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There was a rustle at her side, and she saw her daughter wiggle in between them again, now that Jake was standing.
“Peas are ugly,” her daughter announced, looking up at Jake defiantly. When he didn’t say anything, she started to talk faster. “And, I’m a princess, so if I get peas under my mattress, I won’t be able to sleep all night long. And, they make me burp.” She paused and looked down at the floor. “Well, sort of—sometimes.”
Cat had struggled to teach Lara the difference between truth and lies, even before she got the book of fairy tales. At first, Cat thought the book was good because it helped Lara learn to read, but she was beginning to wonder if Lara really believed she was a princess when she said things like that.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get you carrots,” Jake said as he squatted down to her daughter’s level. His voice was gentle and he seemed to really be looking at her. “I’m not that fond of peas, either.”
Lara beamed at him.
Jake just looked at the girl for another minute.
“How old are you, Lara?” he finally asked.
Cat felt her breath clutch. She suddenly realized he was asking the question as if he didn’t know the answer. She’d taken for granted that he’d known that much. She wasn’t ready to tell him everything, but he must know who Lara was. She hadn’t even worried about that on the way here.
“I’m four,” her daughter answered, and held up the required number of fingers with the confidence of her preschool training. “And three months.”
Cat saw the shock wave go through Jake and she reached her hand out to stop him from saying a word. She hadn’t told her daughter anything, but surely Jake had known.
“Lara, will you take the bottle back to the nice man at the counter?” she asked as she held the plastic water bottle out to her daughter.
Fortunately, Jake knew what she intended and waited to say anything until Lara had walked over to the older man and he lifted her up on a stool.
“Who’s her father?” Jake’s voice was low and impatient.
Cat took a quick breath. “I thought you knew. It’s you.”
“Me?” Jake turned to stare at her fully. She couldn’t read his face. He’d gone pale. That much she could see. And his jaw was tense.
She nodded and darted a look over at Lara. “I know she doesn’t look like you, but I promise I wasn’t with anyone else. Not after we …”
She didn’t even have any proof, she realized. She hadn’t thought she would ever need any. She hadn’t put his name on the birth certificate, either.
“Of course you weren’t with anyone else,” Jake said indignantly. “We were so tight there would have been no time to …” He stopped and lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck. “At least, I thought we were tight. Until you ran away.”
His voice had drifted, but it was still loud enough to be overheard and she lifted her hand to ask him to lower it. But then he went completely silent, just crouched there looking at her. Soon his black eyes warmed until they were filled with golden flecks. She’d forgotten they could do that.
“She’s really mine?” he whispered, his voice husky once again.
Cat nodded. “She doesn’t know. Although she doesn’t take after you—her hair and everything—she’s got your way of looking out at the world. I assumed someone on the staff at the youth home must have told you about her …”
His jaw tensed further at that.
“You think I wouldn’t have moved heaven and earth to find you if I’d known you’d had my baby?” Jake’s eyes flashed. He’d obviously forgotten about being quiet. “I made several trips back to the home to try and trace you. They said you didn’t want to be found so I finally accepted that. But if I’d known I had a daughter, I would have forced them to tell me where you were. I’d have gotten some high-powered lawyer and made them talk.”
Cat suddenly realized why she’d been so sure he knew. “But you’ve been sending me money. No letters. Just the money. Why would you do that? I thought it was like child support in your mind. That you wanted to be responsible even if you didn’t want to be involved with us.”
Jake shook his head. “I didn’t put down any words because I didn’t know what to say. I thought the money spoke for itself. That you would write when you were ready. And the money—it was like a tithe.”
“A tithe? You’re going to church?” Cat asked in relief. Maybe God had worked things out better than she had hoped. If Jake was a Christian, then she would feel so much better about him raising Lara if it came to that.
He shook his head. “Churches never have been any use to me, you know that. But I remember something Mrs. Hargrove gave me when I was a kid. You remember the lady who used to write me when I was in the home?” He looked at Cat until she nodded. “Well, one of the church papers talked about tithing.”
Cat was confused. “People give tithes to churches.”
