That snapped her out of it. She glared at him. “I never cry. I’m brave.”

“I guess you’ve had to be, haven’t you?” he murmured absently. He stood. “Well, if we’re going, let’s go. And you be on your best behavior. I’m going to tell Bess to swat you if you don’t mind her.”

“Mer’dith won’t let her hit me,” she said smugly. “She’s my friend. Do you have any friends?”

“One or two,” he said, holding her hand as they went down the long staircase.

“Do they come to play with you?” she asked seriously. “And could they play with me, too?”

He chuckled deep in his throat, trying to imagine King Roper sitting cross-legged on the living room carpet, dressing a doll.

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “They’re grown-ups.”

“Oh. Grown-ups are too big to play, I guess. I don’t want to grow up. I wish I had a doll.”

“What kind of doll?” he asked.

“A pretty one with long golden hair and pretty dresses. I could talk to her. And a teddy bear,” she said sadly. “I want a teddy bear just like Mr. Friend. I miss Mr. Friend. He used to sleep with me. I’m ascared of the dark,” she added.

“Yes, I know,” he murmured, having had to help Mrs. Jackson get her to bed every night and chase out the monsters before she closed her eyes.

“Lots of monsters live in my room,” she informed him. “You have to kill them every night, don’t you?”

“So far, I’m ahead by one monster,” he reassured her.

“You’re awful big,” she said, eyeing him with an unblinking scrutiny. “I bet you weigh one million pounds.”

“Not quite.”

“I’m ten feet tall,” she said, going on tiptoe.

He led her out the door, calling goodbye to Mrs. Jackson. It seemed natural to hold her hand and smile at her chatter. There was magic in a child, even a hard case like this one. He wondered if security would soften her, and doubted it. She had spirit and inner strength. Those qualities pleased him. She’d need them if she lived with him.

Bess and Bobby’s house was a split-level brick with exquisite landscaping and a small thicket of trees that separated their property from Blake’s. In the driveway were Elissa’s gray Lincoln, Meredith’s red Porsche convertible and the blue Mercedes that Bess drove. Blake parked behind them on the long driveway and helped Sarah out.

She was at the front door before he reached it, excited as the door opened and a little blond girl about her age shyly greeted her.

“This is Danielle, Sarah. She’s looked forward to meeting you,” Elissa said with a smile. “Hi, Blake. Come on in.”

He took off his gray Stetson and stood in the hall while Sarah went into the living room with Danielle, who’d brought a box of toys with her.

Sarah’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, and she exclaimed over every single one of Danielle’s things, as if she’d never seen toys before. She sat down on the carpet and handled each one gingerly, turning it over and examining it and telling Danielle how beautiful the dolls were.

“She doesn’t have any toys,” Blake told Elissa with a worried frown. “She seems so mature sometimes. I didn’t realize…”

“Parenthood takes time,” Elissa assured him. “Don’t expect to learn everything at once.”

“I don’t think I’ve learned anything yet,” he confessed. He frowned as he watched his daughter. “I expected her to push Danielle around and try to take her toys away. She isn’t the easiest child to get along with.”

“She’s a frightened child,” Elissa replied. “Underneath there are some sweet qualities. You see, she’s playing very nicely, and she isn’t causing trouble.”

“Yet,” Blake murmured, waiting for the explosion to come.

His head turned as Meredith came down the hall. She hesitated momentarily, then joined them.

“Bess is getting coffee,” she said quietly. She was wearing a pale green sundress that slashed squarely over her high breasts, and her hair was loose, waving around her shoulders. She looked younger this way, and Blake almost sighed with memories.

“Will you stay and have a cup with us?” Elissa asked him.

“I guess so,” he agreed. His eyes hadn’t left Meredith.

She averted her gaze and started into the living room, too vulnerable to risk letting him see how easily he could get to her with that level, unblinking stare.

“Mer’dith!” Sarah jumped up, all eyes and laughing smile, and ran with her arms open to be picked up and hugged warmly. “Oh, Mer’dith, Daddy brought me to see Dani and he’s going to get me another Mr. Friend and he says I can have a doll! Oh, he’s just the nicest daddy…!”

Blake looked as if someone had poured ice into his shirt. He stared at the child blankly. She’d just called him ‘Daddy’ for the first time, and something stirred in the region of his heart, making him feel warm and needed. It was a new feeling, as if he weren’t totally alone anymore.

“That’s nice, darling,” Meredith was telling the child. She let her down and knelt beside her, smiling as she pushed back Sarah’s unruly hair. “You look very pretty this morning. I like your new dress.”

“It’s very pretty,” Danielle agreed. She was dressed in slacks and a shirt for playing, but she didn’t make fun of Sarah’s dress. She was a quiet child and sweet natured.

“I put it on backward, but Daddy fixed it for me.” She smiled at Meredith. “Can you stay and play with us? We can play with dolls.”

“I wish I could,” Meredith said, nervous because Blake was watching her so closely. She was frantic for a way out of the house, away from him. “But I have to go into town to the library and do some research.”

“I thought this was supposed to be a holiday,” Bess said as she came in with a tray of coffee and cake. “You’re here to rest, not to work.”

Meredith smiled at her lovely blond friend. “I know. But I’m not comfortable if I don’t have something to do. I won’t be long.”

“I could drive you,” Blake volunteered.

She blanched and started to refuse, but Elissa and Bess jumped in and teased and cajoled until they made it impossible for her to turn down his offer.

She wanted to scream. Alone with Blake in his car? What would they say to each other? What could they say to each other that wouldn’t involve them in another terrible argument? The past was very much in Meredith’s thoughts, and she wasn’t about to risk a repeat of it. But she’d allowed herself to be manipulated by him, and it looked as though she wasn’t going to be able to get out of going to town with him. Now, she thought, what are you going to do?

Chapter 4

Blake could sense the nervousness in Meredith as she sat stiffly in the seat beside him while he started the car. In the old days, he might have made some cutting remark about it, but the days were gone when he’d deliberately try to hurt her.

“Fasten your seat belt,” he said, noticing that she hadn’t.

“Oh.” She did it absently. “I usually remember in my own car,” she said with faint defensiveness.

“Don’t you ever ride with other people?”

“Not if I can help it,” she murmured, glancing at his hard profile as he backed the car out of the driveway and pulled onto the highway.

“Are your friends bad drivers,” he asked, “or is it that you just don’t like being out of control?”

“Who drives you, if we’re going to throw stones?” she asked with a pleasantly cool smile.

His mouth twitched. “Nobody.”

She toyed with her white leather purse, twisting the thin strap around her fingers while she stared out the window at the green crops and grazing cattle on the way to Jack’s Corner. The flat horizon seemed to stretch forever, just as it did back in Texas.

“Sarah engineered this get-together,” he remarked. “She damned near drove me crazy until I phoned Elissa to arrange it.” His green eyes touched her stiff profile and went back to the road. “She likes you.”