Ruth stood in the doorway, glancing uneasily in Jarrett’s direction. “I have to go to work soon.”
“You don’t have to be at work until four. It’s only one.”
“Yeah, but I have to stop at the store. Your father’s out of nasal spray and we’re out of toilet paper. Your father likes the economy brand there. He says it’s softer than any of those name brands.”
Maggie closed her eyes for a second, breathing deeply. Her heart was racing. “Mom, will you sit down?” She indicated the opposite end of the couch from where Jarrett sat.
Ruth crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway. “I’m fine standing,” she said, digging in as a soldier readies for battle.
Maggie met her mother’s gaze. She knew those tired hazel eyes so well, and yet at this moment she felt as if she didn’t know her mother at all—never had known her. “I guess you’re wondering what Jarrett’s doing here with me,” she started awkwardly.
She lifted a sagging shoulder. “I try not to get into my grown daughters’ business.”
“Mom, didn’t you ever wonder how she was?” Maggie said suddenly, opening her arms in a plea.
Ruth stared blankly. “Who?”
“My daughter” Maggie choked on the word.
Jarrett rose, leaving his untouched tea on the coffee table. He draped one arm over Maggie’s shoulder in a comforting squeeze.
Ruth stared at the floor. “I always knew you’d throw that up in my face,” she said bitterly. “I did what I thought was right. It’s all a parent can do.”
Maggie had to look away. Her gaze fell on her father in his recliner. He was overweight, with sagging jowls and a nearly bald head ringed by gray hair. He still wore the blue uniform work pants and shirt he had worn all his life, only now that he had retired, the bread company logo was gone. He slept on.
Maggie turned back to her mother. “You took my baby, Mom. Without my permission. You took her out of my arms and you put her up for adoption without my signature. That’s illegal.”
“What would you have done with a baby?” she snapped. “You in college? You were going to be a doctor! How do you think you would have gotten through medical school with a preschooler under your feet? Huh?” She pointed her finger. “Well, I can tell you. You wouldn’t have!”
“So maybe I wouldn’t have become a doctor. Would that have been so bad? Would that have been such a terrible trade-off?” Maggie could feel her face burning with anger. “A child for a medical degree?”
Her mother drew her thin lips back, crossing her arms over her lumpy chest again. “It wasn’t what I wanted for you. You deserved better.”
Maggie exhaled and lowered her voice, softening her tone. This was pointless. She had known it would be pointless. Ruth was never going to see what she had done wrong, not if she hadn’t recognized it after all these years. “I just think I should have been able to make a choice, that I should have been given some other options.”
“You wouldn’t have understood what you were giving up. It wasn’t what I wanted for you,” her mother repeated.
She glanced up at her mother. “So why contact Jarrett’s family? Why didn’t you just put her up for adoption in Arizona?”
Ruth was silent.
“Mom?”
“College was expensive. You had to have books and a meal plan. Medical school is outrageous.”
Maggie felt sick in the pit of her stomach again. What was her mother saying? “Mother, you only paid for undergrad. I borrowed money for medical school. I’m still paying off loans.”
“Your sister got into some trouble while you were off getting your degree. Rehab doesn’t come cheap, you know, not good rehab. They say you have to get into a decent place if—”
“You took money for my baby?” Maggie asked incredulously. She looked from her mother to Jarrett. He seemed as startled as she was.
“I never knew,” he whispered under his breath.
Maggie looked back at Ruth, who still stood in the doorway. “Did the McKays pay you for my daughter?”
“Legal expenses,” she said, waving one hand as if she could dismiss the whole thing. “Court costs. Plane tickets here and there.”
Maggie felt herself trembling from head to foot. “You paid for my sister’s rehab with money from the sale of my child?”
“I didn’t sell anyone,” Ruth snapped. “I did what I had to do to get my daughters raised. Now if there’s nothing else you need, I’ve got to get ready for work.”
