“You can’t go in there! She’s on the phone!”

The door burst open and two people shot into the room. Two small people. Children. They lurched to a halt a few feet beyond the door and stared at her. Carrie, standing in the doorway behind them, raised her shoulders apologetically.

Tess pressed down the hold button. Her gaze shifted from the tall boy with the thick chestnut hair to the little girl clinging to his leg. There was something familiar about her. The large, vibrant green eyes and the raven tousle of hair. The same oval-shaped face and a smaller version of a delicate nose. Her nose.

She released the hold button, keeping her eyes fixed on them. Alec Malone was still talking. “Anyway, the reason I’m calling is that they left behind two kids who’ve just—”

Tess jabbed the hold button again. “Who are you?” she asked them. “What do you want?” But she knew what the boy was going to say even before he spoke.

“I think—well, uh—that you’re our sister.”

Dear Reader,

Some of you who have read my other Superromance novels will note a recurring theme of family, combined with mystery and suspense. This is no coincidence—I have always been a “family” kind of person. My favorite childhood memories are of sitting at our kitchen table on Saturday mornings over coffee (milk for us kids!) and doughnuts listening to my uncle and my parents tell stories from their pasts. Now my favorite family thing is to reminisce with my own grown children.

Although most of us have family traditions of some kind, there are those who have never experienced the joys of family. Tess Wheaton is such a person. Raised by a loving guardian, Tess has always considered family as something other people had. What she knows about family has been shaped by books, movies and friends. Still, she has succeeded in establishing a promising career as a business executive and considers her longtime guardian, Mavis, her surrogate family. Until the day two youngsters turn up on her doorstep, claiming to be her half siblings. Suddenly Tess is thrust into the tumultuous center of a family shattered by tragedy. Is she up to the challenge? Or more to the point, does she really want to accept the challenge?

With a little help from three people who refuse to give up on her—social worker Alec Malone and half siblings Nick and Molly—Tess learns not only what family is all about, but that she can no longer go on without belonging to one.

Enjoy your families!

Janice Carter

The Second Family
Janice Carter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my mother, Lois Gene Carter, with much love.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER ONE

HE WAS DEAD.

The thick vellum paper Tess was holding shook and the scrawl of black, fine-tipped pen blurred. Her eyes, hooded in disbelief, flicked across the paper—top to bottom, left to right and back again. Her brain, sluggish with doubt, refused to register more than a fragment of writing at a time.

Regret to inform you…fatal car crash…March 28…as your father’s lawyer…please contact…

Tess skimmed the letter once more and this time, the pieces slotted together in perfect, horrifying sequence. She crumpled the paper into a tight ball and tossed it into the wastebasket in the corner of her office. A slam dunk, though she couldn’t have cared less. Powered by shock, Tess grabbed her briefcase, slung her handbag over her shoulder, plucked her trench coat from the hook behind the door and strode out the door of her new executive office.

“Tess! Are you leaving for the day?” Carrie called from her receptionist desk in the small antechamber.

But Tess didn’t dare stop. Stopping would mean explaining, and Tess didn’t trust herself to do that. Instead, she half turned and snapped, “Something’s come up, Carrie. Cancel all appointments. Take messages. See you tomorrow.” She didn’t slow down until the elevator doors closed behind her. Alone, she sagged against the rear wall and took several deep breaths.

Her mind, fired by adrenaline, whizzed through its mental Rolodex of options, strategies and last resorts to come up with a name. Mavis McNaught—her guardian angel. Tess dug into her purse for her cell phone and punched in Mavis’s number. The elevator reached the ground floor just as Mavis picked up on the other end.

Tess made herself take another slow breath before speaking. Mavis would never understand what Tess was saying if her voice came out as thin and wobbly. Besides, it wouldn’t do for Balfour International’s new Vice President of Marketing to be seen having a meltdown in the company lobby. She ducked into a corner behind a potted hibiscus tree.

“Mavis?” she said after the third hello. “It’s me—Tess. No, no, something’s wrong with the phone. Listen. I…uh just got this strange letter from some lawyer in Colorado and I need to see you. Yes, yes. I know it’s only three o’clock. You’re not busy, are you? Good. I’m coming right over and I’ll explain everything as soon as I get there.” She closed her eyes. Inhaled again. The filmy landscape of the lobby cleared, but the ceramic tiled floor seemed, suddenly, to shift beneath her.

Tess clicked off her phone, patted her flyaway curly hair into place and headed out to the street. A sea of faces, some familiar and others simply curious, swam up to her on the way, their disembodied voices fading in and out of Tess’s auditory range as she stood on the pavement, flailing her arms for a taxi. A yellow cab zigzagged from across the street. Tess yanked open the door and flung herself inside.

“25 Fairview. On the west side,” she said as the cab pulled away from the curb.

Only then did Tess allow herself a moment to take it all in, slumping against the seat, briefcase sprawled beside her. The content of the letter spun through her mind over and over until she finally accepted its awful truth.

The father who’d walked out of her life twenty-five years before was dead.

“MORE?” asked Mavis, reaching for the teapot. Her ample frame bumped against the edge of the table as she sat down across from Tess. She brushed a wisp of gray hair off her cheek and poured herself another cup.

Tess shook her head. What she really wanted was a scotch and soda, neither of which was available at Mavis McNaught’s.

“So where’s this letter, then?” asked Mavis, her broad forehead wrinkling in a frown.

“I threw it in the trash can on my way out.”

“You’ll need that letter,” Mavis pointed out.

“I got the gist of it anyway. Some lawyer in Boulder, Colorado, informing me that Richard Wheaton was killed in a car accident on March 28.” She looked across the table at Mavis and added, “He also wrote he was surprised to learn that Richard had a daughter in Chicago and would I please call him right away.”

“And that shouldn’t surprise you, given the circumstances,” Mavis said gently. “Now what?” she asked, fixing her serenely impassive gaze on Tess.

Tess shrugged, averting her face from Mavis’s penetrating, pale-blue eyes. Her one-time guardian could read her like a book. “Nothing, I guess. What’s there to do? He died a month ago. The funeral’s long past.” She paused. “Not that I’d have gone anyway.”

“Perhaps you’ve inherited something and that’s why this lawyer wants you to contact him.”

Tess snorted. “What could my father possibly have left me? He never gave me a thing after he left Mom and me. He probably died a penniless drifter.”

“Don’t be speaking ill of the dead,” Mavis clucked.

Tess rolled her eyes. “Then I’ll have to shut up for I can’t think of anything good to say about him.”

“Have we gone back in time? Is this the eighties all over? Are you a teenager once more?”

A trace of a smile belied the reprimand in Mavis’s voice, but Tess flushed anyway. No one else on earth could pull in the reins on Tess Wheaton quite like Mavis McNaught. The woman had been her foster parent since she was ten years old and knew her better than any person alive. She had been the only family Tess had known after her father’s disappearance and her mother’s death a few years later.

“If you’ve made no plans—at least, not for the immediate future—I’ll pop a casserole out of the freezer for dinner.” Mavis set her palms on the kitchen table to raise herself from the chair.

Tess saw her wince as she took a first step. “Did you take your pills today?”

“Of course, love. Twice a day every day. It’s the damp.”

But Tess noticed her smile was more strained now. “Go back to the doctor and tell him they’re not working. If you like, I can get my own doctor to refer you to another specialist.”

Mavis hobbled to the refrigerator and opened the freezer door. “The doctor’s fine. There’s just little else they can do. Osteoarthritis and old age go together.” She pulled a foil-wrapped casserole dish out and set it on the counter next to the stove. “And losing forty pounds or so would help, if I can bring myself to stay away from the goodies.”

Tess ducked her head so Mavis couldn’t see her smile. They both knew her love of sweets wasn’t going to change after all these years. “Why don’t you come with me sometime to my club? For a swim?”

Mavis wagged an index finger at her. “Now don’t you be teasing an old woman. Come and preheat the oven for me. My glasses are in the TV room and I can’t make out the numbers.”

Tess pushed her chair back and walked over to where Mavis was standing. “Why don’t you use the microwave I gave you?”

“I do use it, love, but it doesn’t get the topping all crusty brown, the way you and I like it.”

Tess laughed. “True enough.” She set the oven temperature, then turned to Mavis. “Still, you ought to be using it as something more than a bread box.”

“It makes a dandy bread box. And once in a while, when I’m following my diet, I use it for microwave popcorn.”

“I bet that’s once or twice a year,” cracked Tess. She caught Mavis’s eye and laughed with her. Impulsively, she bent down and flung her arms around the older woman. Coming here had been the perfect move, Tess thought. Mavis McNaught’s kitchen. Her refuge.

When they drew apart, Mavis said, “Why don’t you go upstairs and have a wee lie down? If you like, you can stay the night. I know there’s at least one of your nighties still in the drawer in your room.”

And because Mavis had been watching out for her since she was ten years old and always knew best, Tess headed upstairs to her old bedroom. It was just the way she’d left it after graduating from university and its familiarity was as comforting as Mavis’s embrace. On this day of all days she craved the mindless solace of routine, so Tess kicked off her heels and lay down on the worn patchwork quilt covering the narrow bed. She shifted, adjusting from habit to the mattress lumps, and closed her eyes. But sleep didn’t come.

What came instead was a flood of memory. Her first night in this room. She was ten and her mother, Hannah, had been taken to a hospital psychiatric ward after being picked up wandering Chicago streets in her nightgown. The incident had been the first breakdown, but not the last. When child care workers and police asked Tess if there was anyone she could stay with, the person who’d come immediately to mind had been Mavis McNaught.

Mavis’s parents had been neighbors of Tess’s family and Mavis had befriended Hannah and Tess over the course of her weekly visits. After Richard Wheaton left home, Mavis had kept in touch, in spite of living in another part of the city. She was the only person, other than her mother, whom Tess had really known as family after her father walked out. The middle-aged spinster hadn’t blinked an eye at the officer’s request. She marched out to the police cruiser, wrapped her arms around Tess and led her into the home where she stayed for the next eleven years.

Hannah came to live in Mavis’s house in the beginning, too. But her erratic use of medication and frequent breakdowns took their toll on the makeshift family. In the end, Tess figured, her mother didn’t so much die from pneumonia as from depression. Tess was fourteen when Mavis became her legal guardian, providing the first stable home she’d known in years.

Replaying the past, Tess came to the conclusion she always reached. Her mother’s downward spiral began little more than a year after Richard Wheaton left. That day was still etched in her memory.

They’d been arguing again. Nothing unusual about that, but this time felt different to eight-year-old Tess. She crouched behind her father’s favorite chair and watched her mother pace back and forth, puffing on one cigarette after another. Tess hated to see her mother smoke and so did her father. That was one of the things they often quarreled about. The other was money.

Today Tess didn’t have to cover her ears. There wasn’t any shouting. Instead, their occasionally raised voices fell into low mumbles. They even sat, her mother perched on the couch. Her father, hunched forward in his chair, as if about to spring from it. Tess could have reached out to touch him if she’d dared.

After a silence Tess thought would never end, she heard her mother say the words that would haunt her in the years ahead, “Then leave.”

And when Richard rose from the chair, his answer booming around the small living room, “I will,” Tess had run out from behind his chair. Flinging her arms around his legs, she’d cried, “Don’t go, Daddy. Don’t leave.”

Hands—she didn’t know whose—pulled her away. She threw herself on the carpet, sobbing. Her mother slipped upstairs. It seemed like hours later when Tess heard footsteps in the hall. She sat up and saw her father standing hesitantly at the front door. As if he didn’t know what to do next, she thought.

A canvas duffel bag hung from his shoulder. He was holding his wooden box of paints in one hand and a large paper-wrapped frame in the other. One of his paintings.

“Daddy—?”

He stared at her a long time before saying in a husky voice, “Don’t forget me, Tess. I won’t forget you.” He opened the door and walked out.

Tess jumped up and ran to the open door. Her father was climbing into a taxi.

“Daddy!” she called again.

He turned around and paused, a look of indecision in his face.

Tess’s heart raced. He was changing his mind. He was coming back.

But then he stiffened, waved a last goodbye and got into the taxi. Behind Tess, Hannah Wheaton snarled, “Let him go, Tess. He doesn’t want us anymore…and we don’t want him.”

She closed the door as the taxi pulled away from the curb.

