Lost and Found Groom by McLinn, Patricia (most difficult books to read .TXT) 📗

I am certain they would be most interested in their grandchild, especially since I have failed them in that regard.”

Daniel tucked away that last phrase and the vulnerability it might reveal for consideration later. He wasn’t going to be detoured now.

“How do you know?” he ground out.

“Between the circumstances of your determined search for a certain reporter named Kendra Jenner who had been on Santa Estella, recent inquiries about your bona fides all tracing back to Ms. Jenner and the fact that she had a son nine months after being on Santa Estella, it did not seem an unwarranted chasm to jump to reach such a conclusion. Do you know for certain that the child is yours?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

Did he? Daniel doubted it. Robert Delligatti had been born to stable, staid parents. Even if his childhood had included extensive periods living in far corners of the world, he had always known where he came from, who his parents were, that they loved each other, and that they loved him. He’d had a family.

Daniel hadn’t had any of that for the first seven years of his life. Matthew hadn’t had the full package, either. Not for his first two years. But he was going to. No matter what Daniel had to do to make sure of it.

“Do you love her?”

Robert’s question was so unexpected the only sound that came out of Daniel’s throat was a strangled grunt.

“The mother I meant,” Robert added.

“I know who you meant. I just don’t know what business it is of yours or anybody else’s”

“I can understand your viewpoint, Daniel. And in consideration of it, I won’t pursue that line of inquiry, which would have proceeded to Does she love you? No–don’t answer.” Daniel had had no intention of answering, even if he’d had any hope of knowing the answer. “However, it is an important question because it could have great impact on certain other considerations.”

“Considerations?”

“I’m presuming that you want to be involved in the child’s rearing and to be a presence in his life?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you would,” Robert said inexplicably. “So, how the mother views you is germane to the scope of your involvement.”

“Kendra won’t keep me from Matthew. She grew up without a father–he was a pilot. Air Force. MIA for a while before they found his crash site–and she won’t do that to her son.”

“That’s her feeling now, and perhaps that will remain her feeling. But people’s attitudes often undergo a transformation if their lives change drastically. Can you be certain of this attitude enduring if, for instance, she married another man who wanted to adopt Matthew?”

Daniel spit out a curse.

I don’t want my son to have a father who doesn’t come back–no matter how noble the cause. I know how that feels.

He’d tried to get her to talk about that, and she’d shut him off. She’d announced she had work to do, thanked him for lunch, reminded him of his scheduled stint at the babysitting co-op the next day, and exited his car practically before he’d come to a stop outside her back door.

Could that be what she’d meant–she was looking for another man to be Matthew’s father?

But nothing she did would ever change that he was Matthew’s father. Nothing.

Robert continued, his voice unruffled. “I have never met Ms. Jenner, so none of my observations are personal in any way. It is based on observation and my recent review of statistics from a study on family units ten years after the birth of a child out of wedlock. The study highlights an appalling number of fathers who do not attempt to remain in their children’s lives. However, an ancillary conclusion that I have drawn from the statistics is that a father who is interested in maintaining a role in his children’s lives should give careful consideration to safeguarding his legal rights.”

“Legal rights?” Daniel repeated, even as he recognized that Robert’s language became stiffer and more formal when he discussed a topic most people would consider emotional. Come to think of it, so did Robert Senior’s.

“Indeed. Perhaps most important is that you be listed as the father on the birth certificate.”

“I’m Matthew’s father,” he rasped out. “There’s no question.”

“Perhaps not between you and his mother, but the legal system can take an entirely different view.”

“I’ve got to go, Robert. Somebody’s at the door,” he lied.

“Very well. If I can be of any assistance be assured–”

“Yeah. Thanks. Goodbye.”

He’d hung up before he heard the answering farewell. Robert Delligatti Junior had given him some things to think about.

*

How long had their frenzy last? How long had they laid like this, still joined? Half discarded clothes wrapped into uncomfortable wads that neither of them moved to shift. She didn’t know how long. She didn’t care. She considered it only in an unfocused wonder.

Then he shifted against her, inside her, and her wonder focused anew.

This time was slower–at first–with moments allowed to remove the last of the clothing that had kept them from touching fully. She clung to him, holding on as tightly as she had held on to her balance against the storm as it tried to sweep her away.

But this time she didn’t fight the force that swept her away.

She heard the storm but it hardly seemed real.

Only he seemed real. Only . . .

“Daniel. . .”

Her own voice pulled Kendra out of the dream, yet not quite awake.

She blinked away the lingering images and saw the paint lines in the white ceiling. So different from their dingy refuge from the hurricane.

Turning on her side she considered her dresser. Early morning light softened the nicks and scratches, as if she saw her familiar room through a veil of chiffon. A huge, soft chiffon scarf drifting down across her naked body, covering her and Daniel–

Even as a shiver rippled across her skin, Kendra jerked her mind away from the image and into reality.

It was simply a hangover from the dream. It had happened before he arrived in Far Hills. There was no significance that it had happened now.

Especially not now.

Now that they’d started