Maggie watched, stunned, as Ruth went down the hall and disappeared into the back of the bungalow. Slowly she turned to look at Jarrett.
“I’m so sorry,” he said softly, rising to his feet “My parents never told me they paid her anything. They only said she had contacted them to ask if they wanted to adopt the child, saying she couldn’t afford to keep her. My parents were under the impression you didn’t want her, either.”
Tears slid down Maggie’s cheeks. “She doesn’t even know she did anything wrong.”
Jarrett wrapped her in his arms, pulling her close.
“She didn’t even ask how Taylor is,” Maggie said, feeling almost numb now. “She didn’t ask about her granddaughter.”
“Shhh,” Jarrett soothed. “It’s all right, Maggie. It’s going to be all right.”
Maggie rested her forehead on his shoulder, dampening his shirt with her tears. “Can we go now? I just want to go.”
“Sure, sweetheart.” He pressed a kiss to her pale, sweaty forehead and ushered her toward the door.
~~~
Maggie lay in the crook of Jarrett’s arm, on her side, her cheek pressed into his shoulder, her hand on his flat abdomen. The inn he had chosen was perfect, their room cozy and private.
They were both breathing hard, spent from making love. She turned her head and pressed a kiss to his warm skin. “Thanks,” she said.
“Well, you’re certainly welcome.” He chuckled. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”
She laughed and smacked him playfully on his stomach. “Not for that.” She smiled. “Well, okay, for that. But that's not what I mean. I meant for going to my mother’s with me.”
He scratched her back. “I’m not sure she gave you a whole lot of satisfaction.”
“No, it was all right. In all these years we never spoke of it at all. At least now it’s out. Maybe once she gets used to the fact, she might even ask about Taylor.”
“Maybe.” He was quiet for a minute. “So what do we tell Taylor about Ruth?” He hesitated. “Do we tell her the truth?”
Maggie sighed. “I don’t know. Let’s think about it. I don’t want her to hate her grandmother. I don’t want her to find out we’ve been dishonest with her again, either, though. As it is, a certain amount of trust needs to be rebuilt.”
“Maybe we should wait and see what she wants to know,” Jarrett mused, sliding his hand up and down her arm. “Kids tend to have a way of only asking questions with answers they can handle.”
Maggie nodded. “Works for me. One step at a time.”
“What about Lisa?”
“What about her?” Maggie still felt prickly discussing Lisa with Jarrett, but it was getting easier. The wound was definitely healing.
“Are you going to ask her about rehab? About the money?”
“No, she said thoughtfully. “I don’t think I will. I’m sure Lisa doesn’t know how Ruth paid for her rehab, otherwise she would have told me. So what’s the point? She’s already got enough things to be neurotic about.”
“Good point. You’re a wise woman, Maggie Turner.” He gazed into her eyes. “A kind one, too.”
Grinning, she rolled onto his chest, pressing her body against his. He felt so right, so good. “Hush,” she whispered. “And let me ravish you.”
His eyes twinkled. “Ravish away.” He opened his arms in surrender. “I’m all yours.”
Chapter 16
“So tell me about your job,” Jarrett pulled a rake through the mulch in the flowerb
ed.
Maggie stood beside him in the side yard of his house, watering a blooming hibiscus. She watched the water spray from the nozzle. “What about it?”
“You like it?”
She smiled. They had driven back from the inn after lunch, but both had been hesitant to end the weekend. Despite the emotion involved in visiting Ruth, it had been a good one. Somehow, by sharing the pain Maggie felt, she and Jarrett came home closer. It was scary, but it felt so good, so right, like the two of them in bed. “I love my job,” she said, moving onto the next flowering bush. “It can be exciting. It can also be boring,” she admitted. “But I like being able to help people. I like being able to use my knowledge to make them feel better.”
He smoothed the mulch with the rake. “I always knew you’d become a doctor. Knew you’d make a good one, too.”
