Maggie's Guardian (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Adams, Anna

  Tears welled in her eyes, and pink color stained her thin face. “We’ll miss David,” Eleanor said. “I don’t know what Maggie will think, after her mother and now this.”

  With heartbreaking tenderness, Joe Worth stroked his wife’s back. “We’ll make sure Maggie remembers her mother and father, and she’ll still have us and Tessa.”

  Noah looked suddenly uncomfortable. Tessa knew what he was thinking. He was only a temporary part of the picture.

  “Noah’s on his way back to Boston.” She’d grabbed for her hard-fought sense of detachment. Easier to do with Noah out of the way.

  He obliged by moving toward the door, and Eleanor and Joe sank against the wall to give him room. But Joe grabbed his sleeve.

  “You’re satisfied the police here can handle the case?”

  Noah opened his mouth, but he waited too long to be convincing. “Chief Weldon and his men are qualified.”

  His bland tone reminded Tessa of what he’d called the first rule. The initial twenty-four hours after a homicide were key. Almost thirty had passed.

  As if his uncertainty went over her head, Eleanor changed the subject. “When do you think Maggie will wake up? I won’t feel the world is a safe place again until I can hold her in my arms.”

  Tessa stiffened. Surely David deserved a moment’s remembrance. But Eleanor had lost two members of her family. Naturally she needed to see Maggie. “She just went down for her nap—”

  “I’m not leaving for good.” Noah interrupted, making them all look at him.

  He pinned Tessa, his gaze dark and intense. “I’ll pick up my stuff at home and talk to Baxton about a leave of absence. Maybe you should give me a key so you don’t have to wait up for me tonight.”

  Hand over a key to her home? “I’ll wait up.” Pigs would fly before she’d invite him to come and go at will.

  Clenching his jaw, he flicked a quick look at the Worths and then grabbed his jacket off the sofa. His broad shoulders stretched the leather as he wrapped himself in control. Skimming her face with a glance that came nowhere near her eyes, he held out his hand to Joe Worth.

  “Nice to see you after so long. Mrs. Worth, again, my condolences.”

  Joe shook Noah’s hand, nodding while his wife mumbled thanks. They wore the stunned smiles of the living who’ve lost a loved one. Noah opened the door, but Tessa caught it to ease it shut so they wouldn’t wake Maggie.

  “Wait.” Noah grabbed the heavy door again, his greater strength shoving the cold wood against her palm. “I know you can’t get into your office to access the files, but I want you to write down everything you remember about any client who’s complained at any time in the past year.”

  “I can’t, Noah. I’m their attorney.”

  “Don’t start that. I’m not official, and we’ll find a way to protect privilege if we have to, but I have to know what went wrong here. I’m especially interested in the guy who wanted you to be his own private attorney.”

  “I’ll just bet you are.” The words slipped out, echoing the last contentious days of their marriage.

  Noah curved his mouth and the seductive fullness of his lower lip rattled her even more than his pleasure in provoking her. He spun on his heel and sauntered down the steps, in charge again, damn him. She hadn’t learned his kind of control, and she was still mad as hell at him.

  She watched him walk away until she realized divorcing him hadn’t cured her addiction to the loose, sexy swing of his stride. Without another thought she slammed the door. And then cursed herself, waiting for Maggie’s shrill cry.

  Which came right on schedule.

  “Let me get her,” Joe said.

  Tessa wavered, already used to having sole responsibility for the baby. But she had to assure Joe and Eleanor they were still important to Maggie. She might be afraid of loving enough to get hurt again, but she’d make herself trust a little for Maggie’s sake.

  “She’s in my room.” She pointed up at the gallery. “That door. I’ll get a bottle in case she’s hungry.”

  “I’ll come with you, Joe.” Eleanor followed her husband to the stairs. “But, Tessa?”

  With her hand on the kitchen door, she looked back.

  “Are you sure you don’t want us to go to a hotel?” Eleanor asked.

