Eyes flashing a challenge, Heather smiled at him. “You don’t think it’s pure coincidence that I showed up in Whispering Wind, where you happen to live?”

“Not in a million lifetimes,” Todd said. “I saw the look on your face in there. You weren’t the least bit surprised to see me. You knew I was here.”

“You always were brilliant.”

He ignored the sarcasm in her voice. “Get to the point,” he said.

Though he wanted badly to deny it, he had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he already knew the reason for her arrival. He prayed he was wrong, but what if he wasn’t?

“Okay,” Heather said at last. “You want the truth, here it is.”

Suddenly Todd didn’t want to hear the truth, after all. He wanted to finish his day in blissful ignorance. It was too late, though. Heather clearly had no intention of remaining silent now that he’d badgered her for the truth.

Her expression softened ever so slightly and her voice dropped to little more than a whisper, as if by speaking softly she could make the words more palatable. “I figured it was time you met your daughter.”

“Energetic pacing, snappy dialogue and an appealing romantic hero.”

— Publishers Weekly on After Tex

Angel Mine
Sherryl Woods

www.mirabooks.co.uk

For Kristi and Ron on their first anniversary—

May your love and your family continue to grow.

For Kerri and Tom as they marry—

May you share a lifetime of blessings and joy.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

1

Despite her name, there was nothing the least bit angelic about Heather Reed’s toddler, not when she was tired, anyway. And on this unseasonably warm early May afternoon she was exhausted and hot and hungry. Heather should have known that disaster loomed before she even considered taking Angel with her to the store. Not that she had any choice in the matter. She just should have anticipated something like this. It was the way her day had gone.

Screaming as if she was being tortured, Angel threw herself onto the floor in the cereal aisle. Why? Because she was in pain? No. Because she was close to starvation? No. Simply to express her displeasure over her mother’s refusal to buy her some sickly sweet product that was not only overpriced but would probably induce cavities after the first bite.

Heather debated what to do. She could snatch her up and run out of the crowded grocery store on New York’s Upper West Side before anyone recognized her as an actress who’d spent a year as a hated villain on a popular soap opera. Or she could 8 Sherryl Woods wait out her daughter’s full-blown tantrum and endure the stares.

Embarrassment won. She’d taken enough abuse from enraged fans over that soap role. If anyone recognized her, they’d likely assume she was being deliberately cruel to her daughter. Who knew where that could lead? Some soap fans had a hard time distinguishing between reality and fiction. By the time the truth could be sorted out, Heather’s reputation would be in tatters.

Abandoning her half-filled shopping cart, she grabbed Angel and raced past startled shoppers and checkout clerks, not pausing until she was almost home. Setting her suddenly silent daughter on her feet on the sidewalk a block from their apartment building, she gazed down into tear-filled eyes and tried to feel some remorse over having been the cause of such apparent misery.

She couldn’t.

Angel was the joy of her life…most of the time. But there were days—and today was definitely one of them—when Heather would have given anything for another adult to share the responsibility of raising her little girl, she thought as they walked the rest of the way home at a slower pace.

They had been in the stupid store in the first place because Heather had forgotten to pick up cereal the day before, and Angel had started the day with a breakfast of scrambled eggs, most of which had ended up smeared on her clothes and in her hair. That had necessitated another bath and a change of clothes before Angel went off to day-care and Heather headed for her waitressing job in a neighborhood deli, where the customers were only slightly less demanding and messy than her daughter. Her boss had docked her an hour’s pay because she was five minutes late and warned her that the next time would be her last. Since her finances were already stretched to the limit, the threat carried a lot of weight.

To make matters worse, she’d gotten off early to go to a callback for a bit part in a new Broadway production, only to discover that the producer’s girlfriend had been given the role overnight. Her acting career was in the middle of a frustrating lull of monumental proportions. Her self-esteem was slip-sliding away at an astonishing rate.

Angel’s tantrum—nothing unusual in and of itself—had merely capped off a truly lousy day, but it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Plain and simple, Heather didn’t see how she could do this single-mother routine much longer, not without losing her shaky grip on sanity.

She’d thought the worst of it had been the sleepless nights, when feedings had seemed to come every few minutes and colic kept Angel awake and cranky. Then the torments of potty training had replaced that. That accomplished, she’d been absolutely certain the rest would be smooth sailing.

Instead, she was discovering that the problems never went away. They merely changed. Her admiration for single moms had increased by leaps and bounds in the past couple of years. In the past ten minutes she’d concluded she was simply one of those who couldn’t hack it. At this rate she’d have high blood pressure and nervous tics by the time she turned thirty.

“That cuts it,” Heather announced to no one in particular as she stood on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. “I cannot do this alone for one more day.”

Once the admission had been uttered, an astonishing sense of relief spread through her. Independence was one thing. Foolhardy stubbornness was something else entirely.

She gazed at Angel, who stared back solemnly.

“We’re going to find your daddy,” she informed Angel as she brushed a stray wisp of silky hair from her child’s forehead. “Let him figure out how to cope with you. Coping is what he does best,” she said, fondly recalling all that cool competence. She figured he might be taken aback by the discovery that he was a daddy, but he would rally. He always did.

Angel’s expression promptly brightened. “Daddy?”

It was a word that already fascinated her, even though she couldn’t possibly understand its meaning. Angel automatically gravitated toward any male in a room, as if she sensed that he—or someone like him—was what was missing from her life.

“Yes, Daddy,” Heather said firmly.

She knew for a fact that Todd was in Wyoming, working for media mogul Megan O’Rourke, who was giving Martha Stewart a run for her money in the world of TV, books and magazines. His promotion to executive producer of Megan’s television show had been announced in all the trade papers a few months earlier. Heather hadn’t been particularly surprised by the news. Todd always succeeded at whatever he set his mind to.

Of course, there had been a time when, like her, he’d wanted to be an actor. He’d claimed to want it with the same passion she did. He’d been good, too. Better than she’d been, she was forced to admit.

As much as Heather had believed in her own abilities, as much as she’d wanted desperately to be a star, she’d known she was likely to be relegated to bit parts in off-off-Broadway productions. Her skills ran to light comedic parts, not leading-lady roles. And while she could sing on key, she didn’t have the showstopping voice for starring in musicals. She’d been willing to make do with that, because she couldn’t imagine any other career, any other place to live. She loved the energy of New York, no matter how small a role she might have to take to stay there.

Todd, however, had been destined for stardom. He’d just gotten sidetracked along the way by the lures of a weekly paycheck.

That had been one of the biggest hurdles they’d faced in their relationship. Four years ago she had been a free-spirited dreamer, willing to live on peanut butter and macaroni-and-cheese for her art. Todd had been steady and reliable and practical. He actually worried about having enough money for rent, decent food and vitamins. Over her objections, he’d let a temporary job with Megan O’Rourke turn into a full-time career. Heather had been disillusioned and saddened by his choice, by the sacrifice of their shared dream. Unable to accept his argument that he had done it for their future, she had split up with him soon afterward. On some level she had hoped that without his sense of obligation to her and their relationship, he might rediscover his old dream. He hadn’t.

The breakup had come before she’d discovered she was pregnant. It was just as well, too. Todd would have wanted to do the right thing, even if it derailed both of their lives.

At the time she had been absolutely certain that she and her baby would both be better off on their own. She’d been taking care of herself—surviving—for a very long time. Struggling to be a working actress was second nature to her. Struggling to be a working actress with a baby would simply complicate things a little. It wouldn’t actually worsen the struggle.

Or so she’d thought at the time.

Then, despite her optimism, practicality had set in. She’d had more trouble—more than she wanted to admit—putting food on the table. She might be able to survive on one meal a day at whatever restaurant she was working in part-time, but the baby couldn’t. She’d taken jobs she’d hated—acting and otherwise—to make ends meet. Day-care costs were prohibitive and ate away at her paltry earnings. At night reliable baby-sitters were all but impossible to find at a price she could afford. Angel had spent more than her share of time in dingy backstage dressing rooms being tended by willing stagehands, who’d passed her around like a football as they went about their duties.

As a result, Angel was amazingly adaptable, but the constant demands were beginning to take a toll on Heather. She didn’t need a man in her life, especially not a man as rigidly organized as Todd, but Angel could certainly use a father’s influence. And much as she hated to admit it, they both could use additional financial support. She didn’t want her baby suffering because she was trying unsuccessfully to live out a dream.

After a day like today, the prospect of sharing responsibility with Angel’s daddy, something she’d vowed never to do, held an overwhelming appeal. She would have given almost anything just to have a single uninterrupted hour to soak in a bubble bath.

Not for the first time, she wondered what Todd would think of his daughter. They’d never talked about kids, so she had no idea where he stood on the subject. But how could he resist his own child? Angel had her daddy’s stubborn chin, his brown hair and soft-green eyes the color of sage. Three now, she was healthy and strong, and her crooked little smile could brighten the darkest day.

But, oh, was she willful! She was definitely developing her own personality. Heather gazed at that precious, tear-streaked face and fought a smile. Angel had gotten that stubborn streak from her mama, no doubt about it. If Angel’s temperament stayed true to form, Heather would never have to worry about her daughter turning into anybody’s doormat. Just like her mother, Angel never hesitated to express her opinion about anything and everything. What she lacked in vocabulary, she more than made up for in volume.

Envisioning how Angel would undoubtedly disrupt her daddy’s tidy, organized life gave Heather the most enjoyment she’d had in weeks. Todd might not be thrilled to see her again, but as rock-solid and dependable as he was, he wouldn’t be able to turn his own daughter away. Heather was absolutely, one-hundred-percent confident of that.

Her decision made, Heather didn’t stop to consider her plan beyond that. She figured if she gave up her apartment, which was no big loss, she’d have just enough money in the bank for a couple of plane tickets to Wyoming and a motel room. Maybe she’d even find a job and hang around for the summer, avoid the New York heat and humidity. After that, well, she’d play it by ear, the way she usually did.

But deep inside, something told her it was going to be the smartest investment of time and money she’d ever made.

The corner office at the new national headquarters of Megan’s World Productions in Wyoming looked as if it had been plucked right out of midtown Manhattan. Todd Winston had worked incredibly hard to see that it did. He wanted every aspect of the decor to remind him of the city he loved, the city he’d reluctantly left behind when Megan O’Rourke had moved her media empire west and made him an offer too good to pass up.

It wasn’t the money she’d offered him that had overcome his resistance. Oh, no. It was the way she’d turned those big blue eyes of hers on him and pleaded. She’d said she needed him, that she couldn’t live without him, that he was the best, the only person she could trust. He was such a sucker. A vulnerable woman got to him every time, but Megan was about as vulnerable as General Patton. He’d remembered that belatedly.

Of course, there was no question that he was the best and that she did need him. So he’d stayed and done his level best to pretend he was still back East.

Modern art graced his office walls, along with framed posters of New York. In moments of real nostalgia, he could almost convince himself that those were the views outside the office. He’d actually framed one skyline scene behind an old window he’d found at a flea market. As illusions went, it wasn’t half-bad.

Only rarely did he look outside and risk the sight of a stray cow peering back at him. That and the wide-open spaces reminded him all too vividly that he was a very long way from home and way, way out of his element. The sound of rain splattering on the refurbished warehouse’s tin roof could shatter the illusion in a heartbeat. Fortunately it had been a dry few months.

In general, though, he thought he’d adapted pretty well. He owned a Stetson, cowboy boots and a pair of jeans. Much as he hated to admit it, he’d discovered the outfit was actually comfortable.

Recently he’d nearly decided to stop bugging Megan for hazardous-duty pay, but then he’d recalled the driving he had to do to get anywhere in this godforsaken, spread-out land. The thought of getting behind the wheel of a car had almost been enough to make him quit and head back to a city where it was possible to get everywhere on public transportation.

Over the years, though, he had prided himself on never giving in to panic, on doing what had to be done in any and all circumstances. He’d told himself that this was just another role he had to learn to play. Only by distancing himself in that way had he been able to get his license.

Then he’d reluctantly gone car shopping. Megan had recommended an outrageously expensive but sturdy sports utility vehicle. He’d found himself gravitating toward something slightly less ostentatious, something a true westerner would drive.

He’d walked out of the showroom with a great big, fancy pickup truck. That sucker could haul a lot of hay, maybe even a dead moose. Not that he had any intention of loading it up with either. As he’d driven off the lot, he’d been convinced he was doing a darn fine job of turning himself into the image of a rancher. Who would ever have thought it possible? Certainly not him, not in his wildest dreams. And while he would never in a million years admit it to his boss, he loved that truck. He just hated getting behind the wheel.

