The dog wouldn’t have noticed how the thin fabric of Lindsay’s dress clung to her perfectly shaped legs as she walked, but Cole had.

  With some physical discomfort.

  Pulling at the bottom of his shirt, making certain that it was covering vital parts, he grinned as Lindsay opened the back door to greet Lillie.

  “Oh!” Her surprise as the girl nodded, and then watched her calmly, sent Cole’s grin to a full-blown smile. Lindsay sounded happy to see the beautiful canine. Lillie had that effect on people.

  “Lindsay, meet Lillie.” Seemed like the formal introduction was appropriate.

  He watched as his new contracted employee buried her face in Lillie’s neck, kissing the side of her face, before saying, “I’m glad to make your acquaintance, Lillie.”

  A natural dog person.

  He wasn’t at all surprised.

  “I’ve never heard of a party where people bring their pets,” she said, as she buckled herself into the front seat. Her words, issued with a smile, held approval.

  “This isn’t one,” he warned. “Lillie’s going to be the only canine there.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t say anything more.

  He wanted her to. It would be nice if she’d offered an anecdote or two about herself.

  There were things he wanted to know. Like, “Did you have a dog growing up?”

  Clearly, she didn’t currently have one. The apartment complex where she was staying didn’t allow pets.

  “No.” That was it. No expansion on the subject.

  “What about later? When you were out on your own?”

  “No. Growing up, though, I wanted a collie. Lassie and all.”

  The show was before their time.

  And so much for her being a dog person.

  “Lillie’s kind of a community dog,” he told her then, just to pass the time while they made the short drive out of the middle of town to the road of estate homes by the east mountain. “Our local vet, Cassie Montford—you’ll meet her today, she’s the wife of the son of the town’s founder—she runs a rescue clinic. When Lillie came in, I couldn’t pass her up. The girl was in rough shape, couldn’t be left alone for the first several months of her life and went with me everywhere. Everyone kind of adopted her. Since then she’s had therapy training. We do stints at the nursing home, and accept invitations from shut-ins, or, like when one of the local kids broke her leg in gymnastics, we did biweekly visits at her home, that kind of thing.”

  Lindsay’s smile, as she watched him and glanced back at Lillie a few times too, kept him talking. “And, you’ll soon notice, she thinks she lives at Brent and Emily’s too, as do their kids. Anytime I have to be gone overnight, she stays with them.”

  The smile was gone. Lindsay’s gaze faced the windshield.

  Something he’d said?

  And it struck him. Brent and Emily were family to him. To much of the town. But to Lindsay, Brent Wilson was the owner of the company who’d just contracted her to work for them. And based on Cole’s impressions over the past day and a half, the job at Elite meant a great deal to Lindsay. Maybe even more than her working for them meant to Elite.

  Which was saying a lot.

  He’d yet to figure out why, when based on her skill she should have had her pick of jobs, she’d been so eager to grab at theirs. What had happened to make her so hesitant, so...nervous and eager to please?

  None of his business.

  And yet, being him, he’d likely find out. And do what he could to help ease her way.

  It was who he was. What he did.

  And he liked that about himself.

  * * *

  The long drive, the massive desert-landscaped front yard—complete with water fountain and flowing river—the castle-like beige stucco home including turrets might have impressed Lindsay Warren, if she hadn’t been living inside Warren-Smythe her entire life.

  Her father had done well for himself.

  But then she’d already known that.

  About to come up out of her skin as she noticed the paved driveway filled with cars, saw others coming up behind them, Lindsay felt a nudge at her neck.

  Jerked. And then...settled.

  Reaching her hand up, she laid it against the warmth of Lillie’s neck. Offered the rescue girl the love and affection Lindsay would have liked to have had from a father.

  Felt a wet nose at the back of her ear as Cole parked.

  And remembered what he’d said about Lillie’s service training. Glancing at Cole then, afraid the dog was giving her away, that Cole would think she was vulnerable, she was glad to see him fully occupied with backing his SUV into the very tight spot.

  “Is she this friendly with everyone?” she asked then, just to clearly establish that she and the dog were just getting to know one another, not that Lillie was being of service.

  “Yep,” Cole told her with a grin as he put the vehicle in Park and pushed the button to shut off the ignition. Ruffling the dog’s ear, he continued, “Don’t be surprised if she checks back with you a time or two, though. You were in her car and you’re new to her. She might need to explore that situation.”

  His accompanying chuckle warmed her. Almost as much as the thought of Lillie hanging out with her some over the next difficult minutes without alerting anyone that Lindsay might be a bit emotionally vulnerable.

  She didn’t need the dog to get through the upcoming ordeal.

  Warren-Smythe would be there, able to handle whatever transpired.

  And she didn’t need Cole Bennet in her life, either. He was a great guy she was lucky to associate with while she completed an assignment.

  What she needed, she discovered as she opened the car door and attempted to stand, was a bit of strength in her suddenly weak knees. Grabbing the back door handle, as Cole greeted an older man getting out of the car next to them, she freed Lillie from the SUV. And when Lillie nudged her hand, she lightly stroked the dog’s head.

