Jenny nodded vigorously. "She took pictures of me every single day."
She's your daughter, Lockwood, but you'll never be part of her life.
He nodded toward an older woman who'd joined them at the window.
"Charlie's crying!" Jenny pointed toward the third baby from the left.
Jake looked at the squalling infant. "How do you know that's Charlie?"
"Because it is," said Jenny. "I just know."
The woman next to him touched his arm. "Their names are posted on the foot of the isolettes."
Jenny straightened up to full height. "I can't read yet," she announced. "I know it's Charlie because he looks like Aunt Ingrid."
The woman looked from Jenny to Jake. "The spitting image of her daddy. Same beautiful gold eyes."
"He's not my daddy," Jenny said.
"Oh, come now," said the woman. "You're two peas in a pod."
Jake cleared his throat. "She looks just like her mother." Lame, but it was the best he could do on short notice. He turned to Jenny. "Why don't you go tell your Aunt Ingrid that Charlie's hungry. I'll meet you here in five minutes and we'll get burritos."
Jenny was gone in a flash of auburn hair.
"Your little girl certainly has been blessed in the looks department," the woman said then stopped. "But she isn't your little girl, is she?"
"No," he said, the lie tearing at his gut but he couldn't risk being overheard by Jenny. "She's not my little girl."
He looked up to see Megan striding toward him. "Where's Jenny?" she asked without preamble.
"Off to talk to Ingrid. Are you ready for lunch?"
Megan shot him a look of pure disgust, then wheeled and disappeared down the hallway.
"Quite a temper," said the woman. "I hope her little girl didn't inherit it."
"Lady," said Jake, "why don't you shut up?"
#
If Megan had entertained any fantasies of a happy ending for the three of them, Jake's comment to the curious woman at the nursery window brought them to a screeching halt.
She's not my little girl.
Jenny meant no more to him than Stace did. She was just another cute little girl with dimples who happened to find him as charming as he liked to think he was. You couldn't trust him. You couldn't depend on him. At the first sign of trouble he'd be so busy covering his own behind that he'd forget Jenny even existed.
He was no better than her father had been and she'd been the worst kind of fool for falling for his particular line of garbage when she should have known better.
She heard his footsteps behind her but she didn't turn around.
He caught up with her a few yards away from the nursery.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" he asked, grabbing her by the arm.
She pulled out of his grasp. "Nothing's wrong." "Don't lie to me, Meggie."
"Don't call me Meggie. Don't ask me what's wrong. This whole thing has been ridiculous and I'm putting an end to it now."
"Don't I have any say in it?"
"No," she said fiercely. "You don't have any say in it at all. I'm taking Jenny and we're going home."
"The hell you are."
"The hell I'm not. I heard you back there, Jake. You don't care about her. Why don't you just let her go before she becomes any more attached to you than she already is?"
"She's not attached to me. By tomorrow morning she'll forget I existed."
"Wishful thinking," she shot back, "or do you really know so little about human nature?"
"I know children. They're resilient. Right now all I am is an Aussie who told a few kangaroo stories and made her laugh."
"And that's enough for you."
"You say it as if you're disappointed."
"I'm not disappointed," she snapped. "This is what we agreed on. One day and you're out of her life."
"The day's not over yet."
She turned on her heel and stormed back toward the nursery. This time he didn't follow her. She could feel his eyes hot on her back but she didn't slow her pace or turn around. She didn't want him tangling up Jenny's life the way he'd tangled up hers but she hated the fact that he was willing to give up their daughter without a fight.
How could he not see how special she was? How miraculous? Didn't he want to know what she'd been like as a baby? Wasn't he even the slightest bit curious to know what chain of birthdays and Christmases and everyday living that had produced the little girl he knew as his daughter?
Once again she'd allowed her idiotic fantasies to get the better of her common sense. Fathers were made not born. The mysteries of genetics and bloodlines weren't enough to turn a man into a father.
And Jake was proof of that.
He didn't deserve Jenny, and Megan was going to put an end to this charade before it went any further.
Jenny was waiting by the elevators near the nursery.
"Honey." Megan's voice was shaky, unnaturally high. She took a deep breath. "Come on, Jen. It's time to go."
"Good," said Jenny with a big smile. "I'm hungry."
Megan pushed the down button.
"Where's Jake?" Jenny asked. "Can't he come with us, mommy?"
"Not this time, honey. Jake has something else to do." "But he said."
"Sometimes grownups can't do everything they say they will."
"That's not fair."
She stroked Jenny's hair. "I know, honey."
Everything about this was unfair, Megan thought as they rode down to the lobby. Whatever happened to happy endings? If this was a movie instead of real life she and Jenny would never have made it to the elevator before Jake came running after them, pledging his love and devotion.
"I want Jake to come with us," Jenny said.
"He has other things to do, Jen."
"Doesn't he like you?"
"I don't know, honey."
"He has to like you. He's our friend." That stubborn little lower lip jutted forward. "You said so."
"You didn't seem to like him very much yesterday," Megan pointed out. "You weren't very nice."
"He didn't like me," Jenny said, "but now he does."
