“We were jogging.” His eyes dared her to say more. “Jenny invited everyone home for breakfast, but I thought there’d be more choices here. What do you think?”
There was silence while Shelby almost visibly gathered her wits.
“I do a very nice birthday breakfast,” she said at last. “I’m only here for a couple of hours before I need to leave for the wedding, otherwise I’d have missed this.”
“Very fortunate,” Michael said dryly, and his eyes met hers. Steel meeting steel. “Shelby…”
“Hot chocolates coming up,” she said faintly. “With marshmallows.” And then under her breath she added a rider. “Just as soon as I’ve phoned Lana and Garrett and told them to come over and take a look at this miracle.”
IT WAS A RIOT of a birthday party. Once she got over her shock, Shelby did them proud. After they drank their hot chocolate, she ushered everyone into the kitchen to flip their own pancakes. Once they’d eaten, they were each allowed two choices on the jukebox, and Jenny had them all dancing, much to the bemusement of Shelby’s other customers. After half an hour’s dancing she even had a few staid adults jiving their legs off.
A couple of interns from the hospital wandered in. They were given free coffee and directed to a seven-year-old partner. Michael, who was dancing with the birthday girl at Jenny’s direction, felt his mind spin at what his wife had accomplished.
Then there was the birthday cake. Rising nobly to the occasion, Shelby produced a snake of doughnuts in the shape of a huge
“I can’t believe you did this,” Susan’s grandmother whispered as they filled the second cab with her charges. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Susan and I…well, we don’t have very much, but she wanted a birthday party so badly. This morning everything was going wrong.” She took Michael’s hands between hers and squeezed. “Your wife, she’s just the loveliest girl, and she deserves…well, you look after her, do you hear?” She gave his hands a last squeeze, cast a teary smile at Jenny and disappeared into the morning with her swarm of little girls.
Michael turned away to find Jenny watching him.
And Shelby.
And Lana and Dylan and Garrett and Greg. They were all out on the sidewalk, and every single one of them had big goofy grins on their faces.
“What the heck?”
“I thought they needed to come down and see,” Shelby said innocently. “Garrett was neck deep in wedding chaos, but even he had to come. I knew they’d never believe me if they didn’t see it for themselves.”
“How long-”
“We’ve been here half an hour,” Garrett said, grinning. “We’ve been in the back spying on you. You’re a great dancer!” He turned to Jenny. “So, I guess you’re Michael’s Jenny.”
“I…” She flushed. “I’m not…”
“You’re not?”
“I’m just Jenny,” she said simply.
“Nope.” Garrett shook his head. “You’re not Just Jenny.” His eyes were warm, and there was laughter lurking somewhere behind them. “If you can get my brother to put on a birthday party for a bunch of kids he doesn’t know-”
“That’s enough, Garrett,” Michael said roughly. “There was hardly a choice. Jenny was right. The kids were getting restless down by the river.”
“Yeah, and you’d have noticed without Jenny.”
“Anyone would.” Jenny took a deep breath, searching for courage. “You must be-”
“Garrett. Michael’s big brother.”
“Of course.” She gave him a shy smile. “You still look like your picture. Same red hair. Same big-brother look.”
“What’s a big-brother look?” he demanded, and Jenny’s smile widened.
“I guess sort of proud and worried, both at the same time.”
Garrett let his breath out. Whoa. “I think I just stopped worrying,” he told her, and reached forward to give her a hug of welcome, bulging stripes and all. “I think I stopped worrying right this minute. Welcome to the family, Jenny Lord.”
“Jenny Lord?” She cast a doubtful look at Michael. “Oh, yeah. I guess I am.”
“I guess you are,” Garrett told her. “And I’m wondering whether my little brother knows just what he’s let himself in for.”
BY THE END of the afternoon, he was beginning to find out.
They went to the wedding. Camille and Jake had decided they wanted a low-key affair-“just those we love in a place we love”-and there wasn’t a chance of Michael getting out of it.
“Jake’ll personally come and get you if you don’t show up, little brother,” Garrett told him. “And so will Camille. You’re part of their family, and Jenny’s your wife.”
Michael had cringed inside. He did
He hadn’t-and Garrett had been shot. The love that Camille and Jake shared had blossomed from that near tragedy, and the family had moved on, but for Michael it had been one more reason for self-imposed isolation.
And now, sitting beside Jenny, who looked lovely in the white dress Lana had borrowed for her, he felt so constrained he wanted to bolt for freedom.
The wedding ceremony started. Camille, exquisite in her beautifully embroidered gown of soft raw silk, gazed into Jake’s face with love and total trust, and she gave him the answers he so longed for with sureness and with pride.
“I, Camille, take you, Jake, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health…”
Michael looked away. He glanced at Jenny and found her expression as strained as he felt. She’d done this twice before, he thought. She’d married-and now Peter was dead. She’d made those vows again. To him. What had these new vows meant for her?
Had Peter looked at her the way Jake was looking at Camille?
Something stirred inside him that could almost have been envy. He glanced at Jenny’s hands, which she clasped and unclasped in her lap. His ring encircled her finger, but she wore Peter’s rings on her right hand.
He had an almost irresistible urge to still those restless fingers with his own, but such an action would signal a commitment, he thought fiercely, and that’s exactly what he didn’t want.
Commitment meant pain. She would walk away, as his birth mother had, as Barbara had.
So he kept his hand to himself. But afterward, as the Maitland and Lord families and their friends milled in the afternoon sunshine, reveling in the happiness of the bride and groom and checking out Jenny with stunned amazement, he finally took her hand.
Not to comfort. To escape.
“Let’s get away,” he told her. “I’ve had enough of this.”
Wordlessly she agreed-she’d said nothing for most of the afternoon-and they left as soon as decently possible.
Once in the car, with Jenny sitting white-faced and silent beside him, all he felt was an overwhelming claustrophobia.
Why? he demanded of himself as he drove. The afternoon couldn’t have gone better. Jenny had been welcomed and embraced into the family. Garrett had even hinted she might help in the search for their birth mother. Michael had nixed that one pretty fast.
Then Shelby and Lana had started grilling Jenny mercilessly about her past. What they learned they must have liked, because by the time they left, his sisters were starting to talk about turning Michael’s spare room into a nursery and who was the best baby-sitter around.
To her credit, Jenny had mostly listened. She hadn’t agreed to Garrett’s request for help but had deferred to Michael, and she’d seemed content to have Shelby and Lana make plans around her.
However, quiet or not, she hadn’t refuted anything. She hadn’t come right out and said, “We’re not turning