  Hated that such a sweet thing had been abused to the point of needing round-the-clock care for months. She’d never done fundraising for therapy or rescue animals, but as soon as she got home, she was going to look into doing so, pro bono. If nothing else, she’d volunteer and donate.

  Having given up on a dog of her own as a kid, she’d moved on. Focused on what she could have instead of longing for what she couldn’t.

  And there she was, meeting the father she’d given up on. And having a dog make her acquaintance, too.

  Maybe she should have just stayed home and gotten a dog.

  “Lindsay, there’s someone I’d like you to meet,” Cole called out to her, standing with another set of new arrivals. A couple in their sixties, she’d guess. Both dressed casually, wearing welcoming smiles, and...holding hands with each other.

  “This is Becca and Will Parsons,” Cole said, holding out an arm to draw Lindsay up to them. “Becca’s the mayor of Shelter Valley and Will is president of Montford University.”

  Whoa. Daddy Wilson didn’t mess around.

  She nodded, smiled a gracious Warren-Smythe smile, held out her hand and expressed how pleased she was to meet them. Completely confident for the minute or two the four of them stood in conversation.

  Too soon, the Parsonses moved on to other arrivals, and Cole motioned for him and Lindsay to join the random small groups of people meandering toward a sidewalk that led to a gate at the side of a five-car garage.

  “Where’s Lillie?” She hadn’t meant the question to come out with such alarm. But had thought she’d have the dog beside her when she entered the backyard.

  “Probably inside, saying hello to Kaitlin, Kerby and Kyle.”

  Her father’s children. Savannah had given her the rundown. Names and ages. Kaitlin thirteen, Kyle fifteen, Kerby eleven.

  Her half brothers and sister.

  She missed a step.

  Grabbing her by the arm with his left hand, Cole slid his right behind her back. Steadying her.

  The shock of his touch whistled through her as she said, “Sorry, my flip-flop slid off the walk...”

  The words weren’t right. Warren-Smythe would have thanked him for his gallantry and moved away.

  Ms. Bohemian let him continue to keep his hand lightly at her back as he led her through the gate.

  Chapter Five

  The lovely two-acre backyard was already alive with people milling about. Groups sat at tables around the pool, Will Parsons’s sister Randi was in the pool with Becca and Will’s twins—miracle babies who were both recent Montford graduates.

  “Brent and Emily are still inside,” Cole told Lindsay. “They have some of the food catered, but do all of the serving themselves. I generally help with that—you want to join me?”

  “Who’s that?” Lindsay asked, smiling at Martha and Reverend Marks as they came in the gate and passed them by.

  “David and Martha Marks. He’s the preacher at the big white church in the center of town. She was a single mother whose daughter had been attacked when the reverend first came to town. He fell in love with the family, and they with him. And just for full exposure, I’m not telling you anything the entire town doesn’t already know. Martha’s daughter is happily married now. She’s the kindergarten teacher here in town.”

  When Elite’s HR manager came through the gate with her husband, and Lindsay smiled at them, saying hello, Cole asked her once again if she wanted to come inside with him. Thinking it would be easier for her to meet the company’s owner in a smaller, private setting.

  “No,” she told him, glancing over as Lillie came out onto the patio by the pool. “You go ahead. I’ll be fine out here.”

  When he hesitated, she smiled at him. “Seriously, Mr. Bennet. I appreciate your effort to make sure I’m comfortable, but you don’t have to babysit me. Go. Enjoy yourself. I’m going to do what you brought me here to do. Meet some of the people for whom I’ll be working, and some of the people around whom I’ll be living.”

  Her expression, the tone in her voice...they were different. Almost as though he was being dismissed.

  Cole went into the house to seek out Brent and Emily, to offer his services, as always. But he did so with a backward glance. Watching as Lindsay made her way forward into the throng. What had that been about?

  Had he come on too strong?

  Read more into their new employer/employee comradery than had been there?

  Offended her somehow?

  And then he saw where she was headed, who she stopped to talk to, and he understood.

  Lillie to the rescue.

  With a nod toward his girl, and a smile back on his face, Cole went to grab the heavily laden tray his friends had waiting for him.

  * * *

  Lindsay knew what the man looked like. Savannah’s portfolio had included a family photo from an article done on Elite Paper. And a second from a social media post.

  And there’d been the publicity shot of the man alone that she’d received from Sierra’s Web after the DNA match had come through from a popular ancestry database.

  She’d thought she was ready to see him in person. And, perhaps, if she’d been in an audience, waiting to hear him speak, she’d have done fine. As it was, the longer Cole was gone, meaning the sooner he’d reappear, most likely with Brent Wilson at his side, or soon following, the more agitated Lindsay became.

  With Lillie staying close, she’d been able to maintain her Warren-Smythe upbringing enough to make conversation with half a dozen people. Had been introduced to the sheriff of Shelter Valley, Greg Richards, and his wife, Beth. Thought, if she’d been going to stay in town, she’d like to know Beth better. The woman seemed to know things she didn’t show.

  How Lindsay could ascertain that, she couldn’t explain, even to herself. Told herself Ms. Bohemian was going overboard. Seeing things that most people didn’t when viewing a sunset, for instance, was one thing. Seeing them in people was a bit much.