That awful lump was back in Megan's throat. "How do you know?"
"I just do, that's all."
They rode down the rest of the way in silence.
#
Jake watched them step into the elevator as a feeling of emptiness settled inside his chest. Everything had gone wrong so quickly that he had the sense of standing in the aftermath of a tornado. He didn't notice the beautiful woman in a crimson silk dressing gown as she walked slowly toward him.
"You have to be Jake," she said, offering her hand. "Stace described you perfectly."
He looked down at her, bringing himself back to reality. "And you have to be Ingrid."
She nodded. "Where's Megan?" she asked, looking around.
"She left."
Ingrid's lips pursed. "She likes to do that."
"I've noticed."
"We had a loud...disagreement."
Jake met her eyes. "So did we."
"Stubborn, isn't she?"
"She has reason."
Ingrid took a good, long look at him. "You're gorgeous but you're not too bright, are you? The girl is still in love with you, Jake. She's never stopped being in love with you."
"She hates my guts." A woman in love didn't look at a man as if he were a failure at the things that counted.
"I don't like my husband all the time, but that doesn't mean I don't love him."
"Nobody's talking about love. We're talking about Jenny. She deserves a stable family and a real home." All the things that he'd never known, the things he'd said didn't matter.
Ingrid sighed. "I've never seen two people so willing to walk away from happiness in my life. Who said it had to be easy, Jake? Who said you wouldn't have to work hard to make it last?"
"You don't experiment with a child's life." He glared at Ingrid. "You have two kids. You should understand."
"You know," said Ingri
d after a moment, "maybe the two of you are right. It takes guts to build a family. Maybe you and Megan just don't have what it takes after all."
Her words followed him into the elevator. They taunted him all the way down to the lobby. She thought he was a coward. A quitter. She never used the words but her meaning had been clear.
He'd never been a coward or a quitter in his life and yet he'd approached his own daughter with an uncertainty and caution that ran counter to everything he was. Everything he'd believed himself to be.
So what if his own father had been a failure at the game? That didn't mean Jake was cursed to follow suit.
And who gave a damn if Darrin McLean had cared more for himself than for his daughter? That was ancient history. She deserved better than that and Jake was the one who could give it to her, even if she went to the altar kicking and screaming.
Damn it, he thought, as he headed for the hospital exit. Ingrid was right. They'd been given a second chance and they were about to toss it aside like yesterday's newspaper. He and Megan and Jenny were a family and it was time they started acting like one.
He headed toward the parking lot. It's not over yet, Meggie. We're going to make this work...for us and for Jenny. It was time he took matters into his own hands.
#
"We don't have a car," Jenny pointed out as she and Megan stood on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. "How are we going to get home?"
"There's a taxi stand across the street," Megan said. So what if they had to eat spaghetti for the next month. The important thing was to put as much distance between her and Jake as she possibly could. She's not my little girl.... His words echoed in her brain again and again. She's not my little girl....
That was what she'd wanted, wasn't it? She wanted Jenny all to herself. No father to break her daughter's heart. For six years it had seemed so clear cut, so right, that she'd never questioned her position. Now the questions she'd tried so hard to avoid were crowding in on her, pushing against her heart, forcing her to acknowledge that the choices she'd made might no longer be the right ones. Not for her.
And especially not for Jenny.
"Mommy!" Jenny tugged at her hand. "You're walking too fast."
She stopped on the curb and glanced up and down the street. "Sorry, honey."
"Why are you in such a rush?"
"Aren't you hungry for lunch?" she asked with forced cheer. "I want to get us a cab and get home."
"But you said we can have burritos for lunch."
They stepped off the curb. "I'll make you burritos at home."
"Your burritos aren't as good as the ones at Pepito's."
"Thanks a lot," Megan said as they reached the middle of the street. "Maybe we can--"
The screech of brakes seemed to come from nowhere as the truck rounded the corner of the parking lot, barreling straight toward them.
#
Jake didn't know what made him turn around. The whine of the auto's engine. Jenny's scream. The bone-deep knowledge that everything he loved, everything that mattered was about to be taken away from him.
He saw the truck bearing down on them. He saw the desperation on Megan's face, the terror on Jenny's.
"Move!" he screamed as he vaulted over a parked car and ran toward them. "Move!"
But they were frozen in place by fear.
Faster...he had to run faster...his lungs burned...adrenaline...he needed that one last burst of adrenaline to push him over the edge....
The truck was a few yards away from them. He could smell the exhaust. A handful of seconds were all he had left.
With a cry that seemed to come from the depths of his soul he hurtled toward them and prayed it wasn't too late.
Chapter Ten
"Never saw anything like it," said a man who'd watched the whole thing happen. "He threw himself right in front of that truck and saved their lives. Guy's a hero, if you ask me."
The policeman nodded, writing down the information in an official-looking pad. "Driver was under the influence," he said with a shake of his head. "Never saw the woman and her little girl."
"Most amazing thing I ever saw," said the witness. "Not too many heroes in this world. Wish I could shake that guy's hand and tell him so."