He glanced up at the television monitor in his office in time to see Megan and Peggy pull a perfect chocolate raspberry soufflé from the oven. His mouth watered. The town of Whispering Wind might not have the caliber of restaurants he’d frequented in Manhattan, but the recipes Megan and Peggy whipped up on their cable show almost made up for it. Unfortunately the show was taped and that soufflé was a distant memory. This week’s tapings were heavy with summer salads, which were healthy enough but hardly appealed to his taste for the exotic.

“Can you believe how incredibly well that soufflé turned out?” Megan asked, walking into his office just in time to see the close-up of the finished product. “It never ceases to amaze me that I can actually cook when I put my mind to it.”

“You don’t cook. You let Peggy do all the tricky stuff,” Todd reminded her with a grin. “Boiling water tests your skills. That’s why you refuse to let the housekeeper out at the ranch retire. Whispering Wind doesn’t exactly cater to your best culinary achievement—ordering in.”

His boss frowned at him. “Have you forgotten who’s in charge around here?” she asked with feigned indignation. “Besides, I was cooking all alone on the show for quite a while before we asked Peggy to take over those segments.”

“All alone?” he repeated skeptically. “I seem to remember finished products being prepared by expert chefs so you wouldn’t look like an idiot at the end of the show.”

“Okay, okay, so cooking isn’t my strong suit, which brings me to the reason for dropping in. What would you think of spinning Peggy’s segment off into a full half-hour show? The response has been terrific. The audience is growing. Requests for recipes are up and that catalog we put together to sell gourmet ingredients is doing terrific business. Maybe we ought to capitalize on all that.”

“How’s Johnny going to feel about that? They’re just beginning to get their marriage back on track. A show of her own will eat up a lot of Peggy’s time.”

Megan frowned at the mention of her best friend’s rocky marriage. “It’ll be up to Peggy, of course, but I think she needs to maintain as much financial independence as she can. It was only when Johnny began to see that she could walk away from him that he finally started to shape up. If you ask me, the relationship is still on shaky ground.”

“Okay, so the ball is in Peggy’s court on that one. How about you? Don’t you have enough on your plate without starting up another television show?” Todd asked, even as the idea began to take hold in his imagination.

Megan’s friend had turned out to be a natural in front of the camera. The viewers loved her. Advertisers clamored for the available commercial spots during her segments. Selling her show to the syndicator would be a breeze. And, to be perfectly frank, she was a whole lot less demanding than the woman seated in front of him. Peggy was a nurturer. Megan was a type-A control freak.

“It wouldn’t be on my plate,” Megan said. “It would be on yours. You’re the executive producer around here.”

“That’s my name on the credits,” he agreed. “But you’re in charge. You still oversee every detail on the show and for the magazine. You vowed to let up once you married Jake, but I haven’t seen any evidence of it.”

“I’m letting up now,” she said, an uncharacteristic blush on her cheeks.

“And I’m a full-fledged cowboy,” Todd retorted, not believing her for a minute. Megan was far too obsessive-compulsive to give up any control of her empire.

“No, I am letting up,” she insisted, then took a deep breath and blurted, “I’m pregnant.”

Todd stared, then jumped up and let out a whoop as he scooped her out of the chair and spun her around. He was genuinely delighted for her. The ultimate career woman, Megan had taken a long time to realize that she was mother material. Thrust into the role when she’d assumed guardianship of her grandfather’s illegitimate eight-year-old daughter less than a year ago, she’d panicked, then thrived, ultimately proving that she could handle career and motherhood without missing a beat. Over time she and Tess had built a better relationship than most kids had with their natural parents. She’d even found room in her heart and in their lives for Tess’s biological mother, Flo.

“Congratulations! It’s about time,” he enthused.

“We haven’t been married that long,” Megan reminded him. “Just a few months.”

“From what I’ve heard it only takes one night, especially if you’re not planning on it. What does Jake think? Never mind. He’s probably over the moon. How about Tess?” he asked.

“Still full of surprises. Jake and I worried how she would react, since she’s just beginning to believe that I intend to be a real mother to her. Apparently, though, she thinks this is something we’ve done especially for her. She’s looking forward to having a little brother or sister she can boss around. Says it’ll be even better than all those kittens she’s managed to sneak into the house.” She surveyed him intently. “How about you? Think you’re ready to be a godfather?”

Taken by surprise, his palms began to sweat. “Me? You can’t be serious. I can’t even remember the last time I set foot in a church. What kind of role model would I be?” he asked, dismissing the idea out of hand.

“Who else would we want? Jake agrees. You’ve been with us through thick and thin. We want to share this with you. And you can always start joining us in church on Sundays. You’ll feel perfectly at home by the time the baby gets here.”

Todd regarded her uneasily. As thrilled as he was for her and Jake, this was definitely a twist he hadn’t anticipated. It made his stomach constrict just thinking about it. How could he tactfully decline something most people would consider an honor?

“I’m flattered, really I am, but maybe you’d better think that over,” he said carefully. “I haven’t spent that much time around kids. I’d probably mess it up.”

“You’re wonderful with Tess.”

“She’s a real person. This would be a baby.”

“Not forever,” Megan pointed out. “We’re counting on him or her growing up eventually.”

On the verge of a full-fledged anxiety attack, Todd murmured, “Call me when that happens.”

Obviously the depth of his uneasiness finally sank in. Megan studied him with that probing, take-no-prisoners look she usually reserved for tough on-air interviews. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Like I said, I’m flattered, but I really don’t think I’m the best candidate.”

But Megan was not willing to let the subject drop. “I’ve known you for a long time. It’s not like you to turn down a new project just because it’s unfamiliar turf. You were on my case from the beginning when it came to Tess. You didn’t let me back away from that challenge, just because I was scared out of my wits. So why should I let you?”

“This isn’t a new project or a half-grown kid,” he said tightly. “It’s a baby, a helpless little baby. I’m telling you I can’t do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Megan, how many ways do I have to say it? No. Not in this lifetime. Never. Forget it.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, backing down. “There’s a long time to go. Maybe the idea will grow on you. Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

“I won’t,” Todd insisted, his gaze steady. Megan would simply have to understand that this time he couldn’t be badgered or cajoled into giving in. There was only one thing he couldn’t or wouldn’t do for her and this was it.

“Find someone else, Megan.”

“But—”

“I mean it. I love you. I respect you. I would do almost anything in the world for you or Jake. But I will not be godfather to your baby.”

Her gaze narrowed, then turned speculative. “Why do I sense that there’s more going on here than you’ve said?”

“Because you can’t take no for an answer?” he suggested. “It’s some genetic flaw, I think.”

“I’m not giving up on you,” she retorted, undaunted by his attitude. “It only took a few weeks to turn you into a cowboy against your will. The baby’s not due for eight more months.”

Todd sighed at the determined gleam in her eye. Megan on a mission was a force to be reckoned with. But just this once, he figured he was even more highly motivated than she was. If nothing else worked, he would resort to the truth. Then she wouldn’t allow him within an arm’s length of her baby.

2

Todd was living here? Heather gazed up and down the main street of Whispering Wind and wondered if she’d somehow landed on the set for Annie Get Your Gun. The downtown was no more than a few blocks long and dominated by a handful of old-fashioned storefronts, ranging from a diner and a general store to a hardware store and a feed-and-grain supplier. Feed and grain? Something told her that wasn’t a gourmet grocery, catering to vegetarians.

The place did have a certain rustic charm, she supposed, but Todd, here? Todd Winston, the ultimate yuppie even when he hadn’t had a dime, in a town that didn’t have a Starbucks or department store in sight, much less a skyscraper? Where was he buying his designer shirts? Where was he going for sushi? Where were the theaters? Megan O’Rourke must have the persuasive skills of a hostage negotiator.

“Mama?” Angel tugged on her hand and gave her an imploring look. “Want ice cream. Now.”

Now was Angel’s second favorite word after no. It usually meant trouble was just around the corner unless Heather complied with her wishes. Since it was a tantrum that had brought them here, Heather was willing to do almost anything to avoid one now.

“In a minute, sweet pea,” she said, trying to buy a few minutes to look around, to absorb not only the simplicity of the town, but the fact that the temperature seemed close to freezing even though it was already mid-May. She shivered and tugged her sweater more tightly around her, then checked the zipper on Angel’s coat which she had a way of tugging down.

“Now!” Angel repeated. “Want ice cream now!”

Heather sighed. She had barely had time to breathe since dropping their belongings off at a motel on the outskirts of town. Angel had been too excited to take her usual afternoon nap. This walk was supposed to settle her down, so Heather could have some quiet time to make plans, including coming up with a less expensive alternative to the car she’d been forced to rent at the airport.

On the flight to Laramie, she’d given more thought to exactly how she needed to handle things with Todd. She couldn’t expect to drop Angel on his doorstep and simply walk away. Father and daughter were going to need time to get to know each other, time for Todd to accept the situation. Spending the summer sounded about right.

Surely after three months she and Todd could come to some sort of an agreement. Shared custody, maybe. Child-support payments. She wasn’t sure exactly what was fair, which meant she probably ought to see a lawyer before making contact with Angel’s daddy. She’d noticed a sign for an attorney—Jake Landers—right across the street. She doubted there was more than one in a town the size of Whispering Wind.

“Mama!” Angel’s face was scrunched up, indicating that tears were on the immediate horizon.

“Okay, baby, let’s get ice cream.”

As they walked down the block to the ice-cream parlor Angel had spotted thanks to the colorful giant cone out front, Heather noticed the Help Wanted sign in the window of the diner. Now that she’d had a look around the town, something told her that waitressing was about the best she could hope to do here. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to it.

“Baby, let’s stop in here for a minute,” she said, turning Angel toward the diner.

Angel let out a wail that could have put a car alarm to shame.

“I’m sure they have ice cream in here, too,” Heather consoled, for once undaunted by the building sobs. She hunkered down and touched a silencing finger to Angel’s lips. “But if you don’t stop that crying right this instant, you won’t get any. Okay?”

The tears magically stopped. “Okay,” Angel said agreeably, as if that had been her plan all along.

The Starlight Diner was spotless, but there was no mistaking the wear and tear on the red vinyl seats, the initials that had been scratched on the Formica tabletops, the jukeboxes in every booth that boasted hits from the sixties. It was the kind of place where generations of teens had probably courted, where old men came daily for a cup of coffee and local news. It had tradition written all over it. Some of the places she’d worked in in New York might have been fancier, but they had opened and closed faster than a bad Broadway play.

At nearly two o’clock in the afternoon, there was only a lone customer left at the counter, a man wearing a rumpled pin-striped suit and black leather cowboy boots. His gaze followed the waitress as she briskly wiped tables, but the woman seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.

Heather slid Angel into a booth, then sat across from her. The waitress, a tall, thin woman with short-cropped gray hair and a ready smile, came up with an order pad in hand. She grinned at Angel.

“Hey, there, aren’t you a cutie. I haven’t seen you in here before. I’m Henrietta Hastings, by the way,” she said to Heather. “What can I get for you?”

“Ice cream for her. Chocolate, if you can bear the thought of half of it winding up on the table or floor.”

“Honey, you’d be amazed at how much winds up on the table or floor, put there by folks a whole lot older than this little one. Don’t worry about it. Messes are just part of the business. Now, how about you? Ice cream, too? Although, if that’s what you’re after, I’d recommend you head on down the street. They have a fancier supply than I carry in here.”

“I’ll have coffee for now and maybe some information?”

Henrietta tucked her pencil behind her ear. “Sure. What can I tell you?”

“Do you know if the job’s still available, and if it is, when I might be able to talk to the owner?”

The woman looked as if Heather had just offered her a million bucks. “The job’s open and you’re talking to the boss. Let me get that ice cream and coffee and we’ll talk. It’ll give me a chance to get off my feet. The lunch hour was a real bitch today.” She scowled in the direction of the remaining customer as if he were one of the primary offenders. “Half the people couldn’t make up their minds, and the half that could didn’t like what they’d ordered when it turned up. We’ve got a new cook who keeps trying to gussy up the old standards. I almost had a rebellion when he tried to put avocado on the burgers. I should have known better than to hire someone whose last job was in southern California.”

She went back behind the counter to pour the coffee and dish up the ice cream, still pointedly ignoring the man seated on a stool near the register.

“More coffee, Henrietta,” he said.

“You don’t need it,” she retorted. “Besides, you’ve got court in ten minutes.”

“They can’t start without me, can they?” he shot back.

“Might be better if they did,” Henrietta replied.

The man sighed heavily. “Okay, how much do I owe you?”

“Same as yesterday and the day before that. You’re in a rut, old man. Just leave the money on the counter and don’t bother with a tip. I don’t want your handouts.”

She marched past him with Heather’s order. The man watched her starchy movements with a resigned expression, put a couple of bills beside his plate and left.

“Are you that way with all your customers, or is he special?” Heather inquired curiously.

“Foolish old man,” Henrietta muttered, her gaze following him nonetheless. “He’s a judge. Harry Corrigan. Thinks he’s God. I’m here to tell him otherwise.”