Over the next few years Tess often wondered what might have happened if her mother hadn’t suddenly appeared behind her that day. Would her father have come back inside and tried to patch things up, as he’d done so many times before? Or would he have swept Tess up into his arms and taken her with him?

That was the fantasy that carried her through into adolescence, until she reached the painful conclusion that her mother had been right after all. Richard Wheaton hadn’t wanted them anymore.

Tess rolled over onto her side and sighed. She hadn’t relived that scene for many years. It had lost much of its power over her now, no longer producing the flow of tears it once could.

So. Her father was dead. She knew she ought to be able to summon even a tiny bit of grief, but could not. Her memory of him was now relegated to that last day. Her love for him disappeared sometime in the years after his leaving. She was glad she’d impulsively thrown away the lawyer’s letter. The sooner she got over this latest memory surge, the better. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift through the years until sleep, at last, came.

“COFFEE?”

“Great,” said Tess, “but let me make it. Yours is always too weak.” She pushed her chair back from the kitchen table and went to the counter.

Mavis shook her head. “I don’t know how you can get to sleep at night after drinking that stuff.”

“I usually go to bed so late nothing can keep me awake.”

“You’re working too hard, love. That’s why you fell asleep. An hour’s nap has done you some good, but it doesn’t make up for a real break. Tell me about this holiday cruise you’ve booked.”

Tess finished measuring out the coffee, poured water into the machine and turned it on before responding. She’d known Mavis would get around to asking about the cruise eventually, but wished the question hadn’t arisen that night.

“It’s kind of up in the air right now,” she said.

Mavis raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean you’re flying instead?”

Tess laughed. “Good one, Mavis.”

“Seriously, don’t tell me you’re not taking that holiday. You’ve been talking about it for months.”

Tess turned away. But not in the last few weeks I haven’t. She took her time, getting milk from the fridge, mugs from the cupboard. Anything to postpone the inevitable. She didn’t look Mavis in the eye until she sat down in her chair again. When she did, the expression in her guardian’s face told her she wasn’t going to be able to hide the truth any longer.

“I’m having second thoughts,” Tess began.

“About the cruise?”

Tess got up and poured the coffee, then carefully sat down again. She wondered if an evasive strategy would work with Mavis. “There’s so much work at the office right now. A big merger coming up. It’s all hush-hush so I can’t give you any details but…”

“Tess, love, I’m not going to be calling up my stockbroker in the morning. So get on with it.”

Her blue eyes zoomed in on Tess. Scratch the evasive strategy. Tess laughed. “I can’t keep anything from you, Mavis.”

“And why would you want to?” Mavis’s voice assumed a tone of mock hurt. Then, reading Tess’s mind, she added, “I know you want me to stop pestering you—and I will—but I’m curious. I thought you and Douglas had made all the arrangements.”

“We had,” Tess said, her voice low. She stared down into her coffee.

“And?”

There was no putting her off, Tess thought. She sighed and set her coffee mug down on the table. “I haven’t seen him for almost two weeks.”

The eyebrow arched again, but Mavis said nothing.

“The last time I saw him we had an argument and I’m afraid…well, I guess I said some pretty blunt things.”

Mavis nodded thoughtfully. “Then what happened?”

Did the woman ever give up? “Nothing. He hasn’t called.”

“So the cruise—?”

“I canceled my half.” Tess picked some fluff off her skirt, avoiding Mavis’s face. When she glanced up, Mavis was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I had cancellation insurance,” Tess murmured. “I got back most of my money.”

“That’s not the point, dear. You need a holiday. You’ve been working ten- and twelve-hour days, six days a week, I’m sure, for the last six months.”

“Comes with the promotion, Mavis. I explained that when they made me Vice President of Marketing.”

“But Douglas? The lad dotes on you.”

Tess glanced down again, this time to hide a grin. Douglas Reed—the company’s wheeling and dealing head lawyer—was no lad. Probably never had been, Tess thought, even when he was a kid. And the doting part certainly had applied a year ago, but not recently.

How could she explain to Mavis what had happened when Tess scarcely knew herself? Douglas Reed’s aggressive, confident courting style had been exhilarating and flattering in the beginning. But over the past few months, Tess had suspected his feelings for her had more to do with image than true love. She knew from comments he’d made that dating an executive from Balfour International was important to his own career plans. His hints about a future together envisioned a team on a meteoric ascent—a couple who would earn a fortune between them and who’d devote their lives solely to one another. And, of course, their careers.

Not that Tess didn’t want to have a great career. She’d worked hard, putting herself through university and then going on to acquire an MBA. Success was crucial for her. She just didn’t want someone else planning her future for her.

And of course, there was the other thing. The part she couldn’t reveal to Mavis. When Douglas took her into his arms, she felt little more than a moment’s warmth. Worse still, after the first two or three times, their lovemaking had become an exercise of habit. There was no buzz, no sparkle, no whisper of magic—all the ingredients of a truly romantic relationship. Deep down inside, Tess craved the fantasy she’d imagined since she was a teenager—that someone, somewhere, was going to whisk her away.

She sighed. It hadn’t happened yet. Probably never would. And, Tess was sure, it definitely would not happen with Douglas Reed.

“Tess? Are you still with me, girl?” Mavis was leaning forward in her chair. “And what’s that sigh all about?”

Tess felt her face heat up. “Nothing. It’s just that things haven’t been great between us for a while and…well, I thought we should give each other some space.”

“In my day we’d call that breaking up,” Mavis commented. “Well, so be it. You know best what kind of man you want to settle down with.”

Tess bit down on her lower lip. She knew the remark stemmed from love for her, but Mavis simply couldn’t accept that Tess’s aim in life was not merely to marry and produce a family. Some day, perhaps. But not anytime soon.

After a long moment, Mavis asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about your father?”

Tess stared down into her coffee mug. When she finally raised her head to Mavis, her reply was brisk. “No. There’s not much to say, anyway. I’ll dig that lawyer’s letter out of the wastebasket tomorrow or wait for him to call me back.”

Mavis heaved a loud sigh, suggesting she knew when to give up. “I have a feeling you want to change the subject.”

Tess didn’t answer. She drank the last of her coffee and stood up. “I should go home tonight, Mavis. I’ve got to be at work early for a meeting and if I stay here—”

Mavis nodded. “I know, love. The distance adds more time to your day. Anyway, tomorrow’s my Friday to visit Sophie and I plan to leave first thing in the morning.”

“How is she doing?” Tess asked.

Mavis shrugged. “Well as can be expected, I guess. She likes the food there, anyway.” Mavis visited her sister once a month, spending the weekend at the retirement home outside Chicago where Sophie had been living for the past year. “I’m sorry to hear about the cruise. I hope you’ll still go ahead and take the holiday time, though.” Her eyes fixed on Tess. “Think about it. You need it more than you realize, believe me.”

Tess mumbled a reply, though she thought this time Mavis didn’t know best.

TESS LEFT the conference room and made a sharp right turn when she spotted Douglas exiting an office farther down the hall. They seldom bumped into one another in the eight floors of skyscraper space that the company rented in the John Hancock Center. Since their acrimonious parting two weeks before, Tess had made a point of avoiding the floor where his office was located.

Today was not a good time for a first encounter, she decided. Not after yesterday’s stunning news. A face-to-face meeting when she was feeling vulnerable might end up with her agreeing to go on the cruise with him after all.

An elevator opened as she approached the company reception area and she jumped into it, breathing a sigh of relief as the door closed. How long, she asked herself, are you going to keep hiding from him? Ashamed of her own cowardice, she vowed to face up to him the next time. That’s what comes of breaking your own rule, Tess my girl, about dating a colleague.

As she entered her office, Carrie waved a handful of phone message slips. “Some lawyer’s been calling you ever since late yesterday afternoon, Tess.”

“Lawyer? What about, do you know?”

“No, but he’s calling from Colorado so—”

“Oh, God!” Tess expelled a mouthful of air.

“Not bad news, I hope?”

“I’m not sure,” was all she said, grabbing the messages and retreating into her office. She plunked down into her swivel chair, set her elbows on the desk and lowered her chin into her cupped hands. She needed to calm down. Perhaps Mavis was right after all. A vacation might be the best thing for her now. Except that she’d canceled the cruise and had no place to go.

Tess leafed through the phone messages. They were all from her father’s lawyer, Jed Walker, in Boulder. Jed. A picture came to mind of a rugged man in a big white cowboy hat puffing on a fat cigar, booted feet propped up on a desk. Or would that be a Texan? She frowned. Whatever, the guy’s persistence was annoying.

She set the messages aside and skimmed through her notes from the executive meeting. The merger was proceeding well now and her part wouldn’t really happen until all the paperwork was finished, which could take another couple of months. Then she’d have to come up with some flashy ideas to promote the newly formed company, glossing over the reality that jobs would be lost as a result of the merger. The prospect worried her, though when she hesitantly raised the question at the meeting her boss advised her not to dwell on the negatives.

“Other jobs will open up with new manufacturing,” he’d reassured her before going on to the next item on the agenda.

Tess had let the matter drop, thinking at the same time how someone like Mavis, underpaid and undervalued in the workforce up to her retirement, would have reacted to such nonchalance. Thoughts of Mavis took her back to the discarded phone messages on her desk.

She had advised her to contact the lawyer, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else. Tess picked up one of the slips of paper and stared at it. Could she seriously call someone named Jed without cracking a cowboy joke? More to the point, did she really want to pursue the matter of her father?

Except for a birthday card months after he left, she’d had no word from him. Mavis had tried in vain to change Hannah Wheaton’s mind about accepting child support and trying to locate Richard. Hannah’s standard response had been, “He knows where we are if he wants to find us.”

But he doesn’t, Tess had wanted to argue. Once they’d moved in with Mavis, all ties to the old neighborhood had been cut. When her mother died years later, Tess hadn’t bothered searching through their few boxes of belongings to find an address for her father. She’d finally managed to wipe out his memory.

Her curiosity got the better of her. Tess clamped down on the receiver, about to pick it up, when the phone rang. She waited for Carrie to pick up and a second later, her voice came through on the intercom.

“Tess? Call for you from Colorado—”

“I’ll take it,” Tess interrupted. The lawyer. “Mr. Walker?” she said, after Carrie transferred the call. “I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to get back to you—”

“Mr. Walker? Jed Walker? Hell, I’m no Jed Walker. I can tell you that much. That son of a—sorry, just don’t get me started on Jed Walker. I’d as soon—well, never mind that, either. Look, I’ve been trying to find you for about a week now and things have just gone from bad to worse here.”

“Wait! Please. I don’t have the faintest idea who you are and what you’re talking about. I’m sorry if I mistook you for Jed Walker and obviously you’re acquainted, though not exactly bosom buddies, but—”

A deep resonant chuckle sounded from the other end. “Well put, Miss Wheaton. Sorry about all the blathering there. The name’s Alec Malone and I’m—”

“Mr. Malone, what can I do for you?” Tess snapped impatiently.

“I’m a social worker here in Boulder. I guess Walker’s already contacted you about your father. That right?”

Tess closed her eyes. Here it was. “Yes, I got a letter from him yesterday.”

“A letter? And just yesterday? He’s known about you for more than a week.”

“Look Mr. Malone—”

“Alec. We don’t stand on formality down here.”

“Whatever. Alec, then. My father left my mother years ago and I haven’t seen or heard from him since. So if his estate owes anyone any money, you can forget—”

“Money’s definitely part of it but that’s not why I’m calling. Your father and his wife—well, I suppose she’d be his second wife—”

Wife! Tess took a deep breath. Her past was snowballing toward her and she had no place to leap.

“She was killed in the car crash, too, with your father. Maybe you didn’t know that.”

The snowball doubled in size. Tess tried to speak, but couldn’t. A commotion from beyond her closed office door distracted her. She heard Carrie’s voice pitch indignantly.

“You can’t go in there! She’s on the—”

The door burst in and two people shot into the room. Two small people. Children. They lurched to a halt a few feet beyond the door and stared at her. Carrie, standing in the doorway behind them, raised her shoulders apologetically.

Tess pressed down the hold button. Her gaze shifted from the taller boy with thick chestnut hair that edged the collar of his jacket to the little girl clinging to his leg. There was something familiar about her. The large, vibrant green eyes and the raven tousle of hair. The same heart-shaped face and a smaller version of a delicate nose. Tess could have been looking at a mirror image of herself at the same age.

