by Arlene James
“Well, I think it matters.”
“What?” Parker blinked up at his father-in-law, realizing suddenly that he’d spoken aloud those awful words. “I—I’m sorry, Dan, what were you saying?”
Dan Ballard set a cup of coffee on the table in front of Parker and eased himself down into his favorite chair. “I said, I think it matters a lot that you find another lawyer right away. Don’t wait until after the first of the year to start looking around again. The Pendletons will use it against you, if you do—I guarantee.”
Parker picked up his coffee and sipped it. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I just don’t know where to start. Ed’s always been my attorney. It feels funny to start over with someone else. I keep hoping he’ll come around, you know?”
“Don’t hope,” Dan advised sagely. “You can patch it up with Ed White later. Right now you’ve got to think of Darla. Can’t lose my almost-grandchild before she’s even old enough to know me.”
“I agree completely,” Kate said, coming into the room with a tray of appetizers which she slid onto the coffee table before moving to perch on the arm of Dan’s chair. Dan slid his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. Kendra, who had come into the room behind Kate, shifted Darla from one shoulder to another, her face set like stone. She sat down on the sofa with Parker, as far away from him as she could get.
To be polite and to distract his thoughts from Kendra’s obvious displeasure, Parker leaned forward and helped himself to one of Kate’s appetizers. He chose one that looked like a small, peeled potato with a piece of crisp bacon wrapped around it. He lifted it to his mouth, fixed his teeth in it, and pulled the toothpick out. Interesting. The “potato” was a water chestnut. He dropped the toothpick onto a napkin and reached for another.
“These are good, Kate. You’ll have to tell me how to make them.”
“Thanks. Nothing to it. I specialize in simple.”
He chuckled. “Right up my alley.”
“Guess you two have more in common than we realized,” Kendra remarked petulantly.
He glared at her. Dan shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Only Kate remained unruffled. Her long, slender legs crossed between ankle and knee, she leaned back against Dan’s arm and steered the conversation back to the original topic.
“Dan is right, Parker. You need to bring another attorney in right away. These custody cases can get complicated. You don’t want to take any chances with that sweetheart there.”
Parker smiled at Darla, who immediately became a flirt, teeny teeth bared in a slobbering grin, eyebrows wiggling. She clapped her hands together and reached out for him. He lifted her under the arms and swung her over onto his lap, kissing her forehead. She loved him. He never ceased to wonder at that, and it never failed to bring him a certain peace. He couldn’t lose her, too. “I know,” he said to Kate, sighing. “Maybe you can recommend someone, a colleague, someone you trust.”
She gave him a couple of names, but he shook his head at each. “No, I’ve already talked to both of them. I’m sure they’re competent, but...I just didn’t feel comfortable with either of them.” He couldn’t tell anyone else about his so-called marriage. He couldn’t trust that knowledge to anyone but a very close friend, and he happened to be fresh out of those at the moment. It seemed so utterly hopeless suddenly. But it couldn’t be. He just couldn’t give in to the hopelessness. He looked down at Darla and smiled grimly. “Ed was just so close to the situation,” he said. “I guess I’m looking for a similar feeling with someone else, I don’t know.”
Kate nodded with understanding. “Well, you’ve got to find counsel. I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
Dan cleared his throat, causing everyone to look at him. “Use your heads, folks. If it’s someone close to the situation that you want, you couldn’t get any closer than Kate.”
Kate. Of course. Parker uncrossed his legs and sat up straight, one arm protectively about Darla. “Hey, that’s right. You’ve been in this thing almost as long as Ed.” And I’ve already told you my lies, he added mentally.
Kate sat up, too, looking over her shoulder at Dan. “But I’m not really connected,” she protested calmly.
“You will be soon enough,” Dan said, winking.
The significance of that went right over Parker’s head. He was focused on Kate, who looked at him and said, “Family law is not my specialty.”
“It’s not Ed’s, either,” he argued. “If he can handle it, you can, too.”