Jake nodded. “Yes, so the church can help those in need. I am just cutting out the middle man. I figured you could use food and things so I gave the money to you.”
“Charity?” she whispered, appalled. She’d never imagined that was what the envelopes of cash were about.
Jake lowered his eyes, but he didn’t deny anything.
“I had money. Not much, but I didn’t need charity,” she finally managed to say before she heard Lara squeal and come running back to the sofa.
Cat willed her heart to stay steady. She couldn’t afford to get upset. She breathed as deeply as she dared and stayed silent. Jake’s eyes were caught by Lara, anyway.
“Come here, princess,” he said softly to the girl as she danced closer. The ballet shoes had been a present last Christmas, too. “Let me look at you.”
Lara twirled around and faced him, her cheeks flushed with merriment. “Are you going to turn me into a toad?”
Jake grinned. “Not today.”
Her daughter was enchanting, Cat thought in relief. No one could resist her.
Jake did seem interested in Lara, but that wouldn’t be enough, Cat reminded herself. She hadn’t even asked the crucial question yet. Now she wasn’t so sure. Jake had always been the first one to stand up and do what was right. But that didn’t equal love. She knew that better than anyone and she didn’t want Lara to grow up feeling as though she was a burden on someone.
Cat reminded herself that’s why she had run away from Jake and the home all those years ago. She’d known back then that he’d marry her for duty, but it wasn’t enough. What if Jake agreed to take Lara, but then treated her like a charity child? He might as well turn her into a toad right now and be done with it.
What had possessed him to send her all that money, anyway? She’d just assumed he knew she’d had a baby seven months after she left the home and had done the math. Over the years, he had sent her forty or fifty thousand dollars. She worked as a waitress at first, and some months she wouldn’t have made rent without his help. Even now that she worked in an office, she didn’t really make enough to do without his assistance. At least she had medical insurance, she told herself.
But money wasn’t everything. She wanted more than that for Lara.
Dear Lord, she thought finally. I need Your help here. Lara needs a father and not an imaginary prince who will break her heart. And I need wisdom to know if he is the right one to raise her if I can’t. He might be her biological father, but will he come to love her as a father should? Every little girl needs to be loved, whether she’s a princess or not.
Chapter Two
Jake pulled out his cell phone when he got back to the counter. Max was looking at him with concern in his eyes, but Jake wasn’t ready to talk about anything yet. His whole life had been picked up and spun around in a whirlwind before landing him back in the same place. He found he couldn’t remember the number to any restaurant in town.
He finally gave up and looked at his old friend. “I’m a father.”
“What?” Max frowned and leaned closer as though he hadn’t heard the words right.
“A father. You know—man, woman, baby.”
Max stared at him. “What are you talking about?”
Jake looked toward Lara. The girl was sitting on the sofa by her mother and adjusting her tiara again. Suddenly, she giggled at something Cat had said.
“But she’s blonde with blue eyes!” Max had followed Jake’s gaze and then turned back.
Jake nodded. Her hair wasn’t just blond, it was naturally curly.
“And you’re a quarter Cherokee with the black hair to prove it. And your eyes are so brown they’re almost black, in case you haven’t looked in the mirror lately. Are you sure?” Then his face flushed. “You wouldn’t be the first man to be fooled by a woman. Maybe Cat, maybe she—”
“No.” Jake glared at his friend. “It was just Cat and me.” His voice broke then. “I trust her with everything and especially that.”
He tried to think of more words to explain and couldn’t. “She’s—Cat. She’d never lie to me.”
They were both silent for a moment.
“You care about her, then?” Max asked gruffly. “This Cat of yours?”
The question surprised him. “Of course, we went through a lot together.”
Even now, being torn between the misery of not having been told when Lara was born and the wonder of just learning that he had a daughter, he still knew Cat was some kind of an anchor in his life. Now that she was here, he didn’t want her to leave. Max could probably see the feelings on his face. Not much escaped the old man.
Max’s voice softened. “I don’t suppose you asked her to marry you yet.”
Jake snorted. “Of course I asked her—years ago. She ran away from the home the next day and I never saw her again. That’s how well that went. Not that it was a good idea, anyway.”