She released the hold, keeping her eyes fixed on them. Alec Malone was still talking. “Anyway, the reason I’m calling is that they left behind two kids who’ve just—”

Tess jabbed the hold button again. “Who are you?” she asked them. “What do you want?” But she knew what the boy was going to say even before he spoke.

“I think—well, uh—that you’re our sister.”

CHAPTER TWO

“TESS?” Carrie asked.

Their sister? Me? Dazed, Tess looked from the two youngsters to Carrie, standing behind them. Her secretary’s eyes were wide with surprise.

“I’ll take any calls,” Carrie said at once, backing out of the room and closing the door behind her.

The office was dead quiet. Tess’s labored breathing competed with the drumming at her temples. The little girl, clad in denim overalls and a nylon windbreaker, looked anxiously up at her brother, whose brown-eyed gaze never wavered from Tess’s face. He was a handsome boy on the verge of adolescence, his lanky frame awkwardly thin for the baggy jeans and jacket he wore. Without thinking, Tess released the hold button in time to hear Alec Malone drawling, “Somethin’ wrong at that end, Miss Wheaton?”

Tess moistened her dry lips and cleared her throat to ask, “Would those two kids be a teenaged boy and a little girl?”

A whistle of relief sounded from the other end. “They there?” His voice was low and urgent.

“They just walked into my office.” Tess caught the sharp glance sent from boy to girl. A reassuring signal, she wondered, or a warning?

“Thank God,” he said. “I’ve got foster parents on standby here, chomping at the bit to call the police. Those two put together one heck of a runaway plan and managed to bamboozle everyone.”

“I think you’ve got some explaining to do, Mr. Malone,” she said.

“Right you are. I’m getting to that. I don’t know if you’ve got to the introduction stage yet, but their names are Nick and Molly. He’s thirteen and she’s six. I’ve had their case file since they were placed in foster care right after the accident and—”

“Why was that?” Tess interrupted.

“No next of kin and no one close to the family able to take them. We didn’t know about you until several days ago.”

Before Tess could respond, an exchange of hissed whispers interceded.

“Excuse me,” the boy said, “but is there a washroom here? And a water fountain?”

Tess frowned, clamping her palm across the receiver. “Are you thirsty?”

He nodded. “And hungry, too. We only had some apples and crackers early this morning.”

“One minute, Mr. Malone,” she snapped into the phone, then put him on hold while pressing the intercom button. “Carrie? Could you come back in here for a sec?”

“She’ll take you to get some lunch…or dinner…or whatever it is for you,” Tess explained to the children. The door flew open as she was speaking. “Carrie, would you mind taking these two down to the concourse for a bite to eat? Hit the washrooms up here first—that may be the more urgent need.” She eyed the girl, hopping from one foot to the other.

“I’d love to take them. C’mon, kids. So, I’m Carrie and you are…”

“Nick,” the boy said. “She’s Molly.” A pause, then, “We’re Wheatons, too. Her brother and sister,” he added huskily, his voice trembling slightly.

In case Carrie missed that bit of information the first time around, Tess was thinking. As soon as they left the office, she released the hold button.

“Okay, Mr. Malone, how soon can you get here to pick up these kids and what am I supposed to do with them in the meantime?”

There was a slight pause, punctuated by a heavy sigh. “I was afraid you might say that.”

Tess felt the stirrings of a migraine. She closed her eyes, massaging her temples. “I don’t know what you mean by that, Mr. Malone, but obviously if people there are looking for the children, they have to be returned as soon as possible. You’re their social worker, surely you must have a plan. So what is it?”

She thought she heard a low chuckle before he said, “Maybe we’re not as busy down here, ma’am, as you seem to be up there. Guess I was half hoping you’d offer to come back with them or, at best, keep them till someone can get to Chicago.”

“What am I supposed to do with them? I’m at work right now and my day doesn’t usually end until eight at night. I don’t know much about kids, but I suspect that’s too long a day for them. Besides, I only have a one-bedroom condo here and—”

“I get the picture, Miss Wheaton,” he interjected. There was another sigh, followed by a low mumbling that Tess suspected was swearing. “Look, someone—most likely it’ll be me—will be there as soon as possible but it may not happen until tomorrow. You think you can handle those two youngsters till then?”

Tess grit her teeth. Nothing ambiguous about the sarcasm in his voice. “I don’t think it’s fair to get short with me, Mr. Malone. It’s hardly my fault the children ran away.”

“Short? Would that be like short as in snotty? If so, then I apologize but I gotta admit, those kids took a helluva gamble to make that trip to Chicago on their own looking for a sister they just discovered they had. Kids who’ve never been outside Boulder, Colorado. I don’t have all the details yet, but I do know they got the whole thing together without any adult help and actually made it there in one piece. So if I sound a bit short as you put it, well yes, dammit all, that’s precisely what I am feeling.”

It wasn’t often that Tess found herself speechless. A hundred questions swarmed her mind about how the children learned her identity and why they came looking for her. Tess sensed that firing off a slew of defensive inquiries would fuel an already heated conversation with the presumptuous social worker. Her business experience had taught her that obvious anger only made your argument weaker.

“Still there?” he ventured after a pause.

“Unfortunately,” she said.

“Sorry if I seem a bit tetchy but I’m real worried about these kids. You haven’t had a chance to get to know them yet—”

“No,” she put in as icily as she could. “And I’m not likely to, either. Richard Wheaton—my father—walked out on my mother and me when I was eight years old, Mr. Malone, and I haven’t heard a word from him or about him since yesterday. So if I appear a tad cool to the notion of family and siblings, please forgive me. I’m not a callous person. If these children need a place to stay until tomorrow, I will provide them with one.” She hesitated, alarmed at the promise she’d just made. Too late now, she thought. But there’s always Mavis. Beyond her office door, she heard muted voices. They were back. “I’ll give you my home address and phone number. When might I expect you?”

There was a resigned exhalation from the other end. “I don’t imagine you’ve dealt much with government bureaucracies, Miss Wheaton—or maybe you have—” he quickly added “—but nothing in this office moves faster than a slug on a cabbage leaf. And when it comes to applying for air travel, I should’ve requested this trip months ago. So…”

Tess was beginning to think he didn’t move very fast either. “So?” she repeated, wanting him to get to the point. If he ever could.

“There’s a flight arriving in Chicago after noon.”

“Nothing sooner?”

“That’s the best I can do.”

Tess closed her eyes. “All right, Mr. Malone, I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

“There’s one more thing,” he said. “The kids are real upset about being split up. The accident has pretty much traumatized them, as you can imagine. I’d appreciate it if you avoided making any statements to them about their future.”

“How could I do that when I’ve no idea what future plans exist for them?”

His sigh suggested he was trying to be as patient as possible. “That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. If they bring up the subject about what’s going to happen to them, be as vague or evasive as possible. Please.”

“Of course I will, but why belabor your point, Mr. Malone? Obviously I don’t have any idea what the future holds for them.”

“You’re not getting it yet, are you Miss Wheaton? The kids headed to Chicago because you’re the only family they’ve got.”

Family. She’d never felt she had one. There was Mavis, who tried her best over the years to compensate for the real family Tess lacked. Tess tried to come up with a response but words failed her.

“Miss Wheaton? Sorry if all of this is overwhelming but that’s the situation. I’ll call you as soon as I get into town.” And he hung up before she had a chance to say anything more.

Tess replaced the receiver and sat, oblivious to the hushed chatter outside her office. Her office. How odd that at that very moment, nothing in the room was familiar. It suddenly seemed to belong to someone else. She peered down at her tailored, olive-green skirt with its matching, long-sleeved silk blouse. The delicate gold chain around her neck was a graduation present from Mavis and the titanium and gold watch, a gift to herself on her promotion. But the whole outfit might as well be trappings owned by a complete stranger. Tess sighed. The double whammy she’d just received—father dead and two half siblings on her doorstep—had instantly diminished all the rewards of her success.

So she instinctively turned to the one person who’d been her saving grace over the years and punched in Mavis’s phone number. After the tenth unanswered ring, Tess remembered that Mavis would be with her sister all weekend. She hung up, propped her elbows on the desk and lowered her head onto her hands. She didn’t have the faintest idea what to do—which was, for her, an almost frightening state of mind.

“Tess?”

She raised her head enough to glare at the intercom, wanting desperately to simply tell everyone to go away and leave her alone. “Yes?”

There was a slight hesitation before Carrie continued by, saying, “The kids have had a bite to eat and gone to the washroom, but they’re tired. Do you know when you’ll be taking them home?”

Taking them home? Tess checked the time. Four o’clock. Leaving early two days in a row would raise more than a few eyebrows.

“Did you hear me?”

Tess swallowed. Taking them home. To a one-bedroom condo? “Uh, Carrie, can you come in here for a sec?”

The intercom fell silent and Carrie popped her head around the door an instant later. “Don’t ask,” Carrie forewarned.

“Ask?” Tess ran her tongue along her lips, trying to kick some life into the smile she was squeezing out.

“It’s all over your face so let me spare you the humiliation of a no. I’ve got big plans this weekend.” Carrie closed the door behind her.

“This is what comes of having a too familiar relationship with your staff,” Tess muttered to herself. She groaned and gently massaged her temples.

“I guess we’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”

Tess jerked her head up. She hadn’t heard anyone come in. The boy—Nick—stood in the open doorway. His face was pale, drawn with worry. Something in his expression tugged at her.

“Not a lot,” she began. “But—well, there are other issues here.”

He nodded. “Something to do with my father.”

He was quick, she thought. “Something like that.” It wasn’t the time or place to get into a lecture on parental responsibility. Besides, what Richard Wheaton had done was hardly his fault.

Nick’s sigh echoed in the silence of Tess’s office. “I thought there might be a problem. Otherwise Dad would have…well, we’d have known about you.”

She waited to see if his trail of logic would lead him where she hoped he’d go.

“At first it was weird thinking someone as old as you could be our sister. Then I started thinking maybe it was kinda good luck. But I knew when Molly and me decided to come here, it might turn out that…you know…you wouldn’t be able to take us.”

Tess forced her thoughts away from the old reference, focusing instead on how he’d said able instead of want. A face-saving gesture for them, she wondered, or giving her an out? Either way, she figured he’d gotten the message.

“I live in a one-bedroom condo….” she began, her voice falling off as she realized how lame that sounded. “Mr. Malone said he could be here tomorrow to…well, take you back to Boulder.” As soon as she uttered the words, Tess had a surge of guilt. She’d promised the social worker to be vague about their return to Boulder.

Nick’s face twisted in a grimace. “Yeah,” he said huskily, turning his back on Tess to head for the door.

“Where are you going?”

He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “To break the news to Molly. I don’t want her to freak out.” He pulled on the door and walked out of the office.

Tess was quick on his heels, anxious to hear exactly how he was going to tell his little sister. The last thing she needed was a hysterical child. She watched as Nick crouched down to whisper in Molly’s ear. The little girl stared at Tess the whole while, her eyes wide and unblinking in her pale face. When Nick finished and stood protectively behind his sister, he said, “Will it be all right if we stayed with you tonight? I’ve spent all our money.”

Carrie shot Tess a look that would have shriveled anyone else.

“Of course,” Tess quickly said, casting a so there glance at her secretary. “It’ll be like camping,” she added, catching the incredulous expression on Carrie’s face. “We’ll get videos and order in pizza,” she said, trying for a note of enthusiasm.

“Whoopee!” Carrie muttered as she brushed past Tess to get to her desk.

“Well then,” Tess said, “I guess I’ll be leaving for the day.” She saw Carrie raise an eyebrow, as if silently echoing the I guess. For the first time, Tess noticed a backpack and plastic shopping bag on the floor next to Carrie’s desk.

“I’ll get my coat,” she murmured and went back into her office, moving as if in a trance, trying to avoid the question she knew she’d be asking herself the instant they left the office. What now?

She grabbed her briefcase, stuffing inside it the files she knew she ought to be working on that very moment, and returned to the small reception area. “Let’s go,” she announced to no one in particular, thinking she might convince Carrie this unexpected turn of events was no big deal.

“Have fun,” Carrie said, adding to the children, “maybe you can persuade your sister to treat you to something more exciting than videos and pizza.”

Your sister? For a second Tess wondered who Carrie was talking about. Then it hit her all over again. She felt the air whoosh out of her, but covered up by asking, “What’s wrong with videos and pizza?”

Carrie shrugged, winking at the other two. “If you weren’t such a workaholic, you’d know. Anyway, I’ll take your messages. See you on Monday—maybe,” she said, giving the postscript a significant tone.