  And with that thought—propelled by the opening of the electric wall of sliding glass that led into a fully cooled patio where more than a dozen round tables were set—Lindsay ducked into the restroom cabana out by the pool.

  Locking the door behind her, she stared at herself in the mirror. Looking for the person she’d been finding in the mirror her entire life. Saw her likeness.

  And uncertainty in eyes that were generally filled with purpose.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she told herself. Thought about how, logistically, she’d get out of the thronging backyard, and off the property, back to her apartment, without seeing the man that her ride was probably standing beside at that very moment.

  “No one else knows.” Her gaze cleared. Biology didn’t show. Cole Bennet hadn’t seemed shocked by her appearance, or made any reference to a likeness between Lindsay and his boss.

  She was meeting her father, but to everyone else, including the man in question, she was just a new Elite employee at a summer weekend barbecue. All she had to do was smile and keep up appearances.

  Something she’d been doing since she was old enough to follow simple direction.

  Taking a couple of more minutes to cool down in the air-conditioned little room, to admire the mosaic tile on the walls, the matching Saltillo tile on the floor, Lindsay had her mind firmly on maintaining the poise she’d grown up perfecting as she opened the door.

  Looking for Lillie, just because the girl sat down outside the bathroom door when Lindsay opened it to head in, she saw the dog a few yards away by the pool, leaning up against the leg of a tall, athletic-looking man with graying hair. She saw them from behind. The male hand on the dog’s head.

  “Lindsay!” Cole’s voice brought her gaze upward, to the rest of the group standing with dog and man. “Come on over.” The chief of personnel smiled as he issued the invitation. And she knew who Lillie had been affectionate with.

  The moment was at hand.

  All her life, she’d wondered—vacillating between anger and need whenever she thought about the unknown male who’d abandoned her and her mother—what the moment would look like if she ever met her father face-to-face.

  Trepidation and an odd anticipation filled her, weighing her down. Her focus on Cole’s smile wasn’t a conscious thing. It just happened. She nodded.

  Seemingly glued in the second. Not moving forward to the next one.

  A bump at her hand drew her gaze from Cole’s. Lillie’s cold nose lifted Lindsay’s palm, as though bringing her back to life. Petting the dog’s head, she smiled and approached Cole, who was facing her. And saw the man with whom Cole had been standing turn around.

  She knew the face, of course. A little more tanned than in the picture in the manila envelope at her apartment.

  Lips trembling, heart pounding so hard she could feel the rapid beat, she approached. And her mimi’s voice came to mind. Telling her how her father had left the state before she was even born.

  Letting the anger take away any remnants of the lonely little girl in her heart, Lindsay met the man’s gaze eye for eye. Tooth for tooth in her mind.

  She heard Cole say, “Brent, this is Lindsay Warren. Lindsay, Brent Wilson...”

  Eye to eye. Lillie’s head beneath her hand. Brown eyes smiling into her own...brown eyes. Same round shape. Dark with that slight ring of lightening around the outer edges of the iris. Not something anyone would notice if they hadn’t spent close to two decades staring at identical orbs every single morning as they drew lining on the lids atop and below them...

  “I’m so delighted to meet you,” the man said, his smile warm. Seemingly genuine. He didn’t hold out a hand, for which she was grateful. “The photos Cole showed me of your work...you’re good!”

  Uh-huh. Good enough to work for you, but not...

  No. Her fingers worked the fur around Lillie’s ear. “Thank you for the opportunity to design my own line of cards.” She said what she’d expect to hear if she was witnessing the interchange.

  As far as she could wrap her mind around any such thought.

  The man was...she couldn’t even...

  “Anything you need, you just let us know.”

  Stop smiling, she silently implored him.

  You don’t know who I am.

  “I can’t imagine what it would be,” she said. Aware of the conversation, but hearing it as if through a globe of cotton.

  No one knows. Keep up appearances. She smiled. It made her cheeks ache.

  A million questions.

  Pieces of a shattered heart.

  Lillie’s softness.

  “Let’s go get something to drink.” Cole’s voice. Pulling her out of the fog. She glanced at the man who stood a good three or four inches taller than the older man present. Was glad to be able to focus on one face without seeing the other.

  “That would be great,” she said, her smile hurting less as she focused on Cole’s easy grin. “It was nice to meet you.” She spoke the words by rote as they walked away.

  Choking on the lie.

  And finding truth there, too.

  It was nice to have the meeting over.

  And even better to take the glass of wine Cole Bennet was handing her.

  “Cheers,” he said, clicking his glass with hers, his ready grin steadying her, sliding inside her chest to ease the passageways.

  Thank you. Her response was a silent smile back at him.

  * * *

  “I’m okay if you want to mingle with others.” Lindsay’s words were softly given.

  At the buffet table, plates in hand after everyone else had served themselves, Cole glanced at the beautiful and yet oddly haunted looking face peering up at him. She’d been in a conversation with Sam and Cassie Montford when the buffet had officially opened, and Cole had waited for her so she didn’t have to go through the line alone.