Keeping Katie (A Mother's Heart #1) (32 page)

A short time later, the four of them sat around a patio table while the housekeeper served lunch. In silent agreement the adults had put off talking about the events that brought them all together. Mostly, they let Katie lead the conversation. She chattered and giggled, making it easy for them to forget the real reason they were all here.

Maura loved watching Alan with Katie. Her father tried, but it was pretty obvious that being around a three-year-old was a new experience for him. But Katie and Alan were easy with each other, and the child didn’t seem to suspect anything was amiss.

Then Katie threw them all, bringing their problems into sharp focus with a simple question. “Are you my
real
grandpa?” she asked Jacob.

“Well, I …” Jacob glanced at Maura before turning his attention back to Katie. Then, shifting in his seat, he said, “Actually, I’m your adopted grandfather.”

“What’s that?”

Jacob turned to Maura again, a question in his eyes.

“Adopted means special,” Maura said, coming to her father’s rescue. She’d planned on explaining Katie’s adoption to her someday, but this wasn’t exactly how she’d foreseen their first conversation on the topic.

“Am I adopted?” Katie asked.

Maura took a deep breath. “Yes. Which is very special, because of all the children in the world, your daddy and I picked you to be our little girl. Because we loved you very much.”

“But what about Grandpa Jacob?” Katie obviously wasn’t the least concerned about her relation to Maura. It was Jacob who had her confused. “Did he pick me, too?”

“Well …” Maura met her father’s gaze across the table. “Yes, he did.”

“So he’s a pretend grandpa. Like Grandma Rita.” Katie seemed satisfied that she had it all figured out.

“Grandma Rita?” Jacob questioned, looking at Maura again. He obviously wasn’t used to a child’s logic.

“Rita is Alan’s aunt,” Maura explained. “Katie and I lived with her in Wyattville.”

“And she said we could pretend that she was my grandma,” Katie added. “She said if we pretended long enough, it might come true.”

A hush fell over the group. Maura sensed there was more to come. Jacob broke the silence.

“Katie,” he said, “would you like to meet your real grandma and grandpa?”

No.
Maura mouthed the word, but before any sound escaped, Alan grabbed her hand.

“I guess,” Katie said thoughtfully. “Are they nice?”

“Very nice. And they want to meet you,” Jacob continued. “They live in a really big house, right on the beach.”

Maura gripped Alan’s hand, waiting to hear Katie’s answer. But Katie had already put aside questions about grandparents and adoptions. “Maybe tomorrow,” she said. “I want to go in the pool today.”

Jacob obviously didn’t know what to say. Maura figured he’d probably never been so summarily dismissed in his life.

“Come on, princess,” Alan said, standing and pulling Katie out of her chair. “We’ll let your mommy and Grandpa Jacob talk. We’ll go see if Mrs. Berd can find us a couple of swimming suits so we can go in the water.”

Katie squealed her approval, and Alan lifted her onto his shoulders and headed into the house.

Without the buffer of Katie and Alan, silence fell heavily between Maura and her father. Maura listened to the sounds of her daughter and Alan inside the house, wishing she could join them. She didn’t want to be alone with her father. She didn’t want to have the conversation she knew was inevitable.

“It’s time,” Jacob said, as if reading her thoughts. “We need to talk.”

Maura turned to meet his gaze, then nodded slowly. “Okay. But not here. Alan and Katie …”

“Come on.” Jacob rose from his chair and offered her his hand. “Let’s go into the den.”

Maura put her hand in his and followed him inside. Once the door was closed behind them, she asked the question foremost in her mind. “Does Katie have to go to them? To her grandparents?”

“Yes.” Jacob nodded and lowered himself into an armchair. “I spent the morning dealing with the district attorney’s office. They’ve agreed to let Katie stay with her maternal grandparents until all this is settled.”

“Why can’t she stay here?” But she knew the answer to the question even before she asked it. The authorities didn’t trust her not to run again.

“I’m sorry.” Jacob smiled sadly at his daughter. “They’re good people, Maura. They’ll take care of her. And we’ll do everything we can to get her back.”

Maura bit her lip and sat in the chair across from him. “When?”

“This evening.”

“So soon?” Maura clenched her hands in her lap, trying to stop their sudden trembling.

“Would it make it easier if we put it off?”

For a moment, she just stared at him, and then she shook her head. “No. Time won’t make it easier.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Maura closed her eyes and leaned back against the chair.

“We’ll take Katie over there after dinner,” Jacob said. “And tomorrow, we’ll go downtown.”

Maura opened her eyes. “What are my chances?”

“The fact you came in voluntarily will help you a great deal. You’d end up with community service for the contempt of court charge.”

“No,” Maura interrupted. “That’s not what I meant. What are my chances of keeping Katie?”

Jacob sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I wish I could say they were good. But I don’t know yet. Cooper’s looking into a few things for me. Let’s see what he can find out.”

They took the limo that evening to deliver Katie to her grandparents. Jacob had to give Maura credit. She’d talked the visit up to Katie so that the child was willing and even excited to meet her “real” grandparents. He knew Maura was in pain, but for the child’s sake, she’d hidden her own feelings.

And then there was the man. Alan Parks.

Jacob watched him with Maura and Katie. It was obvious the three not only cared for one another, but were comfortable together. If Jacob believed in such things, he might have even said they belonged together. He had to admit that at first he’d been unhappy about the relationship between his daughter and Wyattville’s sheriff. Now he wasn’t so sure. Parks possessed none of the weaknesses of Maura’s deceased husband, David. And, in fact, Jacob had developed a grudging respect for Parks at their very first meeting.