Heather hid a smile. “Interesting.”

Henrietta turned her attention from the departing judge to Heather. “I haven’t got time to waste talking about the likes of him. Tell me about you.”

Heather gave her the short version, leaving out any specific mention of Todd. An hour later she had the job, a place to stay—in the rooms upstairs—and a new friend.

“This is just temporary,” Heather reminded her.

“Girl, you’ve told me that half a dozen times. You’ll go when the time is right and I’ll be no worse off than I am today. Who knows, maybe you’ll decide to stay. You could do worse than Whispering Wind. It’s a nice little town for raising kids. And I imagine Buck over at the service station can find you a deal on a used car.”

Heather knew with absolute certainty that staying wasn’t an option, but she’d been as honest about that as she could be. “Thank you. You’ve been very kind.”

“Kindness has nothing to do with it. You’re bailing me out of a jam. I’m tired of working dawn to dusk, seven days a week. Having you around to share the load will be like going on vacation.”

“Maybe so, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I never expected to be lucky enough to find work on my first day in town.”

“You want to run across the street and see Jake now, you go right on and do it,” Henrietta told her. To her credit she hadn’t asked Heather why she needed a lawyer when she’d barely set foot in town. “Business won’t pick up for a while yet. I can keep an eye on Angel for you.”

Heather hesitated. She hated taking advantage of a woman who’d already been so generous. “Angel can be a handful,” she warned.

“Believe me, you don’t know the meaning of the word until you meet the two hellions I’ve got living with me.”

“You have kids?” Heather asked, surprised. She would have thought Henrietta was old enough for grandchildren, not little ones of her own.

“Oh, they’re not mine, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s a long story and best saved for another day. They’ll be along any minute once they’ve finished with their tutor. Both of them are smart as whips, but they missed a lot of classes a while back. They’re getting caught up after regular school lets out. They can keep Angel company till you get back.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Go. You might as well get whatever’s on your mind taken care of. Much as he tries to demonstrate otherwise, Jake’s a good lawyer and a decent man. He’ll do right by you.”

“I won’t be long,” Heather promised. There was no need to reassure Angel about her absence. She’d already crawled into Henrietta’s lap, where she was being rocked to sleep.

Maybe for once in her life, Heather concluded, she had done exactly the right thing. Not only was Angel going to gain a daddy, but it looked as if she was going to pick up an extended family, as well, something there had been little time for Heather to cultivate in New York.

And if the byplay she’d observed between Henrietta and the judge was anything to go by, the next two or three months would be downright entertaining.

The secretary in Jake’s office regarded Heather with fascination.

“Honey, do I know you? You look real familiar to me.”

“I doubt it,” Heather said. “This is the first time I’ve ever been here.”

The woman continued to stare, then snapped her fingers. “Wait. I know who you are. Hold it a sec. It’s right here.” She opened a file drawer in the desk and began tossing things out of it until she finally came up with an old issue of Soap Opera Digest, the one with Heather’s picture on the cover. “I knew it. That’s you, isn’t it?”

Heather couldn’t decide whether to be flattered or dismayed. She had played dozens of parts in her career, but it appeared that that particular one was going to follow her forever. Unfortunately there was no denying that she was the woman on the cover. “Afraid so,” she said finally.

“Well, I’ll be. What on earth are you doing in a one-horse town like Whispering Wind? I’m Flo Olsen, by the way. If you’re here to see Jake, he’s out. Of course, he’s usually out. That man works less than any human being I’ve ever known, and now that Megan’s pregnant, he’s impossible. He hovers over her like he thinks she’s going to break. She keeps calling here and begging me to come up with some big emergency that’ll get him into town and out of her hair, but I ask you, what sort of an emergency is a lawyer likely to have around here?”

Her expression brightened. “Of course, telling him that a famous actress is here to see him ought to do the trick. Just a sec. Have a seat. I’ll track him down.”

Heather sat. Since the only apparent reading material was the soap magazine, she had little to do but stare around at the office, which was surprisingly well-furnished for a man who supposedly did very little work. Suddenly what Flo had said clicked.

“Did you say his wife’s name is Megan?” she asked Flo when the secretary had hung up, her expression triumphant.

“Yes. Megan O’Rourke. I’m sure you’ve heard of her. She’s our very own local celebrity. Have to say she and I didn’t hit it off too well at first. She’s my little girl Tess’s legal guardian. Tess’s father was Megan’s granddaddy. He was taking care of Tess for me when he died, and he specified in his will that Megan was to take over.”

A grin flitted across her face as she told the story. “Sounds like something that would happen on a soap, doesn’t it? Leaving Tess with Tex O’Rourke wasn’t one of my best moments, but everything’s working out now. I get to spend a lot of time with Tess, but Megan and Jake are real good to her. I think things happen for a reason, don’t you?”

“I do,” Heather said, since nothing more seemed to be expected. This situation was getting increasingly fascinating. She couldn’t help wondering, though, just how wise it was to spill her secrets to the man married to Todd’s boss. She knew how much Megan relied on Todd. How would she feel about anything or anyone who upset the man’s orderly existence? Just to protect her own interests, would she throw a monkey wrench into Heather’s plan?

Heather was still debating what to do an hour later when Jake Landers finally came through the door, looking harried and nothing at all like a lawyer. Instead, in his worn jeans and chambray shirt, he fit her notion of a rugged cowboy to a T. Rugged and handsome, Jake exuded masculinity.

“What’s the big emergency?” he asked Flo.

Flo jerked her head in Heather’s direction. “You have a client.”

Jake gave Heather a once-over, then focused his attention on Flo once again. “I thought I told you not to schedule any appointments without consulting me, not until this baby thing is wrapped up.”

Heather stifled a grin at his naive belief that there would be a time in the near future when the “baby thing” would be wrapped up. Wasn’t she here precisely because that never happened?

“Your wife is pregnant, not sick,” Flo told him. “I’m sure she can spare you for a few minutes. Besides, this isn’t just any client. This is Heather Reed.”

When Jake failed to look impressed, Flo added pointedly, “Liza Whittington, you know, on ‘Heart’s Desire.’”

Jake looked more perplexed than ever. “Excuse me?”

“On television,” Flo said. “The soap. The one I watch during lunch.”

Understanding dawned, though the man hardly looked as if he’d finally realized he was in the presence of greatness as Flo seemed to be implying. He shot an apologetic look at Heather. “Sorry. I don’t watch a lot of daytime TV.”

“It’s okay. I’m not on anymore, anyway.”

“Jason shot her,” Flo said. “Good riddance, too.” She regarded Heather apologetically. “Sorry, but you have to admit you were a real schemer.”

“The worst,” Heather agreed. It was what had made the part so appealing initially. It had been a chance to play against type. Usually she was somebody’s perky sister. Only later, when she’d realized the ramifications with the fans, had she regretted the decision to take the role.

Jake appeared to have heard enough about the soap opera. After one last scowl at Flo, he motioned for Heather to follow him.

In his office, he gestured toward a credenza along the wall. “Coffee?”

She shook her head. He poured some for himself, then took a seat behind an impressive desk. That desk, combined with the bronze sculpture she recognized as a Remington, reassured her that despite his reportedly lackadaisical ways, Jake Landers was very successful at what he did. But could she trust him?

Right now he was studying her with what she supposed passed for an appropriately somber, lawyerly look, though on the soaps the men cast as attorneys rarely had such a twinkle in their eye.

“What can I do for you?” he asked. “I don’t do a lot of entertainment law.”

“I seem to remember that you played a big role in getting that syndicator to back down when he threatened to pull the plug on your wife’s syndication deal,” she said, recalling what she’d read in the trade papers at the time. She’d followed the story avidly, just as she did anything that might include a mention of Todd. Of course, if anyone had accused her of that, she would have denied it.

Jake grinned. “Let’s just say that in that instance I was highly motivated.”

Heather fiddled with her bangle bracelets, something she did only when she was nervous. Finally she said, “Look, maybe you should tell me about this lawyer-client confidentiality thing before we get started.”

He nodded. “Okay. Anything you tell me, I am ethically bound not to repeat.”

“Not to anyone?”

“Not to a living soul.” He regarded her closely. “You haven’t killed someone, have you?”

Startled by the question, Heather stared at him to see if he was serious, then caught that twinkle back in his eye. Normally, she enjoyed black humor, but at the moment she was way too tense to appreciate it.

“No, of course not,” she said. “Nothing like that. It’s just that you know the other person involved.”

“I do?”

“Todd Winston.”

Jake nodded slowly, apparently digesting that. “Is he in some sort of trouble?”

She grinned at his disbelieving expression. “I know. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Dudley Do Right in trouble.”

“Todd strikes me as a very ethical man.”

“He is,” she agreed, then took a deep breath and added, “He’s also the father of my child.”

Jake very nearly choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. “Would you mind repeating that?”

“Oh, I think you heard me.”

“Does he know about this?”

She shook her head.

“I see.”

“Is this going to be a problem for you?” she asked, regarding him with concern. “I know how tight he is with your wife. That’s why he and I broke up, in a way.”

Jake held up his hands. “Whoa! Back up. What does Megan have to do with this?”

“Nothing, not directly, anyway. It’s just that when Todd went to work for her and gave up the dream we shared to be on Broadway together, it pretty much ended our relationship. We split up.”

“And you had his baby?”

She nodded. “After he’d left.”

“And he doesn’t know?” Jake asked again, as if he might have misunderstood her the first time.

“Nope.”

“How old is this child?”

“She’s three.”

Jake whistled. “Does he know you’re here now?”

“Not yet. I just got in. I took a room at a motel, but Henrietta gave me a job at her place across the street. She said I could use the apartment upstairs for as long as I’m here.”

“You don’t plan to stay?”

“Only long enough to settle things with Todd.”

“Settle things how?”

Her bangles clinked noisily. “I’m not exactly sure. That’s why I came to see you. I can’t manage on my own anymore. Angel’s the greatest blessing in my life, but she’s a handful. And trying to be an actress doesn’t exactly bring stability. She deserves to have more than I can give her. It took me a long time to admit that. It’s not too late, is it?”

“No. I’m sure we can get you child support. Fortunately, I have an in with his boss.” Jake allowed himself a smile. “I’ve seen the books. I know what she had to pay him to get him to move out here. You won’t have any financial worries.”

“That’s not it,” Heather said, leaning forward in her chair. “Not exactly. I know with money I could hire a nanny or something, but I want Todd to help out. Maybe shared custody. Angel needs to spend time with her daddy.”

“Oh, boy,” Jake murmured, but not so low that Heather missed it.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You sounded like you don’t think he’s going to go for that.”

“Really, I shouldn’t have said anything. This is a different situation entirely.”

“Different from what?”

“Never mind. Heather, let me think about this. Can you stop by tomorrow? We’ll go over your options and decide on the best course of action.”

“Sure. What time?”

“Make it eleven. Megan’s taping then, so I can get away from the studio for an hour and still be back to see that she eats a proper lunch.”

Heather bit back a smile as she recalled what Flo had said about his hovering. “I’ll be here. I won’t have long, though, since I imagine Henrietta will want me to help with the lunch crowd.”

“Folks around here show up promptly at noon, leave by one. You’ll be okay.”

“What about the judge? I notice he was there much later than that.”

Jake chuckled. “The judge tries to snatch whatever private moments he can with Henrietta. His schedule drives everyone at the courthouse nuts. She doesn’t seem to appreciate the gesture, though.”

“I noticed.”

“Did she run him off again today?”

“Pretty much.”

“Henrietta has a stubborn streak, but so does the judge. He’s been after her for years now. My bet’s on him.”

“Even though she’s held out for years?” Heather said skeptically.

“Believe me, if Henrietta really wanted him gone, he’d be gone. She’s just tormenting him.”

“An interesting technique.”

“It’s certainly fun for the rest of us,” Jake said. “Now, as for Todd, if you run into him in the meantime, try not to get into anything with him just yet. We need a plan first.”

“No problem. You’ll probably see him before I will,” she said.

He glanced toward the window, which faced the town’s main street. “Oh, I doubt that,” he said dryly. “Where’s your daughter right now?”

“With Henrietta.”

“Well, don’t look now, but Todd is about to join them.”

3

Todd always made it a point to stop by the Starlight Diner at the end of the day for a homemade meal and a chat with Henrietta. He’d developed a real fondness for her biting wit and her apple pie.

In New York he’d still be in the office at this hour, but out here he was on an earlier schedule. Because of the time difference, the New York offices of Megan’s empire were closed. Jake had her out of the studio here and home by midafternoon. Todd wrapped up his West Coast contacts shortly thereafter, then ate between five and six. There had been a time not so long ago when he would have considered that a late lunch.

