heart hammered hard against her ribs. “I’m prepared to do what I have to do in order to keep Lindsey safe and happy.”
“You’re prepared to live in the town you disliked so intensely you thought it would be a good idea to take our daughter and leave just a note on the table?”
She met his accusing gaze head-on.
“I’m not twenty-four anymore. I’m thirty-five. We’ve both gotten older and wiser. I’ve learned to deal with life better now.”
If she told him more, he would understand, but she couldn’t. Not now. Whatever she said would sound like an excuse, like a plea for sympathy. She couldn’t tell him, not yet. No matter what he thought of her.
“Why didn’t you come back?” Blake asked her.
“Because I didn’t know what would happen. I was afraid you’d take Lindsey. I was afraid you’d have the police waiting for me.”
“I wouldn’t have done either.”
“Are you sure?” She smiled a little, imagining what lengths he would have gone to in order to get Lindsey back.
“Okay, maybe,” he admitted. “Maybe not.”
He finished his coffee and pushed back from the table. “We should get back upstairs to Lindsey before I have to finish the tests.”
The comment took Jana by surprise. She’d expected him to want more answers, more information. Instead he seemed to be done with her and with explanations.
She would survive his anger. At least she wanted to believe she would. But her heart wasn’t absolutely sure it could survive another round of Blake Cooper in her life.
Chapter Three
“Mr. Cooper, you’re a match.”
Those would go down in history as the best words Blake had ever heard. He’d nearly cried when Nurse Palmer, their transplant coordinator, had given them the news.
Now, just twenty-four hours after Jana had showed up at Cooper Creek, he and Lindsey were scheduled for the surgery that would give her a second chance.
And give him a second chance to know his daughter.
Blake relaxed in the hospital bed next to Lindsey’s. She glanced at him, shaking her head and then laughing. He shot her a look, trying to quell her mirth. Or make her laugh harder.
“What’s so funny?” he finally asked.
She snickered again and the sound filled his heart. It had been empty a long time, he realized. In the years since Jana left with Lindsey, he’d survived but he hadn’t lived. He’d worked. He’d somehow made it to family functions. It hadn’t been easy, watching his brother Lucky’s family growing, watching his other siblings marry and start families.
Just in the past few months he’d finally realized he had to do something with his time. That’s when he’d met Teddy. He couldn’t wait for Lindsey to meet the little boy that he’d started mentoring through their church program, which matched kids with adults.
He smiled at his daughter again and she laughed once more.
“You look great in that hospital gown,” she teased. “And the cap on your head is perfect.”
“They could make these things a little more decent.” He made a face at her. “Or give me a pair of scrubs.”
“Then you’d run around the hospital and act like a doctor. You’d try to do surgery or something.”
“I think running will be out of the question for the next few weeks.” The idea of slowing down didn’t bother him a bit, not with Lindsey here.
It struck him again that they were having conversations, the kind he’d seen Jackson have with his daughter, Jade, and Lucky with Sabrina. The last time he’d seen his daughter they’d been limited to conversations about cookies, puppies and going potty. Her laugh then had been babyish. Now she had a preteen giggle, and he was pretty sure she thought the young, male orderly was cute.
He would have to learn this business of being a dad to a teenager, to a girl who looked at boys. He’d have to restrain himself from hurting those boys.
“Where’d your mom go?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.
“Down to the cafeteria. She didn’t want to eat in front of us.”
Jana had disappeared while he’d been out of the room for more tests. It was easier to breathe with her gone. It gave him time to reconnect with his daughter, to learn who she was.
“Did you like living in all of those different countries?” he asked.
“Not all of them. Holland was my favorite. We stayed with a friend of mom’s. A lady who was a flight attendant.”
“Did you learn other languages?”
She nodded. “I speak German and Spanish.”
“Do you have pictures, of yourself, I mean.”
“On my computer. Mom can show you.”
The door opened. Lindsey stopped talking. Her smile was hesitant. Blake glanced toward the door, expecting Jana. Instead it was his sister, Mia. She took in the situation. He held back a grin as she surveyed the room, his daughter and then him.
Mia bypassed him for Lindsey, her smile growing. “My goodness, you’ve gotten big. I’m your aunt, Mia.”
“Nan showed me pictures.” Lindsey offered her own smile. “You were a cop.”
“DEA agent,” Mia corrected. And then she smiled again. “Kind of the same. Are you ready to get this surgery over so you can come home?”
Lindsey nodded, but Blake noticed the look of hesitation. She didn’t know what to expect from the group of people that had suddenly become her family. He had told her about the house she’d lived in years ago, about the land, the horses. She had few memories, obviously. The main one being him holding her on the horse.
“It’s kind of scary to have this big family, huh?” Mia offered when Lindsey didn’t answer. “Don’t worry, it will get easier. I know from experience. I was eight years old when I became a Cooper.”
“Seriously?” Lindsey perked up, intrigued by Mia’s story. Mia had a way of doing that. Blake watched his sister lean in to share with his daughter.
“Yeah, for real. It was hard to get used to all of those Coopers. Sometimes I forgot to talk to people and tell them how I felt. So promise me you won’t do that.”
“I’ll try to remember.”
“Good girl. I’m always around to talk to. And your dad is always going to be there.”
Yeah, that was the sister he knew and loved. Sometimes she withdrew when she had a problem, but she knew how