  “You’re welcome here.” Maggie knew them, loved them and needed them. “Noah’s already taken the room closest to mine. You can have the one nearest the stairs, but I’ve been using it for storage. I’ll clear it out for you later.”

  As simple as that, she began to transform her haven for one into a family dwelling. Her safe days of owing nothing to anyone were over, but she’d held Maggie without screaming in agony because she couldn’t hold Keely. Maybe she was turning a corner. Maybe she’d learn to treasure her memories instead of avoiding them.

  Some of her memories anyway. The ones that featured Noah still spelled danger. He might be the one man who could find the real killer quickly, but afterward, he’d retire to his self-sufficient life. A hint of unease snaked down her spine, making her shiver.

  She didn’t want to need Noah again.

  “BAXTON, I HAVE TO TAKE the time.” Noah shifted in the cracked leather chair across from his angry commander. The other man glared at him from beneath bushy brows that looked more gray than Noah remembered. When had Baxton started to look his age?

  More to the point, when was the last time he’d noticed anything except his own work? For eighteen months he’d made himself numb while he’d functioned on the job. He used that same detachment to focus now.

  “You know Tessa’s innocent. I can’t let those village clowns nail her for something she’d never do.”

  “You’re divorced. You haven’t forgotten that in some drunken stupor?”

  Noah passed on responding to Baxton’s sneer. Taking a punch at his superior could end this negotiation badly, and if his boss had really thought he was coming to work drunk, he’d have been off the job months ago. “I haven’t forgotten the divorce.” He never forgot, but maybe if he did something right for Tessa, he’d learn to let her go.

  “How well do you know her after all this time? When did you last see her?”

  Noah wasn’t about to admit he’d sat pathetically outside her parents’ house on Thanksgiving, knowing the hour she’d walk up their steps to the door.

  “We haven’t seen each other since she left me—until last night.”

  Baxton rocked slowly back and forth in his chair as a clock ticked behind him. “How much time off do you want?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  The commander seemed to think it over, as if he had a choice.

  Noah reared out of his chair. “Look, Baxton, I’m not asking—I’m going to Maine to help my ex-wife. Fire me if you have to.”

  “Damn you, man, you know I can’t fire you. I’d be explaining until my successor was planning his retirement party. Go, but you’d better make this fast. Let’s go over your caseload.”

  “We’d better start with Della Eddings.”

  Della’s was a case they’d worked on together outside of office hours. Abused by her husband, she’d arrived in the squad room in the early hours of a rainy morning, begging them to save her and her two children. Frank Eddings remained just outside the reach of the stalker laws, but Baxton and Noah, both sick of cleaning up after killings, had gone out of their way to protect her.

  “My wife will thank me for spending double my usual time with Della,” Baxton said.

  “We’re keeping her alive.”

  “I won’t forget to check in with her.”

  Noah nodded. “I’ll let Della know she should try you first if anything happens.”

  They covered the rest of Noah’s cases, and he got up to leave. Baxton swung around in his chair as if a great idea had suddenly struck him. “If you manage to train one of those hicks well enough, send him back here instead of coming yourself. He’d have to be less trouble.”

  “Thanks.” Noah gripped the doo
rknob, just a little ashamed of the pain in the ass he must have been in the past year and a half.

  Baxton dropped his loose fist on the desk. “Don’t forget to fill out your paperwork. I don’t want to come up there after you to get it right.”

  “You’re a warm guy, Baxton.”

  “Damn straight.” Picking up a pencil, he prepared to move on to his next point of business. “You know you got no jurisdiction up there?”

  “I don’t need jurisdiction. I can dial 911 as well as anyone else.” Noah pulled the door shut and met the accusatory stares of the detectives working their cases from the office. A single thought on so many minds was easy to read.

  Eighteen months of grief he hadn’t handled looked like reckless behavior to them. He’d long since removed himself from the team. And now they thought Baxton was giving him special treatment—time off to indulge in yet another phase of his dysfunctional family life.