Afterward, thanks to his disgustingly barren social life, he burned the midnight oil at home on the mountains of paperwork that never seemed to get done in the office. If it wasn’t for the frequent trips he made back East, the situation would have been intolerable. But Megan regularly trumped up excuses for him to fly to New York, so he could get his fix of decent restaurants, Broadway plays and dates with some of the women he’d left behind. Not that any of them had a hold on his heart. They were little more than stand-ins for the one woman he’d dared to love.

Still, in some ways, his time in New York was better than it had been before he’d left. He made it a point to see people, rather than holing up in his office night after night. Apparently he was simply the kind of man who found a rut to fall into no matter where he lived.

Ordinarily the sameness soothed him, but tonight he felt restless, the way he often did when the air crackled with electricity just before a thunderstorm. The sensation was so intense, he looked at the horizon, but there was no evidence of a storm building. That must mean the restlessness was purely internal.

He hesitated outside the diner and considered changing his routine by going for pizza down the block, then shook his head. Who was he kidding? He enjoyed having Henrietta fuss over him, and the new cook occasionally tried out recipes for something besides chicken fried steak or meat loaf. Of course, the cook did it at his peril, since most of the customers hated the experiments and Henrietta only tolerated them because he was the best cook she’d had in years.

When Todd finally walked in, he was startled to find Henrietta with a bright-eyed toddler trailing in her wake and chattering a mile a minute.

“I know you’re desperate, but isn’t she a little young to be your new waitress?” he asked, after giving Henrietta a dutiful peck on the cheek.

The girl was dressed in denim overalls and a bright green T-shirt. Her little feet were clad in colorful sneakers adorned with daisies. The cheerful appearance was at odds with her solemn expression as she stared at him silently. She gave the disconcerting impression that she was assessing him. Apparently he passed muster, because before he could guess what she had in mind, she’d lifted her arms.

“Up,” she demanded imperiously.

“You’d better do as she says,” Henrietta advised, laughing. “She’s only been here a couple of hours, but she already tends to think she’s in charge. My kids actually volunteered to go off and do their homework, because they couldn’t keep up with her. Her name’s Angel.”

Todd backed up a step. Why was it everyone was trying to foist kids on him lately? Granted, this one wasn’t an infant, but he wanted no part of her. Just thinking about doing as she asked caused a cold sweat to break out on his forehead. She was still too little, too fragile to be trusted to someone like him. He never saw any child under four without thinking there was tragedy and heartache just waiting to happen.

“Sorry, I think maybe I’m coming down with the flu or something. I probably shouldn’t get too close. In fact, I think I’ll go on home. I’m not feeling much like food tonight.”

Surely he could find something edible in his refrigerator. Hadn’t he bought a half-dozen frozen meals the last time he’d gone to the store, just for emergencies like this? Of course, he usually relied on those when the special here was liver and onions, but tonight’s turn of events was equally distasteful.

Henrietta regarded him with her typical motherly concern. If she was skeptical about his sudden illness, she didn’t let on.

“Any fever?” she asked, touching his forehead with cool fingers before he could retreat. “Nope. I doubt you’re contagious. Sit down and I’ll get you some chicken soup. If there’s anything wrong with you, that’ll cure it.”

“No, really. I’d better go.”

“Sit,” she insisted.

Filled with trepidation, Todd sat, keeping his wary gaze on the little girl who continued to stare at him with evident fascination even after Henrietta had disappeared into the kitchen. She inched closer.

“You sick?” she asked, head tilted, her expression sympathetic.

He nodded.

“Want Mama to give you a hug?”

“No, thanks,” he said, though he had to wonder about “Mama.” Who was she? Where was she? Surely Henrietta hadn’t taken in another stray. Folks in town were still talking about the way she’d adopted a pair of children whose parents had been killed. Henrietta hadn’t hesitated, partly because she felt some misplaced sense of responsibility for the tragedy, partly because those kids deserved a better fate than living with their embittered paternal grandmother, but mostly because that was just the way she was: kindhearted and generous. All things considered, the children were doing well under her care.

Todd glanced at this child. The intensity of her gaze was disconcerting. Something about her eyes, probably. An unusual shade of green, they looked oddly familiar.

He was still trying to puzzle out the reason for that when the door opened and a woman breezed in, her gaze swinging at once on the little girl. She seemed to freeze in place when she realized that the child was with him.

In that single instant, a lot of things registered at once. The woman had a mane of artfully streaked hair that had been tousled by the wind. He’d known someone once with thick, lustrous hair that exact color. She, too, had dressed unconventionally in long, flowing skirts, tunic-length tops and clinking bracelets. His gaze shot to this woman’s face. Even with the oversize sunglasses in place, there was no mistaking her identity. He went into a form of shock, followed by an inexplicable lurch of his heart.

He’d been over Heather Reed for some time now, or so he’d thought until just this second. He’d dismissed the fact that she popped into his head with disturbing frequency. After all, she had started as an enchanting fling, a walk on the wild side when he’d first arrived in New York, fresh out of college and ready to take Broadway by storm. She’d touched the carefree part of his soul that he kept mostly hidden. He’d been drawn to her impulsiveness, her unpredictability, even as they had terrified him. She was so unlike any other woman he’d ever known, it was no wonder he couldn’t quite forget about her. They’d stayed together for six years, long enough for her to become a part of him. Long enough to show just how ill-suited they were.

He was still reeling from the impossibility of her turning up in Whispering Wind when the toddler beside him raced across the restaurant and threw herself straight at the woman.

“Mama!” she shouted gleefully as if they’d been separated for days.

Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. Heather scooped the child into her arms, then turned fully in his direction. She seemed a whole lot less surprised to see him than he was to see her.

“Hello, Todd.”

She spoke in that low, sultry voice that once had sent goose bumps down his spine. The effect hadn’t been dulled by time, he noticed with regret.

He slid from the booth and stood, hating the way his blood had started pumping fast and furiously at the sight of her. “Heather,” he said politely. “This is a surprise. What are you doing here?”

Henrietta picked that moment to return with his soup. “Ah,” she said, beaming at them. “Todd, I see you’ve already met my new waitress. Just hired her today. Believe it or not, she actually has experience.”

His gaze shot to Heather’s face. He kept waiting for her to deny it, to say that she was only passing through, but she stared right back at him with her chin lifted defiantly.

Something was going on here he didn’t understand, something that he had a hunch he’d better figure out in less than a New York minute. He latched on to Heather’s arm.

“Can we talk?” he asked, already tugging her toward the door. “Henrietta, keep an eye on her daughter for a few more minutes, will you?”

“Of course, but…”

Whatever Henrietta had intended to say died on her lips, as Todd unceremoniously escorted Heather from the restaurant.

“You don’t need to manhandle me,” Heather grumbled when they were on the sidewalk, safely out of earshot of Henrietta’s keen hearing and well-honed curiosity.

“Why are you here?” he repeated, not at all pleased by the fact that on some level he was actually glad to see her. That was a knee-jerk, hormonal reaction, nothing more. Nobody on earth had ever kicked his libido into gear faster than Heather had. Apparently she could still do it. Reason, good sense, past history, none of it seemed to matter.

Of course, she was equally adept at annoying him with the unpredictability he had once found so charming, and right now he intended to concentrate on that.

“Well?” he prodded when she didn’t answer right away.

Eyes flashing a challenge, she smiled at him. “You don’t think it’s pure coincidence that I showed up in Whispering Wind, where you happen to live?”

“Not in ten million lifetimes. I saw the look on your face in there. You weren’t the least bit surprised to see me. You knew I was here.”

“You always were brilliant. Good instincts, isn’t that what the directors used to say? A real grasp of motivations.”

He ignored the sarcasm in her voice. He knew how she felt about his decision to abandon his acting career. She’d made that very clear when she’d accused him of selling out, then flounced out of his life as if he’d failed her, instead of simply trying to keep their financial heads above water.

“Get to the point,” he said now.

Though he wanted badly to deny it, he had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he already knew the reason for her arrival. He also thought he knew now why that child’s eyes had looked so disconcertingly familiar. He prayed he was wrong, but what if he wasn’t?

If he was a father and Megan found out about it, Heather and Henrietta wouldn’t be the only ones pestering him to do right by her. Megan would make it another one of her missions. She wouldn’t let up until there had been a full-scale wedding complete with white doves and a seven-tier cake. She’d have him out of his cozy little bachelor apartment here in town and into a house with a white picket fence and a swing set in the backyard before he could blink. She would consider it just retribution for his role in forcing her to face her responsibility with Tess.

For some reason Heather’s gaze strayed across the street to Jake’s office, before turning back and locking defiantly with his.

“Okay,” she said at last. “You want the truth, here it is.”

Suddenly Todd didn’t want to hear the truth, after all. He wanted to finish out this day in blissful ignorance. It was too late, though. Heather clearly had no intention of remaining silent now that he’d badgered her for the truth.

Her expression softened ever so slightly and her voice dropped to little more than a whisper, as if by speaking softly she could make the words more palatable. “I figured it was time you met your daughter.”

Heather wished she’d been able to deliver her news in a less-public setting, wished she’d been able to wait as Jake had instructed her to do, but sometimes fate made its own timing. She’d pictured a dozen different scenarios for making the big announcement, but in none had she imagined blurting it out in the middle of a sidewalk while Todd stared at her as if she’d been speaking gibberish.

In fact, if Todd wasn’t the strongest, most emotionally controlled man in captivity, she had a feeling he would have fainted right there on Main Street. He certainly looked as if he would rather be anyplace else on earth. Fortunately she hadn’t counted on seeing a joyous outburst, so his stunned, silent reaction didn’t cut straight through her the way it might have.

“Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?” she prodded.

“Why should I believe you?”

Those weren’t exactly the words every woman dreamed of hearing after she’d just told a man he was a daddy, but she’d anticipated little else. Todd was the kind of man who expected life to occur in a nice, orderly procession of events. He worked to see that it did just that. She’d skipped straight past any announcement of a pregnancy and delivered a three-year-old into his life. She held on to her temper, because she could understand the shock he must be feeling and knew she was to blame for that much, anyway.

“Because I don’t lie?” she suggested mildly, refusing to be insulted by the question.

If she thought about it, she supposed it was natural enough for him to doubt her. After all, she hadn’t told him the truth four years ago. In fact, she had deliberately avoided his calls—from the moment she’d learned she was pregnant, turning her back on their promise to remain friends after the breakup. She could have handled friendship with an ex-lover, but not under those circumstances. The baby had changed everything. Pride and a fierce streak of independence had made her determined to keep the secret.

She met his gaze evenly. “If you need one, have a paternity test done. Seems to me that a glance in the mirror would be enough proof, but do whatever it takes to make a believer of you,” she told him with a shrug of feigned indifference.

He looked as if the suggestion made him vaguely uncomfortable, probably because he had been thinking about demanding that very thing and knew how small-minded it made him look.

“You want money, I suppose,” he said, his voice flat.

Heather wished she could say no, wished she could throw the question back in his face and walk away, but money was part of what she needed, what Jake had just told her she deserved. Not for herself, but for Angel.

“That’s only part of it,” she said.

“And the rest?”

“I want you,” she said. What had ever made her think she would savor this moment? Instead, she found she was getting precious-little enjoyment out of the stunned disbelief on his face.

“Just like that?” he asked incredulously. “After four years apart, after refusing to return any of my calls, you show up and claim you want me? Sorry, babe, but it just doesn’t ring true. You’ll have to work on your delivery if you expect me to buy that.”

“It’s true,” she insisted.

He returned her steady gaze with blatant skepticism. “What’s the matter, Heather? Can’t you cope with being a single mom, after all? Obviously you thought you could or you would have done the honorable, sensible thing and told me about our daughter a long time ago. Instead, you chose to cut me out of her life. Obviously you thought you’d both be better off without me.”

The fact that he’d hit the nail on the head grated. He shouldn’t be able to read her so well, especially not after all this time. She was supposed to be the unpredictable one, the one who kept everyone guessing.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, not for me,” she snapped. “For Angel. She needs her daddy.”

His gaze narrowed. “What do you mean, she needs her daddy?”

“She’s a little girl. She needs you to be in her life, to know that there’s somebody besides me she can count on. Over the last three years, I’ve realized how important that kind of stability is for a child.”

Todd’s complexion paled. “No,” he said with a ferocity that stunned her. “Never. Get that idea right out of your head, Heather. You want money, okay. If Angel’s mine, we’ll work something out. As for the rest, forget it. It will never, never happen.”

And before she could react, before she could challenge him, he simply turned and walked away. Fled, really, without once looking back.

“Well, that was interesting,” she murmured as he disappeared from view.

It looked as if she’d finally found the one thing that could rattle Todd’s almost scary composure. Obviously this was precisely the reaction that Jake had anticipated. The only question was why the most self-possessed man she’d ever known would be so terrified of one little three-year-old who was his spitting image.

4

Todd headed home in a complete daze. Heather’s words echoed in his head, over and over in a deafening refrain.

