CAROL DEVINE - The Billionaire's Secret Baby

Katie walked right into them, taking to her new aunt like a fish to water, much as her Uncle Zach had done. Meg accepted his hug with gratitude, finding solace in his down-to-earth rancher’s strength. “You okay?” he asked, placing his black cowboy hat on his head.

Meg nodded to relieve the worry in his sky blue eyes. “Thank you for flying all the way to New Jersey from Wyoming, Zach. It means more than I can say. And to have Sarah here, too. I’ve never seen Katie accept anybody so readily.”

“Sarah and I thought we’d take Katie off your hands for a while. There’s a duck pond over yonder, in the middle of the cemetery grounds.”

“Yes, by all means. Please make sure she stays away from the photographers.”

“Will do.” He touched the brim of his hat, then knelt next to his wife and tweaked Katie’s nose. “Hey, bright eyes. Your Aunt Sarah and I are going to check out the ducks. Want to come?”

Katie nodded with her usual gravity. Zach scooped her up, setting her burgundy dress swinging like a bell. Meg mouthed a thank-you to Sarah and the three of them set off together, creating a picture of what was to come in a few months’ time when Zach and Sarah had a child of their own.

Allen had wanted a child of his own, too.

Meg hid her distress at the thought and turned to greet the other mourners. She pressed their hands in sincerity, moved to speak personally to the many who had come. She even managed a smile when her oldest brother, Bram, slipped a strong and supportive arm around her waist. “You holding up?”

“I’m fine.”

“Now, Meg, tell the truth.” Amanda, Bram’s blond wife, touched Meg’s hand. “This is your big brother, remember? The Master of all Mastersons. You can tell him anything.”

Hesitating, Meg sighed. “The truth is, I am a little worn. But that’s to be expected, isn’t it?”

Amanda murmured in sympathy and pressed Meg’s hand. The circle of family widened as Meg was embraced by her other brother, Joe, and her sister, Elizabeth. Last came her mother, Mary Masterson, who pressed fresh tissues into Meg’s hands. “Can I do anything else for you, honey?”

“You’re doing it, Mama.” Meg reached to bring the entire family into a shared embrace. “You’re all doing it.”

Elizabeth smiled through her freely flowing tears. “Hey, I’m the big sister here. I’m the one who is supposed to be bucking you up.”

“But you are.” Meg gave Elizabeth a squeeze. But Meg’s gaze inevitably strayed to Katie, safe with Sarah and Zach at the pond.

“Hard to believe our baby brother is going to be a father soon,” Bram commented.

“I know,” Meg replied, relieved at the change of subject. “I thought he would be the last to settle down. But once I met Sarah and saw how special she is, I began to understand.”

“I hear she’s been his saving grace.”

Meg startled at the distinctive, deep voice of Jack Tarkenton. To her dismay, he joined the family throng as though he belonged. To see him casually appraising her, sans sunglasses, caused Meg to shrink inside.

The personal nature of his comment startled everyone else as well. Even his sister Amanda appeared taken aback. “Jack, I didn’t realize you even knew who Sarah and Zach were.”

“It would be difficult to miss the newest member of the Masterson family. Zach ought to be congratulated on his good taste.”

“I wouldn’t congratulate him too much if I were you, Jack,” Bram warned. “He knows your reputation with the ladies.”

“Speaking of ladies...” Jack offered a handshake to Meg. “I wanted to express my sincere sympathy for your loss. I know it’s a cliché, but if there is anything I can do to help you or your daughter, please don’t hesitate to call.”

Aware of the clicking cameras, Meg steeled herself and took the hand. He pressed a card into her palm, a business card, of all things. As though he had a real business.

Meg knew she was supposed to politely nod and thank him. Instead, she crumpled the card in her fist and reached for Bram’s arm, leaning on his big build and brawn. “I think it’s time for Katie and I to go home.”

Jack Tarkenton was easy to avoid after that. The limousine was reserved for immediate family only. When he showed up at her house later that afternoon after she started receiving guests, Meg announced she and Katie needed to go upstairs and rest for a while. Even someone as callous as Jack Tarkenton couldn’t argue with that.

She figured wrong, however. He intercepted her at the base of the stairs. “When you’re free, I’d like a moment with you—alone.”

Speechless at his gall, she fled up the stairs with Katie in her arms. When Meg gained the landing, she stared down at him, letting her disapproval show. But he continued to follow her with those eyes, gleaming brown as the finest dark chocolate.

Katie’s eyes.

Hugging her daughter close, Meg hurried into Katie’s room and locked the door behind them. “It’s nap time, sweetheart.”

“But I don’t want to take a nap.”

“Of course you don’t,” Meg soothed, setting her down on the edge of her pink ruffled bed. “But we’ll change your clothes, anyway. You don’t want to get wrinkles all over your pretty dress.”

“It’s Daddy’s favorite.”

“I know.” Meg undid the buckles on Katie’s patent leather shoes and slipped them off. “I’m sure he was glad to see you wear it today.”

“Mommy, when can I go to heaven to see Daddy?”

Meg drew Katie’s dress off, feeling how hard this was going to be on both her and her daughter. “You miss him already, don’t you?”

She nodded, and her large eyes pooled with tears. “I want my daddy.”