Jacob smiled to himself as he remembered waltzing into the house looking for Maura and finding the grim-faced Parks instead. Remembering his last telephone conversation with Cooper, Jacob knew immediately that this was Wyattville’s sheriff.

“Where’s Maura?” Jacob asked.

“Sleeping.”

Jacob started to suggest they wake her, but something in Parks’s expression stopped him. “I’m Jacob Anderson,” he said instead. “Maura’s father.”

“I know.”

“And you’re the sheriff.”

“Alan Parks.” The man didn’t offer a handshake or even a smile. But Jacob met his gaze, refusing to flinch under the iron scrutiny.

“I’ve got a question for you,” Parks said. “I’ll ask only once, but I strongly suggest you answer truthfully.”

Jacob bristled at the other man’s tone, even as he appreciated Parks’s direct manner. “And just what question is that?”

“Are you going to help her this time?”

Jacob sighed, suddenly more tired than he’d ever been in his life. He didn’t answer immediately but dropped the package he’d been carrying onto the coffee table and lowered himself into the nearby chair. Then he looked back at Parks, steadily meeting his gaze. “Yes,” he answered. “I’ll do everything I can for both her and the child.”

Parks seemed to consider his answer for a moment and then nodded. It had been their first and last conversation. From then on, there was always someone else around, Maura or the child—both of whom Parks seemed determined to protect.

Jacob shook off his thoughts as the driver turned off the road onto a long driveway leading to the Sanchezes’ home.

The house was a veritable showplace, no less than Jacob had expected. He’d done some checking on Mr. and Mrs. Roberto Sanchez, Katie’s maternal grandparents. They’d come to Miami just before the Castro regime in Cuba, managing to bring a good deal of their wealth along with them. Now they were model American citizens, and he could hardly blame them for wanting their granddaughter.

He glanced at Maura and saw the fear in her eyes. Parks must have sensed it, as well, because he took her hand even as he continued talking to Katie. In front of the house, Parks helped Maura out of the limo, taking the little girl from her as easily as if Katie belonged to him. If nothing else, the man obviously cared for both mother and child.

They approached the house, and the door opened before they reached it. Maura stopped, and for a second Jacob thought she would bolt. He started to move toward her, to offer his support, but Parks beat him to it. The man put a protective arm about her shoulders and the three of them moved through the door.

Jacob followed behind.

Alan kept a close eye on Maura while at the Sanchezes’ home. She held up surprisingly well. She smiled and spoke courteously to Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez, Katie’s grandparents. If she hugged and kissed Katie a little too fiercely, it was to be expected. If her smile was a little too bright, too forced, no one said anything or probably even noticed, except Alan himself. And when the young woman, Roberta, entered the room, dark and sullen as teenagers often were, Mrs. Sanchez introduced her daughter. Alan saw a flash of compassion spark Maura’s blue eyes, and she smiled kindly at the girl who had given Katie life.

Then they left, leaving Katie behind, and Maura’s control crumbled. The moment the limo’s doors closed behind them, she fell into Alan’s arms, great gulping sobs racking her body. He held her close, wishing there was some way to comfort her, but knowing there was none.

Later that night, they made love. And there was a desperation between them. A need to hold, love and be loved, as if they might lose each other as well as Katie. It left Alan sated but saddened, because through it all, he suspected Maura held a piece of herself back. And he wondered if things would ever be the same between them without Katie.

The weeks that followed were merciless.

Maura moved through Jacob’s rented house like a wraith. Alan was always there for her, and at times he broke through her misery. For a little while, she would actually smile or even laugh at some joke or anecdote he told. But her happiness was always short-lived.

They made love frequently and fervently, but it never seemed enough. It never totally blocked out the pain of Katie’s absence. Maura wanted desperately to close her eyes just once without seeing her daughter’s face or hearing her laughter. She wanted to sleep without dreaming of dark eyes, dark curls, and a bewitching three-year-old’s smile. But nothing gave her the relief she sought.

Some nights, she would remain sleepless, listening to the night sounds of the house, knowing that Alan was also awake. On those nights, she knew she was losing him, and that there was no one to blame but herself. She would turn and bury her tear-streaked face against his shoulder, wanting to hold on to him. And, for a few hours, she’d think she had succeeded. And then dawn would come, and she would lose herself again in the black hole of despair.

Every few days, they visited Katie. At first, the child was her usual bright self, and Maura delighted in being around her. But as time passed, the visits became more difficult.

“Mommy, I wanna go home,” Katie said one day as she and Maura walked along the beach behind the Sanchezes’ house. “I don’t want to stay here anymore.”

Maura stopped and squatted down next to her daughter, taking the little girl’s hands in hers. “But aren’t you having fun with your grandparents?” she asked. It took all her strength to keep smiling. “Don’t you like swimming in the ocean and building sandcastles?”

Katie looked down at the ground, her bottom lip trembling slightly, and shrugged. “Yeah.”

“You know they love you very much.” Maura tried putting enthusiasm into her voice. “And they want to get to know you better.”

“Don’t you love me anymore?”

The question tore through Maura’s heart, and she nearly lost her resolve to be strong. Pulling Katie into her arms, she blinked furiously to hold back her tears. “Of course I love you, sweetie. I’ll always love you.” Then with a strength she didn’t know she possessed, she pulled away and forced the child to look at her. “But so do your grandparents, and they deserve to spend a little time with you. Can you stay with them for just a little longer?”