I thought it was time you met your daughter.

Your daughter.

Your daughter…

At home, he tried to shut off the sound, but it was in vain. The words could even be heard over the music blasting through his small apartment. Not even work, which he’d become amazingly adept at using to block out emotional turmoil, helped this time the way it had when Heather had walked out on him in New York. The words on the papers he’d brought home blurred. The computer screen seemed far too bright, the blinking cursor an irritant, as if he was trying to view it with a blinding migraine.

She needs her daddy…she needs to know there’s somebody in her life besides me she can count on.

Count on.

Count on…

How could Heather not know that he was the last person in the world that little girl could count on? True, he had never told her about the tragedy in his past, couldn’t talk about it, in fact, but surely she should have seen how uneasy he was around the kids in the casts of the shows they’d done together. She should have known that he and any kid were a bad mix. But she’d either missed the signs or chosen to ignore them. The fact was, she was here and she had expectations.

For the first time in the four years he’d worked for Megan, Todd didn’t show up for work the morning after Heather had stunned him with her news. He couldn’t seem to make it out of bed. Not that he slept. Sleep eluded him like an artful puppy dodging its owner’s reach.

He was tormented by images of the woman he’d never expected to see again. Worse, he was plagued by images of a bright-eyed toddler reaching out her arms, expecting him to pick her up. He’d rejected her, turned away. He’d refused her simple request, his own daughter. Would it have been any different if he’d known? Probably not.

Even so, she’d accepted him as generously and unconditionally as her mother once had. A three-year-old with more kindness in her than he’d demonstrated.

Want Mama to give you a hug?

Her sympathetic words came back to haunt him. If only he’d known at the time who Mama was.

There had been a time not all that long ago when he’d craved hugs from Heather, when he’d responded to her free-spirited warmth and exuberance like a desert blossom suddenly exposed to a gentle shower. Now the arms that had once embraced him in passion seemed a lot more like a trap.

He should have known about the baby four years ago, when there were still options, he thought angrily. What would he have done if Heather had come to him then and told him she was carrying his child? He would have married her without hesitation, would have insisted on it, in fact. That was what a responsible man did under such circumstances, and he had spent most of the past thirteen years trying to prove how responsible he had become.

But he wouldn’t have been one bit happier about the prospect of fatherhood than he was now, he conceded with brutal honesty. Indeed, he would have been terrified. But obligations were more important than terror.

Of course, the marriage would have been a disaster, just as the relationship had been. Maybe Heather had been wise enough to see that. Maybe she’d sensed what he hadn’t been willing to admit, that he was lousy husband material and an even lousier candidate for fatherhood. Maybe it had all turned out for the best.

That was then, though. Now Heather was here, needing something from him that he was no more prepared to give than he would have been if he’d had the usual nine months to prepare for it. What the hell was he going to do? The right thing? He didn’t even know what that was. Based on his history rather than conventional wisdom, the right thing would be to steer clear of that little girl, protect her from the dangers of having him in her life.

Damn, this wasn’t getting him anywhere. Anger wasn’t solving anything. Recriminations were useless. He needed to sit down with a sheet of paper and methodically list all the options, then all the pros and cons for each. That was the way to tackle anything this complex—with cold logic and sound reasoning. He was a master of that. The prospect of breaking this down in such a familiar, practiced way reassured him, calmed him.

He showered, tugged on briefs and jeans, then headed for the kitchen and made a pot of very strong coffee to cut through the fog in his brain. He was seated at the kitchen table with a stack of paper, a neat row of sharp pencils and his coffee when the phone rang.

Grateful for the interruption, he grabbed it. “Yes?”

“Todd, are you okay?” Megan asked with the concern of a friend, rather than the anger of a boss whose employee had bailed out.

“I’m fine.”

“Then why aren’t you at work?”

Good question. An even better question was why he hadn’t bothered to call to let anyone know he wasn’t coming in. He didn’t do things like this. He was always focused, always on task. Responsible. Today that word grated in ways it never had before.

“Something came up,” he said finally.

“You’re working at home?”

“Not exactly.”

“Is everything all right?”

No! he wanted to shout. Nothing is all right. Nothing will be all right until there are hundreds of miles between me and this child who’s apparently mine.

Instead, he said, “I needed a day off. If you have a problem with that, dock my pay.”

Silence greeted his curt words, then Megan said quietly, “I’m coming over.”

“Don’t,” he said, but he was talking to a dead phone line.

Terrific. Now he’d stirred up Megan’s protective instincts. She would be all over him until she found out what had happened to turn the world’s most reliable executive into an irresponsible, grouchy nutcase.

He should have hauled his sorry butt out of bed and gone to work as he had every other day. Even if it hadn’t been the answer last night, maybe work was exactly what he needed today. Maybe if he simply ignored this whole blasted mess, it would go away. Heather would tire of Whispering Wind and go back East. She would take her daughter with her. And he could go right on living his life the way he liked it, alone and unencumbered.

Fat chance, he thought with a resigned sigh. Heather had never backed down from a challenge. Hell, the woman wanted to be a Broadway actress. She was steadfast and blithely determined to fight the odds against success. After all these years, she hadn’t given up, even when he knew for a fact that she hadn’t had anything closely resembling a big break. If she wanted him in her daughter’s life, then she was going to make it happen or die trying. It was not a comforting thought.

Nor was it especially comforting that his front doorbell was ringing, suggesting that Megan had made it into town in record time. Before he could so much as budge, he heard her key turning in the lock. Giving her that key had obviously been a big mistake. It had been meant for emergencies, but it was apparent now that their definitions of that were at odds.

“Todd?” she shouted as if he might be either comatose or farther away than the next county, much less the next room.

“In here,” he replied with a resigned sigh.

She appeared in the kitchen doorway with a frantic expression. She surveyed him from head to toe—probably looking for cuts and bruises from some accident he’d failed to mention—then finally sank onto a chair opposite him.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” she pleaded. “My heart’s still pounding.”

“What did I do?”

“You stayed home. You didn’t call in. And then,” she said as if this last was the worst, “you snapped at me.”

“Sorry.”

“I don’t want your apology. You were past due. What I want to know is what has you in such a tizzy that you are behaving in such a totally uncharacteristic way?”

“Why do I have to be in a tizzy, as you put it? Why can’t I just be having a bad day? People have bad days all the time.”

“Because you don’t have bad days,” she retorted. “You see to it that every day runs smoothly.”

“Maybe I just see that your days run smoothly. Maybe mine are total chaos.”

“No way. You’d never allow it.”

He frowned at the suggestion that he was able to exert that much control over events, even though up until yesterday he had prided himself on doing just that. “In other words, I am totally predictable and boring.”

“No, you are a treasure,” she corrected him. “Twenty-four-carat gold. Solid as a rock. Dependable. That’s why not finding you at your desk today was such a shock.”

He wasn’t especially reassured by the praise. It merely served as a reminder that he was going to have to do the right thing in a situation that he wasn’t the least bit prepared to handle.

“Maybe I’m tired of being dependable,” he said. “Maybe I want to be the guy dressed in black, the dangerous man no woman would dare trust.”

“And the one every woman wants, anyway?” Megan suggested, gaze narrowing. “Is that what this is about? Are you in love? I didn’t realize you were dating anyone seriously.”

Now, there was a laugh. “Megan, the only women I’ve seen in the past year have been married, and I’m not about to tangle with the wife of some man who’s likely to own a shotgun.”

“Then what is this about?”

“It’s private.”

Megan laughed. “‘Private’ never stopped you from meddling in my life.”

“And now you intend to get even? I don’t think so. This is my problem. I’ll handle it.”

She gestured toward the wadded-up papers he’d tossed on the floor, evidence of his inability to make one single rational list of solutions to the situation.

“Is that your idea of handling it?”

“Yes.”

She reached for one of the scraps of paper, but he got to it first, crumpled it in his fist and kept it there.

“Stay out of this, Megan. You can’t help.”

“You don’t know that. Try me.”

“No,” he said flatly, his gaze locked with hers. “Now go away and let me think.”

She stood up with obvious reluctance. “Okay, I’ll go,” she told him. “But before I do, think about this. Not every problem can be solved by cold, hard logic. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut.”

True enough, Todd conceded as she left. Unfortunately right this second his gut was all but shouting for him to pack his bags and get out of Dodge—or in this case, Whispering Wind.

A few months ago, he might have heeded that instinct eagerly. He would have seized any sign that encouraged him to head back to New York to a world he understood, a place he’d belonged. Ironically, he realized that going there would only put him right back in Heather’s path, make it even easier for her to pursue this quest she had to involve him in his daughter’s life.

More important, to his amazement, he realized that Whispering Wind had started to feel like home. He wasn’t nearly as anxious as he once was to abandon not only his job, but his friends. Megan and Jake and Tess, Henrietta and Peggy, the people connected to Megan’s show—they were like family to him, closer than the parents he so rarely saw. He couldn’t see himself running out on them, not just because he was duty-bound to stay, but because he cared about them.

It was ironic, really. Thanks to this makeshift family—to say nothing of his deeply ingrained code of honor—it appeared he was going to have to stay right where he was and figure out how to deal with a real family, which until yesterday he hadn’t even known he had.

That didn’t mean he had to do it today, he thought as he grabbed a shirt and headed for his car. For once in his life he was going to be totally irresponsible and self-indulgent. He was going to run away—even if it was just for a day.

“What happened when you saw Todd yesterday?” Jake asked when Heather arrived in his office promptly at eleven. “I saw the two of you talking on the sidewalk. I imagine you told him.”

Heather sighed. “I didn’t see any way around it. He asked me point-blank what I was doing here. He’d already met Angel. I think he had a pretty good idea even before I said the words. You haven’t seen her up close, but she’s got her daddy’s coloring and her daddy’s eyes. Only a blind man would miss it. And believe me, Todd’s vision is twenty-twenty.”

“How did he take the news?”

“How do you think? He was stunned and angry. He didn’t believe me. He wants a paternity test. He didn’t come right out and ask for it, of course. He’s far too polite. But when I offered, he didn’t turn me down flat.”

“You can’t blame him for that.”

“No, I suppose not,” she conceded, though understanding that didn’t make it hurt any less.

“There isn’t any question about how it will turn out, is there?”

Heather stared at him, shocked that he even had to ask. “Absolutely not.”

Jake nodded. “Okay, then. We’ll do it right away. That’ll be one less obstacle down the road. Have you given any more thought to what you want besides child support?”

“Some sort of custody arrangement,” she told him. “Shared custody, joint custody, whatever you call it.”

“Not just visitation?”

“What’s the difference?”

“In one, the time would be pretty much equally divided. With visitation, Angel would only spend a set amount of time with Todd each year. The latter’s more practical, if you intend to go on living in New York. Otherwise, you’ll be completely separated from your daughter for half the year. She’ll be dividing her time between schools, unless you put her in a boarding school. Even though that’s down the road a couple of years, it’s something to think about.”

Heather shook her head. She didn’t want to spend that much time away from her daughter. Boarding school was out of the question for the same reason. She hadn’t even considered being separated from Angel when she’d started the process. She’d just wanted Todd to take over from time to time. If he’d been in New York still, this would have been simple, a matter of shuttling Angel from one part of the city to another.

“How would visitation work?”

“She’d fly out here at set times of the year. Summers, maybe. Certain holidays.”

“I couldn’t put her on a plane all by herself. And I can’t afford to be flying back and forth with her.”

“Then maybe Todd would come to New York to be with her. He makes fairly frequent trips there now. That wouldn’t be a hardship.”

“Then Angel would stay with him at a hotel for the weekend or something?”

“I think he still has his place there.”

That could work, then, she concluded. If Todd would agree to it. After yesterday, she wasn’t at all sure that was likely.

“What if he says no?” she asked hesitantly.

“Is that what he said yesterday?”

She nodded. “He was pretty adamant about it, too.”

Jake muttered a curse. “I was afraid of that.”

“I thought so. That was what you expected, wasn’t it? What I don’t understand is why you were so sure that would be his reaction.”

“Never mind. Maybe he’ll change his mind once he adjusts to the news. After all, this had to be a big shock.”

She thought of Todd’s bewildered expression, the panic in his eyes. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“Give him time, Heather. Todd might be in denial right now, but we both know the kind of character he has. He’s an honorable man. It’ll be best if we can work all of this out amicably. You don’t want to back him into a corner. You don’t want him spending time with Angel just because he has to, do you?”

“No,” she said at once, then added with a plaintive note, “I want him to love her.”

“Then give him some time.”

She thought of how vehement he’d been the day before. “How much time?”

“As much as it takes. After all, what matters here is arranging what’s best for Angel, right? Or are you on a timetable I don’t know about?”

“No, but I know how stubborn Todd can be. If he decides to dig in his heels, Angel could be in college before he changes his mind.”