“Oh, I can handle it,” she said with her usual confidence, “but are you sure you want me to?” For the first time, her gaze strayed to Kendra. Parker’s followed it.
He was surprised at what he saw. All the color had drained from Kendra’s face, and she was sitting bolt upright, rigid as a board. Surely if Kate could help him keep Darla, Kendra wouldn’t object. Or would she? He didn’t pretend to understand this animosity Kendra had for her father’s girlfriend, but he wasn’t about to let it get in the way of what was best for Darla. And he had to believe that being with him was best for his little niece. He cupped her small head with his hand, uncaring that she was busy tasting his tie, and looked at Kate. “I’m sure,” he said flatly. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have.”
Apparently that wasn’t enough for Kate. She looked to Kendra again. “Do you agree, Kendra?”
Parker watched her stiffen, saw her chin rise a notch. “It’s Parker’s decision,” she said tersely. Then her gaze went to her father, transfixing him relentlessly. “Why didn’t you tell me you were getting married?”
Married? Parker glanced at the pair in the chair, and suddenly it all clicked into place. His first reaction was exactly what Dan’s had been to his and Kendra’s announcement. “Holy cow! That’s great! Congratulations, you guys.”
“Congratulations?” Kendra snapped, and when he looked at her, he saw that her eyes were brimming with tears. “If any of you think she can replace my mother...” she began.
“No, Kendra,” Dan Ballard said.
“Not at all,” Kate said at the same time.
“Kendra,” Parker coaxed softly, “don’t you see that they’re in love?”
“But he isn’t,” she said with conviction. “It’s loneliness, nothing more than loneliness.”
“Kendra—”
“I was there, Parker! I saw him with my mother. I watched him love my mother all those years. It just isn’t the same.”
“No, it isn’t,” Dan said, “and I wouldn’t want it to be. Kendra, you have to understand how it was with your mother and me. Your mother—”
Kate stopped him with a hand placed on his chest and stood. Staring down at Kendra, she deftly took control. “You had to know it was coming. Would you prefer that we go on living together? We are, you know. Maybe I haven’t officially moved in, but we’ve been sleeping together for months now.”
Kendra shot up to her feet, all indignation. “How dare you speak to me about sleeping with my father!”
Kate folded her arms. “We’re all adults here, Kendra. It’s time you acknowledged that Daddy is a human being like the rest of us. Surely you don’t expect him to sleep alone the rest of his life. He’s as entitled as anybody else.”
“You make it sound so casual!” Kendra scolded.
Parker was dumbfounded. This from the woman who had said sleeping with him didn’t mean anything!
“Not casual,” Kate said, “but common. Men and women have been sleeping together since Adam and Eve, Kendra. Your mother’s dead. Let her go, and let your father have some happiness in his life.”
Kendra’s chin wobbled. “You make it sound like he wasn’t happy with her.”
Kate shifted her gaze her way. “I only meant that he has as much right to happiness now as he ever did.”
But Parker was looking at Dan Ballard, and he saw the truth on his face. It came as a shock to him, but not to Kendra. One glance at her face told him that. For her, it was only the confirmation of what she had already suspect
ed. This then was what lay beneath Kendra’s dislike for Kate Ridley: Kate made her father happy; her beloved mother had not. It was a revelation of sorts, not that it answered all of his questions, by any means, but it did have a strange irony to it. His own parents hadn’t been happy together, either, but they had busted up because of it, while Kendra’s had stayed together. Life was downright weird sometimes.
He saw regret in Dan Ballard’s eyes, but was it regret for the pain Kendra was feeling now or regret for the years spent in an unhappy marriage? He hoped suddenly that wherever his own father was, whatever he had done with his life, he was at least happy. Someone ought to be. Someone somewhere ought to be happy.
Darla, tired of trying to eat his tie, toppled over in his lap and lifted her legs up in the air, a sure sign that she expected a diaper change. Kendra stepped closer and bent to pick her up. “I’ll do it,” she said tonelessly.
Her expression was so sad that he reached out for her before he could stop himself, fastening his hand upon her wrist. Their eyes met. I love you, he tried to tell her. For what it’s worth, I love you.