No one spoke all the way down to the ground floor. When they reached it, Molly said, “Carrie showed us the water fountain under the ground.”

Tess had to think for a second. “Oh? When she took you to get something to eat?” She led them through the lobby onto the sidewalk.

Catching up, Molly said breathlessly, “I had french fries, too.”

“Uh-huh,” Tess murmured, scanning the street for a taxi.

“With ketchup.”

“Molly, no one cares what you ate, okay?” Nick said.

“I’m just telling her,” she protested. There was a hint of a whine in her voice.

Tess glanced sharply at Nick. “What’s going on?” she asked, just clueing in to the tone of their voices.

He scowled. “We’re just arguing, that’s all. Don’t you know anything about kids?”

“No, frankly, I don’t. Anyway, what does arguing solve?”

“Jeez,” he muttered.

Tess frowned. He looked tired, too, she thought. Maybe that’s what the arguing was about. “Look, I know you two have been through a lot so we’ll just hop in a taxi and get to my place as soon as possible. Then you can shower and have a nap or something.”

“I’m six now. I don’t have naps,” Molly piped up.

Tess blew a strand of hair away from her mouth. “Whatever,” she mumbled and waved briskly to a taxi about to pull away from the curb. “Damn,” she muttered as the taxi kept on going. “Okay, want to take the subway?”

“What’s that?”

“A train, stupid. Underground.”

“Don’t call me stupid, Nick!”

Tess grit her teeth. Twenty-four hours of this? “Your case worker will be here tomorrow, hopefully right after lunch. So can we all agree to do our best to get along with each other until he arrives and…” she paused, noticing Molly’s stricken face, “well…you know.”

Two pairs of solemn eyes stared up at her. Tess noticed for the first time the cowlick poking up from the crown of Nick’s head. He was just about shoulder level with her and his slender frame, weighed down by his backpack, made him appear frail and vulnerable. They were both just kids, she thought. Though not just any kids. The reminder was sobering.

“Okay, so follow me and no more arguing. In fact, no more talking until we get home and you can tell me how you managed to get all the way from Boulder, Colorado, to Chicago without attracting any attention.” Tess turned sharply and led the way to the underground.

No one uttered a word until the train was halfway to Tess’s stop in Lincoln Park. Then Molly, her dark eyes wide with wonder, exclaimed, “I’ve never been on a train before,” and clamped a hand over her mouth when she realized she’d just broken the silence edict. Tess impulsively smiled but saw that Nick’s glower couldn’t be shifted. He sat half-turned toward the window and stared through it the whole way. Every once in a while, Tess caught his reflection in the glass and once, their eyes met. He lowered his first, but not before a hint of a sneer twisted his upper lip.

Inexplicably, that bothered Tess. Wasn’t it enough that she was giving up most of a weekend to look after two children who, in spite of biology, were basically strangers? Miffed, she averted her own face to stare out the other window and was soon so lost in thought she almost missed her stop. She realized at the last instant, jumping to her feet and hustling the kids from the car seconds before the doors closed. On the platform, Tess laughingly cried, “That was close!” and Molly laughed, too.

Nick trudged toward the exit. As Tess was about to follow, Molly reached for her hand, slipping it casually into Tess’s. When they reached the upper level, Nick was slouched against a wall waiting for them, looking as if he were the most bored kid on earth. Still, Tess noted how his eyes flickered with interest from left to right as they exited the station and walked along the street.

As usual, the neighborhood was bustling on a Friday afternoon. Rush hour had already begun and Tess knew the expressways would be packed. She’d decided long ago to save herself the expense of a car in the city, especially since most of her waking hours were devoted to work.

They walked north along the lake and the outer edge of Lincoln Park. Tess glanced down at Molly, still clutching her hand, and saw her eyes grow bigger and bigger at each new sight. The park and zoo might be an option for tomorrow morning, she thought. Unless they slept in, though from what Tess had gathered about kids from the parents in her department, that wasn’t a likely occurrence.

The appearance of the six-story building where Tess lived elicited another gasp from Molly and, though Nick remained silent, Tess saw that his eyes widened, too. It had been renovated by a well-known architect when the area was undergoing a transformation from its more humble origins.

“You live here?”

Tess almost smiled at the wobble in Nick’s voice. She guessed what he was thinking. “Yes, but don’t worry. It’s not really a factory—just looks a bit like one from the outside.”

She unlocked the exterior door and led them into a foyer festooned with thick, multicolored tubular pipes that ran back and forth along the ceiling.

“I feel like I’m in Legoland,” Molly gasped.

“Yeah, right,” Nick scoffed. Still, his eyes gleamed as they scanned the foyer.

“Neat, isn’t it?” Tess remarked.

“Neat?”

There was a hint of disdain in his voice. “Well, whatever kids say these days,” she said.

“Yeah, whatever,” he mumbled.

When they were on the elevator going up to Tess’s sixth-floor loft, Molly unexpectedly asked, “Do you have any other brothers or sisters?”

“God,” muttered Nick. “She didn’t even know she had us.”

“That’s not her fault,” Molly put in. “Anyway, we didn’t know about her either, until after the…”

Her unspoken word—accident—boomed in the silence. Tess struggled to find something to say, but was saved by the elevator reaching her floor. She stepped out first, noticing that now both kids were pale-faced and red-eyed. If Mavis were here, she thought, she’d feed them and send them to bed.

They didn’t utter a word when she unlocked her door, but Nick’s jaw dropped slightly and Molly gasped. The ten-foot ceiling-to-floor windows facing east afforded an impressive view of Lake Michigan. Since Tess spent most of her time at the office, she’d devoted little effort to furnishings. The sparseness of the condo added to the effect of space and light created by the unadorned windows.

The children stood in the doorway until Tess herded them inside. “The kitchen’s at the end of this main room and the bathroom’s off that hall there,” she said, pointing to her right, “just before the bedroom.”

“Is there a door on the bathroom?” Molly asked.

Tess smiled. “For sure. And on my bedroom, too.”

“Where will we sleep?”

“We’ll work that out. Just put your stuff anywhere. Are you two hungry? I know you just ate something but I can order pizza.”

“We just had french fries,” Molly said. “But by the time the pizza comes, I know I’ll be ready for it.”

Tess smiled. “What about you, Nick? Pizza?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

Tess hesitated. Did he want her to persuade him some more? Or was he really so indifferent?

“I only like pepperoni on mine,” said Molly, advancing farther into the living room.

“Oh?” Tess paused. She hadn’t given a thought to preferences. “And what about you, Nick?”

“Same,” he mumbled, letting his pack fall to the floor.

“Okay,” Tess murmured, mentally bidding goodbye to her usual feta, spinach and roasted red peppers. She headed for the galley kitchen at the opposite end of the room and used the telephone on the counter there to order. When she finished, she opened the refrigerator and took out the half bottle of Chardonnay she’d been sipping on that week. She’d just finished pouring a glass when she glanced up to see Molly watching her from the other side of the counter. “Uh, thirsty?”

Molly nodded. “But I don’t drink wine,” she said.

“I’ve got some cranberry juice and mineral water.”

Molly’s face screwed up in thought. “No milk?”

“Sorry. I drink my coffee black.”

“Apple juice?”

“Only cranberry. But if you want, I can call the pizza place back and get them to bring some pop with the order.”

The face brightened. “Okay! Coke, please.”

Tess reached for the phone. “Nick?” she asked.

He was standing in front of one of the windows, staring out. There was something about the slump of his shoulders. Maybe he wasn’t as tough as he was trying to be. “Sure,” he finally said.

“What kind?” Tess asked, impatience edging her voice.

Molly whispered, “He likes Coke, too.”

That settled it as far as Tess was concerned and she quickly made the phone call before there could be any more changes. Once the pizza arrived and had been devoured in what Tess considered an alarmingly short time, the two kids were sagging into the pillows on the sofa, mesmerized by a television show Tess had never seen before in her life. She glanced across the room at the clock in the kitchen nook. Not quite seven o’clock. Normally she wouldn’t be home for another hour. Perhaps she could do some work after they went to bed. The problem was, where was bed going to be?

“Does this couch pull out?” Nick asked some time later. “Molly’s fallen asleep.”

Tess glanced up from the newspaper she was reading. Molly was slumped over in a corner of the sofa. “No, it doesn’t pull out, but one of you can sleep there.”

“Then it’ll have to be me,” he said, “so Molly can sleep with you.”

Tess wasn’t sure whether to marvel at the way he took charge of the situation or his omission at seeking her approval of the plan. Without waiting for a reply, Nick shook Molly awake. Tess headed for the bedroom, followed by Nick dragging Molly behind him. As soon as Tess drew back the bedcover, Molly flopped onto the bed.

“She can sleep in her underwear,” Nick said. “You take off her clothes while I set up the couch.”

Tess watched him leave the room. Obviously, he’d had plenty of experience at looking after Molly. In spite of his constant bickering with her on the way home, Nick really cared for his sister. Tess figured that, except for providing a place to stay and paying for dinner, the two didn’t really need her at all.

Which was good, she thought, considering that after tomorrow they’d be gone and she could get on with her life. Encouraged by that, she tucked Molly under the covers and headed for the linen closet to get some bedding for Nick.

He’d changed into a T-shirt and sweatpants and was watching a baseball game on television. He hurriedly flicked off the set when she entered the room.

“Go ahead and watch it if you want. I’ve some work to do anyway. I can set up my laptop on the kitchen counter,” she said, setting a comforter and pillow on the sofa next to him.

He mumbled something inaudible, but turned the set back on as he sank farther into the cushions. His hair was spiked up from pulling the T-shirt over his head and, against the bulky frame of the couch, he appeared much younger than his thirteen years. Tess suddenly recalled what Alec Malone had said about the kids reaching Chicago all on their own, despite never having been outside Boulder.

“How did you manage to get all the way to Chicago?”

His answer was nonchalant, as if he’d made the journey many times. “Bus to Denver and airplane here. We took a taxi from the airport to your office ’cause I couldn’t figure out the transit map.”

Welcome to the club, she was thinking. “And how did you pay for the tickets?”

The look he gave her was a blend of embarrassment and pride. He hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “I used my dad’s credit card for the airfare. I was at our house getting some things with Alec. There was a stack of mail and Alec asked me to go through it to separate out the junk. One of the envelopes was my dad’s new credit card and when Alec wasn’t looking, I…well, I kinda kept it in case I might need it.”

“Some airline clerk let you use a credit card?”

“I bought the tickets over the Internet. It wasn’t hard.”

Tess let that register a moment. “So when you took the credit card, you obviously were planning to run away.”

His head turned sharply away from her gaze.

“Weren’t you?”

The face that swung back to her was red, contorted with anger. “They were gonna separate us, put us in different foster homes. And then Molly’d probably be adopted because she’s little and cute and I’m a teenager. No one wants teenagers.” Nick swiped a hand across his eyes. “And I’d lose my sister.”

Tess tried to think of something to say but found she couldn’t speak at all. When she finally managed to, she knew she had blundered the instant the words came out. “Well, I’m sure you’ll still be able to see one another.”

She didn’t know when she’d last felt so intimidated by a look. He flicked off the television, tossed the remote aside, got up from the couch and headed for the bathroom. She noted the square set of his adolescent shoulders, somehow more adultlike from behind, and oddly familiar.

Tess closed her eyes, forcing herself to stay calm when the bathroom door slammed shut. She began cleaning up plates, glasses and leftover pizza crusts and was just setting up her laptop on the diner-style eating counter at the kitchen end of the room when Nick returned. Without a word, he placed some of the couch cushions onto the coffee table, turned off the lamp next to it and lay down, his back to Tess.

She watched him for a bit, then slipped her disk into the computer and logged into her file. After a long silence, she said, “I’m sorry, Nick, I didn’t mean to sound so unfeeling. But really…this Alec Malone sounds like he has your best interests at heart. I’m sure he’d see that you and Molly would keep in touch.” Her voice trailed off into the room.

Nick didn’t say a word. He was either asleep, she decided, or pretending to be. She turned her attention back to her work but after ten minutes, gave it up. On her way into her bedroom, she pulled the comforter over him and quietly said good-night.