“Oh, baby, I know.” Meg kissed the top of Katie’s head and helped her change into her pajamas. “I wish he was here, too.”

“You do?”

“Oh, yes. He was a wonderful daddy, a wonderful daddy to us both.”

“When can I see him?”

Meg gave her the plush toy rabbit she always slept with. and picked up Allen’s framed photograph on the nightstand. “Remember what I told you this morning? Daddy’s picture will stay right beside your bed. Then you can see him whenever you want.”

“Forever?”

“Forever.”

Meg helped Katie set the picture safely on the nightstand. Clutching her rabbit, she lay down and stared at Allen’s picture with such studious concentration, it broke Meg’s heart. “Mommy, can I have the light on? I want Daddy to see me.”

“I’ll leave the light on, and the light in the bathroom, too. If you get scared or need anything, you call me, okay?”

“Okay.” Katie opened her arms for a hug. “I love you, Mommy.”

“I love you, too, sweetheart. Daddy does, too.”

Meg tucked the covers around Katie and kissed her forehead. “Sleep tight.”

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Exiting swiftly, Meg drew the door closed to the point where she could still hear any sounds in the room, if need be. Standing in the hall, she wiped her eyes and listened the way all mothers listened, to make sure her child was settling down.

How many times had she done this? How many times had she kissed Katie good-night? Hundreds of times. And how many times had she kissed Allen good-night?

Hardly ever.

“Is she asleep?”

Jumping, Meg spotted Jack Tarkenton’s broad-shouldered silhouette standing in the shadows at the end of the hall. “I need to talk to you,” he said, his voice hushed. “Now.”

She advanced on him, using her most forceful whisper. “I think I’ve made it abundantly clear that I have no desire whatsoever to talk with you.” She stabbed a finger at the stairs. “Please leave.”

“Don’t make this harder than it already is, Meg. I only want a few minutes of your time.”

“How dare you,” she whispered furiously. “How dare you come to my husband’s funeral. How dare you come to my house. How dare you come anywhere near me.”

“Katie’s mine, Meg. I know it and you know it, so stop the righteous-sounding speech and take me to someplace private where we can talk.”

Meg stared at him, seeing his coldness while feeling her own anger drain into the well of her deepest fear. No, this could not be happening. He could not have said—

“You heard me. I know I’m Katie’s father.”

“No,” she breathed. “You’re not.”

“I was there when she was conceived, remember?”

She pushed past him. “ ‘Remember’ is the last thing I want to do, especially with my husband barely cold in his grave. He’s Katie’s father. Not you.”

Jack caught her arm. “I’m warning you, Meg. There are plenty of people downstairs. We can do this in private or we can do this in public. It makes no difference to me.”

She wrenched her arm from him. “Get away from me.”

“Not until you hear me out.”

“No.” She ducked to make her voice heard on the level below. “Bram?”

“Yeah?”

“I need you upstairs.”

“I’ll be right there, Meg.”

Triumphant, she turned to find Jack leaning against the wall, hands slung in the trouser pockets of his impeccable suit. “Big brother doesn’t know about us, does he? If he knew, my sister would know, and she would have come straight to me. I wonder how Bram and Amanda will feel when the two of them find out precisely what we were doing on the sacred occasion of their wedding day.”

“Amanda’s your sister. You wouldn’t do that to her.”

“Try me.”

Meg heard Bram’s tread on the stairs. “Meg?”

“Here,” she called, wishing she could rip the smugness off Jack’s face. Or have Bram rip it off.

“Hey, Jack,” he greeted. “I didn’t know you were up here, too.” Bram turned to her. “Meg, what can I do for you?”

Jack’s challenging look of inquiry told Meg he wasn’t about to retrieve the gauntlet he’d thrown down. She checked her brother’s strong, familiar face. All she had to do was tell him the truth. He would forgive her. So would the rest of her family.

The truth shall set you free.

Except where Jack Tarkenton was involved. With his wealth and name, the only thing the truth would set free was a battalion of lawyers. She wasn’t ready to have that happen, not yet. Not unless it was the only way to protect Katie.

“I’m sorry, Bram,” she. said. “Jack heard me call and came up himself.”

“Katie just needed an extra good-night kiss,” Jack explained, straightening, rising to the occasion with impressive ease. “I’m not her uncle like you, Bram, but considering the circumstances, I thought it was a good sign that Katie was willing to accept one from me.”

Chills raced down Meg’s spine. She had forgotten how well he lied. She’d also forgotten how incredibly breathless she got when he flashed that celebrated smile of his.

Bram responded to it, too. “It’s good to see you here, Jack. It meant a lot to Amanda to have you at the burial service. Meg, too, I’m sure. The more a family comes together in times of crisis, the stronger it will be.”

Sickened by the irony in that little speech, Meg plunged down the stairs between them. What family? With Allen dead at the hands of a drunk driver, hers was destroyed. Now she had to deal with Jack Tarkenton. How in the world had he found out the truth? Other than to Allen, she had never breathed her secret to anyone.

Thankfully, the only mourners who lingered downstairs were members of her own family. Gathered on the backyard patio, they were enjoying the warmth of the dying sun while Bram and Amanda’s three-year-old son, J.J., played on the swing set.