Family? Whoever, he had no doubt that her loss was at the root of this unorthodox meeting.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He seemed to recall five people died at one site. An apartment building. And then the image of a firefighter carrying a one-year-old from a hellhole of debris flashed in his mind. Of course—the baby found in the rubble. The story had been on every news station for days.
Did she own the building? Did Futura? Surely he’d have been briefed on that kind of potential lawsuit if they did.
“So, what do you do in Sierra Springs?” With some witnesses, the most innocuous questions cut right to the truth. He half imagined she’d say she roped horses and cattle, but more likely, she was another lawyer. They just dressed differently in California.
“I do body work.”
His pulse kicked up again. “Excuse me?”
“Car repairs. Wrecks.”
“You’re a mechanic?”
“I’m a collision repair expert.” A little light danced in her bronze-brown eyes as she narrowed them. “I own my own body shop.”
“Really.” So she wasn’t a rodeo queen or a lawyer. She pounded steel for a living.
Without thinking, his gaze slid back to her hands, long and slender and not a grease stain on them. And free of any jewelry—not even a single gold band. “Well you’ve certainly piqued my curiosity, Ms.—Jo. What brings you to New York?”
“You.”
His body tightened with a low, natural response to the single raspy word.
“Me?” Okay. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if that mouth is damn near edible. “How’s that?”
“I need you to sign a paper.”
Legal alarms sounded in the back of his head. “What kind of a paper?”
“It’s called a Petition of Relinquishment and Consent.”
He thought for a minute, his mind skimming first-year law. “Isn’t that part of the adoption process?”
For a moment she didn’t move. The tip of her tongue peeked through her unadorned lips and dampened them. “Yes.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you need my signature?”
“I’m in the process of adopting a baby. And she is a…distant relative of yours.”
He leaned forward as though she pulled him on a string. “A relative of mine?”
“She’s your…your niece.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a niece. I have two brothers and neither one has children.” Unease trickled through his veins, but he dismissed it. If Colin or Quinn had fathered a baby, he’d know it. They had no secrets, nothing they didn’t share with one another. Could this be a ploy for money? A hoax? “I think you’ve made a mistake. Who is the child?”
“There’s no mistake,” she insisted. “She’s definitely your niece.”
“I’m utterly certain I don’t have a niece.”
She raised one beautifully shaped brow. “Don’t be utterly anything until you’ve heard the facts.”
Objection sustained. “Who is the father?”
“Her father’s entirely out of the picture, and anyway, he’s not related to you. It’s her mother. Her mother is— was—a woman by the name of Katie McGrath.”
As if he had a Rolodex in his mind’s eye, he flipped through every distant McGrath cousin he could remember. No Katie. “I’ve never heard of her.”
Slowly she crossed and uncrossed her legs. “No, you wouldn’t have. You’ve never met her. But her mother is Christine McGrath.”
His gut squeezed into a knot.
“And that is your mother,” she said calmly. “So Katie is your sister. Or was. On both counts, I’m sorry to say.”
“No. I couldn’t have a—” He was speechless.
He couldn’t have a sister? Of course he could. An odd numbness began to make his arms and legs ache. He recognized the sensation. He’d first felt it when he was nine years old, the day he watched his mom climb in a station wagon and drive away, leaving a husband and three sons forever.
But he’d gotten so very, very good at making that ache go away. Sheer mind-over-body control was all it took, and if Cam was good at anything, it was control.
Her words replayed. Katie is your sister. Or was. On both counts… “Where is my—Christine McGrath?”
“I’m afraid she and Katie were both casualties in the earthquake.”
He waited for a rush of emotion, but nothing came. No surprise there. He’d killed any feelings for his mother years ago. He felt Jo’s gaze locked on him, waiting for a response. “Sorry to hear that, but I have no relationship with my mother. If this is the same woman who—I really have no connection with her whatsoever.” He wanted his point to be crystal clear.
“Then it shouldn’t be any problem whatsoever to sign this paper,” she said, pulling an envelope from her oversize handbag.
“Whoa. Wait a second, there.” He held his hand up. “I’m a lawyer. We don’t sign anything.”
“If you need proof that she was your mother, I have it. I expected you’d want to see that.”
He stared at her, trying to fit the jigsaw puzzle together. Slowly, he reached for the envelope.
“Christine McGrath left our home twenty-six years ago and moved to Wyoming,” he said, slowly opening the paper.
“No. She didn’t.” At his sharp look, she clarified, “Move to Wyoming, that is.”
According to his father, she had, and none of the McGrath boys had had reason to question him. Not that discussion of his mother’s whereabouts was dinner conversation at their house.
She squared her shoulders and regarded him with the bracing gaze of a judge about to hand down a harsh sentence. “She went to Sierra Springs twenty-six years ago, had a child named Katie and, eleven months ago, Katie had a baby. Callie McGrath.”
His throat closed up, and his fingers froze on the unopened paper. Was this possible?
“I’m going to adopt Callie, Mr. McGrath. But I can’t do that until her closest living relative signs this document and relinquishes any rights to her. I can’t spend the rest of my life worrying if you’ll show up and want custody of her.”
Want custody? Of a baby? “Sweetheart, I don’t want custody of a goldfish.”
“Great.” She
