Chapter 17
Colby told himself he liked meeting with Ali because she told him things about Grace, things he sorely missed, things he didn’t know because he wasn’t allowed enough time with her.
He liked meeting with her simply because she was spending afternoons with Grace and freely shared every aspect of that.
She told him everything his girl had done and said in those five days so far, and he could convince himself it somehow made up, in part at least, for the huge hole in his life.
Especially when she told him how Grace talked about him, and he knew the child understood that even when he wasn’t physically there with her, she was always first in his thoughts.
This was their second meetup here at the Foxworth headquarters, marking exactly a week since he’d made that surprisingly great decision to punch out the window of Grace’s room.
Ali didn’t seem to mind at all spending time talking about her time with Grace, and he seized on that gratefully.
That was the big reason he looked so forward to meeting with her.
He even almost believed that was the only reason.
“—Hayley amazed me, pulling that off.”
He snapped back to the moment. “What?”
Ali looked at him. “When Liz came over and started quizzing us about our days in college together. I was terrified, we hadn’t really talked about it, but she had me believing it.
” She looked up at Hayley, who had just topped off their mugs of coffee with that delicious blend he kept meaning to ask about.
“Made me understand exactly what you meant when you said Foxworth did their research.”
“Oh.” He wasn’t sure what else to say.
“She not only knew I’d gone to Washington State, she knew my major, and tossed off that we were both in about three campus organizations together.”
“That you were really in, I gather?” he asked. Ali nodded.
He glanced at Hayley, who nodded at him. “And Ty—he’s our head tech guy out of St. Louis—had me planted on the rosters within the hour,” she said, “so if she checked, or had someone check after she got back home, there I’d be.”
“And she would,” he said. “She never trusts anybody completely.”
“It makes me wonder how she trusted enough to even have a child,” Ali said.
Colby let out a disgusted breath. “That was her last shot.”
“At what?”
“She thought since nothing else had in nearly five years, that having a child might wake me up.”
Ali drew back. “Wake you up?”
He nodded. “Make me realize I needed to give up this silly idea of what to do with my life and take what her family was offering. For the sake of the child.”
She seemed to go very still before saying, with a note of near-disbelief, “So she used your sense of responsibility against you.”
“From what we’ve found,” Quinn said as he sat down opposite them, “she—and the rest of her family—use any tool at hand against anyone who’s not following their plan.”
“Pretty much,” Colby agreed. “I’m sure that’s why she…picked me. She figured I’d jump at the chance to be on their level. I was supposed to leave my stupid, useless life behind and grab the opportunity I didn’t deserve but they were going to give me anyway.”
“Because of course, anyone would,” Ali said, and he felt a kick of warmth at the utter disdain and sarcasm in her voice. And for a brief second he wondered what it would be like to hear that low, husky voice under other circumstances. Intimate circumstances.
He reined it in and went on. Admitted something he rarely did, even to himself. “If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, knowing Grace and the kid she would become…maybe I would have done it.”
As if the dog had sensed the change in his voice, Cutter came over and sat at his feet, resting his head on Colby’s knee.
He reached out to stroke the dark head, and oddly, felt a sort of calm, as if it were radiating from the dog through his fingers.
He looked up, a little disconcerted, to find Ali staring at him.
When their gazes locked, she said quietly, “I’ll bet you would. For the sake of the Grace you know now, you’d have given up your life. Figuratively…or literally. You’d die for her, wouldn’t you.”
It wasn’t really a question, but he answered as if it had been. “I would. To save her I wouldn’t hesitate a minute.”
“And deep down, even though she might not think of it in those words, she knows it. What a gift to give your child.”
Her words warmed him in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.
The kind of warmth he’d felt the first time his baby girl’s tiny hand had reached up to touch his face as he held her, the first time she’d piped out “Da-da,” the first time he’d made her laugh in delight.
Something deep, deep down and glowing, some sense of value and worth he’d lost.
Or Liz had trampled out of him.
“But think about this,” Ali said quietly.
“If you had given in, if you hadn’t had the courage to fight and had gone down that Hollen road…
Grace very likely would not be the girl she is now.
They would have smothered her with their wealth, power and attitude just as they tried to do with you.
