'Finding out he has a biological daughter?'
Katherine nodded. 'It doesn't mean anything. You know that, right? It doesn't change how he feels about you.'
That's what Alex had told Ian. Neither of them had believed it then and Alex didn't believe it now.
'Everything changes,' he told his mother. 'The family dynamic has fundamentally shifted. Am I questioning my place in the universe? No.'
'I'm more concerned about your place in this family and how you think this will affect your relationship with your father.'
Alex didn't know if it would. Mark wasn't like Katherine. He loved his children, but there was always a distance. Would that be there for Dani or not?
'You're his wife,' he said. 'Are you okay with this?'
Katherine leaned back in the sofa and sighed. 'Do I get a choice?' she asked.
'He didn't cheat on you. You were back East when he met Marsha Buchanan.'
His mother nodded slowly. 'You're right. I've told myself that. It's just…' She looked at him. 'We'd been engaged before he returned to Seattle. We had a big fight and I broke up with him. He left and came back here. That's when he met Marsha.'
Alex swore silently. Why did life have to get more and more complicated? So Mark's affair with Marsha Buchanan wasn't as disconnected from Katherine as Alex had first thought.
What had they fought about? Did his mother care that Mark had gotten involved with someone else so quickly?
Stupid question, he told himself. Katherine would have been devastated. Had she known about Marsha before Dani had shown up?
“I'm sorry,' he said awkwardly, not knowing what he could say.
'It's fine,' she told him. 'Don't worry about it.”
But he did worry. He'd always wondered why his parents hadn't had children of their own. He'd assumed it was a conscious decision. A choice. Katherine talked about wanting to make a difference in the world, one child at a time. But was there another reason? Mark was obviously capable of fathering a child. Did Katherine have a problem?
He felt disloyal for even thinking the question, so he pushed it away. What the hell did it matter why? She was an amazing woman.
'I'm glad you picked me,' he said. 'Grateful. You made me who I am.'
She touched his face. “I loved you from the first moment I saw you, Alex. But I didn't make you anything. You are the man you were meant to be. I'm so proud of you, but I won't take any credit. Flowers, maybe, but not credit.'
He laughed. 'I'll send starburst lilies in the morning.' They were her favorite.
He didn't know what other children felt about their parents. How much they loved them or why. He could only go by the little he remembered of his biological mother and what he knew Katherine had done for him-even if she wasn't willing to accept his thanks.
'I always wanted a big family,' Katherine said lightly. 'Now we have one more.'
She said the right things, she even smiled as she spoke. But her pain was alive and tangible. He needed to help, but didn't know how. Katherine had given him everything and in her time of need, all he could do was stand by and watch her suffer.
Dani's second trip to Mark Canfieid's campaign headquarters was only slightly less scary than her first one had been. While she wasn't in danger of being tossed out on her butt, she was about to have a private one-on-one lunch with her biological father for the first time in her life.
What if they didn't have anything to say to each other? What if he didn't like her? What if he thought she was boring and wished she'd never found him?
'Not going to happen,' she murmured to herself. 'I'm charming.'
The attempt at humor did nothing for the nerves doing Pilates in her stomach.
Dani walked inside the warehouse and gave her name to the receptionist. The young woman smiled.
'The senator is expecting you,' she said. 'Just wait here and Heidi will be out to take you back.'
'Thanks.'
Heidi? Heidi who?
She searched her memory and finally recalled the assistant who served as Mark Canfieid's right hand wherever he went.
Dani hovered by the sofa, but didn't sit down. She was too nervous. The whole 'this is my father' thing was still a weird statement rather than an actual part of her life. She didn't know Canfield and he didn't know her. So far their blood ties hadn't helped form an emotional connection.
She was hoping this lunch would change that. Some private time could make all the difference.
Heidi walked up and smiled. 'Hi, Dani. Welcome. The senator just got off a call with Washington and is available now. If you'll follow me?”
Heidi led the way down hallways to a conference room. She motioned for Dani to step inside, then left. Dani glanced around at the bare space-aside from the long table and ten chairs, there was no other furniture, no decorations. At least the campaign wasn't spending money on anything frivolous.
Seconds later the door opened and Mark walked into the room. He smiled at her.
'Dani. You're here. Good, good. Alex told you the happy news?'
He approached as he talked, then unexpectedly pulled her close for a quick hug. When he released her, he gazed into her eyes.
'I knew who you were from the moment we met. I'm not surprised. You're so much like your mother. She was a wonderful woman. Beautiful, just like you.'
Dani was willing to go as far as pretty or attractive, but she liked being told she looked like her mother. She could barely remember the woman.
She'd been so young when Marsha had died that she wondered if her memories were hers at all, or just recollections formed from the stories she'd been told by her brothers and Gloria.
Mark perched on the edge of the table. 'I remember the first time I saw your mother. It was a cold rainy day.' He grinned. 'Winter in Seattle-it's always cold and rainy,' He shrugged. 'It was the downtown Bon Marche. Marsha had her three boys with her. The youngest two were in a stroller and the oldest was still only four or five. She was struggling with the door to get inside. There was something about the way she looked, so determined. I jumped in to help, her eyes met mine, she smiled, and I was lost.'
Dani sank into one of the chairs. 'Just like that?'
Mark nodded. 'We talked for a few minutes. I was about to leave, even though I didn't want to, when your oldest brother…'
'Cal?' she offered.
'Right. Cal said he needed to go to the bathroom. He said he was too old to go into the ladies' room with his mother and she didn't want him to go into the men's room alone. So I took him. Not the most romantic beginning, I know, but there was something about her.'
Mark was traditionally handsome, with clear blue eyes and a ready smile. Dani had seen his face on billboards and in the newspaper, not to mention on TV. But until this moment, she'd never really
He shook his head. 'I can't believe how clear that day is to me. I invited your mother to lunch. When the hostess seated us, she assumed we were a family. That should have shaken me, but I remember thinking how right I felt with Marsha and her boys. We talked for hours.' He looked at Dani, his expression slightly chagrined. 'That was it. I fell for her that day.'
A thousand questions crowded into Dani's brain. She had just started to ask the first one when the door opened and several people stepped inside, including Heidi pushing a cart with sandwiches and drinks on it.
'Oh, good,' Mark said as he stood. 'Lunch. Dani, who do you know here?'