A hero, Megan thought numbly as she stood in the hallway and watched the emergency room doctors working on Jake. For as long as she could remember she'd been looking for a hero and he'd been there right under her nose all the time.
"Mommy, what's going to happen to him?" Jenny, blessedly unscratched, stood next to Megan, her golden eyes wide with fright. "Will he die?"
"He wouldn't dare," Megan said, fighting back her tears. "Not now."
"He jumped right in front of the truck, mommy, like he wasn't afraid of anything in the whole world."
"I know," Megan whispered. "And he did it for us."
"Ma'am." A doctor appeared at her side. "We'd really like to take a look at that bump on your head."
Megan brushed him away. "I'm fine. Worry about Jake."
"You're going to have one nasty bruise." The doctor observed her more closely. "And a black eye if I don't miss my guess."
"Later," she said. "I'll worry about it later." She didn't care if she had two black eyes. Nothing mattered. All she could do was watch as the doctors mumbled over Jake's still body in the next room, whispering things she didn't want to understand.
"Mommy, I want to stay with you." Jenny's eyes seemed too large in her pale face.
"I know you do, honey, but I think you should go visit with Aunt Ingrid for a while."
"But I just saw Aunt Ingrid before."
"Maybe you could watch Charlie nurse."
"What if Jake wakes up and wants to see me?"
"If he does I'll come and get you."
"Really?"
"You have my word."
Miguel showed up a few minutes later to take Jenny upstairs.
"How is he?" Miguel asked quietly, so Jenny wouldn't hear.
Megan shook her head. "I don't know."
"We're praying for him, Meg. For both of you."
She blinked back tears. "Thanks, Miguel, but Jake needs them more than I do."
Miguel took Jenny's hand and they disappeared down the corridor toward the elevator bank. She was so little, so innocent. So sure that life would hand her nothing but roses.
Megan closed her eyes against the image of Jake lying motionless in the street...of Jenny standing next to him, crying as if her heart would break.
So many mistakes. Such a terrible misuse of time. Her mind leapfrogged wildly over the missed opportunities and each one was a knife in the heart. They belonged together, the three of them, and now all she could do was pray they'd have the chance. They could have lived these past six years as a family, building memories that would warm them against the cold winds of fate.
If only she hadn't walked out on him at the first sign of trouble.
If only he hadn't been living in La Mirada when she tried to find him.
If only they'd told each other the truth the first night on the Sea Goddess--
The list of "if only's" was endless and it didn't change a thing.
When you came down to it, all you had was the moment. This brief fleeting instant in time that was gone before you drew your next breath.
All she wanted was another chance. One more opportunity to tell him what was in her heart, what had been in her heart from that very first moment when she saw him on the beach in Key West and fell in love.
She paced the length of the waiting room, unmindful of the cut on her knee or the bruises that were blossoming on her hip. She had to keep moving. If she kept moving she'd be able to stay one step ahead of the fear building inside her. She willed her strength into his body, willed her love into his heart.
A lifetime seemed to pass by the time the doctors left Jake's side and approached her.
"Mrs. Lockwood?"
She nodded. This was hardly the time to get technical. "H-how is he?"
/> The doctor, a slim black woman, sighed. "I wish I could say with some certainty but I can't."
"You can't! What do you mean you can't? You're a doctor, aren't you? You have to know what's--"
The doctor placed a hand on Megan's forearm. "He's unconscious. His vital signs are strong. We've found nothing wrong beyond some broken ribs and a compound fracture of the right leg."
"But he's unconscious. Why is he still unconscious?"
"He sustained a trauma, Mrs. Lockwood. Determining the extent of the trauma takes time. It may be nothing more than a simple concussion. We're going to take him up for an MRI. We'll know a great deal more after that."
"I have to see him," she said. "I want to talk to him." There's something I have to tell him...something I should have told him a long time ago....
The doctor sighed. "As you wish. But please don't expect a response."
The doctor led her into the room.
"He looks like he's sleeping," Megan said, choking back her tears.
"I can only give you a minute with him. They're waiting upstairs to run the MRI."
Megan placed her hand against Jake's cheek. She smiled at the faint scratch of his beard against her palm. Bending down she kissed his forehead. His skin was warm against her lips and a crazy feeling of hope grabbed hold of her and wouldn't let go.
"You'll do anything for attention, won't you, Jake Lockwood? Throwing yourself in front of a moving vehicle like you're some Aussie superman." She forced a laugh. "Can't you find a better way to get the women to notice you?"
Nothing. No response at all.
Was it over? Was it possible that she'd never have the chance to tell him how she felt?
Next to Megan the doctor cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Lockwood, but the orderlies are here to take Mr. Lockwood up to x-ray."
"One more minute," she begged, unable to tear her eyes away from him. "Please."
The doctor stepped aside again.
Megan placed her lips against Jake's ear. "I love you," she whispered, putting her heart and soul into those simple words. Praying for their healing power to work their magic one more time. "I've never stopped loving you, not for a second. And I know Jenny will love you just as much when we tell her--"
Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover (Billionaire Lovers) Page 15