The child you love so much, and who adores you, probably wouldn’t exist.”
He had never, ever thought of it that way. He stared at this woman who had, in the space of a week, become an integral part of his existence, part of the operation that gave him, for the first time in so long, hope.
Even the usually brisk, businesslike Quinn seemed to have been moved by her words. “And there you have it, Colby. The wisdom of the world, given to you on a platter.”
Colby nodded slowly, unable to speak. Then Liam came down from what he’d gathered was their meeting and computer level upstairs, and Quinn was back to his usual job of solving problems.
“I think we can get away with Liam going with you again tomorrow,” he said.
Colby shifted his brain to the issue now at hand. It was an effort. This emotional crap drained him faster than anything else.
“Agreed, given her opinion of my work vehicle, which is only a bit higher than her opinion on the one Liam drove. And only that because it’s an SUV, not an actual pickup.”
“And her opinion of me,” Liam put in cheerfully. “I’m too stupid to be a problem to her. We can nurse that for a while, I think.”
And the next day it worked just as Liam had said.
This time the Foxworth man stayed in the truck, and as they’d planned, Colby told Liz he was too intimidated by her to get out.
He could tell she liked that idea, enough that she didn’t seem to question that it had been a full week for him with no vehicle of his own.
After the usual quiz about where they were going and what they were doing—“Local, as always, and for a walk in the nature park”—they were permitted to leave.
What he hadn’t mentioned was what was happening before that stroll in the nature park. Which was a stop at Foxworth, where Hayley, Quinn and—he hoped—Ali would be waiting. And when they turned onto the gravel drive to the big Foxworth building and he saw her car, his pulse took a little leap.
As they pulled to a stop the door swung open, apparently triggered once more by that clever dog.
Cutter raced along the walkway, and Grace called out his name in delighted greeting.
Colby hurried to let her out to greet the dog, who had been followed by the little wiggle-butt, as Ali lovingly called her pup.
“Ali’s here!” Grace crowed, and raced toward the door as if she was as eager to see her neighbor as she had been the dogs. She looked back over her shoulder. “Hurry up, Daddy! Ali’s here.”
Which was reason enough for him. He just didn’t know how Grace knew that.
Colby couldn’t describe how cheering this was, sitting here with people who saw the real Liz, the liar and manipulator. Not to mention Cutter’s rather amazing knack for giving comfort with just a touch on his dark head.
Hayley brought a tray with coffee mugs, and one filled with hot chocolate for Grace. They sat sipping for a moment, and Colby felt himself relaxing now that Grace was safely with him.
“I don’t know how I can ever repay you for all this,” he said, looking from Hayley to Quinn.
“Oh, we’ll think of something,” Quinn said.
“Already did,” Hayley said, grinning. “That is, if you’d be willing to take on a real apprentice or two, later, when this is all wound up. We have a couple of outreach programs run by former clients, and they can always use willing employers. We foot the bill for it, of course.”
“Deal,” Colby said instantly, knowing he’d do anything he could for these people who were doing so much for him, and for Grace.
“I’ve been thinking,” Ali began after a moment, sounding a bit hesitant.
“Do you ever not?” Colby asked, not bothering to hide the note of appreciation in his voice. Ali smiled at him, quick, bright and heart-stopping.
“We’re open to all ideas,” Hayley said encouragingly. “What?”
She looked at Colby. “What’s your work schedule these days?”
“My work’s on hold at the moment,” he said brow furrowing, not sure why that mattered to Ali. “My girl’s much more important. Why?”
“Just… I was thinking about some dog walks. And that maybe after a bit longer, when Liz is used to Grace coming to my house, we could convince her to let Grace come with me on those walks.”
“That would be nice,” Colby said, still a little uncertain where she was going with this.
“And now that I know how close this—” she gestured at the building around them “—really is, Grace and I and the dogs could be here in maybe ten minutes at the most.”
It hit him then. A meeting place. She was offering a meeting place. For him and Grace.
“But I…” He glanced at the Foxworths. “The family court order…”
“There is that,” Quinn said. “We’ll get Gavin’s opinion on it, to see how much of the coincidence defense could apply.”
“But if I keep meeting her here—”
“We may have to limit the encounters,” Quinn said.