crumpled the card in her fist and reached for Bram’s arm, leaning on his big build and brawn. “I think it’s time for Katie and I to go home.”
Jack Tarkenton was easy to avoid after that. The limousine was reserved for immediate family only. When he showed up at her house later that afternoon after she started receiving guests, Meg announced she and Katie needed to go upstairs and rest for a while. Even someone as callous as Jack Tarkenton couldn’t argue with that.
She figured wrong, however. He intercepted her at the base of the stairs. “When you’re free, I’d like a moment with you—alone.”
Speechless at his gall, she fled up the stairs with Katie in her arms. When Meg gained the landing, she stared down at him, letting her disapproval show. But he continued to follow her with those eyes, gleaming brown as the finest dark chocolate.
Katie’s eyes.
Hugging her daughter close, Meg hurried into Katie’s room and locked the door behind them. “It’s nap time, sweetheart.”
“But I don’t want to take a nap.”
“Of course you don’t,” Meg soothed, setting her down on the edge of her pink ruffled bed. “But we’ll change your clothes, anyway. You don’t want to get wrinkles all over your pretty dress.”
“It’s Daddy’s favorite.”
“I know.” Meg undid the buckles on Katie’s patent leather shoes and slipped them off. “I’m sure he was glad to see you wear it today.”
“Mommy, when can I go to heaven to see Daddy?”
Meg drew Katie’s dress off, feeling how hard this was going to be on both her and her daughter. “You miss him already, don’t you?”
She nodded, and her large eyes pooled with tears. “I want my daddy.”
“Oh, baby, I know.” Meg kissed the top of Katie’s head and helped her change into her pajamas. “I wish he was here, too.”
“You do?”
“Oh, yes. He was a wonderful daddy, a wonderful daddy to us both.”
“When can I see him?”
Meg gave her the plush toy rabbit she always slept with. and picked up Allen’s framed photograph on the nightstand. “Remember what I told you this morning? Daddy’s picture will stay right beside your bed. Then you can see him whenever you want.”
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
Meg helped Katie set the picture safely on the nightstand. Clutching her rabbit, she lay down and stared at Allen’s picture with such studious concentration, it broke Meg’s heart. “Mommy, can I have the light on? I want Daddy to see me.”
“I’ll leave the light on, and the light in the bathroom, too. If you get scared or need anything, you call me, okay?”
“Okay.” Katie opened her arms for a hug. “I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart. Daddy does, too.”
Meg tucked the covers around Katie and kissed her forehead. “Sleep tight.”
“Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Exiting swiftly, Meg drew the door closed to the point where she could still hear any sounds in the room, if need be. Standing in the hall, she wiped her eyes and listened the way all mothers listened, to make sure her child was settling down.
How many times had she done this? How many times had she kissed Katie good-night? Hundreds of times. And how many times had she kissed Allen good-night?
Hardly ever.
“Is she asleep?”
Jumping, Meg spotted Jack Tarkenton’s broad-shouldered silhouette standing in the shadows at the end of the hall. “I need to talk to you,” he said, his voice hushed. “Now.”
She advanced on him, using her most forceful whisper. “I think I’ve made it abundantly clear that I have no desire whatsoever to talk with you.” She stabbed a finger at the stairs. “Please leave.”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is, Meg. I only want a few minutes of your time.”
“How dare you,” she whispered furiously. “How dare you come to my husband’s funeral. How dare you come to my house. How dare you come anywhere near me.”
“Katie’s mine, Meg. I know it and you know it, so stop the righteous-sounding speech and take me to someplace private where we can talk.”
Meg stared at him, seeing his coldness while feeling her own anger drain into the well of her deepest fear. No, this could not be happening. He could not have said—
“You heard me. I know I’m Katie’s father.”
“No,” she breathed. “You’re not.”
“I was there when she was conceived, remember?”
She pushed past him. “ ‘Remember’ is the last thing I want to do, especially with my husband barely cold in his grave. He’s Katie’s father. Not you.”
Jack caught her arm. “I’m warning you, Meg. There are plenty of people downstairs. We can do this in private or we can do this in public. It makes no difference to me.”
She wrenched her arm from him. “Get away from me.”
“Not until you hear me out.”
“No.” She ducked to make her voice heard on the level below. “Bram?”
“Yeah?”
“I need you upstairs.”
“I’ll be right there, Meg.”
Triumphant, she turned to find Jack leaning against the wall, hands slung in the trouser pockets of his impeccable suit. “Big brother doesn’t know about us, does he? If he knew, my sister would know, and she would have come straight to me. I wonder how Bram and Amanda will feel when the two of them find out precisely what we were doing on the sacred occasion of their wedding day.”
“Amanda’s your sister. You wouldn’t do that to her.”
“Try me.”
Meg heard Bram’s tread on the stairs. “Meg?”
“Here,” she called, wishing she could rip the smugness off Jack’s face. Or have Bram rip it off.
“Hey, Jack,” he greeted. “I didn’t know you were up here, too.” Bram turned to her. “Meg, what can I do for you?”
Jack’s challenging look of inquiry told Meg he wasn’t about to retrieve the gauntlet he’d thrown down. She checked her brother’s strong, familiar face. All she had to do was tell him the truth. He would forgive