She glanced at him. “What made you think so?”
“You’re so compassionate. You feel so deeply. That could only make you a better doctor.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “I like to heal the whole patient. Even though I’m in emergency medicine and I only see my patients for a short time, I like to think I see them as whole people and not as broken arms or foot lacerations.”
“Well, next time I break an arm or cut my foot, you’ll be the doc I ask for.”
She turned the hose on him and sprayed a wet path across the back of his T-shirt.
“Hey!” he hollered, jumping out of the way.
She laughed and returned the spray to the flowerbed. “Just checking to be sure you’re awake.”
“Very funny.” He dragged the rake through the bed one more time and then stepped back. “There. That’s enough yard work for one day—don’t you think?” He looked at her. “What say we have a little dinner?”
She dropped the hose and walked over to turn it off at the faucet. “You’re not tired of me yet? Not ready to send me home?”
He leaned the rake against the cedar shakes of the house and came to her, his arms open. “No way. You sick of me?”
She walked into his arms and sighed at the feel of them closing around her. “No way.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Hungry? Want to go out and get something to eat?”
She gazed up at him. She was so happy she felt as if she needed to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming. There had been discussions of the future. Maggie didn’t know for sure where they were headed, but she was hopeful. That was the greatest gift Jarrett MacKay had brought when he’d entered her life again—hope. And no matter what, she knew she would always be indebted to him for it.
“I’m definitely hungry,” she said, smiling because he made her feel like smiling. “Steamed blue claws would be great.”
“Crabs?” He nodded. “I could pick a few crabs. I know a good place to get them. Picnic tables, cement floor they can hose down, flypaper hanging from the ceiling.”
She laughed. “Do they steam for takeout?”
“I imagine they do. You want to just eat here?”
“Whatever you want. But I was thinking we could pull a table out on the deck, eat, and then maybe go for a swim. You always used to like to swim at night.”
“That was because I could put my hands in your bikini top without anyone seeing me,” he teased.
“Maybe that could be arranged, as well.”
He brushed the hair that fell over her forehead, still holding her in his arms. “Want to stay the night?”
“I can stay a while, but I should go home. Taylor will be back tomorrow, and I don’t think she’s ready to see us together like this. Besides, I have work in the morning.”
“Taylor won’t be home until lunch time. As far as us, she’s a smart girl. I think she’s beginning to suspect.”
Maggie smoothed the nape of his neck. “I suppose we’re getting along rather well for a couple supposedly battling over custody.”
“She’s known enough girlfriends’ divorcing parents to know most ex-couples don’t get along as well as we do.” He dropped his arms from her waist, grabbed her hand, and led her around the corner of the house. “But I still think we need to take it slowly. Let her get used to the idea.”
Maggie wanted to ask what idea. Did he mean them as a couple? But she wasn’t ready to ask, maybe because she wasn’t ready for the answer yet. “How do you think she’s going to react when she does find out?”
“I would think she’d be pleased.”
“You would think,” Maggie echoed.
“Well, she is a teenager.”
Maggie chuckled. “You’re right. Enough said.”
They started up the steps, Maggie ahead of him. “I’ll call for the crabs,” he said. “You see if you can find the mallets. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“And you’ll stay with me tonight? Sleep in my arms?” he asked.
At the top of the flight of stairs she halted and turned to face him. Standing on the deck with him one step below put them eye-to-eye. She leaned forward and kissed him. “I’ll stay,” she said.
He winked. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”
She turned away. “I know you will. Why else would I be staying?” she called over her shoulder.
They laughed together in the fading afternoon light.
~~~
Maggie woke to the sound of Taylor’s voice. For a moment she thought she was still dreaming.
“Dad, aren’t you up yet?”
Maggie opened her eyes drowsily and then closed them again. Sunlight poured through the half-open drapes, drowning Jarrett’s bed in warmth.
Jarrett’s bed!