Molly was sprawled in the middle of the bed. Tess stared down at her small face, flushed with sleep, then gently rolled her over until there was enough room for herself. She took her nightwear—designer T-shirt and boxer shorts—out of a drawer and went to the bathroom to change. The silent and shapeless lump that was Nick didn’t move as Tess walked back and forth to the bathroom and the kitchen for her nightly glass of water.

By the time Tess got back to the bedroom, Molly had reclaimed the bed’s center. She repeated the rollover, climbed in and automatically reached for her bedside reading, the latest literary prize winner. But after several attempts at the first paragraph of a new chapter, Tess set the book aside, extinguished the light and sat, propped against her pillows to think. Snippets of unrelated and varied events whose only connecting strand was her father overwhelmed her.

English Leather aftershave and the patch of toilet paper on his cheek or neck. Battle wounds, he’d tease. You’ll have them someday, but on your legs. Tess never understood what he’d meant until she was a teenager and by then, she’d made herself stop thinking about her father anyway. She recalled how he’d swing her up into the air or let her climb onto his back while he rode her around their tiny living room. And last of all, the way he’d marched down the sidewalk that day, his shoulders ramrod straight.

Like Nick’s, Tess thought. She expelled a mouthful of the day’s emotion, held in check the way she’d taught herself so many years ago, and sank under the covers. Eventually, she fell asleep until cries in the night shook her awake.

“I want my mommy,” wailed Molly, over and over.

Tess turned over to find the girl sitting upright, in the middle of the bed again. Using her elbows to push herself up, Tess wrapped her arm across Molly’s trembling shoulders and drew her closer.

“Shhh! It’s okay, Molly.”

Molly tucked herself into the crook of Tess’s arm and sobbed for a few more minutes before dropping off to sleep once more. Wide-eyed and soggy from Molly’s tears, Tess lay perfectly still and awake until the break of day.

BY THE TIME the taxi pulled up in front of her condo building, Tess was ready to call it a day. The problem was, it was barely past one o’clock. She’d gotten out of bed at six-thirty when a pert and lively Molly, unscathed by the night’s tearful episode, insisted on watching the Saturday morning cartoon shows. Tess had reluctantly joined her, offering her now empty bed to Nick whose adolescent sleep patterns demanded extra time.

Two hours later, when Nick finally arose, Tess staggered zombielike to the street below in search of supplies for breakfast and lunch.

“I said I wanted Corn Pops,” Molly had whined at her return.

Nick had merely eyed the health food store granola that Tess was holding and had grumbled, “Even Cheerios would’ve been better.”

The trip to Lincoln Park Zoo had been more successful. Molly seemed enchanted by everything she saw while Nick’s mood grudgingly improved at the familiar presence of junk food. But Tess quickly realized that the delights of the zoo and the warm, sunny day couldn’t compensate for lack of sleep or the strain of strangers being thrust together. She found herself checking her watch at frequent intervals, all the while wondering exactly when Alec Malone would arrive. At one point, after breaking up a noisy exchange between brother and sister, Tess had an alarming thought— What if he doesn’t even come?

When the taxi rounded the corner of her street, Tess almost swooned in relief at the sight of her building. She longed for her weekly routine of reading the Saturday papers ensconced in the downy comfort of her new armchair, a cup of freshly brewed coffee at hand and the latest Dave Matthews CD pulsing softly in the background.

Then Molly dug her elbow into Nick’s ribs because he’d accidentally stepped on her foot and Tess’s mental replay of her typical Saturday morning unspooled. Tess thrust a handful of bills at the taxi driver and marched around the front of the cab to yank open the rear passenger door.

“Enough already!” she cried, her voice a notch louder than she’d intended.

As a pinch-faced Molly struggled out, her foot caught on part of the released seat belt and she tumbled out of the cab. Tess rushed to catch her before she hit the pavement, but, frightened by the near accident, Molly began to sob.

Nick slid from the car and, realizing his sister hadn’t been hurt, berated her for being such a baby. That set off another round of sobs. Tess stood helplessly beside them and, aware that her morning fantasy was never going to happen, raised her palms to her face.

“Long morning?” a deep, male voice drawled from behind.

Lowering her hands, Tess whirled around, registering Nick’s grin and Molly’s shriek of delight all in the same instant. They rushed to the man’s side, Molly wrapping herself around a solid frame well over Tess’s own height of five-eight and standing, legs astride a canvas duffel bag, a few feet away. Nick gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder.

“Alec! Alec!” cried Molly, her tumble completely forgotten as she danced around the man and his luggage. Nick, now the image of benign tolerance, moved farther apart so she could squeeze in closer, latching on to Malone mid-thigh.

“Hey, hey. Let me say hello to your sister,” he said, laughing as he pried his leg loose from Molly’s clutch and gently clasped her hand in his. Then, taking a big step forward, he extended his free hand to Tess and said, “Miss Wheaton, I presume?” at which Molly giggled and Nick snorted.

Tess, still tuning in to the fact that the word sister had meant her, merely stared dumbly. His big hand touched hers briefly, then let go. He took off the baseball cap he was wearing, releasing a shock of thick, sandy-red hair. His hazel eyes, swirled with bits of green and amber, swept over Tess from head to toe. When they returned to her face, their expression shifted ever so slightly, she thought.

“Looks like everyone—including you—is ready to call it a day,” he said.

On cue, Molly complained, “I’m hungry and Tess doesn’t have any good food.”

Nick, however, got straight to the point. “When are you taking us back, Alec?”

Without taking his eyes off Tess, Malone replied, “Guess that’s up to Miss Wheaton here, Nick. How about if we go inside and talk things over?”

Knowing she was being put on the spot, Tess felt a rush of annoyance. She glanced at the children, their faces turned expectantly toward hers. As if she would be announcing a decision about their future that very instant, she thought. She decided the man was as impossible in real life as he’d been on the telephone.

“Of course,” she mumbled and made for the front door of her building.

“What about lunch?” cried Molly.

Her back to them, Tess paused long enough to hear Alec Malone say, “There’s a submarine sandwich place just around the corner. I’ll go get some while you go inside with your sister.”

“I’m coming with you,” Nick quickly said.

“Me, too,” added Molly.

Tess half turned to catch an expression of helpless amusement from Malone. “Do you mind?” he asked her.

“Why should I?”

His smile vanished. “Just asking. Would you like a sandwich?”

“No, thank you. I’m in number 601,” she murmured and turned her back again to insert her key into the front door. She heard them chatting happily as they walked away and, stepping into the foyer, had the distinct sensation of being cut right out of the picture. Though why that bothered her, she couldn’t explain.

CHAPTER THREE

TESS PRETENDED to be engrossed in the laptop screen when they returned, bustling into her living space as if they’d been part of it forever. A sudden resentment at their noisy intrusion flared up. She wondered how long it would take to sort out this situation and get on with her life.

“We brought you one, too, Tess. In case you changed your mind.” Molly’s voice was pitched high with excitement.

Tess glanced up from her computer and organized her face into a passable smile. Oblivious to the fact that she was trying to work, Alec Malone and Nick began to open paper bags and pull the tabs on soda cans. Tess bit down on her lip when Malone asked where she kept the plates. Before she could answer, Nick pointed to a cupboard above the sink. Tess rolled her eyes in exasperation. A full-blown invasion was taking place right beneath her nose and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.

She didn’t realize Molly was standing in front of her until she detected a slight movement. The little girl’s smile was less enthusiastic now.

“Aren’t you hungry, Tess?” she asked. “We got you one with roasted vegetables and fatty cheese.” She held a paper bag in her small hand.

“Feta cheese,” corrected Nick.

“Whatever. Alec said you’d probably choose that one if you were there.”

And what’s that supposed to mean? That he’s got me all figured out? Or worse—that in his eyes I represent some kind of yuppy stereotype? The fact that his choice had been right on the mark made it even more galling.

Tess knew Molly was waiting for a response. The problem was, the only one she felt like making would be quite inappropriate. Like telling them all to leave.

“Maybe we should let Tess finish up there first, Molly. Why don’t you put her sandwich in the fridge for now? The three of us can take ours over to the couch,” Alec suggested.

Heat rose into Tess’s face. Now he was answering for her! She clicked out of her program and pushed the laptop aside. “It’s okay, Molly. I’d like that sandwich now, after all. We can eat here at the counter.”

Alec paused midway from the counter to the couch area. The look he flashed Tess told her he saw right through her effort to gain control. Still, he turned and headed for a stool at the counter.

Nick was less accommodating. “I wanted to watch TV,” he complained.

“Later, fella,” Alec said. “We can talk—get to know each other.”

Nick snorted. “What’s the point? We already know you, and she’s not going to be in our lives much longer anyway.”

“She has a name, so use it. As for the other point, we haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Silenced, Nick sullenly picked up his sandwich and began to eat.

Tess stared at the wrapped sandwich on the countertop in front of her. Her appetite took a nosedive. Nick’s retort stung, though she couldn’t explain why. It was true that she wasn’t going to be in their lives much longer and intellectually, she understood why he rejected the idea of getting to know her better. She herself felt much the same. What she couldn’t fathom was the niggling doubt in the back of her mind. The sense that, somehow, she’d made two children unhappy and now it was up to her to make things better. But how?

“Not hungry?”

She looked up to find Alec Malone staring at her. The expression in his eyes was softer now. Tess shook her head.

“Want a coffee?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Sure. I can make some.”

“No. I meant, would you like to go out for one? I noticed a place just around the corner.”

“But the kids—”

“Will be fine. Right, guys?”

Nick and Molly nodded, glancing at the same time from one to the other.

“Maybe Tess won’t mind if you eat at the couch—long as you’re careful.” He wrapped up the rest of his sandwich and got off the bar stool.

“What about your lunch?” Tess asked.

“Later. Right now, we need to talk.” He watched Nick and Molly settle themselves a few feet away on the couch. “Alone,” he added.

Although Tess knew he was taking charge again, she also knew he was right. And the talk had to be done away from the kids. “They won’t—”

“Run away again? Nah. But just to be sure…” He headed for the couch and leaned over to whisper something to Nick, then walked toward the door to wait for Tess.

She put her sandwich in the fridge and went to the bedroom to get her keys and wallet. Nick and Molly were both engrossed in the TV when she joined Alec at the door. She paused. “There’s frozen yogurt if you two want any dessert.”

Nick glanced up. “Any ice cream?”

“No, but…it’s strawberry yogurt.”

He gave a half shrug, as if that was better than nothing, then turned his attention to the television again.

“I like frozen yogurt,” Molly piped up. “Thanks, Tess.” She waved her fingers and resumed eating her sandwich.

Tess locked the door behind them and followed Alec to the elevator. His stiff, broad back looked ready for inspection. If it weren’t for his hair, thick and fringing slightly at the nape of his neck, she’d have pegged him for a military man. He didn’t say a word as they waited for the elevator. Either small talk wasn’t his style, or he was ticked off at her. His demeanor suggested the latter.

But as the elevator slid to the ground floor, he finally murmured, “The kids have been through a lot.”

“I can see that,” Tess said.

“Can you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, offended by the tone of his question.

“Just that from your manner, it seems you can only see how their unexpected appearance has impacted on you.”

Tess felt her blood pressure skyrocket. Or perhaps it was the elevator, lurching to a stop at the condo lobby. Speechless, she tagged behind him out the main door and onto the sidewalk.

“That’s the most unfair thing I’ve heard since—”

“Since what? Hearing your father was dead or finding out you had a brother and sister?”

Was her own face as red as his, she wondered? Was that why people were turning around to look at them? She strode ahead, making for the Starbucks around the corner. The familiarity of the place calmed her. This was her turf after all. She could be in charge again. By the time he caught up to her, she’d already placed her order at the counter.

She carried her cafe latte to her favorite table and watched him, secretly congratulating herself on avoiding a song and dance about who would pay. He was speaking pleasantly to the female counter clerk, laughing about something she’d said. Behaving as if he hadn’t been on the verge of exploding moments ago.

When he turned to walk toward her, Tess also realized for the first time how good-looking he was. Not her type, of course. Too athletic and rugged. But she noticed how the clerk’s eyes tracked him to where Tess was sitting, then shifted away in obvious disappointment as he took the seat across from her.

“First off,” he began once he’d set his mug of regular coffee down. “I apologize for what I said back there. I was out of line.”

Out of line? He must have been in the military.

“None of this is your fault—any more than it’s Nick or Molly’s.” His tawny eyes met hers briefly, then lowered to his coffee. He blew gently on the brew, sipped carefully and set it on the table.