Max was silent as they both turned to look across the room to where Cat and Lara sat, curled up together on the sofa. The gray clouds were lifting and sunshine was streaming in through the large glass windows behind them.
“You probably didn’t say it right,” Max finally said. “You have a hard time getting to the point sometimes. I’ve noticed that.”
“I said she should let me know if she got in trouble. I know a man’s duty. I said I’d marry her if needed. It wasn’t hard to misunderstand that. I didn’t wrap it up in a bow, but she had to have heard me. She just didn’t want to. Not that I blame her. I’m not any prize. You know about my father. None of the Stone men have any business setting up a family.”
Max was quiet for another minute, also studying the mother and child. By now, the sunlight was shining on them directly.
Then Max looked back, and a grin split his face.
“That little girl? She’s really yours?”
Jake nodded and started to grin, himself. “She doesn’t know, so keep it quiet.”
“That means I’m a grandpa!” Max whispered. He’d always said Jake was like a son to him. Then he reached over and flipped the switch on the counter that changed the sign outside to read No Vacancy. “Nobody needs to know why, but we have to do something. You’re a father.”
“I guess I am at that.” Jake stood there, letting the amazement settle in deeper. Maybe it would be okay if he was a father as long as he wasn’t close enough to the child to mess up her life. Cat had never said anything about telling Lara about him. Maybe the girl would never know.
Max frowned in thought. Then his face lit up. “We’ll have a birthday party. We’ve got lots of birthdays to make up for. Cake and ice cream. That should be okay.”
“I sure feel like celebrating.” Jake held the phone more firmly in his hand and started pressing buttons. He did know one number. “I’m calling that steakhouse in the new casino.”
“The fancy one?” Max asked. “They don’t even open until five o’clock. And they’ll never deliver. Maybe they’d do room service in the casino, but not over here. And we need to get a cake. I wonder if the child has a favorite kind.”
Jake put the phone to his ear. “They have that cake place there, too. I’m calling the head chef. He’s always there at this time of day. And he’s a good guy. Besides, he owes me. I handled a family problem for him a while back. His son was getting in with a bad crowd at the tables.”
Max grinned again. “Get me some of those crab cakes, too, then.”
With that, Max turned and opened the door behind the counter. Jake didn’t have time to worry about what the older man was doing by disappearing into the storeroom, not when he had the best chef in Las Vegas on the line.
“How do you like your steaks?” Jake called over to Cat, putting down the phone to muffle the sound of his voice. “And how do you feel about mushrooms?”
The sight of Cat and Lara, sitting with their heads together, made something shift around inside him. He had a new purpose in life. Lara didn’t need to know who he was for him to take care of her. He’d be some family friend that came to school plays once in a while. He’d be the old man in the back of the church at her wedding and he’d give the presents with no name tag on them at holidays. He wouldn’t even need to talk to her over the years. Just making sure she had enough to live a good life would be sufficient.
“Oh, don’t order steaks,” Cat said as she broke apart from her daughter and started to rise. “They’re too expensive. I can walk over to that burger place around the corner. That’ll be enough.”
“Steak—well-done, medium or rare?” Jake asked again. “And stay seated. You’re not walking anywhere. I don’t want you fainting a second time. Especially not when the sidewalks are wet.”
“I guess medium, if I have to choose.” Cat sat back down and brushed her hair away from her face. “But really, it’s not necessary. I never eat steak. And—”
“I’m paying,” Jake interrupted, knowing what was troubling her. Before she came to the home all those years ago, she’d lived on the streets in Fargo.
Now that her hair was drying, it was starting to fly this way and that. Jake remembered the golden-brown halo around her face. She used to look like that when she was studying her math problems. She had that same indecisive look on her face, too. As if she wasn’t sure of the right answer and didn’t want to choose the wrong one.
“I guess it’s all right, then,” she said with a frown.
“And the mushrooms?” he asked.
“Canned or fresh?”
“Imported.”
Now she looked bewildered. “I’ve never had an imported mushroom. What kind?”
