“Thought you’d taken off,” Harlan said, his tone cool.
His avid gaze carefully avoided Luke and settled on his granddaughter. Luke watched him struggling with himself, fighting his obvious desire to stake his claim on the baby he believed Luke had no right to.
Luke kept his voice steady. “I decided running wouldn’t solve this problem.”
“Did you reach this decision all on your own, or did Jessie’s refusal to go force you into it?”
Luke shot a wry look at his father. “Does it really matter? I’m here now.” He glanced at Jessie, seated so serenely beside him. “We’re here now.”
“You two are going to break your mother’s heart,” his father said bluntly.
“Why?” Luke demanded. “We’ve done nothing wrong. Neither of us ever betrayed Erik. We never even let on to each other how we felt until a few days ago. I’ve been fighting it ever since, out of a sense of honor. It made me crazy, thinking of how Erik would feel if he knew. I couldn’t even grieve for him the way I should, because I thought I didn’t have the right.”
He felt Jessie’s gaze on him, warming him with her compassion.
“I think there’s something both of you should know,” she said softly.
Luke started to silence her, but she cut him off. “No,” she insisted. “This is my fight, too.”
She leveled a look at Harlan. “I’m fighting for a future for me and for Angela. That doesn’t mean we’re turning our backs on the past. It doesn’t mean we care any the less for Erik. Neither of us will ever forget that he’s Angela’s father. Choosing to be together just means we’re moving forward. That’s something Erik understood.”
Harlan’s face turned practically purple with indignation. “How dare you tell me what my son would or would not have understood! Do you think you knew him any better than I did?”
“Yes,” Jessie said.
The quiet, single-word response seemed to startle Harlan as a full-fledged argument might not have. Luke was astonished by her quiet serenity, her composure and their effect on his father.
“Okay, go on and say your piece,” Harlan grumbled. “Get it over with.”
“I was with Erik when he died,” she reminded them. “He knew he wasn’t going to make it.”
Luke saw tears forming in her eyes, watched as they spilled down her cheeks. She seemed oblivious to them. Her entire focus seemed to be on making Harlan hear what she had to say.
“He knew,” she said softly. “He knew how Luke and I felt about each other, possibly even more clearly than I’d admitted up to that point.”
“Dear God!” Harlan swore. “That’s what killed him, right there. Knowing his wife was in love with another man would be enough to cost any man the will to live.”
Jessie shook her head. “No, he gave us his blessing. He said he wanted me to be happy.”
“You’re making that up,” Harlan said. “Damned convenient, since he’s not here to speak for himself.”
If Luke hadn’t seen the agony in her eyes, he might not have believed her himself. He could tell, though, that the memory of those final moments with her husband had tormented her for months now, twisting her up with guilt and self-recriminations.
“It’s true,” she said evenly. “And if you don’t believe me, you can call Doc Winchell. He was right by Erik’s side at the end. He heard every word.”
A stunned silence settled over the room. Harlan was clearly at a loss. Luke was torn between anguish and an incredible sense of relief that his brother had known about his feelings for Jessie and forgiven him for them. It was as if the last roadblock to his complete sense of joy had been removed. He could feel tears sliding down his cheeks. Unashamed, he let them fall as he watched his father. Not until this moment had he realized how desperately he wanted forgiveness from him, not just for his brother’s death, but for this, for loving Jessie.
Harlan finally sank back, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to stop you from getting on with a life together,” he said grudgingly. “You’re both adults. You’ll do what you want whether I approve or not.”
Luke thought he heard an underlying message in his father’s words, a cry for reassurance that their love was deep enough to be worth the cost. He nodded.
“That’s true, Daddy. We can get married the way we want. No one can stop us. We can raise Angela and any other children we might be blessed with. We can live happily ever after.” He looked straight into his father’s eyes then. “But it won’t be the same if you’re not in our lives. We don’t need your approval, but we do want your love.”
Jessie’s hand slid into his. He folded his own around it and held on tight as they waited for his father’s decision. He knew giving in wouldn’t come easily to him. It never had. But, as Jessie had reminded him time and again, his father was a fair man.
“It’ll take a bit of time,” Harlan said eventually. “Some getting used to.” A tired smile stirred at the corners of his mouth. “I suppose there’s something to be said for keeping Jessica and Angela in the family. She could have gone off and married some stranger.”
Luke grinned at him. “I knew you’d find a way to put a positive spin on this sooner or later.”
Harlan sighed heavily. “I just hope that’s argument enough to keep your mother from going straight through the roof.”
Luke stood and settled the baby against his shoulder. “Maybe I’ll leave that one to you.”
“Sit down!” Harlan ordered.
Luke grinned at them despite himself. “Bad idea, huh?”
Jessie patted his hand. “Remember, Luke, it’s a family matter.”
For better or worse, it looked as if the whole clan was going to be together through thick and thin. He just hoped like hell that Cody