Jake grinned at her defeated tone. “I don’t think it’ll take quite that long, not once my wife gets wind of this. Have you thought of letting her in on the secret?”

Heather figured that was just about the worst thing she could possibly do. Having Megan as an ally might have certain benefits, but the drawbacks were tremendous. Todd might never forgive her for dragging their personal business into the middle of his career, for one thing.

“I can’t do that,” she told Jake. “And you have to promise not to say a word.”

“You know I can’t. But I still think you ought to consider it.”

“Ganging up on him won’t work,” Heather said. “You said it yourself. Forcing him into a corner isn’t a good idea.”

“Then we’re back to time,” Jake said.

Much as she hated to admit it, time was the one thing she had plenty of. It wasn’t as if there were Broadway producers clamoring for her quick return.

“Okay, we’ll wait him out,” she said.

“In the meantime, I’ll make the arrangements for the blood work and the DNA testing.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “We’ll work this out, Heather.”

“I hope so.” She regarded him worriedly. “I hope you’re not too uncomfortable about keeping all this from your wife.”

“It won’t be the first secret I’ve kept from Megan,” he said. “The last one pretty much turned her life upside down and she forgave me, anyway. I’m not worried. There’s no need for you to be, either.”

Unfortunately that wasn’t quite true. On her way out of Jake’s office, Heather ran smack into Megan. They’d met only twice, both times right after Todd had first gone to work for her, but Megan had an astounding memory. It was why she was able to juggle so many details in her professional life. Head down, Heather murmured an apology for bumping into her and tried to move on, but Megan recognized her at once.

“Heather? Aren’t you Todd’s friend, the actress?” she asked, a speculative gleam in her eyes.

Heather paused, considered denying it, then finally nodded. “Hello, Megan, it’s nice to see you again.”

“What brings you to Whispering Wind? Are you on vacation?” she asked as if she thought she already knew the answer. In fact, there was a glint in her eye that suggested she had spent the past few seconds putting two and two together.

“Not exactly. I’m working here temporarily.”

“An acting job? I wasn’t aware there were any films being shot around here just now.”

“There aren’t. I’m working across the street.”

Megan’s gaze shot toward the diner, then up and down the block as if there might be some other business there, maybe even a theater she hadn’t noticed before. “Where?”

“At the Starlight Diner.”

“You’re waitressing for Henrietta?” Her tone registered genuine shock.

“For the time being.” Heather forced a smile. “Gotta run. It’s almost lunchtime and I’m due back.”

“Wait,” Megan said, the single word a command that had Heather stopping against her will. “Have you seen Todd?”

Again, Heather forced that fake smile. Denying the meeting would only make it look more significant when Megan eventually discovered the truth.

“Yes,” she said cheerfully. “I ran into him unexpectedly last night at the diner. It was great to see him again.”

“Uh-huh,” Megan said, her expression thoughtful. “You didn’t know he was here in town?”

“I knew your show was being done somewhere in Wyoming and that he was wherever you were, but I didn’t expect to be bumping into him. It’s a big state.” Well, she hadn’t exactly lied. She really hadn’t expected to bump into Todd on her first day in town.

“So, he didn’t know you were coming?”

“Nope. Todd and I haven’t spoken in years,” she said honestly.

“I see,” Megan said, as if those wheels in her brain were clicking away, trying to process this new tidbit of information.

“Gotta run,” Heather repeated. She didn’t want Angel spotting her from the window of the café and running outside. For once Megan saw her daughter, she would leap to her own, probably very accurate conclusions. “Good to see you again.”

“You, too,” Megan replied distractedly.

She seemed so lost in thought Heather couldn’t help wondering if she wasn’t already engaging in some wild speculation. And since Heather had been leaving Jake’s office when they bumped into each other, she figured her attorney was in for a fierce cross-examination. She could only pray he was as tough as he claimed to be and could withstand it without cracking.

When she glanced back one last time, she saw through the large, uncurtained window that Megan was now inside. Jake had pulled her into his arms and appeared to be kissing her passionately.

Heather grinned. An interesting technique for stalling, but she had a hunch Megan O’Rourke wasn’t the kind of woman who could be put off for long.

But as long as it gave Heather time to win Todd’s cooperation without interference, she certainly appreciated whatever sneaky skills Jake Landers used to keep his wife off the scent.

5

Todd spent two days in Laramie. He ate fast food, binged on movies, then lingered in a bookstore, immersed in scanning the bestsellers. For some reason he didn’t care to examine too closely, he was especially drawn to murderous thrillers.

None of it, however, successfully pushed his situation with Heather from his head for more than minutes at a time. It was time to go back to Whispering Wind and face the music, he concluded on the afternoon of the second day. Postponing the inevitable wasn’t his style. Quick and decisive were two qualities on which he prided himself.

Maybe he’d be lucky. Maybe Heather and Angel would be gone. Maybe it had all been some freakish dream that had seemed so real he could still feel the way Heather’s skin had burned beneath his touch, still smell her once-familiar flowery scent, still hear the clink of those annoying bracelets.

And maybe there were no cattle in Wyoming, he thought with a resigned sigh.

He could handle this, he told himself as he approached the diner. He’d handled worse dilemmas, if less personal ones. Some of the egocentric, temperamental people he dealt with on a daily basis were a whole lot worse than one little girl and a mother with a determined glint in her eye.

Or maybe not, he thought, considering what Heather expected of him.

Still, if he wanted his life back, wanted to return to his safe, familiar rut, this was something he had to do. He was not going to be scared off by a pint-size human being who might or might not be his daughter. Maybe if he reminded himself often enough that Angel was just an innocent little girl with a shy smile, it would stop terrifying him so. Of course, that was precisely the point and that was precisely what terrified him.

He actually got out of his car in front of the diner, took several steps toward the door, then hesitated, his bravado vanishing. He glanced in the window. There was no sign of Angel, but Heather was talking to a customer, a wrangler from one of the nearby ranches, judging from the rugged, tanned looks of him. Her hand on his arm, she was leaning in close and laughing at something he said. What was she up to? If she was here to snag him as a daddy for Angel, what was she doing with another man? Looking for a substitute in case he held out? Jealousy streaked through Todd like a bolt of lightning.

One good thing about jealousy, he concluded. It could motivate a man to ignore just about everything else. He was through the door of the Starlight Diner without giving it another second thought.

As he passed by, he directed a scowl at Heather, then headed straight for his regular booth and grabbed a menu, even though he knew everything on it by heart. The specials were listed on a blackboard by the front door. He hadn’t even bothered to glance at those. He doubted he’d notice if he was served a platter of sawdust.

Minutes later he heard the familiar, irksome tinkle of bangle bracelets and glanced up to find Heather regarding him with knowing amusement. He had to wonder then if she’d spotted him outside, then deliberately stood within view flirting with that cowboy. Such a tactic wouldn’t be beyond her. She’d always known exactly the effect she wanted to create—on stage or off—and exactly how to make him crazy.

That was what made this current test of wills so dangerous. Heather had a way of sneaking past his defenses, of winning, despite whatever his intentions were. In the first year they’d dated, he’d told himself a million times to bail out because they were such an ill-suited match, but each and every time, she would sense his mood and find some clever way to change his mind.

“Something wrong?” she asked, studying him curiously.

“Nothing. Why should anything be wrong?”

“Just wondering,” she said, her expression innocent, but her lips curved into the beginnings of a smile. “You seemed upset, the way you came striding through the front door. Looked like a man on a mission.”

“Sweetheart, you’ve never seen me upset. This isn’t it.”

Her grin spread. “I’ll keep that in mind. What can I get for you?”

After two days’ worth of tacos, hamburgers, fries, popcorn and milk shakes in Laramie, the last thing Todd actually wanted was food. He was here because he wanted his life to settle into its familiar routine, and by God, he intended to see that it did.

“I’ll have the steak,” he said. He always had steak on Thursday night. “Medium rare. Baked potato. Salad.”

“With ranch dressing,” Heather said before he could, confirming that she had a long memory and that he was entirely predictable. Boring.

Just to prove she wasn’t as clever as she thought she was, he said, “No. French.”

“But you hate—”

“Not anymore.”

“Okay,” she said mildly, scratching out the original order and correcting it. “Coffee with cream, or has that changed, too?”

“Black,” he said. “I like it black.”

She shook her head. “If you say so.”

“That’s right. I say so. It’s been four years. You don’t know me, Heather. Not the way you think you do.”

Suddenly serious, her gaze locked with his. “And what? If I did, I’d go screaming out of town, run back to New York, leave you alone?”

He nodded, relieved that she’d finally grasped the point. “Exactly.”

“Sorry. I’m not buying it. Maybe things between us have changed, but you, the kind of man you are? Not a chance. Honor and integrity are as ingrained in you as your DNA. I’ll be back with your coffee and salad in a sec.”

After she’d gone, Todd felt his breath ease out of him, as if he’d been holding it the whole time they’d been talking. Somehow the purpose for coming here had gotten lost. His routine was still a shambles. He did hate French dressing and he liked cream in his coffee.

Maybe that’s why he was almost relieved when Heather brought the dressing for his salad on the side—two kinds, French and the ranch he preferred. She also set down three tiny containers of cream for his coffee. She placed all of it on the table without comment and left him to make up his own mind about how far he intended to carry his stubbornness.

He was about to give in and spoon the ranch dressing onto his salad when he sensed he wasn’t alone. He glanced down into green eyes that were unmistakably the exact same shade as his own.

“Hiya,” Angel said.

Todd swallowed hard. “Hi.”

“I gots a doll. Wanna see?” She was already holding up a plump baby doll with golden ringlets and a real child-size diaper that almost swallowed it up.

What was he supposed to say to that? Todd wondered. “Very pretty,” he said finally.

“Her name’s Leaky.”

Leaky? Maybe that was the reason for that diaper, Todd concluded, surprised to find himself beginning to smile.

“Like my name,” she explained.

“I thought your name was Angel,” he said, confused.

She regarded him impatiently. “It is. Angel-leaky.”

“That’s Angelique, baby,” Heather corrected her as she approached the table with the rest of Todd’s meal.

“Ah,” Todd murmured, understanding finally. “That’s a lovely name.”

“I read it in a book,” Heather told him.

Suddenly Todd recalled her reading a set of dog-eared novels about a heroine named Angelique. He could remember the dreamy expression in her eyes, the deeply satisfied sighs when she reached the final page of each one.

“I remember,” he said, wishing he didn’t. Because with those memories came others of the sweet intensity of their lovemaking when Heather had been off in some imaginary, romantic world for a few hours.

Her gaze honed in on his, as if she knew precisely where his thoughts had strayed. Her expression softened.

And then that blasted cowboy called out, “Hey, sugar, how about a little more coffee?”

The moment was lost. It was just as well, Todd thought. Tripping down memory lane was the last thing he needed to be doing. Cold, hard logic, he reminded himself firmly. That was the ticket.

“I sit with you?” Angel asked, startling him. “You looks lonesome.”

Before he could reply, she slid in next to him, squeezing up against him until he shifted to make room for her and the doll she’d placed between them.

“Know what?”

“What?” he replied, reluctantly meeting her gaze.

“I’m gonna see my daddy,” she confided, unaware of the impact her words were having. “Mama said.” She leaned closer and patted his cheek. “I really, really need a daddy. I never had one.”

Todd’s gaze shot to Heather, who was still chatting with the cowboy. What the devil had she been telling Angel? Apparently she hadn’t identified him as the daddy in question just yet, but clearly it was only a matter of time if she was already prepping Angel for the big introduction.

Suddenly his appetite, not all that great to begin with, vanished.

“Let me out, Angel,” he asked, his voice choked. “I have to get going.”

Angel stared at his plate, wide-eyed. “But you didn’t finish your dinner. Mama says I can’t leave the table till I eat every bite.”

“And that’s a very good rule, I’m sure, but I’m not hungry.”

“Mama’s gonna be mad,” Angel predicted, still not budging.

Too impatient to wait for her to do as he’d asked, Todd awkwardly circled her waist with his arm and scooted Angel, Leaky and himself out of the booth, then set Angel back on the bench.

“I’ll leave your mom a big tip. That should improve her mood,” he said wryly, tossing bills—way too many of them—on the table.

He sidestepped Heather in the aisle, ignoring her surprise as he aimed straight for the door and the air he suddenly needed.

Apparently defiantly clinging to his routine wasn’t going to be quite the snap he’d hoped it would be, not with Heather and his daughter right smack in the middle of it.

“Was that Todd I saw charging out of here?” Henrietta asked when she came in to help Heather close up.

“It was.”

“He didn’t clean his plate,” Angel informed them both. She gazed up at Heather. “Maybe he should go to his room.”

Heather grinned. “He’s a grown-up, baby. He doesn’t have to eat if he doesn’t want to. Besides, my hunch is that he’s already headed for his room.”

