Third Time's a Charm (Holland Springs #3)(56)

“Is that your mom?”

He scooted closer to her, relieved she didn’t move away. “Yes.”

“So you really weren’t joking when you said Ivy took after her.”

“My dad’s Russian and my mum’s Zimbabwean—African. That a problem for you?”

She gave him an odd look. “No.”

He hadn’t thought it would be, but this was the South and some things weren’t so easily overlooked. “My mum’s parents sent her to London for boarding school. Education was really important to them.”

“Is that where she met your dad?”

He nodded. “According to him, it was love at first sight.”

“How long were they together?”

“Thirty-five years.”

“I can’t imagine how difficult it is to be able to be so close to her, but entirely helpless,” she said, her voice soft and compassionate.

A silky thigh brushed his and he had to make himself not touch her, to not press her back against the mattress and make love to her again. “What about your mother?”

“She left the night I turned sixteen,” she said, her tone so matter of fact that he wanted to take her in his arms. “The next morning, Skye and I came downstairs to an empty house. Summer wasn’t around, so…” She shrugged. “I took over everything.”

“That must have been tough to do with school.”

“I dropped out.” She exhaled, her breath shaky. “It was too exhausting trying to work and keep up with my grades. And I was afraid that if I asked for help that Skye would be taken away from me.”

Breaking his own rule, he captured one of her capable hands. Despite the work she did, they were soft and supple. He admired the hell out of her. Not many sixteen year olds would have bothered to try to keep their family together. “Do you miss her?”

“Sometimes.” Her fingers curled around his. “Mostly when I needed advice on how to take care of a baby. Contrary to popular belief, women aren’t born with the knowledge.”

Pressing a kiss to her knuckles, he placed her hand back in safer territory. “You’re a good provider, Rose.”

“I try to be.”

“Is your dad around?” He knew absolutely nothing about the man, not even a name. His uncle’s lawyers had informed him that there wasn’t a father listed on Rose’s birth certificate.

“He’s not someone I want in my life.”

He wanted to ask her more, but she looked so uncomfortable that he refrained. There was the possibility she had no idea who her father was. “There’s no shame in your mother raising the three of you by herself.”

“That would be the last thing I’d be ashamed about.” She slid away so that her thigh no longer touched his. “Who’s that man hovering beside your mom?”

The bane of his existence. “My Uncle Vladimir.”

“He looks menacing.” She handed the phone back to him and brushed a strand of hair behind one ear. “I’d already made up my mind to believe you about your mom, even before you showed me this.”

“That’s not why I shared it. I want total honesty with you.”

An elegant black brow arched. “I’m listening.”

“The first time we met was no accident. I came to your store to talk to one of the Holland women. My uncle sent me here after reading about the legend of the spring.”

“The tourist attraction?”

He shot her a knowing look. “That spring is more than just a tourist attraction. People believe in it. It made a cut over my eye better, freshened up my—”

“Herbs,” she said, confusing the hell out of him.

“Pardon?”

A small smile flitted over her lips. “Later.”

“Anyway, I was able to get samples of it the night you took me there, and had them sent to my uncle’s Helsinki labs. He was the one who called while we were, ah, otherwise occupied at the time.”

“You mean seducing the most gullible woman in existence and leaving when you’d had enough?”

Had enough? There was no such thing when it came to Rose. He’d never get enough of her. “Not gullible, incredibly sweet. Caring. The brief time we spent together was the absolute best I’d had in a long time.”

“Well, I am a Holland, and we aim to please the men around here.”

“Dammit, Rose, stop putting yourself down.” He banged the back of his head against the headboard.

“Is your uncle a scientist?”

He blinked at her change in subject or rather redirection. Women were entirely baffling and would most likely remain so until he was decrepit. “Do you ever watch the telly?”

She lifted a dainty shoulder. “Unlike some people, I don’t have time.”

Meaning people like him. People who did nothing but play and use others for personal gain. “He’s a very powerful businessman, a bully, actually. Long story short: the samples were no good. The people that work for him know there’s another spring. One that feeds the tourist attraction.”

Rose’s expression barely changed, but her fingers began to rub at her cross. “Why does it matter?”

“An international water bottling company is interested in your land. They want Holland Springs to be the location of their North American headquarters. And they want to put a plant here.” Glancing at the picture of his mother and uncle, he clenched his teeth. He’d been told not to play the hero. Hell, he’d never wanted to be the hero. Not until a woman with infrequent smiles and beautiful eyes had entered his life. “If I don’t find the source and get samples sent off in time, my uncle will move my mum to a place that’s a guaranteed death sentence.”