Giving her time to come up with an opening line, she asked herself? Tess forced herself to outwait him, thinking she’d rather see where the talk was going to go.

“I can appreciate how your world’s kinda been flipped upside down the last twenty-four hours,” he said.

Kinda? I guess.

“Finding out your father’s dead and all.”

“As far as I’m concerned, my father died twenty-five years ago when he walked out of my life.”

His eyes flicked abruptly from the coffee mug to her face. “Sorry. I didn’t realize when I spoke with you yesterday that he’d basically abandoned you. I just assumed…you know…that your folks had divorced.”

“Well, they did eventually I suppose, because he went on to marry someone else.” She paused. “And don’t be sorry…please! I’ve managed to put all that out of my life.”

“Until yesterday.”

It was her turn to stare down at her coffee, still untouched.

After a moment, he said, “I guess that explains your reluctance to get involved.”

Reluctance? How does refusal sound?

He went on. “But unfortunately, the past has reared its ugly head, as the saying goes. Nick and Molly are your family now.”

Tess raised her head. “I haven’t had a family for several years, Mr. Malone. At least, not the family most people mean. My mother spent most of her life after my father left us in and out of psychiatric hospitals until her death. When I was fourteen my guardian applied for legal custody.”

“Call me Alec—please.” He reached across the table and placed his hand on hers.

Startled by the sudden contact, Tess quickly pulled hers away.

“Look, I’m sorry about what happened but it’s got nothing to do with Nick and Molly. They may not seem like family to you, but they’re your flesh and blood.”

“Half siblings,” she muttered.

“Half is more than enough,” he said, lowering his voice. “I think I should fill you in on some of what the kids have gone through these past few weeks. So, enjoy your latte and listen up.”

Not wanting to know, yet accepting that she needed to, Tess reached for her drink.

“I guess by now Walker has given you the details of the accident—hasn’t he?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t spoken to him directly yet. I just got the letter on Thursday and yesterday…”

Alec pursed his lips in disgust. “Yeah. The kids turned up on your doorstep. Walker could’ve handled the whole damn thing with a bit more sensitivity, but that’s not his style. Anyway, Richard and Gabriela—his wife—were killed when their car went off a mountain road outside Boulder. That was the end of March.”

“The twenty-eighth,” Tess said.

He nodded. “The police investigation didn’t turn up anything—you know, like drugs or alcohol—and concluded Richard had lost control of the car for some reason. Maybe to avoid an animal. It happened at night and it was snowing.”

Tess blew an audible sigh. She wished he’d get to the point, rather than dwell on an accident scene she’d rather not envision.

“Okay, sorry. I’m wandering. Bad habit of mine. Some trucker found the car the next morning and called the police. Apparently both kids had sleepovers that night and didn’t find out until afternoon, when police finally tracked them down. Boulder County Child Protective Services—where I work—got involved as soon as they learned there was no next of kin. Both kids went to the same foster home but that’s a temporary arrangement. I’ve done my damnedest to find a place that’ll take both of them, but so far haven’t been able to.” He hunched forward, wrapping two large hands around his half-empty mug of coffee.

“When I first met Nick and Molly, they still had that shocked appearance most trauma victims have. Ashen-faced with haunted eyes. They were passive, almost apathetic in their grief. Clutching one another and not really speaking to anyone else for the first week. Friends of the family and some neighbors made funeral arrangements on Walker’s instructions. He’s the family lawyer.”

An expression of such contempt crossed his face that Tess had to comment. “What is it between you and Jed Walker? On the phone yesterday you made some negative comment about him, too.”

“It’s a long story and it’s personal so I guess I’d better stick to the facts here. Until a week ago, Walker didn’t know you even existed.” He paused, adding, “Which means, of course, that you weren’t mentioned in the will.”

“I’d have been more than surprised if I had been.”

His eyes fixed on hers a moment longer before he continued. “Right. So when the kids learned about you, they saw you as a lifeline. Someone to keep them together.”

Dry-mouthed, Tess sipped the dregs of her latte and searched frantically for the response she knew he was waiting for. C’mon girl. Pretend you’re negotiating a price for an ad campaign. He’s a social worker from Colorado. How hard can it be to convince him the kids are better off where they are?

“You have to understand—”

“Oh, I do,” he interrupted. “For twenty-five years you’ve lived under the impression that Richard Wheaton was gone for good. In less than forty-eight hours you discover that not only has he just recently died, but he’s also left behind two children who happen to be your half brother and sister. Who also happen to be minors.”

Tess frowned. Was he implying she was legally bound? “I don’t think there’s a law, is there? That I have to take them in?”

Alec leaned back against his chair. Tess winced at the pitying look he flashed her.

“No,” he said, his voice so low she had to lean forward to hear. “I doubt it. Although I think there’s definitely a moral responsibility.”

“If they need money,” she rushed to say, “I can certainly help with that.”

He shook his head from side to side. The pitying look shifted to one of utter despair. As if, she thought, he’d given up on her.

“They have money, too. The estate is worth quite a lot. Another reason why they need family to supervise things, rather than some hotshot lawyer like Jed Walker.”

“Then…”

“They need a family, Tess. They need to feel part of something. Their whole lives have been blown apart. Molly’s only six years old.”

Tess stiffened. “I was barely eight when my father left. I know what it feels like.”

“But you had a mother.”

“A mentally ill mother. I practically raised myself.”

He blew out a mouthful of air and forked his fingers through his hair, making it stand up in thick clumps. “We’re getting off track here. The point of the matter is that unless you intervene—become their legal guardian—those two kids will be split up and could eventually lose each other completely. Molly has a good chance of being adopted, but Nick…few people are willing to take on a boy just entering his teens.”

Exactly what Nick had said, Tess realized. Still, she couldn’t let the fact influence her. The matter had to be settled. She straightened up, ready for the negotiation. “Look,” she began. “About six months ago I was promoted to Vice President of Marketing at the company where I work. It’s a demanding job. I work basically anywhere from ten to twelve hours a day. I take work home and spend most weekends working.”

She paused to let that register, but he didn’t look impressed. “I couldn’t physically be there for them, much less emotionally. Frankly, they’d be better off in a family context, even if an adoptive one.”

“Family context?” He sneered. “Sounds like something out of a sociology textbook.”

Tess felt her face heat up, but decided to play her next card. “I’d be willing to visit once or twice a year.”

“Wonderful. That should really keep the family context concept alive and kicking.”

“There’s no need for sarcasm. I thought we were trying to negotiate something here. To nail down a deal.”

Alec rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. “Omigod, you really do see it that way, don’t you?”

She had a sense of floundering in deep water. It was an unfamiliar feeling—that she might be handling the matter all wrong—and she couldn’t think of a smart comeback.

“Doesn’t it occur to you,” he went on, “that sometimes we have to give things up for the sake of others? That we have to put on hold our own dreams so that we can help out someone else?”

Tess drew a blank. Was he talking about her or himself? “Are you asking me—”

“To give up some of that time. Yes! A good nanny can manage the daily routines, but take off one day a week and the weekends.”

Blood pounded in her ears. “I can’t possibly do that,” Tess said. “My job is all I have.”

The persuasion in his face vanished. He shook his head sadly. “God,” he said in a low voice. “I’m so very sorry for you. Your own childhood experience has obviously made it impossible for you to look at this situation another way.”

Tess bristled at the pity in his voice. “Apparently you are unable to view this in any other way yourself.” And that, Tess realized, pretty much ended the conversation.

NICK TURNED off the television as soon as they entered the condo. He took one look at them and slumped back into the couch cushions. Guessing, Alec figured, that no decision had been made. Or no deal, as Tess would have put it. He felt sick at the thought of breaking the news to the kids, but then realized at once that he wasn’t going to give up so easily. Their return flight to Denver wasn’t until four o’clock the next day. He still had a little more than twenty-four hours to convince Tess Wheaton it was in her best interests to basically rearrange her whole life.

Yeah, right. In spite of her damn good looks, she was definitely no pushover. Not as soft inside as she appeared on the out. And no wonder, given the childhood snapshot she’d shown him. Still, that was no excuse for shirking one’s duty to family. That was something he himself had finally learned, after a rocky adolescence and reality-checking career in the armed forces. The one thing you could count on at the end of a long hard day—whether your job was slugging it out in a factory or dropping bombs for NATO—was family. So maybe Tess Wheaton didn’t know that yet, but there was no reason why she couldn’t learn.

“Okay, guys,” he said, hoping his voice didn’t sound as hollow as it felt. “Ready to hit the arcades?” He saw Tess frown, not knowing what he meant. Maybe afraid she’d have to get involved in yet another project. Just itching to turn that laptop back on again. He felt a surge of anger, but stifled it. That wasn’t the way he’d win the battle.

“Before we went out for coffee,” he explained, “I told Nick I’d take him and Molly to play some games.”

She looked blank.

“You know,” Alec explained. “Computer games. Shoot-outs and all that.”

“Oh, those things,” she said, dismissing them with a slight upturning of lip.

For a second, Alec wondered if he was on the right track with his idea to get her back to Colorado. She didn’t know kids at all. Except for the offer of frozen strawberry yogurt, she’d struck out completely. And even that had been more of a walk than a real hit. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for the role of surrogate parent. She definitely didn’t look the part. Her slender, tall frame, jet hair and dramatic green eyes suggested a fashion model rather than the shrewd businesswoman she must be to make the executive echelon at her age.

Nick was on his feet and halfway to the door before Alec had a chance to remind him about returning his empty plate to the kitchen area. He went back to the couch and got Molly’s half-eaten sandwich and pop can, too. Eager to please, Alec realized. Wanting to get something out of the trip to Chicago, even if only a couple of hours in a games arcade. Before he had to go back to Boulder and face a bloody awful future. Resentment against Tess flowed through him. I’m not giving up yet.

“Coming, Molly?” Alec asked.

She was sprawled against the cushions. Her face, usually rosy-cheeked, was pale against the navy-blue-and-white-striped fabric. “I’m tired,” she said.

Alec glanced across at Tess, hovering near the kitchen counter. He passed her what he hoped was a meaningful look and finally she got it.

“Molly can stay and have a nap on my bed, if she wants.”

Generous of you. “Okay, Molly, catch forty winks. When we get back, there’s dinner out and maybe a movie.”

The small face broke into a heartbreaking smile. How could Tess not be moved by that wattage, he asked himself? But when he turned his head her way, he saw that she was raising the lid on her laptop. Alec sighed. Twenty-four hours. He hoped he was up to the job.

“WHAT ARE forty winks, Tess?” Molly asked as soon as the door closed behind Nick and Alec.

Tess pressed the On button of her computer. “It’s an old expression, meaning to take a short nap. People don’t say it very much anymore.”

“Except Alec,” giggled Molly. “He says lots of funny things.”

“I bet,” murmured Tess as she clicked open her file. Then she looked across the room. “I thought you were sleepy.”

“Aren’t you going to tuck me in?”

“For a nap?”

Molly struggled up and perched on the edge of the couch. “Someone always tucked me in whenever I got into bed.” Her voice trembled.

Tess had a sudden flash who that someone must have been. Her mother or father. Personally, she couldn’t recall either one of her parents doing that for her. But Mavis had, when she’d moved in with her. For at least the whole first year. “All right,” she said, minimizing the window on the laptop screen. “Tuck-in time!”

Molly giggled again. “Is that like nap time?”

Tess shrugged. “I guess.”

“You say funny things, too. Like Alec.”

That name overrode the mild pleasure at being called funny. Tess motioned toward the bedroom. “C’mon, then.”

Molly followed her into the bedroom and was on the bed before Tess had the comforter pulled back. When the small dark head hit the pillow, Tess said, “Okay, how does tuck-in go?”

Molly grinned. “You really don’t know anything about kids, do you?”

“Who said that?”

“Alec did, at the sub place. He said we had to give you some time and space ’cause you didn’t know anything about kids.”

Tess sniffed. “Huh. And I suppose he’s an expert, having a hundred of them at home himself.”

Molly’s laugh rang out. “He’s not even married, silly!”

“That’s not surprising,” Tess muttered under her breath. “So now you’re tucked in, I’ll go do some work.”

“Wait!” Molly’s smile disappeared. “You’re not finished yet.”

“I’m not?”

A shake of raven curls. “Nope. First you kiss me, then you sit for a few minutes until I feel sleepy.”

Okay, Tess. You can do this. Shouldn’t take more than another five minutes.