Probably to make one of those infernal lists of his, she thought. If it couldn’t be quantified or analyzed or broken down into pros and cons, Todd wanted no part of it. Her arrival in town with Angel in tow had to be driving him nuts. She had to confess to taking a certain amount of pleasure in his discomfort. One of her favorite pastimes when they’d lived together was to rattle his sometimes scary, intimidating composure on a regular basis. Of course, nothing she’d done back then came even close to this.

Henrietta was still staring at the door with evident concern. “That’s two nights this week that he’s disappeared without eating. Last night and the night before, he didn’t come in at all. Something’s definitely wrong. Normally that man is here like clockwork every night and he has the appetite of a horse.”

Heather wasn’t about to enlighten her about what was likely wrong with Todd, but Henrietta was regarding her speculatively, clearly linking her arrival and Todd’s abrupt change in behavior.

“This all started when you showed up here the other day,” she said slowly, her expression thoughtful. “I know I introduced you, but he latched on to you like a man with something on his mind. You two already knew each other, didn’t you? How well?”

“That probably depends on which one of us you ask,” Heather replied, thinking of Todd’s insistence that she didn’t know him at all.

“How well?” Henrietta repeated.

“We dated for a while.”

Henrietta’s eyes narrowed. “How long is a while?”

“A few years.”

The older woman’s gaze shot to Angel. Then she sat down in one of the vacant booths. “Oh, my. Don’t tell me…” Her voice trailed off.

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this just now,” Heather said with a pointed look at Angel. Her daughter didn’t appear to be listening to the grownups, but with Angel you could never tell. She’d repeated an awful lot of things Heather would have sworn she hadn’t heard.

“No, I suppose not.” Henrietta regarded Heather sternly. “But we will talk about it. Make no mistake about that.”

Heather winced at her tone. Henrietta had been kind and generous, taking Heather and Angel in without giving it a second thought. But it was obvious that her first loyalty was to a man she’d known for months, a man she clearly liked and respected.

“I’ll explain everything,” Heather promised. If Henrietta was going to continue letting her work here, maybe she did deserve to know the whole truth about what had brought Heather and Angel to Whispering Wind. She didn’t belong in the cross fire, at least not without understanding what was going on and deciding for herself if she was willing to be a party to it.

“I’ll explain tonight, if you want,” Heather offered. “I’ll get Angel into bed and come back down.”

“Tomorrow will be soon enough,” Henrietta said, then glanced at the remaining customer. “Looks as if Joe would like more coffee. If you’ll see to that, I’ll close out the register and get the bank deposit ready.”

Heather wasn’t particularly anxious to serve Joe coffee or anything else. He was a friendly, nice-looking young man. With his coal-black hair curling over his collar, the chiseled planes of his face and his piercing blue eyes, he was every woman’s fantasy of a rugged cowboy, in fact, but she wasn’t interested.

He, however, clearly was. He’d been sweet-talking her the past two nights in his shy, gentle way. While the attention had been flattering, she was very much afraid he was starting to hope for something more than good service in exchange for his tip.

“Why don’t you sit down and join me for a bit?” he suggested when she’d filled his cup.

“We’re about to close. I need to help Henrietta.”

“Henrietta’s been managing this place just fine on her own for a long time now. She can spare you. Come on, sugar, sit down and tell me about yourself.”

“Sorry, I can’t. As soon as we’re finished, I have to get Angel up to bed. I don’t like her to get in the habit of staying up late.” Even when she’d carted her to the theater, she’d tried to make sure that she was asleep in the dressing room by eight when the show went on, so the stagehands would only have to peek in on her while Heather was on stage.

“Looks as if she’s found herself a napping place in that booth over there,” Joe pointed out with a lopsided, engaging grin.

Sure enough, Angel was curled up in the space Todd had just vacated, sound asleep, her doll snuggled next to her. Heather seized on the excuse.

“Then I’d better carry her up right now.”

Joe stood at once. “She’s too heavy for you. I could take her for you.”

The man was solid muscle beneath his clean white T-shirt and snug-fitting jeans. He seemed like a genuinely nice man. She wondered why she wasn’t even the slightest bit attracted to him. Maybe, regretfully, it was simply because he was nothing at all like the man who’d once been the love of her life.

Todd had changed some since he’d come to Wyoming. Knowing him, she realized he’d begun adapting to a new role, just as he did when cast in a play, just as he had when he’d first gone to work for Megan. They were subtle changes he probably wasn’t even aware of making. His hair was a little longer, for one thing. And he had a light tan from being outdoors more. But there was no mistaking the eastern polish and sophistication that had drawn her to him years ago.

“Thanks for offering,” she said. “But I can manage.”

Joe nodded and, to her relief, backed off. “Another time, then.” He dropped a generous tip on the table, then strolled over to the counter and paid Henrietta, pausing long enough to flirt outrageously with her until she laughingly told him to get out so she could lock up.

When he’d gone, Henrietta regarded Heather intently. “You know, if you were looking for a fine husband and a daddy for Angel, you could do a whole lot worse than Joe Stevens. You’re the first woman I’ve seen him take an interest in since his wife died.”

“He lost his wife?” Heather asked, shocked. She ignored the suggestion that he could be a stand-in for Angel’s real daddy. “He can’t be more than twenty-eight, twenty-nine. How old was she?”

“He’s thirty-one, actually, but Marilee was only twenty-five when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It took her in less than a year. That was about two years ago. Joe’s stayed to himself since then. For a time he was like a lost soul. We were all worried sick about him. He was doing some hard drinking, but from what I’ve seen he’s pulled himself together and sobered up now.”

“What does he do? For a living, I mean,” Heather asked.

“He’s a rancher. Has a spread west of town. He’s been buying up land, expanding the ranch he inherited from his family. He’s breeding some of the finest horses in the state. He caters to the rodeo circuit. He spent some time busting broncs himself. Has a couple of championship buckles, but he gave it up to marry Marilee.

“I have a lot of respect for that boy. He married her after she was diagnosed with cancer. Stuck right by her side. Wouldn’t let anybody else come in to help him nurse her. Wore himself out during that time. I think he blamed himself for not marrying her sooner, for taking the time to go off on the rodeo circuit the way he’d dreamed of doing since he was a boy. He made up for it, though. The way he loved her was something to see.”

“How awful that they had such a short time together,” Heather said.

“Not so short,” Henrietta replied. “The marriage was short, that’s true, but Joe had loved Marilee for as far back as I can remember. The expression ‘childhood sweethearts’ could have been coined for the two of them. They used to come in here when they were barely into their teens. They’d sit in that same booth where he was tonight, drinking sodas and laughing, planning their future. He was going to be a big rodeo star, then settle down with Marilee and raise horses and babies. I wondered if I’d ever see him in here again after she died, but he’s been coming back real regular the past few weeks. Until you came along, though, I hadn’t seen him laugh much.”

“He’s such a hunk, I’m amazed some woman around here hasn’t snapped him up.”

Henrietta chuckled. “Oh, believe you me, they’ve tried. One night he sat here and told me some of the tricks they’ve pulled. Said his freezer was still filled with all the casseroles and cakes they brought him. That’s normal enough, I suppose, when a man’s a widower, but they were offering a whole lot more, and some of them none too subtle about it. In my day, any woman who dared to go after a man so blatantly wouldn’t have been called a lady, that’s for sure.”

Heather began to get Henrietta’s own none-too-subtle message. “You told me all this so I won’t do anything to hurt him, didn’t you?” she guessed.

“Exactly. Like I said, Joe hasn’t shown any interest in another woman until you turned up. I wouldn’t want to see his heart broken.”

“I’ll make sure he knows that I’m leaving,” Heather promised.

“Either that,” Henrietta advised, then added pointedly, “or tell him your heart’s already taken.”

“But—”

“You can’t fool me, girl. Whatever history there is between you and Todd, it’s far from over.”

Heather prayed Henrietta was wrong, but deep inside she couldn’t help wondering if the older woman hadn’t gotten it exactly right.

6

Todd hadn’t scheduled so many back-to-back meetings for himself and Megan since they’d moved the company’s headquarters from Manhattan to Whispering Wind. He was determined to fill every waking minute with work. Since paperwork left his mind free to wander, he’d concluded that meetings that forced him to focus on the subject at hand were safer. So far everyone was tolerating the shift in routine without comment, but both Megan and Peggy had started giving him speculative looks every time they walked through his office door. Right this second, Peggy was doing it again.

“What?” he snapped finally.

“Something’s up with you,” she said. “Want to talk about it? I know when things were real bad for me and Johnny, talking helped.”

That almost drew a full-fledged smile. The woman was a chatterbox. “I’m not surprised,” he said wryly.

“Okay, I know I babble sometimes, but I’m talking about real serious talk, you know? The heart-to-heart kind. Megan let me go on and on till I worked things out in my head. I’d be happy to listen to you.”

“The only thing I want to talk about is Megan’s idea for this cooking show,” he said adamantly. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

She regarded him with obvious disappointment, but finally shrugged. “Okay, let’s talk about the show. I think the better question is whether you think I can do it. You’re the expert.”

“Peggy, there is not a doubt in my mind that you could handle this and be wildly successful. The real question is do you want to?”

“You’re worried that Johnny’s going to have a cow, aren’t you? Well, the truth is, he might, but you know what? That’s okay, because it’s something I want to do. For a long time, he expected me to get used to his running around with other women. That may be over, but it’s my turn now. He’ll have to get used to this.”

Todd barely resisted the urge to chuckle at her defiant tone. “It’s hardly the same thing.”

“No, but since I never wanted to run around with other men, it will have to do.”

He regarded her worriedly. “Peggy, if this is some sort of payback, if you’re not going into it with wholehearted enthusiasm, it’s a bad idea.”

“To tell you the truth, it scares me to death. The whole idea of carrying a nationally syndicated show all on my own, who would have thought it? I am so grateful to you and Megan for giving me this kind of an opportunity. I won’t let you down. I promise.”

“You can give it a hundred percent?”

“Whatever it takes,” she said firmly. “I’m not afraid of long hours or hard work.” She grinned. “Besides, it won’t hurt Johnny to spend a little more time looking after the kids. It’ll keep him out of trouble.”

“An interesting marital philosophy,” Todd observed.

“I’m learning as I go,” she admitted. “A year ago I wouldn’t have given you two cents for our chances to turn our marriage around, but we have. Almost, anyway. I think the biggest lesson we both learned is that you can’t take a relationship for granted. You have to work at it, especially when it hits the rough patches.”

“Something tells me you and Johnny will make it,” Todd said, all too aware that Heather had bolted at the first sign of difficulty. Now he was about to do the same thing.

“If we do, maybe we ought to launch a marriage-counseling program. Goodness knows I could have used some down-to-earth practical advice the first time I found out he was cheating on me.”

Todd chuckled.

“You think I’m joking, don’t you? I’m serious,” Peggy declared.

“If you keep this up, you’ll be the one with the media empire,” Todd told her.

“Not me. I’m just an average Wyoming housewife.”

“Peggy, there is nothing average about you,” Todd said, wishing he had the nerve to let her take a shot at counseling him. But he wasn’t prepared to let the world—or even this one kind, decent person—know about the situation in which he’d suddenly found himself. Years ago he’d been taught that a man faced his troubles all on his own. So what if he’d only been seventeen at the time? It was a lesson he’d never forgotten.

Despite the chill in the air, the sun was shining brightly and the breeze had a belated hint of spring in it on Friday afternoon. Angel was down for her nap, so Heather pulled a chair onto the sunny landing outside the upstairs apartment and settled down with a bottle of nail polish and an old issue of People.

She’d just finished putting the first coat of bright pink polish on her nails when she realized she wasn’t alone. She turned her head to find Sissy Perkins standing halfway up the steps and watching her solemnly.

It seemed to Heather that Sissy was way too serious for a ten-year-old. Although she was a beautiful girl, with her red hair, flawless skin and delicate features, she rarely smiled and she never laughed. In fact, she was just about the quietest, politest and most sedate child Heather had ever seen. When Heather asked Henrietta about it, the older woman said only that Sissy had been through a lot in the past year.

Henrietta had adopted Sissy and her younger brother, Will, but that was about as much as Heather had learned. She figured Henrietta would reveal the rest when she was good and ready. She already knew that was Henrietta’s way, operating on a need-to-know basis, whether it had to do with customer idiosyncrasies or the location of extra creamers. She was talkative enough when she chose to be, but those times could be few and far between.

“Hi, Sissy. Is school out?”

The girl nodded and crept up another step. “Am I bothering you? Henrietta said not to bother you.”

Heather smiled. “Nope. I’m just doing my nails.” She glanced at Sissy’s nails, which had been chewed off practically to the quick. “Want me to do yours?”

Sissy hid her hands behind her back in obvious embarrassment. “No, thanks. I bite mine.”