  TESSA SHARED a tense afternoon with Eleanor and Joe and Maggie. The moment Noah left, Eleanor opened all the blinds with a hearty welcome to the healthy sunshine for Maggie. Acutely aware that a killer might be on guard from the snowdrifts that dotted her yard, Tessa was hard-pressed not to shut the blinds as fast as Eleanor opened them.

  She kept busy moving her stored things from the room the Worths were going to use to the attic. As she worked, she mentally sorted the firm’s client list.

  But picturing each case, she remembered discussing the files with David. She rubbed tears off her face, knowing she’d never again trade work with him or share a late-night dinner or even the goofy jokes they’d made about their exceptionally exciting after-work lives.

  He’d been her best friend, her refuge from grief. She couldn’t deal with her loneliness. For now, she had to make Maggie’s grandparents comfortable and arrange for David’s service.

  He’d asked for cremation and a church service. After Tessa finished clearing the room for the Worths, she went to her own and called David’s minister. She finished the preparations with haste that made her sad. As each step fell, like a domino, she sensed a horrible moment of finality, looming. How was the baby to do without her father?

  Tessa washed her face and tied her hair back with a thick band. She shut her bedroom door at her back and tugged on the hem of her sweater, trying to make herself look untouched by loss. She could hear Eleanor and Joe’s low voices threaded with Maggie’s. Tessa hurried down the stairs. They came through the kitchen door as she reached to open it.

  “We thought we’d give Maggie a bath,” Eleanor said. “And then dinner?”

  “Sounds good.” Tessa touched Maggie’s cheek, and the little girl gurgled, tugging Tessa’s hand toward her mouth.

  “She’s happy, isn’t she?” Eleanor looked satisfied as she rescued Tessa from another baby bite. “You don’t want a hand in your mouth, love bug. You’ll be all right now.”

  Tessa gazed at her in confusion. “Now?”

  Joe pulled the baby into his arms. “Now that we’re all together. No one can get through all of us to hurt her.”

  Tessa nodded. They didn’t seem to feel for David as she did, but like her, they must be putting off their pain.

  Alone in the kitchen as night fell outside the windows, Tessa snapped to attention at each unfamiliar sound in her settling house. She hated being afraid. Worrying that someone might be outside, she wanted Maggie with her.

  She tried to concentrate on David. To make this family real, she had to help discover who’d killed him. Scouring her memory for a hint of anyone who might have had a grudge against him, she realized how much less open he’d been with her in the past few months. Parts of his life looked hazy in retrospect. They’d both felt bad about hurting Joanna, even though they were innocent.

  When she asked if he wanted to take Maggie to the zoo, he’d claim he’d made other plans, never saying what they were—and then he’d call from home to ask her a work-related question, or to tell her about some television program he was watching.

  Tessa stirred Maggie’s unappetizing cereal, seeing the past instead. What if she’d been wrong about David’s motives for drawing back? What if he’d changed his mind about her having Maggie?

  She’d heard of blood running cold, but she’d never felt it before. Shivering, she shoved the cereal box back into the long oak cupboard and picked up Maggie’s bowl. David would have told her if he’d wanted to change their arrangement. Maggie had been his first concern, too.

  Tessa was about to push through the kitchen door when Eleanor came back, cradling the baby. “I’ll hold her while you feed her,” the older woman said. “We should get you a high chair.”

  Tessa smoothed the damp, shiny strands of Maggie’s hair. “She has one at home.”

  Eleanor’s gaze clouded. “I keep forgetting. I guess it’s easier than facing the truth.”

  “None of this should have happened,” Tessa said.

  “Starting with Joanna,” Eleanor’s said vehemenctly. She noticed Maggie’s wary gaze, and pressed a kiss to the baby’s cheek. “Better eat, sweet.”

  Maggie grunted softly and then turned toward her cereal. Tessa spooned a bite into Maggie’s mouth and then scooped up the overspill. The baby’s gummy grin softened her heart.

  “With all that oatmeal sloshing in your mouth, you should look disgusting.” She curved her finger beneath the baby’s chin, and Maggie tried to bite her again. “She’s accepted the changes so easily.”