“Porcini.” Jake repeated what the chef had told him minutes before. “They also call them the black mushroom. Don’t worry. They’re good.”
She looked at him in full amazement now. “You’ve eaten those mushrooms? You wouldn’t even eat garlic at the home. Said it wasn’t part of your culture. You, with your Cherokee-chief grandfather. You asked the cook to make you fry bread instead. Said the Cherokee were used to their own diet and they were in this country first and should be able to eat what they wanted. Then you used the table as a drum.”
“I guess I was pretty difficult back then,” he admitted.
“You were persuasive, too,” Cat added as she bit her lip nervously. “The cook finally made it for you that one time. She said it was just to shut you up, but she made enough for everybody. It was like a party.”
Trust Cat to find one of the few good memories related to that place.
Jake finished their order by adding roasted white corn with pepper, and truffle mashed potatoes. Then he checked with Lara and ordered a chocolate birthday cake with raspberry filling for dessert. He also asked for the crab cakes to please Max and some macaroni and cheese for Lara in case she didn’t feel like eating what the rest of them did.
“Thirty minutes,” Jake said when he hung up the phone. He’d never spent that kind of money for a meal before and he was surprised to discover it felt so good. He needed to do something to mark this day. He was a father. Maybe not a regular one with Little League and all, but it was more than he ever thought he’d be.
* * *
Cat brushed the hair away from her face as she sat down at the table. She couldn’t believe it. Max and Jake had put a full box of purple candles on the chocolate cake sitting in the middle of the table. The men who brought the food had laid a white tablecloth over the folding table the older man had pulled out of the storeroom. The deliverymen had put real china plates down, too.
There was a big Happy Birthday banner taped to the counter and Jake had explained earlier to Lara that they were celebrating all of the birthdays he and Max had missed—all four of them together. For once Cat was glad for the fairy-tale book. Lara took the party in stride, as though that kind of thing happened every day for good little girls like her.
“They’re fish,” Lara said in delight from where she was seated. She was holding up some kind of macaroni on her fork and she was right; they were fish shaped.
“The chef thought of using one of our French cheeses,” the thickset man who had laid out most of the food said. “But then he decided the little one might be more comfortable with some nice Wisconsin cheddar.”
“Good choice,” Cat said. All those years she’d been a waitress, she’d never seen anything like this. As for French cheeses—who had the money for that? “Thanks.”
Right then, Jake stepped back into the lobby. He’d gone to his room to change out of his damp clothes. She and Lara didn’t have their suitcases, but they had gone to a room and toweled themselves dry.
“Now, doesn’t he look handsome?” Max winked at her from his chair as Jake got closer.
“I’ve never seen him in a suit.” Cat feared she was blushing, but the older man was right. Jake was breathtaking in his dark suit and white shirt. He might have a whole closet full of clothes he wore in this new life of his. She looked closer. That suit was a tuxedo, even if the shirt was regular enough at first glance.
“That’s his wedding suit,” Max said proudly.
Cat felt her breath catch. Wedding! She’d never considered the possibility that Jake would be getting married. Or maybe was already married. If he was, that might change everything for Lara. Wicked stepmothers were the part of fairy tales that Cat believed, herself.
“Who is she?” Cat forced herself to ask. She’d try to keep an open mind.
“It’s his brother,” Max answered back.
She blinked at that, but before she could ask anything more, Jake stepped up to the table and sat in the remaining chair.
“What he’s trying to say is that I’m going to be best man at my brother’s wedding on Saturday so I’m trying the suit out,” he said. “Making sure it’s comfortable.”
One of the men who had delivered the food placed the last glass on the table with a flourish. “That’s everything.”
Jake reached in his pocket and pulled out a handful of bills. “Thanks, everyone.”
The man shook his head. “No need to tip us. The boss has us covered.”
Jake frowned at that, but the man motioned to his coworker and started walking toward the door. “Bon appétit.”
“Mommy, let’s pray so we can eat,” Lara whispered as the men left.
Cat realized that both Jake and Max were sitting at their places and hadn’t touched their silverware or napkins.
“It’s only polite in other people’s houses to—” she began.
