struggled to sit up. “I guess you can clear the apartment out now. I’ll be stuck here for a while. You can just leave my things with the leasing office.”

  “Your neighbor with the bad smoking habit fleeced me for fifty for the information,” Matthew answered. “The nurse told me you haven’t been eating enough.”

  “I ate…some.” She looked down, and he knew the classic move of a person that was ashamed. In Matthew’s opinion, she had nothing to be ashamed of. This was Lance’s fault, pure and simple. He knew she had no one, and what he did to her was akin to abuse.

  “Not enough and you’ve been stressed out for a long time,” Matthew pointed out in a somber tone. “Grace, I know you don’t know me, but please let me help you and the baby.”

  “Why? Why does this bother you so much, and why do you feel that you have to help me?” Grace asked. “Most men would be glad to hand me cash and say get out of my world and let’s pretend this never happened.”

  Matthew sat back and looked at her for a moment before speaking. “Lance was like my brother, more than that. He was my brother in every sense of the word except for blood. I knew him and, hell, I should’ve known about you sooner. So in some sense I feel guilty that he did this to you because he is—was—my family and he treated you wrong.”

  “Okay, guilt is a great motivator,” Grace said. “I can’t absolve you of anything. I’m not a priest, but just know it wasn’t your fault.”

  “The baby is the last connection to Lance. I’d like to give her everything he wasn’t planning to give,” Matthew offered. “From what you vaguely said, I take it you and your mother don’t have the best relationship. I can offer you a job with good income, a house on the ranch property, and everything that was Lance’s will be transferred to you and the baby.”

  “Sounds too good to be true so it probably is,” Grace said bluntly. “I’ve stopped believing in unicorns and wishes coming true long ago.”

  Matthew was ready for such an answer. “I’ll have my lawyers draft up an agreement so airtight that there’s no wiggle room. Even the house on the property will be yours, the shares Lance owned. Everything will be for you and the baby. What do you have to lose? I’m offering security, and right now it’s better than going to Georgia with nothing.”

  “I’d get a job and be out of my mother’s house within six months,” Grace pointed out flatly. “I’m very resourceful, and while your offer sounds great, don’t expect me to jump on it because I’m in dire straits.”

  Matthew pressed the brakes and slowly took another route. “Even if you left I’d still put everything in your name and the baby’s name. It’s your choice, Grace, of course it is, but I hope you’d think past what Lance did to you to see this can and will help you in the long run.”

  Grace was quiet for a moment. “What kind of work are we talking about?”

  “The bookkeeping for the ranch.” His heart jumped because this was progress; she was relenting. “I have a lot of rods in the fire, and I get so caught up sometimes, and Lance wasn’t much help at it. Your salary, severance pay—everything—would be laid out in the agreement.”

  It wasn’t all true, of course, because he would never let his bookkeeping get behind. Matthew was a hands-on kind of businessman and very rarely outsourced, but if getting her to say yes meant he had to seem frazzled, then so be it.

  “The house, was it one of Lance’s sex dens? Because if so, that would be a no,” she said. “I don’t want to live in a place where he soiled the sheets.”

  He smiled. “No, that’s not a problem. I kept a rule that I didn’t want his, um, friends to be on the property.”

  Grace gave a short laugh. “Yes, let’s call them friends.”

  “Let’s give it a chance, please. If after six months you don’t like it I’ll buy you out top dollar and you can go where ever you choose,” Matthew coaxed. “I’d like to be in Lance’s daughter’s life and show her mother Nevada isn’t so bad.”

  “Fine, I’ll give it a chance, but I reserve the right to say no at anytime. I refuse to be stuck here for six months if I don’t want to be,” Grace replied.

  “Deal.” Matthew grinned. “An ambulance from Southern Hills Hospital is on its way to move you to their facility—”

  “Say what?” Grace frowned. “I didn’t say I want to move.”

  “I thought that Southern Hills would be better than Mercy. You’d have a private nurse and…”

  Grace held up her hand to cut him off. “No, you don’t get to bulldoze me into what you think is better. That’s where you’ve gone wrong. Mercy is fine. I’m perfectly well taken care of here, and I will not be moving to Southern Hills…wherever that is.”

  “This is a county hospital and the staff is overworked,” he said. He watched her eyes narrow and knew he’d said the wrong thing. Shit.

  “I grew up going to a county hospital and on Medicaid half the time. My first birth control pills came from the health department,” Grace said stiffly. “We all aren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths, Matthew.”

  “I’m sorry, I never meant to insult you,” he said. “I’ll call and have the ambulance cancelled.” He looked at the second empty bed in the room. “Can I at least ask them to put you in a better room? If you have to be here until the baby is born then you should at least be comfortable and have a room to yourself.”

  Grace nodded. “I’d actually like that. I like having my own space.”

  Finally, Matthew felt a sense of triumph when she gave in. Impulsively, he reached out and squeezed her hand.

  “It’s all going to work out fine, Grace, you’ll see.”

  She gave a swift nod, and he smiled encouragingly before he walked out the door. Grace wasn’t going to trust him easily. He didn’t need the entire story to know she had a hard life, and Lance only reinforced the fact in her mind that she could trust no one but herself. Matthew had every intention to change that view and to give her and her baby the best. The baby was the last piece of Lance in this world. He hoped that his being in her life would be a good influence as opposed to the father who hadn’t cared before he died.

  Chapter Three

  It was no fun being pregnant, stuck on bed rest in a hospital room. She was ten days in with periods where she was contracting and her cervix was beginning to dilate. The doctors knew the baby was going to come early. It was just a matter of time and keeping her in as long as they could. She was allowed to get up, go to the bathroom, or sit in a lounge chair that Matthew had brought in and placed by the window so she could sit and gaze outside. So that’s what she did, looked out the window at the trees and lake and fluffy clouds and wished she could be out there, getting some fresh air. Oh, and she knitted. She’d asked Matthew to find her yarn bag and he brought it. So while she longed for the outdoor
s, she made the baby booties and hats, a bunting, and she was working on a blanket. No matter what went on, Grace was in love with her baby, and she comforted herself in the fact that bed rest meant Lilah was safe and healthy.

  She found herself liking Matthew more than she should. Grace was still very wary of him and his intentions, but so far he had been true to his word. The very next day he’d shown up with an agreement drawn up, and when she saw what Lance actually owned compared to what he told her and gave her she felt like crying. Lance had said he didn’t want her to work, but did he want her to suffer? How callous could he have been seeing her in that crummy apartment, struggling to survive on what he brought her, and not feel anything? While she was making tuna casserole with whatever she could find, he was eating filet mignon. She was pregnant with his child, and he acted like it was nothing. The lowlife acted as if her worth meant nothing when she got pregnant and could no longer give him the sexual treats he wanted. How could I have been so stupid?

  Matthew was trying to go above and beyond because of what Lance did and while it was nice, it made her a tad uncomfortable. Was he really such a nice guy or was there an ulterior motive? The amount in the agreement was astounding if he ever bought her out. The pay for being his bookkeeper was more than generous, and he went further to put stock owned by Lance into the baby’s name for her future when she turned twenty-one. That melted some of the frost around Grace’s heart because he was looking out for the baby where his friend did not. He had meals brought in for her, a prenatal masseuse for massages to keep her stress level down, and even the nurses loved him. Matthew Ryder had not only brought them in baskets of goodies, but made a sizable donation toward Mercy Hospital. If it’s too good to be true it probably is, young lady. Her mother’s words came back to her, and after what Lance did she held a healthy dose of distrust.