She lifted Darla against her shoulder. His hand fell away, and she carried the baby out of the room, leaving silence and regret behind her.
Kate sighed. “If anybody’s still interested, dinner will be ready in ten minutes.” She strode away in the direction of the kitchen.
Dan Ballard crossed his legs and tapped a finger against the edge of his shoe sole. He glanced at Parker with guilty apology in his eyes, opened his mouth as if to say something, then seemed to change his mind. He picked up his coffee cup from the table beside his chair and lifted it in salute. “Merry Christmas, son.”
Parker picked up his own cup. “Merry Christmas, sir.”
It was a poor toast, but it was the best they could do.
Chapter Thirteen
Sandra Pendleton shifted Darla on her lap and adjusted the tiny headphones strapped over the baby’s ears. Darla’s eyes were big with confusion, but after a bit she began to ignore the Spanish pouring into her ears and played with the buttons on the front of her aunt’s dress. Sandra patiently moved the baby’s hand. Darla just as patiently and twice as doggedly pulled free of her aunt’s grasp and went back to picking at the button. They repeated this silent tussle several times before Darla pitched herself backward with a howl of frustration. Sandra caught her before she toppled over her knees onto the floor, but the headphones were knocked askew, and Darla took advantage of that to sweep them to the back of her head. It was Sandra’s turn to feel frustration, for as she tried to return the headphones to the proper position, Darla began to shake her head and hunch her shoulders, screaming with rage.
Kendra had had all she could take. She snatched Darla up into her arms, yanked the headphones from her head and dropped them into Dr. Pendleton’s lap. Sandra came instantly to her feet, ripely indignant.
“You want her to remain ignorant,” she accused.
“Darla couldn’t remain ignorant if we locked her in a windowless cell for the rest of her life,” she said drolly. “I just don’t like to see her irritated needlessly.”
“If you would put the headphones on her while she sleeps as I instructed—” Sandra began.
“She would never sleep,” Kendra finished. “Honestly, Sandra, don’t you think we ought to wait until she can speak English before we start her on a second language?”
Sandra rolled her eyes. “You’ve already waited too late. Instruction should have begun before she was born.”
“Well, I didn’t have anything to do with that, now did I?”
“No, but if you have your way,” the doctor told her ponderously, “she’ll grow up as a normal child.”
“Good grief!” Kendra mocked. “Not that, please! Let’s do all we can to make her an abnormal child, shall we?”
Sandra Pendleton was smart enough to know when she’d been insulted. She drew herself up tall and pursed her lips. “You think you’re very clever, don’t you, marrying Parker, insinuating yourself into all this? I don’t know what you hope to gain, but I promise you—”
“I don’t hope to gain anything,” Kendra said tiredly.
Sandra ignored her. “But I promise you that you’ll be disappointed,” she continued. “You’ve done a very foolish thing.”
Kendra sighed. “Such as?”
Sandra narrowed her eyes. “He’ll never remain faithful to you. He married you to keep me from getting Darla. He doesn’t love you. He’s never loved any woman. He uses them and he dumps them. A man like him has no business raising a baby.”
“That’s enough,” Kendra said, the softness of her voice emphasizing the unspoken threat behind it. Her palm itched to slap Sandra Pendleton’s face, but she wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t do it if she could help it. Chest heaving, she stepped back to remove the temptation. “Parker is a fine, decent man,” she said, keeping her tone low. “He loves this child with his whole heart. He’s changed his entire life for her. He’s given up a partnership in one of the country’s finest firms. He’s left behind his wild friends and his partying ways. He’s built on to his house. He’s become active in church. He’s learned how to care for her, and yes, he’s married me to help him, and that’s what I’m going to do, whether you like it or not.”
“But she would be so much better off with me and my family,” Sandra argued. “If Darla is your primary concern, you’re doing the opposite of what’s best for her.”
“I don’t believe that. Besides, Darla isn’t the only consideration. Parker needs her. She’s his only link to his brother.”
