“I suppose it’s possible,” Beth said. “Whenever I’ve tried to get information about my birth family I haven’t gotten anywhere. I’d love to ask her some questions.”
“She went up to the cemetery to do some research. I can ask her to come back if you’d like,” Patrick offered, at the same time groaning silently. Maddie was entirely too disturbing to his equilibrium.
“That would be great. I’m expecting a shipment at the store, otherwise I’d go myself.”
She smiled, and Patrick was relieved he didn’t feel anything except warm affection when he looked at her. His sister-in-law was an attractive woman, but from the beginning he’d realized she belonged with Kane—though it had taken them a while to figure it out for themselves.
“By the way, congratulations on the baby,” Patrick said. “I’m a little smug about it since I’m the reason you and Kane met each other.”
She beamed. “Kane spent hours on the phone last night, telling everyone from London to Japan. We’re going to have a huge phone bill, but he wouldn’t get off.”
That was something else Patrick liked about Beth. She was married to one of the richest men alive, but she continued to think like an average person with an average amount of money.
“That’s great, kiddo. I’m happy for you.”
But the contrast between Beth’s bright happiness and the shadows he’d seen in Maddie’s eyes made Patrick shift uncomfortably. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Okay, so a woman he’d never met had cried twice while talking to him.
It was none of his business.
He was just concerned because Maddie looked like Beth, and since Beth was his sister-in-law, he was confusing family obligations. Except…his response to Maddie Jackson was far too sexual to be confused with anything.
With an effort, Patrick focused on Beth’s glowing face. “Okay, you wait for your shipment, and I’ll go find Maddie.” He kissed her again and watched as she went inside.
All things considered, he couldn’t understand how he’d confused the two women. Beth was Beth. Sweet, safe, comfortable. His brother’s wife. He liked sweet, safe and comfortable. He’d screwed up enough of his life with things that weren’t safe and comfortable.
Down the street was a small grocery shop, with racks of fresh cut flowers in front of it. Patrick ambled over and selected a bouquet of chrysanthemums. It was a small cemetery. He could always say he was putting the flowers on a friend’s grave if Maddie got nervous about him following her. He could even say she’d given him the idea.
In the back of his mind Patrick knew he was probably making a mistake to get involved, but it was important to Beth, so he couldn’t say no. It was the least he could do after she’d made his brother so happy.
Nodding to himself, Patrick got into his Chevy Blazer and headed for Crockett’s hillside cemetery. The sky had the brilliant blue of an early-fall day and the air was pleasant, with an underlying crisp edge. Soon it would be winter and folks would start complaining about the rain. He’d never understood why people lived in the Pacific Northwest if they disliked the weather so much. Though, as his mother said, being Irish he was genetically disposed to liking rain.
At the cemetery he parked, then used his cell phone to call his brother’s private office number. When Kane answered, Patrick described his meeting with Maddie Jackson…leaving out the part about being attracted to her. No sense in complicating things.
“This could be great for Beth,” Kane said. “She’s always wished she had her own family, especially now with baby coming.”
“I know.” Patrick looked across the cemetery. In her turquoise dress Maddie was easily recognizable in the distance. She moved from one stone to another, looking at the inscriptions and occasionally writing something on a pad of paper. At each stone she pulled a flower from the bouquet she carried and laid it on the ground. Once the caw-cawing of a crow caught her attention and she looked up, watching it sail across the sky.
He sighed, barely hearing his brother on the other end of the phone. Something about Maddie was so fresh and innocent. Hell, he couldn’t remember ever being that innocent.
“Uh…what was that?” he asked into the phone, shaking himself. The last time a woman had distracted him this much was when he was a teenager. He ought to have better sense now that he was the ripe old age of thirty-three. It was crazy. Even if he was interested in a long-term relationship, it wouldn’t be with a ditzy innocent who probably thought the whole world was like her hometown in New Mexico.
It wasn’t.
The world was a hard place, and nobody knew that better than Patrick.
“I’m coming over to meet Maddie, as well,” Kane repeated. “I’ll notify the helipad and leave in a few minutes.”
Despite his inner turmoil, Patrick grinned as he slipped the cell phone into a pocket. Few people had a private helicopter and pilot, always ready to make life more convenient. If his brother wasn’t such a great guy he’d be really obnoxious with all that money.
Not that Patrick had always appreciated the way that Kane had tried to fill their father’s shoes. Rebellious teenagers sometimes weren’t the smartest people in the world, and he’d been a “rebel without a pause,” leading with his chin and begging for trouble. A lot had changed since then, except he still tended to lead with his chin.
Carrying his bunch of flowers, Patrick headed toward Maddie. He felt foolish, but putting women and the O’Rourke men together frequently resulted in that emotion.
He cleared his throat when he was ten feet away, and Maddie’s head shot up. Her eyes widened and she took a step backward, which made Patrick’s own feet freeze. He looked down at the flowers and back at Maddie.
The flowers had been a really stupid idea.
“I realize how this looks,” he said slowly.
“No, you don’t.”
He sighed. “Okay, I don’t. It’s just that my sister-in-law arrived after you left and was really excited when I told her about you. She wants to be sure you’ll come back to meet her.” He let the arm holding the flowers fall to one side so the bouquet of yellow and russet mums wouldn’t be so obvious. “So, how is the search going?”
Maddie scrunched up her nose and looked at him for another minute, then shrugged, apparently deciding he was harmless. “I found the graves, but they’re really old. If these people are my relatives, they’re pretty distant.”
“It can be tough tracking down birth parents,” he said. “What do you know about them?”
She sighed. “Not much, except that my mother’s last name was Rousso, and she was really young. My adoptive parents met when Dad was attending the University of Washington. They knew ahead of time they couldn’t have kids, so they decided to adopt. It was a private arrangement through a church.”
“You seem comfortable about being adopted.”
“Why not? I had a great childhood.”
“Then
