Meg had to use both hands to pick the card up. The worst part was, she would have to get used to it. The man attracted this type of gossip and speculation wherever he went.
Meg glanced at the club doors, wishing there was someplace where the Tarkenton arm didn’t reach. There must be people in the world who hadn’t heard of Jack Tarkenton, people who didn’t know anything about him.
But people the world over knew of his father. In the thirty-plus years since his death, Senator John B. Tarkenton had attained martyr status. Revered for his ethics and character, he had rallied the nation with his youthful vigor and visionary leadership in a last-minute campaign for the presidency of the United States. The triumph of his election ended before he had a chance to take office, in the tragedy of his assassination.
Jack might be his father’s polar opposite in character, but the Tarkenton name still carried enormous weight. In a world hungry for leadership, too many people wanted to believe Jack possessed the same talents and integrity as his father.
Meg knew she couldn’t fight a belief, especially when it was cherished by people who most needed it to be true. People who wanted to live with hope in their lives, who wanted to believe in the future. Meg counted herself one of those people. She wanted Katie to be one of them, too.
Meg passed row after shiny row of exercise bikes, rowing machines, treadmills and stair climbers, torturous-looking contraptions all, and decided that ten thirty on a Monday morning was not the peak time to exercise. She imagined the place after work hours, though, jam-packed with bodies. Sweating bodies.
Jack was no exception. She spotted him in a glassed-in box of a court, dressed in sleek bike shorts and a gray T-shirt that was dark at the shoulders with sweat. Lithe as she remembered, he stroked a blur of a ball with a thin-necked racket, thwacking a regular rhythm against a scuffed backboard.
The nearer she came, the more she noticed the maleness of his body. Her steps slowed. His shirt hung loose, shaping the broad width of his shoulders. If anything, he’d gained muscle over the years. The bike shorts banded thighs honed by hard and steady exercise. Confirmed by calf muscles that flexed and flared as he moved from one side of the court to the other, he challenged himself on every shot, stretching to cover the entire court. The clear, see-through walls had to be made of super-durable acrylic. The velocity of the ball he hit would have cracked glass.
Above his left hand, the hand that held the racket, two sweatbands encircled his wrist. So that’s where it came from. Katie was left-handed, too.
Despite her promise to deliver her message promptly, Meg halted in her tracks and watched for long minutes, her throat too dry for words. She knew next to nothing about the game of squash. She understood pure physical aggression, however, and the advantage a supremely focused individual had over those who were mere mortals.
He never missed.
To the world outside, he projected the image of the rich and idle playboy. The bronzed good looks, the lazy charm that reflected the relaxed savoir faire of a man who had seen and experienced all. In recent years he had even gone on record with the most lurid of tabloids, claiming to have little ambition other than to enjoy life and have fun.
Yet there were many people who discounted those claims, calling them a mandate for the future, honest and modest, like father, like son. Once his days of “sowing his wild oats” were over, destiny dictated that John B. Tarkenton Jr. would enter into the world of international politics as his father had. And like any prodigal son returning to his true destiny, he’d be exalted and redeemed.
Everyone knew his background. Everyone knew the tragedy of his father’s death. He’d grown up in the media spotlight, shadowed by the specter of what might have been. Even Meg was drawn in by the sheer power he embodied. The swiftness of his feet matched a steadiness of purpose that went beyond the physical. He played to win, win at all costs, and a piece of the puzzle that made up Jack Tarkenton fell into place for Meg, a piece that had, before this moment, put terror in her heart.
She had thought he wanted to punish her for some reason, using their daughter as bait. But that was too predictable a strategy for such a fierce competitor. Jack wouldn’t waste his time unless he cared about Katie, cared on some level. Which meant he did have a weakness, as the perky gossip Debbie so aptly demonstrated. Nobody in their right mind would think him an appropriate role model for a child, especially a four-year-old girl who had just lost the only father she had ever known. Jack might have plenty of friends in high places and the money to use them, but two could play the game of the media.
Rejuvenated, Meg rapped on the Plexiglas door. Caught in mid-swing, he lofted the ball and turned.
As always, her stomach dropped when their eyes met. Disheveled and unshaven, he appeared far more dark and dangerous now than the last time she had seen him. But Meg ignored his effect, ignored it in a way she hadn’t been able to before. She waved as though her sudden appearance was an everyday occurrence.
He held up his racket as if to defend himself, then, with boyish charm, he opened the door. “What an unexpected surprise, Meg. The two-week deadline doesn’t expire for five more days. I am impressed.”
“I thought it would work to my advantage if I came to talk to you early,” she replied. “Throw you off your game, so to speak. May I come in?”
He raked a hand through his hair, spiking it into tawny, leonine ends. “Certainly there are better places to meet than a squash court. How about upstairs in the club lounge? Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll meet you there after I shower and change.”
Fifteen minutes for Jack Tarkenton to hatch a defense? No way. “Actually, this is fine,” she said, and gestured at the open court.
“Don’t be silly, Meg. There’s a room nearby that personal trainers use when consulting with their clients. It’s got a table and a couple of chairs, and it’s very private. I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable there.”
“But I’m not looking for comfort or privacy, Jack. At least not the kind afforded by a small room. I especially like this Plexiglas.” She rapped on the clear surface. “People can see in and I can see out, all while the door is closed. It’s the perfect spot for a private tête-à-tête with you.”
His grin widened and he held the door open, inviting her in with a flourish. “Come in, then, said the spider to the fly.”
She sailed by him. “Thank you.”
He closed the door and settled back against it. “I didn’t realize you were a member of the club.”
“I’m not,” she admitted. “I told the woman at the front desk that I was your secretary.”
“Lying for us again, Meg? Does that mean you’ve decided to take me up on my offer?”
“That depends. I have a number of conditions.”
“And what might those be?” He wiped his brow with the hem of his shirt, showing off abdominal muscles that were as fit and sculpted as the rest of him.
Meg put her hands behind her back, taking the time to steady herself. He was not going to throw her, not this time. “I concede that you have a right to know your own daughter. I will also concede that it is vitally important to me that Allen retains his rightful place as the father who has raised her. Given the media scrutiny you are subjected to, I understand why a marriage between you and me makes a certain amount of sense. Before I’ll consent to your proposal,
