“Daddy, did you know my friend Julie Brook-something has two kittens and a dog?”
Looking as if she was trying to hide a smile, Gillian kept on brushing Meggie’s long, blond hair.
He whistled. “I did not know that. Now that’s some real news.”
“And she has a hamster. She used to have babies and a daddy hamster, but the daddy tried to eat the babies, so her mom—she’s a vetra-er-narian—said they should find new homes for the babies and the daddy.”
“There you go, beauty queen. You’re all set.”
“Thanks, Gilly.” Joe’s heart lurched when Meghan planted a great big, sloppy kiss on Gillian’s left cheek.
“You’re coming today, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“You’re coming, too, right, Daddy?”
“I’ve already got it penciled in on my calendar.”
“Okay, good, ’cause Grandma and Grandpa always take too many pictures, and I’d rather eat cake.”
“Sure,” Joe said, pulling her onto his lap to breathe her in. The scents of her shampoo and new pink dress that smelled like the mall and the grape-flavored lip gloss Gillian brought her home as a surprise from her latest out-of-town assignment. “And how many kindergarten graduations have you been to that have led you to this conclusion?”
His little girl scrunched her nose. “Huh?”
“Ignore him,” Gillian said, spreading just the right amount of strawberry cream cheese on Meghan’s morning bagel. Patting the little girl’s chair, she said, “Come over here and eat. You don’t want to be too hungry to practice walking across the gym, do you?”
“Nope,” Meghan said, squirming from her dad’s lap to wriggle into her chair.
On her way down, a row of sequins from her fairy wings—an added accessory that looked pretty darn cute, even if he did say so himself—scratched the underside of Joe’s chin.
From outside came a sorrowful howl.
Looking very grown-up, Meghan shook her head. “Barney just doesn’t learn, does he? That seagull doesn’t want to be eaten.”
Joe took one look at Gillian and burst out laughing.
“What’s funny?” Meggie asked. “If you were a seagull, would you want Barney eating you for breakfast?”
“No, sweetie, I wouldn’t,” Gillian said.
“Well, me neither. Guess Daddy would.” She stuck out her bagel-crusted tongue at him.
He stuck his tongue out right back.
While Meghan was busy making a mess of her breakfast, Gillian tapped the paper. “Before our kitten and hamster baby lesson, you were about to tell me something you’d read?”
“Just a reporter prophesizing about Tsun-Chung’s sentencing today. Says he’s expected to get three consecutive life terms.”
“You sure you don’t want to go?”
Joe firmly shook his head.
“Might give you closure.”
He reached for his fresh-squeezed OJ. “Darlin’, it’s closed. I wasted two years of my life on this guy. I wouldn’t waste two more seconds. I sure as hell wouldn’t miss Meggie’s graduation.”
“That’s all I wanted to know.”
“Know what I want to know?” Meghan asked.
“What’s that, sweetie?” Gillian wiped cream cheese smudges from the corners of the little girl’s mouth.
“Whether you guys are gettin’ me kittens or hamster babies for my grat-u-lations present. Julie says it’s a special occasion, which means you have to get me something really good.”
“Well, Gillian? You heard the girl. What shall it be, hamster babies or kitten babies?”
She turned to Meghan. “Do we have to have more than one of each?”
The little girl nodded.
“Okay, then I vote hamster babies.”
“I second,” Joe said. “Plus, this’ll be a lot cheaper than the playhouse I was going to give you.”
“A playhouse?” Her eyes got wide. “Really, Daddy? Really? Can the hamster babies live in the playhouse?”
“Absolutely.”
She leaped from her chair, hurtling herself at Gillian. “Thank you, thank you. This is the best grat-u-til-ation ever!”
“You’re welcome, sweetie.”
“What about me?” Joe asked.
“Oh yeah.” Meghan scrambled to him. “Thank you, too, Daddy. I love you.” Coming from her, those three simple words meant the world. Tears burned in his eyes.
Those first few days after he’d come home to be a real father again had been tough. His daughter hadn’t quite known what to make of him. Granted, they’d spent a few meals together when he’d been on the run, but those times had been filled with his in-laws’ nervous chatter and Meggie catching him up on what all had happened in her life.
At first, she’d cried a lot for her grandparents, but after Joe assured her they were just a short car ride or phone call away, she gradually opened up to him. Asking him to read her a bedtime story or help her pick out school clothes or take her for doughnuts like he used to.
From there, the normalcy he’d so desperately craved had come tumbling back. And then Gillian had entered his and Meggie’s lives. Just for short visits at first. Then family outings. Until one day when Meggie asked Gillian if she would be her second mommy. And Gillian had tearfully agreed.
Across the table, he caught Gillian staring at the two of them. Her eyes looked suspiciously wet, too.
“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?” He reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. I love you, he mouthed.
I love you.
From outside came more dog baying.
From inside, “Can we go get the hamster babies now?”
“What about graduation?”
“Let’s skip it. I’ll just do kinder-garden again next year. It was fun.”
Fun.
Joe squeezed his wife’s hand and his daughter a little harder. Yep, that perfectly summed up his new life.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6950-0
SAVING JOE
Copyright © 2005 by Laura Marie Altom.
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Saving Joe (U.S. Marshals, Born And Bred Book 1) Page 18