“I could say the same about my sister,” Sandra pointed out.
“But you already have a family of your own, and we both know you and Candace were not nearly so close as Parker and Nathan.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Sandra said sharply. “Candace was a fool.”
“What you really mean is that she didn’t appreciate your work,” Kendra scoffed, “and you’re right. Candace always said that you wanted so desperately to be good at something, to be known for something, that you were in danger of losing sight of what common sense you had.” Sandra stiffened as if she’d been struck, but Kendra went on stubbornly. “Maybe that’s why she named my husband as her daughter’s guardian in the event of her own death, and maybe, just maybe, that’s why you’re so determined to fight him for her.”
Sandra made an obvious attempt to relax. “I only have the child’s best interests at heart,” she said, shifting her gaze away.
Kendra shook her head. “I feel sorry for you, Sandra. I know Candace’s opinion must have hurt you very deeply, but taking Darla from Parker won’t help you heal. It can only hurt two innocent people who love each other.”
“I see that you don’t include yourself,” Sandra commented slyly. “Trouble in paradise already?”
She would never know how close to the mark she had hit, but Kendra had had a great deal of practice at hiding her pain, and she wasn’t about to let the likes of Sandra Pendleton unmask it now. She lifted her chin and leveled her gaze. “You have instigated every problem that we have, Sandra, and you can rest assured that we’re going to fight you together until they disappear.”
“He doesn’t love you!” Sandra hissed, striking back.
“It doesn’t matter whether he does or not,” Kendra told her truthfully. “What matters is that I love him—and this little girl,” she added, lifting Darla to kiss the tip of her nose then hug her close. Darla put her arms around Kendra’s neck and attempted to bite her collar bone through the fabric of her shirt.
Sandra huffed, then turned without a word and strode toward the multipurpose room, which her children had been noisily trying to dismantle since their arrival. The moment she disappeared through the door, Parker stepped out onto the gallery from the hall. He was still wearing his coat and carried a small brown paper bag filled with the various grocery items that had been his excuse for being away from the house while Sandra w
as there. He leaned a shoulder against the corner of the wall and surveyed her thoughtfully.
“What?” Kendra asked, wondering how long he had been standing there and what he had heard.
He shook his head, eyes narrowing speculatively. Kendra felt her heart fluttering nervously and looked away. “I, um, have to change the baby,” she lied, hurrying off. He didn’t say a word, but his gaze followed her out of the room, and still he stood there, lost in thought.
* * *
It was a New Year’s Eve tradition. The gang always got together, always, and common sense decreed that the logical place for this year’s celebration was the Sugarman house. It had everything going for it: adequate space, a central location, sufficient parking and familiarity. Everyone was well acquainted with Parker Sugarman’s address. This year, however, there were added and unexpected bonuses. Once the gang made their preferences known, via Dennis Scherer and Walt Lyons, Parker pointed out to a reluctant Kendra that having the get-together at their house would relieve them of the necessity of finding a sitter for Darla. It would also make amends for the fact that they had never, due to the understandable circumstances, celebrated their marriage with their closest friends. He did not have to say that such an event would help solidify them in the minds of the public and the court as a genuine couple; Kendra was astute enough to see that benefit for herself. When he vowed that she could leave all the details of planning and preparation to him, she ran out of reasons to object, and the party was on.
To her surprise, Parker decided to make it a family affair by informing the Randles that their two youngsters were welcome to bring along their sleeping bags and bed down in the family room for the evening, if they so desired. Cheryl and Bill were delighted to take them up on that offer, saying that they’d bring several of the kids’ favorite videos to keep them entertained. Cheryl suggested that Dennis might like to include his six-year-old son from his first marriage, too. Parker called up Dennis and issued the invitation, so the guest list stood at eight adults and three children, not counting Parker, Kendra or Darla. When Walt called the very day of New Year’s Eve to ask if he could bring along one of his assistant coaches, his date and her two children—for whom she had been unable to locate a sitter—Parker surprised Kendra yet again by responding that as far as he was concerned, the more the merrier.