href="#litres_trial_promo">Epilogue
Chapter 1
OUT OF ALL THE classrooms in all the preschools in Chicago, he had to walk into hers. Curt Blackwell. Even his name conjured up deep and dark memories.
The years hadn’t been kind to him, Jessica Moore noted. But then kindness and Curt Blackwell had never had much in common.
Twelve years. It had been twelve years since she’d seen him. They dropped away in an instant.
Multiple images hit her as she stared at him with quiet dread. He was a study of contrasts. The rigidity of his cropped dark hair and crisp military attire were at war with the sensual fullness of his mouth and the heated intensity of his brown eyes. He’d always had the ability to consume her with a single glance.
She was surprised by how much he’d changed and yet still remained the same. He’d obviously stayed in the Marine Corps and the dress blue uniform looked good on him. Better than good.
There was a U.S. Marine Reserve Training Facility not far from here. She passed it on her way home every night, but she never dreamed that Curt would end up there. The last she’d heard, he’d been in some hot spot overseas.
Her eyes sought out the little things she remembered about him, like the scar near his right temple—the result of a dispute between him on his motorbike and a tree. The tree had won, he’d once told her. But he wore new scars now, including a fairly recent one that formed a ragged line along his jaw.
Despite the years that had passed, Jessica had recognized him immediately. But she saw no similar recognition on his part, which didn’t surprise her. Curt had a track record of not seeing her. Only a few weeks after sharing the most incredible night of her life with her, he’d acted as if she were invisible.
Thrusting that humiliating memory out of her mind, she focused her attention on the little girl who stood nervously beside him, close enough to touch him but not doing so. Instead the little girl’s hand was clutching the hand of the preschool’s director, Sarah Connolly.
“We’ve got a new student here at the Happy Days Preschool and Day Care center,” Sarah cheerfully announced. “This is Blue Blackwell, she’s three years old, and she’s just moved here from San Diego. And this is Curt, her father.”
Curt’s daughter? In her class? The magnitude of the pain caught Jessica by surprise.
Pull it together, idiot, she fiercely ordered herself. You can’t fall apart. Not here. Not now.
Years of dealing with crises allowed Jessica to make a fairly smooth recovery as she leaned down to the little girl. “Hello, Blue. We’re glad you’ve joined us.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll leave her in your hands,” Curt said uncomfortably, clearly eager to follow Sarah as she left.
Much as she wanted him to disappear, she had Blue’s welfare to think of. The little girl would be terrified if Curt just dumped her off in a strange environment.
“You’ll be joining us too, Mr. Blackwell,” Jessica stated, using her best teacher voice, the one that said I mean business.
Apparently it had little effect on a marine, because he just shrugged off her words and kept heading to the door. “I’ve got to get back to work,” he was saying. Was there an edge of desperation in his voice or was she imagining things?
Jessica had no choice but to put her hand on his arm. By now she was so numb with shock that she didn’t even register the physical contact. All she noticed was that it stopped him. “This will only take a few minutes, but it is necessary and extremely important for your daughter’s comfort.”
“Okay—” he shot an impatient look at his watch “—but I don’t have much time.”
Satisfied that he would stay, Jessica quickly dropped her hand from his arm and returned her attention to Blue. “My name is Jessica, and I’m going to be your teacher.”
The little girl just nodded but didn’t say a word. Blue’s brown hair was tied up into two lopsided pigtails. Her blue jeans and white T-shirt were crisp with newly bought stiffness, and her black patent shoes shone. She wore a beat-up lime-green thin jacket better suited for San Diego than the chilliness of late March in the Midwest. She didn’t appear to have a backpack or any school supplies yet.
After introducing Blue to the rest of the class as well as Jessica’s two teaching assistants, Lisa Yu and Tawanna Houston, Jessica teamed Blue up with another little girl, Susan, who was the most outgoing in class and had the biggest heart. “Why don’t you show Blue where she can put her coat?” Jessica suggested to Susan. “Then we’ll begin story hour, and Blue can sit next to you.”
Once the two girls had moved away, Jessica spoke to Curt in a quick undertone. “You can’t just sneak out after leaving Blue in a new classroom. I want to make sure that she knows you’re coming back for her. You need to tell her that. If you sneak out, you’re breaking the trust she’s placed in you.” Just like you broke the trust I placed in you all those years ago. The thought streaked through Jessica’s mind before she shoved it aside. She refused to give in to the past. She had a job to do here. “It would have been best if her mother could have been here with you,” Jessica added.
“Her mother is dead,” Curt said.
She blinked at the terseness of his announcement and the lack of emotion with which it was delivered. “I’m sorry to hear that, but in that case it’s even more important that you don’t sneak out on Blue. You’re all she’s got, and she needs to know that even though you’re leaving now, you’ll be coming back for her later.”
He shifted impatiently. “Why can’t you tell her that?”
“Because I’m not her parent, you are.”
The noise level in the room suddenly rose as the small group of preschoolers sensed their teacher’s distraction and decided to make the most of it. Grabbing the sheep off her desk, the one with a big brass bell around its furry neck, Jessica shook the sheep and made the bell ring.
Recognizing her quiet signal, all the students made the universal shush signal. Except for the class hellion, four-year-old Brian, who rushed forward to tug on Curt’s sleeve. “Do you drive a tank? Are you stronger than Hercules?”
Curt just stared at the boy as if he were an alien creature before saying, “I left my tank at work. And I need to get back to it now,” he added with a pointed look in Jessica’s direction.
“Then we’ll leave you alone so you can talk to Blue for a minute,” Jessica replied with a look just as pointed. “Come along, Brian. Which book do you think we should read for storytelling today?”
Although she stepped aside to give Curt and his daughter some privacy, her classroom wasn’t big enough, nor Curt’s voice soft enough to prevent her from hearing what he said to Blue. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll be leaving you at this facility and will return to pick you up at fifteen hundred hours.”
It was as if Curt were speaking to one of his recruits, not a child. The man clearly didn’t have a clue how to deal with his daughter, who just stared at him while nervously nibbling her lower lip.
Gathering her