Max interrupted. “Go ahead. We pray all the time.”
She could tell the older man felt a little awkward and that it probably wasn’t completely true about the praying. She looked over at Jake.
“Would you do the honors?” he asked.
She looked at him carefully. Even with the smile he had managed, he sounded reluctant. Was he cynical, as well? She couldn’t tell. When they’d known each other as teenagers, neither one of them had given much thought to God. Finally, she just nodded and bowed her head. She waited so everyone had time to get used to the idea. The last one to bow their head was Jake, but he eventually did.
Then she began. “Father, we are grateful for all of the good things You give to us. We ask Your blessing upon those wonderful men who prepared our food. And we ask …” She paused because she felt a sudden sharp pain in her side and needed to wait for it to pass.
“And please bless my very own father, wherever he is.” Lara rushed to fill in the silence with the words that had become part of her bedtime prayers lately. She’d never said them at the table until now.
Cat couldn’t get her breath back enough to stop her. Lara had been curious about her father ever since she realized most of the other children in her preschool had one of those as well as a mother in their families. She had told Lara she had a father, but that was all.
“I figure he’s busy like You are, God,” Lara continued, with her eyes closed and her hands pressed tight together. “Ruling his kingdom and saving the lives of little children. But can You tell him I said hello and that I’m having a birthday party and it’s not even my birthday and if he wants to come, he can ride his dragon here real quick, and I won’t tell anyone I’m a princess because he’s my father and—”
The pain finally passed enough for Cat to speak, so she quickly finished the prayer in a strained voice. “In Jesus’s name, we thank You for all Your bounty. Amen.”
Cat sat there for a moment with her eyes still closed. A better mother would have taken Lara to a child’s psychiatrist by now. She should have found the money to pay somehow. It couldn’t be natural to believe so strongly in something like that. Especially not the tale she’d made up about her father.
When Cat finally opened her eyes, she saw that Jake was looking straight at her, his eyes glowering.
She looked over at Lara. Her daughter was absorbed in eating her macaroni.
When she glanced back at Jake, he’d turned to stare at Lara, too.
“Have you ever seen a picture of your father?” he asked the girl.
She shook her head. “But I know what he looks like. He’s a handsome prince with clothes that shine in the dark and he has a beard and he rides a dragon when he takes toys to little kids who don’t have any. And I think he invented pizza because everybody loves pizza.”
“He’s very busy,” Jake muttered.
Cat thought he looked a little stunned.
“That’s why he can’t come to my parties,” Lara said somberly. “I wish he would. Just once.”
“I’m sure he would come to all of your birthday parties if he knew where you lived.” Jake’s voice was pinched and maybe a little angry.
She couldn’t blame him, but she didn’t want him to go further so she shook her head at him. The effort cost her as a burst of tiny pains radiated from her neck.
She noticed Jake’s eyes deepen again.
“Problem?” he asked quietly, his eyes measuring her.
“Nothing to worry about.”
She hoped that was true. She looked down. Jake saw too much when he wanted to. He’d always known when she was hiding something. Except for those first two months when she was pregnant with Lara. She knew he hadn’t known anything about the baby they had created back then. They were too young to get married, and she knew he’d insist on that.
She forced herself to focus on the food that had been placed on platters or in bowls. Everyone was silent for a good ten minutes while they ate.
“Maybe your brother should spring for crab cakes at his wedding,” Max said with a sigh as he ate the last one on his plate. “That should fit in his budget, even if he and your mother are fixing up the ranch.”
“I doubt anyone makes crab cakes in Dry Creek,” Jake said.
“They might if they tasted these.” Cat lifted the last bite to her mouth. “They’re delicious.”
“I don’t suppose there’s time to get any crab cakes made up before Saturday night, anyway,” Max said.
Cat stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth. “The wedding’s this Saturday?”
Her timing always had been bad. It was Wednesday. That must have been where Jake had been going when she stepped inside the lobby here.
Jake nodded. “When you said you could stay through the weekend, I called my brother and told him that I can’t make it. He threatened to disown me, or at least have our mother call me back, but he knows he needs to get someone else to stand with him.”