She sat on the side of the bed and leaned over to kiss Molly on the cheek. The girl’s eyelids fluttered as she popped a thumb into her mouth. She must have taken in Tess’s expression for she pulled it out long enough to say, “It’s okay. I’m giving it up later, when things are back to normal.”

Tess couldn’t help but smile. “A good idea,” she murmured.

Molly nodded. She withdrew the thumb again. “It was Alec’s. He said as long as I’m not sucking it when I’m walking down the aisle, I’ll be okay. I don’t know what he means but if he says it’s okay—”

“It must be,” Tess agreed. In spite of the reminder that Alec was, once again, proven to be such a superhero, she had to admit he obviously knew more about kids than she did.

The thumb was returned and Molly closed her eyes. Tess stared down at the heart-shaped face, small and delicate against the oversized pillow. She was a beautiful little girl, she thought. They both had Richard Wheaton’s thick, dark and curly hair and bright-green eyes. For a moment, she wondered what else they shared in common.

Tess waited while Molly fidgeted restlessly, getting comfortable. She reached out a hand to brush back a tendril of hair from Molly’s forehead and began to gently stroke the smooth skin in a circular pattern. When she pulled her hand away before getting up to leave, Molly’s eyes fluttered open.

She withdrew her thumb just enough to be able to say, “Daddy does that, too.”

Tess froze. She had a sudden memory of lying in a bed herself, someone bending over and stroking her brow. Had that been Richard? Or was her memory playing tricks on her?

Molly fidgeted some more, then Tess resumed the stroking until the girl was fast asleep.

“I’M STUFFED,” announced Molly, plunking her fork onto the plate of half-eaten pasta. She leaned forward to ask, in a dramatic whisper, “Do they do doggie bags here?”

Tess laughed, catching Alec’s startled expression out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to make some gibe about having a sense of humor after all, but sensed it might spoil the neutral ambience of the evening so far.

Dinner at the funky Italian restaurant she and Mavis had discovered years ago had been a success. Her first of the day, she thought, and was surprised how that pleased her. Even Nick had shown—though not verbally—obvious enjoyment of the noisy restaurant as waitstaff and cooks hollered orders back and forth. The eclectic array of items decorating the walls, along with the clotheslines strung from wall to wall and festooned with photographs of various celebrities who’d dined there, had been the subject of most of the dinner talk.

“They do doggie bags,” Tess replied. “Believe me. I’ve taken many home from here.”

When the bill arrived she and Alec had a brief debate over who was paying. He insisted that his expense account would cover it, but Tess was skeptical.

Nick and Molly were busily examining some of the decor on their way to the door when the waitress returned with change.

“You have a nice family,” she remarked.

Tess felt her face redden but Alec acted as though he hadn’t heard. As they walked out behind the kids, she had the odd sensation of being part of a group. Although the feeling didn’t take long to evaporate.

Out on the sidewalk, Molly and Nick were already bickering. Tess grit her teeth. She didn’t have the faintest idea how to get them to stop and suspected her impulse to scream would be deemed totally inappropriate.

“It’s been a long day for them,” Alec said in her right ear.

“Hasn’t it for all of us?”

“Yes, but they’re only kids. This is how they deal with stress.” He paused a beat before asking, “What do you do about it?”

She shot him a questioning look.

“Stress,” he repeated.

“Sometimes I go for a run—if the weather’s good.”

“Never felt inclined to snap at people?”

She stiffened at the indulgent smile in his face.

“No. Why should I? Sometimes the orders I give out are a bit more…brusque.”

“Ah, well. I suppose when you’re at the top of the heap, there’s no objection to…orders.”

Tess found his grin irritating. Why was he always trying to bait her? What had she ever done to him? Self-pity surged through her. She knew what it felt like to be abandoned.

“What time will you be picking up the children tomorrow?”

The grin vanished. “I…uh…I thought maybe I’d come round early. Bring breakfast with me.”

“If you like,” she said and, turning her back to walk up the steps to the condo, heard him say good-night to Nick and Molly.

“I’ll see you two at breakfast, okay?”

“Aren’t you staying here, too, Alec? We were supposed to watch videos.”

For a tense second Tess froze on the steps, afraid one of the children would ask if he could, but fortunately Alec quickly said, “No, I’ve got a hotel room near the airport. And I think everyone’s far too tired for videos tonight, Molly.”

Relieved, Tess continued on inside, holding the door open while the children waved to Alec as he climbed into a taxi. Then they turned and walked, slump-shouldered with disappointment, toward Tess.

Once upstairs, Nick sullenly set to making up his bed on the couch. Molly didn’t ask to be tucked in, but lay silently staring up at Tess, her unblinking eyes tracking her every move until Tess switched off the light. She made for the bathroom and a hot shower, happy to have the day come to an end at last. She just wished she felt better about their leaving the next day.

CHAPTER FOUR

SOBS TORE INTO the quiet night, wrenching Tess from sleep. She sat up, disoriented, searching the darkness for a familiar landmark. She found one almost at once—the pale marine glow from her laptop monitor on the table beside her.

She’d fallen asleep in the easy chair opposite the couch. The draft of a report lay strewn on the floor at her feet and the shape now rising from the dark space occupied by the couch must be Nick.

They both hit the bedroom door at the same time. Tess had left one of the bedside lamps on when she’d said good-night to Molly and was glad she had. Otherwise, she and Nick could have crashed into the bed, frightening even more an already distraught Molly.

“I want my mommy and daddy,” she cried. She was sitting huddled in the center of the bed, wiping at her eyes with both fists.

Tess reached Molly’s side first and bent over to wrap an arm around her shoulders. But Molly pushed her arm away with a strength belying her delicate frame. “I want Nick,” she wailed, her voice pitching to near hysteria.

Nick crawled up the bed from the end where he’d been standing and pulled Molly against him. Tess stood back, watching brother and sister in a scene that must have occurred many times since their parents’ death.

“Shhh! It’s okay Molly. Just another bad dream. I’m here.”

“Don’t leave me, Nick. Promise you won’t leave me,” she sobbed, tucking her head into the crook of his shoulder.

He lowered his face to the top of her head and murmured, “I won’t leave you, I promise.”

He was still comforting her, repeating those words over and over, when Tess left the room, softly closing the door behind them. She returned to the chair and sagged into it, covering her face with her hands. Thinking. Remembering again the day her father walked out, leaving her behind. Did she seriously think she could do the same?

AS SOON as he walked in the door, Alec sensed that a change had taken place. He couldn’t put his finger on it, because everyone seemed just as subdued as they’d been when he’d left last night. Molly didn’t rush to greet him and Nick was blasé about the box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts Alec was holding, along with two large coffees and a bottle of orange juice.

Tess was tidying up things at the kitchen counter and, in spite of dark circles beneath her eyes, gave him what could have passed for a friendly greeting in the real world. A spark of indignation fired deep inside Alec as he wondered if her improved mood had anything to do with the fact that they’d all be out of her life in a few short hours. Or maybe he was ticked off because the greeting wasn’t quite as friendly as he’d have liked it. He dismissed the notion at once. Wanting to establish a warmer relationship with the woman was natural, given his objective of bringing her around to taking the kids. It was just that a small part of him—a part he was unable to ignore the more he was in Tess’s presence—wanted her to like him.

“Hi,” she said. “We had cereal, but it was first thing this morning.”

Alec set the purchases down on the counter and looked across the room at the two kids, huddled together on the couch. Molly was sucking her thumb and Nick looked as though he’d been up most of the night. He glanced back at Tess. Matter of fact, they all did.

“What’s happening here? You all look like zombies.”

Tess managed a wan smile. “We didn’t get much sleep.”

He frowned, but waited for her to continue.

“Molly had a nightmare and Nick spent a long time getting her back to sleep.”

Alec wondered what Molly would do when Nick wasn’t around. Resisting the thought, he shoved it aside at once. Part of him wanted to blame Tess, who stood there, calm and detached. As if she didn’t hold the solution to all their problems. But he knew that was unfair. She’d made a successful life for herself and, even though it wasn’t one he envied in any way, he couldn’t fault her for being reluctant to change it. Still…

“These look good,” Tess said, opening the box of doughnuts.

Alec bet she’d never tasted one. He watched her plop one on a plate, lick her fingers and pick up one of the coffees.

“Thanks for the treats,” she said and wandered to the easy chair. “Better get one before I eat them all,” she warned the kids. They stared at her with the same openmouthed surprise that Alec had. “I don’t always eat granola,” she said by way of explanation.

Molly was the first to bounce up and run to the counter. Alec second-guessed her request for juice and poured a glass. Nick was a bit slower rising to the bait, suspecting what the treats were all about, but eventually sauntered to the counter and deposited two doughnuts on his plate.

“Hey!” Molly gave a weak protest, not really minding.

“Growing boy,” Alec said and winked at Nick, provoking a semblance of a smile. He retrieved his own coffee and perched on a bar stool with it.

“No doughnut?” Tess commented.

“Have to watch my waistline,” he said, suppressing a grin at her chagrined expression. So, she’d taken one to be a good sport. Great show of unanimity, he thought, even if it was completely meaningless.

He sipped slowly on his coffee, trying not to be too obvious about his study of her. She was a ringer for Molly, but her skin coloring was paler. Molly had inherited her Italian mother’s olive tones while Nick, with his father’s paler skin and mother’s chestnut hair, was a different blend. He wondered if Tess’s iron will and fierce determination was from her father or her mother. Whatever, he just hoped she could be bent.

When everyone had finished eating, Alec got off the stool and said, “How would you two like to go down to the lakeshore, check out the park?”

“We went there yesterday,” Nick said. The look in his face defied a suggestion to return.

Alec shrugged. “Okay. What about a movie?”

“At ten in the morning?”

Alec figured the kid was doing his best to rein in his attitude. He had guessed where Alec was going with this and wanted none of it. No amount of entertainment and junk food could make up for the hard fact that he and Molly were heading back home—mission unaccomplished.

“What time does your flight leave?”

Startled, Alec turned sharply toward Tess. Jeez. Did she have to be so blunt about it? No subtle whisper to him when they were alone?

All eyes in the room were riveted on her face. At least, Alec noticed, she had the grace to seem embarrassed.

“Because I—I’ve been thinking maybe I should go back with you. Just, you know, to make sure the kids are settled and check out this Jed Walker. Make sure he’s doing right by the kids.” Flushing, she stared down into her coffee cup.

Alec was speechless. He tried to process what she’d said. Not a commitment to anything, that was for certain. He wondered what had made her change her mind. Whatever it had been, luck was now on his side. The door had opened a crack and she’d stuck her foot through. And he’d do his damnedest to make sure the door was wide-open very soon.

Molly was thrilled, unaware of the nuances of what Tess had said. “I can show you my room and my pet hamster.”

Nick was more doubtful. “How do you know you can get a flight?’ he asked.

“I can try.” She looked over at Alec.

“I’ll call the airline right away,” he said before she could change her mind. Fifteen minutes later, thanks to a last-minute cancellation, she was confirmed. “We should be at the airport by two, at the latest,” he said.

She rose from her chair. “Then I’d better get busy with the phone calls I need to make.”

But she stood there, as if the reality of what she’d promised had just hit home. Alec quickly filled in the gap. “Guys, how about if we go for a walk while Tess makes her phone calls and gets ready?”

Molly skipped around the room while Nick, feigning indifference, shuffled toward the door.

Alec couldn’t blame him for being skeptical about the whole thing, but the kid didn’t realize what an opportunity Tess had given them. All they had to do now was to persuade her—somehow—to stay in Boulder. Not an impossible task, Alec decided. But, surveying the upscale loft that represented her success as he joined Molly and Nick at the door, definitely a challenging one.

AS SOON AS the door closed behind them, Tess sank back into the chair and trembled all over. The emotional drain of last night had ceded, and she couldn’t help thinking that she could just as easily have made a different decision. She could have simply accompanied them to the airport and waved a goodbye with promises to visit soon. In time, she knew that squirm of guilt inside would have disappeared and she could resume her normal life again with a vow to keep in touch.

She’d made her move—no turning back now. She decided that she’d make it clear from the start that her trip to Colorado was only a visit, to ensure the children were dealt with fairly by the lawyer and the authorities. And surely there must be one family in all of Boulder willing to foster two children!