She came fully awake, her eyes snapping open. Jarrett lay sound asleep on his stomach, one arm draped over her hips.
“Jar—”
His name wasn’t out of Maggie’s mouth before Taylor appeared in the doorway. “Dad, do you know where my—”
Maggie’s gaze met her daughter’s. Taylor’s jaw dropped. Maggie and Jarrett were both naked and only partially covered by a sheet. Instinctively Maggie pulled the sheet up to cover them.
“What are you doing here?” Taylor demanded.
Maggie elbowed Jarrett, trying to wake him. Her eyes were scratchy and she was having a hard time focusing.
“Taylor—” Maggie sat up, gripping the sheet firmly.
“Don’t try to tell me this isn’t what I think.” Taylor snapped. “Don’t even try it.” She dropped one hand to her slender hip. “I guess this is why you’ve been coming around, isn’t it? To get my father back, not for me.”
Maggie was shocked speechless by Taylor’s words. Before she could form a reasonable thought, Taylor was gone, running down the hall.
“This can't be happening,” Maggie muttered.
“It happened,” Jarrett said sleepily.
Maggie looked down to see Jarrett open his eyes. He rolled to his back, pulling the sheet from her as he moved.
“Guess you caught that, huh?”
“Maybe not in its entirety, but enough.”
The back door shut with a resounding slam. Something fell off the wall and hit the floor with a clatter.
“I’m sorry,” Maggie said. “I never heard her let herself in. I was sound asleep.”
“You’re sorry? What do you have to be sorry about?” He rubbed his eyes. “She wasn’t supposed to be home until noon. She was clear on that when she left.”
Maggie had to laugh, though she was far from amused. “I can’t believe this.” She slid down in the bed until her head was on the pillow again. The sheets smelled wonderfully of him and her and the night’s lovemaking. “This is worse than being caught by our parents.” She pulled the sheet over her head.
He chuckled and yanked the sheet off, tossing it to the floor. “Ah, this is more like it.” He placed a warm kiss on her shoulder.
“Jarrett, shouldn’t we go after her? She’s really upset.” She pushed his head away.
With a groan he sat up. “I guess you’re right. I’m sure she just w
ent down on the beach to cool off. She always does when she’s upset with me.”
“I would say this is a little more than upset” Maggie slid to the edge of the bed in search of her discarded clothes. “Want me to go find her?”
He rose from the bed and walked toward the master bath. “Let’s get dressed, put the coffeepot on—or tea, for those who prefer it—and then find her together.”
He flashed a smile over his shoulder and Maggie melted inside. He was so handsome naked, all sinew and muscle and suntan lines.
“Tea,” she agreed. “Definitely tea.” Then she remembered work. How could she have forgotten work? “Oh, no. What time is it?” She glanced around his still unfamiliar bedroom, looking for the clock.
“Ten after seven.”
“Oh, great. My daughter’s caught me naked in bed with her father and I’m late for work.” She jumped out of bed and pulled on a T-shirt she recovered from the tangle of the cotton blanket on the floor.
“Guess we’ll have to start earlier tonight.” He winked and disappeared into the bathroom.
By the time he was out, she had dressed and called the ER to let someone know she was running late. One of the other physicians said he’d be happy to cover for her until she arrived, but she felt guilty for sleeping in. “Listen, I need to get home to change and get to work,” she told Jarrett. “Should we go find Taylor now?”
He gave her a peck on the cheek. “Nah. I haven’t dated much. Done even less of this,” he admitted, gesturing to the bed. “And then only without her knowledge, so she’s probably just as upset about realizing I’m a man and not just a dad as the fact that I was with you. Let me get my coffee and go down to the beach. I’ll talk to her. Maybe we can meet you for a quick lunch or dinner if you’re not too busy. Give her time to cool down.”
Maggie rested her hand on the doorjamb of the bathroom. “You don’t think she really thinks my attention to her was meant to get at you, do you?”
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