  “Sensing she’s loved probably matters most just now.”

  Tessa disagreed. “You don’t think she misses David?”

  Eleanor blushed. “I don’t mean that. Obviously she does. She asks for him, but I’m looking to the future. We didn’t know how Maggie would be with you.”

  Already she cared deeply enough to feel protective of the baby. “We want the same things for her, Eleanor.” She offered juice from a sippy cup, but the liquid trickled down the side of Maggie’s mouth.

  “You don’t think David started her on the cup too early?”

  Tessa wasn’t sure if she was defending Maggie or David when she answered. “She’s getting more adept. About two weeks ago she spewed apple juice all over David’s shirt, and he forgot to change before he took her to day care. One of our clients asked us if we’d had some apples go bad in the office.”

  “He was distracted lately,” Eleanor said.

  “You noticed, too?”

  Eleanor nodded, but she offered no ideas. Tessa waited so long, Maggie yanked the cereal spoon to her mouth. Wondering what Eleanor might know but not want to share, Tessa finished feeding the baby. No need to push Maggie’s grandparents. They’d loved David and lost him. They’d all have to get used to their new family ties.

  The second Maggie lost interest in eating, Eleanor stood with her. “I’ll take her upstairs to clean the cereal out of her face and hair, and then Joe and I can read her a couple of bedtime stories.”

  As Eleanor made for the door, Maggie howled in protest, reaching over her grandma’s back for Tessa. Surprised, Tessa hurried after her.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked, and the baby girl caught her face for a moist kiss, redolent of cereal and apples. It was messy, but oh, so sweet.

  “Let’s go find Grandpa,” Eleanor said softly.

  Tessa caught Maggie’s hand and kissed the fingers the baby curled around hers. “I picked up some books for her while I was buying a crib. They’re in a basket beside the dresser.”

  She let Maggie go, waving as Eleanor carried her away. Maggie must carry a little bit of magic in her fist.

  Listening to footsteps overhead, Tessa started a load of infant laundry. She remembered the limited time a baby left for mundane things, like cleaning a kitchen or folding the baby clothes Eleanor had washed earlier. She was folding Maggie’s things on the living-room couch when Eleanor and Joe slipped out of her room.

  “She’s asleep,” Joe said.

  Tessa looked for the monitor, but neither of them had it. She picked up
a stack of towels and started up the stairs.

  “She was tired.” Eleanor patted her husband’s arm. “So am I.”

  “Aren’t you hungry?” Tessa asked. They’d shared a late lunch. Maggie had distracted the Worths, and Tessa had been so busy cleaning none of them had remembered to eat until about three o’clock.

  “I don’t think I could stay awake long enough to choke something down,” Joe said. “What about you, honey?”

  “Same here. Night, Tessa.”

  “I’m glad you came.” Tessa stopped on the landing in front of them. “Maggie needs you.”

  They smiled at each other and then at her. “Don’t you worry,” Joe said. “We’ll work this out together.”

  “In the morning,” Eleanor added dryly, and the older couple went inside their room and closed the door.

  An astounding amount of tension receded with them. They were good for Maggie, and she obviously made them happy, but Tessa couldn’t resist sagging in relief against the linen closet door.

  Then she looked downstairs at the open blinds and the lights that put the room on display. She stuffed the towels into the closet and eased into her room to retrieve the baby monitor. She checked on Maggie, gently pressing her fingertips against the baby’s belly. Maggie smiled in her sleep, and Tessa smiled back. She couldn’t help it. She brushed Maggie’s hair off her forehead and backed out of her room, gently closing the door.

  She hurried down the stairs and jerked the blinds shut, almost feeling eyes from outside looking in on her. She finished off at the window over the kitchen sink and then stood back, pressing her fists into the small of her back. As the kinks began to ease, she felt safe.

  The rest of the laundry called, but she pushed it aside in favor of going through the client files on her computer before Noah returned. She hit the machine’s power switch and sat at the living-room desk. While the computer powered up, she turned on the baby monitor and fished a notebook and pen from the drawer in front of her.