Nathan's Child by Anne McAllister

would come to the island herself and make sure that the paintings were packed and shipped properly since there was no “pack and ship” on Pelican Cay.
    Stacia had a lot invested in her in terms of time and effort and expense. Of course, she stood to get plenty in return if Carin was the success Stacia thought she would be.
    But that meant Carin had to come through with enough work to make mounting the show worthwhile. And that meant she should have hired an Elaine weeks ago, but she hadn’t had the money to do so.
    Now Nathan was taking Lacey and offering to pay Elaine.
    â€œI can pay him back,” Carin said aloud now.
    â€œYou talkin’ to me?” Elaine called from the front of the shop.
    Carin took a breath. “No. I was talking to Nathan.” She would pay him back. And he wouldn’t be able to stop her. “Here,” she said to Elaine. “Let me show you the ropes.”
    Elaine learned things quickly. By ten Carin felt she could leave her on her own in the shop, giving her the admonition to call if she needed anything.
    Elaine shook her head. “Nathan said not to bother you.”
    Carin narrowed her gaze on the young woman. “Call me,” she said. “Or I’ll fire you.”
    Elaine flashed a broad grin. “Well, when you put it like that…”
    Carin went home. Zeno, hoping for a snack, tagged along after her. She gave him a bit of ham and left him sitting on the porch. Then, somewhere between fierce and furious, she headed for the studio to tackle her work.
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    Lacey couldn’t have been happier.
    As the days passed and she went fishing with her father or shot photos with her father or just walked on the beach and talked to her father, she couldn’t have had a better summer.
    Carin couldn’t have been more of a wreck. Of course she was happy that Lacey was forming bonds with her father. But for herself, as she heard daily the tales of Nathan and Lacey fishing, helping move books at the library, taking photos in the cemetery or going swimming or snorkeling, Carin felt bereft.
    She felt hollow. Lonely.
    And she couldn’t help thinking about what it would have been like if they could have done these things together as a family—the three of them.
    That was stupid, of course. If they had been a family, Nathan would never have been able to do what he’d done. He wouldn’t have been able to pursue his dreams, find his path, focus on his goals. He would have grown to resent her—and their child.
    Too, if she’d announced she was pregnant with his child, she would have caused a huge rift between him and Dominic. Lacey talked a lot about her dad and his brothers when they were growing up. She loved to recount the “Nathan and Dominic and Rhys stories” that her father told her. It was clear they loved and respected each other. And there was no way Carin would have wanted to come between them.
    So it was just as well she’d kept her mouth shut. Just as well she’d accepted her fate—and there was no sense in bemoaning the fact that they had no memories together.
    But you could have now, some niggling little inner voice kept telling her. You could have said yes when Nathan asked you to marry him.
    But she was selfish. She didn’t want Nathan marrying her out of duty. In her heart she was still a romantic. She wanted to marry for love.
    She was thinking about this when Hugh stopped by on Friday after work. He stuck his head in the studio and asked, “How’s it going?”
    And Carin said wearily, “It isn’t,” because thinking about Nathan had depressed her and she hadn’t been able to paint much for the last half hour. She decided to take a ten-minute break and have a cup of tea before sending Hugh on his way.
    Now he was leaning against the kitchen counter with a bottle of beer in his hand. watching her sympathetically as she paced and muttered. “I don’t know how