"There, sweetheart, were you lonely?" She walked him, as much to pleasure herself as to soothe. She'd wanted more children. She knew it was selfish when she had two such beautiful daughters. But, oh, she'd wanted more children.
Now she had a nephew to spoil. And she intended to do so, lavishly. Kate and
Byron would have children, Laura mused as she laid J. T. on the changing table. There would be more babies to cuddle.
She changed him, powdered him, tickled him to make him giggle and kick his legs. He grinned at her, wrapped a fist around a curl and tugged. Laura went with the pull to nuzzle his neck.
"Bring back memories?" Josh asked as he stepped inside the nursery.
"Does it ever! When Annie and I were putting this room together for his visits, we wallowed in memories." She lifted J. T. high over her head, where he could gurgle in delight. "Both my babies slept in that crib."
"So did you and I." He ran a hand over the curved rungs before moving to his son. Josh's fingers itched to hold him, but he held back, allowed Laura to cuddle the baby.
"Everyone who's been there says it, but I can't stop myself. The years go so fast, Josh. Treasure every second of it."
"You did." He touched her hair. "You are, and have been, the most incredible mother. I've admired you for that."
"You're going to make me sloppy," she murmured, and buried her face in the sweet curve of J.T.'s neck.
"I figure you and I had the best possible examples to follow. We've been lucky, Laura, to have people like Mom and Dad for parents."
"Don't I know it. I know they're in the middle of negotiating the construction of the new hotel on Bimini, but they called today just to wish me happy birthday."
"And Dad told the story of how he drove Mom through the worst winter storm in the history of central California when she went into labor with you."
"Of course." She lifted her head and grinned. "He loves telling that story. Rain, floods, mud slides, lightning. All but an appearance of the Angel of Doom and the seven plagues of Egypt."
"'But I got her there,' " Josh quoted his father. " 'With forty-five minutes to spare.' " He stroked his son's hair. "Not everybody's as lucky. Do you remember Michael Fury?"
Images of a dark, dangerous man with hot eyes. Who could forget Michael Fury? "Yes, you used to hang around with him and look for girls and trouble. He went into the merchant marines or something."
"He went into a lot of things. There were some problems at home—an unpleasant divorce. Well, two actually. His mother got married for the third time when he was about twenty-five. This one seems to have stuck. Anyway, he came back to the area a few weeks ago."
"Oh, really? I didn't know."
"You and Michael never ran in the same circles," Josh said dryly. "The thing is, he took over the old place, where he grew up. His mother and stepfather relocated in Boca, and he bought the property from them. He's raising horses now."
"Horses. Hmm." Not terribly interested, she began to walk the baby again. Josh would get to his point eventually, she knew. Sometimes he was such a lawyer, caging the meaning with words.
'Those storms we had a couple weeks ago?''
"Oh, bad ones," she remembered. "Almost as bad as the fateful night of Laura Templeton's birth."
"Yeah, more mud slides. One of them destroyed Michael's place."
"Oh, I'm sorry." She stopped walking and tuned in. "I'm really sorry. Was he hurt?"
"No. He managed to get himself and his stock out. But the house is a loss. It's going to take some time to rebuild, if that's what he wants to do. Meanwhile, he'll need temporary lodgings for himself and his horses. Something he could rent, you know, for the short term. And I was thinking, the stables and the groom's apartment above them aren't being used."
Alarm came first. "Josh."
"Just hear me out. I know Mom and Dad were always a little, well, wary of him."
"To say the least."
"He's an old friend," Josh returned. "And a good one. He's also handy. No one's done any maintenance or repairs on that building in years, not since-" He broke off, cleared his throat.
"Not since I sold off the horses," Laura finished. "Because Peter didn't care for them, or the amount of time I put in with them."