“Maybe if they were a pretty color, you wouldn’t want to bite them,” Heather countered.

Sissy considered that, then sighed. “It probably wouldn’t matter. It’s a nervous habit, that’s what the shrink says, anyway. He says I’ll stop when I’m ready.”

Heather was startled by the casual reference to a shrink, but she didn’t pursue it. If this child needed a psychiatrist at her age, it was none of Heather’s business. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try to be Sissy’s friend.

“So, what are your plans for the weekend?”

Sissy shrugged. “Nothing special.”

“You’re not going to see any of your friends?”

“No. I guess I’ll help Henrietta around the house. And I’ll baby-sit Will.” Her expression brightened a little. “I could baby-sit Angel, too, if you want. I’m real responsible.”

“I’m sure you are, but you should be doing something fun. What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“Reading, I guess. You can go anywhere in the whole world you want to go in a book.”

Heather heard a wistful note in the girl’s voice, as if she longed to be someplace else. It was a longing no ten-year-old should be feeling. She should be living in the here and now, surrounded by friends and family and laughter.

“What about outdoors?” Heather asked. “Do you like any sports?”

Sissy shrugged again. “I guess so, but I’m not very good. Nobody ever chooses me for their team.”

“Then how about something you can do on your own? Cycling, maybe.” She was struck by a sudden inspiration, something she could share with this obviously lonely child. “How about in-line skating?”

Sissy looked intrigued, but she shook her head. “I don’t know how. Besides, I don’t have any skates.”

“I could show you,” Heather offered. “And I’ll bet my skates would fit you. We might have to stuff some paper in the toes, but they’d work. If you like it, we can talk to Henrietta about getting you your own skates.”

“Really?” the girl said, a spark of excitement in her eyes.

Heather seized the moment to try to do something to wipe that sad expression from Sissy’s face. “I don’t see why not. Let’s give it a try right now.”

She went inside and grabbed some tissues, which she wadded up, and the in-line skates she’d brought from New York because they were her favorite form of exercise. She’d already discovered that the sidewalk along Main Street was nice and level and mostly deserted, perfect for blading. She’d been out at dawn several times this week already, drawing stares at first, but friendly waves of greeting ever since.

Outside on the landing, she handed the skates to Sissy. “Let’s go downstairs and you can try them on.”

“What if Angel wakes up?”

“The door’s open. I’ll hear her. Angel makes a lot of racket when she’s ready to get up. She’s always afraid she might be missing something.”

Sissy nodded. “Will was like that, too, when he was little,” she said, then fell silent. Her lips quivered and she added in a low voice, “Till Daddy would get mad.”

As she spoke, a tear tracked down her cheek, followed by another and then another. Obviously Sissy had touched on something almost too painful for her to bear. Heather stared at her helplessly, then reached out to gather her close. At her touch Sissy froze for an instant, then released a shuddering sigh. She relaxed in Heather’s arms and gave way to noisy, gut-wrenching sobs. The sound brought Henrietta running.

“Oh, baby,” she murmured, taking over from Heather. “What is it?”

“She said something about her dad, and then she just started crying.” Heather had rarely seen such a heartbreaking display of anguish.

“I’ll explain later,” Henrietta mouthed, then led Sissy away.

Heather stared after them, shaken by the child’s misery. Her own childhood, in upstate New York, had been happy, if a little dull. She had considered her parents too strict from time to time and maybe they hadn’t been as supportive as she’d wanted them to be of her acting career or her decision to raise Angel on her own, but all in all, she’d had no experience with the kind of torment that Sissy was evidently going through. Even the wild mood swings of adolescence hadn’t brought anything like Sissy’s tears.

She recalled the bleakness in Sissy’s eyes when she’d mentioned her father. And those tears, they hadn’t been about sorrow, but something deeper. Suddenly it struck her. There had been anger, maybe even hatred, in that outburst. Could a ten-year-old child experience that kind of rage?

Later, after the diner had closed for the night, Henrietta poured two cups of coffee and beckoned Heather to a booth.

“After what happened earlier, you must have a lot of questions,” she began.

“It’s none of my business, but obviously I did or said something that set her off. Maybe I should know at least enough so that I won’t inadvertently do it again.”

Henrietta nodded. “Here it is in a nutshell. It’s not pretty. Sissy lost both her parents a few months back. The long and short of it is that her daddy had been abusing her mama for years. One night he started after Sissy. Her mama stepped in and shot him. Lyle survived, but at my urging Barbara Sue left him and she and the kids moved in with me. Lyle just couldn’t handle that. She was working for me here. As soon as he could get around, he came over here with a gun. Jake tried to stop him, but Lyle shot Jake in the leg, then killed Barbara Sue. The sheriff shot Lyle. That’s how I wound up with the two kids. I figured I owed it to Barbara Sue, because I was the one who all but forced her to finally take a stand.”

Heather was horrified. No wonder Sissy’s impulsive mention of her father’s anger had brought terrible memories flooding back. How many violent episodes had she witnessed? One would have been too many for a young, impressionable girl. And even at six, Will must be devastated.

As for Henrietta, she was clearly living with a burden of pain that shouldn’t be hers. Heather reached across the table and clasped her hand, giving it a squeeze.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself. It certainly wasn’t your fault,” Heather said. “The blame lies totally with that awful man. How could you possibly have known it would turn out the way it did? You told her what anyone would have, to get out and protect herself and her kids.”

“Yes, but…” Henrietta sighed. “I supposed you’re right.” Then her voice took on a trace of anger. “But there was no way to protect her, not really. It seems as if there’s not a damned thing the system can do until it’s too late!”

The door opened and the judge walked in just in time to overhear Henrietta’s last remark.

“You’re blaming the system for one fool’s misdeeds,” he said. “No one could have stopped Lyle Perkins. He was a mean kid and a rotten adult.”

“And everyone, including the sheriff, turned a blind eye to it,” Henrietta countered, scowling at him. “Oh, I don’t know why I waste my breath trying to talk to you about this,” she said, and headed for the kitchen.

The judge sighed and slid into the spot she’d vacated. “I doubt she’ll ever stop blaming herself,” he said sadly. “Or me.”

“What did you have to do with it?” Heather asked.

“Since Lyle was never brought into court, nothing. That doesn’t stop Henrietta from thinking I should have come swooping in and locked him up, anyway. Barbara Sue never filed charges, so how could I? My hands were tied. And the one time Barbara Sue did try to defend herself by shooting him, she wound up in my courtroom. I was tough on her, said she couldn’t go around shooting people just because she thought they deserved it.”

A rueful smile settled on his face. “You should have heard Henrietta. She stood up in the middle of that courtroom and blasted me from here to kingdom come. I could have held her in contempt and tossed her in jail right then and there. Probably should have, just to keep some decorum in the courtroom, but what she said had some merit. I took it into account when I let Barbara Sue off with probation. We got a restraining order against Lyle, too, so he couldn’t go near Barbara Sue when he got out of the hospital.”

“But that didn’t stop him, did it?”

He shook his head. “There’s no way to stop a man who’s determined to get even, not unless he messes it up the first time and gives us reason enough to throw him in jail. Unfortunately, Lyle didn’t mess it up. There’s not a minute that’s gone by since that I don’t ask myself what I could have done differently, but I have yet to come up with an answer.”

“Henrietta must understand that your hands were tied legally.”

“In her head, yes. In her heart, I doubt she’ll ever forgive me.” He gave Heather a wry look. “Not that there’s anything new in that. Henrietta’s made it her life’s work to hold a grudge against me.”

“Why?”

“Because I foolishly let her down once, a long time ago. The woman has a good memory.”

“But you keep coming back,” Heather pointed out.

“So I do. Somebody told me once that persistence is a virtue. Henrietta might take exception to that, but I figure one of these days I’ll wear her down.”

“And then what?”

“I’ll marry her, of course, assuming we’ve both retained enough mental capabilities by then to repeat the vows,” he said wryly.

Heather chuckled. “Maybe you need a new strategy.”

He stared at her. “I’m listening.”

“Flowers, maybe. All women love flowers.”

“Henrietta’s allergic. She claims she sneezed for a week the first time I sent roses. That was thirty years ago and she’s never let me forget. Said I was trying to kill her.”

“Candy?”

“Won’t touch it. Says she gets all the sweets she needs in her own pies and cakes.”

“Is there something else she’s fond of? Does she collect anything?”

“Henrietta lives and breathes this diner. It’s as much her home as that place she lives in a couple of blocks from here. The customers are her family. She fusses and fights with ’em like they were, too.” He shook his head. “No. I’m afraid the usual courting would be wasted on her. Not that I haven’t given it a try from time to time.”

“Well, there has to be something,” Heather said, undaunted. “I’ll think about it.”

The judge regarded her curiously. “Now why would you do that, young lady? You barely know me or Henrietta.”

Heather patted his hand and gave him a wink. “I’m a romantic. I like happy endings.”

His expression brightened. “I’ll be much obliged if you can figure out how to go about getting one for the two of us before we’re both too danged old to enjoy it.”

Todd didn’t set foot in the diner all weekend long. Henrietta was about to storm over to his place to check on him, but Heather managed to talk her out of it.

“Give him some time,” she begged. “He needs to wrestle with this news I’ve dumped on him. It just hit him out of the blue, but he’ll adjust. That’s what Todd does. He accepts facts, searches for solutions and moves on.”

But when he hadn’t surfaced by midweek, even she began to get concerned. Since the ever-busy Starlight was the last place she wanted to confront him, she decided a drive to the studios might be in order. She could explain her presence simply by saying that as an actress, naturally she was curious about the production facility Megan had created.

Wisely, though, she opted to leave Angel with Henrietta. The two of them were already thick as thieves. Heather couldn’t help thinking what a shame it was that Henrietta hadn’t had kids of her own years ago. But she was making up for it now with Sissy, Will and, lately, Angel.

Angel trailed “’Retta” around like a little shadow, mimicking her activities. She insisted on helping to set the places at the booths—all of which had to be reset the minute her back was turned—then carried a “coffeepot”—an empty plastic milk jug that Henrietta assured her was better for little hands—from booth to booth, pretending to pour. She chattered away at her imaginary customers as she went.

When real customers came in, she was often the first one to reach the table, greeting them with her sunny smile and asking, “Take your order?” as if she could actually do it. Fortunately Henrietta was never so far away that she couldn’t step in and actually write down whatever order the grinning customers gave.

“Where you going?” Angel asked when Heather headed for the door.

“Just to run an errand,” Heather told her. “You’re going to stay and help ’Retta.”

“Okey-dokey.”

She turned and toddled off to find Henrietta without a backward glance. After all this time being Angel’s primary caregiver, Heather wasn’t at all sure how she felt about such ready abandonment. Today, however, it suited her purposes.

Following Henrietta’s carefully written directions, she drove to the outskirts of town, where she had no trouble at all finding the production facility. Unfortunately the first person she ran into was Jake.

“What are you doing here?” her lawyer asked.

“I thought maybe I could see Todd.”

“Not a good idea.”

“Why?”

“He’s grumpier than a bear with a thorn stuck in its paw, for one thing. For another, Megan’s protective instincts have kicked in. She knows something’s wrong and she’s pretty sure you’re the cause of it. She won’t welcome you and I won’t have her upset.”

The door to the facility opened and Todd looked out. “Jake, what’s up?” He spotted Heather and the color seemed to drain from his face. “I’ll handle this,” he said tersely.

Jake hesitated uncertainly, then shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

When he’d gone, Todd scowled at her. “What are you doing here?”

“I just thought I’d take a look around.”

“It’s not a tourist destination, Heather. It’s a place of business.”

“Believe it or not, I know my way around a studio, Todd. I know not to talk when the red light is on. I know to stay out of camera range. I even know how to tell which camera is live at any given moment.”

He winced. “I know that. I just meant—”

“You just meant that you don’t want me anywhere around you.”

“Not at work.”

“If not at work, where? You haven’t been by Henrietta’s in days. She’s about to send out a search party.”

“I’ll get by sooner or later.”

“She’s worried about you. Worse than that, she’s blaming me because you’re staying away. She’s figured out what’s going on, Todd. I didn’t say a word. She’s seen us together, knows we’ve known each other longer than a few days. All it took was a good long look at Angel for her to figure out the rest.”

“That’s all I need,” Todd muttered. “Henrietta’s like a pit bull once she gets a notion in her head.”

“Then stop by and ease her mind.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll make it sooner rather than later.”

When she didn’t take that as his final word and simply go away, he jammed his hands in his pockets and stared at her. “What? Is there something else you wanted?”

She started to say yes, that she wanted him to be a part of his daughter’s life, but he already knew that. That was exactly why he’d been giving the diner a wide berth.

“Angel’s been asking about you, too,” she said, instead, trying to gauge his reaction.

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