She got up and headed for her computer to e-mail Carrie, but realized a phone call would be necessary after all so that Carrie could reschedule an early Monday meeting. She started the conversation off with an apology for calling on a Sunday afternoon, then explained what she’d decided to do.

“No kidding,” Carrie kept saying until Tess’s teeth ached from clenching.

When Tess had eventually finished what she’d chosen as her official story—estranged father dead, leaving behind two children who were her half siblings—Carrie had jumped to the ending. “So instead of going on a cruise next week, you’re heading for Denver?”

“Something like that, assuming my vacation leave is still valid.”

“It is unless you canceled it when you canceled the cruise.”

She hadn’t. Was that an intentional oversight on her part? An unconscious desire to get away, if not with Doug Reed, then by herself?

After Tess relayed the rest of her requests, Carrie asked, “Will you be in Colorado the whole two weeks of your vacation?”

“Heavens, no. I hope to finish what I have to do in less than a week.”

There was a slight pause before Carrie asked, “And will you be bringing the kids back here to Chicago?”

Tess closed her eyes. She hadn’t come up with an official story for this part. “I really don’t know how it’s going to play out at this stage,” she said.

“Yeah?” Carrie’s voice was full of disbelief. “But obviously you’re their next of kin so…”

“It’s not that simple, Carrie,” Tess snapped back. “Look, I’ve got to go now. You can get hold of me on my cell phone if you need to.”

“Sure, Tess. Say hi to the kids for me and have a good trip.”

Tess hung up, drained from the questions that she knew were merely a beginning. She decided not to phone Mavis until her answers were more practiced. Mavis would be a tougher interrogator. Instead, she finished other calls, leaving messages to cancel a dental appointment and reschedule a massage, which she figured she’d need once she returned from Colorado. Then she tidied up and did a load of laundry. When the buzzer rang she was finally on the phone with Mavis, who had just returned from her visit to Sophie.

“Hold on, Mavis. They’re back—I’ll just buzz them in.” Tess muttered on her way to the intercom. She’d hoped to have the call with Mavis finished. When she returned to the phone, she said, “Look, can I call you when I get there? I’ll know more by then what’s going on.”

“But, Tess love, what’s going to happen to the wee ones?”

A vision of Nick came to mind. “They’re not so wee, Mavis. At least, Nick isn’t. He’s just turned thirteen and looks as though he’ll be tall.”

“Like your father.”

“Yes, I suppose. At any rate, I’ll see if they can be fostered out to the same family. This Alec Malone said—”

“Tess! What’s this talk about fostering? You’re the next of kin. I don’t understand why you’re blathering on about settling them in and so on. You should be going there to pack them all up and bring them back to Chicago.”

“To stay where?”

A slight hesitation. “If not with you, then—”

“Mavis, please. Be realistic. There’s no way you could manage. Not that I don’t appreciate your offer but—”

“Well, I was going to say you could all move in with me. Sell off that pricey condo and live mortgage free. You’ll be inheriting my house, anyway.”

Tess closed her eyes. God, this was getting complicated. “Mavis, I don’t want a commute every day. You know my hours. That’s why I decided to live close to downtown in the first place. And this place isn’t appropriate for children.”

There was a heavy sigh from the other end. “Sounds to me like you’re trying to convince yourself you’re doing the right thing here, Tess.”

“I am doing the right thing.”

Another sigh. “Not by a long shot, my girl. But hopefully you’ll work that out once you get to Colorado.”

Tess recognized an impasse when she saw one. There was no way that Mavis would see her side of it. She was too old-fashioned and had never understood the importance of a career to Tess. “As I said, I’ll call you when I get there—let you know where I’m staying.”

“You do that, love. And Tess?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t be so quick to write those kiddies out of your life. They may be just what you’ve been looking for.”

“What I’ve been looking for? Two children? Hardly.”

“Not just two children. Your brother and sister.” She paused. “A family.”

Tess set the receiver down as the others walked through the door. Mavis’s parting words were still screaming in her head. Perhaps she had wanted a family years ago, when she could have still benefited from one. But not anymore.

Alec must have sensed something when he saw her because the first thing he said was, “Everything all right?”

“Of course,” Tess replied and got up to take her laundry out of the dryer. Molly watched her open the door to the compact cupboard that contained her apartment-size combination washer and dryer.

“Cool,” she said. “I was wondering what was in that closet.”

Alec laughed. “Didn’t you think to look?”

“Oh, no,” Molly said. “It would have been rude.”

Tess smiled, her gaze meeting Alec’s for a few seconds longer than she’d expected. It was Nick’s snicker at Molly that brought her back to task.

“All right then,” she said, quickly changing the topic before Nick set off Molly. “Alec, why don’t you get some cold cuts and bread out for a lunch while I finish packing?”

She saw at once from his expression that he was pleased at the way she’d diverted a potential quarrel and gave herself a mental pat on the back. She’d had lots of experience at steering clear of hot topics and deflecting hostile attitudes in business dealings. How much more difficult could it be managing children?

TESS WAS FORCED to rethink that question once they were settling into seats on the plane. Both children wanted a window seat, which might have worked if all four were sitting together. But Tess was seated way at the back in the center while the others were in a row of three seats on the side. Fortunately, that left Alec to settle the seating dispute. She contentedly leafed through a magazine until a flight attendant came by after the plane had finished climbing to its cruise altitude and asked if she’d like to join her family.

Tess shot her a blank look before noticing that Alec was craning his head to the back of the plane.

“Your husband said you might like to join them and we’ve got a no-show in the row behind. I think with some rearranging we can seat two of you in one row and two behind. Would that be all right?”

“Uh, sure.” Tess followed the hostess to the front of the plane. As she took the seat next to Alec, Tess flushed when the hostess said, “We can’t have a family separated like that.”

Molly swiveled round to flash a quick grin at Tess before getting back to her crayons and coloring book while Nick, plugged in to the audio system, didn’t even notice she’d moved.

“When I found out there was a vacant seat in this row, I asked if you could move up. Hope you don’t mind.”

Tess, certain the reference to husband had been an assumption of the flight attendant’s, said, “No, no. I hate the claustrophobic feel of the center section anyway.”

“Me, too. My knees seem to be propping up my chin whenever I get stuck there.”

Conversation stopped there as drinks and snacks were served. Their seats were so close Tess figured she might as well have been sitting on his lap. His thigh pressed against hers and every time she went to lean on the armrest, his arm was already there. What bothered her the most, she hated to admit, was the unexpected tingling sensation that shot down her arm when her hand accidentally landed on top of his.

Until now, interaction between them had been confrontational and the almost intimate proximity was suddenly stifling. Tess had never been good at small talk so she was relieved when he didn’t seem bothered by the silence.

But when the snack trays were removed, he turned his head toward her and asked, “This may seem too personal, but is there a man in your life right now?”

Tess stared at him, not sure at first what he was saying. Then she felt heat rising up into her face. “You’re right, it is. Why do you ask?”

“Sorry to be blunt, but it may be important should you—” he lowered his voice “—decide to apply for legal guardianship.”

Her first reaction was to check if the children had heard. Then she hissed, “I hardly think this is the time or place to be having this conversation.”

He had the grace to redden. “You’re right. Sorry. I guess I’m just trying to find out if there’s any chance at all—”

“I made it clear why I was coming. To see that they’re settled.”

He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. After a moment, he turned to her and said, “We’ll be seeing a lot of one another over the next few days and it makes sense for us to be as amicable as possible with each other. Doesn’t it? Even if we’re both coming at this problem from totally different perspectives?”

“Fine…Alec.” Tess raised her tray and rummaged in her handbag for the paperback she’d brought to read on the plane. After reading the first sentence three times, she gave up. Swiveling her head back to him, she added, “For your information—not that it’s relevant—there is someone in my life and I was supposed to be going on a cruise with him this very week.”

“Oh…well…sorry, I guess this has altered your plans slightly.”

“Slightly,” she repeated with emphasis. The fact that she was misleading him nagged for only a second. And the arrival of Nick and Molly certainly had altered her plans! Plus, there was always the remote possibility that she and Doug might get back together again…someday.

“So this guy you’re seeing—what did he say when you told him about Nick and Molly?”

Tess stared down at the novel on her lap. “I haven’t told him yet. He’s been busy and we haven’t had a chance to talk.” She could feel his eyes boring through the side of her face, but didn’t have the courage to turn his way.

Finally he said, “Sounds as though your relationship might not be the type to accommodate a couple of youngsters.”

That really got to her. “What gives you the right to draw inferences about my personal life?”

“Sorry again. I just keep puttin’ my foot in, don’t I?”

If his grin was meant to disarm, it failed. “You’re no backwoods hick. Please don’t insult my intelligence by pretending to be.”

That got to him, she noticed with some triumph. Instant sobriety fell over his face like steel mesh. When his eyes flicked back to her, Tess saw by their expression that she’d pushed him further than she’d intended.

“My job is to ensure that those two kids are safe, healthy and reasonably happy. It’s a tall order, given their circumstances. If you can’t grasp the inarguable fact that you’re their best option here, then…I’m sorry.” His eyes swept over her, dismissively. As if she were some kind of strange and repulsive insect. “So,” he went on, “we’ll agree not to discuss this again until you’ve had a chance to check things out for yourself. Okay?”

Feeling suddenly graceless, she could only shrug, wondering how she always ended up faring so badly in their talks. He turned his head aside to peer out the window, then suddenly swung back to her.

“One last thing. I’m curious—did you have a chance to talk to Nick about your father?”

Blood roared into her head. Her tongue flapped uselessly against the palate of her dry mouth. Tess was certain her eyes were going to eject from their orbs.

But the expression in his own face was inscrutable. After the slightest pause, he murmured, “I didn’t think so,” and shifted his gaze back to the window.

Tess waited until the pounding against her rib cage eased up before silently slipping out of her seat and making her way to the washroom. When she bolted the door behind her, she plunked onto the seat and burst into tears.

HE ALMOST EXTENDED an arm to stop her and apologize again for behaving like such an insensitive jerk. But his anger hadn’t subsided enough and besides, he knew he’d crossed into the kind of territory where apologies counted for little. The problem was, she was in denial about everything. And Alec knew from hard experience that you didn’t reach people in that state with kid gloves. Usually they needed a jolt. Like dumping a bucket of cold water over the head. He figured he’d just done that—figuratively—to Tess Wheaton. His regret at having to do so was minimal compared to his worry about what was going to happen to Nick and Molly.

Nick unexpectedly craned his head around from the seat ahead. His earphones were still clamped on but Alec hoped the kid hadn’t been tracking their conversation. He managed a smile and gave Nick a thumbs-up sign. The boy responded with a wobbly grin, confirming Alec’s suspicion that he probably had picked up some of what had been going on behind him.

He sighed, knowing that the quarrel had been more his fault than Tess’s. If only he could learn to be more subtle. Surely he could have extracted all the information he wanted from her without raising hackles. If he’d taken the time to cultivate her, he might even have brought her round to at least acknowledging another point of view. Malone closed his eyes and sank back against the headrest. It all boiled down to time—and there just wasn’t enough of it.

TESS PEERED OUT the window at the desolate terrain below. At least, to a big-city resident, what appeared empty, vast and very brown countryside. According to the pilot, they’d be landing at Denver International Airport in fifteen minutes. Could have fooled me, she thought. I don’t even see a city down there, much less the state capitol. Just a featureless landscape patchworked by peculiar dark-green circles and squares.

When she’d finally returned to their seats, she saw with relief that there had been a change. Nick was sitting with Alec and the window seat next to Molly was waiting for her. Molly gave an excited wave, which made Tess feel even more miserable.

“You were gone a long time,” the little girl said. “I was worried. Nick wanted to talk to Alec and I was going to take the window seat ’cause it was my turn, but I thought you might want it ’cause you’ve never been to Denver before.” Taking a quick gulp of air, Molly added, “Have you?”

Tess shook her head and smiled. “Thank you.” When she settled in, the seat belt warning flashed. She helped Molly buckle up and then surveyed the place she planned to visit for the next few days. Not exactly the Caribbean, she was thinking.

Okay, get real, Tess. You weren’t going on that cruise anyway. As for Doug…he hasn’t garnered a second’s thought since you saw him at work on Friday. Two days ago. God. Seems more like a week. Or a lifetime.

“Tess?”

“Hmm?” Tess turned from the window to Molly.

“We’ll all be staying at our house, won’t we?”

“Our house?” Tess drew a blank, then caught her drift just as Molly was explaining.

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